Ivy is sad at home, but she is getting more action. She has interviewed with my company. (which is also her former company) They are quite slow to finish interviews and decide, so she has applied with my company's competitors as well, and we're hopeful she'll have something within a month or two.

She's got her driver's license now, and has a lot more freedom. She goes grocery shopping on her own now, and can help do some of the driving for the family.

On the sad side, someone hit her car in the parking lot and smashed up the bumper. When we had it in the body shop to fix the bumper, we found out that the car has been pieced together. It had a serious crash in the past, and they cut off the rear half of an identical car and welded it to the front half of the old car. It looks really good on the outside, but cobbled together underneath. The body shop guy says it is not safe. We resolved to get rid of it and buy another car probably as soon as she starts working, and drive our other car most of the time in the meanwhile.

LiFu (our 11 year-old son) is doing well. We just got his scores from some state testing, and he scored over 90th percentile in two areas and just over 50the in one other area. (50% being the state average) The area he scored only 55% in was verbal reasoning. Since he hasn't even been here a year yet, we're proud of him for doing so well.

Constanze, my three-year old daughter from my previous marriage is also doing great. She is as smart as can be, and full of energy whenever she is awake. We just got her a "big girl bike" but she wants to ride her tricycle a while longer.

Ivy still has periods of depression. But until she gets her green card and a job, I don't think she will be happy with life. She has been applying for jobs gradually. I am a little surprised that she seems to be getting passed over for her accent. Her accent is not too bad. I can understand over 97% of what she says, I just have to concentrate a little more. I would think that her skills in Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, XiangYang local language) would more than make up for a Chinese accent. Also, she would be a great Equal Opportunity hire. (Equal Opportunity companies are ones that try to hire more women and minorities to appear that they are unbiased)

Many of you have read my blogs here and extended your friendship through the site. Several also contacted me as penpals, and I'm glad to know you.

For my next update, I hope to be able to post that Ivy has a job and is much happier.