Friends

It's been said that true friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.  If that is true, then ChunMing has found a true friend and I have no hope of knowing who my true friends are; I talk too much.

ChunMing has now played at the park, picked blackberries on a walk, hunted for crabs at the beach, played games and rolled around on the trampoline with his new friend Adana.   As I watch them sit on our playroom floor, one playing barbies and the other playing cars without a word spoken between them, I wonder...are either of them having fun?  Yet, the next time a get together is suggested, he smiles.

Adana, full of questions like, "How do you understand him?" or "How does he know the ABC song?" joins right in as we sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" at the top of our lungs, or gently teaches him the colors in our card game.  She is curious about their differences, yet gets excited when there are similarities.  Last week when she came over to play I took down some photos of ChunMing's friends from his orphanage, which we showed Adana.  He quickly saw her interest and asked me to get down a bag of items he had made at his school too.  He carefully took out one masterpiece at a time and pointed to himself and then to the item, showing his new friend his life in China. 

Last week we went to lunch together.  The gentleman taking our order asked ChunMing a question to which  Adana proudly replied, "He lived in China!", which she figured would explain everything. 

As other children are understandably initially uncomfortable with this new stranger who talks differently, walks differently, and looks differently, Adana sees a new friend.  She is a unique individual who isn't afraid to be herself, or afraid of others who are different than she.  It's a perfect combo. It is going to be fun to watch this friendship bloom, or wither; which is a possibility as well, but not as romantic a notion. :)