Birthday Girl!

Grace's friends from school had a pool party with her in the afternoon.
Grace loved being with her school friends and her two neighbor friends, Laura and Alyssa.

Family party with her awesome cake from Costco! (No extra charge to personalize it and choose how to decorate it.)

Grace has been excited about her birthday for several months. Recently, she would almost daily remind us "June 16th, my birthday!" So we knew that her first birthday with her family had to be special. I bought her a new swimsuit, since she'd been wearing hand-me downs. She LOVES princesses, especially Ariel and Snow White, so I had to go to the Disney store for that! I went to Target and found fun things in the dollar section for her friend's treat bags. Grandma Carol and I found her a couple of summery dresses and I finally found her a pair of decent shoes (she has small narrow feet and has been wearing cheap sandals from Children's Place for quite a while). We also went to her favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch. She was definitely princess for the day!

Don't let the language barrier scare you!

The other 4th graders in Grace's class

(they also had 3rd graders who came in at the earlier schedule

and left early the day I took this picture)

Grace and her teacher, Mrs. Donithorne

One of the worries we had of adopting an older child was the language barrier. I really was nervous about not being able to communicate with our new daughter. This proved to be short-lived. Another issue was how she would do at school. It couldn't have been better actually!

Grace had the perfect first school experience this year. I was worried about so many things: Would she be accepted? Would the other children treat her nicely? Would it be too hard? Did we choose the right class? Since she was only in 2nd grade in China, I wasn't sure about putting her into 4th grade here but it turned out to be the perfect choice! Her class has been so good to her and now she has many friends. They all took her under their wing and have been so sweet. What more could you ask for?


We can't believe how fast she has learned English. We were expecting her to learn fairly quickly, as most children can, but she has just amazed us! Now our concern is her keeping her Chinese skills. She really doesn't want to speak Chinese anymore even when Kirk talks to her in Chinese. I keep reminding her to respond back to him in Chinese, but I can tell she really doesn't want to.


Hopefully she can continue to improve her English this summer and be better prepared for 5th grade this next fall. She is also reading some and I hope to help her improve in that area as well over the summer.