Managing Life

I bought Oprah's magazine the other day because the theme for September was all about being too busy to live. I haven't had time to read it yet. You may have noticed that the Amanda Says blog now has a new header with a couple shots of Amanda and some Chinese folk art in the middle.

I started a temporary assignment with the company Rob is working for and it doesn't require creativity. I also realized that this is okay and what I'm doing there is helping people who may not be able to help themselves and most of them are pretty grateful. I'm also "talking" to people, in the office and on the phone. We're not emailing, sending instant messages or communicating in acronymns. The really neat part is the other folks I trained with and I work as a team. And the executives in charge are right there with us, supporting us and making a difference too.

So, even if we seem "too busy" to read a magazine or answer all our emails every day, we are living. And if we're able to make a difference in the lives we touch, we're living well.

Olympics & Music

The opening ceremony of the Olympics was pure magic. That was one performance that in your mind you were saying "What's next". How could 2,000 people be in sync to that magnitude? Amanda wasn't that interested in watching it, but it taught us even more about our daughter's heritage and why she is the way she is on such a deep level.

Even with the most simple tasks, Amanda wants to get it right. She will start over and over again if she makes a mistake or if something isn't up to her standards. I have explained to her that if she gets a word wrong while reading, she doesn't have to go back to the beginning of the story. I don't want to discourage her from trying her best, but want her to know it's okay to make mistakes.

It's very important to me that Amanda learns music. She just started taking piano lessons with my sister. While others were bringing back pearls and other mementos for their daughters from China, my greatest find was a musical instrument. I decided which one to look for one day when I was alone with Amanda in a park near our hotel in Nanning. An elderly man was playing the most beautiful and haunting instrument that resembled a violin.


The following week when we were waiting for her Visa in Guangzhou, I went into a shop called Jennifer's Place. It was where all the families shopped for inexpensive gifts and they by far had the most reasonable laundry service. I spotted this special violin on a shelf, but it looked like a cheap souvenier. I asked the shopkeeper if she had any others. She said that she had one in their backroom. She brought out this dark snakeskin case and inside was the real thing! It was an authentic "Erhu". I bought it.


As we came through customs in Detroit, there we were, carrying our priceless Amanda, 2 weeks worth of luggage and the snakeskin case, which I promptly declared to my sister. I told her that her job as Amanda's official "Ayi" (Auntie) who can only be the sister of the mom, was to teach Amanda the Erhu. So, we're starting with piano and will go from there.



Check out the 12 Girls Band playing Cold Plays "Clocks". There you will see what an Erhu is!

A Swimmer Indeed

Welcome to a brand new Amanda Says blog! Due to circumstances beyond my control, my old blog was deleted.

This Friday, the Olympics in China will have their opening ceremony. We Americans say "Bay-jeeng". The proper way to pronounce it is "Bay-gin". We are going to cheer on our American team while we reminisce about the place we visited 5 years ago. Seeing the athletes today outside the Forbidden City brought tears to my eyes.

Amanda and her Auntie and I went to the pool this afternoon. I wanted my sister to see Amanda jump off the diving board into the deep end of the pool. My sister couldn't believe it. Even more amazing was watching Amanda swim all the way across to the other side of the pool. She swam the length of an "Olympic" sized pool! I couldn't believe my eyes. I swam behind her just to make sure she could grab me if she needed to. There were plenty of lifeguards as well. We got to the other side and I was holding Amanda in the water and the lifeguard said, "You really shouldn't have her here if she can't swim". I let go of Amanda and she just swam away. I told the lifeguard she can swim and I was just holding her because she's my baby! :)

Amanda wanted to jump off the diving board one more time. As she did, I turned to the lifeguard and she made the funniest face of disbelief. Hmm, not quite 6? Future Olympic swimmer? Probably not, but I'm so proud of how far she's come this summer!

Amanda's favorite camp song: "Baby Shark" bah bah, bah bah bah bah..baby shark!