Hope our luck holds!

I can't believe a month from today --March 6 -- we'll be --- hmmm-where will we be?

With some luck, I'm hoping we will be on the not-so-slow plane to China -- fingers crossed that connections will be made and all goes according to schedule.

I'm hoping that our luck holds out and we stay healthy between now and then so we can enjoy our preparations.

As we get ready to celebrate the year of the Tiger -- Lianne and my sister Carmel's year -- I think about the celebrations over there. I remember 7 years ago seeing the remnents of CNY decorations-- and even bought some decorations for when we would celebrate at home. But it was all so not real - to think of celebrating with this little baby who had just come into my life. it seemed more real to me then to celebrate the luck of the Irish than to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Today was the journey to get the hong boa -- the red envelopes to hold the lucky money for Julias's classmates.

Julia wanted to go to the Pacfic Mall today -- along with everyone else in York Region and the known world it seemed. No luck for us beacause after 45 minutes of trolling for a parking spot --and believe me, I was sending it out there for a parking spot-- we gave up and headed to Richmond Hill to another smaller Chinese mall.

Luckily, everyone in Richmond Hill must have been at the winter carnival because this mall was not crowded and we found a little shop that had all that we needed decoration-wise. It also had a woman who was insistent on letting me know how lucky my daughter was.

She and her husband ran the shop. They were a friendly middle-aged couple who seemed delighted and surprised to see us come into their shop. She asked if Julia was Chinese, and when we answered yes, she started speaking away to Julia in Chinese. Julia said she didn't understand. The woman then said she had been speaking in Cantonese - Julia said that she knew some Mandarin, so the woman then tried some Mandarin and met with some success. I could see that she was trying to explain to her puzzled husband why Julia wasn't fluent in her mother tongue.

Because her mother's tongue - my tongue -- is not Mandarin. And for a minute, I felt awful. Like I had deprived my daughter her culture. And even though I am taking her back -- she'll be going back like I am going back -- like a tourist.

The woman then told me how lucky Julia was to have such a good mama -- obviously she didn't know about the rows Julia and I had earlier in the day -- I told her that I was the one who was lucky to have such a wonderful daughter. She smiled and repeated, "She lucky,too!"

I know it's not about luck -- there has been sadness and joy in the journey to make Julia and me a family-- nothing too lucky about that. I do believe divine intervention has been at work -- for the sadness and the joy -- both are blessings, not so much luck.

And it's a great blessing for me to be able to make this journey with some dear friends. We are fortunate that we are in a position to make this trip at this time of year -- I've been blessed with a wonderful principal who helped make that happen.

I like to think it will be luck that comes my way when I scratch my way through a lottery ticket.