Why is it that I always start so late on writing my blog?  I really need to get to bed earlier.  With that wishful thinking in mind I will just hit on a few important events.
My new daughter came home with that dark look again, so I figured, it was school.  I had her and my deaf daughter make dinner using an old recipe of my Mother’s.  It’s meat loaf but with ground turkey, shredded sweet potato, brown sugar, soy sauce, Wostershire sauce, paprika, cinnamon, and several other spices, molded into a loaf and put a large bottle of my favorite spaghetti sauce over it (roasted garlic).  If you want the recipe, give me your email and I’ll send it to you.  There are never any leftovers and I used 2 pounds of ground turkey.

Anyway, after we put it into the oven, I knew I needed to find out exactly what was bothering her about school.  I tried talking with her, but her English is limited. I went on Bable Fish and wrote down all the things I thought might be bothering her, and numbered them. I then had it translated into Chinese.  I told her to pick the numbers that represented what was bothering her.  She picked two, and the tears started to slide gently down her face.  I went to her to try to find out the exact reason for her tears.  She just kept shaking her head. I explained that’s what I’m here for, to listen and help, but she still just shook her head.  Finally after about 20 minutes of coaching she finally said, and I’ll paraphrase here, she wasn’t learning that much English, and when kids come up to talk to her she doesn’t understand them, and when she does, she doesn’t have the words to reply.  So she just nods her head.  She feels like she comes off looking very dumb and she wishes she were on an island where non-one would talk to her.

I told her I understand completely, and I agree with her that she’s not getting enough English and first thing tomorrow I will take care of it.  She also wants a translator to be with her.  Which I had asked for, but was turned down.  OK I did it their way for a week, it hasn’t worked, now they’re going to do it MY way. I explained that I will take care of everything, but she needs to be patient because there are steps we have to go through.

She then went upstairs and closed the door to the bathroom. I sent my older daughter to speak to her in Chinese and to give her reassurance and find out any more information. I am really proud of my older daughter, she told her to write down her feelings and thoughts and if she wanted to show Mama she could or she didn’t have to.  Well she wrote a very concise explanation of her feelings and fears.  My older daughter translated it for me.  I asked her did she tell her about me when I say something will get down, especially for one of my children, NO ONE gets in my way?  She replied, “Oh yes. I told her you were very strong.”

So tomorrow morning I have a list of people to contact.  Stand by for the results.

It’s 11:00 at night, I was aiming for earlier but was distracted when our chimney started leaking into the fireplace.  There is a heavy rain out there and this is the first time this has ever happened. So we had clear away the ash ,find a bucket, put down newspapers and sheets to soak any over flow.  Can’t wait to see what I’ll wake up tomorrow and find...