Some pics from 2014-2015.

Just wanted to upload some pics of the girls from the past year.

Holly with Big Sis Katie on Holly's 10th Birthday.

Myleigh at Christmas 2014 with her new Olaf stuffed doll. 

Holly at Valentines 2015

Myleigh in the photo shoot Katie did up at BYU in the Spring 2015.

Myleigh and Holly playing with the wagon

Holly with her baby chick, Nia

Myleigh holding Desi

Myleigh with Katie on the plane headed to Mexico

Myleigh in rare form, who knows what she's doing.  Just being herself. 

Myleigh at the BYU Museum of Art at the rainbow exhibit

Holly as Supergirl , Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 carving jack o lanterns

Katie and Myleigh on the plane headed home from vacation

Holly with Big Brother James on the plane headed home from vacation

Holly with Baemax and Hero at the Asian festival in June 2015

Myleigh grabbing ice cubes with the metal chopsticks at a Korean restaurant

Myleigh selfie

Myleigh at the Payson Temple Cultural Celebration 2015

Myleigh and Holly worn out and asleep after a busy drive

Holly putting lucky money in the Lion's mouth

Some new pictures

Fourth of July 2014

This week is the Fourth of July. The girls really look forward to all the fireworks, especially the ones we let them have, basically just snaps, but, they get to help the adults set up the smoke bombs, tanks, parachutes, etc. We don't do the aerial type, just a bit too scary for me to trust.  We will be having a bon-fire and decorations.  Smores and the like.  Should be fun.

Holly and Myleigh are missing their big sister Katie, she has been in Taiwan for the past two months doing an internship for her TESOL (teaching English as a second language) certification.  She isn't due to be back until the end of July.  We get to skype and facebook chat with her, so, that helps to stave off some of the sadness the girls feel that Katie is so far away. When she gets back we'll have a few weeks and then we're off the Mexico for vacation.

Summer is not Holly's favorite season, because it means no school. Friends in our neighborhood are a few blocks away, so, Holly has a tendency to just want to hang around the house and watch movies.  We have introduced her to the classics- Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon, Stuart Little, just a whole stack of movies, and that has helped pass some of the time.  We also bought a bigger pool for the girls, as they did so well at swimming in the pools in Mexico last summer.  Holly and Myleigh both have snorkel sets that they practice with, and it's so funny to sit and listen to them in the pool, faces in the water, just the sounds of their laughter coming up through the snorkel tubes.

Holly learned to ride a bike without training wheels this spring.  She really likes the small two wheel bike that she has actually grown out of, so, it's going to be a challenge getting her to try the size that actually fits her. At least she obeys the rule to always wear a helmet,unlike Myleigh who keeps "losing" her helmet.

The school year ended on a positive note, with both girls moving onto the next grade, meaning Myleigh starts Junior High in the fall, leaving Holly as the only Asian child in her elementary school.

We have all of the kids living at home for the time being. James moved back in last summer so he could quit his full time job and just focus on finishing his degree.  He will graduate college in December. Katie and Mindy moved back from their apartment because Katie graduated this spring and will need time to find a job between now and when she starts graduate school in 2015. Mindy doesn't want to pay for rent, it's a huge struggle on her paycheck, so, she's going to just live at home until she graduates. Matthew started college this spring, so, he will be at home for a few years unless something changes in his plans. That means that Myleigh and Holly will continue to share their room for at least another year, and neither one likes the idea that much. They both want their own room. It's funny though, because for the few months that we had a spare room available, and Myleigh moved into it, they spent time hanging in each others rooms together as much as when they shared a room. I guess its more about decorating it their own style and being able to have privacy if they want it.

Ballroom dance lessons

Holly and Myleigh started ballroom dance lessons this week.  This should be interesting as Holly is not all that into dancing, but, she very much wants to be like her older sisters Katie and Mindy.  They both danced competitively and she loved cheering for them, but, never expressed interest in doing what they were doing.  Myleigh, on the other hand, had competed in beginner cha cha back before we brought Holly home, so, she knew what she was getting into.

