Yang Starts School

I will post a picture later but we wanted to let everyone to know that Yang starts kindergarten tomorrow.  She is really excited to start.  She went Friday to visit her class.  She ate lunch with them and went to music.  She has had an English explosion this week so the little girl that was scared to come to America because of her fear of being able to speak English is well on her way. First day of school pictures tomorrow.

Chinese New Year 2010 - Year of the Tiger

Saturday was our FCC Chinese New Year celebration. We started the party by doing some art work and making dumplings. The dinner was take out and homemade Chinese food. The highlight was the dragon dance where the kids got to set off fireworks (stomping bubble wrap).

Xin Nian Kua Le! Happy Chinese New Year

Today is both Valentines and Chinese New Year. We leaned more toward Valentines today and will celebrate Chinese New Year next Saturday with our Families With Chinese Children chapter. I'll post pictures next week. Yang had a great week. She is trying to speak English more and more and she is more comfortable with her new family. We have found that God brought he to our family to add laughter to our home. She loves to laugh and has an infectious giggle.

Yang had a number of firsts this week. She had some alone time with her mama this week as Kristy went back to school. She started naming colors in English. She finally took some medicine for a sinus infection and found it was not as bad as she thought. Chinese medicine tastes terrible so she was hesitant to try ours. The antibiotic knocked out the infection quickly so she is not coughing at night anymore. Yang went to her future school to visit. She went to her first birthday party (classmate of Kristy's) and tried pizza. She did not finish the whole slice. She did finish the entire piece of birthday cake. She also experienced her first snow in the U.S. She was not really impressed.  Most importantly she had her first Sunday School today. Judy stayed in the classroom with her and said that even though she didn't understand because of the language but participated and was proud to show her Dad her work. We think she is going to fit right in when she goes to school in a couple of weeks.

I Am Daddy

Yang Yang started playing and laughing hard for the first time since she has been home. She also started calling her older sisters by name. Kourtney was locked in her room and the younger two sisters were knocking on the door and Yang thought of a way to try to get in. She said in a deep voice "wo shi baba." This translates to I am daddy!

Home One Week

We have been home for a week and it has been a very difficult transition. Yang Yang has been grieving her losses all week and we certainly understand. Our case worker helped by explaining to her that they were her foster family and we are her forever family. There were other calls to our friend Lucia in Florence to help her through her feelings. She has her attached herself to baba (Daddy in Chinese) big time. I cannot make a move without her following me. If I am at the computer she has to be in my lap. Monday night she slept with us with one arm around me at all times. The issue was that she did not want me to go to work again. When she realized that I was going to work she began to negotiate a time for me to be home. She started at 4 pm. She is slowly pulling out of it and at this writing is laughing and talking and playing. Today we went to Ringling Brothers Circus. What were we thinking when we bought those tickets. It takes 2 weeks to get over jet lag from China and we are half way through it. We all were a little groggy during the performance but had fun. The night before Yang Yang was desperately trying to tell us something. We finally had to call our friend in Florence to translate for us. She was trying to ask us what time she needed to get up to make it to the circus. Yang Yang was more alert at the end and was watching intently. Next week Kristy goes back to pre-school so it will be Judy and Yang Yang alone for part of the day. Attached are some circus pictures and a video of Kelly's circus debut.