Daffodils

My dad is an avid gardener.

When I was growing up, I loved to help him, mostly so that I could pretend I was one of the American Girls (Kirsten being my favorite, of course, but Felicity was a close second). Every single year, he would give me some space around the yard and let me choose what I wanted to plant there, and every single year I said daffodils. Each time, he reminded me that daffodils don't grow well in Los Angeles, that it's too hot for them, and that they don't grow again the next year because the ground never gets cold enough in the winter for the bulbs to grow again, so basically you're wasting your money on what is supposed to be a perennial, but instead withers after two days.

And every year I still asked for daffodils.

Sometimes he bought me daffodils, and then took me back to the gardening store a week later to pick out something else after the daffodils died. Other times he simply said no, and tried to reason with me when I was unreasonable. But I was determined to have those dang daffodils, and he let me learn the hard way. At some point, I began telling him that in the future, I'd have daffodils in front of my house, and so every year it was the same thing- I would plant something other than daffodils, but I would tell him that someday, I would move to a place where I could have daffodils in my yard.

When I moved to Oregon, it was hard to be away from my family, from the home I'd known. We rented a house, and I'm sure that my family was hoping that we'd move back (and I'm sure they still do). But when we bought our first house about 3 years after moving, it was pretty solid- they knew we'd be staying in Oregon.

A few days after we moved in, a package arrived from an address I didn't recognize, and I lost it when I opened the box.

My dad had ordered and sent me a box of daffodil bulbs.

This obviously makes me feel everything all at once, even three years later, but as I was gardening this morning, I saw that the first daffodil in my yard had bloomed, and my mind began to race. Daffodils have become something symbolic, and I realized that this might be the very daffodil that my baby sees next year, with new eyes, in a new home. The English teacher in me thought a million things about the symbolism of new growth, of finding a home that you thrive in, of discovering one's self, etc. Even more simply, though, I realized that a tradition that my dad and I started can and will be something that I pass on to my kids, and this might be the last year that I'm gardening alone outside. I realized that my family is spread out and that they're still somehow near because they're a part of me, and I realized that this is all very sentimental but that it's also true, and that someday I will get to bore my kids with stories like this until they're old enough to appreciate them.

Parents, what is it that you've been happy to pass on to your kiddos? To everyone that moved away from family- what keeps you feeling close? I can't be the only one- I'd love to know what small things mattered to you, especially as you thought about bringing the kiddo(s) home or as you anticipate that process.


Updates:
PAPERWORK IS DONE! For the moment, obviously. 249 pages, not including the online education stuff. We're almost done with the online stuff- there's a lot of clicking involved. It's good, but still. Lots to learn, lots of repeating, lots of clicking.
Fundraising- Paul continues to kick butt selling stuff of Craigslist and Ebay- thank you thank you thank you for the donations! We are going to have an incredible garage sale in the future, too. I just ordered our first batch from Just Love Coffee, which gives us HALF of the proceeds towards our adoption. Yay!!!
Thank you for your love and support. Until next week (?), we love you!