Writing her first check!

Beverly was very excited tonight to write out her very first check from her bank account! She needed to pay for air time on her cell phone, and writing a check was a big, new adventure!

She wanted me to take a close up picture of the check, but it's a little fuzzy! :-)


Tonight after dinner Abby was sitting next to Beverly and kept saying "We look like twins! We have the same hair! We both have glasses! We have the same earrings!" It's funny to see that she is noticing their similarities!

Beautiful Weekend

The weather has been nice and we have enjoyed some outdoor time! Yesterday Beverly and TJ had a chance to spend some time on the tennis court, and I think they enjoyed it!

Friday night we did a little dress shopping for homecoming. Beverly is very excited about the dance, which will be on October 18. It's exciting to share her first high school dance experience with her!

She is staying busy with homework and doing some extra things, like being part of the high school speech team. They are practicing now for their speech meets, which will start in November.

Beverly and Mikaela

This picture is a couple weeks old, but I wanted to share a picture of Beverly with her friend, Mikaela. They really enjoy spending time together at school and it is a neat connection for them since Mikaela has traveled to China, and has a sister adopted from Guangxi.

A Big Day for Beverly!

Today was full of many firsts for Beverly!

She spent most of the afternoon at the high school working as a student council representative during the dedication of our new High School building. They served as greeters and hostesses to the community coming through the building, and joined in on the dedication ceremony to honor the community for providing our children with this wonderful new school facility.

After I picked her up ... she had special permission from her parents, so we were off to Pekin to get her ears pierced! She ended up choosing the very same earrings that Abby chose when she had hers pierced last September. After hearing about the process and carefully studying the two marks on her ear lobes to be sure the earrings would be even and in line with each other, it was time to start. The first earring went in without even a flinch, the second one brought a tiny "ouch". But then she was ready to look in the mirror and admire her new jewels!

As soon as we returned, TJ and our neighbors were waiting for her to take her fishing on the lake in our subdivision. They caught a big bucket of fish ... mostly bluegill and a bass or two. Beverly caught the most, with at least 15 fish on her scorecard. She is holding one of the fish she caught in that picture. She came in jumping up and down saying, "I love fishing so much!" Now our neighbor is preparing some of the fish for the kids to sample tonight. Should be fun!


Back to school tomorrow for another big week!

Orientation Picnic - more pictures!

Thanks to Shannon (our ISE area rep!) for these pictures that show Beverly at the orientation picnic yesterday!

Exchange Student Picnic

(click on the picture to see a larger version)


Yesterday we went to a picnic organized by the exchange student agency ... and Beverly had fun meeting 33 other students from all around the world!

Hopefully we will have some better pictures shared with us by a couple other host families that were there ... we dashed out for the picnic late, and in that process, neither Beverly or I remembered to take our cameras! So this picture was taken with my cell phone, and for some strange reason it looks like we were in a fog! ha ha But it was actually a nice day.

The kids introduced themselves, telling the country they are from and where they are attending high school here in the US. It was a fun day! And the students will be back together for a few special trips to St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago throughout the year. Beverly really enjoyed getting to know some of the girls from Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. There was a boy there from Hong Kong whose host sister told Beverly to speak to in Cantonese ... and when Beverly said something to him in Cantonese, he kept answering her in English. ha ha

Today is a dedication for our new school building and Beverly has her first official duty as a member of the high school student council in being a student host of the event. She has been very interested in student council and is also on the dance committee for homecoming. Drew was part of student council and I think it is such a worthwhile activity for the kids.

Tremont High School Football!

Bevery attended her first high school football game tonight with us! I think she enjoyed the crowd and activity ... and especially the band and seeing the cheerleaders! She met up with some friends and got to see the crowd gather up to support our school team. Unfortunately Tremont lost the game, but we had a good time anyway!

Tomorrow we have a picnic for exchange students to attend in the afternoon, so I'm sure we will have some new pictures then too!

Settling in!

Beverly is doing really well adjusting to life here in the U.S. I often wonder if I would do half as well if I were trying to live with a family in China right now and change my lifestyle!

We had a big weekend moving Drew off to college, so Beverly got to take a car trip (a 4 hour drive) to Kenosha, Wisconsin. When we crossed the state line ... she commented that it looked just like Illinois. ha ha

These pictures are from helping Drew set up his dorm room, and also looking out at beautiful Lake Michigan during our visit to campus. Kenosha is about 50 miles North of Chicago, and the college is right on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Today it was back in the school routine. She's really doing well making friends and getting to know the kids and teachers. We hear lots of fun stories about the happenings of school each day, so I think she likes it there most of the time!

After dinner, Beverly and TJ took a quick bike ride, and then she and Abby played outside for a bit just before it was getting dark. Almost time for bed and another school day!