Chinese?!

When you visit China, with your children,  you become an attraction!
Our oldest daughter loved this, because "Now you are the ones that don't belong!  Everyone looks like me!"
It was 2003,  as we were coming out of a restaurant in Beijing,  we were surrounded by people trying to figure out who these strangers were!   And why in the world did they have such a beautiful Chinese girl with them!!
After a minute of loud talk, pointing, touching, smiles, thumbs up and "Lucky girl", our daughter became scared.  This happened a few times, in different places!
We had no clue what to tell people!  How you explain that she was adopted, and now lives in the USA?
Our guide, a very young woman,  didn't seem to know what to say either.

So, in preparing for this trip we wanted to be able to explain our family if and when asked.
Our goal is to empower our children so they feel in control of  the situation, if or when it arises.
With the help of our Chinese teacher, Columbus School of Chinese, we think we came up with an easy way to explain our family.

我出生在中国，（但是）我长大在美国。 （I was born in China, (but) I grew up in America.)
Wǒ chūshēng zài zhōngguó, (dànshì) wǒ zhǎng dà zài měiguó. 

我父母是美国人。我住在美国。      (My parents are American. I live in America.)
Wǒ fùmǔ shì měiguó rén wǒ zhù zài měiguó.


 The girls are quite good at it, Steve and I ... well that's another story!  We will keep trying.