Indiana has Change My Life

Indiana has changed my life tremendously. The life I live has been incredible, of how I have changed when I came here. I have been learning the right religion that I was supposed to follow and trying to figure out who am I. Living in the U.S. has been just incredible. I am very blessed to live in such place where I wasn’t planning to live and that I know that God has brought me to the America to follow him. This changed me to be a better person that I need to be and to love others no matter, as Jesus told us to love your neighbors as he loves us all. I know this is what we need to follow and do.
I didn’t learn anything from my home town. I wish that they know God and love him and accept him. I know that now it not their religion to follow God. But I wish that they knew that they are loved by God and not Buddha.
America and China are very different. I lived in China 11 years and I lived in America 5 years. And I really love America most and then China next. But at the same time I always think about china and how they do different things there and how very different their cultures are. But I always want to go back and change the world there and show the real Lord and get to know Him.

Religion

When I was young I remember I believed in Buddhism. I pray as a Buddhist since when I was really little. I didn’t know any better back then. I really didn’t understand why we were praying for Buddhism. In the orphanage we didn’t talk about anything about what we need to follow. We just did it. I didn’t think much of anything of what is good or bad. I just did what everyone was doing.
When I came to America my parents taught me how to pray and say amen. I didn’t know why we said amen when we were done praying. So again I was still so confused about that. I didn’t think of anything I didn’t know what was going on. So I just did what my parents were doing and just went with it. Now I know what I am supposed to believe and who I need to pray to. I have my parents to help me to figure it out and finally I got it. For a long time I did not understand what they were talking about and everything but now I understand.
I think Christianity is very powerful. To tell everyone what you believe in is a strong thing to do. For me I am very strong with Christianity. I love my Lord very much. It’s very important for me to follow what I believe and to seek who I am. I try very hard to be a Christin girl. I know that I am not perfect, I do messes up with everything. But I know that I can call for God for help. And He gives me a second chance.
 My parents think the same way. Both of my parents were Christian since they were young. They believe the bible is the word of God. Believe that Jesus die for our sin and will come back for us. Christianity is a way of life not just you do on Sunday. My parents have devoted themselves to orphans ministry to help the orphans to have parents or to know Jesus.

Cross From Country

The day I cross the country. It was a scary journey for me to see the new culture. I didn’t know what was going on or what was happening next. It was hard to catch up with everything was going on around me. When I saw America for the first time, it was weird how people have different hair and have different eyes color. To me I thought everyone have one colors. I thought all American has a big noise, because for me in china I have a small noise. I like America is how they can have every other country be in the America. It has a lot of freedom, compare of china.  The other thing I like America is that school is different. Because school here the teacher help the student to get better knowledge and good support. And here we have free religion. The bad part I don’t like America is my parents won’t let me eat Chinese food every day. And it hard to look back the things in china that you did and it just got forgotten. But for the most part I really like America and how they change my life. 

Compare and Contrast foods Caulture

In china restaurant they have a round table and they put the foods in the middle of the table. Everyone serve from the table and they try to eat mannerly. They have to use a chalk stick and a bowl to eat. In china everyone love rice and all kinds of vegetables. They eat breakfast, lunches, dinner, and late snack. They try to eat less as they could in every meals. I love a lot of Chinese foods. Everything that they have are all good.

In America in my home we always pray while we eat the foods. We never use a chalk sticks. We only use spoon and fork. But I am ok with that. My favorite food is Noodles and Fired rice. I am notfan hamburgers food. I think they are disgusting. I always ask my parents could we go to Chinese restaurant, my parents always told me that “you are in America, and so I need to eat America foods. But I still don’t listen to them. I know that I will get use to how American eat but I still love Chinese foods.    

Compare and Contrast My Home

The home I used to live is not a home. It is an orphanage. I live there since I was very little. I can remember all the smell and the air I breathe. It remind me the old china. The orphanage it has a lot of kids and teens that live there. The orphanage was not that wealthy, but it was better than the other orphanages. We have a lot of party and fun. Every Saturday the people came to the orphanage and hang out with us. We go a lot of different places and to have many memorize that we could to keep. That the best part I love. Some part I like the orphanage and some part I really hate orphanage. The best part of being in orphanage was that you have a lot of people to hangout and baby to play with. The bad part being in the orphanage was that there is a lot of older kids will hit you, and even when you don’t do anything wrong. The other thing is you don’t have anybody to care for you, if you got sick or got hit. They just never care. I never like that ever. In school I never did well in anything that in school. I really never like school. I always try to get out of school and the teacher never seems to like you or care for you. And I always have trouble to make friends and nobody really like me, because they knew that I don’t have any parents and I was not very talkative with them. They always making fun of me and everything. And that why I never like school in china.

