Summer 夏天 (xia tien)

Summer is especially brutal in Texas. My hubby and I began a late gardening project and we really enjoyed seeing new baby plants germinating everyday. I have to say, the feeling of accomplishment from gardening is really awesome! Somehow the whole thing was started by Mat and I ended up being the person who waters  the plant everyday. Sounds familiar?

We are currently trying to grow tomatoes, summer squash, arugula and green beans. Wish us luck!

Hectic May

Somehow the word has got out and we have been receiving quite a few translation requests from parents who adopted children from the same cities, the two places mentioned the most are Qichun & Baotou city. It's good that more and more parents are aware of our service and are seeking help. We are always happy to help new parents however I know this has also affected the turnaround time of our work. So I really appreciate your patience in this.

Thank you for supporting us and keep the letter coming!

Benefits of the Doubt

Sometimes I wonder how good of a work can a professional translation company offer besides a pretentious notary stamp.

I recently had to hire translation service to translate some documents for me and my husband for immigration procedures. I was quoted $190 to translate 2 birth certificates and when I received the work, the place of birth and date of birth were translated wrong (these are probably the most important parts of the document) and I had to proof read for them. So much for paying $190.

It makes me wonder how accurate can the translation be when you are sending documents that you have no clue about to the so-called professionals. Parents, if you ever have doubts please do contact us. There is no harm of writing to us at no cost to you.

Peace.

祝大家新年快乐，龙年好运！

It's a new year and it's the year of dragon. As usual, I no longer truly celebrate Chinese New Year since I'm far from my family but I long to see them again and enjoy the reunion and laughter together.

To carry on the tradition, I will probably do a small 捞生dinner in my own home and enjoy the good eats with a few close friends. I also want to continue the tradition of 红包for the kids of my close friends because the fondest memory I had as a kid during Chinese New Year was to receive more pocket money.

I wish you and your family would start the tradition by wearing new clothes, red preferably, and visit China Town and watch lion dance with your children. Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

Welcome Tina! Expansion of language!

We got a new volunteer! Tina is a great friend of mine who just discovered my work last week and has decided to lend her hand to help out. Despite the fact that I translate for free, I don't really get a lot of requests all the time but it is always great to share the joy of helping the adopting parents. I am grateful to have Tina to help.

Also, I would also like to let you know that we will now accept French (European or Canadian French) and Spanish documents if you need help translating to Chinese as well! Please spread the word.

Hello Autumn

Part of me is sad that Summer is gone and part of me is rather glad to welcome to cooling fall weather. This is probably the most gruesome summer I had ever been through in Austin. In August, it reached as high as 110F (44C), it was unbelievably hot and I am glad I survived. Anyway, coming home from vacation with 10 bags of dried leaves aren't exactly exciting either. But hey! It is still better than being in 111F degrees.

Hope you parents are enjoying the summer too. Did you make a trip to China? Did you go hiking in Italy? Would love to see some photos from y'all.

Take care!

Xinran 薛欣然

Dear parents,
I received a gift from an adopting mother from Netherlands not long ago. It was a book called "Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother" by Xinran. It is an eye opening story about adoption in China. Having been translating letters for many of you made me intrigued about the adoption process in China. As someone who are not deeply involved in the process, I noticed that many official reports from the local authority are close to 95% identical. From the abandoned infant report to orphan development report. The book shows  a dark side of what happened behind the closed door of China one-child policy, the price to pay for cultural revolution and rapid economy development. It has once again confirmed a shameful side of Chinese culture where females were suppressed for thousands of years.

Check out this book if you are interested about the adoption history and process in China. 

Another hectic May

Hello parents,
work has not slowed down and I will be moving to another location in Austin next week. Apologize if I cannot deliver any work to you as early as you expect but I will try my best.

Excuse my slow response

It is that time of the year again but this time around, 24 hours seem not enough for me to do my work. My job is exciting and I really like it, the challenges come with fulfilment and a sense of accomplishment (if I get it done).

With that says, I just want to let you know that I don't get a lot of time to check my email lately to do translation. Please pardon my slow response. I will get to it during weekend. Happy spring to you!

A Much Anticipated Summer

Matthias and I are finally going to Malaysia to visit the place where I once called home.

We plan to be there for a little over 2 weeks but that's not a lot of time especially the fact that we have to spend 3-4 days of time loss in traveling and dealing with timezone difference. Regardless, I am still excited to be there with him. We are planning to visit part of Borneo, particularly Sabah while we are there. As I started to read on the things to do in Sabah, I begin to worry that we will not have enough time to do everything that we want to do there so I guess we will probably need to use some tough love to select just a few places that we can visit while we are there.

In essense, I really would like to hit these spots of Sabah:
1. Mount Kota Kinabalu trekking and catching the magnificent sunrise
2. Have a wild adventure at the Danum Valley Conservation to see Proboscis monkeys. I know, what a weird looking creature.

3. As the newbies in scuba diving, we got hooked from the Blue Hole experience in Belize. Naturally, we would love to hit Sipadan -- the much acclaimed best diving spot in the world.

 

 

 

Gone

Gone, just like my oldest brother during the holidays season. Sam left this earth due to motorcycle accident and the whole family is still shaken from the reality. I was spending my holidays in Paris when I heard the news and was able to get a last-minute ticket to fly back to Malaysia to attend his funeral.

