If you aren't familiar with some interesting Chinese adoption myths, you're about to get a very brief and funny education on this and how it pertains to ladybugs. I don't know about you, but over the last two weeks we have had a crazy overtaking of these little red beetles practically all over one section of our house, and when I say "overtaking" I mean not only all over part of our house on the outside, but on the inside too! I'm not sure if you can really tell anything in this photo, but if you look closely, you'll see lots of little dots on our ceiling.
(a.k.a. ladybugs)
Now don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have these little critters all over the place than the stinkbugs that were also trying to become our first official house guests this month, but either way, I'm just not a bug or critter girl, so was trying to figure out every way possible to rid one section in our living room of these annoying little red beetles. In fact, I was a little excited to hear that a hurricane was coming our way this week as I thought at least the good that could come from it would be that it would blow all of the ladybugs and stinkbugs away from our house or freeze them with the drop in temperatures.
Well, the last few days have consisted of picking ladybugs off of our walls, doors,
ceilings, etc. My wonderful husband pulled out the vacuum on several occasions and sucked them up as well, but I am convinced they just kept multiplying no matter what we did.
YET-- that's when I started smiling when I thought a little more about these little lady bugs invading our house. Growing up as a child, my grandma always used to call the girls in our family "ladybug" so I find it fitting that ladybugs do have a connection with Chinese adoption. If you are not familiar with things connected to Chinese adoption, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If you are around families adopting from China much, at some point you'll probably hear a reference to lady bugs, so let me unwind where this comes from and how it relates to the adoption process in China and what is now known as:
"The Ladybug Myth"
You may not know that ladybugs have a special meaning to families in the Chinese adoption community. The Chinese adoption myth states that ladybugs are a sign of "good luck" and it has been said that if you see a ladybug, your referral from China will be arriving soon. (meaning- you will get a call about your child match) I have had more than my fair share of families tell me when I called them with their referral that they had just seen a ladybug or had one land on them. Now, let me pause here to say that I don't believe in luck or superstition, but rather I believe in the providence of God and His will in our lives. However, I do think as far as bugs are concerned, ladybugs aren't all that bad and they do represent a fun symbol to many as ladybugs aren't just considered good luck in China, but in many other cultures as well. The truth is, there are many superstitions and myths that are prevalent in Chinese culture and we certainly learned that while in China. (quite honestly, we could post on this topic for days actually- as there are some very interesting ones, but we'll save that for another post)
While there have been many things said about ladybugs and their connection with Chinese myths/superstitions, here are few funny facts or myths (I'll let you decide which) that I'll highlight for you:
Ladybug Thought #1:
In their native lands of China and Japan, the original places a ladybug overwintered were on rock outcroppings in the mountains. If your home is light colored and on the side of a mountain, or similar setup, it probably looks just like a big rock outcropping to a ladybug, and this might explain why one October day, the side of your house is covered in ladybugs!!
[So T-H-A-T explains why they came in droves to our house, as it is light brown so apparently just looks like a big old rock to these bugs. I knew we should have chosen another exterior color for our house. (just kidding- we didn't really have a choice)]
Ladybug Info #2:
The Chinese consider it good luck to have ladybugs in the house.
[If this is the case, then we must be getting ready to have some major good luck around here because we had tons of the little critters. OR...we must be getting triplets from China with all of ladybugs inside our house. (let's not hope for the latter)]
Ladybug Info #3:
Some people believe that if a ladybug enters your home, you should count its spots as it will tell you the amount of money you will be receiving soon.
[If this is the case, why in the world did we suck them up in our vacuum? Apparently, we just sucked up a lot of money that could have been coming our way. (haha!) Truth is, I just lost half of my readers because now you are all running around to find ladybugs so you can become debt free.]
Ladybug Info #4:
If a ladybug lands on single woman's hand, it means she is going to get married soon.
[now I have lost all of my single women readers out there as you scramble to find the nearest ladybug to try to make it fly and land on your hand]
Ladybug Info #5:
If a ladybug lands on a married woman's hand, the number of spots it has is the number of children she will have.
[Goodness I hope not-- or Nate and I are in some serious trouble!]
Well, the truth of the matter is that I'm not going to look at a herd of ladybugs (ok so maybe they don't come in herds, but it was he best mental picture I could give) invading my home as being a sign that our referral is coming soon or that we are going to have good luck. I also think it's pretty safe to say that knowing Nate and I, our child's nursery will not be decorated in ladybugs either to symbolize a "good luck" sign from China (no offense to anyone who has a ladybug nursery out there as there is nothing wrong with that at all). Instead, I will just sit back and enjoy these "fun myths" about ladybugs for today and know that it is a distant reminder that sometime in the near future we will have a little ladybug of our own who will one day fly from China to our home here in the U.S., and that will be one little ladybug that we will gladly welcome.
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