Our Little Guest

This week we have the wonderful pleasure of having little Nan Nan stay with us. He is an orphan who came to Shanghai for surgery months ago from his orphanage and has stayed ever since. Until a few weeks ago he was staying in a group foster home run by loving Chinese ladies and has since been placed with my neighbor Charlene Stone and her husband and two Chinese adopted daughters. They will foster parent him for as long as they can or until he gets adopted. They are visiting their youngest daughter's orphanage this week and asked us to care for him. What fun to have a little one around again (no I don't have the itch for a baby)! Many expat families serve as foster homes for the babies who come to Shanghai for surgeries. This keeps them in loving environments where all their needs are met. We had a great first day and this little guy doesn't suffer for attention for one minute.

A Little Bragging

OK, excuse us for this. But a few awards came through recently, and since they are our kids, WE at least think it is news. ;)

Lance and two of his buddies won a first place award at the Shanghai Film Festival – Best Music Video (Elementary School Disivion) for a film they made last year. Copyright has now cleared, so it can be shown on YouTube. Very cool, to have a film star in the family. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEgcDl7OYx4

Lucas and two classmates won an award this week on National History Day. They developed a very detailed documentary film about Dr. Feng Shan Ho, who rescued thousands of Jews from the Nazis by gaining them passage to Shanghai. They used video, stills, voice-over, interviews, etc. to put it together. It was a city-wide competition; they earned third place – and a VERY happy history teacher in the process!

In the meantime, Stacia also pulled in a couple recent accolades. Basketball season finished up, she was named First-Team for both All Conference (Shanghai) and also All-APAC (Asia-Pacific Athletic Conference). At the year-end banquet, she was recognized as team MVP and captain. Not bad for a sophomore!

Equally exciting, Stacia was just invited to join National Honor Society. This is a measure of high grades and strong service in the community. It is great to see her recognized for all the hard work and determination!

The kids all brought home good report cards, so as a bonus for the whole family we went out to a new local treat we found – COLDSTONE CREAMERY! Since ice cream is not too common here, and good ice cream basically non-existent, this is quite a find in Shanghai and will hopefully lead to another set of excellent report cards soon!