Matthew James (soon to be the newest member of the Lindner family)

Matthew \m(a)-tthew\: (pron.) gift of God [Matthaios Greek]




Two notable events occurred for the Lindner family on November 11, 2010: Emma turned eleven and Matthew became a part of our family as we began to foster him. At the time, we believed the arrangement was only temporary, that this relationship would be setting Matthew up to become the official member of another family. Our assumptions were that we were only fostering him. Yet, here we find ourselves near the end of a long process to adopt our wonderful little guy.

Needless to say, Matthew has come a long, long, long way since that first glorious day. Seeing as he first came into our family on November 11, this probably would have been a more appropriate post at that time but, hey, everybody makes mistakes. :)

Quick Facts
Favorite form of transportation: subway
Favorite snack: peanuts and cheese sticks 
Favorite food: noodles
Least favorite food: vegetables (surprise, surprise)
Favorite drink: chocolate milk
Favorite word: Why?
Favorite phrase: (enter name), what're you doin' here?
Favorite TV show: Super Why!
Favorite pastime: washing dishes (seriously)


As of a couple weeks ago, Matthew was introduced to the Christmas classic, Frosty the Snowman. I'm not sure if the story interests him so much as the song that it inspired. Here's Matthew's version of the song:

Frosty the snowman was a jopsy happy coal

With a corn-cup pipe and a button nose

And two eyes make of coal

And, yeah, that's pretty much it. He doesn't sing the whole song.

At Metro (supermarket nearby, similar to Costco), Christmas music has been playing. The other day, the Frosty song began to play. Matthew stood up in our carriage and, at the top of his little lungs, began belting out the words. While he was singing a small crowd formed around our carriage. Unfazed, Matthew continued to sing. Everyone was smiling, laughing, and a couple people even clapped. One Chinese lady approached us and, in broken English, inquired as to whether he would also be performing the next song.
This is just another way he makes us laugh everyday.

I don't believe we've mentioned Matthew's preschool before, so now seems an appropriate time to do so. He has been attending a nearby center since September. Nearby as in, get outside, walk for about two minutes within our courtyard, turn left, turn left again, and boom, you're there. From ten to twelve each Tuesday and Thursday, Matthew attends a little place called the Lighthouse Center. With a semester gone by, his academic progress is super. His teacher made a point last week to mention his wonderful progress. According to her report, he now actually participates in class, listens to the teacher, and understands more.



The Matthew-Zachary relationship has been rocky.



In the beginning, jealousy kept Matthew from sharing his parents with Zachary, like he was afraid Zach would take them. Now, Matthew acts like his big brother. He cares for Zach, getting him toys, attempting to feed him, and all. They get along like brothers, and they fight like brothers. Mostly over toys. Overall, Matthew truly loves Zachary.

Thanksgiving 2013

This past Thanksgiving was our fourth consecutive year in which we've celebrated Thanksgiving in China. We never imagined that we would be here long enough to do that. My teacher, her husband, and son came to our home to join in the festivities. Accompanying them was another lady, her son, and her mother, who went to my teacher's church. Presently she is struggling through a divorce; it has been really hard on her and her family. This was also Zachary's 1st Thanksgiving and he loved the food.

The tree was brought out and decorated the day before we celebrated Thanksgiving (which was Saturday instead of Thursday), so that was there. We've improved the star on the top of the tree from being surrounded by gold-and-red tinsel stars to being wrapped up in gold-and-red ribbon, and abandoned any attempts to include my plastic blue drums (which got crushed). Going for a look classier than last year's, the ornaments are composed primarily of red bulbs and silver bulbs. And there's a Red Sox baseball tucked in there somewhere, in the spirit of sports and all.

As he seriously doesn't do well with strangers waltzing around our humble abode, Brodie was transferred downstairs to have a haircut and a good wash at the pet shop right outside our south gate.

The guests came at around 4 pm, and the turkey completed its roasting about 5 pm. The fowl was done at a later time than expected (Cheryl started cooking it at 10:30 am and thought it would be done at 3:30 pm), so dinner was postponed by about 1 1/2 hours, but hey, good things come to those who wait! In the end, the turkey was delicious.

The funny thing was, our guest were supposed to come around 2 pm... around 3, they still weren't here. I sent a text to my teacher to ensure everything was okay. Sometimes, in translation, things get mixed up. Here we were cooking all this food, and then my teacher texts me back, "We are eating lunch and we will be there at 4."

Um, what...?

So I text her back, "Lunch? You do know we make a lot of food for Thanksgiving."

"Really?" she replied.

On Thursday, I filled her in on all the food we would be having, and she was excited about it. But, here she was having lunch before coming here or Thanksgiving dinner?

Having said all this, the dinner went great and everyone ate plenty. This was their first Thanksgiving dinner.

(A quick history note: During the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Indians, turkey is not known to have really been consumed. A colonist mentions having caught wild fowl, but not necessarily turkey. We don't really know. It's possible, but we couldn't know for absolute certain. For more information, this article written on Thanksgiving Day, 2013, provides a few more facts.)

Matthew, being a people-person, especially enjoyed the company of two boys around his age to play with and other adults to gain the attention of. In the nature of boys, they were loud, but they didn't make a huge mess or go off the walls, so it was a-okay. He doesn't play with kids his age too often (he mostly plays with his older sisters), so he really enjoyed the opportunity. So did we. :D

It was a true blessing to our family being  able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Chinese friends.

Our turkey just fit

The finished product

My teacher