While Myleigh took easily to re-learning the basics, Holly struggled to really get the patterns and the feel for counting it out.  I'm hopeful that by continuing to take lessons she will develop that side of herself.  She's so flexible, which is pretty handy when you're a dancer.  Her legs can extend unlike most of us, and her toe point is amazing.  Still, coordination may be a challenge until she really starts to understand it all, puts it together into a pattern in her mind and transfers that onto the dance floor.  Holly very much appreciates rules and patterns, and likes knowing the beginning all the way to the end of any story or activity, so, once she knows each step from beginning to end she will not forget.  that's just the way she is.

The school year is winding down, and Holly has been put into resource classes for math and reading and has flourished with the extra help.  Right now, at the end of third grade, and four years after leaving China, she is between and first and second grade reading level and about second grade in math. At this rate she should catch up before too long,  Holly absolutely loves school and can't bear to miss a single day.  Even on the days when Myleigh just doesn't want to go and convinces me that she is just too sick to leave the house, Holly still gets herself ready and goes.  Next year she will be in fourth grade, and the challenges will be so much greater, I hope we can get her to a point where she is close to being caught up.  Myleigh will be going to Junior High school and that means Holly will be the only Chinese child in her school, but she doesn't seem to care that much about it.  To her people are just people, she doesn't see race or color. Just other people.  I pray the other children will have the same attitude but already we have seen racism rear its ugly head in our girls lives.

Before school starts we will be taking the girls on another trip to Mexico.  It'll be a graduation gift to our two oldest kids who are graduating college and moving on with their lives.  A chance to spend time with them before their lives become too busy and times like that just won't happen much if at all.  Holly and Myleigh are going to miss them so much, its going to be good to give them time to make some lasting memories.  Life is about to change for us all as Katie moves to Korea, James moves probably to Portland, and in a year Mindy moves to Korea.  That just leaves Holly, Myleigh and Matthew.  Ever since each girl came home from China they have had Katie and Mindy as almost second and third mothers, hovering, teaching, loving, and playing with them.  A year of changes.  Myleigh turns 12 in May, and leaves Primary at church for the Young Women's group.  She'll go to Young Women's camp for three days in June.  Not sure I'm at all ready for that.

As the nest becomes more and more empty I feel guilty for the children left behind in China.  I know we could bring at least a couple more kids into our family, we have the space, we have the love, we have the desire,but, we do not have the money, so, we just have to accept it.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if the governments of both countries put the needs of the children ahead of their own greed and instead of charging families huge amounts of money to adopt a child that has no family, they actually help unite the children with loving families, not charging the new families for anything, but, instead, put the money that ordinarily lines the bureaucrats pockets into adoption grants to cover the expenses for homestudies and background checks, all the things needed to insure the child is going to a loving and safe home.  A family that wants to provide a loving home for an orphan child should never be prevented from doing due to money.  It's just wrong.

The new school year 2013

Holly and Myleigh started school this week.  Holly was thrilled, she just loves school, and grimaced all summer long waiting to go back.  Myleigh is not thrilled, school goes to slowly for her, and she gets bored easily, so, hopefully sixth grade will be a bit more up pace.

 

They still get confused for being twins, and that makes Myleigh frustrated because she already deals with being small compared to other kids her age.  Holly is almost Myleigh's height.  

Next week the girls have a week of school, and then we leave for a vacation in Mexico.  We have never taken the girls on a vacation, just so many other things always seemed to get in the way, but, this is going to be the trip to beat all trips, so, hopefully it will compensate for not having gone before.  

Getting the girls passports was no small effort.  Seems our government is not able to communicate within their own departmental red tape.  We struggled to get Myleigh's citizenship and had to jump through so many hoops, not the least of which was to go through the time and expense of re-adopting her in Utah.  By the time we were done we felt fairly confident we had everything we needed to apply for their passports, but, no.  The Department of Homeland security was not a sufficient reference for the State Department.  They did not accept the citizenship documents, and apparently the Utah Health Department was not much of a reliable reference either, as the birth certificates they issued were also not acceptable.  In the end we had to send every paper we had from both China and the US before the State Dept would issue passports.  

