13 Days Away

Yesterday, I took Andrew to the local Chinese Association's Chinese New Year Celebration. The event featured some fairly high-caliber performances and a welcome representation of people who were not either Chinese or Taiwanese in descent.

Some of the highlights of the afternoon included a professional Chinese opera performer who frightened Andrew with her (his?) dramatic makeup and unchanging smiley face. There was also a lyrical kung fu presentation by a gentleman whose graceful technique promptly dismissed the notion that Asian men can't dance.


There were several folk dances performed by young girls in lovely costumes. Judging by their last names in the Chinese School flyer, I'm guessing quite a few were adopted.


The most memorable number was the lion dance. As with the Chinese opera artist, Andrew was both paralyzed with fear and compelled with fascination. The look on his face in the picture below says it all.

Later on that evening, we were joined once again by fellow Taiwanese adoptive family, Paul and Heather. They brought along their adorable 4 year-old niece, Maudee. Juding by the squeals of delight ringing from the playroom, she and Andrew had a fun time together.

As if their company wasn't enough, they showered us with a tasty apple pie, a Chinese New Year card with a hong bao for Andrew and another for William, a giant tub of dinosaurs for Andrew to play with while we are gone in Taiwan, and a dazzling quilt for William, which Heather made herself.

The woman can quilt, bake, re-tile her own bathroom, rip up her basement, and raise three furry cats, all the while serving as a top-tier manager in a big company. What can I say? Parenthood will be no sweat.