Sheng had a wonderful first week of school. It was off to a bit of a rocky start, but ended wonderfully! Each time he experiences something new, he tends to slip back into old patterns of distress, complaining of headaches and being too tired. We know that this will eventually pass and just try to reassure him that all is well and he is safe. He now gets up excited and comes home excited!

Thursday night I got the most wonderful, exciting surprise of my life! (okay, except for Sheng himself) We bought Sheng a bilingual bible for his birthday, but he didn't seem all that interested in reading it. When school started, I thought about ways to get him to relax before trying to go to sleep since his bedtime was now moved up a bit earlier. We all like to read, so I explained to him that his bedtime is 7:30, but he could read for 30 minutes if he would like. I took out several of his Chinese books and put them, along with his bible, on his nightstand. He chose to read the bible every night. Wednesday night, after reading about Jesus, Sheng told me that he loves Jesus very much and that He was a good, good man! It brought tears to my eyes! Needless to say, this sparked a long conversation about Him and how he is alive and with us always.

Sheng has been saying prayers each night before he goes to sleep, but Wednesday night they were different. His prayers were purposeful and heartfelt, not just a quick, "going through the motions" type of prayer. His face was serene with a huge smile, and he signed thank you to the Lord. Lifting my eyes to heaven, I repeated the thank you with overwhelming joy in my heart! I guess we will not know for awhile if he understands enough to accept the Lord as his savior, but one thing I know for sure is, He's doing a mighty work in this little boy's heart!

Friday he got off the bus and ran, top speed, into the house with the biggest grin on his face. He zipped open his backpack and pulled out a shoebox that he had decorated. Inside were 5 things that were important to him. There were three small toys, his little China boy figurine, and the photo album we mailed to him in China with our photos inside. It was so fun to watch him explain everything and to see the joy on his face after creating his "All About Me" box.

Monday afternoon he brought home a three ring binder that Mrs. Walsh had put together for him. It's called a F.I.S.H. binder. (Family Involvement Starts Here) I am thrilled that his teacher is keeping us involved every step of the way. This will really help Sheng to learn and grow. I feel like we're a team! In this folder she included a section labeled "Parent/Teacher Communication." She let me know how the week went and talked about his show-and-tell for Friday. I took his scrapbook to her on Monday, and he shared it with the class Friday. He signed to her, "Mom Dad China don't want me. I prayed and prayed. Mom Dad came and got me," and she said he smiled so big when he said that we came to get him that she had to take a minute to recompose herself. I cried when I read this part and sent up a prayer of thanks that the Lord blessed us so enormously when answering Sheng's prayers. It is such a privilege to be this sweet little boy's mama!

Sheng's friend Tanner was also adopted, and is also in Sheng's class. When it was Tanner's turn for show-and-tell, he displayed a photo of him and his mom and dad with the judge who made the adoption final. Mrs. Walsh said that Sheng had that same big smile on his face that he did when he talked about us coming to get him to be his parents. We think that he truly understands and that there is a special bond between Tanner and Sheng. I am so happy that he has been blessed with a wonderful teacher and a class that he has so much in common with.

David has just been thrilled with how fast Sheng is learning archery. His form is amazing, and it looks as if he's been practicing for YEARS! I'm amazed at how close the two have gotten while sharing a common interest. Sheng and David love quite a few of the same things, like fishing, boating, camping, hunting, etc..., but archery is something that they do together several times each week. I'm going to estimate that they are practicing about 7 hours per week. David has taught Sheng how to keep his own scores, and he loves to run to me when he gets home to show me how he did. Last Saturday, they shot at balloons at Gander Mountain, which he LOVED! He keeps asking me when he can go to his first tournament. David has been learning quite a few signs just by researching ASL for archery. He found a great sign language program for free on the web called ASL Pro.

Dani and Sheng seem to be getting along much better since we've asked her not to try to play mama-hen to him. We've asked her to step back and let him do things for himself, to let us handle it when he does something he shouldn't, and to ask him nicely to stop when he's bugging her. It's already made a huge difference in their relationship. It has also helped that I've been verbalizing his attributes, talking about the good things he does and his good behavior out loud so that she can see that he's not always doing something he shouldn't be. We've also been talking about some of the bad behaviors that she and her other brothers and sister have displayed in the past and how they grew out of them in time with help from Mom and Dad.

"I praise You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." Matthew 11:25