Merry Christmas !!!

We wish you a merry Christmas! We are eager to get home and celebrate with our family. In less than 24 hours we will be in the air and on our way back. That is exciting and daunting at the same time. There are more challenges ahead of us than behind us ... and that is saying something!

We are very happy with Mayana's progress, and very pleased with our trip. Still. we are just entering into some times of 'boudary testing' -- asking Mayana to help, and watching her stubborness manifest. Before now, it lasted just a few minutes. Right now she's sitting near a blanket that we asked her to fold, stubbornly refusing to comply. Going on 5 minutes .. . No., wait. She's doing it now. Phew!

Schooling will be quite interesting. We begin with an 8 year old who doesn't know any of her A B C's, can't understand English, for the most part, and doesn't seem overly inclined to work on basic math. (I was thinking she'd at least recognize the alphabet! The little, tiny 6 year old in our group knows hers! But maybe it's better to start from scratch with no bad habits to break.)

On the bright side, Mayana is quite interested in learning English now ... at least when she and I have one on one time with our picture books.

Last night was quite interesting. Christmas Eve on Shamian Island is crowded, bustling, and festive. We wanted to attend the church service, but it was packed with at least 100 people waiting outside to get in! I was happy to see so many people wanting to participate.

Today we will have Christmas together with our new friends, and I think this will be a nice way to end our trip. We sure look forward to getting back and seeing everyone!

Merry Christmas to All !!!!!!!!