Xie Xie Ni!

谢谢! A big THANK YOU to all the folks who helped sponsor Lin’s “Art for the Heart” project. She has reached and greatly exceeded her fundraising goal. This is a great opportunity to help enrich the lives of orphaned children in China. Speaking of which, Lin has just sent out a care package to her friends in Shanghai. It is filled with letters, jewelry, candy, an MP3 player loaded up with her favorite music, magazines, etc. She spent a lot of time putting it together and had a giant smile when we sent it off. We also e-mailed the Shanghai Children’s Home to keep an eye out for the package and they said they'll send us some pictures when the girls get their gifts. They thanked us for everything we've done for Lin and said she was the best among all of the adopted big girls and to stay in touch. It is so nice that Lin has kept in contact with her friends and hopefully someday they'll see one another again.

And here are a few other highlights of our Summer...

Ruby beating the Summer heat!

Celebrating during the last night of church camp

Dave also worked his magic and scored some tickets to a sold-out Taylor Swift concert. Even though Lin's iPod is full of Asian popstars, she actually loves listening to Taylor Swift.



Waiting for the show to begin with her cousin Megan

 

Taylor Swift rocking the house!



All smiles after the show

And last weekend, after months of lessons and practicing, Lin swam across the pool on her own. WOO-HOO! She is learning how to swim! We still need to work on treading water and swimming up from the bottom after she jumps in. But, at least she's not afraid to take the plunge. Although, the first time she jumped in, she must've been hoping Dave would catch her like he does Ruby. OUCH!

Hot Hot Hot

I do not like this heat! Of the four seasons we enjoy here in Michigan, summer is my least favorite. Yes, I'd take dreary February snow over this nasty heat!

So I'm going to pause for a minute and daydream about winter in Michigan... Wind and snow are howling around the house... I'm wearing a thick sweater, jeans, and two pairs of socks... I have a good book in my hands and an afghan on my lap... Fire in the fireplace... Hamburger soup in the crockpot and herb bread in the oven...

Okay, I'd better stop before I start weeping for the cold weather!

Anyways, we are plowing through our summer. Not too much to report right now. The girls have vacation bible school this week and so far it's been ... boring. For Lin, anyway. Ruby's in the preschool class and except for the fact that she's younger than her best friends at church and therefore in a different class, she's having a great time. But Lin is in the middle school group and is, once again, finding it hard to talk to any of the other kids her own age. She doesn't try talking to any of the kids and they don't know what to say to her ... It's frustrating for me to watch. And I don't know what to do to help her. I try suggesting ways she could start a conversation with someone, or ways she could get involved with a group, but she always looks at me like I'm crazy. On the way home last night I did have a moment of clarity and realized that it won't be this way forever. She's a funny, bright girl. She will be able to make friends someday. It just takes a lot longer than I realized it would.

Art from the Heart

What a crazy busy Summer this has been... Lin actually said tonight that she was too tired to study her English workbooks, but she did it anyways. Dedication. Why is she so gosh-dang tired you ask? Well, this week she has been going to an all-day art camp at the Institute of Arts. She has been working with different artists in different mediums and is having a great time. We've been packing the girl's Summer up with countless activities. In addition to resident camp, art camp, bible camp, air zoo, amusement parks, movies, swimming lessons and BBQ's, we'll soon be taking the girls to Nashville to visit friends from their orphanages and travel groups, as well as ushering them off with their grandparents for a few days on Mackinaw Island. These girls are going to be pooped by the time school starts back up... then it's off to DisneyWorld for a week. Whew!

Speaking of art... Lin will also be creating a piece for Half The Sky's Art from the Heart fundraiser. Half The Sky is a wonderful organization offering support, training and supplies to numerous orphanages across China. They had a program at the Shanghai Children's Home and have provided us with progress reports and photos of Lin when she was younger. Truly priceless. Please check out the link for the Art from the Heart fundraiser and consider sponsoring Lin's efforts to help give orphans a chance at a brighter future. Even a few dollars can help!

Our Summer So Far...

Gee, girls... whatcha been doin' this summer?

We kicked off summer vacation by going to an amusement park where Lin rode her first roller coaster. And Ruby rode absolutely every ride she was tall enough for, including her very first roller coaster, too! She made the height restriction by about a half inch, and loved every minute of it!

Look closely -- can you find those crazy sisters?





The whole family on the Tilt-A-Whirl -- three of these people were still smiling when the ride ended. (I'm not a fan of spinny-rides, although I didn't throw-up like I did that one time ... Ewwww ...)



