Leawood Food Truck Festival

Tonight, we headed to Leawood Park for a Food Truck Festival.

There were many food trucks, live music, and a great playground.

We got Chicken Tinga Sopes from Indios Carbonsitos

and a Buffalo Chicken Wrap and Macaroni and Cheese from Deco Street Eats.

It was all soooooo good!

Harper ran off all of her calories at the park.

We had a great time at the Leawood Food Truck Fest!

Sicilia's 4th Birthday!

Harper had a blast at Sicilia's 4th Birthday Party!

 

 The girls jumped on the trampoline

played with water balloons

and broke the pinata!

Harper is much more outgoing since meeting Sicilia.

She is blessed to have such a wonderful friend!

 

First Day of Pre-K 2015-2016

Today was Harper's first day of Pre-K.

I drop her off at the babysitter's house at 6:00 am, so she wasn't very 

interested in posing for First Day of School photos.

Most of my before school pictures turned out like this:

Just like last year, Harper was more interested in

eating her bagels than posing for pictures.

She finally woke up and posed for a picture.

She looks like such a big girl!

This is Harper's best friend, Sicilia.

Harper has become much more outgoing since she met Sicilia.

Harper loves riding the bus!

After school, we went outside to play.

 Harper had a great day at school.  

She painted a bus in art class, played with puzzles,

and made a road for her cars during playtime.

Her teacher wrote, "Wow!  Beautiful long sentences!"

Harper had a great first day of school!

Urban Air

Today Harper and I tried out Urban Air, a new trampoline place in Overland Park.

They have about a million trampolines and a massive indoor playground.

Harper jumped

and played in the ball pit.

She built a castle

and played on a swing.

She practiced her soccer skills

and stretched

and worked on her balance.

She loved jumping with the balls

and going down the big orange slides.

We worked up an appetite, so we stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli

and a few minutes later..........

she was asleep!

 

Forever Family Day

On August 13, we celebrated 3 years with Harper!

We have several traditions as we celebrate our famliversary.

Each year, I get Harper a charm for her Pandora bracelet.

 This year's charm is a mother/daughter heart.  

On the back it says, "I love you to the moon and back."

Traditionally on this day, we go out for Chinese food.

This year, we ate at Bo Ling's at Zona Rosa.

Harper did very well with her chopsticks!

Our final tradition is to "adopt" a stuffed animal at Build A Bear.

This year, Harper chose a tiger.  She loved helping stuff her new doll!

Next, she gave her new friend a bath and brushed her hair.

We searched for the perfect outfit.  Harper chose a Disney "Belle" dress.

She is very excited about the Disney Princesses this year.

Next, we named her doll (Belle) and printed the birth certificate.

We had so much fun celebrating our 3 years together.

We are so blessed to have Harper in our lives!

"Gotcha" Day Thoughts

Many families, including ours, celebrate the day they met their adopted child and became a family.  Commonly, this day is referred to as “Gotcha Day”, but I choose to think of it as Forever Family Day.   Maybe it is only semantics, but “Gotcha” day sounds insensitive to me.  Perhaps right now Harper does not understand or cannot verbalize the pain associated with this day, but one day she might not feel like this is an occasion to celebrate.  One day, I assume she will have feelings of loss, and I don’t want to diminish those feelings.  While I am celebrating her addition to our family, she might be grieving over the loss of her birth family or the unfortunate circumstances that led to this day.  Adoption, no matter how wonderful in the end, is always rooted in loss.

Many times friends and loved ones have expressed how “lucky” Harper is.   While I know these comments are said with the best intentions, I think that one day Harper might express that she doesn’t feel “lucky” to have been born in a country where babies are abandoned due to circumstances beyond the control of the birth parents.  It's been said that adoption loss is the only trauma in the world where everyone expects the victims to be grateful and appreciative.  As Harper’s adoptive parent, I feel like I am the lucky one.

As such, August 13 will always be a special day, a day I fully intend on celebrating, from here until forever. After all, it is symbolic of the day we became a forever family. We will celebrate “Forever Family Day” but will remember that while we are celebrating Harper’s addition to our family, there is another family with heavy hearts.   Traditionally, I give Harper a charm for her Pandora bracelet, we “adopt” a stuffed animal at Build-A-Bear, and we eat at a Chinese restaurant.   As we celebrate, we will be loving and acknowledging her birth family, too, because without them we wouldn’t be together.   Harper’s China Momma is the one who ultimately created this family I will forever be grateful to have.