Finally, just shy of two weeks before our trip, we received the passports in the mail.  So, onto Mexico!  Pictures to follow.

End of summer 2013

Holly has grown so tall, and just never seems to stop growing.  At eight years old she is now as tall as her eleven year old sister, Myleigh, with both of them being Chinese it makes a fair comparison.  although, Myleigh does not like to be compared to anyone, especially not her younger sister.

Language is still progressing, and Holly is completely fluent in English, with not a speck of Chinese left.  That makes me so sad, but, she flat refuses to practice any other language.  It's to be expected, as most kids adopted internationally will end up losing their native language in order to be able to immerse themselves in their new culture.  She does want to learn Chinese in the future, just not now, and I'm okay with that.  After all, she has to be able to get through public school in the U.S., and without strong English speaking, reading, and writing skills, that will be a challenge.

Update July 2012

Well, it's been a year since I updated this blog.  Holly Jun has grown so much, and changed quite a bit in the past year.

She is now preparing to start second grade and will be getting just a bit of help with reading and writing but otherwise is on track.  Holly absolutely loves school, and is thriving.  Her health has remained excellent and her bond with us all is very strong.  She's become quite the comic, too.

Holly's favorite subject in school is Math, and her favorite thing to do at home is follow her sister Myleigh around and do whatever she is doing.  Her life is for the most part a pretty normal life unless you count the fact that she is Chinese living with a bunch of caucasions.  Still, we do fill some of the asian gap by going to Asian festivals and events, and our daughters have several asian friends including one from Hong Kong who spend a fair amount of time at our house.

Just this month I figured out how to transfer our video tapes to dvd and onto my laptop, so I was going through the video of Holly's gotcha day, and she was very interested in it.  Her memories of that day are very small, but, she does remember that she was afraid of me because of my glasses.  I hadn't worn them in the pictures we sent her, so, that must have changed my appearance enough to throw her off.  Weird though, because Tim wore glasses in all the pictures, but, had lasik before our trip and wasn't wearing them when she met him.

She's very keen on having things be even between her and Myleigh.  I put up some of the things I had saved from our China trips in their room.  I hadn;'t wanted them up before because they were both small and liable to damage them, things like paper scrolls and fans.  I put Myleighs up first, and she wanted to not only make sure she had one too, but, wondered why it was different.  Myleigh's was made for her during her adoption trip.  A member of the Chinese National Calligraphy Society was hired by our guide to write each of the girl's Chinese names and adoption information on a scroll that is about 4 feet long.  When we went to adopt Holly, we found scrolls of the same size for sale in the Chen Family Temple in Guangzhou, so, we let her pick whichever one she wanted, and of course, she chose one with pandas on it.  We thought it was very appropriate for her, and even though it is not identical to Myleigh's, when we tell her how and when it was chosen, she likes it just as much.

School Days are here again

School starts up again in 11 days, and Holly is very excited. She has met her teacher Mrs Grover, and was fitted for a new school shirt. Clothes shopping for Holly and Myleigh was very interesting, as Myleigh picked many fashionable and stylish girly outfits, and Holly chose lots of t-shirts with characters and sayings. She actually picked, to my total surprise, some shirts with sparkles on them. Her love of Pandas prevailed and she chose a panda t-shirt she is in love with. Orange being her favorite color now, she wanted shirts that were orange, but, I insisted she break it up a bit. She also chose a pink, of all colors, Hello Kitty backpack. I thought for sure it would end up being something with race cars, or some such thing on it, but, no she went bonkers as soon as she saw it. In the end, she was happy with her purchases and so was mama.

