Bandaid alert!

Mommy:  (approaching post office) YiLi, would you rather go up the stairs or the ramp?

YiLi:         The ramp! (I didn't even know she knew the word!)

Mommy:  (letting go of her hand) You go up the ramp, I'll go up the stairs, we'll meet!

YiLi:         OK!

Mommy turns her back to go climb the stairs, YiLi trips at the invisible incline on the ramp.

Note to self:   No more crazy ideas! Holding hands is fun and safe!

I guess since this is the first mishap in 7 months, we are doing pretty well, but I still feel like a less than stellar mama right now!

Those silent tears coming down are the worst! Harder to deal with than outright crying!

If you thought those were cute, look at these!

We got an unasked for surprise update on Sam just yesterday! We are so in love with this boy. Now we get to do all that "He looks like you . . ." , "he has YiLi's mouth and chin . . .". I know that's crazy, but we can't stop ourselves! We backed YiLi up to the "Great Measuring Wall" in our kitchen to see how tall she is in comparison to Sam. As you would expect, she looks 8 and he look 6! YiLi is 50" tall and Sam is 46.25" tall.  Oh, wait a minute, you want me to show you the pictures, don't you?! lol

YiLi says the "thing" in the middle of his forehead is a Chinese sticker . . . I hope she is right! He does look a little solemn in two of these pics, we wonder what he is thinking about? Is he missing his friend Jia who got adopted last December? Has he been told that he has a family and has started , within his understanding, on that long and sometimes difficult road of adoption? OK, maybe he just thinks it is pretty silly to be out on the playground without any other kids, getting his picture taken!

introducing Samuel Zhi Zuo Smedley AKA Sammy

Is he a sweetheart or what?! Love his sparkly eyes, love his sweet smile, his little wave bye to his best friend . . . He was at the bottom of my Mother's Day blog, but I am guessing nobody saw him, so he is getting his very own blogpost! We hope to travel before year end, but it may be January or February.  Can't come fast enough!

"I'll see you in London in 2009 . . ."

My sweet husband has had a life-long yet unrequited dream to visit London. He loves to study history, especially about the lines of kings and queens. So, back in 2006, the year of our marriage, I gave him a large volume entitled "Glorious Britain, Place of Legends", inscribed as above:
"Dear Rick - I'll see you in London in 2009, and we'll celebrate being 50 together!
                                                                                             Love, Traci
                                                                                             Christmas 2006

He was browsing this book tonight, and brought the inscription over for me to see. The sweet part I mentioned at the top is for this reason:

Instead of being sad or feeling unfulfilled because he has never fulfilled his dream of seeing London (and probably never will - we seem to keep "vacationing" in China!), he said to me, "Look at this - we had no idea at that time what God had up His sleeve  - something way more wonderful than seeing England".

Just sayin' - he's a sweet one!