Time for Tết

Finally Mẹ got her act together and bought some proper decorations for Tết. This is the year of the trâu, or water buffalo. The local Chinese market only had ox decorations but they look similar to water buffalos. When Gianna came home from school, the decorations were sitting on the table. She ran to them and hollered "Tết!", then she wanted me to hang them up on the door. I am not sure where her Tết association comes from, memories of Vietnam or from her Tết DVDs. One thing I do know, she certainly remembers Vietnam.

Last night at dinner, Gianna was eating vegetable soup as I surfed the internet. I was looking at an adoption blog by a friend waiting to travel to pick up her daughter from Gianna's orphanage. The header is a large photo of her daughter Chau on a horse bouncer at the orphanage. Gianna asked to see the computer screen. She made a comment about the horse, something like "boppity bop!", then she pointed the the girl. I asked her if she remembered the girl. She nodded and said "Chau Vietnam". Then she tried to feed Chau a spoonful of soup through the computer. I told her no, it wouldn't work, but she was insistent with tears in her eyes. She said "Chau hungry!" Then I had tears in my eyes! I told her yes, Chau is hungry, but we will have to wait until she comes to the US to feed her. I was just so touched that when she saw her friend from Vietnam, her first instinct was to share her food with her. To be fair, she also has extreme sympathy on Bruno's insatiable hunger. He is a rather thin dog and begs for food non-stop, which brings about a chorus of "Beano hungry? Beano hungry?"