Autobiography, Part Two

Madison was working on the second chapter of her autobiography today, and it was amusing to read through, as she's filtered parts of conversations about historical family moments, or mixed up a few facts she's heard along the way.  We corrected these together tonight, and Daddy helped her overall with basic grammar.  But on the whole, she did very well.  I am by no means a grammar expert.  In fact, to this day, I still double space after each sentence ends, because that's the way I was taught in high school.  But grammar changes, and now people like me don't do as well on term papers!  Still, I think she managed to do a decent job with the next part of her autobiography, which we'll post below here in a moment.

Tonight we had taekwondo, which involves whacking each other with combat sticks, something that is thrilling for Madison.  Being allowed to hit someone else with a  stick is a highlight of the day!  Of course, there's more to it than that:  she was doing her form, and even sparring a little.  Today the students tested, and all of them did well enough to earn their first stripe on their belts.  Madison has a few months to go, but she'll be changing belts again, should everything proceed as planned, sometime in December.  We keep looking at this time line, from time to time, and it is astonishing to think about:  Madison might be a black belt by eighth grade.

Today at school she was working with true journalism, which involves interviewing other people.  She was out in the field, interviewing eighth graders, which made her nervous, but she went out there anyway and just like the hard-hitting reporter that she is, Madison got the scoop!  She initially was writing her notes down, but then started to record her interviews with an app on her handheld device. This is just like what the reporters do, recording all the information and keeping in "on the record."

We spent so long on our homework tonight - proofing and so forth - that we didn't have time to watch a movie or play games, but we did read some more from our book, about this insane jedi.  We said our prayers, and Daddy went to work after that writing the next part of the Toy Box skits on stage.  I think it turned out well, and might share that here this weekend.  But for now, we'll close with what Madison wrote, her next chapter of her autobiography:

Chapter 2- My Biological And Adopted Family Tree  (我的生物和采用的家谱)

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life”- Richard Bach

Family is one of the best and most important things in life, even if at times it doesn’t seem like it. Family isn’t always related by blood, but instead by the memories we make with each other. My family that I have isn’t my biological family, but we’ll always be connected with respect, joy, and love for one another.

I was born in the province, Guang Xi, China (in the southern part of China), on June 15, 2006, but my adopted family doesn’t know when I was actually born. My name was Long Mei Yang. When I was almost 1 year old, I was left at an orphanage called the Cangwu Social Welfare Institute. No one claimed me, so the orphanage took me in. They assumed that since I had teeth, I must be about 1 year old. I spent about one year at the orphanage, while my parents were getting ready to adopt me.

On June 30, when I was 2 years and 15 days old, my parents finally adopted me. I was so frightened because I had never been with anyone but the orphanage caregivers. Of course, almost all the other babies were crying, too. After a little while, we made the trip to my new home in the United States. It was a whole new world to me, but I got to meet my new family. The first family members I met met were my mom, dad, and grandparents from my father’s side. I just knew life would only be getting better for me, and it did. To this day, I’m very grateful that I was adopted into my family. I’ve never known anything about my biological family, not even now.  But perhaps someday I will, and someday I can return to China to visit the country I was born in.

My mother’s name is Zena Georgina Green, now Cypher. She was born in New York, New York, on May 8, 1956. She moved to Roswell, Georgia, in 1986. My mom was a nanny for a while before she got married to my dad. My mom has a brother named George, who now lives in Ohio with his wife, Heidi, and one of their two sons, Brandon. My mom is the one who usually cooks. She prepares a lot of good meals for us, like tika and tacos. She also frequently makes sweet tea for us, or even water infused with oranges, limes, cucumbers, and/or mint from our garden in it. She makes a delicious watermelon sorbet! Since neither my dad nor I know how to do the laundry, she does the laundry, too.  Just before adopting me, my mother was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. It was something she had to spend a lot of time fighting. She went through radiation treatments and chemotherapy, and says that her dreams of adopting me were one thing that helped her win her fight against cancer.

I’ve only met my Uncle George, Aunt Heidi, and cousin Brandon once, and that was in 2017. They were really nice. We played a few vicious rounds of Uno one day, and Brandon had ended up with twenty cards by the end of the game. Brandon is going to college to be an engineer, and dreams of working for NASA. Their other son, Mark, has a job with the Air Force. Uncle George is a pilot, so it seems as if working with airplanes runs in the family. Before they went back to Ohio, they gave me a pink bracelet with a turtle on it, and a blue turtle made of glass. I was very happy to meet them. 

My grandmother from my mother’s side is from England, and my grandfather is from New York. My grandfather was in the Air Force and worked for an insurance company before retiring to live in Florida, where they live now. They used to live closer to Orlando, Florida, at a golf course. We would go to Disney World and Disney Springs a lot each time we visited. Now, they live in a Daytona Beach Shores condo right on the coast. Every time we visit them, we are able to go on the beach almost every day.

My father’s  name is David Patrick Cypher. He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on October 31, 1970. He has a sister named Shain Cypher. They moved to Cleveland, Georgia, in 1983. After high school, my dad went to college to become a teacher. When he finished college, he was offered a job to work at the church I go to now. My dad accepted the offer, and has been happy there ever since. My dad is usually the one that teases around with me a lot. He also reads each night to me. We play a lot of video games together.

My grandparents on my father’s side live in Hall County just off of Browns Bridge Road. My family used to live nextdoor to them before moving to where we live now in Forsyth County. My grandfather was in the Navy, serving aboard a submarine. My grandfather’s ancestry is largely from Ireland, and Germany as well.  One of his ancestors was a deacon at a church in Sleepy Hollow during the time that Washington Irving wrote his famous story about the Headless Horseman. Quite a few of our ancestors are buried in the cemetery at the old church just past the covered bridge that Ichabod Crane tried to make it across safely. Our grandparents have 3 dogs, but they used to have about five.  They absolutely love animals. They also have a cat that sleeps on their front porch. Inside, they have fish and birds that they also have to take care of.

My Aunt Shain married a man named David Berry. A few years later, my aunt had 2 sons, Jonathan and David-Austin Berry. In 2002, my cousin, Hannah Berry, was born. She was born on July 2. I would be so excited when I saw Hannah coming over. We were best friends.  A few years later, when I was in 3rd grade, my uncle passed away. We were all very sad when that happened, especially our cousins and aunt.

My parents met when they were going to bible college. My mother’s birthday was coming up, and she had no one to take her out to celebrate, so my father arranged a special evening at a nice restaurant in Atlanta.  Sometime after that, they started to date. In 2000, my parents finally got married. For their honeymoon, they went to Hawaii.

Both of my parents help at my church, Free Chapel. My dad does many things there.  He speaks to large groups, does graphic designs, and acts on stage. He also writes the skits, devotionals, and sermon booklets. He is also the head of the drama crew, which I’m part of now. My mom is a photographer and creates costumes and props as well. They both work in the kids department of the church, a place called KidPak. One reason they both began working there had to do with me.  They were planning to adopt soon, and wanted to spend more time in the nursery. One of the staff members there had seen them and asked them if they’d like to work in KidPak instead of the nursery. My parents said yes, and now they work with children from kindergarten to 6th grade.

Through those years, I’ve enjoyed going to church, and loved being with my family.  We’ve had many happy memories together, all of them connected with respect, joy, and love. Though I’m not related to them by blood, they are in every way my true family, and one of the best and most important things in life.