Getting Elizabeth... and Rachel

We made a decision!

We're applying to the Christian school for kindergarten! After much prayer and visits to the school, conversations with other parents there,  conversations with the principal, more prayer, and an amazing amount of paperwork-  we are applying....

On Friday Hua Hua goes in for some sort of developmental testing before her regular preschool class. On Saturday she goes in again for a sample kindergarten class before chinese school, and then we wait. If the elder board decides to help us with tuition costs and we're accepted, we'll enroll her and my life starting in fall will involve A LOT of time in the car but hopefully the school will be everything we hope it will be, making it all more than worth it.

And if we don't get the scholarship help, well, mark this down as a learning process and we're back at the public school having to decide between five full days or five half days. Thanks for everyone who has encouraged us on this. Now the waiting begins!

Gasping for air

We are a month into crunch time, and boy, am i feeling it. By crunch time I mean the time of year when Dan is working 24/7 -- or so it feels, between choir, musicals, summer music camp planning, end of year stuff, private students, etc. He works at home on the weekends and he works often until the kids are in bed during the week. It is exhausting for him, and having him gone and working so much, is exhausting for me. We're one month into this ... we have nearly two months more to go.

Add to this that I am fighting a cold that has just sapped my energy. Add to that poor sleeping -- hua hua has been waking between 3-5 pretty regularly for the past week with bad dreams. Add to that extra end of the year stuff we have (dance recital costume-rehearsal-practice issues, speech contests, kindergarten preparation-- visiting schools, filling out forms, making decisions...) add to that mounds of yard work that needs to be tended to now and can't wait until late June, add to that all the normal cooking three meals a day, raising the kids, house stuff and, well, I'm feeling exhausted and defeated.

I think one of the hardest things about being a stay-at-home moms is one of the greatest blessings -- you're home with your kids. That means the work is never done. And of course, on the flip, the blessings are countless. I'm trying to keep my mind focused on the later.

Soccer girl

Hua Hua is playing soccer! She's on the munchkin team -- about 40 or 50 kids who all practice together on Tuesday and then team up to play a half dozen games or so on thursdays. Man, does she love it!

On Monday we picked out her shoes, socks, shin guards and ball -- all pink, of course. When we brought them home that day, i had the hardest time getting her to take them off. the coach of her league is great - he manages to keep the attention of 40-50 boys and girls, all ages 4 to 6, and teach them things as well, which is amazing. It is a no-stress league where the teams switch each week and where he tries to match kids with their skill level. Hua Hua played her first game tonight and she did pretty well. She and a big boy on the opposite team seemed to be going against each other with the ball most of the night - she even shot two goals -- but unfortuately she shot them in a neighboring goal net, verses the one she was supposed to shoot it in, so it didnt count! the first picture is of her at practice Tuesday, the second is of the game - with her and the big boy going at it.

Grandma and Grandpa came along and shot some video. If you'd like to see her in action, click here:

First crush

Hua Hua has her first crush. His name is Max. I'm not quite sure what to make of this.

Max is in her preschool one day each week. But Hua Hua talks about him every day. She tries to figure out what type of things boys play, in hopes of being able to play them with Max. She draws pictures of her and Max. She asked me how to spell Max, and when I told her, she started writing Hua Hua (then she drew a heart) Max, and other times she writes Max (draws a heart) Hua Hua. She wears special pretty clothes to school on Wednesdays, the day max is there. And lately she has started wanting to wear her hair in braids- a look she thinks he likes. She wants Max to come over and play.

Max has brown hair. Bangs. Green eyes. he's tall, for a 5 year old, and seems a little shy. He's often standing around her or following her, looking sweet but a little uncomfortable. I have no idea who his mother is. It is always the father or grandparents who pick him up. And this whole thing has caught me by surprise.

I never had a crush so young. It is certainly innoncent enough, and when preschool ends in four or 5 weeks, i doubt we'll see Max again. But my, my ... why does this stuff have to start so young??

Speech contest

I wasn't sure how she'd do. I tried my best to prepare her. But secretly, I was worried. Very worried.

Today was the speech contest for Hua Hua's chinese school. She was assigned a poem to recite and read. It was 8 lines. It was a tricky one, unlike some of the sing-song ones that she already knew from her videos, and she was having some trouble getting it down. So we practiced. And practiced. And practiced. She memorized it, but would often need help with the first word of the 6th and the 7th line. Without it she would get stuck. And whenever we rehearsed, she was uncharacteristically shy. Didn't want me to look at her when she "performed." yet alone i caught her often reciting it, and I could tell she was excited. Then finally today came - the big day.

