Wilcoxen fam

Sprint through Seoul

2012-01-30T21:54:00.000+08:00

I have been absent. But with very good reason. We just spent a week at the beach with limited internet. But I am back in the land of wifi, and have many stories to share.

Our adventure started with just getting there.

We flew from Shanghai to Seoul, then Seoul to Bali. Almost 3 hours to Seoul and then from Seoul to Bali was 8 hours. We flew a new airline, Korean Air. And I have nothing but ~~good~~ great things to say about them. On-demand TV, kids' meals, and enough leg room. But transferring in Seoul?

Was a nightmare.

We had an hour and a half. Which would seem like enough time. But our plane was slightly delayed, and when we got off we had to wait in this incredibly long line to go through security. As we stood in this group that was not exactly a line, people got ugly. Name calling, cursing at others, and just general nastiness. YIKES. And all the while, the line was going nowhere and we were running out of time. I stayed in line, while Andy searched for someone to help us out. After talking to several not-so-helpful people, finally one attendant showed us that there might be another security line. We ran down a hallway, found the other security that had no line. As we went through security, we heard the final call for our flight. Ran down another hallway, and gasping made it on to the plane.

The flight was uneventful, but we arrived in Bali at 1:30AM. But the fun was not over yet. As I waited at the luggage carousel, I saw a sign with our name on it that we needed to report to the service desk (never a good sign). Neither of our bags had arrived. We waited in another line and after another 30 minutes, one of our bags arrived. Another 15 minutes in line, we found out that our other bag would not arrive until the next day. Of course, it was the bag with the kids' and my clothes in it. We got through immigration, found a taxi and got to our hotel at 2:30AM.

You can imagine the state of the kiddos. Honestly, you can imagine the state I was in. But our mantra the whole time: Just get there and tomorrow the beach. (And we said it many times throughout the day!)

thwarted

2012-01-12T23:17:00.001+08:00

You ever have one of those days?

Where it seems like everything is not going right?

Today was one of those for me.

We were having some friends over for dinner. I was planning to make spaghetti and meatballs, but needed to go to one store for the meat and another for the pasta. After Tori got home from school, we got on the e-bike to go to both stores. We hadn't even left the neighborhood and my e-bike died. I pushed it back home. I think that a wire rattled loose. After getting back home, I decided I would take my bike. But since buying my e-bike, my bike has sat lonely and was therefore so dirty. Cleaned it off, T and I got on only to discover that both tires were flat. I got the air pump, filled the front tire. But I then discovered the back tire had a hole.

Fine, guess that means we are walking to the store.

The problem is that the two stores are about a block and a half away from each other and our house sits in the middle. But in China where everything is bigger, that block is HUGE. I knew that T was not going to make it walking to the one store, walk to the second, and then walk home without major grumping. I had to decide which was more important: the meat or the pasta?

I decided to walk to Tesco (the store that usually has a selection of pasta) because sometimes they also have ground beef. Not always, but I decided to take a chance. Get to Tesco to discover that they do indeed have ground beef (and we bought the only 2 packages in the whole store), but no spaghetti. In fact the only kind of pasta that they did have was lasagna noodles. Okay fine, no spaghetti we will have lasagna instead. I think this is the first time I have cooked a lasagna in China! In fact, when we sat down to eat Tori asked what it was. When I answered her, she then replied with, "What is lasagna?" And then as she was eating, she exclaimed:

"This tastes really familiar, but it looks really strange."

Yes, that would be my daughter's view on lasagna. The same girl who adores tofu.

stories of life

2012-01-11T12:16:00.003+08:00

You know how there are stories within a family that almost become like legend? I have a few that I tell of our kids first couple of years that they each love to hear me tell and re-tell.

Tori being the exuberant force to be reckoned with that she is, has quite a few stories. But perhaps my favourite is the jumping story.

As soon as she started walking, walking was not enough for her. She needed to climb. And explore. EVERYTHING. But being T, it didn't stop there. She also loved to jump. So she would climb someplace (often way too high for my comfort) and call out: jumping, jumping, jumping.

Then after 3 jumpings, she would jump. Didn't matter if the place was way over head. Or dangerous. Once she got to that 3rd jumping, she would launch herself.

I love that you can actually see her saying, "jumping, . . ."

I got to the point where I would listen carefully for her early warning jumping alarm and would rush over to have her hold my hand as she jumped.

Didn't stop her from jumping, just kept her safe as she leaped. But isn't that what we as moms are called to do? Not to limit our children. But be there to catch them as they fall.

And I have a feeling that our #3, our force to be reckoned with, is going to leap far. With her determination, her independence, her clever mind, we just see great things in store for her. Oh, the places she might go.

Counting down to New Year

2012-01-10T10:58:00.001+08:00

With the weather turning colder and rainy, we are starting our countdown for Chinese New Year. CNY is really early this year. The official day is 23 January. But we leave for vacation in just over a week, 19 January.

For Andy, CNY does not start until the company New year party is over. Each year, he gives a speech to start the dinner off. The past couple of years, he has given the speech entirely in CHINESE. Needless to say, he prepares for this for a long time and it stresses him until it is over. The company dinner was this past Saturday and he did an AMAZING job. I was so proud of him as he looked relaxed and gave a great speech. [just to brag a little more on him, he talked for more than 5 minutes!]

You know it is successful when you tell a joke in another language and people actually find it funny and laugh. Because I have found that humor can be so unique to culture. He told several jokes in Chinese and each was greeted with laugher. Success! Countless times, I have said something that I thought was funny and no one laughs. Then other times, I say something, everyone laughs and I have no idea why.

So now we are looking forward to our annual trip. Each year during CNY we visit someplace in southeast Asia. This year we are going to Bali, Indonesia. Beach, jungle, volcano . . . bring it on!

**Just as an aside: Honestly, we have a great camera that takes wonderful pictures. But do you ever find that it is just hard to always have it on hand? I must confess that I am amazed by the blogs where every picture is phenomenal. Because while I love to take pictures, sometimes in everyday life it is just not practical to drag the camera on the bus (or e-bike). So I make do with my phone. And as a result, share crummy-quality pictures with you.

How is it that every picture I took of Andy giving his speech he had his eyes closed? One would think he was concentrating really hard or something!

Part of the New Year's party is games. In the past they have hired performers. One year there was a magician who was entertaining. There were dancers one year that were slightly alarming. I wanted to cover my boy's eyes. But overall, the employees prefer games that get people on stage having fun together. Because the company has only 2 foreigners (Andy and an intern), all of the games were in Chinese. Some I didn't quite get everything that was said (understanding Chinese through a microphone is hard much like over the telephone). But one was a game that a team of 2 people had to make various letters of the alphabet. They started out with easy ones like A and D. But the grand finale?

T.

Here they are thinking about how they are going to pull it off.

The end result?

And yes, the picture quality is terrible. But I think I was laughing too hard to keep my phone still!

Becca so wanted to be part of this game. A bit later, she got her chance as they asked if any kids would like to participate.

Can you tell the letter? I really enjoy the mom (who is the HR manager) giving directions in the front.

As we are down to just days before vacation, I am wondering if we are going to get our medical check done for the adoption before going. [sigh] We are still waiting to hear about to-notarize/not-to-notarize.

I continue to furiously gather papers and put things in motion in the US. Thankfully, all of the things I need to do right now are just on the US-side. Because nothing is going to be happening in China for the next couple of weeks. This country shuts down for a couple weeks around CNY. Just as an example, Tori's Chinese school gets 3 weeks off!

While I know that delays are part of the process, I so want things to keep moving forward. One thing I know this journey is going to teach me every step of the way is patience.

2012-01-05T21:30:00.000+08:00

There are so many things we love about living in China. Our diverse neighborhood. Traveling. The adventure of everyday life.

But one of our absolute faves?

天府之乐! (Tian fu zhi le) One of our favorite restaurants that is just around the corner from our house. I had been busy working on various things today and just did not have time to get to the store. So I texted Andy that is was going to be a Tian Fu night.

When I ordered each of the kids called out their must-haves. Jiaozi (dumplings), eggplant, broccoli, spicy noodles, green beans, and rabbit legs.

But the only problem is that I am used to ordering for a crowd. And there was just 5 of us tonight. Hmm, I think that I ordered too much. When this picture was taken we had already eaten the rabbit, cucumbers, and noodles. Definitely, too much! Yummy lunch for tomorrow though.

But the best part of it all? This whole meal only cost 110 RMB (about $17.50).

adoption update

2012-01-04T14:50:00.000+08:00

With the holidays over and Chinese New Year looming around the corner, my list of things to get done seems huge. At times things progress smoothly and at others we seem at a standstill. We have requested countless papers. I have discovered that my FedEx number does NOT work when shipping things from China. I have figured out where to notarize and ways to get money orders (ask a friend in the US to do it for you).

But we are still firmly in the paperchasing mode. We hope to have our home study after the new year (Chinese New Year, the only one that really counts here). So I am in a race to gather everything that is needed before we leave for our holiday in 16 days.

Though mostly it is slow, I am encouraged to see things checked off my great list. Well, actually my bulletin board.

If only I could move a few more things to the FINISHED column.

Will keep you posted as things progress. Right now it is just frustrating and a little hard to be doing this from China. I know that we will reach a part of the progress that will be easier (like visas- already DONE or travel, that will be no problem). But for now, I am off to figure out just how to get the forms for our physicals notarized. Because for some reason the doctor is unwilling to accompany us to the consulate to have them notarized {and yes, there was just a little sarcasm there}.

_______________________________________

Because this humored me in the grocery store this past week, I feel the need to share.

Just what makes the brown sugar maternal? FYI - the literal translation is pregnant brown sugar. Which is still not making any sense to me. I opted not to buy this kind. Was leery of how brown sugar could get pregnant or be maternal.

Christmas photo recap & looking to the new year

2011-12-31T16:07:00.000+08:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas. So wonderful that I didn't have time to blog. Andy's brother, Dave, his wife Amree and our adorable nephew joined us for Christmas. This is our 4th Christmas in China and it has gotten easier being away from family. Meaning that I don't spend half the day in tears. But saying that it gets easier does not mean easy. I love my family and love spending time with them. But Andy gets no time off for Christmas. And let's not talk about how expensive it is for all 5 of us to fly back to the US. So having family come to us is such a blessing. Dave and Amree live in Japan and also were not planning to make the long trip back to the US. You can tell from the pictures, we had a great time.

The 6 days they were here went by way too fast!

John is enjoying a bowl of our ayi's noodles.

The first bowl she cut them up.

But then we realized that he enjoyed eating them long. Can he be any cuter?

Christmas morning. Or maybe afternoon. Hard to tell since we have the tradition of staying in our pajamas all day long.

[Technically, this was Christmas eve day. We celebrated a day earlier and invited people to join us on Christmas day after church].

While I love having people in our house, Christmas (or when we celebrate it) is a time for just our family. We stayed in pj's, snacked the day away, and opened presents.

Our kids were the first grandchildren on each side so cousins are a relatively new thing for them. But one that they greatly enjoy.

This pretty much sums up Christmas morning. Our kids opening presents with John in the background reeking a little havoc. Here is he is taking the batteries out of the remote.

But he is just so cute.

And we loved every minute with him.

Josh is a reader. A voracious reader. And books are so hard to find here. Well, at least ones in English.

So after much debate, we got him a Kindle touch. At first he didn't know what it was. This is when realization dawned.

(pardon my scarf that does not quite match. Becca made this for me for Christmas in my fave of all colours. . . BROWN)

This has become a common sight.

On Christmas Day (the actual one) we invited friends and I made soup. Andy referred to me as the soup diva.

Soup, games and friends. A great combo.

Holiday B. She is growing up and looking more mature with each picture we take.

Josh was thrilled to have a BOY around the house. In his words: there are too many girls in this house.

And I sit here writing on New Year's eve. The kids are playing (mostly) happily upstairs. And in a few hours, yet again friends will arrive to usher the new year in with us.

Does the new year make you contemplative?

I was on the elliptical. Because I generally do a lot of thinking when I exercise -- maybe because it is the one time of my day when I am alone? And I was thinking of all that change that is looming on the horizon for our family. We will go from a family of 5 to 6. Our kids will have some big changes in their school situations. Friends are moving away. New friends will arrive. But in the midst of this some things will be constant. We will still be here in China. Living each day to honour and glorify God. And life will be good.

I wish each of you a joyous new year! Though we get to start it first. ;-)

sunday snapshot: {the leg of lamb}

2011-12-19T09:17:00.001+08:00

As I mentioned in the last post, we received lamb as a gift when some people from Andy's office came to our house to eat a holiday meal.

Ok, technically we received 2 huge lamb legs.

Before going any further, I feel I should give a disclaimer. If you are squeamish and don't like the sight of raw meat, this may not be the post for you. Consider yourself warned.

Mr. Dai (pronounced dye) gave us the lamb. Fittingly enough he is the purchasing manager. I think Andy looks a little stunned. Or maybe perplexed. I know I was shocked and not just a little daunted to cook this.

He gave them to us in just a regular bag. I kept thinking, how in the world am I going to cook this?

Before storing them in the fridge, Andy wanted a picture of me with the lamb. I think probably because I was making a big deal about not wanting to touch them. Don't I just look thrilled? And I told you, the legs are huge!

Pondering how to get it to fit. My face says it all.

But I was determined. And victorious in the end. I was not to be bested by the lamb.

Huge. They are huge. Yet again thinking, how am I going to cook this?

