Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Just the other day a young mother e-mailed me to tell me she enjoyed my blog very much. She also wrote that she has two children adopted from the country of China and would love to have my New Year's character to celebrate the special day.

As I worked into the evening hours to complete him, my thoughts drifted to the very beginning of my relationship with my husband and his many trips to this beautiful country. I was flooded with the memories of a heart yearning for it's other half.

It's with such sweetness that I look at the little pocket calenders I would keep by my bedside that counted down the days until Pat's return. They were days to "get through" until I would see him again.

I would peek ahead before falling asleep to the day he would return. A heart proclaiming, Pat's Home!

All the days of my marriage, my husband has been away from home more than he has been home. I can attest that the heart truly does grow fonder.

 
What my husband most enjoyed about his travels to China at a time when Westerners had been forbidden to do so for over 50 years, were the sweet faces of the children he would spy from his passing taxi. This memory has made me want to visit again my Around the World ornaments for Christmas.

When my children were little, our Christmas was filled with these little children's faces and their animal pets. They would play "I Spy" trying to be first to find the animal that matched it's child. It helped them connect with the far away places their father often visited. So look for many of these to appear this year on my blog.

For the cutest story about the time my brother tried to "Dig to China" click here.