Autumn Moon Festival

Last weekend, we went to a celebration with our Families with Children from China (FCC) group for the Autumn Moon Festival.  The Autumn Moon Festival is the second biggest holiday in China, next to Chinese New Year.  From what I understand, it is a bit like Thanksgiving in that they get together with family and eat and have a good time.  They also like to look at the moon, knowing that family that they can't be with are under the same moon.  This is pretty fitting for us as our families live far away and we miss and think about them a lot.  So for our celebration, we brought a picnic to the park.  After dinner, the kids got to make lanterns that had glow sticks to light them up and get their faces painted.  Ella and Liana were fairies and Ethan had a dragon on his cheek.  After that, it was dark so we got to walk in a lantern parade around the park and when we got back, we ate mooncake.  It is always fun adding some of Liana's Chinese culture to our family.  I love how we have been able to adopt some of her culture since she joined our family.  It is also very cool being around families that look just like ours.  We stand out wherever we go because, let's face it, we're a little unique.  I've never been fond of standing out so I have definitely had to get used to the kind of attention that we get now, having 2 white children and 1 Chinese.  We are remembered by people and are asked questions.  I don't mind as long as they keep it appropriate or don't seem to be giving us negative attention but we have had some of that too.  But being around all of these other transracial families, just like ours, is a beautiful thing.  You feel a bond with a group of people who are mostly strangers because we all "get it".  We've been through the difficult process of adoption and the tough stuff that comes after.  We all have different stories and different experiences but we share something that not everyone can understand.  I look forward to Liana growing up and bonding with children who will understand her in a way that most of her friends can't and seeing that, even though our family is unique, we're not so different after all.