Happy Birthdays

You know by now that it is an obligation incumbent on every member of H and my families to have a birthday that either exactly or very almost matches someone else's. Until this year, H's Mum had escaped that particular blessing, but this year we have two Happy Birthdays to sing.

First, to H's Mum; 21 and a bit and the delighted recipient of the Banana Monkey socks.

And second, to this little girl, known to us as Heidi:

Heidi is 3 today, (this is her at Christmas, hence the antlers), and she lives in Changsa, Hunan Province, China and she is a very special part of H and my family; our little Bamboo Baby who we started to sponsor through Pearl River Outreach in the autumn.

The Bamboo Babies are Chinese orphans, and the Pearl River sponsorship program pays the stipend for the Babies' carers so that they are in foster care, not an orphanage. I don't know a huge deal about adoption psychology but from what I've read, if a child has been in foster care before she is adopted the she grows up with the idea of there being just one Mummy and Daddy, rather than a new Mummy every day, and it helps her to attach to her forever Mummy and Daddy when she is adopted.

I hope and pray that she finds her forever family soon, but for now we know that she is well looked after and loved and cherished by us and her other sponsors and she will always be a part of our family, albeit at a distance.

Happy Birthday: Sheng Ri Kuai Le

PS: Heidi is not her real name, but as a matter of policy Pearl River keep the children's chinese names private, and give them anglicised names for public use, so to us Heidi she is.