I heard Eliana laughing her head off a little bit ago so I had to check out what was so funny.

Know what it was?

She was watching an episode from my 3-season DVD set of Gillgan’s Island!

She also had a raucous time watching Tom & Jerry over the weekend.

Ahhh, those old shows… they still have it.

Today was my birthday.

I wasn’t going to toot my own horn by making the announcement this morning. So… umm… don’t bother looking at previous years’ entries on March 14th, k?

Tonight we went out for dinner with the usual after-church dinner group.

I finished my meal and was s-t-u-f-f-e-d. And just as I leaned back in the chair to give my *cough* forty *cough* seven *cough* year *cough* old *cough* belly some breathing room, our young waiter placed a celebratory caramel confection on the table right in front of me.

I managed a couple of nibbles but there was no way I could eat the dessert delight right then. And there was certainly no way I was going to leave it there for them to throw away.

So I asked for a take-out box.

Young waiter brought out the box below.

I think young waiter was bucking for a bigger tip.

Young waiter got it.

OK. So a really cool God-thing happened today.

I’ve been buying Eliana the Magic Tree House series of books to read. I’ll usually pick one up at Target on Friday mornings when I go for my weekly Starbucks fix after dropping all the kids off at school.

She finished book #12 a few weeks back and I went to Target for book #13. But that particular book was not in stock.

I went back the following Friday. No #13. I went the next Friday and still no #13.

I knew we could buy the book from Amazon but Carmi said she could pick one up at Barnes & Noble so I held off.

Carmi really messed with me a few days ago when she bought Eliana book #16. Ughhh! Gotta go in order!

This morning we went with mom to a yard sale out in the middle of nowhere.

There was a small box full of miscellaneous books sitting on the ground. Being the reader that she is, Carmi gravitated towards the box and began to rummage.

She pulled out a book.

I looked at the book and noticed immediately that it was a Magic Tree House book.

Then I looked closer.

Not only was it a Magic Tree House book but it was #13! And it was the only Magic Tree House book in the box! And it was only $1!

“No way!”, I said out loud. And then I thought, “Yeah, God!”

God does care about the little details.

Mom and Eliana were in mom’s backyard when I went by to pick Eliana up after school.

As I walked through the gate into the side yard, I noticed this suspicious pile.

Looks like one of the neighborhood cats had a good lunch.

I get a wild hair every now and then and let a quasi-beard grow. It’s never a full, bushy beard (because that would take 2 years) but rather a closely-cropped beard that resembles a permanent 5 o’clock shadow.

The problem with such a short beard is that the hair is very prickly and sticks my girls when I snoot on ‘em. And since Eliana began to complain, I knew the end was in sight.

I put it off as long as I could but she finally wore me down and I shaved last night after everyone was in bed.

This morning, I woke Eliana up, carried her on my back to the recliner and situated her in my living room chair as I always do. But before covering her with a blanket and while her eyes were still closed, I took her hand and stroked the sides of my now-smooth face and chin.

Suddenly her face lit up and she smiled really big.

And then she dozed off again.

Someone recently emailed Carmi and I with several questions about older child adoption.

Carmi answered the email but I thought it would be a good idea to post a question a day here and share our answers with you.

If you have any questions of your own, please let us know.

1. Was it hard to communicate with Zane?
2.  How did he adjust to you? Siblings?
3.  How did he adjust to school in America?  How did you know what grade to put him in? How is he doing now in school?
4.  How was he able to make friends and feel comfortable at school when he could not speak the language?  How is he doing now that he can speak the language?
5.  How did you try to teach him English? How is he doing now?
6.  Did he go to school in China?  If so, did the school teach him about Buddha and did your child have a strong connection to Buddhism?
7.  Was he in an orphanage or a foster family?  If in a foster family, did he have a difficult time adjusting to your family?  How is he doing today?
8.  Can you share something that you wish that you would have known before you adopted an older child that you can’t get from a book but only through experience?

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We have a Chinese friend who talked to Zane and discovered that he was not in middle school in China so we started him in the 6th grade. Since he came at the end of the year, we had him retained in the 6th grade for this year too. Zane was very small when he first came to the US so he did not look out of place with that age group. One of Zanes friends from the SWI came to the US about 5-6 months before Zane and they started him in the 6th grade as well.

Zane adjusted very well and quickly to school in the US thanks to his ESL teacher who we can’t say enough good things about. When we first put Zane in school, just 4 days after coming home, he was placed with an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher who went above and beyond for her students and treated them as if they were her own children.

Since he started school at the end of the year, he basically received a crash course in English. He was with the ESL teacher, at her request, for 3 full days out of a 5-day school week. She made sure that Zane was paired with a boy in his class who was exemplary in attitude and discipline. She went to lunch with him to make sure he knew the procedures and what he was being served. She had a great relationship with Zanes teachers and they all worked together to make sure that his homework and tests were modified so Zane didn’t feel overwhelmed. And from everything we heard, his classmates loved him.

Zane continues to do well in school, according to his teachers, in this his first full year.

His best subject is math but that comes as no surprise since math is universal.

One of the main concerns shared by his teachers is that he tends to race to be the first done with work in class and makes careless mistakes as a result since he does not always take time to check his work. They say, though, that this is just a “boy” thing and that most of the boys in their classes do this to some extent.

This morning, I observed one of those rare yet glorious moments when Eliana and Karys were sitting together and actually talking to each other.

No squabbling. No bossing. No whining. Just honest-to-goodness conversation.

Don’t know how they got started on the topic but I overheard Eliana explaining to Karys that a person needs Jesus in their heart to go to heaven. That was the happy part.

Then Eliana told Karys that Zane is not going to heaven (right now) because he doesn’t have Jesus in his heart. OK… that was the sad part.

But then Eliana capped off their theological dialogue a few minutes later with a zinger.

She told Karys that there are probably no potties in heaven.

Way to connect with a 5-year-old, big sis!