A Great Weekend!

We're back home after spending Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis, meeting one of Lin's best friends from Shanghai, and her new Mama and Baba. The girls have not seen each other since April. Indianapolis is roughly the half-way point for each family, and we spent two nights at a hotel with an indoor water park. It sure looked to us like the reunion was fun for the girls!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

A few minutes after meeting each other again

Goofy girls!

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant

To say the girls were wound-up would be a supreme understatement!!

So all-in-all, a fantastic weekend. We had HUGE success with Lin and swimming! Knowing we were going to a water park, I took Lin to buy a swimsuit on Friday afternoon. It was... not fun. But we survived the ordeal. How did I manage it? I offered to get myself a new suit as well, which had us playing role-reversal. She helped look for a suit in my size and she came into the dressing room as I tried it on. I think seeing me, with all my normal human flaws, still willing and able to walk around in a bathing suit helped with some of her fears. She is just modest to the extreme, and quite self-conscious about her body.

But... we got the suit.

And after much reassuring and comforting, we got her into the water. And then we could barely get her out! She LOVED it!! At one point I was telling her how proud I was of her and she looked at me like I'd left my brain back at home, and said, "What? Me no scared water!" Well duh!

Seeing her friend again did bring up some emotions for Lin, which I thought might happen. Since the last time they saw each other, both of these girls' entire worlds have changed. They are not orphans anymore. They are daughters now. So it had Lin questioning why. Why did we adopt her? Why did we want her? Why is she a big sister? Why did her first mom and dad give her up? Hard questions to answer, regardless of time and place. Dave and I were caught off-guard. It's a good lesson for us, that these hard questions can come out of seemingly nowhere, and we have to be ready.

Oh, I just realized that it's bedtime for Lin... First day of school tomorrow!!! We're all excited and nervous and excited and worried and excited and ... Well, you get the point. Her outfit has been picked out, washed and ironed. Her bag is packed, pencils sharpened. And she has a piece of paper with helpful phrases written in both Chinese and English, things like her home room number and locker number, and phrases like "I'm sick. Call my mom." I think we're ready!

Last but not least, I will leave you with a picture of Ruby, who also had a great time playing in the water this weekend:

Mmmm White Castle... lunch of champions...