Hide and seek

I love the classic childhood game of hide and seek. (We still love to play, especially in the house at night with the lights out). On the surface it seems like the fun part consists of finding such a great hiding spot, that you are the last one found. But when I really think back, there was actually nothing worse than hiding so well that people eventually gave up looking and just left you there. I remember times of being all curled up in my clever hiding place and secretly hoping and whispering under my breath “Don’t give up, keep looking…I’m right over here.”

When our son Tyler was just a little guy, he used to hide under his bed with half of his body sticking out so he could be found quickly. It was hilarious. We would walk into his room, pretending not to see him, and you would hear his muffled giggling from under the bed. He really wanted to be found.

Honour loves to play hide and seek. Actually she has changed the rules of the game. Instead of finding a clever enough place to hide so that she is the last one found; it’s more like she purposely hides in the most obvious place she can, so she can be found as quickly as possible. In fact, the game now consists of her throwing a blanket or shirt over herself (she makes sure that we see her “hide”), and then one of us asking loud enough for her to “overhear” us; “Where’s Honour?” “Has anyone seen Honour?” We never get the chance to actually try to look for her. We barely get the words out when she whips the blanket off, allowing herself to be discovered and shouts in a mix of Vietnamese and English; “Here I am!” Her smiles and laughter are priceless. It’s as if she cannot wait to be found. She seriously loves to play this game as often as possible. She LOVES being found…over and over and over again.

And now that I think of it…any of us who have experienced the joy of being found, can never get enough of it. In fact, the more we think about adopting our children, the more we realize that in so many beautiful ways, it is actually us who are being found.

I recently read a powerful post by one of our favorite bloggers, Ann at http://crazyforkids.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-not-fair.html . After reading her blog, I wonder if Honour likes to play hide and seek by her own rules, simply because she doesn’t want to wait to be found any more. She spent almost 4 years waiting. So, now she relishes the joy of as many “findings” as she can…as often as she can. And so do we.

-Rob