When I came to America, I was so happy. It really seem so different that I have American parents and I knew that I will going to speak there language. It really didn’t take me to long to learn their language, because I have a lot of special help from school. But sometime I get a lot of frustration from it. But I never gave up from learning the language. I really like in America, because there is people care about you, differently my parents. I always love my parents no matter what. I really like the school here, the people is nice and really easy to be friends with. I would never ask for more.

Wednesday . . .

Wednesday… where has the time gone? We waited a year and now life seems so normal with Emma here. She was once a dream and then a hope and now a reality. Our day is full of two Chinese girls. How odd the twists & turns that God puts in our path through the years! I never would have guessed what my life would hold.

Today we were free until 2:40. That was when went to the US Consulate for our final paperwork and the swearing in ceremony. All types of families were formed today. The most were first time parents and there were a number of us who were adopting our second or third child. Just a few were adopting for the first time but had other children. There was one set of twins adopted today. Another family was adopting two special needs kids at the same time although the kids were not related. Most adopted kids were babies as you would expect. I could not help but tear up as I saw all the children get forever families. How wonderful their little lives will be with a mom and dad of their own.

Emma has given me hugs all day. She hugs me as I walk holding her hand. She comes and lays with me. Today she sat in my lap and put her arms around my neck and I sang “Rock a bye Baby” to her about a dozen times. She just giggled. Has she been held since she was a baby?

This morning Alison did homework and Emma watched movies. Tonight we ate at Pizza Hut. The pizza was really good. Alison and Emma had chicken wings and fries. We all enjoyed our dinner. The weather was quite nice this evening. There was a nice breeze and the humidity was down. I hope that lasts through tomorrow and Friday.

One WACAP family left today. Another leaves tomorrow and the rest of us are out on Friday. The couple that was on our flight coming over is going back on the same flight. They live in North Carolina. We are exchanging email addresses to keep in touch. That is the fun part of adoption in that you become part of a club almost.

We will sure be glad to be home. I can’t wait to see Emma’s reaction to home. She will be glad that Nikki is not home. She told us she does not like dogs. We told her that Nikki licks a LOT. Emma says she wants to sleep in the bottom bunk. We will see. She will probably sleep everywhere like Alison did.

So no earth shattering news. We are on the home stretch and boy are we ready to be home. We are ready for school and work and structured, normal days.

Homework & TV

Today was a free day. We slept in until 9AM & then went down to breakfast. We ran into Sarah on our way back to our room. The girls had a fit because she had glasses on. They both thought it was awful for her to wear glasses. I just thought it was interesting to see the reaction from each of them. I knew Alison would have a fit because she says she hates glasses but then Emma did too.

We ride the escalator up to the third floor everyday as we come back to our room. I don't think Emma had ever rode an escalator before and we have used a number of them in our various shopping trips & the hotel in/out. She spotted it the first day & wants to take it up everyday. The up/down are side by side. Two days ago the hotel switched which one went up. She looked so confused with the stairs going the wrong way. She tried to walk up the down escalator. She didn't get too far.

We did homework most of the morning. With Alison being sick for a few days & a couple of longer travel days plus jet lag (mostly mine) she is behind in getting everything done. The rest of the week and the flight home will be homework focused.

We ate at McDonalds for lunch. The boiled chicken was not good when I got it the first time. The hamburgers are good but different so I went with the fried chicken sandwich. Well, that was good but very spicy. Emma ordered a cheese burger but didn't like it so Lynn went back and got her the same sandwich as mine. I told her it was hot so she took the chicken out of the bun & ate the bun w/ lettace & mayo all by itself ... every bite. Then she ate the chicken. Too funny.

