Sun rays, Colors and Words

Frederick by Leo Lionni was one of my favorite children's books when I was a little girl. Frederick is a mouse who belongs to a colony of mice. During the summer and autumn months, all of the mice of the colony are gathering nuts and berries and grains to store away for the winter - all of them, that is, except Frederick. 

When the colony mice ask Frederick what he's doing, he replies that he's gathering sun rays, colors and words. As you can imagine, the other mice think Frederick has gone coo coo. 

Later, in the middle of winter, the mice of the colony have eaten up all their grain. The fruit is long gone and there are just a few nuts. It's then that Frederick the mouse begins to tell his brothers and sisters stories - stories of the sunshine and of the colors of summer and of words that were spoken during months when they were all together in the warmth. Frederick's stories warm the hearts of all the mice in the colony and they finally understand. 

I think of Frederick a lot during the winter months, especially during the month of January. On the coldest of cold days, it's often hard to find something that inspires a ray of sunshine into your day. On those days, I channel Frederick. After all, it only takes a moment to close your eyes and imagine the sunshine on a day in the middle of late summer when you and a loved one shared a moment. 

One of my favorite memories from this past summer is when my nieces and nephews all spent the night with me and Robert. We hung out at the house then went downtown to a local burger joint to enjoy massive cheeseburgers, monster shakes and jumbo onion rings and fries. Then we walked and walked downtown. It was hot and we were sweaty, but we were together, hanging out and acting goofy. Afterwards, we sat around in the living room and fought over which movies we wanted to watch. The next morning, we all got up and met Nana and Pop Pop for breakfast before they had to go home. 

What are your colors? What are your sun rays? What are your words?

Just for Fun - Roald Dahl Stamps

What would an adoption blog be without a little bit of fun? Nerdy fun, that is. 

As I mentioned, my in-laws are from England. They are what is known as dual citizens, which means they are citizens of both England and America. (Remind me to tell you about Robert's mum's citizenship test ... whew!) From time to time, the post office in their village sells booklets of stamps. Robert's mum started sending me booklets, like Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter ... oh, and don't forget Lord of the Rings. These little booklets peaked my interest in stamps. Now I fancy myself a novice stamp collector. (I warned you this was nerdy.)

Yesterday I received a little parcel in the mail. Inside was this lovely booklet. It features Roald Dahl, the author of such children's books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the booklet says Dahl was a chocoholic ... they say write about what you know!), Fantastic Mr. Fox and Matilda, among others. I'll be honest when I tell you that I knew these books from childhood but I had no idea who wrote them! 

What does this have to do with adoption? Well, you could say that one day our adoptive child will have quite the stamp collection on his or her hands.