But here is confession time. I didn't cut it up. While I routinely cut up whole chickens (head, feet, and all), this was a bit beyond me. So I called in the reinforcements (my ayi, yet another reason I am thankful for Xiao Lu).

Though she had never cut lamp before either so it was a bit of the blind leading the blind.

This a serious amount of meat. We divided the meat -- by that of course I am meaning Xiao Lu cut it up, and I put it in the bags. She cut the leg down to about what you might buy in the States so that it would actually fit in the oven. I had pushed and prodded to get it in the fridge, somehow I didn't think that was going to work so well in the oven.

One of the legs marinating. Still a little nervous because I had never cooked lamb like this before. But being me, even though it was a new recipe and I was nervous, I invited some friends over to eat it with us.

And the verdict?

It was SO good. I have the other in the freezer for Christmas eve.

Hope that you have a wonderful Christmas week!

Click for more Sunday snapshots

Week in review

2011-12-17T14:46:00.000+08:00

I sat down today to post about a crazy experience, but as I uploaded pictures from the camera I realized that this has been quite a busy week. Which is not too surprising since we are almost to Christmas, but I had actually forgotten all that we had done!

Last Saturday some of the women in our neighborhood worked together to organize a Christmas party. We each contributed food, someone made hot mulled wine, and we had activities for the children. This is just one of the reasons that we truly enjoy our neighborhood. We are more than neighbors.

I was teaching how to make angels out of the paper doilies. The Taiwanese moms are such a sweet group of ladies and are so patient as I communicate with them in Chinese. (Because let's face it, their English is better than my Chinese will ever be. But they are so encouraging as I talk with them in Chinese.)

Such concentration. Angel making is serious stuff.

My artsy little one was in her element as she crafted the afternoon away with friends.

Of all my children, it is Josh that most enjoys baking with me. He had made a Christmas acrostic at school of what Christmas means to him and for M he chose: making cookies.

While my girls like to make cookies with me, they will start out. But after a batch or two they disappear. But my buddy will steadily work along. These are some of his favourites to make. I love holiday traditions like these. Because no matter where we are, we will always make these several kinds of Christmas cookies.

This is what says Christmas to our children. Cookies and being in the kitchen with me.

I love how these traditions mean something to them and it is not a place that give them a sense of Christmas, but the time together and those special things we do every year.

As we have given most of these cookies away (or eaten them), we will be baking more this week.

Tori's ride to school. As the weather has gotten colder this is not my favourite thing. I come home and my hands are freezing. One day I was so cold that I sat in the house with my coat on for almost an hour after I got home. Just imagine if this was your family's main method of transportation. [which for many Chinese is the case]

Thursday we invited all the managers from Andy's office to enjoy a Christmas dinner with us. I made yet another turkey (my final one until next Thanksgiving). When I asked them what was their favourite food that we ate, they were divided between two things: the turkey and the mashed potatoes.

As I was putting some food away, one of the ladies saw that I had a marble in one of the fridge drawers. She wondered why it was there. I tried explaining that we had a marble run that was normally on our fridge. She gave me a blank look not understanding what I was talking about. Then I showed them the Fridgits that we put away to make room for our advent calendar. Since many of them are engineers, they couldn't resist seeing how it worked. I love that there are no children in this picture, just the adults playing.

All of the managers. We had a fun evening introducing them to some of our Christmas traditions.

Part of Chinese culture is hospitality. Much like in the States, when visiting someone's house it is customary to give a gift. We got a box of chocolates, some sausages, and . . .

2 entire lamb legs.

I kid you not.

I think this one deserves a post of its own. More to come. . .

traffic

2011-12-12T20:58:00.000+08:00

This is our 4th year in China and I must state that very few things surprise me any more on the road. Whole slaughtered pig being carted on an e-bike? Yes, I've seen it. A refrigerator on a bicycle? Yup, seen it. 6-foot ladder on an e-bike? Seen it. A roller (you know the machine that is used for smoothing out new roads) just driving down the street. Seen it. And these are not isolated occurrences. We see unique things daily. So not much shocks us. But a few weeks ago, we started seeing these buses about the city.

Wow. I wouldn't say they shocked us, but don't they look freaky? At a standstill they are not too bad, but while moving it gives the bus a slight demon-possessed look. Seriously freaky. And I am not even sure what they are advertising.

Then on the way home we experienced some crazy traffic. We dropped friends off at their house. They live right next to the Darenfa (a HUGE grocery store -- think a super Wal-Mart with about a thousand people inside. And this would be one of those times where I am NOT exaggerating). We like to call this store the Fa. And Fa traffic? On a weekend? Is crazy and best avoided. This was the sight out the front window:

This should be 2 lanes of cars going in the same direction we are. In front of the yellow car, do you see the car facing it? Yes, that would be a car on the wrong side of the road. There were about 10 cars trying to turn left into the Fa and all of them were just blocking traffic. Head-on into our lane of traffic. We sat through several light cycles. In fact, can you see the green light just ahead?

Like I said, this is 2 lanes of traffic. Plus a lane that is going to turn left just ahead. Do you see all the cars angling in, trying to turn into the Fa?

To get out of this mess, Andy had to pass the blue taxi on the right (in the first picture) and drive in the bike lane. All the while he is dodging bikes, e-bikes and pedestrians.

Let me count the reasons of exactly why I don't drive in China. . .

at home with the littlest

2011-12-07T09:55:00.001+08:00

Monday Tori came home from school not feeling well. That night all she wanted to do was lay down or snuggle with me. I knew that little T was not herself so when she woke up Tuesday morning with a fever I was not surprised. After the others left for school, she settled in on the couch for a movie and was asleep before it was over. She woke up later telling me that her brain hurt (Tori lingo for a headache). Naps, books, and movies was the course for our day.

While I was disappointed to miss out on some of the plans I had for the day, I must confess that I was glad to be forced to stay at home. For when T napped, I tackled paperwork. I finally figured out the best course of action for the silly money order. Will mail it to a friend stateside who will include a money order and then mail it to the county office. That is a lot of work for $2! I also finished our Christmas letters. And gathered the rest of the documents that need to be notarized when we go to Shanghai on Friday. Though it seems like a slow start, I feel like we are gaining momentum in tackling all of this.

In other news, the countdown is on until the end of school. The kids have their last day next Friday, 16 December. They will be off for 2 weeks, back to school for 2 weeks and then Chinese New Year begins. The next month+ is going to be a whirlwind.

paperwork hurdles

2011-12-05T23:01:00.001+08:00

And the great paperwork chase is on. But at this point, those papers are seeming elusive.

I know that for anyone who goes through the adoption process gathering the papers is overwhelming and at times frustrating. But doing it from another country is just adding a new dimension to it.

The papers we can request online are not a big deal. But unfortunately, there are few of those. But the first hurdle is. . . any guesses?

Notarization.

Ugh. Okay, let's be fair. It is possible to get things notarized in China. BUT it means making a trek to Shanghai. What in the States would be a 5 minute trip to any post office, bank, . . . (and the list goes on), is going to be a 2+ hour drive each way. Just to get the forms notarized. So I am currently gathering everything that could possibly need notarization for a trip in to the consulate this Saturday.

But as I was filling out a form today, I came across this: We cannot accept personal checks, please send a money order or cashier's check for $2. Umm. Money order? Cashier's check? From China? Somehow I don't even think that the consulate will be able to help me with this one. I am seriously tempted to send this in with the form:

Thoughts?

feeling crafty

2011-12-02T21:40:00.001+08:00

I don't often get to be crafty in China. While I really enjoy making and creating things, there is just not the availability of resources. No Hobby Lobby or Michael's just down the street. I think that is why I have taken up crocheting. Gives me a way to be creative and crafty.

But this week, I was thinking about making a new advent calendar. As I searched online I found this site with these really fun magnetic boxes that make a calendar on the refrigerator. I was then determined to find something that could be used in place of these boxes. I searched in the little local neighborhood shops and looked at Tesco to no avail. I then got the great idea to check on 淘宝 (www.taobao.com). It is kind of like the eBay of China. Great deals from various sellers all over China. Though I am sorry to say you can't check it, because it is not accessible unless you are in the mainland. Upon looking, I found the exact box that I was looking for. The only downside is that it is all Chinese. While I can understand most of I need, I am unable to order. One of the women at Andy's office orders it for me and amazingly it was delivered the next day.

I started with the metal boxes.

And then made circles that fit inside the bottom of each one numbered from 1 to 25.

And then joy-of-joys, I got to use tacky glue. Adhere a magnet to the lid. Fill the inside with a goodie for each day.

Voila a fun and unique advent calendar.

Ours is currently residing on our fridge.

At first I was unsure if I wanted the kids to have a sweet or special treat each day. We really try to limit the sweets they eat. But I read something that stuck with me about how advent is about counting down and anticipating. The kids look forward and anticipate that small special yummy each day in the box. Just like we each need to eagerly await the coming of Christmas. Eagerly look forward to our Saviour's birth.

Christmas carols

2011-12-01T19:32:00.001+08:00

The kids have been loving singing/listening/groovin' to Christmas carols. Josh and Tori listen to music every night as they go to sleep. Since the day after Thanksgiving, the carols have been rocking in their room. Downstairs on the family iPod, the kids have been lobbying for Christmas music since mid-November. I must confess that since it is some of my favorite music I let them play it when Andy is not home. He is the one with the strict not-until-after-Thanksgiving-rule. And yes, he knows that I flagrantly break this rule and he loves me regardless.

Anyway, little T has been walking around singing some of her favorites. Because the lyrics are not always words that are commonly used, she sometimes gets it a little garbled. I would love to let her keep singing the garbled-ness for the sheer cuteness factor. However, Becca and Josh insist on doing it right. [sigh]

The best rendition I have heard so far is from Angels We Have Heard on High:

Angels we have heard on high,

Sweetly singing all over the place,

And the mountain does reply

Echo in the door with string.

Then she bursts into the best: Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria

I am sure you can imagine it. It is indeed glorious.

And just in case you don't know the actual lyrics, they are:

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.

I rather enjoy her version. Doesn't it make sense that angels would sweetly sing all over the place? And the mountains replying and echoing in the door with string? Oh, she just tickles me.

sunday snapshot: {my boy}

2011-11-27T21:44:00.001+08:00

My girls are loud and rambunctious. Definite talkers. And sometimes in the midst of them, my boy can be overlooked. He is quieter. Slower to put his feelings into words. But he is my deep thinker and deep feeler.

As we are moving forward in the adoption, the girls are excited. But Josh has some reservations and worries. This is who he is. He thinks and thinks about things. Worries about them. Thinks about them from another angle. Possibly worries some more. He was the same way when we moved to China. Not excited and unsure of this big move. But once we were settled and some of his fears were addressed, he realized that he really likes it here. Now he would tell you that he likes BOTH China and America. Both are his homes. But in any big change, he needs time to sort it all out. When I asked him what he was worried about with a new child, he shared some of them with me. And some were what you would expect:

"I am worried that the baby will get into my legos."

I reassured him that it was understandable and that we will keep the door closed to the room with the Legos. But his next fear got me.

"I am worried that other people will see that the baby is different from us and laugh."

Oh, my sensitive, sweet boy. His heart is so big. And you know, I can't promise that this won't happen. Just to make sure he was not worried about our love for him or his place in the family, I asked him if he was worried that we would love him less. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said emphatically, "NO." Oh, okay just checking.

He recently lost another of his teeth. He lost his front two while we were back in the States this past summer. This time he lost the one right next to it. Since none of the others have started to come in, he has this adorable hole in the middle front area of his mouth. In fact he can stick his tongue out with his teeth clamped together! But he is a little self-conscious about it. I wanted to get some pictures of it and he was determined not to smile with his mouth open.

Mouth firmly closed.

But he was giggling and fighting opening his mouth.

And the battle got harder. . .

Until he couldn't stand it and his grin broke free.

I love this crazy boy of mine. He has grown so much in the last couple of years.

And as he continues to process through the adoption, I know more worries will come up. And while I can't promise that "everything will be ok." Because how can anyone promise that? I can promise him that we will love him more each day and another baby won't take away from that. I can also promise him that we will hear everyone of his concerns and will do what we can to work through them with him.

Because I just can't describe how much this little man means to me.

Click to see others' snapshots.

1st Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T19:37:00.002+08:00

Not our first thanksgiving. But I shared with Tori's classmates about Thanksgiving. Or 感恩节 (gan en jie) as it is called in Chinese. They got to learn about the first Thanksgiving and how we celebrate it today. For many of them this was the first time they had heard of thanksgiving [感恩节]. Just as an aside the second character [恩] is actually part of T's Chinese name. Anyway my brain digresses. . .

To start off I told them a brief history of the holiday. There was a bit of a challenging moment as the teachers were translating for me. Apparently I was using either too complex words or speaking too fast. Or a combination of both. I slowed it down. Still a little confusion. Got even slower. Still some gaps. So finally, I just translated the basics into Chinese and then said the words that I did not know using English. And then the teachers and I were on the same page. Can I just say to the teachers, welcome to my life? I feel your pain! Communicating in another language is hard. At one point one of the teachers grasped her head as if in pain and looked at the other teacher with wide eyes after I had said something. And I wanted to stand up and say, I know how you feel. I feel that way Every. Single. Day. But ok, moving on.

I then shared how today in the US many people remember on this day all the things and people for which we are thankful. The kids went around and shared some of the people for which they are thankful. It was sweet to hear them share about all the people that are important in their lives.

I then showed them the pumpkin pie. Since they had never seen a pumpkin pie before, I asked what they thought it was. Their guesses were great:

蛋糕 (cake)?

