this my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way

guess where we went?

2012-01-26T15:21:00.000+08:00

Still having a grand 'ole time here on our mini-vacation. We even had two sunny-ish days to enjoy.

Yesterday morning we all squished into our minivan (six adults and six kids) and headed to ______.

The Panda Research Base! Our kids could spend one morning every week here ... fun trails to tromp, and the pandas never fail to put on a show. They are such funny animals to watch and their antics make children and adults giggle.

Come visit us, we'll take you too :)

The new year.....

2012-01-23T15:15:00.000+08:00

..... again! It's like New Year's, part two. We already welcomed 2012. Now we welcome the year of the dragon.

Our friends are here, we had a HUGE New Years Eve dinner with some local friends, and now we're in very lazy vacation mode!

Plenty of babies around for our kids to love on -

and help take care of -

and entertain!

Good practice for our future big siblings!

The big fireworks/firecrackers chaos hit the climax last night and it was, as usual, insanity. Sooooooo loud! Oh my so loud! Our kids are usually pretty scared (who can blame them, the firecrackers are launched from every direction and at any moment one could explode behind your left heel... makes anyone a little jumpy!) But we happily discovered that they loved watching them explode as we drove across town. The warmth and safety of the car was the perfect viewing platform (people are lighting firecrackers on sidewalks, parking lots, everywhere.... so it's a pretty constant show even from a moving vehicle).

Now I'm just so ready for a few days of vacation - good fellowship, yummy food, lots of family time. At 3:15 this afternoon Isaac is still in his pjs :) Good times!

not for wimps

2012-01-22T08:42:00.000+08:00

Oh friends, thanks for thinking of us these last two days.

Last night late we made the final decision to say NO to this particular file. TOUGH TOUGH stuff. This adoption thing is not for wimps. There are a few too many unknowns for us to feel comfortable moving forward with this particular child.

Now we're back waiting again. Of course, earlier this week I didn't even realize we were eligible to look at a referral quite yet, so not sure when we'll see another one? Hopefully within a few weeks?!?!

Today we receive two dear families coming to spend the week with us - two families who have walked alongside us through MUCH, including this adoption journey. So looking forward to them being here, to some solid days off for Matt (Chinese New Year! vacation days! yay!!!).

Keep praying. I told Matt last night - now that we've been this close to accepting a referral it makes me ever more eager to KNOW who it is that God has prepared for our family. If I thought waiting was hard before this, I have this sneaking suspicion it's about to get a lot harder :)

adoption news ... this could be BIG

2012-01-20T22:35:00.000+08:00

Okay so our adoption journey has been, well......... tough tough tough. NOT at all what we expected. But I am learning that if you choose to enter the adoption journey you need to be prepared to fight - hard - for the life of a child.

The "step" we've been in most recently was waiting for final paper processing in the US before sending off our dossier (big thick stack of paper that is our official request to adopt from China). This step was estimated to take 3-4 weeks. We were in that step for TEN looooooong weeks. We finally got DTC (dossier to China) on Monday and it felt like such a huge relief to be moving on to the next step.

I knew we were moving closer to receiving a referral (ie information about a specific child) but did not think that would be coming too soon..... until TODAY when a very unexpected email arrived with the referral for a specific little boy. Asking us if we wanted to move forward towards adopting him.

Luckily Matt has been working from home mostly this week so in a moderately panicked voice I said "ummmm, Matt, I just downloaded email and we have a referral!!!!!!!!!!".

The way China special needs adoption works is that we now have a limited amount of time to read through the information and make a decision to pursue or not pursue adopting this specific little boy. We have to make a decision by Saturday evening (China time).

Though I would LOVE to tell you more details, at this point the only thing I can really ask you to do is PRAY. Pray hard that God would clearly lead us and we would be able to move forward confidently, whatever our decision.

Julianna took one look at his picture and said "awww, he is so cute". [She says that about 90% of all young children, and even today I found her trying to hold Isaac when he didn't want a big sister snuggle. "But he's just so cute I want to snuggle him" was her defense when I asked her to give him a little space!]

Anyways, we've explained to the kids that we need a lot of wisdom to make this decision and Julianna said "definitely get him". When I asked why she answered "because we have been waiting soooooooo long". She's right. It's almost two years ago that we began this process (first domestic adoption, then switching to China special needs). Two years is 1/3 of her entire life that she has spent waiting for an adopted sibling. No wonder she's ready to move forward!!!

Friends, such joy to know you will join us in praying today. We will definitely keep you posted!

prepping for Valentine's

2012-01-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

Yesterday afternoon we made this fun Valentine's banner.... it arrived in a package a year or two ago and for some reason (that I can't remember) we didn't get to use it that year.

And it was the perfect thing to pull out yesterday - it all came in one little kit: pre cut and punched letters, heart stickers, some printed Valentine's-esque papers and a long red ribbon. That is my kind of craft :)

My girls could work on this kind of project for hours at a time. They were making Valentine's this morning before breakfast with the leftover supplies!

Isaac knows that boys don't mess with pink hearts :) He ignored it all ..... decorated his letters with blue marker and followed up with a heavy dose of tractor stickers.

The end result was a good bit longer than I was expecting. We hung it between the dining and living areas.

If you care enough to zoom in on the picture the "H" shows just how well Isaac sets his workmanship apart from the others!

We're gonna have to move the banner though - veto from Matt who has to duck underneath :) He located a spot in the girls' room (which actually belongs to all three right now, we combined them for the winter months).

We are rarely home for Valentine's, or at least the "lead up" to it, and well-removed from marketing craziness, so my kids are asking things like "what is Valentine's Day anyways?" Matt said it's a day to celebrate how much Daddy loves Mommy.

Exactly!

when he gets bigger

2012-01-15T21:31:00.000+08:00

I love to ask Isaac what he is going to be when he "gets bigger". One of his most frequent answers is "a 送水叔叔 ”. The 送水叔叔 is the man who delivers big 17 liter bottles of water for our water machine. He's captured Isaac's attention because he a) drives a noisy motorcycle and b) is strong enough to sling around huge bottles of water.

As you might imagine this water delivery man is not a much sought after job - long hard hours, miserable conditions (delivering water in freezing cold drizzle, no thanks!) and minimum pay..... so Isaac might change his mind when he gets a little more world-wise, but in the meantime I think it's such a fun peek inside his world to know how much he admires this 送水叔叔!

His second-most-common answer to the what do you want to be? question is "the driver of a car trasnporter loaded with 电动车 [electric bikes]". So tonight before bedtime when the legos came out Isaac asked Matt to make him a car transporter - and this is what he got.

His body was literally quivering with excitement as the pieces came together :)

Julianna worked tirelessly following the printed instructions for a truck cab to tow the transporter and did such a great job! I missed a picture..... but when praying before bed Isaac thanked God for his car transporter and the truck Julianna made - it was that good (at least in his eyes!)

slowing down

2012-01-15T14:30:00.000+08:00

The backseat was wiggling with joy and excitement when we picked Matt up Friday afternoon. And the wrestling match began about 0.7 seconds after we walked in the living room :) This Momma does not wrestle (and no, not hiding behind pregnancy as an excuse, I just plain old don't wrestle kids for fun, pregnant or not!) So after a week of no wrestling, one little guy in particular was raring to go - and things got plenty wild and wooly.

Then on Saturday morning I slept til 9:30!!!! Wooo-hoooo! I had no idea I was "that tired" and we had such a smooth week ...... but I think with Matt back in the house my body just shifted into able-to-relax mode and I slept :)

Now we are finally ready for some good solid down time! Matt's schedule will look pretty different here for the next few weeks, and while the rest of the country plans to shoot off fire crackers and go crazy celebrating the New Year, we are looking to slow down and enjoy some unusual space and freedom. Next week we're hosting two other families (great friends of ours from different provinces) and while our weather is yucky our fellowship together will certainly be such a sweet blessing - and make up for the gray skies that plagues this city all winter long.

when daddy calls.....

2012-01-11T15:03:00.001+08:00

So Matt got himself a new SIM card and popped it in his phone and voila..... we can communicate! yay! We can both text and he can call me, but I can't call him because my cell has some sort of block on international calls but all in all, good stuff for us!!

This morning Isaac came tip-toe-ing into my room and his very first words were "Is Daddy home?" Little man is good-and-ready to have Matt back in the house!

So when the phone rang a little after lunch, he was first on deck to talk to Daddy :)

Julianna and Lydia always have plenty to say too. Matt doesn't do much talking (doesn't really have a chance of getting more but a few words in!), but I know he enjoys listening, and I sit grinning in the background wondering what from our past few days will make the cut as "phone worthy" - they don't always pick the topics I would have picked!

We're staying busy. Took all three kids on a bike ride to the local 'grocery store' this morning and wavered back and forth between "this was a bad idea" and "this was a really bad idea" for the first few minutes. But after we finally got through the traffic-y portion of the walk/ride I ended up enjoying it! Still cold but (for once) not drizzling, so it was nice to enjoy better weather.

After discussing with Matt we decided to just pull the girls out of school for this week so their long break has started - they won't go back til Feb 13th!!! My afternoon "rest" is almost over. The girls do an hour of reading on their beds and their first request when they come out of their room will be for me to read more of the Little House on the Prairie series to them. Julianna got books #6-9 for her birthday and we're scooting through them!

simple little update

2012-01-09T20:34:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I totally agree with all of you - that ultrasound picture looks like Isaac, which makes me think baby is a boy. But we have very few boy names we like, much less agree on, and two perfectly sweet little girl names so ..... maybe it's a girl ?!?!? [We've had a boy name for our adopted son-to-be for a long long long long time, so that one is taken care of!]

I have no "gut feeling" on whether baby is a boy or girl and honestly waver back and forth based on the week, or day, or even hour. I guess we'll just have to wait it out, huh?

Tonight finishes up day two of Matt's six day trip - lots of asking about Daddy, especially from Isaac, but other than that we're doing just fine. Unfortunately, due to the nature and location of his trip, we have very little contact. I did get a brief email earlier today. On some of his longer trips we like to skype and it's nice to be able to check in on each other during the day via text message, but it seems like this time around we're just not going to hear much from him.

The girls' school technically does not close for the holiday until January 20th (the holiday is Chinese/Lunar New Year, and it's the biggest deal on the calendar for 20% of the world's people). Its actually simpler and easier for me to just keep the girls home, but since school is technically still in session I hope to take them at least twice this week. Today though we enjoyed a school-less Monday and didn't venture further than kids-bike-ride distance from our front door.

And since it's cold and drizzly (even for our bike ride the sky was kind of drippy, but we persevered!) we did lots of playing inside.

Sometimes dinner can be my loneliest (yet busiest) time of day when Matt is gone, but tonight's was delightful. Somehow we got on the topic of "how do they get the shark to the aquarium" and a simple "well, I'm sure it's difficult" answer from Momma was not sufficient.

Turns out I have a bit to learn about marine animal transport. I tried to imagine a big truck driving down the highway with a shark swimming in the back, but it just didn't sit right in my mind, especially on China highways and in China trucks. And that was after we talked through numerous options for actually getting the shark captured and in a tank (probably at least two boats were involved, according to Julianna). And before we discussed how to get him off the truck and into the tank at the aquarium (definitely using a crane, said Isaac).

It was a long involved discussion. But I enjoyed it :)

dancing girls

2012-01-07T20:28:00.000+08:00

The girls had their "end of semester" dance performance on Thursday night.

Proud of these little girlies and how well they did -

Julianna is in the older class, Lydia in the younger class.... and you can see they are small classes. Really, this little foray into an extracurricular activity has been super successful.

One of Julianna's best buds - maybe her absolute favorite school friend? - they really enjoy being in dance class together :)

Julianna and her dance teacher

Lyds and her teacher

Both girls are asking to go again in the spring, and we'd love to send them.... problem is it can be pretty inconvenient to get them there and home, especially considering I'll be toting a newborn. (Class is Thursday evenings from six to seven.) When Matt is available, it's a great deal for me :)

When he's not.... well, the evening gets a little tricky. New rule that went into effect late this fall means the closest I can get to the school (in a car) is still about a ten minute walk, which might not sound like much, but when you're trotting along with three young kids bundled in huge-o amounts of clothing and it's starting to drizzle and the sky is pitch dark..... you start to think "I won't be doing this with a newborn baby" :)

So we're waiting to see how the spring shapes up and what Matt's schedule will look like before we commit. It will get warmer and the days will get longer! And we would LOVE for them to be able to continue!

unbelievably precious

2012-01-05T20:10:00.000+08:00

Guess what I got today?

That would be the baby in the belly, posing for the ultrasound :) Baby's face is tucked right up against the uterine wall and I think he/she looks perfectly cozy in there!

I think the nose looks EXACTLY like one of my other three kiddos - any guesses?

post holiday organizing

2012-01-04T20:09:00.000+08:00

The kids and I got almost all of our Christmas things put away on Monday - they unloaded the tree and Isaac even helped me wrap ornaments in tissue paper before boxing them up. I love the holidays, and I love the decorations, but it also feels good to have it all stored away and a little extra living space.

When your square footage is limited a Christmas tree (no matter how small) tends to crowd the living area! We've got a bit more squeezing and squishing to do if we're going to add two more kids to this apartment in 2012, so its good to open up some space :) [Technically our apartment contract is up this July, which means our landlord could ask us to move out, but we're hoping to stay put for another year, though I realize I might come to regret this decision when I see just what life is like with 7 people and one teeny bathroom!]

I saw this idea a few years ago to store the kids' birthday/Christmas/whatever cards on large clips and today when I was adding a few cards to the rings Isaac got entranced by his :)

It's easy and fun and makes for a fun keepsake for them....

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the third trimester for me and the little babe in the belly. Just this week I've started to notice that he/she really is big enough now to disrupt some of my normal activities :) And the bouncing and jumping belly is slowly, gradually turning to more of a pushing and shoving sensation as the two of us navigate how to share the "same" body! Today I had a few moments of thinking "okay little one, we're going to have to come up with some amiable solution on how to best share this space for the next few months, because you're going to need to be a smidge more gentle with Mommy!"

I can still carry Isaac but not very far, and Lydia knows that if she wants me to hold her she needs to first stand up on the coffee table or couch because I can't pick her up from floor level :) I can tell I am starting to slow down too, especially in the evenings. Matt travels all next week and I'm thinking the last hour of the day might be a stretch for me to handle gracefully.... we'll probably spend lots of time reading books since sitting on the couch is one activity that works great for me!

Tomorrow is the girls' final dance class and it is a performance, so I'm sure I'll be back with photos and stories :)

2012

2012-01-02T22:09:00.000+08:00

Well, there were no tears shed at the end of 2011... let's be honest, it wasn't that great of a year. Lots of tough stuff, lots of hard days, lots of yuck.

So I'm loving the "new" of a New Year and looking forward to what God might have in store for our family.

The kiddos and I had a rip-roaring New Year's celebration that ended a little after 8pm when my party companions went to bed :) [Matt had other obligations and he was the only one in the family who saw midnight!] It was a quiet night here.... no complaints either. We'll be anything but quiet when the Lunar New Year rolls around (late January) so a quiet version of New Year's is something worth celebrating, at least in my book.

We are definitely in 'winding down' mode after a full fall semester and holiday season - university students are in the middle of finals, Matt travels next week and then we'll all enjoy some quieter weeks before an early February trip (that will be our last travel, as a family or for Matt individually, before baby makes his/her appearance).

That's our brief update, now that the holiday week is over I plan to get back to more regular updates!

Happy New Year!

one tooth down....

2011-12-28T21:02:00.000+08:00

Six years and 5 days old - and her first tooth is out :)

The front two bottom teeth have been loosening for a good long while now. The new teeth started poking through a few months ago and we got wise counsel from a trusted dentist to just wait it out - "those baby teeth will fall out soon enough" he said.

And he was right :)

But the teeth didn't fall out on their own! After much-o waiting Matt asked "you want me to just pull that really loose one?" And she said YES! My sweet non-risk-taker who avoids bloodshed and pain, she said YES! So Matt explained clearly, "I'm going to pull it, and it will hurt and it will bleed. You still want me to do it?" YES again.

So he did!

With a pair of pliers. Ugh. I couldn't even be in the same room! But Julianna? Not one tear, not one hesitation. Just pranced out of the room with tooth in hand and hole in mouth ;)

According to the internet (which is never wrong, ha!) children loose about twenty baby teeth. Looking at five kiddos, that means we've only got 99 more to go :)

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T15:03:00.000+08:00

What a great Christmas Day! After the hustle and bustle of the previous week(s) I think we were all ready for a super laid back day with nothing to do but celebrate! So grateful to Jesus for the special gift of yesterday - in one sense it seemed like time slowed down and the day stretched on forever, and in another sense I was so sad to realize it was 6pm already.

