Chinese dresses, Chinese New Year's, and bullies

Chinese Dresses

Back when I adopted Grace, buying Chinese dresses for her was a HUGE priority for me before we left China.

I had this dream of surprising her each year with one more beautiful dress that she would ooh and aah over and would insist on getting her picture made in. Probably use them as gifts for Chinese New Year's or for class pictures.

So after a very full day, Jana and I and the girls made our way to one of the favorites for Chinese souvenirs, Jennifer's. This store is what you imagine a store in China to be, packed from floor to ceiling, with very narrow aisles. It had to be 102 degrees in there and the brightest light was about a 20 watt bulb.

I was sweating to death and still had very little experience being a mom, much less buying clothes for my little dumpling. So I dug through stacks of these beautiful dresses, holding up colors and trying to ask Grace if she liked it. Her attention span was about as long as a gnat's and I am trying to get her to choose colors and styles of dresses that she will want up until she is 18 years old!

So I have more than enough help from the store personnel, who spoke limited English, and trying to pick these dresses, and when I got home and started looking through what I had bought, I realize that I have several in some sizes, and nothing in others!

Then Grace outgrew all the dresses I bought within the first 2 years and showed little interest in any of them! She maybe wore two of them, maybe....

Chinese New Year's

Last year on Chinese New Year's when Grace came home, I asked how she liked my hair cut.

"Mom! you are not supposed to get your hair cut on Chinese New Year's! It is very bad luck!!! At least you did not sweep the house!"

Oh my! Of course I just had swept. I had swept the whole house to get rid of the mud the dogs had tracked in!

Whether I had a year of bad luck might be questionable. Some of the best things in my life had happened this year, but every time something bad happened, Grace chalked it up to my year of bad luck!

This year I am determined not to make the same mistakes, so i got my hair cut Tuesday and today cleaned house, since Chinese New Year's is Monday!

Tonight we went to Grapevine for a Families with Children from China Chinese New Year's dinner.

But before we could go selecting just the exact right thing to wear gave me a glimpse of the future of having 2 teenagers.

Annabel decided she would LOVE to wear a Chinese dress and so Grace decided she also wanted to wear one.

I began looking for all these dresses and then trying to find the right size for Annabel. She decided to try on every single one of these dresses and there are a lot. She finally chose one and we started on Grace. The chance that one would fit, since she really outgrew them two years ago! She found a top to wear with jeans and I thought we were on our way. But there was a need to do hair too. So everyone got some curl in their hair, even though it fell out before we got to the car.

We had a great time and it was wonderful to see so many happy families as a result of their adoption.

I should have learned the last time when we were faced with a raffle not to buy tickets again! Annabel feels that winning shows that you are lucky, which is very important! Thank goodness on the very last item she won! That cute little bear only cost $21!!

Tomorrow we are going to Denton to visit the Denton Chinese Church. When Annabel was feeling low this week I suggested we go. She has been so excited all week and prayed for their church every day. Her teacher gave her instructions on what time we should leave and what they should wear. Thanks!

Bullies

One day this week Grace greeted me with the news that her friend said two girls in 4th grade were saying bad things about Annabel. Annabel immediately asked me what Grace said. I glared at Grace and made up something about what she might have said.

Later I talked to Grace about our previous conversation. I asked her what benefit would it be to repeat something bad about anyone. I also questioned a "friend" repeating something bad about your sister to you. We talked about this and looked at it a lot of different ways. I explained that if anyone else was talking bad about either of them that I did not mind coming up to the school and laying a bunch of whup *ss on them!!! It burns me up for anyone to pick on my girls and then for "friends" to share this info makes me even madder. I know I can't fight all of their battles so I have to make sure they are prepared to handle them on their own. Probably offering a bunch of whup *ss wasn't the best though!