很大饼干 (a big cookie)?

And they were really surprised when I told them that it was pumpkin pie. Their only experience with pie is the pies that McDonalds and KFC sell. They were quite surprised that this was a normal American pie. I cut the pie into small squares and everyone got a taste.

And it was a hit!

Afterwards we made turkeys. While I know they do some projects at school, they are different than what we are used to seeing in an American preschool or kindergarten. So the kids were super excited to make the turkeys and get to take them home.

A successful Thanksgiving. So successful that the teachers asked if I could come back and teach about Christmas in a couple weeks. ;-)

Here is my ride. I have been meaning to post a picture.

Clearly when you don't drive, this is the best way to get a pumpkin pie somewhere. While I transport things this way daily (think: grocery store), the pie was warm, in a glass container, and it just seemed like a recipe for disaster. But we made it there safely with the pie intact.

Just imagine me on this with a kid in front and kid behind. Going local!

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

dead or sleeping?

2011-11-22T22:54:00.001+08:00

Update at the end of post. . .

Last week we inherited 4 fish from a friend. They will be going back to Australia to have a baby soon and won't be able to take care of them. The first night all the fish were lying at the bottom of the bowl on their sides. And I clearly thought: great we killed them on the first day!

But Tori was convinced that they were just sleeping. 2 were obviously not moving. Gills not moving. Bump the tank, nothing happens. After a consultation with T, I flushed the two. But she convinced me that the remaining two were just sleeping. Let it be said that I had serious doubts. But I didn't want to ruin her night so we agreed that if they were not moving in the morning that they were going to be flushed.

The next morning, the fish were swimming around like nothing had happened. Huh.

Several days go by, the fish seem fine. Then today this is what I found tonight:

No, they are not floating on the top. Laying on the bottom. Not moving again.

Tori dragged a stool over and kept checking to see what was going on. Watching their gills. Convinced they are again sleeping so we will go with the wait and see. But thankfully, the kids are not so attached to them. I think they named them, but did not seem overly worried about the fact that the fish might be dead.

But I have to confess that things don't look too good. Let's see what the morning brings. . .

UPDATE: The next morning (11.23.2011) when we woke up the fish were floating on the top. But the kids didn't take it hard and are now lobbying for turtles. Why they think that after killing 4 fish in less than a week we as a family are ready for turtles is a mystery to me.

sunday snapshot: {thanksgiving #1}

2011-11-20T23:06:00.004+08:00

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving. Because Thanksgiving Day, Andy will be in Shanghai, the kids will go to school, and it will pretty much be life as usual. Not a holiday here. So we move the holiday up a bit. For the most part, it is like thanksgiving anywhere in the US: turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, the works. But some things are slightly different. . .

No pepperidge farm. No cans of cranberry sauce. No cans of pumpkin.

Our pumpkin pie comes from this.

I was unsure how much this little pumpkin would make. Would it even be enough for a whole pie?

Turns out that I was wrong and it was more than enough for a pie. It probably would have been enough for two, but I didn't want to take the time to make a second crust.

Some of the challenges were not just making things from the natural ingredients. I had to hunt for the turkey. Went to three stores before I found a turkey. And I won't even mention what I had to pay for it. . .

And to get cranberry sauce, I used dried cranberries.

Then I have the added the challenge of my oven. Don't misunderstand me, I am so grateful that I even have an oven. Ovens are a rarity here in China. But it is tiny. I can fit the turkey and only the turkey [and it barely fit!]. I had to take out all the other racks just to get it to fit.

With all these extra challenges, you might wonder if it is worth it. Going to all that work.

But I love thanksgiving. I love all the foods. The sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, the dressing. Mmm, the dressing. Not to leave out the turkey, but I could eat only the sides and be so happy.

I love the sentiment of the holiday. Remembering to be thankful. Thankful for all that we have. Ultimately thankful to God, and all He has done for us.

So is it worth it? Oh, yes.

Our kids have been talking about this for a while now. They each have their favorites. Josh of course is all about the turkey. Though he also devours the cranberries. Becca is my girl and digs the sides. Sweet potatoes and dressing are her faves. And little T is our bread girl.

Maintaining these traditions even when we don't live in the US is important. Yes, it is so worth it. Especially because we don't live in the US.

The spread:

And because I am slightly crazy, this was only Thanksgiving #1. I will be cooking 2 more. This one was with our small group (from our international church) and we had 25+ people here.

But our small group is our family here in Suzhou. They are aunts and uncles to our kids. Our dear friends. I love how we have learned from each one of them. They are each here for a bit of time. Anywhere from a couple months to a couple years. I love how diverse we are and how that brings such a great dynamic to our small group. Just as an example, everyone in this picture is from a different country. [Wales, Germany, South Africa, India, Indonesia, and of course our little American]

After eating way too much. Because that is part of the whole tradition. We played games and enjoyed one another until we were ready to handle pie.

In the midst of all these people, my boy was curled up on the couch reading.

But the absolutely best part of the evening? The fact that I did not wash a dish. I was shooed out of the kitchen and my kitchen magically cleaned itself.

And we get to do it all again next Saturday. Though that one will be a slightly smaller scale. I love the holidays.

And when my kids are older and looking back on their childhood, I hope they remember that our house was a gathering place. A place where all felt welcomed. They will remember that no matter where we lived, certain traditions were always important. And remember how much we loved sharing those traditions with others.

I hope you have a great week and build some traditions with your own family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

and it continues. . .

2011-11-18T22:45:00.000+08:00

We are enjoying great weather here. Starting to get a little cooler, but still fairly mild. Enough that we have dug out our comforters. But we haven't got rid of one hang over from the summer.

Any guesses?

Can you find the visitors that are still hanging around?

There are few things that I hate in life. But I hate mosquitoes. And I know that they are a valuable part of the food chain. But I could personally live without them in my life.

But with them still hanging around that means that we are still using. . .

our mosquito nets. While I cannot say that I hate the nets, they do drive me crazy. I get up in the night and forget that I am sleeping in a tent and end up bouncing off the side. I miss perching on the edge of the bed to get dressed or talk with the kids. So I am counting down the days until we can finally get rid of the nets. If I had my way they would have been gone last week. I am sure this is influenced by the fact that the pests bother Andy much more than me. He is the lure that keeps me safe. What a great guy, huh?

I keep pleading with Andy that it is time to take them down. But he [rightly] says that while there are still mosquitoes, the nets remain. [sigh]

The other day I was again petitioning to get rid of them. I suggested one more week and then the nets would be history. He thinks that we will need them longer. We kept discussing it for a while and finally made a deal. Andy had suggested another 3 days with the net for each mosquito we see, I countered with 2 days for each mosquito we see. Somehow I brought up that the days could even carry over. We joked that it was like roll-over-mosquito-days. At the time it seemed like a good idea. But if we use this current plan, we will still be using them until almost Christmas.

I am enduring, but I have hope that soon the nets will go away. Soon. Unless those roll-over-days keep adding up. [sigh]

morning run

2011-11-13T21:36:00.000+08:00

I don't often get to run first thing in the morning. Since the kids get on the bus at 7:50, there is just not time to get up and run before I need to get them moving. Well, let me clarify. . .

There is not much time that allows me to get up at a some-what-humane hour. I have grown to enjoy the mornings more and I love the quiet of the house before our kids get into gear. But I will never be a roll out of the bed early and chipper person. So my runs tend to happen at random times. Usually somewhat in the middle of the day when the typical street scene is fast paced. Not during rush hour, but this is after all China, so our tame is another city's insane.

For some reason I was motivated to get up and run early this morning. I had made a french toast casserole last night. When I got up to put it in the oven, I decided that I would get a run in while it baked. Some might think that I was defeating the purpose of running by coming home to eat yummy french toast casserole. But half the reason I run is that I love to eat! Anyway, I was reminded this morning why I like early morning runs. There is something about watching a city come to life first thing in the morning. Especially a city like ours that is so busy and full of life. The street venders were setting up to sell breakfast, stores were just starting to open, the park had quite a few people doing taichi, and much of the city was still snug at home.

My view as I was running. I run in the bike lane as the sidewalks are uneven and unpredictable. The bike lane tends to be a safer option. But I have caused several near-misses as people pass me and then are so busy looking back that they almost run into something/someone. I have not caused any accidents yet.

Photo taken using Instagram.

But when I got back energized, I have vowed that I will make more of an effort to do this. It was a great start to my day.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Beginning the journey

2011-11-11T22:58:00.000+08:00

About a month ago I alluded to the fact that we were pondering great, big, deep things. That I needed some time to digest and think it through without the blog. But since it is now official (meaning that we have sent money in), I can share our deep ponderings. We are planning to add to our family through adoption. While much is uncertain, I can share what I know at this point and how we arrived at this decision.

You might be wondering why we are choosing to adopt. And since we are planning to pursue adopting a special needs child, I know there will be additional questions. There are a lot of reasons that go into this. And because I understand you have questions, I will try to answer some of the ones I have heard already. Hopefully I am successful.

Why add another child, you already have 3 children?

ANSWER: While that is true, we have 3 beautiful children. Andy and I have always talked that we would like 3 or maybe 4 children. And have felt recently that our family is ready for another. For us, it is not about the inability to conceive. I am sure that if we wanted we could conceive another child. But we are choosing to add to our family through adoption. I think that the idea of adopting started when I was running after school programs in Cincy. I saw so many foster kids come through. They would be with us for a couple weeks. Then gone. Sometimes back again. I just knew that if they were rooted in just one home with love these kids would flourish. Andy and I talked then that we would be interested in fostering children or adopting down the road. Then we moved to China and the idea was put on hold. But the idea came back again. And again.

Why adopt from China?

ANSWER: The first easy answer to that is we are here. As we prepared to move here, we were still talking about the possibility of adopting. Much as we had been led to China in Andy's job, we also felt the pull to look at adopting from China as well. Over the last year Andy and I have both felt the desire to adopt from the country that is our current home.

Why are you considering/pursuing special needs?

ANSWER: This is perhaps the hardest question to answer. Each child that is adopted is in fact a special needs child. They will need extra love and care. They will possibly have medical issues that are unknown. And if we had a biological child with special needs, we would be walking that road and giving that child all that we have to offer. But as we have felt that we want to pursue adopting, I have felt from the beginning that we should at least be open to a special needs child. During these past months Andy and I have both moved from just being open to special needs to seriously considering it to deciding that it most likely the path we will take.

I know that this has probably just whetted your appetite for more information. But hopefully this gives a little insight into our some of our reasons. And the next big question is:

How long will the adoption take?

ANSWER: This is also a hard one to answer. Our timeline is going to be different from someone waiting in the US. But I think that the overall process should be about 18 months to 2 years. A lot of this will depend on how long it will take to gather our paperwork (an added challenge for us doing it from the other side of the world). But overall there is a lot of uncertainty about the time and there will be a whole lot of waiting.

Art Diva

2011-11-11T22:40:00.000+08:00

Recently, friends of ours moved to India and gave Tori one of their old desks. She uses it daily. If it is quiet and I haven't seen her, I know where she will be found. Most mornings when we wake up, she is already at her desk working away.

And what does my little artist work on? She draws and often recently has been practicing writing.

While she likes to write English, she also frequently practices writing Chinese characters. She has written:
乐心山大, various characters that she has learned or seen at school.

And the last two 美恩 are her Chinese name.

New Vocabulary

2011-11-01T21:34:00.001+08:00

Since our move to China, not only have we picked up some Mandarin. (Or in the case of little T are fluent) But we have also picked up some English words that are rarely used in American English.

When I took Tori to the doctor on Monday to ensure that she did indeed have chicken pox, she was bouncing around the room. The doctor took one look at her and said, "Are you sure she is sick. She is rather cheeky."

Well, of course she is. She's our Tori.

When Tori describes a smart thing that someone has done she usually describes it as clever.

Our kids put their trash (or even their rubbish) in a bin and wear a jumper when it is cold.

I even find myself writing colour. And then I stared in confusion at the computer when it tells me that the word is spelled wrong.

This translates in reverse when we go back to the US. Because the longer we live outside the US, when we return we are just slightly out of step with American culture. There are phrases that I don't quite get, TV shows that we don't usually watch, and something that is hard to define that makes us feel slightly different. This is what comes from living with a foot in two different worlds.

Sunday Snapshot: Organizing & Little Red Spots

2011-10-30T23:56:00.000+08:00

It all started last week. Becca woke up one morning and had several red marks on her back that were really bothering her. Since they didn't look like mosquito bites, I immediately thought that they were spider bites. And yes, we are still battling the mosquitoes. Fierce little monsters. So that day we cleaned out her bed, washed all the sheets, and thought it would be better.

The next morning she woke up with even more. And I was perplexed.

But then I heard that one of the other kids in the neighborhood had chicken pox.

Uh-oh.

Even though she had been vaccinated, Becca indeed has chicken pox. And I sent her to school during the most contagious period of time. Oops.

But on the thankful side, she has a mild case. No fever, doesn't really feel bad. Just really itchy.

Definitely not mosquito bites. I think of this face as her, "are you really going to take a picture of me. Really, mom?"

No, B! Don't scratch! She has one just below her eye that is really annoying her. And one in her ear.

But somehow, she doesn't look that sick.

Then on Friday afternoon, I looked closer at the mosquito bites on Tori's face. Hmm, and now we have case #2. Thankfully, Josh had it 2 years ago. How he got them then and the girls didn't is beyond me.

