Bringing me to Tears

Anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to my children and anything to do with adoption, I can be brought to tears instantly. Talk to me about birth parents, finding locations, time spent at the orphanage etc and I will turn into a big slobbering bowl of mush.

Which brings me to my story...

I spent part of this week cleaning out the office closet. In the last 6 months, any paperwork (adoption, bills etc.) have been pitched into a huge heap in the closet. No filing, no organizing, no nothing. Anything purchased such as cables for electronic equipment or external hard drives have literally been pitched in there most of them in their unopened original packaging (it seemed really urgent at the time to have all this stuff!). Now that we are back from China and somewhat settled, I have decided to tackle the said closet. A quick visit to Staples to pick up some organisational supplies and I was armed and ready. Cara-Li has been watching me organise papers and cards for each of them in their own box nicely filed and labeled (with the new label machine!). In this closet is where we keep all our adoption paperwork most of which always lives in the briefcase that was given to us by our agency. I finally made each of the briefcases a nice and pretty label in order to identify them and so that I can stop pulling out the wrong one. Cara-Li finally poked her head and started questioning what were in the briefcases. She knows that Alexia's contains all the paperwork necessary to bring her home. Cara-Li says to me, '' Mommy, in my briefcase, is it all about me and when I lived at the orphanage in China?'' OMG! She used the word orphanage! It was the first time that I had ever heard her say this to me. We always talk about her life in China before us but I guess it was hard for me to hear it from her in her own words. I had to excuse myself as I did not want her to see me crying. As I am walking away, I heard her asking, ''Mommy, are you crying again?'' What a smart cookie!