May 6, 2010

Birthday Tradition ²

by Wendy • 2010: Memory Making, Adoption Shmoption, Catherine Ellen Mei, Headline

While we were waiting for Catherine, I thought often about how we would honor her birthparents.  I read many ideas from other parents and adopted children, many of them were very good ideas.  I felt that the best way for our family to remember her mother and father in China was to release a balloon with a written note on her birthday.  We have done this since her first birthday, so this was the third year we have done a balloon release.  This is the first year that Catherine released the balloon on her own.  Even though she doesn’t understand the significance of this tradition/ritual, it was important to me that she was the one to let the balloon go.