"Language Littles"

Here's another goodie we purchased for Madeline's next care package: Ling from Language Littles!

She's a cute 16 inch doll that speaks 25 different words and phrases in English and Mandarin. Gwen liked her and it's possible that we'll have trouble when we finally have to shove her in the box and mail her off!

Maddy is from Qinzhou in Guangxi Province. We've heard that she very likely does NOT speak either Cantonese or Mandarin but, rather, a unique dialect to her region. So even though Ling is bi-lingual, she'll still (probably) sound totally foreign to Madeline.

If you've read our blog for a while, you know that we stroll through the local mall every morning. Even though the Mall-Moms are pretty snobbish, the vendors aren't and we've gotten to be quite friendly with many of them -- including the people who operate a costume jewelry kiosk. Gwen is mesermized by the mannequin heads and always has to stop and look at them. Over the months, I've bought several sparkley things there for Gwen and even a few for myself. It's owned and operated by a nice woman (and her father?) and she's from Guangdong Province in China.

I mentioned that we're adopting another child from Southern China and she gave me lots of information about Madeline's town and her culture. I asked her if she'd let me pay her to translate a list of questions for Maddy's foster mother and she was happy to translate the questions but insisted that I not pay her. She did a beautiful job! I'll scan them and upload them to the MSN site so other families with kids in Foster Care can print them out and use them.