Going Home Barbie

When families go to China to adopt a child and stay at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, the receive a special Barbie Doll, called Coming Home Barbie. Each year there is a new Coming Home Barbie, and this is the Barbie doll we received in 2006, when we brought Julia home.

I had packed that doll away, not hidden it exactly, but put it away until some time when Julia could appreciate it properly. I don't really know when that was going to be. I stopped thinking about it really.

Sometimes Julia goes down the basement and explores. There is not much that she can hurt and so I let her do it. One day, not too long ago, but just before our China reunion, Julia brought the Barbie doll upstairs and asked if she could open it. (There was a time when she would have opened it without asking.) I was perplexed. I wanted to save the doll. I guess I wanted to keep it perfect in its box so that Julia could have it for all time. But Julia wanted to play with it.

And so, I asked lots of people about it. My fellow China travel mates, my Madison mom friends, and some others. And almost to a mom, they all thought I should give Julia the doll and let her play with it.

Julia forgot about the doll for awhile, but today, she remember again, and asked to open it and I said, yes!
I made her take a picture with the doll in the closed box.
And then we opened it.
She has had fun with it all afternoon and evening.