Harvest Party

When the month began and the blogs from the US started showing pumpkin patch trips and the planning of special costumes I felt a little sad that Abbey wouldn't be there to experience any of the fun. Well wouldn't you know, she ended up having fabulous fun here in China. We had a huge party at our school and it was exciting to see all of these Chinese families experiencing this for the first time. They were such great sports to jump in and participate. Pulling a costume together here is a big deal, you can't just go into a store and buy one. They had no clue about pumpkin carving and even though we sent out a note, the day of the party they were saying they still didn't understand. One sweet mom went out and got a bunch of pumpkins and we walked them through the process at the party. We even had a carved watermelon. To further their American experience we got Dairy Queen to come sell hot dogs and smoothies. Heidi played her fiddle and we all learned the Virginia Reel. It was so funny to think that I'm from Oklahoma but that I was learning how to square dance in China. Each teacher did a game booth with candy prizes. I had so much fun as all the little ones came to my door in their costumes. Now remember I had been a little sad that I couldn't get a special new costume for Abbey? Well that was just great with her because she wanted to be Snow White as usual. And guess who won the costume contest? You got it, they loved her. She had so much fun. There was a huge cake for our school's second birthday. So we didn't miss our American holiday after all, we just had it in China.

And...two years ago I flew to China on October 31 to meet my daughter for the first time. What an incredible journey we've had. Even then I knew we would be coming back here. Love will lead you to amazing places.