Happy Birthday to Leilei!

My Behai baby is five today!
What a beautiful day, for a beautiful girl.
My darling girl,
It's been only a little over a year since you joined our family, and we transported you halfway around the globe. From the moment you walked into the room in Nanning, I have been amazed and impressed and filled with love for you.

Amazed because you are so lovely. Although I did have a moment of panic when I placed my hand on your head and realized that the back of your head was totally flat. It isn't anymore, though.

Impressed because you walked into the room, carrying nothing, wearing little yellow pajamas (now safely tucked away forever) and pink plastic Mickey Mouse sandals, obviously brand new. (which you refused to take off for several days.

Did they tell you when you got in the van for the three hour trip from Behai to Nanning that you were saying goodby forever to everyone and everything you had known in your life?
What did your ayah talk to you about on that long ride? That you were going to meet a new family? That you and she and the other ayahs who came along to see you off would be separated forever in the time it took for a hotel room door to close? Could your little mind and heart understand what that might feel like?

I have a perfect mental photograph of your expression when you walked in. You looked wary, but willing to have an adventure.
Until the ayahs said goodby, and you realized the adventure involved breaking your little heart.
So . . . your courage impressed me from the start.

You didn't understand what we said, you didn't know us from Adam, we looked totally unlike anyone else you'd ever met . . . but you overcame your fear. You bravely sat at restaurant tables, you climbed into a bathtub and a swimming pool, you trekked through airports, and rode on airplanes. Every experience was new, but you rose to every occasion.
Could I have done the same? I doubt it very much.

Leilei, your referral document says you were found under a tree on the grounds of the Behai SWI, which would become your first home. I hope that at one day old you weren't able to feel afraid. I hope you didn't lie under the tree too long, though Behai is a beautiful tropical place, and you wouldn't have been cold. I am glad you lived in the Behai SWI, where you were obviously loved and well cared for.

Today it is inconceivable that there was ever a time you weren't part of our family. You laugh and tease and boss us all around, you call me "my mushroom" and tell me "you so mean" or sometimes you say "I like you. and I love you." Today your courage only has to be applied to meeting new people, which you do with aplomb, or learning to ride a bike.
But I'll never forget how much you impressed me those first few days.
Happy Birthday, my brave girl.
I admire you, and I love you.