Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Daddy drives me to school every morning. It’s okay. Because I drive him sometimes, too. Crazy. He he he.

This morning I woke up hungry. I couldn’t help it. My belly made me do it. (Wake up!)

Ode to – Ballad of Mulan

Problem was, when my belly got up it was still dark outside. I went to get mommy up and she said, “uhhh…”

Daddy said, “I will get you something.”

Daddy likes to eat and he knows what I like. Shantilly lace and a pretty face and a pony tail and … Sorry.

And sometimes he surprises me with something new, too!

Almost every morning, except when my daddy is somewhere else in the world – Bangkok, Vanilla (Ed. Manila), Phoenix, Carrots and beans (Ed. Carribbean) daddy I go to the park to play.

This morning it was too early so we snuggled on the couch and daddy looked up some information on one of my heroes. Mulan!

We do that sometimes – get on his baby phone and look up where Disney got his ideas for the princesses.  For example Princess Belle. And today was Mulan’s turn. You can get the Mulan video cheap!

Come to find out, she may or may not, probably wasn’t a real person. The idea came from a poem about her. But she was gone from home longer in the poem than she was in the movie.

I didn’t understand everything about the poem. But I did know the Yellow River. I learned about that in my bilingual Chinese-English school!!

It really is fun to learn!

Thanks, Daddy!

*From: The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry
By Han H. Frankel, Yale University Press, 1976.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.