Up, Up, and Away!

 

Here Marlee takes off at her school picnic.  All the kids seemed to really enjoy this ride. 

Playtime

   

Over the past two days we’ve watched as Bridget has started to relax and play!  It’s great to see her smiling and laughing.  Marlee has been waiting patiently for her sister to become a playmate, and it looks like she’s getting her wish.  Needless to say, we’re all very happy.

Fitting in

We had dinner with the Peckenpaugh family last night.  Two of their daughters are Bridget’s age.  They allowed the three teenagers to make dinner for the rest of us, and they did a great job!  More importantly, Bridget seemed to have a great time with the girls.  Here’s a picture of Brianna, Hope, and Bridget with their finished meal.  We look forward to seeing all of them again.

Labor Day Windfall

 

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

We stopped at the furniture store today and Marlee got her face painted like a butterfly and a balloon shaped like a butterfly.  Bridget and Marlee had a bunch of popcorn and goodies as well.  You never know what you’re going to get.

A Beautiful Day

We had our best day yet today.  Bridget and Marlee really had fun at the Evansville Zoo this morning.  Bridget practiced English often, repeating animal names and participating with eyes wide open.  Marlee participated in a little play that the zoo staff put on.  It was cute.
Bridget got a lot of great photos with her camera.  It was such a beautiful day.

 

Getting to Know You

 

Not only are we getting to know Bridget but she is getting acquainted with herself as Bridget.  We went to the open house at her school last night and her teacher said that she is doing very well.  She says that she really likes school.

She took these pictures of herself with the camera we got her for her birthday. 

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More New Friends

This weekend started off with a dinner party. We had Shuang, Betty, and Sela over for dinner on Friday night. Shuang is a student at the University of Evansville. She has agreed to come over once a week or so to help ease Bridget's transition to life in the USA and to help her in communicating with us. We had a nice dinner and Bridget even cooked the vegatables. Bridget grieves for many things. Friends, Foods, Language, School and culture are all very different from a month ago. Sometimes she handles it well, while other times she pulls back and doesn't want to do much of anything. We are really glad that Shuang has agreed to help her a bit. Betty and Sela's support was really nice to have as well (Plus, Betty brought Brownies and Betty knows chocholate very well).

Getting acquainted.

Here, Lorna wonders what it is she will be eating while Bridget prepares some unidentifyable vegatables.

I think Bridget likes what she is hearing.

Bridget and Shuang talk about life in Mandarin Chinese while Marlee observes and wishes she knew what they were saying.