Shenzhen Girls

We picked up the girls on a cold Monday night.  Frank was with me and was all keyed up and excited.  It was nice having him there to translate.  The girls were quite shy, and only Anqi had really good English.  Yoyo and Kiko's English was limited.  We never, in the ten days, pinned down exact names.  They had chosen English names, but I wanted to use their Chinese names.  Except every time we tried to pronounce them, the girls erupted in fits of giggles.  So Anqi was Lisa, Yoyo was Yoyo and Ye was Kiko.  Why did Ye choose a Japanese name for her American name?  I don't know, but it's a cute name for a cute girl.

Kiko had a little cold.  Lisa, my friend in charge, told us that the Chinese remedy is hot water and lots of rest.  Valid cures, but I so wanted to pump her full of antibiotics.  She had a smell that I remember from when we got Xanthe.  Xanthe was riddled with infection in her ears, nose and lungs, and we started her on antibiotics right away.  By the time we went home, she was better.  At any rate, we tried to keep the girls warm and let them rest.  They were tired!  Nonetheless, we squeezed in some fun activities during the ten days.  When we weren't doing fun things, the girls were easy.  They liked to look at their phones and chatter away with one another.  Yoyo would bring me her phone with its translation app, hold it up so I could see the text, and read it to me:  "Mom, can I help you with anything?"

It melted my heart how they called me Mom.  Being from a tonal mother tongue, they had the inflection just right.  Several times, I turned around expecting to see one of my own kids, and was surprised by Yoyo.  They also picked up other words from us.  One day, I said to Xanthe, "Thank you!"  The inflection of my voice went down, then up at the end.  A moment later, and throughout their stay, I heard the girls saying, "Thank you!"  In exactly the same way I had said it.  Hilarious!

We made potstickers a couple of times.  The girls gobbled them up, but Frank didn't like them as much.  He said they needed shrimp, but there is just no way I'm putting shrimp in my dumplings.  That is just too authentic.  Ew. Pork, loads of ginger, and green onions is all I add, fried/steamed in sesame oil and served with soy sauce.

I had lots of good helpers.

For some reason, the Asian market only had green wrappers that day.

On Saturday, the girls went to Park City with their group, so we had all day Sunday.  Frank and I had planned to take them to Arches and Canyonlands on one of our marathon road trips, but the girls were simply too tired.  I didn't want to push them, so we woke them up at 8, which was hard enough, and took them to Music and the Spoken word and Temple Square.

Of course, I thought of Golda in China, teaching about Jesus Christ.  When I put this on Instagram, I said, "Doesn't matter what you call Him, or if you know Him at all.  God loves YOU and nothing at all can ever change that." 

Nana probably thought she had three new great-grandchildren.

Primary: a cultural experience.

Kings came over and brought another cultural experience: pizza.  Big hit!  Yoyo took pictures of all the food.

On other nights, we had noodles.

We saw Grandma and Grandpa at Nikki's and planned a weeknight dinner when they could meet the girls, on their last night.  Dumplings again, and Panda chow mein.  Delicious!

I loved having the Mandarin banter in my back seat.  When I lived and went to school at the Violin Making School, many of my classmates/roommates were Chinese.  Mandarin sounds incredibly familiar to me, even if I only understand three words, one of which is a swear word sorely overused at the VMS. :)

Good-bye party at Classic Fun Center.  It was fun that my kids got to go, as we never do things in places that have this type of Vegas-on-acid carpet, or where you have to rent things to put on your feet.  Ha ha

Ruby left for Chicago on their last day, so I took a pic.  That night, the girls were looking for Ruby and saying, "We love Ruby!  We love Ruby!"

The last supper with the girls.  Marlene brought a pan of chocolate chip cookies.  My favorite!

More smiles

More helpers

Rare pics of me in my natural habitat.

A toast!

Station Park for shopping.  I turned the girls loose to shop and sat by the hot fire, then took them to see Santa.

They bought those awful jelly beans that have the bad flavors.  They gave me "dead fish."  Thanks, girls!

Xanthe, bless her heart, really made an effort to connect with the girls.  Despite the language barrier, they did pretty well.  It's overwhelming emotionally to see Xanthe with three girls her own age, from Mainland.  This could have been her life!  Although she probably came from a place and a family who didn't have the money to keep their child, let alone send their child to the states.  Anqi has a little sister, which means her family had the means to pay to have a second child, back before the one-child policy was eased.  I wonder what Xanthe thinks when she interacts with these girls.  The emotions are far too complex for a literal-minded kid like Xanthe.  Here's an example:  I said, "Are you going to be sad seeing them off tomorrow?"  Xanthe replied, "I won't see them off.  It will be too dark.  And I'll probably be asleep."  Her whole focus was on the exact words, "See them off."  I had to rephrase and say, "Will you be sad when they leave?"  She didn't know.  If she thinks about an open-ended question like that for too long, she forgets what the question was and starts laughing.  She's an interesting kid.  At some moments during the Shenzhen girls' stay, I felt this overwhelming gratitude that we had gotten Xanthe to safety.  Given her probable economic background, and the learning disabilities that she has, really, what would her future have been in China, especially if she was a second daughter?  We'll never know, and we can only speculate.  With a billion people in the country, it's impossible to make generalizations, anyway.

It's just fascinating to look at Xanthe and know that she was destined for our family.  Seeing her alongside the Chinese girls, I wondered, "What role does/should her ethnicity and her origin play in her life, and our family's life?"  A question for a lifetime of pondering.

The girls left at 6 am on a Thursday.  Did I tell you that they were form Shenzhen?  Lisa had told us they'd be from Shanghai, but they turned out to be from a city that's 17 kilometers from Golda, in her Hong Kong missionary apartment.  In fact, the girls flew into Hong Kong on their way home.  I imagined them taking a piece of our hearts with them and depositing it over HK as they flew, to be felt by our missionary.  The Shenzhen connection was a heavenly hug that whispered, "I know you.  I know Golda.  She is safe."  At least that's how I interpreted it.

I was sad to see the girls go.  Maybe we'll host again.  Until then, well, we still have Frank. ;)