Christmas Eve night we joined a bunch of other foreign families for a big celebration - lots of kids and lots of food and lots of fun! I never seem to take many photos at events like that, and I wish I did. Matt narrated and I "directed" the kids in the acting out of the Christmas story. I didn't count how many actors/actresses we had - maybe about twenty, between the ages of two and eight. Pretty awesome :)

The kids were invited to attend in their pjs and my kiddos thought this was great fun - and I do love this one picture of us cuddling on the couch....this baby in the belly is well-loved, often-snuggled, frequently-squished.... I often think "oh little one, how preciously safe is your current home and how different things are going to be when you need Momma's constant vigilance and protection!"

We started Christmas morning (not too early, thankfully!) with the kids giving the gifts they purchased for their siblings and parents. Total money spent is pretty limited, but the heart behind the gift is so neat to see, and they really do a good job choosing for one another. Mostly, we just want to instill this spirit of "it is more blessed to give than to receive", even while the Lord has placed our family in a economic place that makes us wealthier than probably 90% of the people on the planet....

All three kids gave Matt something "to play with them" - a mini football, mini basketball, and kids-sized badminton set.

Isaac finally got a glimpse of the promised "gift too big to fit under the tree" (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!).

And we spent a lot of time outside playing - it was chilly, but there was a speck of sun in the sky (not always the case here in our smoggy, foggy gray-colored home town).

Isaac with his new ball and baseball bat (and the improvised baseball T, an empty water container is basically the perfect height for my little man).

We went nice and easy for Momma in the kitchen (after weeks of cooking!). Cinnamon rolls for breakfast (which I made up the night before, so it really is easy to pop them in Christmas morning), cheese and summer sausage and crackers (yum - imported!) and hummus and veggies and fruit for a snack-y lunch and dinner.

And then more opening gifts. We didn't finish til about 4 oclock! - not because the pile was that big, but because we took it so slow (and took time out for some naps!) If we opened something and heard "can we read it now? can we play with it now? can we do this puzzle now?" then we stopped and read and played along the way. Loved this!

Took a nice long afternoon bike ride - now that Isaac is on a two-wheeler my days of being able to keep up with the three of them on foot is limited!

Puzzles and games before dinner :)

It's late afternoon on the 26th and I scrambled to get these photos uploaded cause I really want to remember these days! Hosting a group of local friends for dinner tonight, two crock pots of chili cooking and I need to get my potatoes and bread baking!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2011-12-25T14:59:00.003+08:00

school Christmas parties

2011-12-24T09:22:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's school parties were awesome. Not flawless, not perfect... but we rejoice that many (parents, teachers, children) heard the Christmas story for the first time. Who knows how much the little ones retained? Probably not much!

But I dream that one day heaven will be filled with people whose stories I will gladly hear - and one, even just one, will say "Even though I grew up in a strongly atheistic country I first heard the name of Jesus at my preschool. There was a little foreign girl in my class. And her parents came and told us about Christmas. Mostly I remember that her Mommy brought cookies, but I also remember that her Daddy told us about a baby King born in a barn......."

Lydia did SOOOOOO well in the often awkward role of class-foreigner and also the only child whose parents are ever invited in to talk to the class! I'm proud of my little chicky!

Isaac looks just about big enough to be in the class himself, doesn't he? [Current plan is to have him start in the spring semester, right at his third birthday - but he won't be in big sister's class :)]

Julianna's teachers wanted me to not only bring cookies for the kids to taste, but also teach them how to make them. Well, imagine 25 kids (and their parents) all making sugar cookie cut outs for the first time, with only me and Matt and Julianna there to coach them along.... it was a tad chaotic but actually loads of fun too.

While the cookies baked Matt told the Christmas story (with the help of our advent calendar).

We also taught both classes a few English vocabulary words (star, bell, tree..... the shapes of our cut out cookies) and how to sing "we wish you a Merry Christmas". Fun times, for us and our girls!

a Christmas birthday party

2011-12-22T21:31:00.000+08:00

My Christmas baby is six years old tomorrow.

This afternoon we hosted seven girls for a birthday party -

Fun fun fun! I love delighting my children. We've got more cupcakes and birthday celebrating to do tomorrow (the 23rd, her actual birthday) and....

Tomorrow is the big school party day - I just talked through the schedule with Matt and it looks like .... well, very full :) I think I'll feel a little more up to the task after a good night's sleep!

party time

2011-12-20T15:05:00.000+08:00

I think we have a party every day between now and December 28th. Here's the run down:

Dec 20: students in our home - such a HUGE opportunity!

Dec 21: party downtown

Dec 22: Julianna's birthday party

Dec 23: "hosting" two different parties at the girls' school - one in each classroom.... what a sweet chance to teach the littlest ones about Christmas, and double bonus that the school invited all the parents of Julianna's classmates to come to her class and hear "all about Christmas". Surely this will be the first time many have heard anything close to the truths behind Christmas celebrating!

Dec 24th: party at a friend's house with lots of little kids and mucho yummy food

Dec 25th: just the five of us partying here all day! yay for Jesus' birthday!

Dec 26th: hosting local friends for baked potatoes, chili and more celebrating

Dec 27th: another student party!

What does this mean? It means that if you are wondering where I am, try looking in the kitchen :) I started early and my list is intense, but so far I think I am right on track prep-wise. Trying to maintain focus and remember: December is not about food and gifts.... or rather it is totally about food and gifts - the GIFT of Jesus, the BREAD of life.

Oh that HIS NAME would be glorified in our hearts, and our home, and all our partying this week!

I want to remember these days, so I'm hoping to chronicle the parties here. Off to the kitchen.....

in the kitchen

2011-12-18T20:18:00.000+08:00

I cook with my kids all. the. time.

And I love it. So all this Christmas baking is a real treat - though I do confess that on Saturday morning I tried to sneak in the kitchen and get started on the peanut butter kisses while they were busy playing in their bedroom.... epic fail. The same kids who hadn't left their room in twenty minutes were in the kitchen within moments of me turning on the mixer. How do they do that??!!??

For most things I'm happy to plunge in with just my three sets of helping hands and the motto "well, we can clean it up later". But for the frosted sugar cookie cut outs I knew I would need some serious back up support. So we waited til Sunday afternoon when Daddy was home.

Before we got started I gave a little warning: "if you eat too much frosting and cookie dough while we're working your tummy will hurt and you won't be able to eat ONE BIG COOKIE at the end of the afternoon". I'd like to dream that it helped keep the consumption down, but in reality I don't even dare guess how much they ate in process!

I didn't count, but I bet we have almost 100 frosted sugar cookie cut outs in our freezer if anyone is hungry :)

And this girl, well after much practice on salt dough ornaments and sprinkle sugar cookies she's getting really good with the rolling pin.

She's also not afraid to think of some creative uses :)

The big week is here! We've got lots to celebrate - a six year old birthday and a Savior who came to dwell among us!

my new favorite ornaments

2011-12-15T16:24:00.000+08:00

So I saw a picture of this when the kids were resting today and by the time the girls came out of their room I was convinced we absolutely must create them :)

The picture I saw didn't have any 'how-to' instructions but it was clearly done on some sort of wood cutout shape. And while that would be undeniably cute (and probably longer-lasting), I live about 10,000 miles from ACMoore and wasn't willing to go through the trouble of trying to create my own. So we used a paper plate :)

Our 'hay' is leftover Easter grass (Julianna's idea).

Isaac is battling a nasty cold and sleeping long today, but I will definitely be trying to talk him into letting me paint his hand for one of these precious handprints! (Baby Jesus is the thumb - seriously fun!)

neighbor gifts

2011-12-13T15:05:00.000+08:00

Christmas is a fun time to love on our neighbors.

After all, most of the holidays around here leave me feeling like a fish out of water - I never really know how to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival (drop by? bring a gift?) or Tomb Sweeping Day. So I love when Christmas rolls around - though many people here have heard of Christmas, few know the reason behind the glitz and glitter, and it's the perfect opportunity to tell them!!!

This year we bought glass-jar candles for all the people on our list and today the kids and I got them ready for giving. The list is made up of folks who live within walking distance of our home. I wouldn't describe them as 'great friends' - but they are definitely more than nod-and-wave-hello neighbors. Most (but not all) have been in our home for a meal or snacks or just to hang out. The list isn't complete yet, but we hope to give about fifteen candles :)

I wrote up a little "Jesus is the light of the world" gift tag with a brief explanation of why we think Christmas is worthy of celebrating. And the kids helped me get them all ready.

Sure, I could have made them a whole lot cuter working alone but I chose to sacrifice cute-potential so the kids could participate. As long as you don't look too closely at the tags you'll think they turned out just fine :)

When we piled today's bounty on the coffee table Julianna said "oh, they look so great".....

and I have to agree :)

salt dough ornaments

2011-12-10T15:19:00.000+08:00

This has got to be one of my most favorite Christmases ever in terms of the kids' ages and ability to really engage in and enjoy the festivities. I am just LOVING this stage - even my youngest little man is really "grown up" (relative, of course) and he is able to participate in so many things.

(And by youngest I mean "youngest currently living outside the womb and in our home" - don't you worry, I have many a moment when I realize how complicated life will - HOPEFULLY! - get in the next twelve months with the addition of a newborn and adopted toddler. I feel this little one twisting inside me and am just grateful that he/she is so very easy to take care of at this stage! And I fall asleep every night wondering where our adopted addition is, and how much delight - and challenge - he'll be adding to our family this time next year!)

Anyways, to sum it up: It's pretty much the perfect year for making salt dough ornaments. The girls can do almost everything on their own, with just a little supervision ("not too much flour honey, I think that's plenty") and Isaac is just along for the rolling pin fun.

I guesstimate that this craft costs me less than one dollar per big batch of salt dough (ingredients: salt, flour, water). And it's the craft that keeps on crafting - so humid here that I ended up baking my ornaments almost four hours before they are good and dry, which means its a minimum two day activity! Double bonus.

Isaac surprised me and was content to just use markers on the first two sets he decorated. He's also only used his ornament as a weapon ever so briefly - as it turns out, if you put a nice long string on that thing it has a pretty good range when you get to swinging it good and fast!

The girls won't settle for anything less than paint and have pretty much mastered the art of nice thin layers of paint that dry quickly :)

We're planning to paint ornaments for Julianna's birthday party too!

Tonight we are joining the other foreign teachers (5 total) and some really tip-top administrators from Matt's school for a big formal dinner. This is one of those events that could easily go either way - amazingly, refreshingly smooth for our little crew....... or one big fat disaster waiting to happen. I've cried in frustration IN THE MIDDLE of this kind of event and, honestly, I'm tempted to say "let's just leave me and the kids out of this!"

I once called my dear friend from one of these things and half-jokingly said "would it be rude if I gathered my kiddos and just walked out before we spilled another sauce or broke another dish or created another scene?" - the Lord gifted us some very mild-mannered easy-going children, but these events are a stretch for even the most mature of us adults, and when you tack on the added stress of "most watched family in the entire noisy crowded smoke-filled restaurant" you've got quick the mix!

So, with hesitant heart we'll head downtown here in a few hours (ugh of living in a big city - even though we are walking distance from Matt's school the restaurant for tonight's dinner is an hour-ish drive). Wish us luck :)

christmas memories

2011-12-08T20:47:00.000+08:00

Many things I love about Christmas....

Last year we celebrated in America (for the first time since 2003!)... needless to say, we'd developed a few traditions of our own over those many years celebrating in Asia and as I was packing for our time in the States I was careful to include a few special items that we wanted to have with us.

So in amongst the pieces of luggage on July 1 (2010) were several Christmas items: our advent calendar, our stockings (each handmade but that's worthy of a whole separate post!), and our Christmas Memories book.

It's hard to get more special than this. My Grandmother gave it to Matt and I our first married Christmas - which was also her last Christmas with us, she died November 7th of the following year.

I'm sure she had no idea that I had been looking for exactly this kind of a thing but hadn't yet found one that I thought was perfect. She did find the perfect one, and gave it to us a few days before Christmas 2003. We have faithfully recorded every year.

It's quickly becoming a favorite with the kids too, though I'm pretty particular about letting them page through it. If you wanna look at the Christmas book, then it's on my terms - in the living room (where I can keep an eye on you) and on your own (eliminates all kinds of sibling instigated craziness).

I don't consider many of our possessions to be heirlooms, no one wants to grow up in a museum. But this is one of those "museum worthy" kind of things and I feel justified being a bit strict with it!

Plus it kind of adds to the lure of the book :)

[in the picture above the page is turned to Christmas 2007]

little boy no more

2011-12-06T20:52:00.000+08:00

Last night I cut Isaac's hair. A lot. This was no small trim around the ears, but a major cut. He went from this

to this.

Full disclosure: I don't like it. I miss my little boy. And you have to admit he had a gorgeous head of hair - perfectly silky blond locks that loved to be tousled. But Matt was more than ready for the change. And Matt loves the new look.

Moral of the story: When in doubt, Daddy chooses hair styles for the little men of the family.

So we got out the clippers and went to work.

And work it was. I was cutting off four to five INCHES of hair!!!

Isaac didn't even squirm once - ha!!!!

We've got a little touching-up to do, but that shouldn't be a problem. Isaac went straight from the hair salon (aka dining area) to the bath and while soaking pronounced "I want to cut my hair again on Saturday." When I asked him why he said "because I LOVE getting my hair cut".

That's not exactly the same tune he had been singing about fifteen minutes earlier when the novelty of the clippers had worn off and I still had gobs of hair to cut through. But I'm grateful the experience left a good impression. (I nipped the skin behind his ear once before when I was trimming with the scissors - ouch! - so at least with the clippers I don't have to worry about drawing blood!)

He is still such a handsome little guy - but all of a sudden looks so much more like a three year old (birthday coming up in March) and less and less like the Isaac I still think of as "baby of the family" (though not for long!).

outtakes

2011-12-04T20:39:00.000+08:00

We need a family Christmas card photo (tis the season, right? - who doesn't need a good photo?!?).

So Matt set the camera on it's timer function, we settled ourselves in the living room and all was going just fine...... until I told Isaac that Bei Bei (his stuffed tiger) was not going to be part of the picture.

Sad moment for the little man. And photographic proof for all of you who have been deceived by my precious Isaac into thinking that he is a dream child who never creates a moment's mess or worry for his Momma :)

Good news is he recovered quickly when we compromised - no tiger, but he could hold his yellow pick up truck.

The process was quick and painless. We got a great photo and headed off to our small group church. Look for it coming soon to a mailbox near you (and be sure to check out Isaac's truck).

If you'd like a picture (and who wouldn't?!? ha!) and you think you might not be on our list send me a quick email with your mailing address. [My email is my first and last names - all one word - at yahoo dot com.]

wrapping gifts (and #4 in the belly!)

2011-12-03T15:10:00.001+08:00

Matt is due home by 6 tonight.

Technically, he's already back in town but shushhhhhhh! don't tell the kids! He arrived at the train station but had to head straight for campus and I didn't clarify the situation with the kiddos who are excitedly anticipating his return.

No need to spend time explaining why he is here but also not here. Especially when they've selected "Hark the Herald" as this year's most requested Christmas song - I'm busy enough explaining lines like 'veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the Incarnate Deity'. Not that I'm complaining at all... LOVE the music, and if we're going to be belting Christmas tunes at the top of our lungs (Isaac's preferred style) then I'm happy to be singing some good theology!

Anyways, the big reason the kids can't wait for Dad to grace the front door is that we shopped for and wrapped his Christmas presents this morning - and boy are they ready to show off the fruit of their labor!

With all the tape and paper and scissor action I was busy enough wrapping, but when it came time to work on the gift tags I did manage to pull out the camera.

This morning Julianna took a pic of #4 in the belly :) 23+ weeks and growing every day.

Looks like the plan is to carry this baby high and shaped like a ball. Just like my previous three :)

This is not something I EVER thought I would say, but we are really seriously considering having the baby here, no traveling to better medical care. I met an English speaking (local) doctor a month or so ago for my first check up and was pretty encouraged.

I see him again next week (for an ultrasound) and we'll try to make the final decision then... I keep telling Matt "well, if 36 weeks rolls around and we're still here then I guess this is where we'll have the baby". [I can't fly commercial after 36 weeks.] He'd like to nail down some details a little earlier than that :)

Current plan is that Matt and the kids will come along for the ultrasound - if we get any good pics I'll be sure to post them. And I really hope it's fun for the kids to see. They are especially intrigued by the idea that baby can hear their voices. Who wouldn't be?!?!?!

Oh, and is it a boy or girl?!?!? We decided to let this one surprise us on his/her birthday!

December first

2011-12-01T21:13:00.000+08:00

The big countdown started today.

Matt and I wrote the story that accompanies our advent calendar. Day one starts with a few simple sentences. Each day we start the reading at the beginning, and add a new sentence or two. And of course each day contributes a character or background piece that matches the unfolding plot.

The story begins "Jesus is the Greatest Treasure of All. He is the son of God and He lives in heaven." By the end of the first week the kids will have much of it (including direct Scripture that we wove into the story) memorized.

LOVE this. Love hearing my littles daily recite along with me "Jesus is the Greatest Treasure of All." So I'm delighted that today is December 1st!

So far it's been a pretty smooth week - I've tried to schedule something for a few of the days as Matt is gone... a little English speaking fellowship goes a long way (not that my kids don't provide English speaking fellowship, but you know what I mean!)

