Friday, February 26, 2010
Two reasons to celebrate
Zane’s birthday was Wednesday.
Having a birthday in the middle of the week… well… it stinks. With our commitments at church that night, there simply wasn’t sufficient time to celebrate his big day. So we had a little party tonight.
Actually there was a second reason to celebrate.
It was one year ago today that we flew out of Charlotte on our way to China to bring Zane home.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Zane is 14 today
Today is Zane’s birthday and our young man is now 14 years old.
Trying to get a photo when we’re all scrambling to get out the door in the mornings is virtually impossible. I’m barking orders like a drill sargeant to get him to move so I dare not tell him to stop.
So a photo will come later.
In honor of his 14th birthday, here are 14 things about Zane you may not have known:
1. He does not eat cheese. No surprise there, really. I’m not sure that we’ve met a Chinese person yet (except for Eliana and Karys) who does.
2. He also does not eat eggs.
3. He has read the first 6 Left Behind books. In Chinese, of course.
4. I think he has a crush on Demi Lovato who plays Sonny Munroe in Sonny with a Chance.
5. He would like to have a dog.
6. He does not like blue jeans and therefore has never worn a pair outside the house. The only time he wore a pair inside the house is when he tried them on.
7. His current word du jour is gracious.
8. He listens to Chinese songs on the computer when he plays online games.
9. He says he doesn’t like to sing but I’ll occasionally catch him singing along to those same songs.
10. He has this really annoying habit of saying “really?” when we tell him something.
11. The only sport he likes is soccer. I don’t know that he’ll ever play organized ball but he runs like a rabbit and would probably do well.
12. It seems odd to me that Zane is from China and yet he doesn’t know how to ride a bike.
13. He thinks coffee stinks.
14. For the first time, he said a prayer last Saturday before a meal at moms house. Carmi and I were taking Eliana out to dinner for her birthday so we missed it.
{extended}Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Older child adoption - part 2
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?
==========
I’ll never forget the glance Zane gave Carmi and then me as we first entered the room where he waited for us. There was a tremendous amount of processing going on in that young mind when he met momma and daddy for the first time.
Zane was well-mannered and obedient in China. I remember we were at the White Swan buffet in Guangzhou one morning and a newly-adopted younger boy was r-e-a-l-l-y acting up. Carmi had met the mother earlier and this poor lady had her hands full. Zane was quite bothered by how the boy didn’t listen and was misbehaving.
I’ve heard it said that, as a general rule, children from China aren’t very affectionate. Makes sense. How can children be expected to exhibit a behavior they haven’t likely experienced for themselves?
Zane seems to be an exception.
He looooves his momma and dotes on Carmi a lot. He’ll hug her, stroke her arm or hair and tell her that she’s pretty.
After being home less than a month, Zane was jumping on my back wanting a piggyback ride. He’s constantly putting his hand on my shoulder or slapping my back. He strokes the hair on my arm and even wants to hold my hand on occasion.
He continues to be well-mannered. The only real issue is that I have to tell him 2-3 times to do something but I believe that’s just a teenager thing.
As far as his relationship with Eliana and Karys…
In China, Eliana just about drove poor Zane crazy because she wanted to be right there where he was ALL the time! She was so excited to have a big brother. He even complained to our guide at one point. We had to come down pretty hard on Eliana and force her to give him his space.
Karys and Zane did very well together from the beginning just because she didn’t bug him.
Once we came home, Eliana continued to crowd Zane. He would get really angry… I could tell it in his face… but he exhibited good self-control. I’m sure He wanted so badly to hit her but he didn’t. Which is a good thing because that would not have been tolerated.
We continued to work with Eliana and now they get along great. Some days they will sit in the same chair playing a computer game. It helps that Eliana is a tomboy and would much rather play a game than to play with baby dolls.
Zane teases Karys unmercifully but she tells him that she loves him anyway.
He still hasn’t become comfortable with saying “I love you” but that will come.
{extended}Sagwa’s person
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Zane’s birthday pre-celebration
Zane’s birthday is Wednesday but we had a little pre-celebration before lunch at moms house today.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
What 8 looks like
Eliana turned 8 years old today.
Our “baby”. {sigh}
We love you somethin’ awful.
The best part of turning 8, in her opinion, is that she finally gets out of the booster seat.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Amazon is my hero
What you’re looking at in the photo below is my electric razor. If you look closely, you can see the cutters through a gaping hole in the foil screen.
Even a teensy-tiny hole can rip my face to shreds so imagine what THAT hole could do.
