four friends from Cambodia meet again

Playing the Sex

Today Chantí had her usual all day play date with her best friend, Kate. (Name has been changed.) When Kate's mom picked her up this afternoon, she warned me that Kate had been playing Barbie with another little girl recently. The mom was mortified when she overheard the other little girl saying that Barbie and Ken were having sex. Kate very loudly and promptly corrected her. "It's not SEX! It's the SAX!! I ought to know because my sister plays the saxophone!"

More Chantí-isms: While taking our Shih Tzu along with us to visit my mother in a resthome: "Now Tai, you be a good dog today. This is your first time going to the restroom!"

When I Grow Up

Tonight on the way to swimming, I remembered that we have a coupon for a free ice cream cone, and mentioned to Chantí that we were going to have to get her free ice cream one of these nights. She asked if we would get change back from her coupon. I told her no, coupons don't work that way. She said, "Good, because I have plenty of money. I don't need anymore money. I have enough money to buy lots of nice things for my children when I get big." (They give coupons for ice cream each time a child achieves a ribbon and advances to the next level. The restaurant that gives out the ice cream has a great deal going for themselves. They are out one measly ice cream cone but generally get at the very least the whole family in for dinner!) Chantí has a lot of change, and she keeps her "big money" which is anything greater than a $1 bill in a special box for college. She could spell college when she was four years old.

She is so sweet. Chantí has talked about "when I have my little girl" for as long as I can remember. She wants to save all of her toys "to give to my daughter." It is so sweet and it cracks me up the way she acts so mature about it.

Lucky Mom

How did I get so lucky? I watch my daughter sleeping....she bravely came to us at age three and a half. She sat on the bed in our hotel room in Phnom Penh with her "sister" as she called the other little girl, and her nanny from the orphanage. A tear rolled slowly down her cheek. I thought of how frightened she must have been. She is now six years old. Tonight at bedtime she wanted to hear the story about the afternoon we met. She said she cried because she would miss her "Second Mommy". Sadly, her nanny was at least her Third Mom, which is the name she has created for me. She's very proud of her moms. I'm proud of her moms, and I'm proud of my daughter. I'm thankful to her birthmother, whoever she is, wherever she is, for the very strong spirit that she imbued upon this little girl. I'm thankful to her foster mother, for the caring, loving environment she provided, because I now have the most loving little girl. She has a good spirit, a good heart, a sweet soul. How did I get so lucky? I watch my daughter sleeping.....