[KarenInCa]

Lissa, really, no apology necessary. Your post, in no way, offended me. I was (admittedly) still a little raw from my coworker indicating that I am a poor parental figure for not sending her to Chinese school. And I just get so tired of others judging my relationship with my child based on what I do or do not do to preserve her heritage. And not based on whether or not my child feels safe, secure, accepted, and loved.
Frankly, I've seen both side. I've read blogs from adult Korean adoptees who are bitter about not being exposed to their heritage enough as they were growing up, and I've read blogs from KADs that are bitter because their a-parents tried too hard to incorporate the cultural aspects, when they could not actually give that to them....so the cultural part became a token gift, for the child, at best. Then there are those that find a happy medium. I want to know where that comes from. Is it the personality of the child, of the parents, or the fact that the child was able to mostly to feel loved and appreciated? With the rest being important but secondary.
Perhaps the key is not how much we try (or don't try) to expose them to Chinese heritage, but rather how much we embrace their desire to know more.
Melissa-I've also heard that Mandarin is becoming more prevalent in high schools. We've always followed her lead in what she likes to do. She likes dance, so she is in dance class, she liked doing gymnastics (from our furniture), so we have her enrolled in gymnastics classes- And she's really excelling at it, Im hoping that she wants to do competitive gymnastics as she gets older, but that too, is based on how she will feel about gymnastics in a few years. She might just find greater interest in something else. She likes that she's from China, and there's a Chinese heritage day camp in summers for kids 5 and older here, so maybe that might be one of our next adventures.