So Andy and the girls stayed in this Sunday morning. We went to IKEA the other day to buy Becca a desk and various home organizing things. I know that it was a definite hardship for him to hang with the sick girls and build the desk.

The end result.

Then when Josh and I got home from church, Andy and J built a new shoe rack for us. You can see the old shoe rack lurking in the background.

There is something truly wonderful about building something with Daddy. Or a home improvement project together. But we rent our home and are not even allowed to change a light bulb. Not exaggerating, we have to call a property management worker to change a lightbulb or even hang a picture. So opportunities to build with Daddy are limited and these projects are to be savored.

I am almost embarrassed to show you the shoe area before. But in the interest of full disclosure, here it is. And there are even more shoes littered around my feet.

And the finished, much neater version. We can now fit all the shoes for this season on the rack. And as no household in China would be complete without it, there is the required basket of slippers for guests on the right.

I find it immensely humorous that on the shoe rack, Josh has 1 pair of shoes. Just one. Equally surprising is that I don't have the most shoes on the rack. Granted, I tie for that dubious right. Can you guess who ties me for the most?

Little T, my petite diva shares that honor with me. My littlest loves shoes. Boots. Sparkly slippers. She truly believes that a girl cannot have too many shoes. So I find them on discount and second hand, and she rocks them all. Particularly her cowgirl boots.

And my next organizational challenge? The toy room upstairs. Since I will be home-bound with the girls and their chicken pox this week, I know I will have time to tackle this.

Meat. . . but what kind?

2011-10-26T14:29:00.000+08:00

I was talking to my ayi (house help) today about the chicken and dumpling soup that I made yesterday. She informed me the chicken that I thought that I had bought was in fact duck. Huh. I thought that the chicken smelled and looked a little bit weird. Which just goes to show that even after living here years, sometimes the grocery store still has triumphs over me. But we won't consider it a fail since the soup was delicious. Who knew duck and dumplings could be so good?

Sunday Snapshot: Paper cut outs

2011-10-25T00:14:00.001+08:00

Think that I am done with all the vacation blogging. And now we are back to life as usual. A friend of ours from college was in Suzhou this last week for business and we were able to meet up with him. We picked him up for church on Sunday, went out to lunch together and then helped him get some shopping done. He remarked that while he gets a fair amount of attention here in China, it is nothing compared with us. And it is true, I can describe the attention our cute blondies get, but until you walk down a street with us and see everyone stop and stare at us (and for once, I am NOT exaggerating), I am not sure that you get it.

Anyway, just part of the package of life in China.

One of my favorite things we stumbled across was this man selling paper cut-outs. Paper cut-outs are an ancient Chinese art. I am amazed at what they can make just from paper and scissors. Warren (our friend) decided to buy some of the art and the man told him that he would give him something. And then, to our amazement, he told Warren to look to the side and in mere moments, he had cut out his silhouette. The vendor then proceeded to make a silhouette for each of the kids.

T posing. She had the hardest time staying still.

The end result:

Tori

Josh

When we walked up to the booth, there were no other people there. But after only a few minutes of us standing there, we drew quite a crowd. Yes indeed, the spectacle of us.

I love those unexpected finds that life gives you. Hope that you have an unexpected blessing this week.

Check out below for some other snapshots of life. [must confess that normally we would use our real camera. but today in just capturing the unexpected moment all we had was the iPhone]

Tioman Island - Snorkeling

2011-10-24T23:29:00.000+08:00

On our second full day on Tioman we chartered a boat to take us snorkeling. This island is well-known for its great scuba and it has a lot of shallow-water reefs that are also great for snorkeling.

Geared up and ready to go!

Tori had a mixed reaction with the snorkel at first. She loved seeing and being able to breathe, but it kept bothering her. And then fixing it was complicated. Because she could never quite explain just exactly how it was bothering her. It just was. But when we went a second day she had gotten it.

We spent the morning at two different locations, but on our way to another island the wind picked up and it started to rain. With the wind blowing the kids were freezing. I had to buy two beach towels because they were just so incredibly cold. They had warmed up some by this picture but before their lips were a little bluish.

Time to refuel with chocolate pancakes. Lunch of champions.

With her cute braids and sea-salty hair, I kept calling T my little island girl. Here the island girl is warming up with some hot tea.

Can you see all the fish just swarming around Josh? How cool is that?

Tori, Andy and Becca

Becca is such a fish herself. For part of the time, she was not even wearing her life jacket. It kept happening that we would look up and she was a bit away from us. But even with all of her adventurousness, she had mixed feelings about the swarm of fish being right on top of her. Loved seeing the fish, not so crazy about them bumping into her face. I gave her the advice that if she kept moving then the fish would avoid her. Later I would look at her and she would appear to be just flailing around. At first I was confused because she is an excellent swimmer, but then I realized all this flailing was to keep the fish at bay. Love that crazy girl!

Amree and T found an anemone. Or as Tori kept calling them: sea enemies.

Just a little slice of paradise. The tiny little island on the right side was our favorite spot to snorkel. There we saw countless clown fish, anemones, amazing coral, countless kinds of fish, and even a sting ray gliding along the bottom. What a unique experience!

So you might notice that is a marked lack of pictures containing me. Well, the reasons for that are two-fold. Even though Andy and I normally both take pictures, I took most of these. Secondly, do you have any idea what you look like after having your head in the water all morning? My vanity reared her head and for once I am letting her have her way. It was not pretty. Think I will leave it up to your imagination.

But we had a wonderful time. So much that on our last day when we gave the kids a choice of what to do, they unanimously choose to go snorkeling a second time. We will all cherish these memories.

Pulau Tioman

2011-10-21T23:36:00.001+08:00

Or otherwise known as Tioman Island is a tiny island in Malaysia about a 45 minute plane ride from Singapore. We loved this little island. It has such a laid-back feel to it. Which starts at the airport.

Boarding the plane in Singapore for Tioman.

On the runway. I am glad that Becca didn't know how small the runway was before we landed. Or that it ended into the mountainside. My girl does not need any additional things to worry about when we travel.

And this would be the airport in Tioman. On the right is immigration. Seriously, the most low-key airport I have ever been in. The day we left to fly back to Singapore we noticed that they used a chalkboard to list the times of the 3 flights leaving that day.

After we landed, picked up our bags from the runway (where they wheeled them to us), figured out how to get money and then travel to our hotel, the kids wasted no time at all getting to the beach.

Sitting on the front porch of our bungalow. Oh, yes good things are in store for us on this island.

Singapore

2011-10-18T00:34:00.001+08:00

The first week of October is one of the big holidays in China. It is referred to as one of the two Golden Weeks (Chinese New Year is the other) and the official name is 国庆节 guóqìngjié. This is the National Holiday of China celebrating the the beginning of the PRC (People's Republic of China). For us, this means the ability to travel as both Andy and the kids have the week off. Granted for Andy, the holiday is not a full week off so there is some creative shifting of the work week by the government in order to get those 7 straight days. For example this year Andy got off Saturday, October 1st through Friday, October 7th. But then he (and everyone else in China) had to work the weekend of the 8th and the 9th. But it is hard to complain since we get traveling in the bargain. Over the last couple of years, we have used this time to explore various parts of China. But Andy's brother and wife who live in Japan are planning to move back to the States within the next year. We opted to use this chance to meet up with them. We met in Singapore and then traveled together to Malaysia.

One of the highlights of Singapore was the zoo. I feel like we are becoming zoo experts. And the Singapore Zoo is now one of our favorites.

To say my boy is fond of maps is a vast understatement. The boy loves maps. Almost as much as he loves books. And that is saying something.

In the rainforest enclosure. At first we were fascinated watching the giant fruit bats. But before long these lemurs were showing off for us. One of the things that is amazing about this zoo is how interactive everything is. We were up close and personal with the animals.

And I was feeling just a little too close and personal with the lemurs. Especially as they started growling at each other behind my back. We only got this one shot of us here because I quickly moved to a bit more comfortable distance. Andy was teasing me, but really they were growling at each other behind my back. I think I was justified in my need for distance.

Throughout the zoo there were really fun statues. The kids wanted their pictures taken at every single one.

At the white bengal tiger exhibit there was this freaky-looking bug on the fence. Before long, we weren't even watching the tigers but this crazy bug. I got the great idea to blow on it. Don't ask me why. And then it sort of jumped-flew onto Andy's shirt. He was less than thrilled. And who was making fun of me for not wanting to be too close to the animals?

But to be fair, it was a really freaky bug. The kids decided that it looked like it was wearing boots on 4 of its 6 legs. Furry, white boots. At first when we saw it, we thought it was a piece of lint or trash. Until it started moving! Freaky bug.

I think of this as Tori's lotus-flower pose. This is what happens when your child attends Chinese school. . .

The whole clan

We were so humored by this. You could pay to have your photo taken in front of the chimpanzees. But the trainer was not happy with the arrangement of the chimps. I think because they kept moving and shifting. As we stood there watching, he rearranged them several times. And then in the end, it really looked about the same.

Tori was keeping pace with the Pygmy hippo

On our second day in Singapore, we met up with some friends who also happened to be visiting at the same time. We met Daniel at the Ion Food Court. While there we also ran into another couple that we know from Suzhou. Somehow this happens to us a lot. Last year we bumped into friends at our hotel in Vietnam. The world is small.

After lunch we met up with Cynthia at the Botanical Gardens. Tori seems to have commandeered Aunt Cynthia's phone. We'll just hope she wasn't making a call.

Within the Botanical Gardens, there is a stunning Orchid Park. It was steamy hot (then again all of Singapore is), but oh-so-beautiful.

Just what am I looking at? Somehow I was not behaving for pictures. First the lemurs, now this. . .

But maybe I will just claim that I was looking at these amazing flowers. The girls kept saying,

"Take a picture of this one."

"Oh, this one is pretty!"

Because they were all just overwhelmingly gorgeous. It was hard not to take pictures of every single one.

And maybe we didn't get every one. But we came close. Such a marvelous part of creation.

The Singapore crew

Upon leaving the Orchid Park, we encountered this lady with her ridiculous dogs. Can you see their shoes? As Andy said, "she is way too serious and intense looking to be carting around such ridiculous creatures."

Normally, I try not to repeat myself but all that comes to mind is: ridiculous.

As we were leaving the Botanical Garden you could walk through this tunnel created by plants. Both Amree and I loved the way the roots felt.

We had just two days in Singapore and then it was on to Tioman Island in Malaysia. But while we were in the city, we sure packed it in!

Sunday Snapshot: Friendly Football

2011-10-16T22:25:00.000+08:00

football - unlike in the U.S., in most of the world football implies soccer so this has become part of our vocabulary as well ;-)

Yesterday Becca and Josh participated in a Friendly Football Match where several International Schools competed against one another. The day was hosted by Dulwich, another school here in Suzhou. Eton House (our kids' school) sent 4 teams: 3 boys and a girls team.

The girls team posing after one of their games. And just in case you are wondering, the girls are each wearing an E and H for, you guessed it, Eton House.

Josh moves in to steal the ball. Can you see his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth?

Closing in on the goal.

And celebrating after the goal. Yeah, buddy!

Getting ready to pass off to his teammate.

Back to the girls playing in the final for their division. The girls fought hard, but ended up with second overall.

These 2 girls from the opposing team were small and tough. As we saw them closing in on Becca, we held our breath. But our girlie stopped them and prevented the goal.

Josh has really gotten a lot tougher this last year. Check out the elbow. A year ago, he would have just yielded. So should I rejoice that he is throwing an elbow? I'm going with a yes on that one.

I love, love the determination on his face here.

The girls getting their 2nd place metals. Josh was disappointed because even though his team did really well, they didn't place in the top 2. So therefore didn't get a metal. And Becca who would have been fine either way got a metal. Let's just say there were tears involved and leave it at that. I thought this was supposed to be a friendly football tournament.

Josh with his team. Can you see him still battling the tears?

But considering that the match ended after 1, I think that hunger played a factor. Food helped put him on the right track.

Well, food and a really BIG piece of chocolate cake. There are few things that chocolate cake can't cure.

He is worried that his cake is going to fall over. The happy cake feelings were almost ruined by cake stress. But don't worry, the happiness of chocolate cake prevailed in the end.

Chocolate cake happiness all around.

We had such a great day. Even with Josh's disappointment, the kids will talk about this day for weeks to come.

The Princess Party

2011-10-14T20:07:00.000+08:00

If you know our third, you know that she is a girlie-girl through and through. So naturally she wanted a princess party for her 6th birthday. She invited several girls from her class and some of the kids that live in our neighborhood.

The invites. I had someone from Andy's work help me translate these into Chinese. I am sure that she was humored by me.

I wrote each of the girls' names on their crowns in glitter glue. While I am able to write some Chinese characters, glitter gluing in Chinese was definitely taking it to the next level.

Once all the girls had arrived, we first looked for treasure hidden about our downstairs. The treasures contained jewel rings and jewels for the girls to use on their crowns.

The birthday girl showing off her bling. I mean, her pretty jewel rings. But c'mon, total bling don't you think?

We are getting ready to play pin the crown on the princess. One of the challenges of the party was explaining everything in both English and Chinese. And yes at one point one of the little Chinese girls from Tori's class corrected something that I said. You know, just to keep me humble.

Then we made beautiful jewelry bracelets. Tori with one of her good friends 印琬菁 (pronounced yin wan jing).

A good time was had by all the little princesses.

The cake. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but this has 4 layers. Since I can only bake 2 at a time in my oven, I was baking for most of afternoon! Tori kept telling everyone that her cake had 4 floors. This would be a moment where she knew what it was called in Chinese and directly translated it to English. Just what is that girl's native language?

