New Beginnings

Yesterday I got a phone call from one of my first grade students who is in the process of being adopted and moving to New Zealand. He is the sweetest little guy that you'd ever meet and his family has been going through this tedious process for over 18 months, probably going on 2 years now. Anyway, I was on the way to school yesterday and my phone rang at 7 a.m. I answered and heard him say, "Mrs. Forrest I got my papers." Which I knew meant that one of the last steps was cleared. I just thought it was so precious though because he called me to tell me the exciting news. His mom said he woke up and said, "I need to ring my music teacher." so cute!

We went to the doctor yesterday as well and were waiting, as well as all our friends and family, to find out if we're having a boy or girl. We got there and did the ultrasound and they were unable to tell because the baby had its back to the technician. Very sad! However, we do know that the baby is healthy which we are very grateful for. Nathan was able to see the baby sucking its thumb but I was not, since the screens are faced away from you here. We go to Beijing next month and they have these really cool screen posted on the wall so that mom can see everything. Hopefully I will see baby and see if it is a boy or girl.

JB - So here's a cute video I had to share of JB eating with Nathan today.

Last random happening that is not really a new beginning but something I felt just HAD to be posted: Yesterday I went out with some friends to celebrate Sarah's (a previous teacher here) birthday. We went out for Karaoke (KTV here) and as we were leaving I turned to my right to see a little boy, about 2 years old, going to the bathroom via pulling his pants down in the middle of the hallway and peeing on the mop they use to clean the floors. I thought, "Gross! Only in China!" For those of you who don't know, China uses crotchless pants for children so they can just hold them over the trash or any spot and allow them to relieve themselves. I am not really sure how they transition them one day to realizing this is inappropriate, but... I am normally pretty culturally sensitive about many things but this is one thing I have to say grosses me out and makes no logical sense in my mind. Ugh!