One Quarter Down...

We had first quarter parent-teacher conferences tonight for Grace, Emma and Joshua...eight conferences within about two hours, with about a ten minute break.  It was quite an experience.  First, we have amazing friends who brought their own four kids to watch four of our kids (Emma came with us to lead her conference).  I even left Sarah, which was the right decision with all the running around we had to do.  Emma and I met Andy there...actually arriving at the same time (on time :)) Part of the major changes is that we now have a middle schooler who has seven different teachers...so we needed to decide which teachers to meet with, and then did they have an opening that would work with us. So after looking at Grace's teachers' openings and compared them to Emma and Josh's teacher's openings, we came up with two hours of fun.

I'm not sure I have been more proud of my children.  Forgive me for bragging...as we told their teachers, it's all the Lord...but each of their teachers could not believe how well-adjusted they had become in such a short period of time.  Now they are not straight A students, but that is never the first question we ask.  We always start with their character...how are they in the classroom? Each of their teachers, before we even asked, were delighted with how they have fit in, how respectful they are, and how hard they have worked.  I almost got emotional, just thinking about how much they have been through in the last six weeks.  For them to come to a new country on the other side of the world, two and a half weeks late to school, without their mom, and already become adjusted, can only be explained by God's amazing grace.  My children love school...and they have been placed with some amazing teachers.  Now, they work very hard, but we are learning that they cannot compare themselves to their classmates...we are only asking that they try their best.  This is not always easy. Our children have two pretty competitive parents, and they go to school with some children who eat, sleep and breathe academics, but letting go of perfection and being more concerned about their best is what we are focusing on.

The other amazing thing tonight was to see their progress with Chinese.  They take Mandarin every day.  It blows me away that they are reading and writing Chinese...something Andy and I cannot even help them with since we are clueless-which is why we haven't really seen their work.  In fact, as I have reference before, we haven't helped them in this area at all.  We send Josh to Emma. We send Emma to Grace.  And Grace has found a friend who has taken four years of Chinese.  It's very humbling, in a good way, to see your six year old's work and have NO IDEA what it means.  Really, it was quite funny.

So we will continue to take each day as it comes, and learn as we go.  We feel incredibly blessed to be where we are, having the opportunity to be stretched in new ways, rely on the Lord, and strive to choose joy independent of our circumstances.  This past week was our first experience with Andy traveling...going to Japan on Monday, and returning from Shanghai on Thursday.  While it wasn't easy, it was great that Andy wasn't gone for a weekend, didn't have jet lag, and was in, or almost in, the same time zone.  It's so true that God gives you what you need, when you need it.  While Andy was gone, I had two nights of full sleep (thanks Sarah!) and the kids only had two days of school this week. 

Finally, a quick shout out to our moms...Betsy Gregory and Linda Puffenberger have birthdays today...we love and miss you!!!