Such joy. But this year, we opted not to have the fire-flower candle. I was concerned that with the towers it might not work. Catching the cake on fire would not have been a good thing.

Such determination! But as she leaned closer to blow out the candles, I got worried and decided to intervene. . .

to hold the flowing hair back from the flame.

Tori posing with our 阿姨 (ayi), our house help. They have such a special relationship. In fact when we were back in the US, someone asked her what she missed from China. Her response: tofu and my ayi.

Can't you just see how much they enjoy each other?

We had asked each of the girls to dress as a princess or in their most beautiful dress. Tori informed us that she wanted to dress as a Chinese princess. I think she makes a beautiful one, don't you?

Happy Birthday, Sweet T!

Blog drought

2011-10-14T18:07:00.000+08:00

For some reason over this last month, I have not felt at all inspired to write. Much has happened. And right now as a family we are pondering some big things. But I have just not felt ready to share these things with the world at large. So hence the quietness. I think that I have just needed to time to ponder and journal the old-fashion way (in a pretty little notebook). But I think that I am ready to break my self-induced silence.

So, hello again to all of you. While I have no illusions about catching up on all that has gone on in our lives, I will share the highlights. Let the marathon blogging begin.

Kids & Technology

2011-10-14T18:00:00.000+08:00

There are so many ways that are kids are much more tech savvy than we once were. I did not even have a computer until I went to college. And I am sure that none of our kids can imagine their lives without our computer. But living an ocean away from family, our kids are also Skype kiddos. We Skype our families regularly. And as their friends have moved away, they also keep in touch with them via Skype. I can't describe why it humors me, but this shot makes me smile.

Talking with some of their friends that are currently in France.

Hopefully, it makes you smile as well. ;-)

Photo dump

2011-09-08T10:15:00.001+08:00

This is going to be random. But keep tracking with me people. . .

Starting out in the States. I just had to share a picture I finally found when I unearthed my camera cord during the great unpacking process.

Debating how all these bags are going to fit. And this was only our checked luggage. Needless to say, it didn't all fit in the back. There were bags everywhere.

Then through the week-long battle with jet lag. We were victorious in the end, but it got ugly before it got better.

In our family when our kids are older, it will not be tub pictures that we will threaten to show their dates or potential spouse. Oh no, it will be the photos of them in the midst of jet lag. Cause, baby, there are some terrific ones! Josh is mid-sentence pleading with me to lay on the couch. Mind you, it was only 6PM. Look at those poor, tired eyes. Jet lag is a monster. This my friends is the reason we come back only once a year!
**sorry for the iffy quality, took this one with my phone.**

After only a week back we went with some friends to 莫干山 Moganshan, an area in some (smaller) mountains about a 3 hour drive from Suzhou. It was absolutely gorgeous. At times, we had to stop and wonder if we were in China. I love seeing more trees (or bamboo as the case may be) than people in a given day. Which is not usually the case in my life.

We stumbled across this mountain stream-fed reservoir. Would highly recommend Moganshan -- it was absolutely beautiful.

After off-roading on some not-really-drivable-roads with tons of passengers, we have new respect for the BUICK van. This is not just your city van.

Quintessential China experience -- Tori and her friend are watching the 奶奶 "grandma" at the guest house where we stayed kill the chicken that will be our dinner. And for most of this they were up close and personal. T later described it for me: "She cut on the neck and it bled everywhere. Then she put it in hot water and pulled out all the feathers!"
What a life we lead.

The return

2011-08-22T13:15:00.000+08:00

This is going to be a post with no pictures. Because when traveling solo with 3 kids, the last thing on my mind is taking pictures. Granted, I did think of it. But the camera wasn't handy. My phone was available, but it was too dark for it to get a decent picture. So I will have to use my words to describe it.

But what can be said about a journey that includes a 14-hour plane ride? There were inevitable delays. Which of course prompted Becca to have some travel stress. Our plane going into Detroit was delayed almost 40 minutes and made our connection for our Detroit-Shanghai flight a little tighter. Even though we had plenty of time, my girl worried about it the entire plane ride to Detroit. But then that flight ended up being delayed so it wouldn't have mattered. At one point during her worryfest, I gave her the worse-case scenario. We miss our connecting flight. Since it the airlines fault, they would put us on the plane the next day going to Shanghai and it would work out. I think sometimes she needs to hear the worse case to realize that even that is doable.

And then our long flight? Was long. And had no individual TVs. Be patient with me because I am going to rant for a minute. I just don't understand how the airlines can get away with showing movies that are inappropriate for children but then not giving any other option. This alone is the reason that I like the individual TVs so much. Because every single movie that was shown on the big screen was PG and most of them were PG-13. Thankfully, none were R. But even a PG-13, has more violence and inappropriate sexual content that I don't want my 5 year-old to see. I had to ask the kids to look away at several points. Because I know that if they were to see what was shown then it would bother them and possibly give them nightmares. And how can one of the longest flights you can take not have individual TVs? On our return to the US, one of our flights was 9.5 hours and we not only had the TVs, but they were on demand. Meaning we could pause and skip ahead in movies. But then this flight that was almost 5 hours longer really had no option for my kids. Just. So. Frustrating. Alright, rant over.

A friend emailed once we were back to ask how the flight went. I quickly replied, "OK." And then later remembered that one of my kids got sick twice almost at the end. But since that is a usual occurrence for that particular kiddo, I guess I just thought of it as no big and nothing out of the ordinary.

We are in the midst of battling the evil jet lag monster. But I have hopes that we will be victorious in the next day or two. Our first morning back Tori woke up at 2:30 AM and was up for the day. She had climbed into bed with us, but didn't really sleep anymore that night. During the afternoon as they are lagging we head for the pool and then after dinner we attempt to keep them awake with movies with doses of tickling as needed.

This time around either the flight (with its pressures changes) or jet lag or really the evil combination of the two gave me a two-day migraine. I was totally out for the count. I am so thankful that Andy was already on China-time and didn't have his own jet lag to deal with because he has been crucial in helping and taking care of the kids. I love that man. And just for the record, we are SO GLAD to be back with Andy. 26 days apart is a long time.

We now have a week to get back into the routine before school starts. Can I just say. . . it is great to be home!

Sunday Snapshot: everything but the kitchen sink. . .

2011-08-14T10:42:00.001+08:00

seriously. That is what I feel like I have purchased and am getting ready to pack. We are in serious countdown mode: t-minus 5 days until we board the plane. And you know what? I am ready to go home.

But in answer to what so many people ask. . . what do you buy to take back to China? Each year, it is a little bit different. The one thing that is a constant is that I ALWAYS buy toothpaste. And lots of it. Just as a funny aside, the cashier rarely makes a comment, but just imagine someone buying a year's supply of toothpaste. At one time. Plus a ton of medicines. Yet again a year's supply. And I am surprised that I don't get more comments. I mean, I would notice and think it a little strange that someone was buying 15 tubes of toothpaste. Not to mention the 5 things of deodorant and all the medicines. It honestly took me two years to figure out exactly how much toothpaste we use in a year.

I feel like this could be an I Spy: The Travel Version
I spy 10 tubes of toothpaste, something you want with you when it rains, 4 things that will make you sneeze, and the remedy for a headache.

The great organizing begins. Notice that the duffel bags are still quite empty. Unfortunately, I have just a little more shopping to do. [sigh] I am really, really tired of shopping.

Surprising, we don't buy much food to take back with us. This is a change from our first couple of years. I would buy mostly food (coffee, chocolate, baking supplies . . . the list seemed endless). But now, I buy some things, but have really either been able to find what I need or have just learned to do without. As evidenced by the pictures above, I buy a lot of spices. After getting off skype with Andy, I realized more things I need to buy. This is NOT my favorite kind of shopping. But I think that I am almost done.

Just so you don't think all the packing is organized and tame. This is what it looks like way too often. Can I tell you how tired I am of living out of a suitcase?

The kids and I went out for ice cream tonight. Yes, we are still adhering to our daily ice cream ritual. 5 more days of ice cream left! While we were out, I asked them how they were feeling about going back to China. This is often a mixed bag. Their home is China. They have majority of their friends in China. All of their things are in China. Daddy is already in China. BUT, the U.S. is still their home. They still have friends here that they are sad to say goodbye to. Their grandparents and (some) of their cousins are here and they are definitely NOT ready to say goodbye to them. And this brings about a wealth of emotion. Essentially, they are kids who have 2 homes and are always somewhat torn between them. I really believe though that it is important to bring this up ahead of time and talk through what they are thinking and feeling. So we sat there with our ice cream and thought about all of the things that we were excited to return home to. Their lists were long. Including everything from their friends to their stuff and of course, Daddy. Josh is even excited to eat some of his favorite Chinese foods (namely, lamb kabobs and rabbit legs). But there will be many tears over the next week as we say goodbye to all that we love here.

Summer Poem

2011-08-07T21:30:00.000+08:00

I just needed to share this with you. The kids have been playing school together recently. Of course, Becca is the teacher. She assigned a Summer accrostic poem to Josh. Here is what he wrote:

SUMMER:
Swimming, visit

U.S.A.,

Meet family and friends, eat

Meat,

Eat other yummy foods,

Read books.

By Josh Wilcox

And there you have it, through the eye of my boy what our summer is all about.

you can take our kids out of China. . .

2011-08-02T19:21:00.000+08:00

but some behaviors are just second nature by now. If we have to wait in any kind of line at all, our kids drop down into a squat position.

Not even in line, just waiting for the rest of the family to emerge from the restaurant.

And Josh even found a bit of shade.

Tori is using her stirring sticks as chopsticks to get all the whipped cream our of her strawberry smoothie.

normalcy

2011-07-31T00:36:00.001+08:00

This week was so very normal. At least a typical summer week in the U.S. Filled with things like swimming lessons, camps for the older two, trips to the pool and LOTS of ice cream. So far, we have been pretty consistent and have had ice cream almost every day since landing in the States. It's hard work fitting a year of ice cream into just 7 weeks.

Josh with his swim teacher Nate. Loved the individual pairing of experienced swimmers with those still learning.

Working on freestyle.

At the beginning of the week, Tori was using floaties and didn't like putting her face in the water. By the end of the week, she was swimming underwater, had learned to do both front and back floats, and passed the intermediate swim test at the YMCA. She is so determined that when she puts her mind to something, there is no stopping her!

People upon finding out that we live in China, make comments like: "Wow, you are so lucky." "It must be quite an experience for you and your children." "What a valuable childhood for them." And while each of these are true, sometimes I just miss the normalcy of life in the States. As you read this (Mom), don't get too excited. I don't miss it enough to move back. At least not yet. But our time here in the summer provides us with those snippets of American life.

Closing ceremonies of camp. B had such a great week. She looks forward to this week all year long. And this year didn't disappoint. Josh went for an overnight and will tackle the week-long-deal next year.

We miss things like meeting friends at the park. The convenience of driving. Ah, don't get me started on how much easier transportation is here. . . But our life is rich and full in China as well. How could I give up my favorite Sichuan restaurant? The diversity of our neighborhood? Each day is an adventure. The summer here provides the balance we need of comfort in contrast to the adventures of our daily life there.

T loves the garden and never misses an opportunity to help pick veggies.

So excited to be holding a hot pepper (that she only enjoys picking NOT eating).

And this summer is living up to expectations and providing all the comfort and calm that we could hope for. Though, I am seriously missing Andy. He left Monday and we are now down to 21 days until we see him again. Also must confess that I am getting a little tired of the 1 pair of shorts, 3 skirts, 10 t-shirts, and 4 tanks I packed. The downside to packing light. Maybe some shopping is in order?

The library. I cannot tell you how much we love the library. I think the library is one of Josh's favorite places in the world.

I love the pile of books sitting off to the side, just waiting to be read.

Hope that you enjoy your weekend!

camp

2011-07-26T22:07:00.000+08:00

Each summer as we come back to the US, there are things that are familiar to our children. These things and people mean more to me than I can express. Because our children's reality and norm is NOT the States. I wonder if it is strange and overwhelming for them to be here or comforting like it is to Andy and I. I know that since Becca remembers living here, for her there is comfort of coming back to familiar places and seeing so many people she knows. I am not sure that it is true for our younger two. Most of their life has been spent in China. But because this is not our children's norm, I worry about things that would not even be on my radar in Suzhou or if we lived here. As I drop Tori off for Sunday school, she gets worried. She told me: "what if I don't know anyone? what if they don't like me? what if they laugh at me?" And how can I as a Mom, not worry? But then a special friend comes along that she remembers and makes her feel right at home. And that means so much more than I can express.

Sunday I dropped Becca off at camp. This is a church camp that she attends every year and she knows some girls who attend as well. But when we got there, she discovered that one of her good friends who she was looking forward to being with was in a different cabin. And of course I worried. I mean, she only knew a handful of people there and it felt like others know one another so well. I even asked if she wanted me to talk to someone and see if she could be moved. And my girlie, so mature answered, "no, Mom. It will work out. I am disappointed that I won't be with Sarah, but I will see her and maybe even make some new friends." Yeah, message received: RELAX A BIT, MOM.

I don't think I will ever really let go and not worry about our kids. I mean, what mother can ever stop worrying? I will always watch them as we come back into this familiar-environment-but-not-quite-their-home. But at the same time, I will try to relax. To trust that this transition is not as big as I make it. Really, I will try to relax. Not making any promises though.

time flies

2011-07-21T11:09:00.000+08:00

Here we are at July 20th and this is the first time I have had to sit down and even think about a post. I feel like there is so much that I could share and so much we have done over the last 16 days. But since a picture is worth more than my words, I will share snipets and let the pictures do the talking.

