refrigerator photos

In my book having photos on the fridge is one of the things that signifies "this is home".  

Each time we move I consciously make an effort to get photos up on our new fridge as soon as I possibly can -  the bedroom floors may be covered in exploding piles of clothing and the actual refrigerator may be empty, but with scotch tape and a pile of photos in hand, I am busy "moving in" to our new home, taking care of bare refrigerator doors before I do many other tasks that scream for my time and attention. 

This time I actually printed photos in China and packed them in a special envelope so that I could "decorate" as soon as we unzipped the first suitcases here in America.  I picked photos that reminded me of our home, our friends, our community on the other side of the world.  And, of course, I kept many of the photos that I carefully removed from our home there - friends that we haven't seen in years but still occupy big places in our hearts.  

And now I have a photo already picked out for our refrigerator back in China. 

Kristi took this pic of Lydia last weekend at a RedHawks (minor league baseball) game last weekend.  I love it mostly because of what it is, but also for all it means.

This photo will forever remind me of time with family - oh how wonderful it felt to be doing something so very American (minor league baseball on a Sunday afternoon) with our kids and their cousins.  

It will remind me of all the new things our children experienced here in America - snow cones and cotton candy and general admission bleacher seats and cheering for 'the red team'. 

It will remind me of one other thing I've learned in the past few weeks....  Lydia's hair will always be an attention getter, no matter where we live in the world. In China people comment on Lydia's hair all the time.  I thought it might slow down, or even stop, when we got to America. 

I was wrong.  In fact, if you consider that we see fewer people each day than we do in China, I think the "hair comments per capita" might even be higher here in America! 

I kind of like to blend.  I'm not a big fan of drawing a lot of attention to myself.  Which totally explains why I live in China and can't wait to adopt cross-racially :)  Because, you know, white people blend in super easily in China.  Especially when they are carrying black babies :)

And now I have Lydia.  And her hair.  And will spend the next five months talking (in English) to total strangers about curls.  Then we'll get on an airplane, fly half way around the world, and I'll talk to total strangers (in Chinese) about curls. 

So I love the photo of Lydia, her snow cone and her curls at the baseball game.  I love that even though I would probably choose to "blend" God called me to a life where I hardly ever do.  

And I'm printing a copy of this photo for our refrigerator.