I'm sitting here in the quiet hours of the morning, looking at a closed door to a room in which now holds not one, but two precious daughters and my mind jumps back to just a little over three weeks ago to the beginning moments of our family of three growing to a family of four. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I did my best to post our journey while in China, but there were two quick memories that didn't easily fit into a photo for a post that are just too funny not to share. (Plus, I don't want to forget those funny moments of our time in China!)
Of All the Things We Didn't Think Of . . .
There are so many things to consider when adopting an older child. We tried to be as absolutely prepared as possible, however our daughter especially surprised us with one scenario in which we were completely taken by surprise. We had thoughtfully considered language barrier, however this particular scenario never crossed our minds until it happened. What a hoot! We were sitting down eating a meal and the server came to check on us. We all nodded and smiled to show our contentment, while Ella-Mae, being her normal friendly self, chatted away in Mandarin to our server. Our translator wasn't able to keep up with what she was saying, but she chatted away to everyone, all the time, so we didn't think twice about it until, a few minutes later new food and drink arrived. You can imagine our surprise when after questioning (through language barrier!) why the extra food, it was explained to us that our sweet, new daughter had taken it upon herself to order additional menu items while talking with the server! Our chatty & apparently VERY hungry teenager had nearly double our bill! Thankfully in China, we were easily able to feed our family of four, to completely full and then some for around $11, so our surprise orders from our daughter still only brought our bill to around $20 which would still be impressive in the states to be able to feed a family of 4 out to eat (non-fast food) for that amount, but still! Of all the things we didn't think of . . . this was definitely one of funniest!
Pandas & Tones . . .
For those who don't already know, the mandarin language, is made of sounds for words along with four basic tones--The change of a tone completely changes the word. I play multiple instruments so I really should get tones, right? Ha!--Apparently not! Having taught english to high school and middle schoolers for a few years now, I am extremely familiar with tone influctions to change a declarative sentence to an interrogative or when beginning a sentence with an interjection, etc. But mandarin tones and I--Oh my that is another story!!! (Understatement!!!) I shared photos of the day our family went to see the pandas, but I haven't yet told one of the funniest parts of that memory. We were all very excited to see the pandas. They are so cute and fuzzy! We had only just gotten Ella-Mae the day before, so I really wanted to be able to talk with her and wanted to share about our plans for the next day. I'd played and replayed "panda" through our translator until I finally got it! (or so I thought!) So we were driving home from signing our official papers to make her ours when I decided to give my practice a try. Thank goodness I picked that day b/c since it was a paperwork day we were together with our guide! I begin talking with Ella-Mae about going to see the pandas, using my newly learned mandarin word for "panda." I thought she would be all excited and instead she looked at me like I was nuts. I was beginning to be worried that she would not enjoy our trip at all, when I realized our guide was beside herself in laughter. After her laughter subsided, she informed me that while I'd used the correct sounds, I was using the wrong tone. The reason Ella-Mae was not sharing my excitement was b/c, despite my enthusiasm, I'd just repeatedly asked our daughter if she was excited to come with us to look at . . . not pandas, like I'd thought, but rather had told her were we going to to see "the hairy chest"!! Oh my!!!--My poor girl! No wonder she looked absolutely confused! I tried a few more times and it turns out that using yet another improper tone says a very not-so-nice word in mandarin!--Of course I only found that out after saying it!!! To say the least, I recognize the word when someone else says "panda", but I don't see myself trying it again, any time soon!
Well, there are plenty more to share, but that's all for now. . .
