Colorful and happy...

Two years ago today, our guide handed us a piece of paper in the Beijing airport. We were about to depart for Guangzhou...for the ultimate purpose of our journey. This piece of paper had updated information about our baby...her current measurements, a few details about her personality and her development, and the meaning of her name...Lian Yuan Cai...Cai meaning "colorful and happy". It wasn't as poetic as some given Chinese names, but it made me smile...through my tears, of course. Little did I know, however, that I was about to learn the real meaning of "colorful and happy". God is so humorously generous in His gifts.

What I didn't know then...what I know now...is that not only is Caroline (and I find it less than coincidental that Cai is in her given American name) "colorful and happy", but that opening my heart to godly obedience...opening my heart to loving her...has made LIFE "colorful and happy" in a whole new way.

As with all of my children, there are so many funny things she's said that I've failed to write down. So many times I've looked at her and wished to the depths of my soul that I had a photograph of her expression so that I could remember that moment forever. I pray that these are among the treasures stored up in heaven for us. Because even if we managed to take every picture and record every anecdote, they would merely be preserved for an existence that is temporary...and what would heaven be like without the precious memories of our lives here on earth?

That colorful, happy girl makes me laugh every. single. day. Recent dialogue between Caroline and her sister has gone something like this...

Mindy: "I love you more than ice cream!" (and that's a lot, for the record)


Caroline: "I love you more than chockwit!" (chocolate...also a lot)


Mindy: "I love you more than Twizzlers!"


Caroline: "I love you more than chockwit!"



Mindy: "I love you more than tacos!"



Caroline: "I love you more than chockwit!"

I'm seeing a trend here...

We've also been talking about Gotcha Day, and Caroline knows that it's the day we "got" her in China. She'll tell you who was there. She will tell you that she's from China and that's a pretty special thing. She knows what the ayis called her, and I'm teaching her the meaning of her Chinese name. We have a couple of little photo albums that she looks through. Nothing fancy...just pictures of her in the orphanage and with her ayis and pictures of our trip to China. So she has some concept of China being another place.

And last night she ran up to me and threw her arms around me and said...



"I love you to China, Mommy!"



To which I replied...



"I love you to China and BACK!"



To which she replied...



"I love you to China in FWONT of you!"


Any tears misting up in the corner of my eyes dissolved in the belly laughs we shared. She makes me laugh every single day...she's colorful and life is happy. Thank you, God.

Might I mention that I find it completely ironic and somewhat humorous that today, Miss "Colorful and Happy" was not in the mood for a photo shoot. In fact, she was quite sober in most of these pictures. And she's not a big fan of the puffy Chinese New Year get-up we bought for her when we were in China. As you can see from the outtakes in this little slideshow...the clothing police in China would have been no match for my girl...