Seattle, Washington

Top of the Space Needle. If you look real close, you can see Rainer in the background. This was the 4th of July. See our girls displaying their pride in our country?

Foothills of the Cascades. Hiking at Watts Falls (or something similar starting with a W. it has been a whirlwind)

Beth and I. (Roommates in college and like a sister to me. Don't you just love friendships like this?)

At a park beside Lake Washington

Indianpolis, Indiana

Connor Praire. We are blessed to come back to so many friends that it is impossible to see everyone. Our kids and some of their friends that we got to spend the day with.

how sweet are they? born only months apart, I have been friends with their mommies forever. and now our girls continue the friendship.

Dayton, Ohio

Can you see what she is holding? My girl, the one who fears crabs and most creepy crawly things, LOVES daddy long legs. Go figure.

T looking way too serious while enjoying a s'more.
Have I mentioned that we plan to eat ice cream every day? And are pretty close to succeeding?

Cincinnati, Ohio

Just look at the lush greenery. This would be one of those things I don't even realize I miss until I am back here and am stunned by the amazing beauty found in a backyard.

Josh is on a mission to lose most of his teeth that are loose while we are in the US. I think he figured out that the exchange rate is better if he gets US dollars. Savvy boy. Here he is showing a creative way to eat corn on the cob when you are missing a front tooth and the other is loose.

Andy leaves in 5 days to return to China. And then we will spend the next 4 weeks apart (actually 25 days to be exact). I am not looking forward to seeing him go. But I also know that as I watch our kids soak up time with family and doing quintessential American things, our time here is worthwhile. And yes you read that right, we have been to 4 cities in 3 states in 16 days. There was a stretch of time that each day Tori would ask me, "now, which city are we in?"

taking a breath

2011-07-01T21:47:00.000+08:00

In the midst of packing, I am stopping to take a breath. So instead of doing something productive, I am blogging. I am so looking forward to being back to the US. After living outside our home country for more than 3 years, I have a greater appreciation for it. We will be back for our first 4th of July on US soil in 4 years and the kids and I are pretty excited about it. I can't really even explain why. Other than I just appreciate our country and what it stands for. When you live in a country that is so different than ours, this becomes more obvious. I will never again take for granted my right to vote, my right to protest and make my voice heard, or my many other freedoms. So this fourth, I want to challenge each of us to remember and be thankful for what our country stands for. I think that it can be easy to be cynical and judgmental of our government. While our government is less than perfect, if we disagree we can let that be known and not fear jail time or worse. And join me as we keep in mind those many around the globe who would love for a chance to make their voice heard.

And, . . . how did I get here? I guess when your mind is going in a million different directions this is what happens. In lighter and more humorous stream of consciousness, our kids are cracking up that we are going back in time tomorrow. We leave Shanghai at 9:30 AM on Saturday and then arrive in Seattle at 9:15 AM on Saturday. Tomorrow is going to be a L-O-N-G day (starting at 4:00 AM). So on that note, I will sign off. Hope to see many of you while we are back!

Sunday Snapshot: Last week

2011-06-26T22:13:00.002+08:00

We are in the final week of our countdown -- 5 days. Not only is this the last week before our visit back to the US, it is also our last week with a French family that we count as really good friends. It is very likely that they will be moving while we are in the US. Josh and Matteo (their son) are the best of friends. And Tori and Elise (their daughter) are super close. This is going to be really hard for our two youngest ones. So we have been trying to take advantage of our time together. Last week the girls were outside playing and I seized the opportunity to grab the camera and capture the moment.

To our dear friends, the Jourdans, it has been such a privilege to get to know you.

We have loved watching our kids enjoy one another and grow so much together.

You are so dear to us. And you will be greatly missed.

But as you go on the next part of your journey,

we were glad for the time we had with you and hope that you continue to be part of our lives.

Since I don't want to say goodbye or even au revoir, I will just say it in Chinese: 再见！(zàijàin, which literally means not goodbye, but see you again).

and so it begins. . .

2011-06-22T08:49:00.000+08:00

My children are packed. Well, not their suitcase with clothes and things. But arguably they have packed the most important things -- their carry-on luggage. Because when you are on a plane for 14+ hours everything in these bags and all the stuff that will amuse them hour after hour are as precious as gold. When we first started doing this trip, I would advise on what to pack. But now? They know and have it down to an art form. So what do they pack? In Becca's bag, you will find knitting looms, yarn, books, and some paper to draw. She is a crafty one, our oldest. Josh asked me yesterday how many stuffed animals he could take. I told him the more stuffed animals, the less books he could pack. He thought long and hard and now has 3 animals, 10 chapter books and one small game. Tori's collection of stuff is eclectic and amusing. Anywhere from her magnet princess toy to a Chinese flag (I kid you not). I am sure that this is not the final edition. It will be humorous to see how many times they adjust and refine before next Saturday. And me? I have not even got our suitcases down! And probably won't until Monday or maybe Tuesday.

While I am not so stressed about packing, we are busy until we leave. Going away parties, birthday parties, and last day of school. Throw into the mix any shopping I plan to do and this promises to be a busy 10 days. Somehow I see less sleep in my immediate future. Maybe I will just plan to sleep on the plane?

Sweetness

2011-06-20T21:16:00.000+08:00

While making dinner, I heard Josh ask Tori, "Do you want me to read you a book?" I came into the room to find:

This just melts my heart into a puddle. I love that boy of ours.

Sunday Snapshot: Celebrations

2011-06-19T22:56:00.000+08:00

One of the hardest parts of being an expat is living away from those you love. But we have been so blessed with a group of people that are more than just friends to us. They are our family here. Today we got to celebrate with them. At church today, two of the members of our small group were baptized. Afterwards we went to lunch and the celebration continued.

We celebrated Father's Day.

We celebrated friendships. We know that we will each only be here for a season. Whether it is 1, 2, 3 years or more. But we appreciate these people for however long they are in our lives. I know that I have blogged in the past how I hate to say goodbye. And I think there can be the danger when you are living here longer term to guard yourself and not to get close. But even though you know it is temporary and these people will move, the reward is greater. And so even though I know that I will eventually have to say goodbye, I will keep stepping out there and reaching out. Because it is worth it.

We celebrated those that were baptized.

We celebrated the joys of chocolate-peanut butter milkshakes. Tori was rather proud of her milkshake mustache.

We celebrated friends that are so close that our kids call them "uncle."

And apparently, our daughter celebrated silliness.

We celebrated the beginning of the summer. Over the next few weeks, most of the people will be going to their home countries. Our friends at the table are from: Germany, India, Sierra Leone, South Africa, UK, Malaysia and Sweden. We will enjoy time back in our home countries for anywhere from a couple weeks to month. And at the end of that time, some of us will be moving on. But most of us will return to this country that is our home away from home.

I hope that today is a day of celebrations for you as well!

Mud football

2011-06-13T23:01:00.001+08:00

After a week of rain almost everyday, the weekly Saturday morning football match was destined to be an interesting one. Or should I say soccer -- we have gotten so used to calling it football after playing with so many Europeans. At the beginning of the game, there was a small patch of mud in the middle of the field. But before long, it grew.

People fell. And slid all over. And that little patch of mud became bigger.

That would be my husband on the ground.

Yes, there he is again. Slide tackles became common but with the potential for a spill.

And yet the game forged on.

But as the spot of mud grew and turned into a mud pond, some of the boys (our son included) were drawn away from the game by the allure of wallowing in the mud.

Starting with the little boys.

Even the bigger boys had to have a turn in the mud.

And still, even amongst wallowing boys, the game continued on.

Even penalties were carried out in the mud. It is tradition that if you have a handball, the required penalty is push ups. Today's were done in the mud.

Midway through the game, my boy was still fairly clean.

But the mud was too difficult to resist!

End of the game shot.

Sunday Snapshot: The Pool Party

2011-06-13T13:12:00.003+08:00

After much waiting we celebrated Josh's birthday party this weekend in grand style. We had scheduled a pool party the weekend before his birthday (30 May) but the weather did not cooperate -- rain and a high of only 20°C (68°F). And the pool was freezing! Very unexpected weather for us in Suzhou in late May. So we decided to move it back a couple weeks due to availability. All last week, I anxiously watched the weather as it rained most of the week.

Then for the actual day of the party the forecast according the Chinese weather site: high of 30°C and cloudy. The English site: high of 27°C and rain. Actual weather: high of 29°C with sun that came out in the afternoon. I think next time I will believe the Chinese site!

We had such a great party. We swam for several hours, and after we were all too cold changed and enjoyed a BBQ.

Look at my three beautiful fish.

Becca and Andy played so hard in the pool that Andy had scratches on his back! Each time she would stand on his shoulders, she would scream when he first stood up.

The love of my life. He works so hard at his job that we often see the serious side to him. But at the party I also saw the crazy and ridiculous side that I fell in love with. As he would jump into the pool countless times showing off belly and back flops, and played for hours with the kids, my heart sighed. I truly love this man.

Josh with his best buddy Matteo. We are going to be so sad when they move in a month. In fact, I am currently in a state of denial that it is happening.

Showing off their zaniest faces.

Are you taking my picture? AGAIN?
How is it that a look can say so much?

As I approached with the cake, Josh was really concerned that the wind had blown out one of the candles.
I am asking him: "Josh, please move the cups so I can put this down?"
"Mom, the candle. . . "
"Josh, do you see the cups? Can you move them?"
"Mom, that one isn't lit."
I could tell that I was fighting a losing battle and moved the cups myself.

He huffed and puffed and blew all the candles out.

At the beginning of opening the presents, the kids were spread out watching. But soon, . . .

they were drawn in like magnets. I think that China has helped us to get rid of any spacial boundaries that we have, don't you?

And through it all, my sweet boy was celebrated. Happy (delayed) birthday, Josh!

Counting down

2011-06-09T09:20:00.000+08:00

While summer temperatures have arrived, we are not quite to our summer just yet. The kids still have school. A little over 3 weeks of school, in fact.

But in only 23 more days we get on a plane. And then our summer truly starts.

Because for me summer is family and friends. And a return to the comfortable and easy life in the US. Now, I don't mean easy in that there are never problems, but more easy that I don't have to figure out language. I know where to buy anything and everything that I need. Yes, while life in the US is not without its challenges, it is familiar and that makes it easy. I have once again started my list of what to buy when we are back. This is a ever-changing thing. Currently my list is something like this: medicines, spices, books, and a few clothes for the tall man (the man who at 1.9M can buy practically no clothes in China). Isn't that delightfully random?

Becca has asked if she can start to pack her suitcase. This is quite the process for her. Deciding what important things she needs for the 7 weeks we are gone. She will pack it. Then think about it a bit and unpack and evaluate. While I may give her bag a cursory glance, she is responsible for it. So, 3 weeks should give her just about the right amount of time.

Hope you are enjoying the first bit of your summer!

My birthday man

2011-06-08T11:41:00.000+08:00

Josh's birthday was last week. And somehow I didn't blog about it. I think because we postponed his party to this weekend that it didn't quite feel like his birthday. We are doing a pool party and the time that it was supposed to be was rainy and kind of cold. Which is really, really odd for Suzhou at this time of year. It is going to be this Sunday and I have hopes for better weather. We shall see.

Last week, he opened his gift from us.

doesn't his face say it all?

And then a package that had arrived from Grandma. Packages are the best.

He kept saying, "what's inside? what is it?"

BOOKS!

And more BOOKS! The perfect thing for our little man.

We have started a tradition of going to Coldstone for birthday ice cream. This is a tradition that I can wholeheartedly support.

After much deliberation and several samples, he finally decided on bubble gum with M&M's.

Then the next day I took cookies in to share with his class.

I think there is not much better as a parent than watching who your kids are becoming and then really enjoying the person that they are. Josh is our easy-going guy and can sometimes get overshadowed by his more exuberant and intense sisters. But of our three kids, he is our feeler. He can be so sensitive (in a good way) and has such great empathy for others. He is so smart and loves, loves to read. I think he has read every age-appropriate book in our house. (And quite possibly, a few ones that are a bit beyond him) It becomes such a challenge to provide him with new reading material. Makes me miss the library! But over the last few years, China has been good for him. He gears up with excitement for each of our adventures. We have also seen him become more comfortable with who he is. While I am sure that this would have happened if we were still in the States, I think being here has expedited the process.

Happy 8th Birthday, Josh! We love you and are so glad you are part of our family.

Sick.

2011-06-08T10:55:00.001+08:00

Tori woke up this morning with a slight fever. I did the "hand trick" as Tori calls it -- feeling her forehead to see if she is feverish. She asked me if she will be able to do the "hand trick" when she is a mommy. And nothing I have told her will convince her that her dad is also capable of determining fevers this way. "Mommies are just better at," she informed me.

She watched a movie in the morning and was playing and dancing. I began to wonder if she was really sick. After lunch she was walking around singing various songs (mostly in Chinese). After a bit she told me that her head hurt. I suggested that she lay down on the couch. Which she did. But she continued to sing. Adorable song after song in Chinese. Until suddenly she stopped. I walked into the living room to find:

She had sung herself to sleep. Sweet girl.

Talking with T

2011-06-01T23:32:00.000+08:00

at the dinner table tonight . . .

I honestly don't remember what I said to her, but for some reason a comment of mine prompted T to roll her eyes. Not one to let this go, I asked:

Me: Tori, why do you think it is not a good idea to roll your eyes at other people?

