Who's a Big Girl?

Jiejie plugged in.

During a family Chinese lesson we learned that, technically, Jiejie will not be the jiejie when brother  TJ joins the family on Monday. His birthday, as determined by the officials at the Chinese orphanage where he was taken in at the estimated age of 3, is about 10 weeks earlier than hers. He will turn 8 the day after we get back from China. He is the gege, or oldest brother. And in the strict verbal hierarchy of Chinese, the oldest sister is relegated to "little sister" status. Can I really call this blog Meimei and Meimei? No way. I asked Ping, who was teaching us, what would happen if JieJie and TJ were twins? Gege and Jiejie? Nope. The older twin would be the one who burst into the world first.
So much for the social worker's suggestion on how to avoid one of the pitfalls of adopting out of birth order.  Still, I suspect TJ will be leaning on his "little sister" a great deal, for help at home and at school, and she will be a beacon for a little boy just about her age joining the family.