Amber Waves of Grain

[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]

by e.e. cummings 

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Guess what.
I took these pictures yesterday.
If you couldn't tell from the scenery alone, we are not in China at the moment.

This is something we had not planned, but apparently it was in God's plan. For here we are, summering in Illinois, though we had planned to stay in China through the long, hot summer months.

It is refreshing to be surrounded by family, clean air, and air conditioning. Not to mention the delicious food, the convenience of America, and surfing the web without a VPN.

But we still miss China! Willow is experiencing a little culture shock; more than she has ever dealt with before. She has asked everyday if she can go home. Not yet, girl.  When we were crossing the street in town today, she asked if we were trying to catch a taxi. No taxis here! She didn't like the craziness of US Customs and declared, "I don't want to go to America anymore".

But she traveled here in the best of spirits. She was so excited to see her family in America! Ecstatic is putting it lightly! She didn't vomit on either flight, slept 11 straight hours at the hotel during our layover, and managed to take a short nap on our long flight. She watched the "Lego Movie" five consecutive times, and ate her meals without complaint. She didn't have a potty accident, and never cried. Noah was also a champ during the whole traveling process. Which is amazing! We didn't know we were going to be in America until a few days before we left. It was a crazy few days, as we finished up some projects, cleaned, packed, and tied up loose ends before we departed. We're planning to return to China next month, but for right now, we're enjoying our bonus summer in the States.

As I've said before, I do not pose Willow. She has some sort of inherent disposition towards the art of posing. She likes to be in front of the camera, and she likes to be a ham. Yesterday, we were walking past fields on our way to Willow and Noah's great grandparents farm, and I had fun taking pictures along the way. There's quite a lot of photographs in this post, but I wanted to include them all. These kids are growing up so fast! I can hardly believe that Willow will be 3 years old on Tuesday and Noah will be 11 months the following day!

You can see Noah's syndactyly on his left hand. We are going to see if he can get his surgery while we are here. But, considering the time frame we have to work with, his current age (not yet 1 year old), and the fact that he's still crawling…I wonder if it is entirely feasible.

 Pretty flowers at Adam's grandparents' home.

The Asian in Willow, as she flashes her peace sign. One sad part about leaving China is not studying the language. I had planned on taking lessons through the summer, and Willow was also being tutored three times a week.