"She Looks Just Like You"

Tina worked at Rocketdyne as a programmer in IT.  I was working in IT budgeting and cost controls.  We met in the coffee area, where we ran into each other several times.

What first gave us a subject of common interests was Chinese movies.  "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had just come out (2000), with the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh as the heroine.  Tina discussed several concepts from Chinese culture, which explained some subtleties of the movie that had been lost on me.

Tina was ethnic Chinese.  Her family was living in Saigon during the Vietnam War.  Her father was a gem dealer.  They left Saigon on a boat, with a load of diamonds in their clothes, and eventually made their way to America.  With no English training, Tina entered a public high school as a teenager, and made her way.  She married a Caucasian American, and they had one son, who was about 12 and in a public middle school.  Tina sent her son to a Chinese language and culture program every Saturday.

A couple of  times, Tina talked about how her son was having learning issues in public school.  In fact, his English teacher had reprimanded Tina, telling her that his Saturday Chinese program was confusing his English learning.  So much for cultural sensitivity.

Months passed.  I had not run into Tina for some time.  I was walking down the hallway, when I saw Tina and another co-worker, Stacy, talking up ahead. Tina motioned for me to join them.  As I got nearer, Tina said: "Coleman, come and see my daughter".  Immediately, I felt a pang of confusion; after all the times that Tina had talked to me about her son, I could not remember any discussion about a daughter!

As I got near, Tina held out a photo and said: "This is my daughter".  It was a picture of a cute Asian girl, approximately 6-years-old.  Confused but determined, I said: "Oh, Tina, see is so cute, and she looks just like you." Off to the side, I heard Stacy's muffled laugh, and knew something was wrong.

Then it all came out.  Tina said: "My husband and I are going back to China in two weeks to get her and bring her to America.  She is an orphan who we are adopting."

Tina and her husband did adopt the young girl, and she entered into public school first-grade with no English background.  Rather like her mother's experience, but much younger.

Then, again, I did not see Tina for about six months. Finally we did run into each other, and I asked her how the daughter was doing, especially trying to learn a new language.  Apparently, quite well. Tina said: "She is now the ring-leader in her first-grade class, and sasses me just like any other Valley girl."