Chinese Church

We took Lin to a Chinese Christian church this morning. This is something we always intended to do, but after last weekend when she told us she was lonely we decided to take her today. What a wonderful welcome we had! The service was in Mandarin and each time the congregation got ready to sing a hymn we had several people around us pointing out which page number so that we wouldn't be lost.

Also very funny, after the sermon the man who was leading the service (the regular pastor is on a mission trip in China right now) looked around and said very pointedly, in English, "If there are any newcomers here today, please stand and introduce yourself. Anyone here for the first time? Do we have any visitors today?"

Okay, okay, we get the hint.

So we stood and introduced ourselves and Lin and told everyone she's from Shanghai and home about a month. After the service was over we were practically swarmed! So many people shaking our hands and speaking to Lin -- it was overwhelming for everyone. Lin was introduced to a 13-year-old girl named Lucie, and everyone stood back and watched these two girls stare at each other, all assuming that they would become instant best friends.

Uh, do you remember what it was like to be 12 years old and introduced to someone new? Self-consciousness takes over pretty quickly and no one knows what to say after a shy "hello." But, Lucie did give Lin her phone number and Lin seemed like she just might possibly be interested in calling her. We'll see. As far as youth activities, things seemed pretty quiet there due to it being summertime, but we look forward to getting Lin more involved this Fall, if she's interested. It's hard to tell for sure what she thought, but she was sure in a good mood after we left! Hopefully that's a good indicator.

We then spent the afternoon at Grandma's pool for Dave's sister's birthday. I keep forgetting to bring along our camera to get a picture of Ruby in the pool! She has graduated to wearing "swimmies" on her arms and can get around the pool all by herself! She is so proud!

Lin still has less-than-zero interest in swimming. She will put her feet in but nothing else. She still does not own a bathing suit, but told me today that she'd be willing to look. Then she indicated what kind of bathing suit would be acceptable. Let's just say, she's going to need to time-travel back to the early 1900s to find the full-body-coverage suit she's looking for! Anyone got a time machine I can borrow?

One more quick anecdote from the day about our near-teenaged daughter. We were watching Looney Tunes DVDs downstairs, after we got back home early this evening. Lin seemed to be really responding to the cartoons and laughing. I was so thrilled! I immediately put on my mental shopping list, more Looney Tunes DVDs! So after we turned it off I looked at Lin and asked if she liked it. Well, if she had wrinkled her nose anymore she would have gotten a black eye! She told me "No! Bu hao! (no good)" then indicated it was for little kids.

Hmph.