Sorry everyone for the long delay....glad to say the holidays are finally over. Well since my last blog a lot has gone on. We celebrated our first New Years together (Sha was thrilled to stay up till midnight....me not so much:). Had our very first and BIG snow storm (Sha's never seen this much snow), discovered a great new Chinese restaurant where Sha was a big hit, in fact we may get invited to Chinese New Year with their staff. The owner was so unbelievably nice and sat and chatted with Sha for a long time. He even explained to her that he came to the US when he was 11 and at first didn't like it but about 4 months after he had been here and started school he fell in love with it. She smiled after that conversation.
Our big excitement was Monday, Sha started 3rd grade. Her teacher, Ms. Schofield is awesome and the SW, Mrs. Losier Oman is fantastic. A few weeks back Sha and I visited her class so she can meet the other kids. Ms. S had all the children take their school picture and write a letter to Sha to help her get familiar with the faces before she started. I thought that was just a great idea and believed it may have helped in this transition. As I write this, it is now Thursday and she has finished her 4th day. She seems to really like it and keeps telling Paul and me that her homework is "easy". She says, "In China, this is very very difficult". She also told us that she went to school from 7:30 to 4:30 every day in China and had no summer break....need I say more:) Yesterday Ms. S called me to tell me they had a breakthrough day. The first was instead of Sha saying her typical "toilet" when she has to go to the bathroom she said, "Ms. Schofield, bathroom please." She also raised her hand when Ms. Schofield was asking the class about right angles. When Ms. S called upon her she went up to the board and drew a right angle in front of the entire class. She has become very close with our dear friends Christine and Aaron's two children, Caroline and Quinn. Quinn goes to her school also and has quickly taking on almost a "big brother" role where he watches out for her in the cafe and out on the playground, it's very sweet. To see this relationship form between these kids is just so amazing. It's an added bonus getting to hang out with Christine now:) She was my saving grace yesterday as I went to take Sha to school and realized I had a flat-ugh. Luckily she lives two streets away and was at our rescue in no time. Awesome to have great friends who happen to be your neighbor:)
Things between Sha and myself have improved big time this week. Sunday night, the night before she started school, she wrote in her translator that she was nervous about going. She wrote this while in her new tent we got her (in hopes she would transition from our bed to this tent in our room..not helping though:). After she told us about her butterflies I took her into bed with us and that night, for some reason she hugged me the entire night. She usually just lays with Paul and will hug him. It was the "mothering" I've been wanting to provide to her since day one. The only words said were "Do you want to sleep with us tonight?" and that changed our bond to the better. Ever since she has been all about me and last night when she was in the tub she said for the first time "I love you too". It was awesome!!!
Well that's a brief summary. Obviously there is a lot more going on but overall it's all GREAT. Enjoy some pics.
