Well, we have had a week of answered prayers around here, that's for sure. For starters, as blogged about previously, Caroline continues to do great at kindy. Hurdle #1, crossed. The next hurdle was getting Katie started in the first grade at a local public primary school.
We had already experienced His faithfulness in providing a school. Next step, meeting Katie's teacher. This in and of itself was a grace---that her teacher was very eager and willing to meet up with us in order to better understand Katie, our family, our desires/expectations/concerns and, of course, to help us understand her and the school as well. Wednesday was the big day, and we couldn't have been happier with how it went. Katie's teacher is young and sweet (she brought Katie a princess pencil bag!) and seemed very eager to help Katie have a good experience, while also seeking not to single her out or make her a special case (which is what we want). We were also pleased with the web-based communication system the school uses, so we can stay in the loop (another great way to practice our Chinese! This is actually especially important to me since I won't be taking classes for some time after the baby arrives. I think though, between helping Katie with her homework and having to talk with the girls' teachers, I should still be able to making plenty of progress!)
One major surprise though came when Katie's teacher asked if Katie would be willing to make a speech on behalf of the whole first grade at the school's opening ceremonies on Saturday. Turns out, when we asked Katie what she thought, she was thrilled!!! She was so excited to finally have the chance to be one of the "special students" that gets to do something up front. If she was happy, we were happy! We were/are a little concerned that the school seems to be somewhat exploiting Katie's foreigner status (like "Look at us! We have a foreign student!" We first sensed this when Katie's picture was displayed on several slides of a powerpoint during a parent meeting....hm....). But if she's okay with it, and it helps give her a happy experience, then we're not going to rock the boat. So, in these last two days before school started, we've been memorizing an English translation of a speech--so a Chinese boy will read a line of the speech in Chinese, followed by Katie reading it in English. Thankfully, she is great at memorizing and has a great speaking voice (although she's never had a give a speech in front of an entire school....so pray for her!) Again, we just see so much of His kindness in this whole situation--the fact that Katie has a chance to feel special and is actually excited about something that most grown-ups fear worse than death (I actually read that somewhere recently...more people fear public speaking than fear death, which the author cleverly pointed out that means that at a funeral people would rather be the person in the casket than the person giving the eulogy! Ha!) I digress....
So Katie's first day was today--really only half a day to practice for the opening ceremony which is happening tomorrow. I was really nervous for how it was all going to go, especially after she had to miss all of the first grade orientation last weekend because we were visiting my dad in the Philippines. So I awaited her arrival home today at noon with bated breath. "How was it?" I asked when she walked in. "It was great." (massive sigh of relief) So great, in fact, that at dinner tonight, when we asked our usual "What was your favorite part of the day?" question, Katie said, "School." Let's pray that continues! We'll let you now how tomorrow goes!
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