We went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant for dinner and Anna wore one of her dresses we bought in China. My parents and sister also joined us. Chinese New Year officially starts tomorrow, so we thought it would be neat to celebrate that, too. Last week the owner of the restaurant invited us to celebrate tonight at 10 pm with them at their big party, but we thought we would be worn out from the big day. The woman gave each of the kids a red envelope with $10 in it. We were very surprised and a bit embarrassed. A Red Envelope, sometimes called a Red Packet is simply a red envelope with money in it, often decorated with lucky symbols, which symbolizes luck and wealth. It is called Hong Bao in Chinese. Children are given the envelopes with the money in it to bring good luck. They can then go buy holiday treats with the money. We had taken a Chinese New Year Card and given it to the owner as we got to the Restaurant.
After dinner we went back home to open Anna's gifts and have cake and ice-cream. Anna managed to open all the gifts at record speed and enjoyed her Little Mermaid-Ariel Cake. She had been singing to herself all day! When asked how old she is she says 2 and then 4. Ok...so we will work on 3!
I spent a lot of time this week thinking of Anna's birthparents. It is hard not to think about them. They made a decision to give Anna a future on Feb 28, 2004 that they felt that they could not. We are greatful to have her as our daughter and she has brought so much joy to our lives and so many others. It is hard for us to imagine what led to the decision to give Anna up. We will never know and I feel somewhat sad knowing that they will never know the wonderful girl she has become.
Anyway, we had a wonderful third birthday with our little Anna YanYi.
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