Shoe shopping was just this week, and Holly chose a rockin pair of pink, yes she is into pink now, light up tennis shoes. To go with her girly shoes and girly backpack, she chose a pack of race car socks, so, my girl hasn't changed too much, thank goodness. I was feeling like we were kindred spirits with all the race car, trucks, rescue heroes, rough and tumble stuff she was into just as I was when I at that age. You can imagine my chagrine when the girly, pinky, sparkly stuff started to be a theme on our shopping trip. I guess at some point she may make the full changeover to girly things, but, I'm kind of hoping she doesn't lose too much of that tomboyness.

Her first post placement visit was this week, too. It was over a year late, we were lost in the shuffle some how with both our homestudy agency and our placing agency, and I had put it off, procrastinated, and just plain forgot most of the time. Things have gone so well with her adjustment that I didn't think too much about reporting back, to be honest. We did send a package of pictures and updates to the SWI back in February, but, we really needed to get this post placement report done for the sake of the agencies.

Holly was her usualy self with the social worker, just jabbering away, and enjoying the attention. He asked lots of questions and she did amazingly well not only understanding but giving clear answers. He was satisfied that she is healthy, happy, and well cared for. Next report not for another year, so, hopefully we won't get lost again.

The next big thing after the new school year starting is Halloween, at least that is what is on Holly's radar, and she is already trying to decide what she's going to be. So far she is thinking about Ironman. We'll see.

School is out for the summer!

Holly has graduated kindergarten, and is moving onto 1st grade. Her school has a new program that suits her perfectly. She has been placed in a classroom with no more than 15 students, and several teachers focusing on helping these students catch up to the rest of the 1st grade students, while staying with the same cirricullum used in the standard 1st grade, and participating in all the events and activities with the rest of the school. They will be just like the other 1st grade classes except smaller and more focused. I think she's going to love it.

Now that big sister Myleigh has outgrown the small two wheel bike, it has been passed onto Holly, who was so excited to get a big girl bike with training wheels. She's still working on mastering the brakes, but, is getting better each day.

We have found a young man in our neighborhood that spent a two year mission in Hong Kong, we're having him come over and see how much Chinese Holly can still remember. Her dialect was so different, but, perhaps there is some basic language she will have retained. We'll see.

A new year.

2011 is upon us, and the New Year brought with it many challenges for our family. Most were personal, and very private and we will be navigating them through the rest of this year. Holly has grown so much, she is such a tall girl for 6 years old. She's struggling a bit in kindergarten, and we may be looking at having her repeat this grade, or perhaps moving her onto first grade and see if it would be better to just have her repeat that grade instead.

She digs her heels in when she is afraid of making a mistake, and simply does nothing. Her teacher has learned how to handle this, but, the progress with reading and writing is slow. I see little steps forward, and she gets very excited when she masters a new skill.

I've been neglecting this blog for the past few months, but, really will try to get some pictures posted soon.

Holidays

Halloween is behind us, Thanksgiving was just yesterday, and Christmas is on its way. Holly is the most excited kid on the planet this season, she really understands what each holiday brings, and is relishing each detail in ways that have made them brand new for all of us.



Halloween. The lead up was interesting, trying to give her an idea of why everyone will be dressed up, and preparing her for the scary and sometimes gruesome way people celebrate. We did the best we could without exposing her to the gruesome stuff. Choosing a costume was easy, she just wanted to be spongebob and that was it. She would see other costumes, usually super heroes, and would get all excited at the idea of dressing up like that, but, as soon as she saw her spongebob costume, it was love. On Halloween night she wasn't too sure about going up to strangers houses and knocking on the door, but, when Myleigh led the way, she was fine. After that first door, she was running from house to house. At one point she said "I so esited, I love Halloween." After a few houses, she decided she wanted to take a turn ringing the doorbell, so from then on they traded off on each house. After about two hours, she was tuckered out and wanted to go home, so, we made a round about path back to our house, as Myleigh wanted to hit some more houses before being done. Holly was content with what she had, and just walked along with us. Then, at home, the two dumped out their bags and the trading and gorging started. Holly even took a turn handing out candy to trick or treaters. She loved every minute of it.