I came back to US last week but my mind is still in Malaysia. Hoping and wishing that everyone in the family continues to stay strong and heal, especially my mom who is in vulnerable health condition. Please pray for them. Thank you.

Belize

I spent a week in Belize during Thanksgiving week and really enjoyed our very first Caribbean vacation with  friends, it was a fantastic getaway. When we landed Belize, I was surprised to see how the Chinese community is thriving in this small country. Apparently the Chinese and Taiwanese governments have special agricultural trade relationship with Belize and I was told that one third of Belize population is Chinese. More specifically, the Cantonese. Why? I have no idea but most of them seems to be operating either restaurants, or grocery store for living. The store business looks very similar to the kind that my father (who is a first generation immigrant in Malaysia) is operating now and it brings back a lot of memories of growing up in a small rural town and in the shop.

For examples, I learned to calculate changes quickly when customer passed me the monies. I learned to say "what do you want?", "how many", "how much do you want?" in Malay before I started elementary school. After school, I spent my afternoon doing homework in front of the shop while keeping an eye on shoplifter. During our nap time, mom would lay down a few pieces of newspaper on the concrete floor at a corner where customers don't usually come during the nap hours. I don't recall if we had pillow to sleep on but I remember staring at the boxes of fabrics and tailor's accessories while trying to go to sleep...and many more fond and not so fond childhood memories.

At Caye Caulker, I looked at the young Chinese girl who was guarding the cashier and doing homework at the sametime and thought perhaps someday she would grow up just as lucky as me. To have a career, decent paid job, a safe shelter and a comfortable life. I was humbled by what I saw and filled with a great sense of pride of my root. Throughout the trip, I kept telling Matt how my childhood was like in a rural town and how I learned to play games with anything we could find in the nature.

All through my teenage, I felt like I was always trying to be somebody else to fit in at a private school where upper middle class kids attend. Luckily, my school friends accepted me as I was and we continue to stay friends for almost 20 years now (boy, do I feel old!). Accomplishments in life helped to bring more confidence in me, but when I was young and accomplished little -- I was lost and wished someone could have told me that I should be proud of who I am, no matter what. I think all parents should reinforce the confidence in their children so that they are not lost in the big world of egoism and stereotypes.

An Honorary Help

Recently, Nathan from fwcc.org approached me to translate some Chinese children growth charts. It was nice of him to mention my service for credit, I am truly proud of helping for sure. I hope this will also spread the word of my service to other parents who need translation help.

Marion from Netherlands has mailed me a thank you gift and it is a book named "Message from an unknown Chinese mother", this is will my vacation read in Belize this week. Thank you, Marion.

Visitors from Paris

My boyfriend's parents were in town visiting and we were blessed with gorgeous weather. Austin, Texas is a beautiful and diverse city. With the amazing weather, what not to love this city?!

I am a big visit planner and with them in town, I can't help but put pressure for myself to create list after list of things to do in Austin. During their 3 weeks visit, we have done a variety of things together and I hope they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed their company. Apart from that, my French class has definitely paid off! I am a lot more comfortable to converse with them in French and it feels great to slowly conquering the challenge of communication with them.

Virus Scare

oh no! My poor computer has been infected with Virus. I am going to be out of pocket for a while until I get a new OS to reinstall and reformat my computer. Sorry to cause any delay.

Another Update

2 weeks ago I was in Monterrey for a wedding and last weekend I was in San Francisco to cheer my boyfriend for running the half marathon. They are all great, short trip but I wish I could live the vacation feeling slightly longer!

Anyway, I have a week of freedom before another friend from Paris is coming to visit us. I will try to be productive and complete as many requests for you all as possible! 

Apologize in Advance

Work has been keeping me very busy, so is this summer.  Besides all the weddings and travelings that we are doing, we have been having guests visiting us in Austin every month since June till October. So I must apologize in advance if you feel that it is taking me too long to get back to you.

Summer Madness

2 weddings down, one more to go.
I have been invited to 7 weddings in this year alone. I guess I am in the perfect age where everybody is starting to settle down, get marry and build a family. I love celebrating the big day but sometimes this could be costly and too much. This is especially true when I have to travel or be part of the wedding party.

Please pardon me if you are sensing slow response on my part for it has been quite a busy summer for me.

孩子 Children

孩子("Hai Zi"): children, this noun can be used for singular or plural.
Some people may prefer to add the word "small" in front of the words to denote small children, such as 小孩子(XiaoHaiZi)。

Over lunch, a friend told me how much he enjoys being a father of a newborn and how the child has completely changed his life. However, he would really like to adopt a kid if his wife agrees to it. His reason is to help out the kids out there who are in need of parents, a home, a family to belong to.  I, too, have thought about adoption, only if I am at 35 and single. I am happily in love now and I hope someday I could do both-- give birth to my baby and adopt one to change the kid's and our lives for the better. Perhaps I haven't thought through the tough process of adoption just yet but when I do, I am sure I will have plenty of supports from all the parents I have helped so far.

Busy Bee...

As summer approaches, I find my social and travel calendar filled up quickly. It was New York last weekend and camping in the next. Not to mention I am in the age where most of my friends are getting  hitched so there are a lot of spring and summer weddings to attend.

I have noticed the requests are starting to pile up in my inbox and I will try to get them done as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience. :)