Two Weeks with Catherine

                            Wow those two weeks "went past fast". Here is a picture of the first day at our house.

                     She was super shy....and stayed that way for the whole two weeks. She ate well. 

                 Was not enthused about mashed potatoes, but I expected that. She ate pizza, did not go swimming, or ride bike, or try the hula hoop, or shoot baskets. 

Always the polite wave of the hand and "no no"

Every morning we got them up at 7:15 and had her to a local church

by 8:30 AM.  They did all sorts of  "American" "Mennonite" activities.

One day they went to Hershey Chocolate world, one day to Knobels, one day to Sight n Sound

to see the Moses performance, camp out, farm, tour a grocery store, frisbee, mini golf,

camp out, picnic and baseball.

Joe was a little insulted when the ump mistook him for an exchange student and asked slowly

Did.you.play.baseball.before?

Joe: yes at school

Oh. I.didn't. know. they . played. in China.

Joe: no, I go to school here.

One afternoon, Faith sat down and read Winnie the Pooh to Shekinah. Catherine was obviously 

tired and soon both girls were sound asleep. Faith was impressed.

She spoke decent English...better than my Chinese anyway, but

it was such an effort to carry on a conversation that part of me said

"oh what's the use, she's leaving soon" 

When she did answer a question it was with simple "yes" or "no" and she never

asked any questions at.all.

Was not quite sure if she liked our family, she did show more animation with the other students.

We did find out that most of the students met for the first time on this trip.

Shekinah pested her, Faith was grouchy cause she was the perennial middle child with not enough sleep.

Hope sort of monopolized her and Joseph started practicing his Chinese calligraphy again.

When I had prayers and Bible stories with the girls, she took her shower.

She did accept her Chinese/English Bible,but left her story book here because "it didn't fit in the suitcase"

One of the other families was brave enough to ask their student what stood out about his visit in their home.

He told them "all the love".

I wasn't brave enough to ask.

Would we do this again?   Not sure.

        During this week we put out the Adoption News using child labor.

  Parker is getting around and tearing paper amuses him.

It amuses his grandma too...for now.

I declare, every week he is doing something new!

Catherine was bemused by him, but I'm almost certain she was never around a baby.