"Just remember what your ole pal says..."

Chelsee has come up with some pretty incredible sayings in the year and a half she has been home with us! 

"Two lights, no fan!" was the saying she used in the beginning to tell me when it was time to "go" and how many of the 3 light switches she required in the downstairs bathroom.

"What took you so long?" was what she asked me when she had learned enough English to inquire about why she had to wait so long in China for me to become her mom.

And "when I grow up, I am going to be YOUR mom so I can take good care of you like you take good care of me."  Little does she know that this one will probably come true, God willing!  Oh hell, she probably does know it already.

But there is this one saying that Chelsee uses on occasion when she senses someone isn't feeling their emotional best.  She knows just when to use it too - with uncanny accuracy!  I want to document the backstory cause it is important to me that she remembers it as it unfolded.  Over the course of the 20 months she has been with us, we have occasionally mentioned my dad, her grandpa, to her.  At first, we let her get used to all of her new *living* family and then as it came up, we would explain that she has two grandpas who are in heaven, looking down at her and smiling.  My dad was nicknamed "Baka" by Julee when she was 2.  She switched over to calling him Grandpa sometimes after we moved to HHI but when I'd hear her telling Chelsee about him, she used Baka.  So every once in a while during the first year or so, Chelsee would mention Baka and tell me some of the things he was teaching her.  Like, how to make the letter X or how to dry her hands on a towel or the favorite:  how to tap hard on the bottom of your shoe to get it onto your foot!  I always do that with her and I told her Baka taught me that one so she likes to say he taught her that too.  She has picked up on how special he is to me, and in her sweet mind has extended his light on to her.  Lately, she has been talking a lot about Baka and that he's teaching her all kinds of things.....he is currently teaching her to tie her shoes, to wipe herself without getting off the pot and how to dance really fast. :)

But my favorite one of all that he taught her is if you are sad or feeling bad about something, she will come right up to your face, scrunch her nose, bob her head up and down and point her little finger and say "just remember what your ole pal says...." to which she will add any number of appropriate condolences and inspirational suggestions for putting a smile back on your face.   And the hug that goes with it rivals that magnificent hug that my dad had mastered.   I can just hear my dad talking to her and calling her his pal like he did to all his grandkids.  She somehow has been able to capture his spirit and has taken it right into her being without much help from me (as far as I can see anyway).   This is a miraculous feeling for me, a healing one as well.   I like to think she got her empathy from him.

So sweet girl, as you struggle with your mom being away a little more than usual because of my new job, I want to let you know that it is going to be ok, ~ Mei guang xi.  Just remember what your ole pal says, "I will always come and get you."  Bao, Bao!