Thank yous! The comments and email that I've gotten after writing about Julia's assessment have helped so much. I am humbled by the support; I am so happy to have friends. I hear you and I take what you say to heart with the start of tears. I don't know what I'd do without you.
Sharyn wrote: “Mother Theresa used to call all life events 'gifts', and she would say, 'What can we do with this gift?' . . .” Yes, yes, yes, what can I do with this gift? --- Well, today with are taking our gifts and going swimming at the Y!
One more thing about the assessment doc: He spoke to Julia in Chinese and she first looked at him with very wide eyes and then answered a few of his questions. In Chinese. He persisted and she started repeating what he said. (This is something that she does when she has no idea what people want from her or when she is board with the interaction and wants to get back to what she is doing.) He told me later that she repeated what he said but used the right intonation. He also said that some of her mistakes in English grammar are really correct Chinese grammar. Finally, when he was talking to me and paying no attention to her, she tried to get his attention by giving him toys and posing before him, and finally by saying to him in Chinese, “Look here, look here.”
In China, Julia did not seem to understand much of what our guides said. She has not responded to anyone speaking Chinese to her once we got home, and usually acts like she has no idea what is going on when she hears Chinese. I have assumed that it is because she learned so little language in the orphanage, or that the dialect, or baby language she learned, was so different from proper Mandarin that it was like another language. I was astounded that she understood the doc and that she actually tried to use Chinese to get his attention.
Yes, Elaine, Julia has more than a few surprises for us.
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