Driving home from ballet we go through an older neighborhood with huge houses and beautifully manicured lawns. Many houses have fall and/or Halloween decorations up. We were oohing and ahhing over the decorations, with smart-aleck Zoe correcting me when I said, "Look at the Halloween decorations at that house," to point out that they really only had "FALL decorations."
Then Zoe says, "Guess what my favorite holiday is."
Going for the seasonal, I hazarded, "Halloween?" Nope.
Going for the loot, I said, "Christmas?" Nope.
Going for the culture, I said, "Chinese New Year?" Nope.
"Then what?" I asked.
"Gotcha Day!" Zoe exclaimed.
I had to know, "Really? Why is that?"
Zoe had an instant response, "Because it makes me happy!"
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I asked Zoe later if she wanted to go back to calling our first-meeting-day "Gotcha Day," reminding her that she didn't like that phrase when she was little. "Should we keep calling it Family Day?" I asked.
"No, that's kind of confusing," Zoe says. "Confusing how?" I ask.
"Because I have a regular family here and a birth family in China," she says.
So we're on the lookout for a new name for our Gotcha/Forever Family/First-Meeting/Love-at-First-Sight Day. Any suggestions?
5 comments:
We use Forever Family Day.
btw--Thanks for the book, I just received it last night and have already delved in!
We use forever Day. We are a family forever, and it doesn't exclude the birth parents. It's just our own "thing" since that is when we first laid eyes on each other. Of course you could analyze that we were meant to be forever long before that and on and on....
How about ZOE DAY!! ?
BTW, I got goosebumps- this is her favorite time of year :)
Adoption Day? Singer/songwriter John McCutcheon has a song called "Happy Adoption Day" on his recording FAMILY GARDEN. The lyrics begin:
"Oh, who would have guessed, who could have seen
Who could have possibly known
All these roads we have traveled, the places we've been
Would have finally taken us home
Chorus:
So here's to you, three cheers to you
Let's shout it, "Hip, hip, hip, hooray!"
For, out of a world so tattered and torn,
You came to our house on that wonderful morn
And all of a sudden this family was born
Oh, happy Adoption Day!
We say Adoption Day also. I know that technically we didn't adopt her till the next day, but that is splitting hairs too much even for me (and I'm a big splitter). I'm not thrilled with Adoption Day, but all the other choices just seem problematic to me, for reasons others have already mentioned.
Great blog, I'll be trying to keep tuned in!
Andrea, mama to a "spicey" Jiangxi girl!
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