My Magnolia (D9)

There is a house on the route I walked from my home to my elementary school that had a beautiful tree in the front lawn. I remember deciding very early that I wanted a tree like it in my yard when I had a house. We built this house when we were pregnant with Jack, with every intention of staying in it forever. We've been here for 6 years now, and have done very little landscaping - there's always something more urgent to spend money on. One thing we did the second year we were here, though, was find my tree. I remembered what it looked like, but had no idea what kind of tree it was. Through research with green house staff and google, I came to learn it was a Magnolia.




If my memory is right (and nothing says it is) we bought our Magnolia the third summer we were here and after much debate planted it where I could see it outside the kitchen window. We followed the directions to plant precisely and waited anxiously for it to bloom. Since we planted it a bit late in the spring, we were warned it may not bloom that year at all - and it didn't.




The Magnolia was healthy enough through the summer, and lost it's sparce leaves in the winter as expected, but never grew back that spring. It was dead. Magnolia trees are expensive, and we bought it from a good green house that provided a garantee on their trees. We dug it up and returned to the store, but the staff advised that it was too late in the season to successfully plant a new one, and advised us to hold onto our voucher for a new tree until the next spring - apparently their garantee was limited to one killed tree so we had to be even more careful with the next.



The next spring, we showed up, voucher in hand to receive a new tree, only to find out their stock of Magnolias had been exposed to unexpected frost that year and the few they had remaining were not looking too healthy. The green house staff recommended we wait to see how they faired before claiming responsibility for one and using up our one shot replacement on a sick tree. We waited a few weeks, returning each Sunday to see if they were improving. I think the tree guy was sick of us checking in, and assured us one was healthy enough to go to get us to leave him alone. We took it home and planted it, being even more careful about the directions. That tree lasted through the summer, and sprouted leaves last spring, but never bloomed, much to my disappointment. I was worried about it's health, but it seemed to be growing and the leaves looked healthy so I figured the failure to bloom was typical.



This year, my tree bloomed beautifully. I've tried to show a progression of the flowers here, but the pictures do not do the tree justice. It's small, straggly, fragile and sparce, but the flowers are huge and beautiful.

The point? I find a thought-provoking parallel between my beloved tree and our journey to Anna. Starting with a wish or a dream from when I was little, actively pursued when the time became right. Magnolias are from China. We've faced unexpected delays and disappointements - times when all seemed to be lost, a change in direction and new hope. It's perfectly fitting that the blossoms appeared this spring, this month even, growing as we learned about and fell in love with Anna ChunWen. A reassurance that our path is true and beautiful, in spite of the struggle to get here.

N