Happy Father's Day to the greatest Dad and Husband on the planet!

Biking on one of the many great bike trails in our town.

Lin finally got up the nerve to pet her grandparents' dog for the very first time! This was a huge moment for her, and us. She's still not a fan of animals, so this was a pretty big deal.

Lin heads off to summer camp!



I'm told this is the aftermath of a marshmallow-paint war -- Lin's cabin won!

The only picture we have of Lin actually on a horse, and you can't even see the horse! Oh well. She got to go horseback riding twice at camp. She said it was scary, but she absolutely couldn't wait to show us the horses when we picked her up.

What's more fun than catching fireflies in a jar on a summer evening at twilight?

Hope your summer is going well!



Word of the Day

The dictionary defines "surly" as:

irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner

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(And for good measure, the dictionary defines "churlish" as:

a lack of civility or graciousness; difficult to work with or deal with)

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I define "surly" as:

 my 13-year-old daughter

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It's days like yesterday that force me to remember that sometimes, you can't make it better. Sometimes you just hold your breath and wait for it to be blessed bedtime.

I also have to remind myself that she's being exactly what a 13-year-old girl is supposed to be -- downright surly sometimes. She's good at it.

And here's a special message to my mother: I apologize for all the times I was a surly teenager.

Can My 4-Year-Old Read?!?

Here's just a quick anecdote, since my last post was all about reading, reading, reading...

Last night I asked Lin to read a book to me. It was an "easy reader" book from the library, a kids' book, and Ruby was sitting with us. Lin was doing great, she understood the words and was doing fine with comprehension. She came to a word that stumped her and said "What's this word?" To which Ruby promptly answered "Cupcake." And she was right! Lin and I both looked at her and said "Did you read that? Can you read this book?" And Ruby smiled, picked up the book and "read" it, nearly word-for-word! Obviously, I know it was just by memory of hearing it before, buy holy cow! It was freaky!

But it solidified for me that by reading to Lin, she will become a better reader. I always tell Lin, reading makes you smart. But she responds by saying that if I'm doing the reading, that's not making her smart. Oh, you're wrong, girlie. And yes, I will keep reading to you.

Just a little while after that I picked up "Charlotte's Web" to start reading to the girls. I already read the first two chapters to them on Saturday night, and when I picked it up last night I said, "Do you remember what happened in the first two chapters?" and Lin was able to answer me, after I prompted her just a bit. So she is comprehending books when I read to her.

(Now if I could just convince her to let me read the "Harry Potter" series to her... but so far, no luck...)

Last Day of School ... Finally!

Well yesterday was finally the last day of school for Lin. It seems like our school district is the very last one to let the kids out for summer, but the day finally came.

Here's Lin on her last day of school ... What a goofball:

And here she is back on her first day of school:

Hmmm, that's odd... She was a goofball back then, too...

Her final report card for the year is all A's!!! She's such a hard worker. We're so proud of her. But I did tell her that even though regular school is done for summer, she's still going to have school at home, only this time, I'm her teacher (insert evil laugh here). I really want to work on her reading and comprehension over the summer. Her ESL teacher was great and Lin really liked her, but Dave and I both felt like a lot of the work was over Lin's head. Her homework often consisted of worksheets on identifying adverbs and pronouns, present and past participles. But Lin's reading comprehension is at nearly a Zero. Doesn't she have to read first, then work on the proper grammar and stuff like that? Any teachers out there want to chime in? Cindy, I'm talking to you! :)

So anyway, here's my plan. First I will read to her. All the time. I want to read all kinds of chapter books, to both Lin and Ruby. My hope is that she will pick up on the language just by listening, like reading to a baby.

Second, I want Lin to read to me. At the library I picked up a handful of easy-reader books and I want to see how much Lin can read to me, and how much she understands. The frustrating thing for her will be that these books are very baby-ish. But she's got to start somewhere, right? And the quicker she can improve her reading at this level, the quicker we'll move on to more fun stuff geared for her age.

And third, workbooks and flashcards. I want to get workbooks starting at a kindergarten reading level and go through them from the beginning, starting with the basic building blocks of reading. And we're going to work on phonics flashcards and sight-word flashcards.

Now, of course, I'm not going to be some kind of reading ogre over the summer. It's just that I love reading so much and I want my children to share that joy. I cringe a little bit when she plops down in front of the TV or computer to veg-out. We're fine with letting her watch TV, but knowing that she is unable to sit down with a book -- either in English or Chinese -- well, it kills me. She's proven how smart she is when given a chance, and she didn't get that chance in China.

But that story will have to wait for another post...