And tonight was dance class again - it's getting cold and dark for the little man and I as we wait for the girls to do all their twirling. It doesn't seem like that long ago that we could sit outside in short sleeves and long-lingering daylight..... and now its dark and cold when we arrive. Darker and colder when we leave :)

It is December first, after all!!

oh christmas tree

2011-11-29T20:21:00.000+08:00

We finished decorating Monday morning. In our pajamas of course :) It was actually one of our first 'typical' days off for Matt in months. And we loved every minute of it.

Notice that the tree is green and has a bit of a triangle shape.

Smaller than we were hoping for, and the branches didn't hold all the ornaments, but we're big fans regardless.

As usual when Matt is away traveling, I seem to think that I'm going to jump into hyper-productive mode and get tons of things done. In the late evening hours, no less :) My to-do list is impressive. Very impressive.

Tonight for sure I'll be up late making phone calls to CST dealing with adoption paperwork issues. The theme of our journey seems to be: if there is trouble to be had, we will find it. UGH.

Although I am delighted to be an official resident of North Dakota ("the few, the proud......") I haven't had a lot of warm fuzzy feelings towards Bismarck lately as we have spent weeks getting the run around about document authentication.

Hopefully we're soon to put this most recent set of potholes behind us and get on down the road towards receiving a referral!!!

quick recap - the rest of the weekend

2011-11-27T21:25:00.000+08:00

I knew Friday would be a long day with Matt gone til way late and the kids in post-holiday let down so I planned a little dinner outing with side entertainment: buying Christmas wrapping paper and some candles to create an advent wreath for the kitchen table.

Which was a great plan, if only 7 tri-zillion other people hadn't been out shopping with us :) No Black Friday here, but it's just a crowded country and I guess I'm not often out on a Friday night so I don't get to experience the madness. We braved the crowds, had a lot of fun, and many of our fellow shoppers left with a photo of my kids on their cell phone. Yep, we are the victims of a lot of impromptu photo shoots and the kids rarely miss a step, just keep right on playing despite the flashing cameras :) For the most part they totally ignore the photo-takers, and only get annoyed when someone gets right up in their face. Which is when their momma starts to get annoyed too :)

Saturday the kids and I started pulling out some of the Christmas decor and then Sunday afternoon Matt fearlessly lead us on our Christmas tree buying expedition.

Each year we attempt to buy a real live Christmas tree in a country that does not sell real live Christmas trees. We just like to have fun that way :)

And every year my standard of what might qualify as our family's tree drops dramatically. This year my basic qualifications were: something green and remotely triangular-shaped with enough branches to hang some ornaments.

With standards like that it was difficult to disappoint. We left happy :)

Luckily the kids don't have any idea that life should look any different and Isaac said (more than once) "look at ALL THESE Christmas trees" as he scanned the plant market. In reality, there were zero "Christmas trees" but I wasn't about to break the news to my favorite two year old.

Checking out the options - many trees, very few of the right size and shape. But lots of grins from the kiddos.

We eventually found four that we thought were possibilities and selected one to do the honors in our living room this year.

Loaded it in the van and brought it home.... after the kids were in bed Matt moved it indoors. Excitement levels are pretty high and I'm guessing we'll be stringing lights before 9 am tomorrow :)

I LOVE this season and am so grateful that Matt made sure we'll have this tree set and ready before he leaves for a week of travel! We lit the first candle on our advent wreath this morning, the advent calendar count-down begins Thursday December 1st and the kids are quickly memorizing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

Tis the season :)

wrestling thank-full-ness

2011-11-23T20:54:00.000+08:00

It's always the weirdest feeling... our household busy prepping for the holiday and exactly ZERO other people in our neighborhood who have a clue that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.

Regardless of the holiday-ignorance our neighborhood claims, we'll be celebrating with friends and a feast and thank-full hearts.

A few "day before prep" photos....

Our pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing and imported-straight-from-America candy corn decor :) [otherwise known as "kids' dessert"]

Julianna working on yet another pumpkin - at the rate we consume these things I should seriously consider pumpkin farming.

And one of the best parts of the day - oh how sorely my heart needed this post-dinner crazed tickle wrestle match.

Yesterday was a brutal motherhood day, the kind that makes you want to curl into a ball and hide in the bathtub.

All this crazy hubbub left me laughing so hard my sides hurt.

So tonight, in the midst of a long hard season that leaves me struggling to hope in God's goodness, I'm especially thankful for wrestling matches. And dreaming of next year when there will be two more kiddos to add to the pile of twisting, wriggling arms and legs.

My last baking of the day (pumpkin pie) coming out of the oven within minutes. Tomorrow morning I cook the ham (and scalloped corn and yeast rolls) and we'll be celebrating all day long :)

Thankful.

catching up

2011-11-22T08:15:00.000+08:00

I got in last night after a super fun, encouraging weekend with my friend. We talked and shopped and ate and slept and it was just what my heart needed :)

I can tell today is going to be full of catching up (piles of laundry, GOBS of cooking for Thursday, etc) and I was up early to take a quick glance at the unread emails and scan through my google reader.

And there it was on my screen: the funniest article I have read in a long time (linked from a friend's blog - I have no idea who wrote it). If you live in China, you will think this is hilarious. If you live AND drive in China you might laugh so hard you cry.

I'm hoping that even for the vast majority of you who have never set foot on Chinese soil, this will still prove to be mildly entertaining. And give you a little glimpse into "life on the road" here.

http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.com/2007/06/beijing-traffic-lesson-left-turn.html

Off to my crazy busy day.....

getting started in the kitchen

2011-11-18T14:15:00.000+08:00

I am traveling again this weekend. I know - I can hardly believe it myself. It feels odd, all these nights away from home. But I've had my heart set on this particular weekend retreat for months.....

Transition to this new city has not been pretty. Ten months here, and I still feel really disconnected. The holidays are just a grim reminder: I have no memories here. No history here. No "remember last year when I shattered the glass pie plate on the kitchen floor" or "let's try to get a tree at that same tree farm".

Nope. Here all is new. Where to put the tree? Never had one in this apartment before. Where to spend Thanksgiving? Never done a holiday with these new friends. Christmas Eve? Wonder what we'll do to celebrate?

It seems like the answer to most of these questions always echoes with the same refrain: new - new - new - new - new - new.

And I don't like it. Sure, there are parts of "new" that are fun. We need a new spot to shop for Christmas trees!

And some things are less "new". I'm sure our manger scene will go on top of our glass-topped dish cabinet, just like always. It's just that the dish cabinet is sitting in a new apartment :)

Anyways, all that to say - this weekend away with a delightfully OLD friend (not old in years, old in "friendship years"!!) is a treat! I have a two hour bullet train ride to meet her (at the end of her five hour bus ride). It's the closest to "a halfway spot" for both of us.

And because I don't get back til Monday evening (thank you to my gracious husband, for this wonderful personal time away)..... I have some serious holiday baking and cooking to think about. So Isaac and I got a head start today :)

Introducing my fake kitchen aid. I dream of the day I will live in a country where I can easily own a real one. But in the meantime this little machine does a somewhat decent job, and I must confess that it saves GOBS of time kneading bread dough!

Notice how in each shot Isaac's right arm is stretched out towards the control panel. He is dying to crank the speed dial and the words "can I make it go faster?" are on the tip of his tongue!

Oh yeah, and he's done a bit of preliminary taste testing too, can you tell?

rock hard mountains

2011-11-15T20:58:00.001+08:00

We are home. And the trip was really hard. Really REALLY hard.

But we are back now. And tomorrow is a new day :)

In keeping with his character Matt was Rock Steady through the high points (few) and the low points (many).

And we did take a few pictures at the end of today (once I realized survival was well within reach and felt capable of pulling out the camera to capture a moment or two!)

If Isaac looks a tad heftier than normal it's all the clothes he's wearing - two pairs of pants, two long sleeved shirts, three jackets. Did I mention that it was chilly?

My amigos three. The stories these precious ones will be able to tell about "the time that Mommy and Daddy took us to ________" will fill at least one very interesting book - and this particular trip, this particular chapter will be easier for them to tell than it was for me to live!

holiday prep

2011-11-13T20:45:00.000+08:00

We spent Sunday afternoon getting ready for the holidays.

Not a moment too soon :)

Our finger-sucking, runny-nosed Pilgrim. Sweet boy is the victim of our first cold this season. I figure we'll have dripping noses off and on through mid-March.

The girls providing the evening entertainment. Lydia is a unique Native American/fairy combo. In this shot the girls are discussing the next act - the doorway is 'backstage' and they are moments from announcing in (attempted) unison "Act three is over. Now we are starting act four." or something along those lines.

And in the spirit of "it's never too early to start getting excited" we're prepping for two more big occasions in the next six weeks.

A 6 year old birthday....

and Christmas :)

Matt and I officially disagree on when to start the Christmas celebrating..... I'm an "earlier is better" kind of girl, he refuses to even consider a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving is behind us. With these wrapped gifts in our possession the Christmas tree can't be too far away!!! [He was gone for the afternoon and evening and hasn't seen the goodies yet!]

I'm off to more packing - we planned a fairly early morning start and I've got quite a bit of work to do before we're ready to hit the road.

finally home

2011-11-13T16:06:00.000+08:00

I landed about 8 o'clock last night - Matt surprised me and brought the pajama-clad kiddos to the airport to meet me. Oh my was I DELIGHTED to see those little faces and snuggle up to Matt!

The first two days of my trip were jam-packed with work related stuff.... gave me a whole new appreciation for life on the road. And a lot more respect for what Matt does when he travels! By evening of day two I was exhausted and missing my family so much it hurt.

But I was glad I stayed another night - day three I spent hanging out with good friends, which was certainly a treat :)

It's a quick turn around for me - packing bags this afternoon for the whole family ...... a two day trip into the mountains with some local friends. Our weather has been super pleasant and warmer than typical, but I'm prepared for the mountain trip to be pretty chilly.

Off to do a bit more laundry and then taking the kids for a walk before supper :)

guess what we got?

2011-11-08T20:36:00.001+08:00

Anybody know what this is????

Now this sweet little document is on it's way to be notarized and authenticated and obtain whatever official kind of stamps you might imagine a single sheet of paper could possibly need. Then it begins it's journey across the Pacific (along with a inch-thick pile of paperwork, aka our "dossier").

In other words, we are now officially in a position to apply to the Chinese government for permission to adopt an orphan. If that doesn't sound like much to you, think again. We re-started the adoption process in early July, and it's taken four months just to get to this step :)

At this point we've spent over half of those four months just waiting on this ONE piece of paper! So we are THRILLED to have it and move on to the next step... which involves (drum roll please.......)

MORE WAITING!

But at least we're waiting for something different now, right?

I head out of town on a rare business-type trip tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. When this opportunity popped up a month or so ago Matt called one afternoon to find out if I was willing to do it (in an odd twist he is actually responsible for this, and several similar trips). My name was on the list of potential invites so he called and said "can you do it?" and I said "well, I think that depends a lot on your answer to the same question!"

Matt is often looking for chances to let me get my feet back in the game for a bit. So he encouraged me to go. I spent a lot of today prepping to be gone for three days :) Turns out it's a lot of work for me to get out the door.

Matt will be doing some double-time, home with the kids and working as much as he can (his schedule is pretty ambitious, as you might imagine!) If my return flight is on time I just might be back to see the kids before they fall asleep on Saturday night.

Joosy Bery

2011-11-06T19:13:00.000+08:00

This afternoon the kids opened a store, Juicy Berry.

Otherwise known as Joosy Bery. Phonetic spelling will get ya every time, huh?

So fun to watch them work together on a project like this. And it kept them busy most of a slow Sunday afternoon.

The store sells baby dolls, books and fruit.

You can even get your fruit cut for you before leaving the store. Pretty handy. (Those are my mango and watermelon slices, getting ready to head to the register.)

Lydia ran the cash register and let me tell you, the prices were pretty steep. No worries though, the bills came in large denominations :)

I'm not sure where Julianna learned to write the dollar sign. It kind of surprised me to see how she did this, since it's certainly not anything she sees around here, but I'm guessing she saw it in a book or something?

Love love love to watch their minds spin and create. And if anyone has a spare $110 dollar bill laying around, I know where you can spend it :)

roommate anniversary 2011

2011-11-03T20:47:00.001+08:00

A few years ago I created a holiday. (Hallmark can do it, so can I!)

We started celebrating the "anniversary" of the first night the girls shared a bedroom. Lydia moved in with big sister Julianna when she was ten weeks old (a month or two after I first started blogging) and the following year (2008) I decided to create a little celebration. It was a success and now we repeat it every November 3rd.

Simple is the name of the game, but EXCITED ANTICIPATION describes our home in the days prior. The girls love this (little) big night - and it's a blast for us to watch them enjoy it.

Each year we do a little something special for breakfast (this year was pumpkin muffins, complete with lit candles).

And I add a page to the "roommate anniversary journal" I started years ago - with pictures of the girls in their bedroom and a few tidbits from the day. Isaac is an inconsistent roommate - this year he's currently out of their bedroom, but we plan to move him back in when the temperatures really drop. It'll be that much easier to keep only one bedroom toasty warm, and the body heat of three is better than one!

Here are the pictures from this year's celebration ....

And two more views of their bedroom for the 99.9% of you who have never visited us!!!!

(The streamers hanging from the door and light fixture are roommate anniversary decorations, the butterflies are crafts from earlier this week)

And guess who wanted me to take a picture of him sitting on his bed? (I asked him to please sit still for the picture, which explains the slightly nervous look behind his smile. Sweet boy, he was eager to please but he also knows sitting still is not really his specialty!)

Yay for sweet little celebrations and sweet little roommates, snoozing in their beds tonight!

oh i am not so good at waiting

2011-11-01T20:56:00.000+08:00

We are trying to adopt a baby. We've been trying for a long long long time. The road has been longer and more painful than I ever dreamed.

And right now, all I have to show for it is a big stack of paper :(

This is just a partial sneak look at the piles of paper. The actual stack is even more impressive, and also realize that there is a separate accordion file of paperwork that went towards a failed US domestic adoption. It's a lot of paper. And no child.

Right now we are on this silly sounding little step called "US immigration approval". The US government must approve our petition to adopt a baby from a different country and "immigrate" him or her to the US (even though we don't plan to move to the States, our adopted baby will move to a US passport and become a US citizen).

We've been waiting on this step for over two months. When we submitted our petition the average wait was 40 days. Apparently we are above average.... in a way that you would NEVER want to be above average!!

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can move forward til we get this approval and send it along to our agency.

So we wait. and I have (some) moments where I am so full of hope in the Lord. Not hope that my circumstances will change, not hope that approval will come tomorrow, not hope that the process will get quicker and less painful. But HOPE because Jesus is who He says He is, because He sits on His throne, because His plans are perfect and because He chooses to work mightily through suffering and because I am guaranteed an eternal inheritance in Heaven.

Sure, I'd love to have that approval this week. I'd love to have a referral (match with a specific child) by the holidays.

But who am I to tell God what to do and when to do it? Even when it's clear to me (or to you) what the "good" outcome of any given hardship would be, I'm realizing more every day that I don't have the first clue how to be the Lord of my own life, much less the Lord of the Universe.

Food for thought while I wait.....

Dad's last night

2011-10-31T21:07:00.000+08:00

Just got home from dinner (Korean food) with Dad on his last night here - check out this fun pic of the kids before they tumbled into bed. It was late, they were giddy, but lots of fun too!

fall crisp

2011-10-28T14:30:00.001+08:00

In the summer I just could not get enough of summer. LOVING every minute of the sun and heat and all that good stuff. Then the pregnancy yuck hit and I, well....... I didn't like anything. The sick-y feeling colored the rest of the summer, painting it in a not-so-great shade of yuck.

So maybe that's part of why I'm so grateful, so excited, so delighted with our fall. This morning was one of those perfect fall mornings that could best be described as 'crisp'. After two rainy/misty days the fall crisp was even more delightful.... and we were outside in a hurry.

I had a few piles of veggies to buy before I could fill the crock pot for tonight's dinner (4 of Matt's buddies joining us). Seriously, with years of feeding college guys under my belt, I'm sure not much about my kids' teenage appetites will surprise me - except maybe that I have to prep that much food every night!

And just because the blue sky beckoned and I grabbed the camera on the way out the door - this is part of my "commute" to buy veggies.

Our walk cuts through a neighboring apartment complex filled with delightful little paths and gardens.

Why go the most direct route when the day is perfectly crisp anyways?

And in the same spirit of 'why be in a hurry when you can just go slow?' we stopped to ride the toys -

A list of all the things my kids have taught me could fill pages and pages of paper. One of them is certainly this: JUST SLOW DOWN. Life is not meant to be lived in a hurry.

Today I was so glad to be moving slow.

Dad's birthday trip

2011-10-26T12:46:00.000+08:00

Dad's birthday is Saturday and we celebrated early with a day-long outing to a nearby historical site.

Actually, much of the outing was an attempt to use most every kind of public transportation available :) We started on the subway, then switched to a bullet train.

