Musicals and Menus and Six Month Review

Last weekend we enjoyed a bounty of high school musicals.  Sapphire and I went to see "Annie" Saturday night.  She was thrilled to see her big church friends in the pit. The dog and the threat of bad guys were other highlights that occasionally stopped the squirming.  "Annie" is a fairly complicated plot for a three year old, I now realize.

On Sunday Pearl, Sapphire, and I drove up to see "Joseph" at the high school where my brother teaches.  The girls have these lyrics memorized, so hearing other voices and seeing a stage production was mesmerizing for Pearl, at least.  Sapphire loved the flashing lights and disco ball.  Pharaoh, her favorite character, did not live up to her image of him from the 1999 film version, so she was disappointed.  My kids always like the bad guys/autocrats.

During intermission we toured Uncle Matthew's very tidy classroom, and afterwards we went to a Thai restaurant.

We've all be studying South America as our current continent. I say all of us, because even Jasper can't walk away from the documentaries showcasing the Amazon or anacondas. The girls have been walking around in a dazzling red poncho he brought home from Bolivia in 2003.

On Friday we used this focus to try a Colombian restaurant in Lancaster named El Maizal (the Cornfield).  Of course Ruby ate everything. She's very into international cuisine.  The other two tasted a bit. Pearl liked the white rice and Sapphire finally found her favorite when the flan course came out.  Unbeknownst to me, I ordered a very think slice of breaded fried pork which tasted just perfect with a squeeze of lime.  It was just a tiny simple restaurant, but I enjoyed the experience.  Maybe someday the other girls will too. 

imitating her big sister's pose

A social worker from our adoption agency visited us Monday to complete our six month post adoption review. This is the second of six (I think?) that China requires of parents. It is a costly visit because of all the paperwork that has to be filled out and sent to China, but Jinny makes it very pleasant. Pearl took her on a tour of the house after Jasper and I answered the form questions and chatted a bit.


The tour includes the basement (formerly "the lair") and the attic.  Poor girl had to see my basement and attic in one day! I try to keep them tidy, but rotating three girls' clothing sizes, shoes, and toys does not make for a super orderly attic, at least not in this house.  It was another milestone in this year of firsts.

Jaspher overlooking Machu Picchu, Peru, 2003

Lancaster County

A photo Pearl took on our nature walk last week.

Last Wednesday we had our first post-adoption visit from the social worker. China likes an update from the agencies that place children at one, six, and twelve months, then two, four, and six years.  We will pay for the social worker to visit our home and report on Ruby's welfare each of those times. Right now they wanted to know about her immunization, her progress with attachment, and how we were doing overall.  It was a pleasant visit. We had never met this social worker before. Each stage of the process moves us to a new social worker at our agency.

Family Day this week was postponed a day due to Pearl's illness.  She is a bit dramatic about pains and sickness, enough that I know we have to steer her far away from the hypochondriac path. By Tuesday she was better, though she repeatedly reminded me she had been sick and had to take it easy. So despite the morning showers we headed to Lancaster County for a family day.

We started at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Factory. The guide gave us a simple explanation of how the hard pretzel was discovered in the 1800s, and we got to twist some flour-and-water dough. The girls were most impressed with the giant pretzel on their sidewalk. Then we browsed the Wilbur bud museum and shop to complete our tour of Lititz.

After lunch we headed to Bird-in-Hand for an Amish buggy ride. This was a very touristy thing to do, but we thought it would be fun. An Israeli couple joined our buggy, and we took a three mile trip, stopping by an Amish farm to see the milking set up and corn harvest in progress. 

It was very similar to farms I'm used to, except they have extra lines running to a generator house. Also, after the cows are milked through vacuum pumps, the milk is manually poured from metal milk cans by each cow into a can with a vacuum tube that takes it to the 1,000 gallon tank. Their cows stay chained in the milking parlor all day, also.

While we trotted out to the main road and Ruby watched out the back window, a couple of women from Maryland with big fancy cameras parked their car to take photos of our buggy and the one coming in the other direction. We laughed to think they were out to catch the authentic Amish experience, and here they were photographing a little Chinese American girl and her family, plus two Israeli in a tourist buggy!

We had two sleepers on the way home, which was a blessing.

I'll just comment here on the reception our multi-ethnic family has gotten out and about. Usually people don't say anything to me. My husband mentioned that more people ask him about Ruby, but maybe they sense I'm not as chatty. We hadn't been very public about being in the adoption process, so our story time ladies were surprised and curious, but very supportive.  Yesterday a woman said: "Is she adopted? She's so cute!" Our Amish driver today asked where she was from, which is another common question. But usually strangers we see while on our daily errands don't say anything. That's pretty much how I like it. I think a new neighbor gave us a double-take this evening on our walk. Our pre-adoption training warned us about rude comments and overly-inquisitive strangers. Let's hope I gain some more tact before they come my way!

Daddy-style fun