2009... 21 years and counting...

Twenty one .... 21...

2009 marks 21 years since I first met those kids from Romania -- and 11 years at the end of January from my first trip to work in Romania.. Those experiences in Romania and that summer, 21 years ago, changed my life forever.. the cumulative results of which underscore many choices made down this amazing road in life I have followed...

I decided, for giggles, to look up 21 and see other "important" and "lucky" meanings behind 21. Perhaps you'll find them amusing:

• It is a number lucky in Vegas - who doesn't know that? :) (been there a bunch, but no, not 21 times.. not a bad goal, tho.. jeff, what are we doing for Valentine's day? LOL)
  
• The letter U is the 21st letter of the English alphabet (perhaps we need to come up with a "U" name should our child arrive in 2009?? Umberto, anyone?)
• In 'Unified String Theory', there are 21 dimensions/aspects of spacetime (??when is someone going to write about the "Unified Adoption Theory"?? there are enough dimensions of that which surely must add up to 21, and a variety of aspects of time that we'd all like to throttle into space and get rid of them! ha ha ha)
• In the title of the TV show 21 Jump Street (back to college days -- ok, now i am dating myself! it's actually scary to think that being 20, watching Johnny Depp with our couch comedianne was 21 years ago!!)
• Matthew 21: 21 Then Jesus told them, "I assure you, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, `May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,' and it will happen. (how many times has adoption been analogized to that of climbing a mountain, or dig thru it, or something? move that adoption mountain thing into the sea? you bet -- can you, ah, can you do it yesterday please?!)
  
• 21 is the smallest number of distinct squares needed to tile a square. (this little facto may come in handy when we finally re-build the house!)
  
• 21 is a 2-hyperperfect number. (huh? did somebody say something about being perfect? about who feeling they need to be perfect all the time??)
  
• The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, thereby ending Prohibition. (now THAT was a good governmental move! and very important to ensure we PAPs can get thru the adoption process!!!)

Then, I looked up 2009 on the Chinese calendar -- Come on, if you don't know I am a believer in feng shui and the energies that circle this planet, then just keep reading.

Horoscope for the 2009 year of the earth Ox

Coming 2009 year of the earth Ox is the second earth branch year and is the sixth heavenly stems year. 2009 Chi Chou year is the twenty-sixth cycle in the sixty-year cycle of the Chinese astrology's heavenly stems and earth branches cycle. The Chi Chou 2009 year symbolizes strength gathered through unity, harmony, obedience, courage and hard slog. 2009 year is a dutiful, family oriented and dependable year.
sounds good to me...
so: 2009... 21 years and counting.... let's hope both numbers are lucky in our family journey... I hope that you find it the same for you!