Lydia looking out the bullet train window.

Inside each car was a digital display that tracked train speed. Pretty cool, huh?

Upon arrival at the train station we transferred to a public bus and finally ended up here - an ancient irrigation system. The kids were, of course, enthralled with the intricacies of a dam-less irrigation system that both prevented flooding and irrigated huge portions of arable farmland.

Or maybe they preferred the train ride, hard to say :)

Isaac put a lot of miles on his brand new tennis shoes - it was a perfectly pleasant day for lots of walking, talking and snack eating :)

By the time we looped through most of the irrigation system site and crossed two different swinging bridges it was time to head back to the train station for the ride home. Transfer to a taxi, battle rush hour traffic and we ended up here, a Turkish restaurant for the celebration dinner.

What a day! And what a fun way to celebrate Dad's birthday here in China!

crayola.... how i love thee

2011-10-25T15:18:00.000+08:00

My kids are crazy about crafts. Crazy. I'm not sure where they got this from, because Matt generally avoids the craft table like someone with an allergic reaction to crayons, and I certainly have no crafting talent at all.

But the kids - especially the girls - are drawn to our craft table like a moth to flame. And I love watching them create. And I love Crayola products, because they keep me from having a nervous breakdown once a week.

My love affair with Crayola started years ago when I sat the girls at the kitchen table one Sunday afternoon. I turned my back for a very brief moment - or maybe left the room for a few long minutes, hard to say :)

I do know this though: the next time I laid eyes on Lydia she had water color painted the entire front of her Sunday dress.

I congratulated myself on raising a creative daughter and thought "well, we'll put this little "washable" claim to work" and tossed it in the washing machine. That precious pink sundress came out of the washer sparkling clean. Fan. For. Life.

So my recent fascination is with Crayola Glitter Glue. It basically takes a many-step process (run lines of glue over paper, shake on glitter, wait for it to stick, deftly remove un-stuck glitter, spend days picking glitter out from between your toes, etc) and turns it in to a one step process. The glue, and the glitter, are in one easy-to-use squeeze pen.

Seriously, I'm thinking the guy who invented Crayola Glitter Glue is probably related to the guy who invited Ziploc bags. Ingenious.

I no longer flee from art projects requiring glitter. I don't even think about art projects involving glitter. My kids create them. And all I do is admire - no glitter between the toes, thankyouverymuch.

buddies on the walk home

2011-10-23T20:46:00.000+08:00

These past few weeks I've been walking to pick the girls up from school. There were some wonderful months when I always rode the electric bike, but the kids have just gotten tooooooo heavy for me to feel like I can handle all three of them plus the bike safely! I must have well over 100 pounds of child, plus the bike isn't lightweight, and I'm not tall (so my leverage is limited) and it's just gotten to be too much for this Momma.

In the middle of summer when noon temperatures were blazing hot and I was newly pregnant and constantly felt yucky, I resorted to driving. But it seems silly to drive it - so now that temperatures are cooler, and I'm feeling better, we're walking. It's a brisk 20 or 25 minute walk to school (with Isaac in the stroller).

And a not-quite-as-brisk 45 minute walk home with all three :)

The other day Dad walked with us (and took these photos).

There is one particularly yucky intersection and I like to chant "no talking just walking" as I hurry my precious ones across the roadway! Other than that, it's a delightful way to spend a long hour in the middle of the day. We'll definitely be enjoying this activity as long as the temperatures hold out!

construction sightings

2011-10-22T12:13:00.000+08:00

Isaac loves construction trucks.

And our complex is across the street from a construction site.

And "safety regulations" take on a whole new meaning in this country.

Good times for a little boy who loves construction trucks!

The view from the bike seat is enough to thrill any boys' heart.

The noise level is high enough that Granddaddy has to lean close to hear what Isaac has to say.

And this particular morning the articulated front end loader was joined by a paver working on the other side of the building.

Momma's not too sure how close is too close.

But she does know that her little man loves the action. And on mornings like this one (the girls in school) when I'm only responsible for one - it seems like a good way to spend our time!

game time

2011-10-20T13:00:00.000+08:00

We love to play games - and we're at a great fun stage where we can really play too :) Isaac loves to tag along and play his own little version of the game regardless of what the others are doing, but the girls are patient and it all works out just fine.

In Candy Land when it's Isaac's turn to draw he chooses his card and then moves his little man to any space on the entire board that matches his card. Forward, backwards, skipping significant chunks of the path.... he's just ready for 'his turn'. We watch him, amused, and then move on to the next person. Needless to say, he never wins Candy Land! But he is a whiz at Zingo! and will beat you if you're not careful!

UNO is one of our new favorites and now that Dad is back the competition stepped up a notch! [The orange rope-looking things laying on the table is our snack - dried sweet potato. We've been eating so much sweet potato and pumpkin that I'm afraid our skin is going to take on a bit of an orange tint!]

In addition to UNO we're enjoying having Granddaddy back for more fun! Monday we're headed out on a day long adventure that involves a ride on one of the new bullet trains, and the kids are pumped :)

Totally unrelated, but 100% precious: check out the girls and their new socks :)

Seriously, dontcha wish these two were students at your preschool?

a (little) man and his car(s)

2011-10-17T14:02:00.000+08:00

My Isaac LOVES cars. LOVES THEM. He current favorite is a yellow matchbox-sized pick up truck that we take, well, everywhere. For Isaac, life just flows better when your pick up truck is in your pocket.

Every day he spends time laying on his carpet, in this exact position, pushing cars around.

His interest in this activity seems endless.

I'm not complaining, since it keeps him happily occupied and gives me a chance to get a few things done without my favorite two year old helper at my side :)

But I'm also a pretty big fan of the cars myself :) A few weeks ago I cut flaps in the sides of an unused puzzle box and made two "parking garages". If you're handy with blocks it doesn't take long to make a double decker parking deck.

Such fun for my little man (and his momma too!)

the author

2011-10-15T21:43:00.000+08:00

Sometime this summer Julianna really got into "writing books". She staples together pieces of paper and comes up with her story line and gets to work :) It's so fun to watch her create. I seriously hope that I manage to hang on to copies of some of these early writings, but just in case took photos and decided to document them here as a second method of memory keeping!

One of her earliest creations, and my personal favorite is called Boy Booc [book] and she interviewed her little brother to get an expert opinion before writing her manuscript. Each page has line(s) of text and illustrations. I wish I had pics of Boy Booc but it's late and the camera isn't readily available, so I'll share some of my favorite lines (taken straight from the little brother interview) instead: "I like mie sistr." and "I like parcing lots."

And one entire page that says simply "bloo pas" - she butchered "blue pants" and has this awesome sketch of an empty pair of blue boys pants. I can so picture her asking Isaac "what do you like, you know, what do boys like, I need to write something in my boy book". And Isaac answering "Boys like blue pants."

Lydia was inspired and wrote the sequel, Girl Book, which is equally entertaining. The writing in "Girl Book" is a little tougher to decipher, but Lydia is a great artist, so what she tends to muddle with text she nails with her illustrations.

So, all that to introduce the one book I do have pics of.... on Thursday she came bouncing out of her classroom, "Mom, I need to find all my books, I need to bring a book that I wrote to show my teacher." After more consideration, she decided to start from scratch. Her teacher specified "no text just pictures" and that she needed to be able to narrate the book to her classmates.

Julianna got out her paper and scissors and stapler and crayons and went to work. She LOVES this kind of project, poured her heart into this little book and was delighted to present the final product:

[obvious: She did her own hair on Thursday. yeah.]

The title is 小猪的学校（Little Pig's School). I wrote out the characters on a different sheet of paper and she copied them on to her book cover. As far as I know she can only write a very limited number of characters - following in her mommy's footsteps on that one! Ha! Seriously, while I will easily outpace her in ability to read Chinese for a few more years, she's probably not far away from being able to out-write me. I can't write hardly ANYTHING!!!

The plot line isn't that complex, but she did manage to illustrate approximately 26 pages detailing most every aspect of little pig's day at school. (I say approximately 26 pages because while she numbered every page I noticed she skipped at least one number and am open to the possibility that she duplicated others? Apparently her editor was a little off task that particular afternoon!)

Below is little pig eating lunch and then getting ready for his afternoon rest :) She's probably not a future artist, but does include details like cloven hooves and a hair bow between the ears to distinguish that his lunch buddy was female :)

She also clarified that she almost wore out the pink crayon because every pig on every page had to be pink :) The trials and troubles of a book illustrator, I guess :)

If you ask Julianna what she wants to be when she grows up she will definitely answer "Mommy". [Confession: I have brainwashed my kids and almost every time we have a conversation about "what people do" or "that's their job" I will finish with "who has the best job in the whole world?" and they each grin up at me and say "you do!"]

Julianna often adds to "Mommy" that she wants to be a ballet teacher - she and Lyds have worked out a plan where they will share ballet teaching responsibilities and childcare with one another - one will teach class while the other watches both sets of children and then switch. While I could care less if they teach ballet (and realize the chances are slim) I am delighted that they both aspire to be Mommies, and would be thrilled if they were close friends and watched each other's children!

Maybe Julianna will soon add "author" to her career list though?

leaf rubbings and waterfall ponytails

2011-10-12T15:59:00.000+08:00

Today we gathered leaves and did some leaf rubbings because..... well, no reason, we just did :)

You can see that we don't have many leaves changing color yet - still lots and lots of green. Actually, this is our first fall in this city, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of fall colors. Maybe we'll go straight from green to brown? I do know we arrived in early February and the color was most decidedly brown :(

Neither of my girls have the perfect hair texture to do little waterfall ponytails .... don't get me wrong, I LOVE the curls, both the little curled ends of Julianna's locks, and Lydia's crazy head full of curls but they don't have fine straight hair. Waterfall ponytail hair.

And Isaac, well, he does :)

But he is a little boy, so he never wears ponytails. Well, almost never! He often sidles up for some cuddling when I'm doing the girls' hair, and every now and then a stray ponytail holder finds its way towards his sweet little head!

No worries though - he is all boy - wrestling his sister on the living room floor (and winning!) as I write. Gotta run!

in the garden, again

2011-10-10T20:36:00.000+08:00

I meant to update yesterday but we were mysteriously without phone and internet for about 24 hours. Things like that just keep life interesting :)

As further proof that I am feeling close to normal, we're back out in the courtyard, even doing a little work in the garden again. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times .... this little courtyard is such a tremendous blessing. I'm not sure you can totally appreciate it unless you've also lived with many people in small quarters with no outside space, but lemme tell ya - I feel like this sweet little space quadruples the "live-ability" of our current apartment!!

Today we were sitting outside for afternoon snack, and who should show up but the lawn care man. He had a captivated audience of one :)

who moved over to the fence line for a closer look!

I love the smell of fresh cut grass. Isaac loves the noise and energy of a lawn mower. We were a pretty content pair.

When he finished his grass mowing we all moved over to do a little gardening. One of our gourd-like plants had a crazy summer, adding inches and inches to its thousands of vines every single day all while I laid on the couch and barely squeezed through August as a wife and mom.

By the time I got out there with the clippers last week the vine was clearly large and in charge of the garden. So I started clipping and ripping and carting loads of green growth off to the trash can.

And it wasn't long before I uncovered our tomato stakes and plants and all sorts of weeds, some errant pieces of sidewalk chalk, plenty of earthworms and even a pool toy.

This afternoon I got out the garden hoe and broke up some more of the soil, which led to more earthworms :) And inspired the kids to get their gardening-groove on and do a little work alongside mom.

Julianna loves the clippers -

and the dirt inspires us all to get a little grimy.

Here's the whole scene, looking in through our courtyard gate.

Perfect fall days. Perfect.

aquarium trip

2011-10-07T20:02:00.000+08:00

This morning we joined a few other friends and visited an aquarium. One of the bazillion reasons I love kids is they encourage me to be excited about almost everything! I seriously think without kiddos along I would have walked past many of the fish tanks and thought "well, that's neat.... what's next?"

But they wanted to stop and see every tank, each and every glass window to check out the fish. Watch them swim, and open their mouths, and look for the babies, and wonder which one is fastest, and marvel at how huge they are, or how funny they look or .....

Well, suffice it to say there was no shortage of conversation! [Not that I have even one child who lacks for words! I seriously feared that Isaac might not talk because his two big sisters never gave him a chance to get a word in. Then he started stringing two and three words together at 15 months and I realized my fears were unfounded. If our family is to have a child of few words he/she has yet to show up!]

If there is some trick to taking good photos in an aquarium (dark rooms, lit up tanks, lots of glass) then I haven't discovered it. By far the best exhibit was a huge aquarium with sharks and manta rays and eels and all sorts of fascinating fish - and by huge I mean you could walk through it in connecting tunnels with floor to ceiling glass walls. On the far end there was a stadium seating style room where you could watch divers. The divers acted out a narrated performance (hokey) but the kids were initially captivated by the presence of divers in the tank with all those crazy looking fish!

And after a break for lunch at an outdoor eating pavilion we watched the sea lion show and then headed home.

(sea lions in background, the blond curls belong to us!)

It was a great family outing - a friend helped us score massively discounted tickets, and we had a real fun time!

not your normal day

2011-10-05T21:04:00.000+08:00

Today was one of those days. Doesn't fit a mold. Throws you a ball from left field. Delights with it's unexpectedness. And challenges your socks off.

First off, Matt is home! This is delight of delights! Though he technically hasn't traveled since late August his September kept him busy busy busy. And now he's got a three day weekend (it runs Wednesday to Friday, but we'll take it!!!) We started off by tackling a lot of family projects - cleaning out the porch, putting some padding under our carpets, fixing the kitchen electrical sockets, etc.

A little before lunch Lydia and I loaded up and left on a "date". She asked to "spend two whole days with just you [Mommy]" and I was hoping lunch plus a grocery trip would do the trick :) I hadn't been to one of the in-town grocery stores since before I got pregnant (hello!! that's a long time!) and we were desperately in need of some basics (peanut butter, the few rare canned goods that are available, etc).

During our lunch date I asked "besides Julianna who is your best friend?" Lydia looked me right in the eye and confidently answered "YOU!" Love this little girl of mine! Such a rare treat to spend a few hours with just her!

We got home and Matt shared that the kitchen sink piping had fallen apart while we were gone. This, unfortunately, is not one smidge outside of normal. Today I got to thinking.... you know that saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Well, I'm pretty sure in this country the translation would be "if it ain't broke, just wait a few days - it'll break, and then you'll need to fix it".

Well, we were expecting company (some neighbors we've started hanging out with recently) and I was super grateful I had started the crock pot early this morning, before the sink disaster. I pulled out my frozen rolls, laid them on the pan, and turned my attention to the other zillion tasks that were on the "to-do" list for the day.

[Side note: if you make your own bread, this is my best tip ever: freeze your shaped dough before the second rise and store the rock-hard rolls in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Pull them out 4-5 hours before you want to bake them and you'll have fresh bread for supper without ever measuring out yeast! This is so perfect because you can bake two rolls, or ten, and it's a double bonus on afternoons when you're hosting company for dinner and the kitchen sink piping collapses a few hours before they arrive!]

Exhibit #956 of things that break and need fixing - the kitchen outlets hanging off the wall behind the crock pot need a bit of work, dontcha think? Bad news is they look terrible. Good news is they still work.

So at this point I was starting to think "this is officially turning into one very interesting day".

The worker with the new kitchen sink piping arrived and started doing his thing. And that's when Julianna puked all over her bedroom carpet. To give her a bit of credit, she was en route to the bathroom when it happened, and she felt terrible she didn't make it in time.

I checked my watch. 4:25pm. We had told our neighbor-friends to come between 4:30 and 5. We are definitely in the "just getting to know them" stage, so it wasn't like I could send a quick text and say "could you give us an extra fifteen minutes, we're still looking forward to supper, but having a few hiccups along the way". So I prayed. Lord, you know when they are coming. I will rest in that.

And we cleaned up Julianna, and the carpet, and the mess the sink fix-it man created. I washed dishes in the kitchen, got out the pot to boil noodles, pre-heated the oven for the rolls, checked on Julianna thirteen times.

At 5:13 pm our neighbors arrived. Wonderfully, perfectly LATE!!! They are a really neat family (with a three year old daughter) and seriously some of the easiest local people to just hang out with. One thing Matt and I really enjoy about them is that they ENJOY parenting! Yay! So do we!!

Julianna lazed on the couch, but Lydia and Ting Ting (their daughter) sat at our craft table and went to town with the markers and stickers.

What a day! Full of delight. Full of challenges. On tap for tomorrow: the kitchen piping is installed, but leaking lots. And praying that Julianna's stomach troubles are a one-time thing and not a bug she plans to share with the whole family!

busy Isaac

2011-10-01T14:51:00.000+08:00

Yesterday morning I was scrubbing the tub (long story, more on that later) and heard Isaac yelling for me from the courtyard. "Mommy, Mom, I'm stuck."

