Ornamental Ramblings

For all of the 16 years that we have been married, except for the second year, I have cross stitched an ornament for that year to go on the tree. One of my favorites was this one:

I guess you can tell a little about what was on my mind or how I was feeling that Christmas from each ornament. Well, this year, I find myself getting excited again about the adoption as I see our LID get closer to review. They have now finished September 2006 and we are November 2006. I occasionally try to reign it in a little but I can't help myself. Just to know that we have been approved will be a major step for me. So our ornament this year reflects that a little. I tried to copy some Chinese characters. This is what they were supposed to look like:

And here's the ornament:

I finally just backstitched them because unfortunately a needle and thread cannot begin to imitate the artistic brush strokes that make up their letters and words.