T: Because it is bad for your eyes?

Umm, not really what I was going for. And as soon as she said it, Andy and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Andy somewhat hid his laughter, but I just couldn't keep it in. That girl is something else. I should have known that asking her an open-ended question is a dangerous and hilarious thing.

Sunday Snapshot: Celebrating 3 years

2011-05-31T12:37:00.000+08:00

Can you believe it? 3 years. The time has gone so fast. But in the same regard, when we think back to living in the US, it seems so long ago. Back to when we owned a house. Days of carpool. Library story time. Instead our life is filled with other things. Saturday morning soccer in the neighborhood. Swimming afterschool. Interesting travel. Adventures on the bus. While we miss many things of our life in the US (really we mostly miss family and friends), we continue to rejoice in our life here. It seemed appropriate that on our China-versary of celebrating 3 years living in China that I had 2 events at the kids' schools. Think of this as a snapshot into their daily lives.

I started the day at Tori's school. She is so proud and pleased when I come to school. Her school had gone a field trip to a fire station earlier in the week. Then all the parents were invited to come to an open house on Friday as they showed us a typical day and then shared about the excursion. It is always an interesting experience for me to go to her school. Kind of never know what to expect or exactly what will happen. While I understand most of what is said, somehow I still feel that I am missing something that all the other parents inherently know and understand. I am sure that many immigrants to the US feel this way as they come to events at American schools where their children attend.

*If you want to find my kids in any of the pictures, just look for the blondies.

The teacher was explaining the order of events to the class.

But somehow my girl knew I was taking her picture.

Typical morning exercises. In schools all over China, kids start their day like this. With movement set to songs so that their bodies and brains are ready to learn.

Such concentration!

After some more activities inside, Tori and I were off to the International school where Becca and Josh attend. You may ask why they are at different schools. But unfortunately that is a complicated question for another post. . .

At Eton House, they were having Sports Day. Much like Track and Field Day of my childhood. We always had it on the second to last day of school. When there was no possible way that learning was going to take place. But their last day of school is July 1st and by then it will be so beastly hot and humid here. I had missed some of the activities, but was able to get there in time for all the track events. Like many Australian and British schools, the entire school is divided into 4 houses. Much like the 4 houses of Hogwarts in Harry Potter, the entire student body is divided equally into the houses and families are sorted into the same house (though no sorting hat here). Throughout the year, they have House competitions and at the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded a trophy for the year. Different school have various names for each of the houses. In honor of our host country, each of the houses at Eton House are named for one of the 4 dynasties in China: Han 汉朝, Ming 明, Song 宋, and Tang 唐.

Josh cheers on his fellow Ming teammates.

What determination!

Becca and Silje proudly show off their second place medals.

Look at those legs! Somehow she reminds us of a deer.

In tug-of-war, everyone was pulling so hard. . .

that they landed in a heap of giggles.

85度开办了！

2011-05-26T12:54:00.001+08:00

(a 85° has just opened!)

欢迎光临85度！(Welcome to 85°!) Those are such happy words!

So, you are thinking, just what is 85°? Cafe 85° or as it is referred to in Chinese: 八十五度 (pinyin: bāshíwŭ dù) is a Taiwanese chain with coffee and a bakery. I so enjoy coffee, but for various reasons don't drink it very often in China. One reason is that until recently coffee is not as much of a Chinese thing. Tea, yes. Coffee, not so much. This is changing with the emerging middle class in China loving all kinds of things from the West. But still for many places their idea of coffee is Nescafe. I am truly a coffee snob. If I am going to drink it, I want it to be good. We bring beans from the states, but every now and then I enjoy a yummy, girly, fru-fru coffee drink. But those drinks here in China are just too expensive. Starbucks is readily available, but so expensive. Granted it is not that much different than US prices, but compared to many things in China it is crazy expensive. For example, a mocha at Starbucks is 30 RMB (or $4.50) for a medium-size. Black coffee is 25 RMB (almost $4). Our entire family can eat at a Chinese restaurant and have a ton of food with leftovers for another day and spend only 120 RMB ($18.20). So it is hard to justify spending that much on just COFFEE. So maybe I am not the hard-core coffee lover. In a battle between wanting coffee and my inner-frugal-self, I cannot bring myself to spend that on a regular basis.

But at 85°, you can buy a cup of coffee for 9 RMB ($1.40) or a mocha for 12 RMB ($1.85). Now that is more like it! There were 85° all over Suzhou, but none near us. But just this week, one opened a block or so away from us.

My only question is: is this a good thing? or a seriously dangerous thing?

Hassles

2011-05-25T23:06:00.000+08:00

There are times when it is just a hassle to live overseas. Unless you are active duty military, dealing with things in the US just gets complicated. Because while I agree that things should be easy for our men and women serving in the armed forces, people just don't know what to do with those of us that are just expats. Yes, our billing address is Seattle. And the phone number is in Indiana. But we don't live either of those places. I know you are confused, helpful customer service lady on the phone, but keep tracking with me.

While in India, my wallet was stolen. Which was not that big of a deal, but now we are dealing with the hassle. One of those things is my US driver's license was in the wallet. We are planning to switch our state of residence this summer, but in order to do that I needed the old license. Tonight (because its morning in the midwest) I called to see if I could get a replacement mailed to me. I waited on the phone for 10 minutes only to be told that I needed to call a completely different number. Called the other number. . . no answer. [sigh] Guess I will try again tomorrow night. Unfortunately, there is only a 1.5 hour window of time when we are awake and the BMV is open. But if I don't get a replacement card that means that I will have to take a driving test.

And I haven't driven in over a year.

Gracious. This could be interesting.

Great expectations

2011-05-23T08:43:00.000+08:00

The day is looming ahead of us on the calendar. . . 40 days until we get on the plane to go back to the United States. We look forward to this special time with the people we love each year. But I must confess something to you. . .

All I am feeling right now is: STRESS.

In fact whenever we sit down to plan or figure out our schedule, a hard ball of stress settles in my stomach.

To our dear family and friends, please don't read this wrong. We are so looking forward to seeing you and spending time with you. But the reality is, we will not make everyone happy during our trip. Everyone has expectations of us and how much they want to see us. But our time is limited and then geography just limits us even more. Andy will only be back 2 weeks. How in the world can we see everyone, with enough time in two weeks? It is just impossible. So even as I type, I am trying to let this go. We will do our best to balance. To share the love. But I am just asking for a little bit of grace. Hopefully, if I can work through this now, by the time we touch down on US soil, I will be okay. I can enjoy our time without that little black cloud following me around. You would think that we would be getting the hang of this. But honestly, each year it is hard. But I am going to let go, giving it up to the Lord. And maybe, just maybe I can truly let all those people-pleasing-tendencies slip away. Here's to hoping, anyway.

Sunday snapshot

2011-05-22T22:38:00.000+08:00

In one of the blogs I read, she posts a snapshot each week about something that she wants to capture. Kids, family, a special moment in time. Because that time is fleeting. And those kids just grow too fast! I have been feeling this greater urgency to document each moment. I can't promise that I will do this every Sunday, but I am making it a goal to take more photos of them. Maybe this will help keep me accountable.

Tori came home from school on Friday with more make-up on than I was wearing! She had a performance that day with her kindergarten and the Chinese are quite serious about their appearance for these things. This was quite the big deal and many kindergartens from all over Suzhou participated in the event. Not everyone in her school performed, but only a select group from each class. It was no surprise that my blondie was chosen. While her look was a little startling to me, she absolutely loved being that dolled up. I mean, just look at those pink, pink cheeks. Wow. But she loved it told everyone that we saw for the next day about how she got to wear make-up and the exact make-up that she had the privilege of wearing for her show. She is such my girlie girl! But these just capture her sweetness and just a little bit of her sassiness. This girl is gonna go places.

Delhi/Day 4 (Final Day)

2011-05-22T21:47:00.000+08:00

Our last full day, we slept in. Actually the first day we were able to do so on the trip! Enjoyed the hotel buffet breakfast and then we returned to the room for a while. Since this was really a business trip for Andy and I was just tagging along, he had some work to tackle. He spent several hours catching up on emails and getting things done. I spent my time reading and crocheting. I have been crocheting a blanket. But it is a gift, so I don't want to tell you for who or why. Eventually, I will finish and give the gift and THEN post some pictures. Until then, I will leave you in suspense. Finally, we headed out late in the afternoon. We wanted to finish some shopping and visit one of the mosques in Old Delhi. At the mosque we had heard that you could climb up in one of the minarets and see a fabulous view of Delhi. Earlier in the week, Andy had told me a story of how one of his high school teachers and his wife had visited India. After taking their shoes off to visit a temple, his wife got an infection that made her so sick she almost died. Silly man, why did he tell one of the great worriers on the planet this in the midst of our trip? I have had issues with my feet in the past, so of course, it was with great trepidation that I took off my shoes and entered the Friday Mosque. Wouldn't you be just a bit worried after hearing that? He confessed later that he should have told me that bit of knowledge after the trip. Ha! But the view proved to be worth it. We finished the day off at Karim's, a famous restaurant near the mosque. We had such a great time together on this trip and while seeing the sights was part of it, really it was just the time together. And getting to adventure together was a real treat. Thank you, Alyssa for watching our kids and allowing us to do this together. You may have wondered how the kiddos fared. They were fine. Sure, there were moments, but overall they listened well to her and just continued normal life each day. Quick funny Tori story: Alyssa's husband Billy was traveling for part of the time she was watching the kids. When the driver came to drop Billy at off at our house, Tori heard them outside. She asked Alyssa, "Are our parents home?" Alyssa was a little worried that she would not like the answer, but she told her, "No, it is just Billy." Tori's response:

"Yay! Now we have a dad!"

That girl cracks us up.

The courtyard of the Friday Mosque. This mosque is huge and can seat 25,000 in the courtyard for prayers. And we climbed to the top of a tower just like the one you see at the right of the main structure.

In the very narrow, spiral stairs inside the minaret leading up to the top. It was hot inside! The extra robe that I was required to wear didn't help any. And then between the heat and climbing in a circle for quite a while, by the time I got to the top, I was dizzy.

These guys asked us to take a picture. They hadn't brought a camera of their own so they gave us email address and asked if we could send them a copy. Andy took one of just them. But then (no surprise) they asked me to be in one with them. Always humbling to be taller than the men. It's funny because I am okay with my height, but China and it seems India as well, emphasize it quite a bit.

At the top of the tower. I am not a fan of heights. Hmm, can you tell that from this photo? This one makes Andy laugh. I wouldn't let go of the metalwork. It was just too high, and I was feeling ~~slightly~~ quite a bit nervous.

View from the top down into the courtyard and in the distance the Red Fort.

Looking into another direction. Doesn't the city just seem to go on forever? There are no real tall high rises, but the city just sprawls in all directions.

One of the streets by the Friday Mosque. Can you spot the sign pointing to the restaurant where ate dinner at -- Karim's?

Delhi/Day 3

2011-05-21T11:30:00.000+08:00

After our crazy car adventure, we checked into our hotel and then crashed for a couple of hours. And I am not exaggerating here. We had to meet up at 6:15 AM to start our bicycle tour. We had read about doing this in several other places that we have visited, but it just didn't seem like the kind of thing that would work out with the kids. We took advantage of the kid-less opportunity to go on a Delhi by Cycle tour. I think that for Andy and I both this ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. This company has 3 tours to choose from, we choose one that went through Old Delhi and the Spice Market.

Biking through the old, narrow streets of Delhi.

In the Spice Market. This is one of the largest Spice Markets in all of Asia. The workers behind our guide work for less than $0.50/day. They sleep, shower and eat in the open.

The inside of the Spice Market. The shops are on the other side of these buildings.

These men who are lined up here receive free meals and medical care daily from the Sikhs. Most of them have leprosy or are HIV positive. The Sikhs are very well-known for their charity.

After the tour we came back to our hotel to discover that they were still serving breakfast. We felt like Hobbits as we enjoyed our "second breakfast." We then rested in the room for a couple of hours then headed out to see some more sights. We decided to take the Metro (subway) to Akshardham Temple. The Metro was crazy crowded as it was a Sunday afternoon. It was even more crowded than the buses and subway in China! We jostled and made our way to our stop, but to my dismay when I got off the train I discovered that my wallet had been stolen. Thankfully, I did not have much money inside and we easily canceled our credit card. Andy had been carrying our bank cards, but most importantly they didn't get my passport! I was a bit shaken up, but my husband (true to who he is) was not upset at all and reassured me greatly. We walked the block to the temple and were in for a great surprise. We had thought this was an older temple, but it was more like Disney meets Hindu temple. It was slightly surreal. I kept waiting for them to start playing "It's a Small World" in the background. Turns out it was more like an amusement park. Gratefully, it was free to get in. We spent less than an hour there and then were onto Humayun's Tomb. We spent several hours there, watching the sunset and just talking. Another highlight of the trip.

We enjoyed some yummy Indian food and then set off walking to the Old Fort to watch a light show there. We walked for over an hour, asked various people with varying levels of English, and never made it to the Fort. Fail. After a while, it just didn't seem like it was worth the effort anymore. We opted for an early evening and were hoping to swim in the hotel pool. But then, double fail. The hotel pool was closed. We made the best of it, went to the hotel bar to enjoy drinks and dessert.

Humayun's Tomb

As the sun set, the sandstone became more reddish. We enjoyed just sitting, talking and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

This little girl spotted the birds and was determined to catch/chase them.