I saw this from the living room and grabbed my camera on the way out :)

And by "I'm stuck" he wasn't referring to being stuck on the bike and unable to get down. No, the front wheel of his BIKE was stuck, and he was creatively trying to figure out a way to solve his problem.

Get off the bike and push it away from the fence didn't come to mind. Instead he figured he'd climb up the handlebars and give himself a big heave backwards?

I'd like to think I arrived on the scene just in time to talk him out of his plan, but in reality he tends to solve his own problems pretty well, so I might be giving myself too much credit.

Regardless, I decided he might be better off helping me in the bathroom. I switched to all non-chemical cleaners about six months ago and have not regretted it for one single day. I think my only regret is I didn't do it earlier.

I tossed all my chemical cleaners - everything - and replaced it with a vinegar/water solution in a squirt bottle and a big tub of baking soda. One big perk is my kids help with the cleaning - no worries about their safety. In fact, all three of them have a perhaps unhealthy attachment to the squirt bottle :) Good thing vinegar comes cheap!

All that to say, Isaac pulled up a stool and cleaned the sink for about twenty minutes. The results were a relatively clean sink (I re-scrubbed a bit myself) and one sopping wet shirt.

I was finished in the bathroom before he was done playing with water, so he moved out to the kitchen sink. His shirt was so wet we just left it behind!

Seriously, does it get any better than this when you are two years old? This busy little boy leaves tomorrow to go camping with his Daddy. Matt camps most every October with a group of students, and when appropriate brings along a kiddo. This year Isaac's name is on the top of the list :)

I'm past the 14 week mark and feeling good good good! My energy level is definitely back up and I haven't taken any anti-nausea meds in 5 days!!! Earlier this week I was almost sure I was feeling the little baby moving, but not positive. Then one afternoon I was sitting quietly on the couch and was absolutely sure the jumps and bumps in my tummy were the baby..... and getting stronger every day! Last night baby must have been on some sort of sugar high from all the oranges I ate because it was moving so much :)

Yay for a busy little boy who climbs bike handlebars and helps Mommy clean the bathroom. And double-yay for a pregnancy that is starting to bring joy and a baby that is growing bigger and stronger!

painting (and one reason i love to blog)

2011-09-29T21:09:00.000+08:00

This afternoon we painted.

And I took photos.

I am 99% sure I would not have photographed this simple little event if I didn't blog.

I'm also 99% sure that Isaac's favorite color is blue :)

And I'm positive that years from now (maybe even next year) I'll be grateful that I did. Grateful that I blogged. Grateful that I picked up the camera. Grateful that I painted.

dance class

2011-09-26T19:50:00.001+08:00

Our girls have been begging to take dance for, oh... years.

Problem is, dance class here is not dance class in America. I wish there was a nicer way to say it (and please do know that there are many things I love about this culture), but simply put, this is not an easy place to be a kid. Years of the one child policy plus relative economic prosperity plus God-less perspectives on family and child-raising have resulted in a culture that sees children as a commodity. I am convinced that most parents (unwittingly) are more concerned with what their child will do for them than what they will do for their child.

Needless to say, it adds up to a lot of stress on the children, and a goal- and results- driven perspective on most everything related to childhood. Long hours of school, unbelievable numbers of out-of-school tutoring and extracurriculars for even the youngest little ones.

The market for "pre-natal education" (ie teaching your child something while they are yet in the womb) is booming. I can't tell you how much my kids learned in the womb, though I am absolutely sure that Isaac knew exactly who Julianna and Lydia were the moment he was born.... just the way he responded to their voices made it clear those little girlies were old friends. But still, recognizing the big sisters' voices is a far cry from intentional "in the womb" early intervention meant to guarantee baby will be a genius :)

All that to say, Matt and I have been very hesitant to put the girls in dance class, since the purpose of most classes seems to be the creation of well-trained prima ballerinas with no thought to enjoyment or fun in the classroom. All our girls want is a chance to spin and twirl and have heaps of fun in the name of 'dance class'.

Imagine our delight when the perfect opportunity presented itself - an evening class at their preschool, open only to enrolled students (guaranteed class size would be small and teachers were coming from within the school). I inquired specifically about the nature of the classes, and told them we were interested in FUN, with a smidge of dance thrown in for good measure. It seemed to be a great fit.

Last Thursday night was their first class - I knew the FUN requirement was met when Lydia hopped out of the car after last week's class. "Mommy, I'm a dancer!" she called out when she saw me. As uncoordinated and large-motor skills challenged as my sweet second born is, I figured dance class had the potential to be most difficult for her. When she declared her new "dancer" status I was convinced the class was a success!

Julianna too, was delighted. [The girls are together for warm ups then break up into two different classes to work on their dancing :) ] They've showed off their new moves every day since then, and can't wait to go back this week. When Matt is in town and available he hopes to take them to their class (6 to 7 pm) and give me a little mid week break! Isaac tagged along last week and it went okay. There is a playground in the school yard, and while it stays light enough he'll be able to play outside.

Of course, he is the only little sibling out there :( So my girls are the only ones with a built in little-brother fan club. Which is a whole lot more valuable than pre-natal education any day of the week, at least in my book!!

another saturday

2011-09-24T17:08:00.000+08:00

It's no secret that Saturday is not my favorite. End of a week. And, in this case, the end of a very long month for Matt, and a veeeerrrry long first trimester for me. While I definitely have more and more good days, and while my current 'bad day' is a cake walk compared to mid August, I feel yuck more than I'd like. I'm mostly off anti-nausea meds, but still end up taking them more than I wish I did :(

So I was already prepared to just trudge through the day. Loaded up the kids and headed to the market, since I just figured out last night what I need to be bringing to a pot luck tomorrow. Lucky me, it's lots of veggies, which means lots of washing and chopping (picture veggies straight off the farmer's truck and you won't be surprised when I tell you the bottom of my sink has MUD in it when I'm done!)

Saturday morning...... It's basically standing room only at the market :) I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. We got our veggies and got out of there! By the time we got home I had chalked the day up as survival. just get through it. Wash the piles of dishes in the sink so I can get to the veggie washing.. Serve and clean up lunch. Get kids down for rest. Make dips (for veggies). Cook, serve and clean up supper. GO TO SLEEP!!!

As if to ice the cake, the phone rang - it was the repair man for our hot water heater. I asked him when he was coming and he asked me how serious the problem was. "Well, kind sir, every time I turn on the hot water the gas smell is so strong I have to leave the room. With three young children in the house I've decided to take the cautious route and turn off the gas supply to the entire house. No hot water, no hot shower, no using the stove top. In my book, I'd say this is a problem. When are you coming?" [Perhaps I should have preempted my little speech with a hint that today was not the best I've had!]

Needless to say, he decided he'd come :) [and he did, and the problem is fixed. yay!]

But it seems the Lord just would not let me moan and groan through my day. So graciously, He turned my attitude, and changed the course of a day. As I unloaded veggies He reminded me that today is a birthday party for a far-off friend's three year old son. That simple thought put a smile on my face. Praise the Lord for life! While I washed the first set of dishes I listened to laughter in the courtyard, the kids dancing in the gorgeous fall sunshine - playing with balloons that we blew up and tied to lengths of yarn earlier this morning. Later Isaac joined me at the sink and we washed cherry tomatoes.

I turned on some music (my current obsession is listening to worship song recordings from our brother and sister-in-law, Andy and Kristi. My kids are addicted, and so am I!)

And then the girls came prancing out of my bedroom. I've been sorting clothes (summer to winter with the added complication of pulling out maternity duds) and the window seat in my bedroom was piled with clothes. The girls found it, and started a little fashion show.

I decided to just enjoy it, and tried not to think about all my (previously nicely folded) piles of clothes :)

The veggies are washed and dried and waiting for my knife. Matt and Dad will be here by 5:30 for supper. Isaac sleeping, girls reading on their beds, and me? Why, I'm having a really good day!

down to the river

2011-09-22T19:46:00.001+08:00

So the street to our complex dead ends at a river. In a country with 1.3 billion people (give or take) and in a city with 13 million (or so), life on a dead end street is pretty much glorious. GLORIOUS!

I haven't been down to the river in weeks, and honestly, there are days that it smells, and you can't get that close, and it's a tad less picturesque that many other rivers.... but Sunday afternoon I was reminded again: stinky or not, a river is a river, and I am so grateful to have it for a neighbor.

Our road dead ends at a river walk that overlooks the river and gives a pretty sweet view across the way. The other side is mostly undeveloped, at least along this little section.

The "farmers" are hardly peasants :) Matt and I are both convinced they are our neighbors - basically squatting on available land! Most of our neighbors are first-generation city dwellers, and I guess they can't pass up a good piece of dirt!

Still, the crops in the river bottoms do make for a pretty picture, don't they?

It's fairly precarious to leave road-level and trudge down to the real riverside.

And to give a little perspective on how densely populated this area is (despite the pics), you'll definitely want to take careful note of the picture below. Dad took it from the 12th floor, looking towards the mountains in the distance. Our apartment complex is the orange-reddish buildings in the direct foreground (you can't see our building). The river runs directly (and I mean, directly) behind the concrete building under construction on the right side of the photo!

That's our version of 'down to the river'. Grateful.

all about cats

2011-09-20T14:43:00.001+08:00

Monday the girls and I made cat puppets with paper lunch bags (not a commodity here, but a mom-friend of older kids spotted them in another foreigner's give-away pile and snagged them for me - how cool is that!)

Turns out this is pretty much the perfect project for my girls, and I'm glad we got a big stack of paper bags (and I found a website with links to paper bag puppet templates for about fifty different animals, from bald eagles to zebras). Hello, this is one craft we'll be doing all winter long!

Print the template, color, cut, glue (not always in that order) and you're set to go. Lydia named her cat Olivia. Since Lydia spends less time spelling (or attempting spelling) I got to write her name on the back of the puppet: O-L-I-V-I-A.

Julianna named hers Elibet. I thought it was a nice take on "Elizabeth". Unfortunately, she does all her own spelling and it came out: L-U-B-E-T. Sound it out folks, she's pretty much dead on. But it looks a lot prettier the way I'd like to write it :)

So, our two new cats (and the closest we'll get to pets for a good long while) - Olivia and Lubet!

But those aren't the only cats on my mind these days. We've got another member of the cat family that's a BIG part of our household..... Isaac's tiger, Bei Bei (pronounced Bay-Bay and named after the city where Isaac was born).

Bei Bei is a cute little thing, and I'm glad to have him around. But there's one big problem-o. When Isaac holds Bei Bei, his fingers pop right in his mouth and he starts sucking.

Both my girls were paci users. And both of them ditched the habit the same fateful day. I was already pregnant with #3 (soon to be Isaac) and not in the mood to be rescuing pacis from behind couch cushions and under bed covers. So I bit the bullet, tossed the pacis, endured the fussing, and a few days later we were a paci free family.

Then Isaac showed up and oh how I wanted him to love the paci. I love the paci, my baby loves the paci. We are happy.

But he would have none of it. Nope, just wanted those fingers. Even then, when he was just a few months old, I already had a nagging suspicion that getting rid of the fingers was going to be a smidge trickier than tucking them in a ziploc bag and hiding them in my top drawer.

So now that he's hit the official two-and-a-half mark I'm thinking more seriously about the fingers. I do love it - sometimes. He's a real snuggle bug, and is super content to sit in my lap at the end of the day, holding that tiger and sucking away. LOVE it.

But folks, long-term it's just not going to work. I've thought about trying to restrict Bei Bei to the bed - Isaac wants to hold him, he has to get in the bed with him. But I'm not sure that's the route I want to take. No way Jose can I take Bei Bei away. We'd be dealing with some sort of post-traumatic syndrome for years. Do I just grin and bear it..... and hope he looses the habit before college?

Oh, and yes, we have two Bei Beis. Isaac only knows about one of them. Bei Bei #1 gets too yucky to tolerate, he goes in the washer and Bei Bei #2 (affectionately referred to as the 'stunt double') makes his appearance.

Your thoughts please. I'm headed into un-charted territory :)

welcome fall

2011-09-18T19:32:00.000+08:00

Welcome fall, we're glad you're here. Please stay a while!

Two weeks ago, the recorded high temp was 93 degrees. Today's was 68. That's a 25 degree difference for those of you non-UNC grads :)

Late afternoon we went out walking down by the river. (See below for proof that I actually leave the house! 12+ weeks and I am finally feeling close to normal. Close. Not quite, but dramatic improvement from weeks previous!)

Something about when a child meets a railing... they climb. Every single time :)

The girls were busy showing Dad how 'good' they are at standing on one foot.

He was a bit under impressed with the foot standing, but enjoyed himself nonetheless.

I am loving the cooler temps, though I know I'll be more than ready for hot summer when it rolls around next year. Now if we can just get fall to hang around for a while, this city has a reputation of skipping the 'middle seasons' and jumping from winter straight to summer and back again. Spring temps lasted about two weeks. I was washing up winter coats for storage and the girls were already in sundresses.

Hopefully it'll be many weeks (months??) before I'm pulling out winter coats, but I think the sundresses might be a distant memory for now.

photo drop :)

2011-09-16T14:20:00.001+08:00

Mom left on a noon flight to Beijing, then it's off to Chicago and on towards home :) If only the journey took as long as writing that first sentence, ha!

It was an amazing two weeks - such delight to have her here and (as she shared) the kids are just at really fun ages for a visit. Not that any age is NOT fun, but you know what I mean....

So, here's a collection of some of my favorite photos from the visit. It's fun to have Dad here as a photographer, it means I actually get into a photo or two (though he is noticeably absent!). [And Dad will be here for more weeks - then off to Malaysia, then back here before finally heading home to the U.S.]

Isaac spends HOURS in his room, driving his cars around.

Just love this sweet face and the birthday cupcake :)

What multi-tasking looks like! I cannot even begin to guess the number of hours we spend at this little table, nor the number of cap-less markers at the end of a day :)

Julianna is desperate to learn how to sew. She actually already made a little sleeper for her baby doll - she did it all herself (except thread the needle). She cut the fabric, stitched up the sides, even stitched a little design in the front. It's a little awkward to use and I help her dress her baby in it, but she is only 5 years old.

Anyways, when Grandmama was here she tried to learn a little crochet. It's hard for Mom to teach her, since Mom crochets left handed, but she made a good effort.

Dad took this pic of the kids on the big bed at Mom and Dad's apartment one morning. Pretty classic shot, Julianna reading Wind in the Willows (or at least trying her best) and the other two wrestling :)

Isaac and his new fav book... The Big Book of Things that Go. Which we now read approximately once every 90 minutes. Good times.

My future engineer :) With a lot of help from her Granddaddy, finished her first attempt at following the instructions and creating a Lego building project.

There's lots more but I'll stop here for now. So much fun to have visitors in town!!!

we do a lot of this....

2011-09-14T20:40:00.000+08:00

What are we busy doing these days? Lots of things, and I am needing to get photos downloaded so I can do a photo-loaded post.

In the meantime, Mom and Dad are doing LOTS of reading! Something like this plays out nearly every day...

And another common occurrence? A sibling crawling up on the arm to join the fun and get a closer look.

Today the temperatures were hot - again - and we even put the pool out in the courtyard. I know I will regret this, but for now I'm ready for consistently cooler temps since it really helps me feel lots better. I'm sad that I'm wishing away all these hot sweaty days, but I just feel SO much nicer when the temperature is a little cooler.

Tomorrow is Mom's last day (can you believe it? two weeks passed already) and we'll take her to the airport Friday morning. But she'll be back sometime this spring to meet the new arrival (or arrivals? lets see how fast this adoption paperwork can fly)!!

purple birthday cake and "Matt's september"

2011-09-11T20:22:00.001+08:00

Since the day Lydia turned 4 (August 15th) she has been looking forward to celebrating again with Grandmama and Granddaddy.... and today was finally the day!!!

She requested purple cake, so Mom brought a white cake mix and we used food coloring to color the batter. So fun for the girls to stir, and it really turned out cool.

I think we'll be making more colored cakes, since it's just a fun and easy way to spice things up.

And the end result was perfectly delicious :)

After dinner, present opening! She dug into a big gift bag and pulled out our first set of Legos!!! I am thrilled and can't wait for hours of building fun. Lydia is definitely our best build-er to date, she just has a knack for putting things together, maybe it's her Daddy's engineering brain that passed on the right combination of genetic material? I thought this would be a great gift for her, and for the whole family.

Turns out Isaac was impressed too, everyone was. Matt is definitely hooked!

In the photo you can barely spot yet another huge goose-egg over Isaac's right eye. Matt's a proud Daddy tonight because this one came from Isaac's first over-the-handlebars maneuver. A sweet moment for a bike loving Daddy to share with his little boy :) Granted, it was over the 'handlebars' of a four wheeled riding toy, but Matt's glad to see his boy is headed in the right direction!

And speaking of bike riding escapades, I thought I'd share this one from Matt..... in my mind this is the perfect synopsis of "Matt's September". It is just a crazy busy time of year when he's got something boiling on all four burners, loving (almost) everything he does, head spinning from morning to night, dreaming and working and thinking and planning. It does make for some long days, long weeks for him, but he just loves it.

