The Letter

The letter and photo from PoPo and YeYe arrived today! The letter was written March 9th, the photo looks to have been taken maybe 2005, although there is no date. But M. looks to be around 5.

We had the letter translated and here is a shortened version:

"Our sweet Miao Li.....after you left it was so hard for us to face that. PoPo and YeYe miss you all day long always and dream about you at night. Till today we still miss you so badly."

"When the Chinese girl who lives in the States visited us today, she showed us three pictures of you Miao Li. You have changed so much and are such a big girl now. At first we didn't recognize you when we saw the pictures, til she told us your name, then we looked at the pictures careful again. We can't believe that was really you! We are really so excited, but cannot find any more words now. We are very sad and miss you. We wish you and your whole family happiness and health."

I admit I cried a little. M. however is wired and bouncing around the house with the picture and thinking of all the things she wants to tell PoPo and YeYe in another letter. :-)

Our girl is happy, and we are extremely happy to have this link to her past. I so hope that someday we will be able to go back to China and visit her beloved PoPo and YeYe.

We are Thrilled!!!

Today I received an email from a woman I "met" online through a yahoo group for families who have adopted from M's orphanage. She was in China last month searching for foster families, and she was able to meet and photograph M's "PoPo and YeYe" (foster parents). The email contained two of these photos that I've posted here!
She also has a letter for M. which we will need to get translated, as well as a picture of M. with her foster mom. She promises to mail these out tomorrow.
M. has been beaming ever since we got the pictures. I printed them out for her and she is putting them in frames as we speak. What a wonderful gift we received today, from the other side of the world!
Here are PoPo and YeYe, along with their extended family that includes a son and daughter-in-law and 3 foster kids.

.....how does your garden grow?

Ours is doing very well, thank you. M. picked the first pepper today, and it is a whopper. We have oodles of green tomatoes (no we don't fry them), and a bazillion blossoms on the first bed of beans. She checks every day for beans. Can't wait to start picking and eating them. Never grew cucumbers before, but I tried it this time as M. loves them. We have pretty yellow blossoms all over them and the teeniest, tiniest little cukes just starting to form. Mockingbirds were "enjoying" our garden a little too much. :-{ So D. has it enclosed now with netting. Birds are NOT happy. They sit on the poles and call us every name they can think of. LOL.