Lily celebrates the Moon Festival

While the Chinese celebrated China’s Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing, Lily munched on mooncakes, a Chinese pastry commonly eaten during the festival. We got together with the other families with children from Lily’s orphanage and sent several boxes of these goodies to the children there so they could partake in the celebration as well. While Lily loved the interesting flavor of these famous pastries, John and I took a pass. It must be an acquired taste!

Kids in orphanage enjoying mooncakes

What is the Moon festival?

The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 14th in the year 2008. Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

Summer Fun

Feeding the chipmonks in Colorado










The last month of summer was filled with fun and bonding. Pamela was offered a great new job that will allow her to utilize her talents and more importantly will be home every night with Lily. She was also able to spend another month bonding with Lily without the almost daily grind of doctor appointments.

Lily and Pamela took their first mother/daughter road trip to the Colorado Rockies to stay with Pamela’s friend Cathy and her little boy, Lucas. The two moms exchanged “mom stories” during their road trip to Estes Park while the kids jabbered, played, and shared treats in the back seat. Lily did great on the flight to and from Denver and entertained her seat mates with her giggles and infectious smile. But she missed her daddy. And he missed her too.




Cathy and Lucas











The weather in Seattle finally warmed up enough to enjoy the summer evenings outdoors. Dad has introduced Lily to blackberries on their nightly walks. By the time they get home Lily is covered in purple juice!



Berry face










We attended John’s annual company picnic where Lily enjoyed the food and rides at the Family Fun Park. Her favorite ride was the bumper boats!














As hard as we tried, we couldn’t get through the rest of summer without more medical issues. Labor Day weekend started and ended with two trips to the emergency room and surgical procedure done in the ER due to infection on Lily’s ear. We have learned that Lily has Preauricular pits, an anomaly resulting from imperfect external ear development. If these “pits” become swollen and infected they need to be surgically removed. Under the advice of the head and neck surgeon and Lily’s cardiologist, Lily will need to undergo an additional surgery later in September. Ugh…

On a positive note, Lily has been transitioning incredibly well into her new daily routine at her Montessori school. She is making new friends and trying new tasks. She took her first step when mommy came to pick her up one day. We’re sorry to say goodbye to summer so soon but we’re looking forward into settling into a routine that will continue to provide Lily with the freedom and consistency that will allow her to develop her sweet personality… and her sense of humor.