Jenna & Sarah Tell All

Mon. 6/8/09

Jenna's thoughts:

The thing I liked the most about our China trip was meeting my little sister, Sarah. I love her a lot. It’s fun to play with her. We like to run around the hotel room & up and down the hallway. We like to tickle each other on the bed and have pillow fights.

It’s hard to share my mom and dad with a sister. I know she’s smaller than me and needs their help a lot, but I’m not used to sharing their attention. I feel mad and jealous a lot!

I liked walking on the Great Wall of China. It’s a neat place. It was really hard walking up all of the steps. I got tired. We had to stop and rest a couple of times before we got to the top. I was kind of scared climbing back down. It’s really steep and the steps are all different sizes. I’m glad mom and dad held my hand on the way down.

A couple of nights ago, we went to a Thai restaurant for supper. It was taking them a long time to bring out our food. I was playing with my chopsticks and put one of them in my mouth. I found out it’s not a good idea to put a chopstick too far down my throat. I spit up. Boy, was I embarrassed!

I like visiting China, but I’m ready to go home. I can’t wait to see my friends. I miss Lucy and Abby, too. It’ll be fun to show Sarah around our house. I wonder if she’ll want to sleep with me in my bed. Hmmm . . . guess I’ll have to wait and see about that.

Sarah's thoughts:

I’m not sure what happened to me a week ago. One day, I was living with my foster family and the next day I went home with some people I didn’t know. I’m still mad about it. Sometimes I’m scared, too. Why did my foster Ma-Ma and Ba-Ba send me away? Everything is different now. The new people are pretty nice, but I don’t understand a word they say and they don’t understand me. It makes it hard to tell them what I want and need. I’ve been kind of naughty when I don’t get my way. I cry and throw tantrums. My foster family spoiled me and gave me everything I wanted. My new family doesn’t understand that. They don’t spoil me. It’s really frustrating! I hope I can get them to change. I’m going to keep on trying. We’ll see what happens.

I like Jenna, my Jie-Jie (sister). My daddy is nice, too. I like it when he feeds me and takes care of me. I’m not too sure about my mommy yet. She seems O.K. My sister and daddy seem to think she’s nice. I haven’t decided yet.

I really like to eat. I have kind of a big tummy. Most of the clothes that my new family brought for me are kind of small. What’s up with that? When it comes to clothes, I’m particular about what I wear. My mommy and daddy try to get me to put on clothes that I don’t like. Boy, I cry and wrestle around with them to stop. I have a couple of t-shirts that I like and that’s about it. They bought some Chinese outfits for me, but I don’t want to wear them. Molly went shopping with us, so she could talk to me and ask me what I liked. I told her I didn’t like any of the dresses or outfits in the stores.

I really miss my foster family, especially when I wake up from naps and go to bed at night. It makes me cry. Once I start crying, it’s hard to stop. My daddy tries to make me feel better. My mommy tries, too, but I don’t like her touching me when I’m upset.

P.S. Our group went to the Yuntai Gardens to sightsee this morning. It’s a beautiful place. They have a big waterfall, a small lake with fish, a conservatory with beautiful plants, and manicured gardens. We liked the huge clock made out of flowers by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. There are lots of life sized cartoon characters for the kids to see. There were many gardeners working diligently to maintain the lawn and gardens.

It was pretty hot and steamy when we first got to the gardens. Chinese people bring umbrellas to keep the sun off them. An hour later, it started to sprinkle. The rain felt kind of nice, but made it more humid. Good thing we brought our umbrellas, too.