My sweet little girl was the third child to go. She followed a 7 and 8 year old - the oldest kids in her class who performed their poems perfectly. Then it was her turn. She went to the stage, faced about 200-250 people, and, unlike the bigger kids, she would not let go of her teacher's hand. Holding on to her teacher for dear life, a look of total fear filled her face, she said her poem in record speed, and yes, she did stumble over the two lines that always tripped her up but she kept going and going.

When finished she said thank you in chinese. She bowed before the judges and audience, and practically ran off the stage, still glued to her teacher. It took all that was in me to not run to her, sweep her up in my arms and smother her with hugs and kisses.

At the end of the day she did not win the trophies for her class. (three trophies went out, two to the kids who proceeded her.) But she, like everyone else in her group, got a medal. It's big, bright, and very special. She beamed. She and rachel and i went out to mcdonald's to celebrate after. Lots of other families from her school showed up there, too. Hua Hua told everyone she met about her medal, and kept it on thru her meal and playing and the car ride home.

I hope she remembers the feeling she has now with her medal, and forgets the fear of standing before the big crowd. Just remembering all this morning, has got me all choked up. Sure love my little trooper.

Kindergarten ... but where?

I am so confused about kindergarten. Remember how i was last year with preschool? this year it feels like deja vue ... unfortunately. After prayer and visits to various schools, Dan and I thought we were all set with sending Hua Hua to our local public school for kindergarten in the fall and THEN...

- Our church announced that special scholarships were going to be available to help church families enroll their kids at the church's school.

- and our local public school decided to change their entire format, handle the change and announcement extremely poorly, and cause us to wonder if this is where we want Hua Hua to be.

So, today I got to see both schools back to back. First stop was our local public school. Hua Hua joined about 25 other kids for a kindergarten-like program where the kindergarten teachers met the kids, got to see a bit of their skill level for placement and introduce them to the building while the parents listened to a very slanted presentation about why all these changes are good.

AND THEN the girls and i high-tailed it to our church's christian school, where friendly people met us at the door, fussed over the girls, and took us on a tour of the school that completely dazzled me - much to my surprize, i might add, and left me so excited, I was ready to sign Hua Hua up right then and there.

So what to do?

trying to keep up

The picture on the far left is of Rachel and her cousin Jacob. The two are a month apart. Aren't they the cutest? They saw each other on our trip ... that feels like a few months ago... (is it really true we've only been home for two weeks???)

And the picture in the middle is of Rachel being pushed by Rachel - our friend's daughter. Both of our Rachel's were born in Xiushan, Chongqing. And the last picture is of Hua  Hua with her friend Audrey - both born in qianjiang, Chongqing. It was so much fun to see the girls together....

I'm afraid I've been missing in blog land because life is so busy! some highlights... unpacking from florida, raking leaves (i've raked 30 bags and we easily have that many bags still out there in the giant yard), handling most stuff around the house & with the kids (dan is in crunch time at work and home very little now thru the end of june), watching Tai - my parent's dog, enrolling hua hua in soccer (starts next week!) and the biggie ... dealing with kindergarten.

Our school district held a meeting over the weekend and decided to switch to full day every day kindergarten - not what we want or what we registered for. So, we are trying to figure out what to do.  It looks like the district may keep things the same for some families at some schools - we are waiting to see. it's all very confusing now and has been the buzz in our house, and our neighborhood, and for me personally, the subject of much prayer.

a few vacation pics

During our trip we spent two days visiting Clearwater beach - one of our favorite spots by Dan's parents. In the old pre-kid days, Dan and i spent our time swimming in the ocean, and when we were exhausted from that, collapsing in the sand with a good book. This time, with two young girls to watch, we took the divide and conquer approach. Dan spent his time with Hua Hua, whose favorite activity was to search for beautiful seashells and put them in her pail to take home. And I took Rachel, whose favorite activity was to run as fast as she could in one direction, stop, jump around in the sand, do a little song and dance number, maybe pick up some wet slippery sand with her bare hand and put it in a pail, then run as fast as possible in the other direction and repeat.

Once or twice rachel tried to "help" hua hua collect seashells. by helping she struck her shovel to a big sandy mound of cracked seashell pieces and dumped them into hua hua's pail of special, meticulously cleaned and near perfect shells - to her sister's dismay. Rachel would say something like, "help hua Hua," while hua hua would be near hysterical from the help. ahh, sisterhood. gotta love it.

will post more pics and stories as soon ....