欢送会

The big event for the day here?  Last day of school. 

Julianna loves to be with people, loves to be part of a group, and does not like to be the center of attention.  I knew today might be a little challenging for her, and she handled herself super well.  Goodness, she is so much more mature than when she first walked in the gates almost two years ago! 

The party started with a little welcome from me and Julianna giving all of her classmates a gift.  After some brainstorming last weekend, Matt landed on the idea of giving each of them a small globe... it was perfect.  The ladies at the store even attached a little sticker just west of the Great Lakes, marking where Julianna "is from".  ("Is from" is a tricky concept for someone like Julianna.  Born in Beijing, in her four and a half years, she has spent less than four months in her passport country.  "Where are you from?" will always be a question that leads to "hmmm, well, it's complicated."  For the sticker on the globe we went with Matt's hometown, our destination next week.) 

She loved pulling them out of the big box and handing them out.  (China is king of cheap plastic stuff - I'm not sure we could have afforded 50 plastic globes in America!)

Matt did a little "map lesson" that the kids loved.  My favorite was when he asked them to guess the amount of time we spent on the airplane en route to America.  The first kid to raise his hand said "8 minutes".  I wish!  He also asked them how many people they thought rode on that airplane.  A little boy answered, "one thousand".  (he he he.  I love little kids and numbers!) 

Each classmate brought a small gift for Julianna too (I told you this was a gift-giving culture!).  I had this great idea to take a photo of Julianna and each child as they gave their gift.  Ummm, not so much - it was a mob scene.  

After the gift-giving settled down I got out some markers and card stock.  Last week I chose a little photo album to use as a memory book from school - the kids colored on 4x6 photo size card stock, and I'll print the photos from today, and put them all in the photo album. 

After the coloring Matt taught the class how to sing "He's got the whole world in His hands".  It was awesome!  They were so cute trying to sing along to the English words, and the hand motions were a hit. 

Next up?  Snack time!  We went with brownies - you just can't get more American than butter and sugar, flavored with a little cocoa powder! 

One final class photo and the party was over.

Matt and I then dropped in on Lydia's class for a few photos too .... Lydia has only been in school for a few months, and we focused most of our time and energy today on helping Julianna say goodbye well. 

I wasn't expecting to be quite so emotional about it, but I definitely got teary eyed as I walked out the school gate for the final time at noon today.  That school has been soooooooo good to us and for us.  A successful local school experience is not a given - in many ways ours has been better than most.  God is good, and chose to bless us with abundant grace in this particular area. 

Oh Jesus, please give us another school like this one!