Thanksgiving- The morning came with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. I missed it as I was sleeping after working til 7am, but, the girls tell me that she was most excited when she saw Santa at the end of the parade. She been telling us that she loves Santa and wants to hug him when we go to see him. That should be interesting. Then it was dinner time. If there's one thing Holly is very clear about, it's what she likes to eat and what she does not. The big hit for the day, egg nog, or as Holly says it, neg nog. She does not like cranberry sauce, or gravy.



Christmas, well , that's all month long, really. We set up and lit our outside decorations on Thanksgiving, as per our tradition, and she really liked that, but, her favorite part, so far, was decorating the tree this afternoon. Her only disappointment was when we ran out of things to put on the tree.



Next week is her 6th birthday, but, for us, it's her first birthday since we brought her home, so, it's a much bigger deal than just turning 6. She will also be blessed that day and her name officially written on the records of the church as Holly Jun Nicole Anderson. Her birthday present is a new razor scooter. We have been having her use Myleigh's old scooter, that has big chunky wheels and is harder to really get going because the hill on the way home from school is long and a little bit steep, so, it would have been harder for her to learn to manage controlling it if it rolled easily. Now that she has really mastered it, she should be fine handling the razor kind.

School Days

Holly started kindergarten on August 31st. It was so hard for her to wait a whole week after everyone else had started school, as the district here in our area has kindergarten start a week after all the other grades. I don't understand it, Im sure they have a reason that I won't agree with. Once it was her day to go to school, she was so excited. I was anticipating a melt down once we got to the room and the reality of mommy leaving her there with strangers set in, but, no. She took to school like a duck to water.

I had prepared her with the same kind of "the whole story" that I had done for church. I drew a map of her school, with all the rooms, including the classroom where Myleigh would be. We went through the day from how Mommy and Holly will first take Myleigh to school, we will wave goodbye and come back home. Holly will play and watch her shows, and then have lunch and get ready for school. Then how we will go to the kindergarten parking lot, mommy will park the car, mommy and Holly will go in the entrance and then to Mrs Peterson's classroom. Mommy and Holly will say goodbye, give hug and kiss, and then mommy will drive home and Holly will stay with Mrs Peterson and the other kids in her class. We talked about some of the kinds of things she will do in class, and then how the bell will ring when it's time to go home, Mrs Peterson will take all the children outside to wait. Then Myleigh will come and pick her up and together they will ride their scooters home.

So, that's pretty much how it unfolded for her. the only difference was that I brought her to class about ten minutes early, and she had some one on one time with Mrs Peterson, so she could walk her through the things Holly is to do when she comes into class, and just to acclimate her to the room a bit more before it was full of noisy kids demanding Mrs Petersons attention. I said good bye, she hugged me very tightly, said I love you mom, and we gave each other kisses on the cheek. When I left, I snapped a picture of the two of them looking at the first little story book the children will be learning from, and off I went.

That afternoon I waited very anxiously on the front step watching for the girls to appear, hoping that the day had gone well. It seemed forever watching all the children filing past our house, and then I spied them. Holly was on her scooter, way out in front of Myleigh, and scooting as fast as she could. When she got close enough to see me, she shouted out "Mommy!!" I went out into the yard, and she ran up to me, threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. I asked if she had fun at school and she said yes. After a few minutes of excited chatting about the things she did, I knew we had conquered another milestone.

Now, several weeks later, she still likes school, and has learned how to write and recognize three letters, including the letter H, which she proudly will tell you is the first letter in her name.

Pictures to follow.

Smores

Holly has discovered that roasting marshmallows is great, but, putting them on crackers with chocolate, Sheer Genius!!

Getting ready for the big day

the first day of school is just around the corner, and Holly is so excited. Im not sure how much of the whole school experience she really grasps, but, the fact that she gets to pick out her school supplies is very much a concept she understands.

She has made it clear that a Spongbob back pack is required, as are Spongebob shoes.

