Welcome China!

Mars and Kelly arrived on Wednesday! They are our new Chinese daughter and son for 3 weeks. Garret, Kaelyn, and Brynlee have been so excited to have them come...they've been counting the days! Garret is sharing his room with Mars and Kelly has Bryn's room...Bryn is in with Kaelyn. Mars and Kelly are very fun and we are enjoying getting to know them. Mars is quite a character, he certainly isn't shy and he isn't afraid to try new things. Kelly is sweet and quiet, she loves being with the girls. I think. haha. They get along super anyways. Kelly is 14 and Mars is 12. Teenagers! haha! So far this has been a great experience! We are learning a little Chinese, and hopefully helping them learn some English. Communication is our only struggle, but we are figuring out how despite the language barrier.
During the weekday they are with the other Chinese Students studying English for 3 hours in the morning and then after a lunch break each day they get to take a tour or do something fun. Last week they toured a downtown fire station and walked to River Front park. We went along on that trip, it was fun. Then Friday they got to go to the Oregon Coast and outlets for the day. The weekend is our time to entertain them...so Saturday they wanted to go pick berries, so a group of us went to Olson Farms and picked raspberries, blueberries and cherries. Yum! And Sunday a bunch of us walked around the Salem Art Festival. I think they really enjoyed seeing all the different art booths. A few of them bought some small prints to take home. So we have lots more fun planned during the next 2.5 weeks. I'll try and keep updating!