Back in Shanghai we did room swaps. Eliza moved to Emma’s room in the basement. Tessa moved to Eliza’s room on the 2nd floor, leaving Mia with her own room now. This took a few days and extensive sorting through, cleaning out, and organizing of all their things. I came down to help Tessa and found her sitting on her old bed reading the birthday card Emma had given her. She had a good cry missing Emma.
After being home two days we hosted a BYU senior (Ryan Allen) for ten days. He was here doing research work with Shad Morris (a BYU professor who is in Shanghai for six months on exchange with an international business school CEIBS). The Morris family has five kids and are renting a tiny two bedroom apartment so didn’t have room to host Ryan when he was here. We were happy to help them since we already feel a connection with them — they were good friends with the Seelys while living in the same ward in Korea. They also knew Becky and Barr Hill from their ward in Ohio. What a small world. Mindy and I are visiting teaching companions. It has been fun to get to know their family and we are sad they are only here for a few months.
Tessa met her 4th grade teacher at school orientation. Her name is Mrs Turner. There are only 14 kids in the class and it looks like this will be a great school year for Tessa.
First day of school was Thursday, August 18th.
Eliza is a Freshman. This year she is taking Algebra, Humanities/English and Language Arts, Biology, Mandarin (with James), PE, and choir.
Seminary (studying the New Testament) started the following Monday morning at the Miller’s home. Our seminary is four mornings a week (Monday - Thursday). James and Eliza scooter to seminary at 5:50am. After seminary they eat a bowl of cereal at the Millers and go directly across the street to school.
James is a Junior — "I’m excited for my junior year. It’s going to be tough, though. With a loaded schedule including AP Economics, AP Language, Honors Pre-Calculus, and Honors Physics, I can consistently expect a few hours of homework every night… I recently auditioned for the fall play (Noises Off) and I got a pretty good role as Freddie. It’s going to be a blast!"
Sunday, August 21st David Archuleta came to our branch. He is a friend of the Cooks. David was in Taiwan the week prior participating in the church’s 60th year celebration. The picture above is David with the YW in our branch. The picture below is David shaking hands with Eliza. In the afternoon he performed a musical devotional for our district. He told several missionary stories and even sang “I am a Child of God” in Chinese — which Mia liked!
Friday, August 26th was Mia’s last day attending the Cerebral Palsy school in Puxi. The teacher sent me the following pictures of her final days there.
Eating lunch
The school had a little going away party for Mia. She came home with gifts and cards.
On Monday, August 29th Mia started at a new school. It is just five minutes from our house and is called the Little Scholar Academy. It is a bilingual school. Everything is taught in both English and Chinese. They wear gray polo shirts and black pants. They are very accommodating of Mia’s CP and that she still wears diapers. Her teachers, Jack from Michigan and Bella from Shanghai, are so sweet and loving. The first few days Mia came home happy but didn’t really have a lot to say about school. The second day Mia told Eliza in Chinese, “I asked two girls if I could play with them and they said no.” This school is a big change for Mia but she goes with a positive attitude willing to try all these new things. She is saying more English words each day.
“Mom, do we leave in 20 minutes?” “I don’t need to bathroom.” “What is this?” “I don’t like this.” “Eliza home?” “I want a banana.” “I brush teeth.” “I want gum and lollipop too.” “Watch baby Tessa on TV?” “No way!”
Mia’s new school has been a big adjustment for me too. We are now responsible for all her physical therapy. In the morning I have her walk with Tessa and me to Tessa’s bus stop and back. That is 20 minutes of exercise. She complains and wants me to carry her. We are both learning long-suffering. We also do 50 squats before I take her to school. After school we hired a lady to come and work with her for an hour. We wrote out a list of exercises for her to do with Mia. Mia is much more cooperative for her! I don’t hear any tears, just laughter! She brings Mia treats and fun Chinese videos to watch on her phone when she does the stair stepper, balancing exercises and stretches.
Most kids put their reward stickers on their shirts. Not Mia, she put hers in her hair.