Her language aquisition is nothing short of amazing. Nothing gets past this kid, especially when it comes to going anywhere with Mommy. She loves to go shopping, and has, for the most part, opted out of riding in the seat of the shopping cart. She also knows that a treat is possible at the end of the trip, as long as she behaves herself and asks nicely.

The meltdowns are gone, and she has become a very affectionate child. She likes to give hugs and tell us she loves us, which just melts my heart. She does have one funny quirk, well, not funny if you're on the receiving end. She seems to have a limit to the number of people that can, on any given day, be part of her circle of trust. It's usually one of the older girls, she will act like she doesn't like them anymore. It can really hurt their feelings, and I tolerated it for a while thinking she was just having to get used to so many people in her formerly very small circle. Then she decided that Katie's friend Chad was in and Katie was out. Well, that was that. I stood her in front of Katie, and explained that she should not say mean things to her, she is her sister, and she loves her. I told her that when she says mean things it hurts Katie's feelings, and she needs to say she's sorry. It took just a few minutes to get the idea across, but, she soon apologized to Katie and we haven't had it happen since, but, only time will tell.

Holly has a tendency to be a tom boy and avoids all things girly, much to my chagrine. We took Myleigh to pick out her Baptism dress, and Holly was with us. While Myleigh played dress up, trying on dress after dress, Holly was bored and not too happy to be surrounded by lace and ruffles. I tried to convince her to choose a dress for herself, and she just snarled at me. I would pick up a dress and say, what about this, and she would just snarl or say "Can't want it" Which means in Holly speak "I don't want it".

Myleigh chose her dress, finally, and we were getting ready to pay for it, when Holly figured out that she wasn't getting anything. In her panic, she agreed to find a dress, and she made a beeline for a school girl uniform style red plaid dress. It was definitely her.

Next spring I plan to sign both girls up for soft ball. Holly will be an absolutely perfect fit for it, and Myleigh has wanted to play softball for a couple of years now. When I mentioned it to Holly she seemed to understand what I was talking about, so, Im wondering if she was exposed to it in China. I guess we'll see. I taught my older kids how to play, so, Ill be working on that with Holly and Myleigh.

Myleigh's birthday

Just goofing around in front of our decorated door waiting for Myleigh's birthday guests to arrive.

Scottish Festival 2010

These are pictures we took at the Scottish Festival. We took both girls to the vendors booths to find something fun. Myleigh immediately picked out a parasol, and we showed them to Holly to see if she wanted one. She grimaced and shook her head no. Knowing that this girl is like me, not a girly girl at all, I asked her if she wanted a sword, and she lit up and said Yes very quickly and clearly. She picked out the biggest one she could find. As you can see in the picture, she is very proud of her sword.

some new pictures

Holly really likes Birthday cake, and has been telling us about the birthday she had in China and how her friends shared her cake. She is just starting to understand that we sent her that cake and the panda.

It's July!!

Wow, time has flown by. Life has returned to what we now know as normal. Holly is talking a blue streak, all day long, and has officially entered the WHY stage. Every question is followed up with WHY. It can be exhausting, but, to me, the fact that this gives me a chance to explain things in even more detail to her is a bonus. It means she is still listening. There is a point where I just can't answer any more, and have to distract her onto something else, but, its a really good sign .

The only time she speaks Chinese is the occasional word or two here and there. It's sad to know she has lost much of her native language, and we did all we could to slow that process down, but, we knew her brain would have to make the switch at some point just for survival while she absorbs a completely new language.

