Countdown is on!

Well it is only 13 days now til we board the plane for China!  As the day gets closer I realize that although I have packed some things there is still much packing to do.  One thing that is ready: Li Lin's suitcase is packed!  It feels a bit surreal packing for an adoption trip to China but there are a few things that help me to come back to reality and believe that this is not a dream.  Strangely enough when I packed a little pair of pink shoes and a beautiful pair of flower laden black patent dress shoes I thought, "Wow, I'm actually adopting a girl!" 

I can't wait to hold her in my arms and tell her from the bottom of my heart, "Wo ai ni!" (I love you)  

 Hopefully she will understand my very heavily English accented attempt at Mandarin.  As one of my dear Chinese friends told me, "She may have difficulty for the first few days until she learns your accent, after that she should understand anything you say to her."  LOL!

That is assuming she speaks and understands Mandarin.  We are pretty sure she speaks a local dialect and are hoping she also speaks Mandarin.  Since her file reads that she loves watching cartoons, and the cartoons would be in Mandarin, we are pretty confident that she at least understands Mandarin.

I will probably sound pretty pathetic speaking "Chinglish" to her.  Since my Mandarin is very limited, I will use as many Mandarin words as I can in a sentence, fill in with English words when necessary, and use lots of sign language.  No doubt the locals will have a few laughs listening to me! :)  The kids know only a few sentences each in Chinese so they will teach her "English immersion".  Steph has had very little formal Mandarin lessons but what little he has learned, he remembers well.  I am sure he will try out a little Chinese whenever he can.
Hopefully she will be able to express her needs to us and we will be able to communicate with her.  After all, love is a universal language that makes its way around traditional cultural and language barriers!