Anyways, yesterday evening he gets home just in time to finish up bedtime with the girls (but already missed Isaac who goes down 15 minutes earlier, usually). Mom and Dad left soon after the girls were down and the two of us sat at the kitchen table to catch up.

He pointed to new scrapes and bruises on his arms and legs and starts this story.... "So anyways, today I was on my way to campus, pedaling and pedaling, mind spinning with about ten topics, and trying to plan out what I was getting ready to say to the group [of visiting Americans that he was orienting, sending out for a day's work]. And it was time to stop the bike but I wasn't ready, so I pulled the brakes hard, still busy planning my talk. And completely forgot to put my foot down. I smacked right over onto the pavement, feet still in the toe straps, never once having thought about putting down a foot for balance."

We laughed. It's not funny when someone gets hurt. But you have to admit it is often funnier afterwards. Especially when you know Matt - he's an amazing biker, spends hours and hours on his bike, is as comfortable on two wheels as most of us are on two feet. That he would "wreck" simply by failing to consider the need to stop, and then forgetting to put down a foot for stability shows just how terribly distracted he is with other things!! I said, "baby, that's like the perfect picture image of your September."

We laughed even harder later, when he shared that he wrecked RIGHT in front of where he was meeting the group ...... and they pulled up about two minutes later. What if they had arrived first? A group of visitors, fresh off the plane, not sure where they were or what they were supposed to be doing, and their "guide" for the day pulled up on his bike and promptly fell square on to the pavement? He tried to imagine jumping up from his imperfect arrival and saying "don't worry guys, I'm here to help, I've got you taken care of, things will be just fine". Think anyone would have believed him?!?!?

In the end he must have figured out the right things to say, the group headed off for a hard day's work and he was super excited about all that happened that day. There is LOTS of exciting stuff happening, and I love to see him enjoy it all.

i will post again, i promise :)

2011-09-10T10:49:00.000+08:00

I've gotten way behind on blogging this week and now I need to get pictures off of Dad's camera before I can really do a thorough post.

The quick summary is: everyone is having a great time! I am feeling LOTS better (probably partly because the temps have finally cooled off and partly because Mom is helping so much around the house and partly because the weeks keep ticking by and soon I will be 2nd trimester!)

Right now the kids are in the courtyard. Julianna was busy making "gingerbread brown soup" - which was the perfect activity for her to enjoy on her own :) "I'm just being creative", she said.

But now her siblings have joined her in the creativity and things are quickly spiraling out of muddy control :) It's already evident that Isaac is going to need a thorough rinsing from the waist down and a new set of clothing.

oh well :) fun times call for new sets of clothing, especially when you are a two and a half year old boy with a bowl of water, a chopstick, and a weed-overgrown garden full of rich brown dirt at your disposal!!

you gotta start somewhere

2011-09-05T20:48:00.000+08:00

Today Matt, Mom & Dad and the kids headed out for a little adventure in a nearby mountainous area. [I stayed home, since I had plenty of road trip adventure last month and am still in no state to be trooping around in the hot sunshine on a kid-sized hike!]

Dad got some great pics (next post) and everyone had a terrific time. I joined them for supper at a noodle shop near campus.

And I can't resist posting this photo series of my boy Isaac, trying to get the hang of chopsticks :)

If you haven't tried eating a bowl of noodles with a pair of chopsticks, you might want to consider that his technique, while it needs work, is flawless in the "effectiveness" department. When eating noodles with chopsticks, effectiveness trumps technique for every beginner!

I guess every time you learn something new, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Dinner was yummy, baths were an absolute must, and bedtime was early (even for Mom and Dad, who are battling jet lag and winning on all counts!)

Pictures from the mountain adventure to follow!

the mountain trip

2011-09-05T19:51:00.000+08:00

The pictures clearly reveal that everyone had a great time!

One of my new favorite sister pictures :) This one is so sweet.

Granddaddy and grandson on the swinging bridge

(According to sources, this little man Isaac did a LOT of walking today - he was so tired he literally could not walk a straight line leaving the noodle restaurant where we ate supper.... swerving and swaying from side to side! Betcha he'll sleep good tonight, huh?)

Climbing the stairs with Daddy

For all you aspiring Grandmothers out there, I'm sure my mom would be happy to share her techniques and let you know just how she manages to hold hands with three children at the same time!!

And one last shot of the surroundings. Beautiful, isn't it? I'm pretty sure next time I'll be ready to hop in the car and join the fun!

But this time.... I enjoyed a nice slow quiet relaxing (hmmmm, how many more happy adjectives can I throw in???) day here at home. I cranked out some more adoption paperwork, which I haven't looked at in weeks (thanks to the pregnancy crud). Our next big "hoop" is our pending application for immigration approval (issued by the US government). Once we get immigration approval our dossier (fancy word for large intimidating stack of paper) is complete and can be mailed to China!! From there, it's a few (hopefully) quick steps to getting matched with a specific child!! woohoo!

is "driving" really the right word?

2011-09-04T19:30:00.000+08:00

One thing that's fun about people coming to visit.... they learn what life is like here. Really like.

This is the first time my parents visited since we've become a car-owning family. And Mom and Dad agree... the verb "to drive" doesn't really describe what really happens when you slide behind the wheel. At least not the way that most Americans understand "to drive".

Different parts of town, different kinds of roads, call for different driving techniques. In some areas of the city stoplights have camera sensors that snap photos of red-light-running license plates. In other areas of the city, weeeeellllll.... no camera sensors.

I consistently run the stoplight nearest our apartment. So does everyone else. Which means it's less a stoplight than a warning signal - approach slowly, look for cars approaching from other directions, yield to everything bigger than you :)

Friday night we were going out to grab dinner before heading to the airport to pick up Mom and Dad. Traffic slowed, then stopped and we quickly realized the problem. No one was paying one lick of attention to the stoplight at this intersection.

The camera was in the floorboard (in prep for meeting Mom and Dad) and I snapped a few photos. For reference, you can spot the gray-colored hood of our minivan in the bottom left of the photo below. We needed to go straight through the intersection.

It took a few minutes to get through.

Come over and visit. We'll take you for a drive!

they're here!

2011-09-03T09:30:00.000+08:00

Mom and Dad made it right on time last night, actually a few minutes early :) We passed the kids over the railing and into baggage claim for a little early visiting.

I think Mom and Dad were grateful for the help!

Everyone slept well last night and we're busy visiting this morning. Dad's already been introduced to the Isaac version of a game of Go Fish, and now he's playing with Julianna (definitely an upgrade in terms of competition!). Isaac moved over to the sofa to read Curious George with Lydia and Mom.

More good times to come :)

superman is back

2011-09-01T20:49:00.002+08:00

and we couldn't be happier :)

oh delight of delights to have this man back to lead our home and our family.

Typically, as the travel days pass by, we get into a new routine - the first night is hard, but things get smoother as the days add up and we (me and the kids) make our own new groove. This time, not so much. So not ashamed to say that, health-wise, I am not in a place to successfully single parent :)

Also thrilled that today is September 1st and I am hopeful that this crud will be over by late September. [If I'm not going to be better by late September, I don't want to think about that right now, and would prefer to live in my own little fantasy for the time being.]

Oh, and best news yet? Mom and Dad arrive tomorrow night. I'm so excited they are coming, but the excitement is tempered with the realization that we won't be able to do all of the fun things I've thought to fill our days with. But still, so so so eager for them to get here. If all goes well their 24 hour travel stint ends at 8pm tomorrow (Friday), when they land at the airport just a few kilometers from our home!

Mom and I are actually emailing back and forth as I wait for the photo to upload. They just landed in Chicago and are headed towards the international terminal! Man oh man I cannot WAIT for them to get here!

limping to the end

2011-08-30T21:17:00.000+08:00

So the last few days have not been so smooth. All my "I'm feeling better and can actually get out of bed in the morning" talk backfired and I have really struggled the last few mornings.

I just talked to Matt, he's waiting for a delayed flight. ugh. He's been gone on longer trips than this, but I'm pretty sure this has been the hardest. By far.

We did manage to have a lot of fun while we were in the city, and I am so grateful for sweet friends there - I do think that there is definitely a mental component to feeling cruddy. It's like a vicious cycle: I feel bad, so I lay down, so I have time to concentrate on how bad I feel, so I don't want to get up, so......

But when a friend sends a "headed to the pool, please try to come, it'll be fun" text message, and I know my kiddos would delight in a morning at the pool with their friends..... Well, I pull myself off the bed, throw the pool gear in a bag and off we go. And you know what, I felt better when I got there :)

(proof that we made it to the pool... so I wasn't feeling good enough to take too many pics, but one is better than none, I guess).

It's also been a lesson in "if this qualifies as 'hard' life, then you live a pretty cushy life, Laura". I mean, seriously.

My dear cousin Julie's husband is deployed for ONE year, she and her three little kiddos are finishing up his two week home leave and saying goodbye again for MONTHS! It would take years for Matt's travel schedule to add up to 365 nights away from home!

The average monthly salary in Afghanistan is 14 USD, I spent that on take-out!!!! (Can you even fathom 14 dollars a month? And while I'm sure the cost of living is cheaper in Afghanistan than wherever it is that you and I live, I am doubly-sure that 14 dollars doesn't buy enough.)

Sick while (because?) I'm carrying the life of a newly created child has got to be one of the "best possible reasons" to be sick. I mean, it's a heck of a lot better than just about any other reason I can think of.

So I'm grateful. Grateful that Matt is coming home. Grateful that tomorrow morning when little footsteps come scampering into my bedroom I'll rest easy knowing Matt will be the one putting bread in the toaster. Grateful to be carrying the life of one child, while I teary-eyed watch youtube adoption videos and dream of God adding yet another to our family.

Grateful that, above all else, I know Jesus.

He is good. He is wise. He is sovereign.

skipping school

2011-08-28T15:22:00.002+08:00

I'm still not entirely sure how this happened, but Julianna is 5 and a half years old.

Please tell me time will slow down.

If we were in a more typical schooling environment, she'd probably be starting kindergarten. But typical we are not. And starting kindergarten? We are not.

For years I have dreamed of home schooling. I wanted to home school before I had kids. And once the kids showed up, well it just seemed even more fun. Matt and I thought we'd send our kids to local preschool a few mornings a week for language acquisition. And when the time came, I'd start home schooling.

So far, things are going swimmingly. Our girls enjoy preschool. And it's a sweet little place that emphasizes creativity, imagination and fun. They sing, they dance, they listen to stories, they play games, all in their second language. Their language skills are admirable and give them the ability to navigate relationships with our friends and neighbors. Julianna is excited that when she turns 6 she'll start learning to write characters. (preschool here runs til children are six, they then transition directly to first grade.)

We are so grateful for the Lord's graciousness to our girls in this area - their three morning a week foray into 'doing childhood' in a different language and culture has been wildly successful.

Right now they are finishing a month-long break from their preschool and will start up again in September.

But what about home school? Well, after consulting many experienced home school mom friends (both here and in the States) I decided to skip kindergarten. More accurately, Julianna is skipping kindergarten. Not to start first grade. Just to take one more year apart from any formal structured learning.

We'll read piles of books and play plenty of games. We'll measure oats into cookie dough and talk 'driving east vs driving west' when we're on the highway. I have no doubt that her reading will improve and the little books she writes will have more complex plot lines and her diligence will increase and, more than anything, I dream that her love of learning will grow and grow and grow. But we won't be doing "school".

Plan A was that fall of 2012 we'd look into a first grade curriculum. But as friends pointed out a few days ago, fall 2012 is going to be a smidge more complex than I originally thought, with an infant and (hopefully already in our home or soon to be arriving) adopted toddler. Maybe we'll start fall 2013?!?

Sure, Julianna will probably have a few places she needs to play catch up. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. And, of course, by the time Julianna pulls up a chair and starts something called home school her little sister will be 5 and, most likely, sitting right next to her. So Julianna might be the only one who gets this extra year of fun :)

[In other words, this decision to skip kindergarten is nothing that we are super passionate about, nor do we think that parents who choose otherwise made a poor decision - most likely all our children except Julianna will do something along the lines of kindergarten, at least in the sense that they'll spend their preschool years in a environment with a home schooling mom and older sibling(s). But this year, I do feel confident that we have made a good choice for our family.]

And for right now our little home is not officially school - except, of course, in the sense that it's been a school since the day she arrived.

updates with a side of baseball pics

2011-08-26T21:43:00.000+08:00

So here I am, 33.333 % of the way through this little Daddy-less stint and it's going just okay. I am most definitely feeling better than I was this time last week. Thank you Jesus.

Last night was a doozy - visited by a big thunderstorm with awe-inspiring, child-waking, power-outage causing lightning and thunder. If Matt was home and we were pre-children we'd probably have sat on the enclosed porch and watched God paint the sky.

Unfortunately, Matt wasn't home and the children were not as ready to be awe-inspired but instead begging Mommy to turn the nightlight back on. Bummer is, Mommy can't turn on the nightlight when the power is out. (This is our third little nighttime power outage in about ten days and I am just about sick and tired of it - the previous two, I'm almost certain, were rolling blackouts to our area of the city, this one storm-caused..... but still, no power when camping is one thing. Life is not a camping trip. I like electricity. Now I'm done complaining, let's proceed.)

So I'm feeling better. I am able to get out of the bed (after the kids come to find me, but still, OUT of the bed) and serving up some breakfast. I left the apartment twice yesterday and once today. And when I'm out I'm feeling ok, not just moving my weary body to someone else's couch.

Is the worst behind me? Who knows. I'm still on anti nausea meds (and can definitely feel them wear off as the time for the next dose approaches). But I'm glad to be where I am, health-wise.

The baseball pics are from our friend Graham, who we visited on our road trip earlier this month. Isaac is actually "most likely to be carrying a bat" in our family, but Julianna had a fun (albeit not very successful) time playing this particular day.

I especially love that she's wearing her Itasca (Minnesota) State Park t-shirt, playing the quintessentially American game of baseball, with the blurred Chinese characters in the background.

state of the home address

2011-08-24T07:48:00.000+08:00

This post is mainly for my parents, who arrive next weekend and need to be forewarned.... and also for me, so in the months/years to come when I wonder how we made it through this season, I'll remember a few telling details :)

So here goes, the state of the home address, when momma just isn't feeling that good!

1. We are constantly out of silverware. I simply cannot explain this, other than to conclude that when I am not spending my days on the couch I must wash a lot of silverware. I cannot tell you how many times over the past weeks I have heard "but there are no more spoons".

2. I have not yet put away the clothes I unpacked from our road trip (we got home ten days ago). I did put the kids clothes in a big laundry bucket, and Julianna put them away (sweet little girl, she is doing a lion's share of work these days). But my clothes, well I've moved them from a pile on the bed, to the floor, to the bedside table (they didn't all fit), back to the floor again. Since I rarely change out of my pajamas this particular arrangement is working out just fine.

3. The menu planning/weekly home calendar that I print and usually use to organize our entire week is hanging (right where it should be) on the side of the fridge. It hasn't been updated in weeks.

4. I realized last week, for the first time since moving here, that exactly zero restaurants deliver to our home. This has never bothered me before. It is currently the source of much consternation. If only one teeny tiny little restaurant would bring me something, anything to feed the troops.... ahh!!! I can only dream.

5. The oven door pull is dusty. I don't cook. My house helper has started cooking three meals a week, but she's never seen (nor used) an oven (welcome to Asia.... stir-fry heaven). Matt, well, he has proven again and again that he really is Superman. But he's running the busiest work weeks of his year, and trying to support our family as best he can, so his oven usage (usually rare) is non-existent. One day I will bake again.

6. I am constantly with my Kindle. I am rarely off the couch for more than about fifteen minutes at a time. When the kids are up and about I do my best to win the "present yet simultaneously absent parent of the year" award. When the kids are sleeping and I feel good enough, I read.

7. Laundry is everywhere. Some dirty, some clean. It's a good day that I manage to put an entire load of laundry through it's paces...... first washer, hang on the line, bring inside, fold, put away. [Our weather is way too hot and sunny to use the dryer much at all - though I do resort to it some - but if I use the dryer I have to open the windows to vent, and if I open the windows then I turn off the air con, and if I turn off the air con it's really hot inside, so the best option is just hang it outside :)] So laundry, in it's various states (waiting for the washer, wet in the bucket needing to be hung, on the line outside, piled on the sofa but not folded, folded but not put away)..... it's taking over our home!

8. MY KIDS. Oh, sweet littles. They are hanging in there, really, they are. But it's a tough stretch for them too. I know they miss 'the old me' and I miss them too. I mean, we're all still here, but it's a different kind of 'here' and it's not nearly as fun. So I can't wait to get back down on the floor and really play, to serve them lunch, to read piles of books in one sitting, to go for walks and enjoy little outings, to color and craft and do puzzles and all that. Soon, little ones, soon.

So, Mom and Dad, welcome to our new reality. Hopefully passing soon. But we'll be REAL glad for you to be here!

and in light of all that - and the fact that Matt leaves crack of dawn tomorrow for a six day trip..... we're moving! Yep, me and the kids, moving in to town to be near friends, people who can help, and restaurants that bring food! We'll be back Tuesday afternoon (if I feel good enough to move the family) or we'll wait til Matt gets in late Tuesday and then move back out here on Wednesday.