Sundays have been a struggle. Holly did not like going to Primary, as it meant seperating from one of her grown ups, and being in a class with children she really doesnt know, except for her best buddy Savannah. She would do whatever it took to get out of it. Usually resorting to crying and asking to go home. I advised everyone to keep going with her, sitting with her, and just being a silent support system, but, to not give in to her insisting on leaving. For the most part she would resist just for a few minutes, and then natural curiosity of what was going on took over and she would be fine until something changed, like when it was time to go from group sharing time to her individual class. Then she would start in again until they were settled in the classroom. This went on, up and down, for months, and then, a couple of weeks ago she decided she was going to push Mindy's buttons, knowing both Mommy and Daddy were at work. She had a full on melt down, and it was just too disruptive to the rest of the class to keep her in the room. Mindy brought her outside and called me at work. I told her to just sit outside with her, do not take her home, and just wait til it was time for the rest of the kids to get out of class. As expected, as soon as class time was over, Holly reverted back to being happy as a clam.

So, when I got home I had Myleigh collect some crayons and paper and I sat them both down and had them watch as I drew a diagram of the church. I drew all of the rooms, and labeled them. We talked a bit about those rooms to make sure Holly understood that this was our church. Then I used different crayons to indicate each of us, and one for our car. I showed us driving our car to church, and parking in our usual spot. I made sure Holly was following along. I could tell she was not liking the part where we go to church, but, that was the focus of this exercise. To deal with what it was about going to church she didnt like. I had surmised that due to her stress level rising predictably whenever she didnt know for certain what was going on, it was the unknown that was making her afraid. Her abandonement issues were welling up inside her, and activating her fight or flight response. Since she couldnt fight it, she was trying to escape going all together.

As I showed us walking together into church, and going into the chapel, as we always do first, she was only ok with it, but, was watching with interest. I talked about all the things that happen in the chapel, and she went along. Then I said it was time to go to Primary. She glanced up at me with reservation but didn't really protest yet. I said, Holly and Myleigh hold hands and walk nicely to sharing time. I showed them and traced their path, and then traced Myleigh going to her seat in sharing time, and Holly going to hers, and talked about how Savannah was there, and her teacher, and all the other kids in Holly's class. Then we talked about all the things that happen in sharing time. I showed her how Mommy, and Daddy go to their class. She was very interested in that, and I did it twice to really make it sink in, and so she could see on the diagram exactly where we are in relation to where she is.

And then, it was time to go to class. This was when I could see her stiffen up and start to get nervous. I told her how Myleigh goes to her class with her teacher, and traced Myleigh's path. Then I said Holly goes to her class with her teacher and with Savannah and then traced their path. I showed her how the chairs are arranged in the classroom, and asked if that was right. She agreed, and I asked where she would sit. She pointed and I drew her there. Suddenly she was liking this game and really started to play along. We talked about what happens in her class, and then I showed her that Mommy and Daddy go to a different class now, and traced us on our paths. She followed intently.

Then it was time to go home. I showed how Holly waits in her class with her teacher until Mommy or Daddy or Mindy or Myleigh come to get her. Then I showed Myleigh coming from her class all the way around the hallway and how we all meet together, get our jackets, and go to our car, and drive home. The story was complete and she could see every step and knew where everyone was, that we didnt leave her alone in the building, and that we all get together again and go home together. She sighed very deeply and smiled. Then, we told the story all over again, but, this time, she told much of it. I would ask her now and then, Where is Mommy, or Where is Daddy's class. She could point them out quickly. I would ask her where Holly's class is, and again, she pointed it out quickly.

I figured, since I was more worried about how she would respond to going to kindergarten next month than how we would deal with church, that it was time to add another drawing, so I drew the school. Then I went through much the same process to show her what school days are like. She really liked this, and because of the church game, she understood how to play so she jumped right in. Then, after telling the school game a couple of times, I told her that on school days we don't go to church, and on church days we don't go to school.

So, over the coming week, I kept the drawings on my dresser and she would come into my room and we would talk about the games. On the very next Sunday, Tim had the drawing with him, and she didn't even need it. She went happily to primary with Myleigh, and then to her class, and ended the day happily,. When I came home from work she was anxious to tell me she went to primary and didn't cry at all. She high fived me, and we hugged. I could see she was so proud that she had mastered such a huge hurdle.

I feel a lot less nervous about how we will get through the first few days of kindergarten now.