I normally post "Love Thursday" blogs on the Older Parent page, since I write that, too. Today, however, something strange is going on and that site won't let me in. Boo hoo, and drat! That being the case, this week's Love Thursday is going International, which is fine and dandy because it is ... international, I mean ...

Chamroeun Jada & Vathana

This is not a photo of great love. In fact, Cj's face shows that it's barely even a shot of reasonable tolerance.

My daughter is ... shall we say? .... "underjazzed" about being in the company of an adorable little girl who's even more of a baby than she is. Having Mom and Dad both a bit ga-ga and goo-goo and yummy-yummy over tinier fingers and toes, and doing that neck-snuggle thing that works so well for the under-six-months crowd, rather sets her nerves on edge.

Vathana, the baby, however, apparently finds Cj fairly fascinating ... much more so than the adults in the mix who keep bugging her by sticking their noses in her neck. Does she realize that Cj is a version of her near future? That eighteen months from now she'll be somewhere near her stages of growth and development? That climbing and toddling will come naturally to her then?

Who knows.

Cj and Vathana have shared roots, and that's what counts for all of us ... our family and hers. These girls have similar beginnings in the same neighborhood and spent their first months sleeping in the same building in the same orphanage in Cambodia. Although they came home seventeen months apart and most likely have no biological connection, there are ties; ties that are recognized, valued and will be honored and strengthened as the years go on.

Like an extra branch on the family tree, Vathana and the other AOA kids now living in Seychelles are much the same as cousins to Sam and Cj, their parents like aunties and uncles.

Each holds a thread for the others that ties to their story, so even though today's picture may not be one of abject adoration, it's a perfect Love Thursday shot, nonetheless.