News Flash - Mandarin is difficult to learn!

I feel validated! This week's issue of TimeAsia features several articles about learning Mandarin, which they say is one of the five most difficult languages to learn (the other four are Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean). It is a very interesting issue and is available online at: TimeAsia June 26, 2006. The thing that sticks in my head most is that it takes 2,200 class hours for the average English speaker to reach proficiency in Mandarin. So, at one class hour per week, we will be proficient in 2048!

One of the other articles was about study aids. I think I mentioned before that we are using Cheng & Tsui Integrated Chinese, which is pretty good - there's a link under "Favorite Shopping Links" to the right - but what we really wanted were flash cards and nothing we found seemed quite right. So, I decided to make flash cards for all the vocabulary words from the first three chapters (everything we've covered so far). I'm happy with the way they turned out and I think I might have learned a couple of characters in the process of making them!

More June Bibs!

Today we received two darling pink kitty bibs from Sandy. One says "Daddy Loves Me" and the other says "Mommy's Little Girl". They are so sweet and the kitties are the smoothest pink satin. They reminded me of those Taggies books http://www.taggies.com/ - I'm sure Nora will love the feel of them! Thank you very much Sandy.

Think we'll ever learn Chinese?

Now that we have Nicole to ourselves for an hour each week, Rob and I have decided to turn over a new leaf with respect to our learning of Mandarin. We are studying. Really studying, not randomly listening to cds in the car, hoping to gain something by osmosis. We have books, we have workbooks, we have cds and are actually doing lessons and testing our progress with the exercises. The kitchen table is our classroom, an iPod our lecturer.

Turns out I am good at pronunciation and terrible at tones. Rob is great at tones and terrible at pronunciation. Figures. No one will understand either one of us! Nicole insists that we will get better. I wonder.

By the way, I've decided to start leaving comments on. So if you'd like to comment on any posts from this point forward you can do so by clicking on the link at the bottom of the post. We hope to hear from you!

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Rob's first Father's Day! Well, sort of. Even though Nora isn't home with us, I figure that she probably has been born by now and is waiting for us somewhere in China. So, today we will celebrate and hope that next year Nora will be here to celebrate with us.

I bought Rob two sweet children's books about fathers - "The Very Best Daddy of All" and "I Love My Daddy" - and a father-to-be card (of everything I looked at, it seemed to be most appopriate since it talked about what a great father he will be, which, of course is true!). I photographed them in "his" chair where I picture him reading to Nora.

I would have liked to have posted a picture of Rob today, but he has still not forgiven me for the one I posted of him practicing baby sign language! So, Happy Father's Day, honey! I hope that I have redeemed myself a bit with today's post!

Happy Father's Day also to our Dads! We love you and wish we lived closer so we could celebrate with the quintessential Father's Day BBQ!

Gifts from China

Rob just returned from a business trip to Shanghai. I sent a whole shopping list and he came back with, well, some of it. To his credit, though, he did get the important stuff - a Chinese zodiac papercut for Nora's lifebook and some children's cds. Our Chinese isn't good enough to make any sense of the cds, but we did ask Nicole, our Chinese instructor, about them. She said that one is famous Chinese poems (that's the one with the man in the robe) and the other one is children's songs about Beijing. The interesting thing is that none of the children in the cartoons appear to be Asian, maybe they are visiting Beijing?

Hee Hee Hee!

I can't stop smiling!

Our January DTC Secret Pal gift for June came today. The theme was "Fun in the Sun" and Nora received a pail and sand toys for the beach and the cutest little outfits! One is a super-soft pink and orange terry cloth dress and the other is a bubble romper with big pink and orange flowers. She also got an adorable orange bucket hat.

Great job, Secret Pal, we love everything! I can hardly wait to take Nora to the beach (we have one about 7 blocks from our house). I figure if she can't be home for Christmas, then I hope that she comes home in May or June and we have all summer to play at the beach!

The gift of motivation!

My December DTC Secret Pal sent the coolest gift for May - it's a pedometer and it estimates calories burned! I'm so excited! I am going to take the dog for a walk later this evening and try it out. Thank you Secret Pal!

I-171H Expiration - Policy Change Needed

As you may know, families adopting children from other countries need to obtain immigration approval from the USCIS (formerly known as INS). The approval - called I-171H or I-797C - requires an application, fingerprinting and homestudy. The process is both expensive and time-consuming.

Once approved, the authorization is good for 18 months, which until recently was sufficient for families adopting from China. Because of the increasing wait times, though, it is very likely that currently in-process families will need to refile. This is costly and frustrating for us and a poor use of the USCIS' time - there are far more important immigration issues than re-processing already approved adoption files!

If you or anyone you know is in process or is considering international adoption, please take a few minutes to write your Senator, Representative, the President and the USCIS, asking that the expiration date of form I-171H/I-797C be extended to two years, longer if possible.

Here are links to the contact information for:
- your Senator
- your Representative
- the President
- the USCIS

Thank you for helping to make a difference!

N is for Nora

After much frustration trying to make the ladybug doll bed quilt, I decided to take a break and work on something better suited to my skill level (beginner, very beginner). I got this idea from Kristen who cuts my hair. Kristen was a fine arts major and specializes in textiles - she weaves, she knits, she does it all and she's got great ideas. The last time I was in there she was telling me about a flannel blanket she made for her nephew with his initial on it. I thought that was a great idea and decided that I wanted to make one for Nora.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I think it's really cute. It's not done yet - I still need to do the backing and binding - but I'm really happy with the top. We won't talk about how long it took me to come up with just the right "N"!

More things for Nora's room

I found the prettiest paper lantern lights when I was out shopping today. I think they will look great in Nora's room. Hopefully they aren't too cheesy or too faux-Chinese. I bought them because I liked them, not because they were "Asian-inspired". It's funny, because if Nora weren't Chinese I wouldn't have thought twice about it.