In Which I Tell You The Funniest Adoption Story

EVER.

Meet Katie. 

Katie is here with her Duck & Llama addicted husband adopting Simon.

Katie's pretty normal.
Funny.
Smart.
Loves Jesus.
Kind hearted.

But here's what Katie is not:
She is not good at Mandarin.
Nay.....
she's AWFUL at Mandarin.

Katie knows this.
So, like all good adoptive mothers she thought ahead and purchased some translation cards to help her communicate with Simon during these early days.
You go Katie.
That's awesome.

Now it's at this point I'd like to pause for a quick lesson in Chinese.
This:

is water.

The Chinese word for water is shui.
Pronounced shhway.

This:

is a bed for sleeping.
The Chinese word for sleep is shuijiao.
It is not spelled nor pronounced like shui.

Enter poor little Simon. 

Every night the sweet boy has gotten ready for bed as his mother stands nearby and says, "Shui! Time for shui!"
At which point Simon dutifully gets up and goes and gets water as his mother asked.
Weird American woman wanting me to drink water at bedtime.
To which  he gets a resounding "Boo!"(no) "It's time for shui!"
Ummmm, ok.
I'll go get some more water.
Head to the water bottle.
"No Simon....it's time for shui, not water!"
"Shui! Shui! Shui!"
Water! Water! Water!

Oh my goodness how I wish you could here Katie tell this story.
Bless her.
So. Stinkin. Funny.
She's confused the poor kid to no end every night since he arrived.
I'm telling ya.....it's pee your pants funny to hear her tell it. 

Katie only realized the error of her ways when out at the Noodle House last night when one of her friends asked the waiter for some shui and she leaned over and asked her friend why she just told that waiter to go to bed.

Oh the horror when the realization of what she had been doing descended upon her.

Cracking.
Me.
Up.

So in sum,
Don't believe every Chinese pronunciation card that you order.

You just never know what you may actually be saying.
Now go get yourself a cup of shui and then go install Llama Duck on your iPhone.
You can thank me later.