Wal-Mart used to have replacement screens for this razor. Now they don’t.
Target used to have replacement screens for this razor. Now they don’t.
I guess this razor is an antique. So I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to purchase a new electric razor. Which really chapped my you-know-what.
In a last-gasp effort, I looked online for replacement screens.
Guess what? Amazon sells them. Guess what else? They are $2.00 cheaper than I could have bought them at Wal-Mart or Target. And since we’re Amazon Prime members, shipping is free. So I came out smelling like a rose.
Oh, and did you know that Amazon sells books too?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Older child adoption - part 1
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?
==========
The simple answer is, of course, yes. It was certainly a challenge to communicate with Zane at first. He knew 3 words in English and we knew 7 in Chinese. However, you can only get so far with hello, goodbye, thank you, mother, father, sister and grandmother. But we found a way despite our bad Chinese with a southern accent.
Outside of the hotel rooms, we had an English-speaking guide with us at all times.
On those occasions when a guide was not present, we used the AM101 Electronic English Chinese Talking Translator from BBK that we purchased prior to our trip. The device translated English to Chinese and Chinese to English. It took Zane all of about 5 minutes to learn how to use it. His first words were, “I’m thirsty.” The translation either way was far from perfect. We had to really think about what we wanted to tell him and break the phrase down as simply as possible.
I would say that we also sharpened our skill at playing charades.
After we came home, Zane took the translator to school and it was very helpful to him there for the first couple of months.
{extended}Sunday, February 14, 2010
Mommy and daddy are getting married!
Way back in November of 1986, Carmi and I got hitched.
Someone in my family - and I think it was a brother-in-law - recorded portions of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I’m not even sure what KIND of video was available back then but it was video. Our wedding was also recorded the next day.
Today, my mom surprised Carmi and I at lunch with a DVD that she had someone create from the aforementioned videos.
I was looking at the back of the DVD case which contained a still shot from each of the chapters. Several of the stills showed me in my white tux which looked really small.
My nephew - wisecracker that he is - leaned over and said, “I bet you $50 you couldn’t get in that tux.”
Ha! That’s a bet I certainly wouldn’t take. Those stills were taken many years and s-e-v-e-r-a-l pounds ago.
Once we arrived home, I popped the DVD in the player so the kids could especially see my father and several grandmothers who our children never had the privilege of meeting.
When Carmi and I were standing at the altar together, Karys started jumping up and down and shrieked, “Mommy and daddy are getting married! Mommy and daddy are getting married!”
She likes a good love story.
{extended}Local Chinese New Year 2010
We had our local Chinese New Year celebration tonight and once again held the celebration in our church fellowship hall.
There were 20 families and a total of 85 present. Half of those families were not with us last year so that was cool. Lots of new friends.
Some of the children have e-a-r-l-y bedtimes and needed to leave before the event was over. But we managed to gather together those children who remained for a group shot.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Getting ready for Chinese New Year
Friday, February 12, 2010
CNY in the 2nd grade
I accompanied Carmi to Eliana’s class this morning for an emphasis on Chinese New Year (which is Sunday).
Carmi started off by reading The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine. This book is one of Eliana’s favorites and the other students laughed throughout the story.
Carmi then taught them about the Chinese zodiac and shared a legend about how the animals were chosen. The class especially enjoyed finding out what animal they each were based on their birth year.
To wrap things up, the kids made a dragon mask.
Everyone looked thrilled except for… umm… our daughter.
I think she was still worried that we might stay and eat lunch with her.
While the kids worked on their craft, I wandered around the room to offer assistance and noticed a wall of creative writing pages.
I found Eliana’s page and just had to let you read the first line.
Don’t know about you… but I did a double-take when I first saw it.
Rough start
My day got off to a rough start.
This morning as I sat at the computer, Karys ran up and crawled into my lap. She immediately started pounding on my stomach like it was a congo drum and told Carmi, “Mommy… daddy has a fat belly.”
For some reason, she and Eliana have had a fascination lately with the girth of my midsection.
Oh, but then…
I loaded Karys into the car and took her to preschool. As soon as the preschool worker opened the car door, Karys announced, “I told mommy that daddy has a fat belly.”
“He does??”, the worker asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“Well… that’s what happens when you get old.”
:smirk:
{extended}Thursday, February 11, 2010
Valentine’s Day prep
Gotta take those valentines to school tomorrow.
Able to leap tall buildings
In the early morning sunlight, Maggie Mae goes crazy trying to catch the little glint of sun on the wall that reflects off of Carmi’s mom’s watch.
