A Girl's Life, Part II (Barbie, the Lifesaver)

Continued from post below...

Our solution was to delay the cupcakes a day, so I could come to school and help Jiejie present her life story. I frantically e-mailed a mom I had never met whose daughter had been the star of the classroom edition of "This Is Your Life" the day before. She kindly filled me in on the tradition, which had surprised her as well. I e-mailed the teacher for tips, too, thinking I could never be too prepared. The teacher explained that telling life stories was not a big deal; parents were not required to attend, and if they did not the teacher would interview the child, asking questions like how much hair did you have when you were born? How old where you when you learned to walk? These questions are potentially treacherous for an adopted child. I knew I had to be there.
When I got home that night, Jiejie and I made a plan that would appeal to my girl of few (public) words. A life in pictures. Jiejie went to her special photo album, in which she has preserved a collection of pictures of herself and others that were carefully selected and bound together by some logic that is beyond me. We flipped through and chose a few. Jiejie wanted baby pictures. I fetched the tiny album, a camo-covered Mickey Mouse knockoff that held a handful of pictures of Jiejie from the "babyhouse" in Laibin: the row of tiny metal cribs, the picture of her looking first bald, then Maolike, dressed in layer upon layer of puffy clothes and propped against a scruffy stuffed panda or slumping onto the tray of a wheeled walker seat.

"Is that all?" she said.
I bit my lip, wishing we had started that life book project long ago to give some shape and substance to the 14 months she lived without this family. I reached back into the drawer of keepsakes and pulled out that toy only found in families with children from China, Mattel's peculiar incarnation of a leggy Caucasian Barbie attached to a tiny Asian baby.
"We'll take 'Going Home Barbie.'" Since she rarely gets to see that boxed-up Barbie, she was delighted. Then her tummy began to hurt. And hurt. It kept hurting for hours, then rumbling.

"It hurts so much, Mama. Make it go away!"

"Oh, honey. If I could take the pain and put it in my tummy, I would."
"No, no you wouldn't because it would hurt you so much you would give it back to me."

***

By morning she was perky and hungry and decked out in a puffy pink plaid skirt and black lace-trimmed leggings,ready for school despite the downpour outside.

At 9:30 the phone rang. Jiejie had vomited in class. Could we come pick her up?

A Girl's Life

Jiejie turned 7 years old a few days ago. She started the morning by hiding. Breakfast was ready, and Jiejie was nowhere to be found. Daddy finally located her and brought her downstairs. It seems she was upset because, although the cupcakes I had labored long and late to produce were coming to school, I was not accompanying them.

"Why aren't you coming?"" she whined.
"Honey, I have to work.
""Take a day off!"
"Sweetie, it’s my deadline day, I can't."
"But who will tell my life story?"

What???? Life story???

Well, apparently that is the tradition in first grade. The teacher interviews you or your parent sitting beside you, about the highlights of your first seven years. That was the first I had heard of it.

To Be Continued...

Surprise, Surprise

Peace and quiet are rare events in families with small children, and maybe in families with not so small children, but the last few weeks have been full of those resonant moments that can be life-changing.

Submitted for your inspection, the curious case of Jiejie and her new pal from the after-school chess class. We invited the new pal for a play date and met her older sis, mom and dad. It turns out that Mom and Dad are from China, Sis was born in the U.S. and Jiejie's friend was adopted from China. When they had gone, I swept Jiejie up into my arms and gave her a hug. "Isn't it amazing that your friend is adopted, too?" I said.

Jiejie, veteran of many "little talks," guest of honor at five Happy Adoption Day parties and traveler to five China Sisters reunions of adoptive families looked up, wide-eyed.

"I'm adopted?"

Meimei the Dream-Catcher

Another conversation with Meimei. This morning, she was eating the second batch of turkey bacon Daddy made after Joyce the Cat managed to nab the first.

A native American dream-catcher, brought down from Clare's room, was on the table, and Davyn abd I were talking about dreams.

"Know what my good dream is, Mama?" she asked.

"Tell me," I said.

"About dogs!" she squealed.

"And when you have a bad dream what is that about?"

"Cats stealing bacon!"