God Loves Lucy! Feb 18, 2008

We had a Chinese Exchange teacher stay with us for two weeks. Her American name is Lucy.

When you sign up to be a host family, you have to fill out a form that includes how many people live in your house, i.e. your family. Well, they didn’t have enough lines for starters. So I had to squeeze the three little girls in between the lines. Then they ask you to list your pets (“Does livestock count? No? Ok, two cats, two hermit crabs, a snake—I’ll just write down ‘snake’ instead of ‘python’, it sounds nicer…, do we have two lizards or are we down to one? Ok, one lizard. The rat died, so no rats this time. Um, should I put down the tarantula or is this enough?”).

A perfectly normal American family.

Yeah, right.

The form gets faxed to China, and the student or teacher gets a copy. Lucy was worried. Here the poor dear is going out of her country with one other teacher and 37 12yo students who have never been away from home before. And she gets picked by some looney family with 9 children and a zoo. She *knows* she’s not going to get a moment’s peace.

Dh and I decide to pick her up, just the two of us, so as not to overwhelm her with bodies right at first. By the time we get home, only (only!) the five oldest kids are still up. They come, one or two at a time, into the living room to meet her. I show her around the house, bypassing bedrooms with supposedly sleeping children in them, and then show her up to her room. (Oldest dd graciously gave up her room for two weeks, and roomed with the three girlsies.) She said, “It’s so… quiet!”

She didn’t get a chance to meet the rest of the family until the following afternoon. She was amazed at how quiet they were. And helpful. She told me that in China, the children NEVER help with the dishes or chores. The following night, the host families put on a Welcome Potluck for all the students. The students had to learn their host family members’ names, and I was very impressed with how well they did.

When Lucy stood up to introduce us, she named every single person in our family! Then she said, “I was really worried when I found out that I was going to be staying with a family with 9 children! But now I think that large families are very nice, and Everyone should have one!”

She taught the little girls how to say “Nee how” (hello), and the middle boys taught her how to play card games—War, Go Fish, Indian Poker (has something to do with putting a card on your forehead that everyone can see except yourself and making bets with little brother’s penny collection) and 52 Pick-Up. She did not like Scrabble, even though we were neck-and-neck most of the game.

Lucy and I had a good time together. We talked almost every evening about all kinds of things, what we believe, what she believed, how sad the Chinese were when the One Child law was passed, and how spoiled those only children are now. Why I had a tray with an American Flag on it in my kitchen and patriotism.

We pray before every meal, and we talk about God throughout the day, and so it was pretty natural that she asked us what we believed. She told me her Grandmother was a Christian, and her mother was a Buddhist. But sadly, she didn’t believe in anything. She wished she could believe in something. She also told me that she hadn’t really wanted to come on this trip, that her headmaster pressured her into it. It was right over the Chinese New Year holiday. She was a bit miffed at the headmaster, especially when she found out she’d been “adopted” by a humongous family.

One night, we were talking about school (the whole subject of homeschooling fascinated her, being a teacher) and she asked if we had heard of the story of Moses. I said, “Yes, it’s in the Bible.”

She said, “It is?? In the Bible?!”

“Yes, it’s right here in Exodus. Would you like to read it?”

“Oh, yes!”

So I handed her my Bible and we found Exodus, and she sat down and read two chapters. Then she said she was tired and was going to go to bed, and asked if she could take the Bible upstairs to finish reading about Moses. I said she could.

17yo R, who was sitting on the couch listening to us talk, said, “That was smooth.. giving her a Bible to read!”

I told the kids later what had happened, so the next evening, 12yo A gave her a New Testament, that had a study at the beginning. “This is a Bible? For me? To keep?” she exclaimed. “Oh, thank you!”

I ended up getting a nasty virus half way through her stay, and so the kids cooked and cleaned up and ran the house. One night, she made Chinese food for us. 11yo D and 6yo S were her main helpers. S said, “That’s what we do in this family, we help each other!” Lucy said that was the most amazing thing she had ever heard a child say.

I wanted to get her a Bible in Chinese. I looked online for the Gideons, or the Chinese Church in town, but came up with dead ends. Dh said, “Why don’t I try the Bible Book Store?” and what do you know, they had one! I had all the kids sign it and we wrote in Bible verses pertaining to salvation, and then some of our favorites. I wrapped it up in a gift bag, and we called a Family Meeting and gave it to her.

She opened it up, and looked at all of us with tears running down her cheeks… “Oh THANK YOU! My Very Own Bible! I will READ it! I am so glad my headmaster made me come on this trip! God must have made her tell me to come!”

It was hard not to cry when she left. I know I made a good friend. I hope God makes her my sister.