Willow Under The Willow

We communicate daily (via a Yahoo e-mail group) with a specific cohort of adoptive parents who, too, have adopted their children from Willow's specific orphange: Wuchuan Social Welfare Institute. Each year the parents participate in a fundraiser for the orphanage: a DVD of all the children adopted from that orphange (not just this calendar year, but all girls each and every year). The parents submit 5 images of their children, then contribute $20 to receive the DVD after it is compiled. This year they requested that one of the pictures include our children wearing something traditionally Chinese (thus the picture below, of her silk dragon jacket). It wasn't one of Willow's happiest of days, and the dog fencing is in the background, so I am not sure if we will submit this one. The rest of the pictures are just random cuteness.

The car broke down outside of Home Depot. All told, we were there for at least 2 hours ... occupying Willow's time in any way we could. The tractors, and flowers, were exciting moments.

What do you think it is like, for Willow, smelling flowers for the very first time?

We visited a nature sanctuary up north about an hour from our home (Crex Meadow). We stopped to encourage this snake to move across the road (but it got very agitated ... curling up, hissing, and striking). We think it was a hognose snake (not venemous), but a great impersonator. We were lucky enough to see two Sandhill Cranes and various waterfowl (but no shorebirds).

Woof: big dog. Believe it or not, Chris' park has several packs of wolves that frequent the park (one of these packs uses Crex Meadow).

Willow, on the front lawn, in front of our Willow tree.