There's No Place Like Home...

We were greeted by posters, balloons, flowers, and a newly-cleaned house!  It feels so good to be home!  Thank you so much Cathy, Jim, Billy, Peggy, and Amanda!  And a special thank you to Charlie--our most amazing poster artist!

Jia's new room awaits....

Jia sees her room for the first time.  The picture is blurry, but you get the idea...  She twirled around taking it all in, reminding me of Maria at the beginning of The Sound of Music.

Welcome home, Jia Suzanne Haynie!

All dressed and ready to register for school.  Jia said, "Thank you, thank you, MaMa!"  The welcome home card from her best friend Lily (Bi Hong) is on the door behind her--she carried it with her for two days until we found just the right spot.

She would happily swing all day!

She's home! And look--there's a present for her from Ai Yi Peggy!

Amanda waits for Jia's arrival.

Her new room awaits the arrival of its new resident.  Jia's big brother, Misha, kindly gave up his room and moved to a smaller room downstairs. 

Jia asked me to take this picture of her snuggling with her favorite "goh" (dog).

Jia's favorite photo subject.

Jia's best friend, Sophie.  If there is a more patient and gentle animal on Earth, I have yet to meet him or her.  Jia has so much to learn about being kind, gentle, and compassionate, and Sophie is a wonderful teacher.

Jia had obviously never been on a swing before--she could do this all day!  I wish we still had a swingset in our yard!

Fun at the playground

All ready for the first day of school on Friday, January 13th.  She got up before 5, tried on three different outfits, and packed and re-packed her backpack at least that many times.  She is VERY happy and excited--as are her new classmates.

Shopping at Harris Teeter.

Visiting the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Pretending to drive a bus!

Ready to put on her life jacket and steer the ship!

Jia has been making "gifts" for us on the computer--typing messages in Mandarin, cutting and pasting into Google Translate, and then typing (letter by letter) the translations for us into English using MS Word.  Here is her first "gift"--there have been many since.  :o)

Captain Jia.

Play-Doh:  "Jia eat?"  It seems that most everything (Play-Doh included) is new (and fun) to Jia.  Ah, but how to keep someone safe when, at the age of 10, she has no experience with, for example:  stoves (she turned on the gas to cook a box of rice--in the box), strangers and/or cars (while drawing with chalk on the driveway with me, she jumped in the backseat of a car that stopped to look at a house for sale across the street), opening car doors at stoplights, going to the bathroom while walking the dogs (hey, the dogs go in the grass, right?!), and on and on and on.  Again, there is so much to teach and to learn.  She is bright and extraordinarily capable.  In an hour, she could completely reconfigure my computer--yet she has no experience with cars, strangers, water, phones, stores, or most anything else that we take for granted.  Fortunately, we have been there at every second to try to explain and teach (albeit with hand gestures and Google Translate).  Having said that, I don't know when I have met anyone so eager to love and to learn.  Jia is a lovable, precious, BUSY, adorable, and challenging young girl, to be sure, and we love her more than words can say.  I watch her constantly--I have to--yet I do so with love and amazement.  She is never afraid, she is always cheerful, and she is always willing to try (except, perhaps, with foods that differ from her traditional fare).  All of this must be so hard in so many ways--yet she is so accepting and so happy.  She inspires me to do better and try harder--she also wears me out!!!!!