Our First Letter Exchange

About a month ago, I received a notice from Charlotte’s school that they are introducing post office, stamps, letter and etc in the coming week and we were asked to write a letter to our child and mail it the conventional way to the school address. I was excited as I think the kids will be excited too when they received the letter from their parents this way.

We were asked to keep the letter short, but take this opportunity to express our feelings, expectations, hopes and wishes through this letter. I think this is good as being an Asian, we are not as open and direct when confronting with our feelings and emotion with our loved ones. And I needed this opportunity share my feelings with Charlotte and how things have changed with Abigail’s arrival.

My letter to Charlotte:

亲爱的宣宥,

你知道吗 你是妈妈最宝贝的宝贝? 你是一个很乖, 也很贴心的孩子. 妈妈很欣慰, 也很疼你. 我都会把最好的给你, 用的, 吃的, 穿的, 包括时间和精神. 希望你能健康和快乐的成长.

妹妹出世之后, 家里大大小小的事多了不少. 妈妈也因为要照顾妹妹而很可能有多少忽略了你. 对不起! 但是妈妈还是很爱你的, 希望你会懂事. 你和妹妹都是妈妈的宝贝, 妈妈两个都爱, 两个都疼.

你今年六岁了! 明年你就要升上小学一年纪了. 妈妈最担心的是在学校功课, 饮食, 样样都必须自己负责. 妈妈希望你能学得更自立, 至少在家里能开始学习吃饭和喝奶都不需要再喂就好了! 宣宥 要加油哦!

妈妈爱你!  

Few weeks later, they have an expedition, going to the post office! And I knew what’s coming although nothing was announced by the school. However, Charlotte was very cute and she can’t keep the secret (or maybe she was not told that it suppose to be a secret). She told me that I should expect her letter, in green color envelope J .

One day, I was late from work and she called. She said “Mommy, can you please quickly come home? My letter is here!” J Of course I made my way home at the soonest and she eagerly passed me the letter and asked me to read it!

She wrote:

亲爱的爸爸妈妈
我爱你们
我也爱可宥
可宥是我的好可宥
宣宥上

There was no punctuation on each sentence, and I don't know why the paper was so broken. I think she must be trying to decorate it using a shaped scissors (see the edge of the paper) and that's how it turned out. 可宥 is Abigail's chinese name but she wrote it wrongly (oops!) and the characters on the letter were she and Abigail. The envolope was nicely decorated (I didn't know that it is allowed, haha!), Mr Postman must be amuzed when he delivered it.