She has gone from a village in Jiangxi province to the capital, Nanchang, and then to Guangzhou. And from there to our home in Chicago, and then on trips to the Bay Area, New York, DC, Youngstown, and now, with the Jenkins family in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving.
She has taken music class and gone to summer dance, ridden on swings and slid down slides, made multiple trips to the aquarium and the Children's museum, laughed at her reflection in the Bean, worn mittens, met cousins galore, B...man after B...man and a few babysitters too. She has eaten and eaten and eaten - especially in certain growth phases like she appears to be in now. Either that or she got the memo that the Thanksgiving holiday is for gorging.
She has spent time with both of her Nanas, but the name she learned first was PopPop. I was amazed when we first walked into Nana and PopPop's empty house in Pittsburgh (they were out to dinner) that she blurted out "PopPop" though she had only been here once, for less than 24 hours. Though it made me sad too that she never got to meet her Pops.
It was just over a year ago that he left us, and it was around the same time
that a precious girl in the Jianxin orphanage was being put into the adoption queue to become his namesake, Ms. Rikki Panrae Burdman.
Amazing that exactly six months from the day the Chinese adoption became official here she is, in Davis' arms, wearing a darling pink dress and patent leather shoes (sorry you can't see those in this pic), munching calmly on a roll, and delighting us without end.
