Building Connections & Google Translate

We have had some hilarious comic relief come from using Google translator. One of our favorite was when Mercy heard Zachary answer Mama with a "yes, Ma'am". She was really confused & upset with Zachary. She was telling him, "no, no, no... say yes, Mama". So, we got the handy translator out to explain. It translates it to "yes, Queen". Mercy's eyes got huge and her jaw dropped. She asked us, "really, Mama is a queen?" She was serious. We were laughing so hard we could not correct it immediately. All the kids spent the rest of the day pretending that Mama was royalty. We had some pretty good laughs.

 

The other thing that has happened is major confusion. Mercy was using the translator to tell Mama that she hasn't been in school for a long time in the orphanage. Mama responded, "yes, I know. I am glad you are not there anymore." Only it translated the response as " I am glad you don't exist." We watched her facial expressions move from shock to hurt to outrage. She shouted, "oh, yes?" We knew pretty quick there had been a misunderstanding. It took the next 20 minutes going back & forth trying to sort out the breakdown in communication. We eventually got to the laughing stage. Mama even acted out giving the translator a scolding for messing up the conversation. Mercy laughed hysterically. Whew... it was a good reminder that this translator is very unreliable. We have now scheduled some mandarin speaking friends for weekly visits so we can make sure we are having some regular, deep & clear communication.

 

 

We are sharing time on the trampoline, game time & now.... we are even sharing a head cold! Mama got sick and the rest seem to be following along. :) We are having a lot of fun learning to be a family together. We made another trip back to the Chinese grocery market to stock up on a few favorites.

 

Then, we had two nights in a row of better food experiences for Mercy. She tried a little bit more of our meal last night & tonight. We feel she is really brave trying things she has never seen before.  We were not as brave in China with her food as she is being here with our food. What a trooper!

 

Many will be relieved to know she is a huge fan of Whole Hog BBQ! Baba thinks that is great news!

 

 

 

 

 

 Art streamed JESUS FILM for kids in Mandarin the other day. She watched the whole thing & seemed very interested. She didn't have a lot of questions or dialog afterwards. In fact, she asked if they could all go jump on the trampoline.

 

Then, today we saw the sweetest thing .....

Mercy snuggled up in the chair reading her Bible.

Thanks to everyone who continues to pray faithfully for our family. We are trusting HIM with all of our hearts. We are praying that God would be glorified in our family & in yours.

With joy,
Art, Jen, Allie, Mercy, Zachary, Jacob, Zoey, Bethany Joy