Packing our swimsuits since the pool is literally at the bottom of the building we'll be living in, and surely I can drag myself that far - right? Plus, I've had two pretty good days in a row, so maybe the worst is behind me??!!??

and a bun in the oven

2011-08-22T20:03:00.000+08:00

About a month ago I started to feel, well, ummmm.... pregnant. This was, (ahem), not part of the plan, nor anything I was prepared for. I'll be honest, I did NOT handle it well. Dear Jesus, this was not part of my wonderful plan for my life.

The first days were tough. We quickly emailed our agency to find out what would happen with our adoption plans, and were relieved to hear that we could proceed normally, and would just need to update some paperwork after baby makes his/her appearance. So then I tackled the next stumbling block - 2012 would (most likely) bring two new additions to the family. Baby in the belly (due late March) and toddler in the orphanage (hopefully coming home mid to late 2012). Bringing the grand total to 5 children born within six years.

Just as we were starting to wrap hearts and heads around all of this I started feeling sick. And it got worse, and worse and worse. So much sicker than with my other three kiddos combined! Well, that certainly complicated things a bit. Thankfully I started on some anti-nausea meds that do help a lot, and I'm learning how to live with these limitations. I do have some good days, some okay days, and some pretty tough days.

This afternoon Matt and I scooted over to the hospital down the street for an ultrasound, just to check things out and, honestly, because I thought the sight of that little beating heart would bring encouragement to this weary Momma soul.

12 dollars later we walked out of the building with a black and white picture of the bun in the oven :) Hearing the heartbeat always does wonders. But I am still weary. At 8 & a half weeks I've got a ways to go before I start feeling better.

Excited? sure. Overwhelmed? very. Tired of hours on the couch? oh dear yes.

Trying hard to trust Jesus.... He is good, He is on the throne, He knows what He is doing.

And one day soon we will be SEVEN :)

the fairy song

2011-08-20T08:35:00.000+08:00

Every day, almost without fail, my girls dress up. Wednesday afternoon about 5:15 the kids were changing out of bathing suits (they'd been out in the courtyard wading pool) and Lydia came running, "Mom, I can't find my clothes". I thought, and thought, and thought a bit more and could not remember one single item of 'clothes' that she had worn since breakfast. Yep, 5:15 and she was looking for her first set of non-dress-up, non-pajamas clothing :)

And when they dress up, they love to dance. So I am treated to myriads of performances. Little rehearsal, but big results :)

One of their new favorites to dance to is David Crowder Band 'O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing'. (you can listen to it here - and you should, it's a sweet song) We call it the fairy song... I told them that the dulcimer at the beginning sounds like fairies dancing, and it stuck.

They even have props (some homemade) to accompany the twirls and spins.

Oh how I love these little girl days, and how fleeting they are -

riverside

2011-08-18T19:42:00.000+08:00

One last post from our road trip.... this was probably one of my favorite activities.

Friday afternoon we went to a nearby river to go wading. I seriously felt like I was in the middle of a country song. Ashlei and I (and her five week old little boy Langdon) were planted in reclining lawn chairs in the shade. Matt and Graham supervising the other children in the water.

All types of water guns and water sprayers..... check out Julianna's face : )

And after we all got hungry... time for supper. Veggies and tofu and homemade sausage and other yummy stuff roasted over hot coals at this little roasting table. The lady carries her whole set up on a bamboo pole slung over her shoulder. I guess you could say she delivers :)

Hanging from one end of the pole is the grill table with hot coals ready to cook. On the other end of the bamboo pole hangs a big basket full of veggies. It's fresh too - while the eggplant cooks she sits on her little stool, peeling and slicing potato. Then the potato cooks and she slices up the sausage links. And so on.... till our bellies are full and we stop ordering.

(that's a wider, deeper portion of the river in the background).

So fun - we would DEFINITELY do this again :)

four years

2011-08-16T19:56:00.000+08:00

Lydia is four. Four years old! Oh my. So very fast, it all went so very fast.

Lydia is captivating. She captivates me. She captivates people on the street. If our family meets someone briefly, the child they are most likely to remember is Lydia. She's just.... well, captivating. LOVE this precious child of mine.

A few photo highlights from her fourth birthday .....

Lyds and her big sis, still in their pjs. Julianna presented her gift (bought with her own cash) moments after the girls woke.....

..... a pink plastic headband. When you are turning four, your 5 year old sister is one of the best "present pick-er out-ers" around and Julianna's gift was no disappointment :)

Morning Bible time with Daddy before he left for work. Matt always does something special on birthdays and it's a sweet time for the whole family.

We like to watch a slide show (set to music) of pics of the birthday person each year - (so simple, I have a folder for each child and add in fun shots from throughout their life, just updating each year) .... the kids call this "a birthday movie" and they can watch it over and over and over. This year I picked a few favorite pictures from each year of Lydia's life, printed them and strung them with yarn across our bookshelf. Very simple, very fun.

The cake was a stretch for me this year, but I got it done. Complete with mailed-from-America pink (strawberry) cake mix and pink decorator icing.

And this is probably one of the best blowing-out-candles action shots I've gotten of any kid so far. Love her cheeks.

Sweet sweet Lydia. Oh how we love you!

HOME

2011-08-14T19:28:00.000+08:00

2200 kilometers and almost 30 road hours later, we are HOME. The trip was incredible, but not without challenges. Thankfully, my husband loves an adventure and he fearlessly lead our family through thick and thin :)

I am way behind on posting and have some great photos and memories to record, but it'll have to wait because tomorrow is..... (drumroll please)....... Lydia's birthday! I'm not sure we've ever had a child who was so excited about her big day.

Stay tuned :)

our old home

2011-08-12T23:44:00.001+08:00

Thursday morning we packed the car and hit the road for adventure #2..... on "our way home" we swung through another province to visit more friends! We just got home from wading in the river and had a blast :) Pics and more later, but I do have a few more things to post from our time in our old city.

Tuesday afternoon we went to visit our old home, and it was a sweet time.

[Julianna and I joining Lydia in THE classic Lydia camera-pose in our old complex!]

We visited Nai Nai (who delivered our milk and yogurt daily for three years) and she was so excited to see the kids again.

With Nai Nai and some of her family in their home.

The girls at the gate of their old school -

yay for a chance to return to our old home and refresh our kids' memories

feiyang teppanyaki

2011-08-12T20:42:00.000+08:00

One last post from the first half of our week....

We joined family friends for dinner at a local "grill on the table Japanese steak house style" restaurant. Without a doubt, the best part - for Isaac at least - was the ride there. We took their electric three-wheeled bicycle, and Matt followed on their electric bike (with Lydia).

Check out this smile :)

At the restaurant. Our kids were definitely entertained :)

Especially Isaac, who has his own "cooker man hat" and was thrilled to see this guy spinning his knife and flipping zucchini on the cooktop :)

xiao li

2011-08-12T20:25:00.001+08:00

Our dear Xiao Li..... what a treat to spend some good time with her and her newly-adopted son, SiEn. (Unfortunately her husband is working overtime trying to catch up from the vacation he took to go meet their new son and process his paperwork, so we didn't get to see him.)

My children LOVE Xiao Li. I just can't explain it. She walks in the door and they attach themselves to her. They love to hear stories of "how Xiao Li ayi held me when I was a baby" or "Xiao Li ayi fed me pumpkin [baby food]" and all that.

And her new baby boy makes any Xiao Li visit a double treat. He crawled all over the house where we are staying, usually following the kids. One night they were here and my girls were in the bath - he could hear all the fun noises spilling from the bathroom and every time we turned around he was headed back down the hallway to get a good look at those silly girls :)

And Isaac is a pretty big fan of this BOY! Isaac is especially excited that "our baby in the orphanage" is a little boy, and he knows that Si En was an orphan so I think it's a special connection for him.

These guys had a little fun in the bath themselves :)

And Xiao Li's mother, carrying her grandson on her back. Although I hardly understand a word Xiao Li's mom says it is clear that she is in love with this little guy!

Definitely a highlight of the visit - loving our time with Xiao Li and her little boy!

little friends

2011-08-11T03:42:00.002+08:00

One of the highlights of our trip??? Getting to hang out with old friends! Our children learn early on that people move, a lot. Most everyone they know is moving, or has moved, or just moved, or will move. Without a doubt one of the absolute hardest things about the life we lead. Constant relational transition.

Six months in to life in our new city and I can promise you we are still in the midst of massive relationship transition. And you know what, some of the people we are getting to know will not be here in 2013.

Reality. Even for our kids. So imagine our delight to watch Julianna LOVE every single second with her old buddy Kayleigh. Julianna was a six month old when Kayleigh moved in, and their relationship is one of the oldest Julianna has. Earlier this week Julianna was at Kayleigh's house for sleepover number ??? - I've lost count!

LOVE this!

and me with Kayleigh's momma, my dear friend Alisa - oh what sweet times we had!

street food breakfast

2011-08-10T11:12:00.000+08:00

We're having lots of fun catching up with old friends and seeing old places. (though I haven't felt well for much of the time, but I guess if you're going to feel icky, one of the best places to do it is with old friends.)

So I have tons of pictures to post and am way behind, but I'll start with this little outing to get breakfast.

A special local treat that we can't get in our new city - rice flour tortilla, heated over coals, spread with fillings (sweet, spicy, you name it) and then wrapped around a stick of fried dough. It's every bit as healthy as it sounds, and tastes even better :)

We devoured them!!

Isaac wearing the evidence all over his face :)

Yesterday afternoon we drove out to our old home (in a suburb) and it was a fun treat. Many emotions to sort through as we walked through that sweet little town. In many ways I still miss the life we had there. Such a wonderful place to live. LOVED it.

The internet is not being very friendly so I'll hope to post more later, now I gotta run :)

13 hours!

2011-08-06T14:38:00.002+08:00

We made it! Y'all, it was a looooong day but such an incredible drive. I don't think I knew there could possibly be so many mountains. We drove in and through mountains the entire trip. I bet we went through 40 tunnels - the longest was 2900 meters (that's almost two miles!).

I didn't feel like taking too many pictures, and it's almost impossible to capture that kind of scenery with a camera, but here are a few....

We drove together with another family we know - such a sweet provision, especially considering we personally know only two families/individuals who have ever done this drive. And this family (who drove up at the beginning of the summer) was driving back down and we drove together. Soooo nice to have another friendly set of wheels on the road. {Yes, they have a big bus, it's a big Dutch family and they need lots of seats!}

Our lunch stop was a small dirt road that we spotted. We pulled off and parked about ten feet from the roadway.

I'm not sure who was more surprised... Lydia, hopping out of the van to see an elderly gentleman grazing his cow and goat, or the elderly gentleman, who wasn't quite sure what to do with the sudden influx of blond curls and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

The view from our lunch site looking back towards the road

Seriously, it was gorgeous. The whole trip. Rare billboards, few exits, occasional gas stations, light traffic (for the most part).

Our kids? SUPERSTARS!!! They handled it better than I did :)

I took the headrest off my seat to take this photo - check out Lydia's face, looking out the window ...... she and Julianna had a blast counting waterfalls, and there was even a little waterfall right up the dirt road/path where we stopped for lunch and we washed our hands and faces in the freezing cold water!

The last few hours got long. But we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

In these final hours we had dropped down into a valley..... those are rice paddies in the foreground. We also saw a lot of corn, and tobacco, (lots of agriculture and terraced fields) and cows, pigs, horses, chickens, goats.

So, while I'm glad to NOT be in the car today, that was one road trip WELL worth taking!

hey kids, meet road trip

2011-08-04T20:10:00.000+08:00

Our flight happy little bunch is getting a big wake up call on Friday morning when we set out on our first major road trip. (We did some long drives in the States last fall, but never more than about six hours.)

We are heading south to our old home town for a week long vacation. The trip could take anywhere from 9 to 13 hours (or much much more, if road conditions are bad, but I don't even want to think about that). Highways here are NOT like highways in America. Not at all. There will be no fast food/gas station/mini mart conglomerate at exit 273, or any other exit for that matter.

We briefly toyed with the idea of plotting to drive at night but decided against it since we really don't know what to expect in terms of road conditions and it is always safer during the day. So we'll set out early morning and see how far we get. Late afternoon we'll make the call - try to finish up in one day or abort ship and find a place to stay the night before continuing on the next day. (and if we do stop and find a "hotel" ... well, that will definitely be a story all in it's own right!)

The gas tank is full and the luggage is (mostly) loaded. Matt is (without doubt) the most excited and optimistic about the trip, so it's a good match that he'll be in the drivers' seat.

ETD is 6:30 am tomorrow morning. ETA???? We'll just have to see about that :)

starting August

2011-08-02T19:06:00.002+08:00

Well this morning started off with a bang at approximately 7:27am when Lydia (accidentally) dumped her yogurt in the silverware drawer. I'm not sure when you last dumped yogurt in a silverware drawer, but it comes highly UN-recommended as a "top ten ways to start your day".

Fortunately, about ten minutes later Isaac countered with one of his un-intentionally hilarious comments asking "Is Mommy your English name?"

I answered with a confident YES, then realized that years ago I told people my English name was Laura. I guess I have two English names.

We've had a slow lazy day. LOTS of water play in the courtyard. Sure they spend hours in swimsuits, but they had a blast this afternoon soaking themselves and their clothes right before dinner.

yes, Isaac is wearing Lydia's shoes. I have no idea why.

These were some of my favorite moments of the day :) Watching the sheer delight on their faces and listening to delighted squeals.

We continue to see a lot of our neighbors that are preparing to move overseas (actually, the Dad already left, Mom and baby LeLe are here for a few more days). Since their kitchen is all packed up they eat all their meals here - we're trading off cooking responsibilities - today she cooked lunch and I'm covering dinner. It works out nicely since Matt is missing most meals these days, I am glad for the company at the table and we trade off watching kids while the other does meal prep.

End of the week we leave on vacation! Going back to the city we lived in for years before moving last summer. More about that trip later.....

back on the train

2011-07-31T15:12:00.000+08:00

Well, we're back on the adoption train. Despite a miserable first trip, we just cannot ignore this deeply held longing to add to our family through adoption. A month ago we began updating our home study in anticipation of bringing a Chinese toddler into our home.

We know, maybe more than most, that nothing, and I mean NOTHING is ever guaranteed. So it's hard for us to guess at time frames and predictions and estimates. I mean, last year this time I would have predicted that summer 2011 I'd be momma to four. And I'm not.

But we do know that international adoptions are (typically, not always) much more stable and predictable than domestic adoption. And we hope and dream of adoption adding to our family in 2012.

We are, more specifically, pursuing a special needs adoption where boys outnumber girls 2 to 1 on the list of available children. Last year we always said "open to either sex" but this year, knowing that 'either' would probably mean 'boy', we went ahead and specified that we'd like a boy. Honestly, as we emotionally move through this process, the fewer unanswered questions and maybes that hang over our heads the better.

So that's where we're at. Our sweet children, who have waited looooong months for our new baby to appear, are still waiting. So are we. But we wait with hope. And expectation.

The kids' perspective is actually really refreshing. They talk about "our new baby" as if he/she might pop up any day now :) I'm hoping to create a chart or poster that will help them understand the many steps that need to happen before the new sibling shows up..... when I do get around to making some sort of graphic representation of the process I'll take a picture and post it here, for those of you who are curious as well.

The next big step (immigration approval) is basically a bunch of waiting. We'd love for our paperwork to move quickly, but also realize that the timing of this whole process is entirely in the Lord's hands, and we trust His judgment more than our own - or at least we try to :)

We'll be sure to update when the news gets really exciting :)

right in the middle of her forehead

2011-07-30T08:38:00.000+08:00

"There was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead."

I heard that rhyme a time or two growing up :) Now I think of it when I look at my Lydia.

peach pie

2011-07-28T21:28:00.001+08:00

After years of cooking with little ones whose "help" often amounted to bigger messes and inconvenient spills and long, deep breaths for the mommy I am definitely seeing the bright light at the end of the tunnel!

No, that's not the way to put it. I do love cooking with little helpers - but it's also nice to see what cooking with bigger helpers is like :)

Tonight a local friend joined us for dinner and afterwards the two of us baked a peach pie. Julianna was FIRED UP about helping. We sat around our big kitchen table - I peeled peaches, our friend removed the pits and cut the peach into large chunks, and Julianna finished it up by cutting into smaller pieces. She was such a diligent worker (her own table knife and cutting board, sitting in the chair next to me).

This is the second time in just a few weeks that after baking with her I thought, "wow, she really did make the work go quicker - when did she become such a helpful little helper?" It won't be long until she's making peach pie on her own (as she confidently declared to our friend this evening!)

Unfortunately, bedtime came before the oven timer buzzed, but I promised her I'd take photos of the uncut pie and she could eat her piece in the morning.

