The day after Gotcha day

Last night, as is tradition every year on July 27th, Cara-Li and I went to bed and relived the Gotcha moment.  I tell her how it happened and she'll sometimes ask questions but mostly she'll listen to my story and how I remember it.  This year she asked about what she was wearing.  Since our pictures of our China trip have yet to be put in album (!), I decided to pull out THE box where many of her keepsakes are kept.  In there is the nicely folded outfit that Cara-Li came to us in.  I'm sure I've showed her this before but I guess it's been a while and well, she couldn't remember.  She thought it was cute (and big!) with the pictures of Snoopy on it. 

Under the outfit, Cara-Li spotted a box that was still gift wrapped. 

She questioned what was in it to which I responded that I didn't know.  It was handed to us on July 28th exactly 7 years ago when our adoption of Cara-Li was finalized.  At the time, too much was going on and then when we finally made it back to the room, too tired to think about it.  The next day, well, we decided not to open it.  We thought we'd keep it for her to open when she was older.  I had mentionned this to someone in our group to which they responded that the chocolate would go bad by then.  So I naturally assumed that it was chocolate and figured if it went bad, too bad.  So fast forward 7 years and here we were faced with the box.  Cara-Li wants to open it bad.  So, of course, I oblige...

Surprise!  Not chocolate at all! 

A little stuffed dog and a Chinese sachet.  Cara-Li was so pleased that the people from the orphanage gave her a present as a parting gift.  Both were placed on the night stand next to her bed tonight and that is a sign that she loves it!