Chicken Pox, Snow and a special Birthday

YES! Last night Ruth commented that she had 11, no 17 mosquito bites. Of course this caught my attention immediately! I knew right away what it was....CHICKEN POX. She had the required shot as an infant, but the pediatrician said it prevents 80% of the cases, and the other 20% get a milder case. SO, we are home for a while which is OK because this morning we had.....

SNOW! You must understand that Texas snow is not like in other places. We have one flurry and they bring out the sand trucks. Our big problem is the ice under the one flurry, and usually there is a lot of this. The schools will let out early since the temp keeps falling and is well below freezing.

AND....Happy birthday to my DH Jeff!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2006

Happy thanksgiving to everyone. We stuffed ourselves like turkeys. My mother makes the best homemade everything. We did come home one day early since I had the mother of colds. Maybe I should have stuck around for some homemade turkey soup! Sara got to meet many of her cousins and two of her aunts and uncles. She adjusted well the the family all around and learned a card game that we have been playing since kids. Today she was playing it with Jeff and beating him! This child is quick. Ruth learned the game last year and beats us all the time.

SISTERS

Nothing else needs to be said.....Sara and Ruth looking so sweet...plotting how to wear their parents out.

Eatting American style..finally

This morning Sara had an all American breakfast of biscuit and scrambled egg, picante sauce, and cheese. She loved it

Late morning we went to the Dallas Arboretum...a trip that due to traffic took well over an hour. Of course by the time we arrived, poor Sara was in tears and car sick again. She quickly recovered with her first hot dog, feeding half the bun to the starving (fat) birds. They were having a tree house exhibit designed by architects. They were.....very interesting. We loved the flowers and Jeff, Sara, and Ruth all got soaked when playing the the huge frog fountain! We had a good time, but were ready to leave. The day was gorgeous and the girls wore jeans and sleeveless shirts....eat your hearts out those of you up north! I would love to see some tree houses designed by kids!

This evening we had pork chops and green beans and Sara ate this too. Of course you understand that everything is topped with her pickled cabbage stuff from the Asian Market....sort of like ketchup on everything China style.

Sara got to call her friend M who lives in FL and came from the same SWI and were adopted the same day. They just chattered on for the longest time and giggled the whole time. Sara told me some of what was said. They were comparing the number of pets, TV's, bathrooms, 1vs2 stories, and how many times they have missed a bath since home....this they thought was particularly funny!

Fortune cookies

The second day home, we went to a local Chinese Restaurant and this was in our fortune cookies

Mine: Your ability to love will help a child in need
DH: You will be rewarded for your efforts within the month
DD Ruth: You will be rewarded for being a good listener in the next week
DD Sara:You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily

I would say that this is all too true for all of us!

looking back, heading forward, school

This is part of Sara's room. She shared it with many girls.

If I understand correctly, this is the woman that cared for Sara and Sara smiles happily when she sees this picture. Notice the shirt that we sent in Sara's care package. It says "Somebody in Texas loves me" How right she is................

This afternoon I took Sara to the school to test for the ESL program. Sara was a little scared when the woman took her from me for the testing. Yes, she did qualify. The woman said that Sara knew the word dog, then nothing else so she stopped at question #6. Next we need to get a conference with the English Mandarin ESL teacher in another school and get Sara registered and transferred there. This should make morning carpool interesting, but not impossible.

My PlayList
BestAudioCodes.com

This, that and the other

I am pleased to say that the girls get along so great! We have found Sara's favorite meal-dirty rice with pork, a bowl of grapes and watermelon, and a handful of chicken wings, of course topped with her mystery stuff from the Asian market. Ruth tried the stuff and was OK with it, but she did not want any more.

I have found that Sara sleeps better when the room is not silent, so I got a small personal fan and run it at night and she sleeps like a gem! I had to wake her up this morning in time for carpool because she was snoozing right through her alarm.

Today we went to Wal-Mart to print out some of our photos. We got to #436 and it stopped. Apparently it cannot handle the 700+ photos we have on our huge chip, and it is too large for it to copy onto a disk.....probably need to buy more computer equipment to do this at home. We should have stuck with 2 smaller chips for the camera instead of one large one...another lesson learned. Still trying to settle the DVD programed for Region 3, of course now I know we are in Region 1 and our DVD players can not read region 3! Should have picked up a DVD player in China along with everything else, some of which is being shipped to us in a few month on a slow boat from China......hahaha.

We had lunch at school with Ruth. Sara is the big walking, talking show and tell in the class. Everyone is very nice to her and Sara is beginning to recognize the students. Tomorrow I will take her to the school to be tested to qualify for the ESL program and unless she has become proficient in the last 5 days, she should qualify, but who knows with this school district! We will wait and see.

And the fun begins

This is our first meeting. So glad we had the magna doodle because it was sure an ice breaker, and we could draw pictures of what we were talking about. Too bad Sara can draw better than me.

WE ARE HOME

We are home! We had so much fun that it would have been easy to stay another week...


SARA-she is shy at first, then so outgoing and funny and loving. There were tears when we first met, understandable. By the first night, it was all hugs and kisses. Her sleeping cot was next to my bed and each night she fell asleep holding my hand. She did not want much when we went shopping. Her favorite color is white and we did find two traditional Chinese outfits for her. We did not need shoes until we were in Guandghou and they mostly had baby shoes on the island we were staying on, but we did find one pair at Sherry's and she could not be happier.

While in Nanchang, we went to the six banyan temple and had all the children, and parents , get a Buddhist blessing. Sara was a willing participant in everything. She loves the coy fish. She loves HOT everything. Jeff and Sara are out at the local Asian market looking for more HOT foods while she transitions to our food. We have hard boiled eggs and rice ready. She loves her congee---over cooked watery rice--should be easy for me to cook.


We have over 700 photos and will work on getting these going.

Oh yes, the tour part of the trip was fantastic. We has a wonderful guide, Cindy, who was a local and could rattle off so many facts. The Great wall is great and was VERY difficult to climb.

Sister Ruth is having fun with Sara, who is teaching her chinese version of hackey sack. When Ruth got up for school this morning, she checked on her sister and told me that she was OK. Sara did sleep in her bed upstairs by herself and was fine. When I checked on her at about 11:00, she was up because she was hot, then slept fine.

Much more later. We need to do some laundry, etc.