Reality,Tears, progress Reports and having faith

Oh things are fine here, and it is certainly not as dismal as the title suggest. But now with our honeymoon time drawing to a close and reality setting in there have been some rough moments. I expected this and was prepared, however no matter how prepared you may be it is still hard for everyone involved.
My mother laughs and tells me the wheel is round.

I think about the dread I had when the progress reports made their way home and in 35 years nothing has changed. Those large butterflies still hover in swirl in my stomach.

This Saturday came and went and the knowledge that school progress reports were ready. The thought was there it lurked in the back of my mind every now and then raising its dark head prodding me to face it. I knew it would be bad for one of the students. He was having a hard time with language and assimilating into a very different culture. Sunday was a crisp fall day and I knew at some point I would have to face reality. As the afternoon sun warmed my office, I sat down and opened the report. My heart sank as if a death warrant had been issued and in a way it had.

My student from China was having a harder time then I thought.

I immediately went to him and brought him the news. He sat on his bed, I sat next to him at his desk that was covered in papers. I thought to myself how hard it must be, our language, letters, culture. I sat quietly not saying anything as he digested what was happening, tears welled in his eyes and then fell across his cheeks.

I waited patiently and when it seemed he was ready I told him all was not lost, we could do this if we all worked together. He seemed relieved yet fearful that no one would really help him. With that we all marched down to the kitchen table and while I made dinner my sweet husband worked with him on his English paper and my son and our German student helped with History and Programming. It was a long night of yawns and frustration. Apparently he has been lost for sometime and his was able to hide it well.

NOTE: It is three days later and I have been monitoring his progress and there has been a very positive move. Our grades have improved far beyond what we thought possible.

Perhaps all we need sometimes to succeed is someone to help not judge us and for people to have faith in us.

Eating Moon Cake and snakes

I want the boys to feel right at home and sometimes that means doing just a little bit more then normal. Today is a fall festival in China and Chen's mom wrote me telling me about it and how it is one of Chen's favorite holidays. She then told me his favorite snack are Moon Cakes, not to be confused with American Moon Pies or snakes. Chen had asked this week if we could go and get some snakes and made a slithering motion with his hand.

I was horrified, I asked what did he want the snakes for as the entire family including Julius stood there staring at him, our mouths hanging open. He said "to eat", OK so after my husband picked me up off the ground, I thought perhaps there is a communication error here as Chen did not look like the snake eating type to me, not that I know what a snake eater looks like.

Alex my son always trying to be accommodating suggested he try alligator because we could get that at the local grocery store.

Chen looked equally horrified now as we all stood there staring at each other. He started saying over and over I want to get some, you know snakes! Then he looked at me a broad smile emerged and he said directly to me, spelling each letter slowly S-N-A-C-K-S.

OK did I know he wanted snacks all along..yep..did I want him to work for the right word, yes, and now every morning when he makes his lunch he shows me his treat and says "Snack", puts it in his bag and smiles broadly his eyes twinkling and I tell him no "Snakes" and we all laugh.

Alex still wants Alligator though.

The wheel is round, so my mother says

The wheel is round so my mother says but I prefer to think that history just chooses to repeat itself.
I spent the weekend in the local shopping mall, frightening as it may seem. I thought by having boys this would not happen. I wondered many times throughout the day did my husband know something when he told me he hurt his knee and could not walk, although I must admit that getting the knee brace was a bit extreme.
We took Chen and Julius to the mall. Now these two boys are great friends and companions, however they are extremely different in every way, music, clothes, sports, hair styles, right down to their sneakers.
Now imagine a Saturday afternoon, 88 degrees, a major mall, labor day weekend and two teenagers who speak fair English. I aged. One wanted The Apple store and Abercrombie the other Foot Locker, Dicks Sporting Goods and Sunglass Hut.
I will say I survived thanks to Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Large amounts of Diet Coke.
I maneuvered through minefields of sizes, sales, prices and ATMs.
At the end of the day I took note we never stopped laughing and smiling and I realized that they weren't that different from the boys my husband and I have already raised into brilliant, charming gentleman. Chen is identical in so many ways to Joey, academic, basketball lover, music and movie maniac with an awesome smile and bright smiling dark eyes. Julius is Dan all over again. He's our salesman, out going and energetic to the point of exhaustion, more athletic then academic and a contagious attitude of happiness. A girl catcher if you will, whose green/blue eyes peek out from beneath his bright blonde hair. So who says history doesn't repeat itself. Mine has, and all I know right now is I am so grateful that I have an opportunity to make a difference in someones life, just by getting up a little earlier then normal to say "Good Morning." and asking "How was you day?" at the end.