We walked down the street window shopping. Alison wanted to go into an office supply store to get pencils. The whole store was about twice the size of our walk in closet. They had some cute pencils & pens. Emma bought a pen that when you push the open/close the nose or the top of the head has a peg that comes out like you are sticking out your tongue or blowing your top. Ok, stupid but that is what kids like. Our shopping was cut short because Alison had to go to the bathroom. Emma & I walked at leisure while Lynn & Alison hurried to the McDonalds. When we got there, we went to the courtyard beside the McDonalds entrance. The restroom was actually in a small shopping mall beside the McDonalds. Emma & I cooled off from our walk by sitting on a fountain stone wall. The fountain was not running & was almost dry. We sat there for a long time & then a guard came by telling us “no sit”. He also made another person get off of the wall. Ok, I know we all looked like vagrants and I am sure he thought we were setting up squatters rights for a nights rest! I finally decided to go look for Lynn since they had been ahead of us and we had waiting for some time. It seems Alison was stuck in the bathroom without paper. When I went in, I was greeting with “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WHAT TOOK SO LONG?” I just can’t win.

We decided to go to the Trust Mart (more like the old (and I mean old) 5 & Dime and not a K-Mart knock off. Anyway, we went looking for movies. We bought a number of Chinese movies when we were here last time. Some still work & some don’t. We only brought one back with us. They are so cheap. Anyway, we got more of the girl / fairy / magic / preteen stories. We bought a box set. Alison understands them & it promotes the language skills. We also bought Ice Age 3 in Chinese. Emma wanted a Disney learn English book / CD. I also picked up a math CD set in Chinese. I thought it was a workbook but seems to be all DVDs. We picked up a couple of story books w/ CDs in Chinese / pinyin pronunciation. We got in line behind a lady with one cart. Then as they started working on that cart she backed up & pulled another cart in behind her. She was buying in bulk (maybe this is a very small Sam’s Club). Then as we finished our check out, I noticed the person in front of us taking her cart to a station & sacking her groceries. Now I know, we are in Aldies (I don’t know how to spell it since I don’t shop there)! Well, do we have a bag? Of course not. Can you buy a bag? … of course, but not at check out. So, we took Alison’s hooded jacket & wrapped our purchases up in that.

It is overcast and late afternoon. There is a breeze most of the time but we are walking and the humidity is about 90% & low 80’s. I am drenched each time I go out for a stroll. As we were coming back in, Alison says “you are hot”. Lynn says “of course she is hot”. Alison says “not hot like that Dad”. Then the whole discussion of not hot, HOT! She told Lynn the Jonas brothers were hot so when he sees a cute guy he asks her if he is hot. The same goes for a really cute girl. Don't get her started... Mom and Dad are NOT HOT!

When we got back to the hotel, I took a nap to cool off. Emma & Alison have watched about 4 of the pre-teen shows. Alison is eating her way through a bag of sunflower seeds. Emma ate left over chicken from lunch. I gave her cookies. Lynn & I ate a candy bar and that is our dinner. Oh, there were Pringles for Emma & Lynn… I ate a few but they were the original tasting Pringles & not the new & improved Pringles we have at home.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all about our dinner last night. I wanted to go back to the same restaurant that I had to leave early from because of Alison not feeling well (that was Sunday night). It is a large restaurant around the corner and up a million stairs (ok, maybe just two flights). Sunday night we had a curried chicken w/ potato that was GREAT. We also had broccoli w/ garlic & oil that was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I wanted both. They have a huge book of menu items with pictures! They have another two sided picture menu. Could I find either of these items on the menu…. NO! Did our waiter speak any English? NO. Maybe I did tell you all about this. I guess you can tell, it still bothers me. So I ordered a kind of chicken w/ something and what did we get? Shrimp w/ shells in the curry sauce. Chinese don’t eat with their fingers. They slurp, scoop, lick and have noodles hanging while they eat them but they don’t eat with their fingers. So how do you peel a shrimp? It was really good but impossible to eat and we had three napkins between us. I tried to appeal to a waiter that we had the wrong food but he insisted we had what was ordered for us. Oh well, we ate. Alison didn’t eat a bite. Emma ate the broccoli and the rice. That curried chicken / potato was so good. I guess I will have to see if I can find a recipe. Ok, I will stop complaining about our lack of restaurant ordering skills. And the shrimp was as good as the chicken but I had sauce up to my elbows!

I continue to get hugs today from Emma. She woke me up from my nap by coming in and lying in bed beside me... just for a snuggle and then she was off again. She has giggled and laughed out loud w/ the movies. I love to hear her laugh. I remember Alison laughing as she watched movies when we first got her. The girls feed off of each other and are such company for each other. Today at the store, Emma was blowing on Alison’s hair and Alison jerked around and yelled at her in Chinese. Emma just laughed & shrugged her shoulders at me. Like what is she upset about? Oh the days ahead.