Or on us, for that matter. The girls cleared their tests this morning. Poor Amanda walked to the clinic like she was going to death-row…I tried to explain in my limited Chinese that the man would only look at her arm and then we would walk away, but it wasn’t until we were cleared and I was jumping for joy (literally, mind you. Just ask my bio kids—I have been known to embarrass them on numerous occasions!) that she lightened her countenance.
Hope started the day actually offering me one of her biscuits from the 7-11 (our breakfast haunt) when I asked what was inside. I REALLY hoped that it was the sign of something good…but then she caught herself and went into the angry mode. We have explained that if she is being mean to us, she gets no tv. Boy-oh-boy did she put up a fight when we got back to the hotel room! BUT, we are bigger, and have longer arms, and will NOT be swayed by a teen’s temper-tantrum (once again, ask our bios!) so she pouted lying on the floor next to her bed all afternoon.
This evening is the same. Unfortunately Amanda also feels the brunt of Hope’s consequences, which she immediately pouts about. She doesn’t understand, but her response is not ideal, so hopefully she will glean something from this struggle for control.
This afternoon we wandered into a shop that had “stuff” for sale. I was intrigued by the pendants that said “mother-daughter” and “sister” and purchased a bunch for the kids. Amanda wants hers right away, Hope doesn’t want hers at all, but I am keeping them for when we get home. Through broken conversation between Chinese and English, I found out that the shop owner is a Christian, has been for 4 years, and showed me her bible and her favorite verses. It ends up that the White Swan has church on Sundays at 11 in both English and Chinese. That will be the main point of our day tomorrow! We got her card and told her that we would pray for her. Her whole family is Buddhist, which she prays for every day. I probably ended up paying too much for the pendants, but I didn’t want to enrage a fellow believer.
I have received so many messages of encouragement and suggestions of how to weather these storms. We don’t have WiFi right now; I type at night and we send when we go to Starbucks in the morning, so I don’t have the time to respond to all of them. Thank you everyone for standing by me/us during this time. I feel like you are holding my arms up when I don’t have the strength to keep them high. Thank you .
All my best,
Amy