So, meet tomorrow morning's breakfast :)

You only live once, right? I'm thinking that "the day we ate peach pie for breakfast" will stick in her memory for a good long while!

....that Granddaddy loves

2011-07-27T18:44:00.001+08:00

Isaac refers to this particular tee as "my Wake Forest shirt that Granddaddy loves" (yes, he is long-winded for a two year old!)

We are well stocked with multiple versions of this shirt in all sorts of sizes, so he'll be well-attired for a good long while now :)

[playing Ants in the Pants - this little guy LOVES games! He and the girls and Matt are playing Jenga right now.]

Dad, he'll be sporting this one at the airport when we meet you in a month or so :)

the beauty salon

2011-07-25T12:26:00.000+08:00

Take one hot Saturday afternoon in the courtyard. Add in the ever-present squirt bottles, and a bike pump, and a willing mommy.

What do you get?

A beauty salon :) The squirt bottles to wet down hair, the bike pump as hair dryer, and all the little girl hair accessories you ever imagined. It was pretty awesome.

(pictures provided by one dear husband who did NOT travel - as it turned out the travel situation needed him less and less and the homefront needed him more and more, so he chose to stick around home.....)

moving the furniture

2011-07-21T19:47:00.001+08:00

A few days ago I re-arranged some of our living room furniture so I could fit the kids table into the living room space. The little table used to be in their bedroom and we only brought it out when we had lots of company and needed a little table for little people (which, since we tend to host a lot, is usually a few times a month).

When it was in their room they used it quite a bit, but they also told me they didn't like to do crafts there because "it was too far away from you Mommy". [Keep in mind that our apartment is hardly a sprawling mansion and you'd be hard pressed to be more than about fifteen steps away from me at any given moment in the day - it's all relative, I guess!]

So I moved it into the living room

and we all love the new spot.

This morning they were busy working on new magazine puzzles and drawing tablets that arrived in packages this week.

Added bonus is that the crafts don't need to be cleaned up before lunch is served :)

Always busy, loving their creativity, and glad to have them working in their 'own space'!

a surprise (for me!)

2011-07-20T21:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday Matt gave me the afternoon off - the plan was that he would finish up about noon, take the kids and I could head into town early. Then he would meet me in town later for a date night.

Well, I hop in the car and there is a note on the passenger seat waiting for me with instructions "read when you get to town". And of course I do read it. And it says "I booked you a hotel room and will watch the kids til 2 tomorrow. Let me know what to pack when I come meet you for our date later". YAY for me!!!

We've had kind of a long, tough haul here recently with a number of different complicating factors and 24 hours away was such a sweet gift from a thoughtful husband! I loved every minute (including the extra minutes of sleep) and returned home refreshed and rejuvenated.

The kids and I had a great afternoon and our sweet little 7 month old neighbor joined us for part of it too. Le Le is one of my children's favorite people - they love her almost as much as her little 7 month old body can handle - and sometimes even give a smidge more love than she can tolerate! Her parents have a lot going on as they prepare for an international move (terribly sad for us, our favorite neighbors leaving just six months after we arrive). So we see a lot of this little one and I LOVE being her favorite baby sitter :) [and that's a fact, not just my opinion! ha!]

Anyways, that's the quick update on our last 24 hours :)

weekend recap (aka we miss daddy)

2011-07-18T14:42:00.001+08:00

The kids and I ended our daddy-less streak with a two night stay at a friend's apartment (they are currently out of the country and we occasionally 'borrow' their home!).

We arrived on Friday afternoon and discovered a power outage over that section of the city. The kids were so distracted by the “new” toys that they hardly even noticed, but it was HOT HOT HOT with no air con or fans to move the air around.

Isaac woke up drenched in sweat from his nap and shortly after we headed outside for a picnic walk. Picnic walks are one of my kids’ favorite meals – we lap blocks and loop neighborhoods, grazing as we go… yogurt here, dried fruit there, crackers down the road, street food across the way…. and big bottles of water to drink (and spill) as we wander. Sometimes we walk while we eat and sometimes we find a little park or bench to rest. I always have the stroller along and Isaac hops in and out depending on his personal whims and an occasional “you must get in the stroller now” from me!

Picnic walk is my #1 go-to-meal when the power is out and Matt has missed suppertime for (what seems like) weeks on end! Well, we walked and walked, found some dessert, walked some more. Bumped into some friends and visited a bit, then walked some more! I kept thinking the power would be back ‘any minute’ but it just got darker and the power stayed out. Finally, a little before 8 we bit the bullet and came inside. Within minutes the kids’ stripped down to underwear (to beat the heat). A friend from upstairs sat with me while the kids played and the house got darker and darker. At one point I realized I better scrounge for some candles and matches before it got too dark to see anything :)

Power was back at 9 or so and we cranked the air conditioners, brushed teeth and hit the sack! Whew! The rest of our weekend passed uneventfully, we enjoyed being in an area with a few more friends/acquaintances around and I was especially grateful for the company!

Matt was on the bus before we sat down to breakfast Sunday morning and a few hours later I got the dreaded text message: “Road blocked by landslides. Nothing moving. No idea when I’ll make it home.” [I had been harboring a smidge of hope he’d be home by nightfall.]

Grateful again for a small group of friends who gathered for Sunday morning fellowship (we hosted at our ‘borrowed’ home) and a slow afternoon and then the best news of the day: traffic was moving, buses were rolling and Matt would be here before dark! Yay!

Julianna presented her Daddy with this handmade card

I slept til 8:15 this morning! Woke up to a quiet home and realized Matt must be out taking the girls to school. He's here through the end of the week (and only working part-time) then leaves for a final 12-day trip which is his last travel until late August. We have, off and on, considered accompanying him on this final jaunt, but several factors have convinced us it's just not a good set up (landslides, water outages, unknowns (like location) too numerous to count).

So, here we are determined to enjoy this week-of-Daddy. Temperatures have soared and we're heading to the pool for the afternoon!

bounty is relative

2011-07-16T16:30:00.001+08:00

We finally made it to the western owned bakery that has a lending library. And what a treat!! Sure, it's basically an overstuffed bookshelf, but there is an organizational system to it, and a little spiral notebook where you 'check out' books, and three comfy couches to lounge on while you narrow down your selections.

All this tucked in a corner of a fun bakery that serves salads, sandwiches and pizza, fresh bread, and tasty-looking desserts.

The bookshelf is home to all sorts of books .... board books to adult fiction and everything in between. Unfortunately most of the kid stuff is well out of reach on the higher shelves, but we made it work and I re-shelved what seemed like 236 paperbacks that Isaac pulled out in a desperate search for "boy books".

Later that afternoon I found Isaac lounging on Julianna's bed reading. He was so engrossed in the stories (and 'reading' aloud to himself) that I startled him when I walked in the door.

I snagged these abridged versions of some girl-y classics I loved growing up. Sure, I hope they someday love the unabridged originals, but for my (almost) 4 and 5 year old daughters, these are perfect.

It's a hike from our house, but worth it! I hope to make the trip once or twice a month from here on out!

eating our tomatoes

2011-07-14T19:35:00.001+08:00

Our tomatoes are ripe and ready for the belly! Hardly a day goes by that the kids don't check on the progress - from teeny little seedling to tall staked vines to little green 'berries' and now daily-more-red tomatoes!

We've picked and sliced and eaten a few raw [the royal 'we' that is, meaning my husband and children.... yours truly does not eat raw tomato. personal policy :)] Then yesterday Xiao Ren picked more and made a classic egg/tomato dish that our whole family enjoys. [Yes, our helper cooks lunch once a week, and yes, it is every bit as dreamy as it sounds!]

I forgot to take pictures before she picked, but here's what we've got left growing...

and here it is all cut up and ready for the wok (I did not stage this photo... just walked from the courtyard garden into the kitchen and this is what I saw - yellow flowers from a friend, knives hanging on the wall behind, bright red chopped tomatoes in a white bowl)

This is what it looks like when it hits the table - egg & tomato on the far right, pumpkin in the middle, pork strips and tuerqi gua on the left.

One thing I really enjoy about Xiao Ren is that she is a great cook and quite creative. She often cooks things I have never even seen before, certainly would not know how to cook, and don't even know the name of. Tuerqi gua is a new favorite of mine - I have no idea what the English name is, or if it even has one. Gua is a word attached to quite a few veggies and fruits - it means a melon or gourd. Gua is in the word for pumpkin, zucchini, winter melon, a cantaloupe-type fruit, watermelon, cucumber, etc

We sat down and Julianna said "wow, so much color!" It is a bit like eating the rainbow (red, yellow, orange, green plus some brown strips of meat).

special note before you think we have the world's largest appetites: The kids, Xiao Ren and I did not polish this off in one sitting. I asked her to make extra so I could use the leftovers in fried rice later this week :)

our idea book

2011-07-12T08:40:00.001+08:00

The kids love the creative ideas in magazines - you know, things like 'how to make a wind sock' and 'try this octopus-shaped snack idea' and 'cut along the dotted lines and fold on the solid lines to make a miniature book'...

But their timing is frequently a little bit off . Picture me at 5:27 pm, oven preheating, chopping veggies in the kitchen, negotiating a toy-sharing issue between the two littles and wondering why I can't find my ringing cell phone.... Julianna approaches "Mom, can you read me the instructions for this one?" Exactly.

So we started our IDEA BOOK. Now whenever they see something fun they'd like to try we rip out the page and file it in our clear-plastic pages binder. And when they sit down with the craft basket they will sometimes choose to flip through the pages of the IDEA BOOK for inspiration. [Added bonus is that with all the creative ideas ripped out, pre-dinner time book reading doesn't end with a dash to mommy and request to do a craft!]

A few days ago Julianna found her idea, followed the instructions and assembled it entirely on her own. My only contribution was a "I think you might want to stop a minute and let some glue dry" and a quick run to the back up supplies for more craft sticks.

Lydia jumped on board and created the base and lid, but my little socialite ran out of time and didn't get to work on the body of the box. When Lydia crafts her mouth runs three times as fast as her hands :)

Now that we have our IDEA BOOK it's filling up with all kinds of ideas from all kinds of sources. Fun for me too - when I see or hear something I can jot a note and file it in the idea book. If you've got a fun creative idea to put in the book, let me know :)

at the airport

2011-07-08T21:41:00.002+08:00

Airports. It's where we like to spend our free time.

ha! But sometimes it feels that way :) Yesterday afternoon I got a text message from Matt that his plane would be in around 7. So the four of us ate supper and I ran them through the bathtub, back into their play clothes and out to the car so we could go meet Daddy!

On the way out the door I grabbed the camera. After all, this airport (and many others) is where we spend a lot of time.

We live about 7 minutes away - in huge mega-cites with millions of people (like ours) large chunks of the population live at least 45 minutes from the airport. So we're thankful we live so close (yet not in the flight path, we hear and see very little evidence of our nearby neighbor).

[Side note in the 'kids say the funniest things category' - as we got closer I said, "let's see who can be first to see or hear an airplane or the control tower. I mean, see or hear an airplane or see the control tower, you can't hear the control tower." And Julianna said, "yeah, unless the control tower fell down, then it would make a huge crashing noise and we would definitely be able to hear it." I chuckled under my breath. She's right. If the control tower fell down right as we were driving up we would definitely hear it!]

The arrivals area is pretty close to mass chaos. The current terminal is less than ten years old and it is already so overcrowded. Air travel is increasing exponentially in China and airports cannot keep up with the growth. A new terminal is under construction and sorely needed - yesterday!

Anyways, we've waited for enough arriving flights that Julianna knows to pay attention to the loudspeaker as it announces arrivals. And we hadn't been inside more than two minutes (I was still trying to safely escort three kiddos through the crowds) when she perked up and hollered (over the noise) "they just announced daddy's plane". I listened to the repeat announcement and she was right!

So we figure out where Matt's flight will exit and head over to try to get a spot by the railing where we can see into baggage claim. This is where the three-blond-kiddos trick works wonders. We attract enough attention that people tend to part like the Red Sea as they crane their necks to get a good look, and we take advantage of the opportunity to cram in and get a good viewing spot :)

Of course, everyone sees better if they climb a little higher :)

We were quickly rewarded - not more than ten minutes after we arrived I spotted Matt coming down the escalator. Big waves and grins and hugs (and a bit more staring from the other folks waiting by the railings) and we were reunited.

Mission Accomplished :)

(thought you might enjoy this little peek into a very common event for our family, and glad to record it so years from now I can remind the kids that they knew the difference between check-in counters and security lines years before they heard the words 'road trip'!)

snack time at childcare

2011-07-06T14:57:00.000+08:00

The girls are in a stage where they play with dolls a LOT. And let me tell you, taking care of their babies is a big job :) One day I was playing with them and they were busy changing baby clothes and I asked them who did all the laundry. They looked up at me with surprised expressions on their faces. I guess that's one good thing about baby dolls versus the real deal - less laundry :)

Although they've both been known to toss baby doll clothes in the dirty clothes basket for me to wash (in their defense, there are times a good washing is needed for some of their babies often-worn apparel) and Julianna once asked me if I could iron the ribbons on her baby's dress so that the bow would look prettier. [I ironed.]

The other day the girls (I mean, mommies) were dropping their kids off at childcare (that's me, childcare boss) so they could "go listen to the sermon". I had my customers all lined up eating snack waiting for their mommies to come pick them up.

Isaac is definitely not afraid of toting a doll around (or using the same doll to knock his sister on the head). But he's not one to really engage with this kind of play. So what's a little brother to do?

He announced he was the "child care cooker man" and set about getting things ready. He prepped hot dogs. Nice choice, bud.

He is such a funny little guy and really delightful company (although I do weary of the hours spent on the floor playing cars with him... but then I remember how fleeting these years are and what a treasure it is to spend my days sitting on carpet pushing construction trucks around, take a deep breath and keep on going!)

Two funny things he's been up to recently (recording this so years from now when my memory is shot - maybe it is already? - I can tell him stories of his two year old antics). One, he almost universally refers to Lydia using the nickname "Lyds byds" (Matt sometimes calls her Lydia Bydia). I love hearing him say (setting the table) "this is the bowl for Lyds Byds" or (as we walk towards the girls' school gate) "I'll go pick up Julianna and you can get Lyds Byds".

Speaking of Lyds Byds, she talks birthday all. the. time. I guess I've used the phrase "it's coming right up" (August 15th, for those of you who are not part of the daily - no, hourly - countdown). So Isaac knows Lydia's birthday is soon, and his is not-so-soon.

And now he says "Lyds Byds birthday is coming up. My birthday is coming down." Once I asked, "what does that mean, buddy, that your birthday is coming down?" "I'm just pretending" he said.

Matt called earlier from Hong Kong. He sounded chipper but must be running on adrenaline because he didn't get to a hotel until 1am, was up and going by 6, crossed the border into HK and got to the visa office via FIVE different subway lines :) He found and booked a guest house for tonight, goes back to the visa office Thursday morning, crosses the border, back to the airport and home around 7 or 8 pm (with no flight delays). Friday starts a HUGE summer event that he's spent weeks planning. He'll be in and out of town for the next three weeks. whoa.

Hello July.

our fourth of july

2011-07-05T18:14:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we did a little celebrating America. [although the first part of the day wasn't too celebratory.... we had some paperwork to take care of and I guess-timated it would take us an hour, maybe 90 minutes. WRONG. Three and a half hours in a hot, crowded government building and we were finally finished - but I have to go back later this week to (hopefully?) pick up the completed forms. ugh.]

Anyways, we planned to go to a pool party that afternoon with some other Americans. I packed a dinner picnic (but we ate it for lunch since our morning paperwork took so very long)..... at the pool we met up with some friends, ordered KFC and enjoyed some fellowship. It seems that most every family with kids our kids ages is out of the country, so it makes me even more grateful that our kids enjoy each other's company (most of the time!)

Today I started to regret that I didn't spend any more time getting my kids ready for the Fourth or even talking much about it (it kind of snuck up on me) so we did a little "Happy Birthday America" singing, prayed for our country and colored some flags. We also looked at photos from last year's 4th of July celebrating .... this time last year we had been in the US about 48 hours and celebrated with American flags, sparklers, backyard swimming pools, grilled food, and Matt's immediate family. It's the only time our kids have spent the 4th in the States, and it was a GREAT celebration.

(Julianna and her flag last year)

This afternoon at 4:30 Matt found out he needs to go to Hong Kong tonight. So he bought tix for the 9:30 flight and will be gone til Thursday. We knew this trip was on the horizon and hoped he would fly yesterday. When he didn't fly yesterday we thought this week was a no-go, but plans change quick.

So, he's bathing the kids, then off to the airport. Isaac is now running around my feet yelling "I'm naked I'm naked." He's a big fan of nudity, and any time he changes clothes he likes to take a few laps around the house :)

If you think of it, please pray for some paperwork/passport/residence issues we are having. It's so complex I don't even totally understand it, and it would be way more than you ever cared to read on a blog. We have a few paperwork things that we really need to come through, including one piece of paper that one office denies they even have the capability to produce. I'm pretty discouraged. It would be a great encouragement if you would PRAY for all these things to be worked out soon!