As she chased them, she was flapping her arms just like wings. Adorable. And her dad just watched on in amusement (much like us). I love watching dads of all cultures love their kids.

Some boys cooling off in the fountain by the Gate of India. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, some are naked.

Gate of India

Agra/Day 2

2011-05-20T23:54:00.001+08:00

When planning for the trip we tried to make arrangements to buy train tickets from Delhi to Agra (the city where the Taj Mahal is) and back. But our credit card didn't work with the Indian system. We very fortunately had a friend from China who is Indian and was back in India who graciously helped us to buy the tickets. The problem is that this is the summer season. Many schools have time off and it is the season when many people are traveling so, you guessed it, train tickets are really hard to find. We had been able to buy the trip to Agra, but not the return trip. So after seeing the Taj Mahal early in the morning, we then went to the train station in hopes of buying a ticket back to Delhi that night. The system was quite complicated and we were so glad that our rickshaw driver (who we had bargained with to drive us around for the whole day) came in to help guide us through. We got in line to determine our number. They were currently serving #20 and we were given #98. Yikes. No surprise, we waited for over an hour just to find out that there were NO train tickets back to Delhi that night. We opted to buy a waiting ticket and come to check later in the day to see if tickets would become available. In the meantime, we went back to our hotel, had breakfast and then rested. Keep in mind that it was only about 9 AM at this point.

We met up with our driver again early in the afternoon and then visited the Agra Fort, Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb (also known as the "Baby Taj"), and then went across the river to see another view of the Taj Mahal. While we were on our way to the Taj, the wind started picking up and really looked like it was going to rain. Several drops fell, but the wind made the dust swirl and create quite the dust storm. At one point, I had my extra shirt wrapped around my face and my sunglasses on (even though it was getting darker) to keep the dust out of my face and eyes. We got near the viewing spot and then walked the rest of the way. As we were walking the dust storm got even worse. I must confess that two thoughts were running through my mind: "this is destroying my contacts" and "omigosh, what is going in my mouth from the dust that I am inhaling?" On our way back to our CNG (auto rickshaw), we came across some children who were herding goats. They wanted us to take their picture. Of course, they wanted a little money. Then they said something that surprised me: "chocolate?" I guess, kids are kids, no matter the country. ☺We gave them each some money, unfortunately we had no chocolate. We got some dinner, stopped back at the train station only to learn that we were still on the waiting list but only numbers 12 and 13. Still no guarantee that we could get on the train that was leaving in an hour. We decided to give up on a train and hire a driver to take us back to Delhi. What ensued next was the longest and most terrifying drive of my life. I just want to say an aside to our mothers: Remember that we made it back safely as you read the next couple sentences. Just keep that in your mind.

Imagine a 4-lane highway with buses, cars and trucks. Then you add in motorbikes zipping in and out of traffic. Occasionally you even have an ox pulling a cart. Yes, on the highway. The traffic seems to be constantly changing lanes, each jockeying for the best position. Midway through our drive, our driver asked if we were hungry and indicated that he was going to stop to eat. I imagined a quick stop, 15-20 minutes and then back on our way. An hour later, our driver returned ready to resume our ride. It took us over 4.5 hours (not including the hour long dinner break) to drive 200 km (124 miles). The traffic was insane. Later Andy and I confessed to one another that we each spent the entire time praying for safety. I was never more glad to get out of a vehicle.

Agra Fort

Somehow Agra Fort reminded me of Redwall Abbey from the book, Redwall

I was asked to be in several pictures. But Andy was asked to be in none. I'm guessing it is the hair. And the height. Don't I look like a giant next to her?

"Baby Taj"

These buffalo were just wandering in the street. As they got closer and closer to our CNG, I moved closer and closer to Andy. Of course, they were on my side. He just laughed at me and kept taking pictures.

We were humored that the shoe covers barely fit over Andy's shoes. The guy had to pull and prod just to get them like this.

The Taj Mahal during the duststorm. Believe it or not, that is a river that the dust is blowing across.

"Money? Chocolate?"

Our view from inside the CNG. It just felt like chaos.

Our driver and guide, Kahn

Taj Mahal

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

Some fast facts for you:

The Taj Mahal was built by one of the Moghul (Islamic) rulers of India, Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Muhal and was completed in 1653.
It took 22 years to complete and required 20,000+ workers.
The entire structure is made of white marble and inlaid with precious stones, such as agate and jasper. It is also decorated with a flowery scrolling pattern and portions of the Qur'an.
It is believed that to transport the construction materials, more than 1000 elephants were used.

We had heard that the best time to view the Taj Mahal is either at sunrise or sunset. Since we were hoping to get back to Delhi on the train that night, we opted for sunrise. At 5:15, we met our tuk-tuk (or auto rickshaw) driver. As the sun comes up, you can see the marble change colors and at different times of the day, it appears to change colors. Some believe that this is to represent the many different moods of women.

Just before sunrise

At the sun comes up, it seems to make the white marble glow and look more like a blush color. I enjoy this picture that Andy captured of the birds taking flight.

Around the doorway, you can see the Arabic containing a portion of the Qur'an.

The mosaic inlay of various precious stones is incredibly beautiful.

As we were buying our tickets, we were told that we were given a free bottle of water and sugar water. Huh? Sugar water? But that is what Andy heard them say as well. Come to find out, we were given SHOE COVERS. How on earth did we both hear "sugar water"?

Taken from the side.

Arrival/Day 1

2011-05-20T10:13:00.000+08:00

My flight from Shanghai was a red eye. Not my favorite of things, but the only direct flight to Delhi. I arrived at 2:30 AM. Bleary-eyed, I made my way through immigration and customs, but then couldn't find Andy who was going to meet me at the airport. After wandering around inside for almost 30 minutes, I finally saw him outside. Little did I know that you can only enter the airport if you have a ticket. We drove to our hotel and crashed for the rest of the night. We later woke, got breakfast and then made our way to our next hotel in downtown New Delhi. We would be getting on the train that night to Agra and wanted to store our extra bags at the hotel in Delhi. After taking care of some business things (getting money, making payment for our bicycle tour), we wandered around. We stumbled upon the Tourism Centre and they directed us to a someone who could drive us around for the afternoon. At first the brothers were just going to help us find the bank, but later they took us to lunch, a temple, and then the train station.

Our auto rickshaw also called a CNG had a little problems starting and required a push start each time.

Hindu temple

Though this man was an extraordinary salesman, he failed to convince me to buy a rug.

Overwhelming color. Such a feast for the eyes!

No matter how many times we saw it, seeing cows, buffalo and ox in the middle of the city always surprised me.

Waiting for the train at the New Delhi station to take us to Agra. There was such a cross-section of people that it was fascinating to people watch.

India Impressions

2011-05-20T09:17:00.000+08:00

After spending 4 days in New Delhi and Agra, India my senses are overloaded. There is so much to take in and experience. The sights. Explosions of color. Exuberant life. Heart-wrenching poverty. The chaos of traffic. The smells. The spice market with scents so strong it prompted coughing fits. Sewage and trash. Hot, flavorful curries. I am not sure that I can fully capture all that we saw and experienced.

Evil 85

2011-05-10T13:37:00.001+08:00

Humored by this license plate. So the guy driving didn't look evil. But as Andy told me, plates in Suzhou have to start with "E" which doesn't leave a lot of options. Not sure if they have to be four letter words or not. In fact, I am having a really hard time thinking of a good one. EGGS? ENDS? EVEN? ETSY?

Tummy troubles

2011-05-10T01:07:00.000+08:00

I sit here in the middle of the night typing because my boyo is having tummy troubles. Yuck, a dreaded stomach virus! On Friday night, I was up in the night violently ill, but because we had been out to eat that night, my first thought was food poisoning. Because this is China and sometimes that just happens. But now that I reflect on it, nope, probably not. Josh and I have moved down to the couches to camp out for the night. He sleeps on the top bunk and we have recently put up the mosquito nets. That combo is not so conducive to crazy quick bathroom trips. I won't go into anymore details, but let me just say this: I am so glad that when he told me his stomach hurt before bed that I insisted he sleep with a bucket in his bed. I don't always have them, but that was a moment of brilliance. I can only hope that if the girls are going to get sick that they do it before I leave town. Not something I would wish on anyone. But I love that little guy so much that cleaning up tonight's mess just doesn't seem like a big deal.

Plans Galore

2011-05-09T10:46:00.000+08:00

Andy left this morning for the first leg of his trip: Indonesia and Singapore (there was no other country, I just imagined that) and then Thursday night at a time so late that it is really Friday, he and I will meet up in New Delhi. This morning as he left our younger two were in tears. Which is really unusual for when he travels. Sure, they miss him and look forward to having him home. But since he travels with some regularity, they are used to it. I think the difference is that they know that I also will be traveling. And that is not normal. At least it is not normal for me to travel without them. While I know that they will be fine, I had a moment of Mommy guilty this morning. I know, I can just hear all of you reassuring me: "They will be fine." "It is good for you and Andy to be able to get away together" And this is all true. But part of being a mom, is the feeling of guilt or at least wanting to do things just right for our kids. And then I tend to be a person who wants to please everyone. But I am going to let go of that for now and trust that my kids are going to be okay. But if you could think and pray for them this next weekend, I would greatly appreciate it.

My plans this week will be planning, preparing and more planning. The packing I am not so worried about it. Because all I will pack on this trip will be a backpack. No, it is those 3 darling and so important ones that I am leaving behind that I need to plan for. As I sat down to write out their schedules only then did I realize how busy I am with them. Moms, does anyone relate? Because they are all in school full-days it can seem that life is not that busy, but the reality is something different. Then I have the added fun of writing out the plan and schedule in Chinese (for our house help who I know is going to be a HUGE help to our friend who is watching our kiddos). Andy and I figured out hotels and the train ride to Agra (the city of the Taj Mahal) over the weekend and have started to think about what we would like to do in Delhi. I am sure that I will research it to death in the next couple days. But for now, I am off to tidy and make yet another list.

Hope that you each have a wonderful week! Happy belated (for me anyway, not for the US) Mother's Day!

It's true - I'm going to India!

2011-05-06T20:15:00.000+08:00

My passport with the new Indian visa affixed inside made it back today. Yes. So that means that . . .

I. am. going. to. . . INDIA!

Time to start planning. Both for here and what we will do there. I have less than a week to get things order for the kids here and for us to decide what we are going to do and see. Words are failing me right now. I am so excited to see this unique and fascinating country. So excited to travel and see the Taj Mahal. But mostly I am excited to be with my love for four days. When we traveled early on in our marriage, it made me fall a little more in love with him. We just travel well together. I don't know how to describe it more than that. So I am going to take a ton of pictures and just soak it all in. The time together. The exotic location. The heat. Ok, I could do without so much heat, but we can't have everything. 6 days, baby, and then India here I come!

Bumpy Bagels

2011-05-06T15:16:00.000+08:00

I found cream cheese in the store the other day which prompted me to want to make BAGELS. I found a recipe online and it didn't look too difficult. A German friend of mine recently moved back to Germany and when she cleaned out her pantry here, she gave me a lot of baking supplies. Which is completely wonderful, but the challenge is that everything is in German. I have been using Google translate to help, but sometimes that doesn't always work. For instance, anyone out there know what dinkel flacken is? I deduced that it some sort of flake, but beyond that I have no clue. Anyway, I decided to use this:

And it might have been a good idea if I had decided to use Google translate. Or at least use it before I made the bagels. Because my bagels turned out slightly odd. They taste really good, but when I was baking them they just wouldn't get done. I checked after 20 minutes in the oven and the top still looked raw. Put them in for another 10. Then another 10. After over an hour in the oven, they were sort of done. And the end result? Umm, sort of bagels. They taste like bagels and the texture is good but they look so weird. In fact, Andy laughed so much I threatened not to let him eat any. And Becca dubbed them Bumpy Bagels.

So maybe a little late, but today I looked up what exactly I had used. Sourdough mix. Hmm, that would be why they had a great taste and texture (much like sourdough). I am being done in by language. If not Chinese, then German!

I-just-might-be-going-to-INDIA

2011-05-05T23:50:00.000+08:00

Does anyone else find that totally crazy?! On Monday Andy leaves for a 2 week-long business trip. India, Indonesia, Singapore, and I feel that I forgetting someplace on the itinerary. But due to flight schedules and his customers' availability, he had a block of time free in the middle of his trip while he will be in India. So he got the idea that maybe I could meet him in Delhi. That's right. Delhi, India. I laughed and didn't take him seriously.

I should know after 12+ years of marriage to always take him seriously about things like this.

Later that day, he researched the flight from Shanghai to Delhi (there is a direct flight) and about obtaining of visa. I went on Monday and applied for my visa and if it comes in time, I am going to travel WITHOUT CHILDREN and meet Andy in India. Can I just say that again -- INDIA? Is this for real? Friends have graciously offered to watch our kiddos. So, I am cautiously, hopefully waiting.

I know that I mentioned how we love to travel with our children, but after Andy's recent trip to India he concluded that they are not old enough. Or maybe we are not ready. Because while traveling with kids in China is intense, apparently India is the next level. I cannot remember the last time we took a trip just the two of us. We would go see the Taj Mahal. But I am not getting too excited just in case it doesn't work out. The weather is crazy hot right now. Today was a measly 39˚C (102˚F), later in the week it will be 42˚C (106˚F). I am so going to melt. But I am waiting and not getting excited, who am I kidding, I am super excited and hoping that it happens. Will keep you posted!

FAIL

2011-05-05T18:46:00.000+08:00

On my agenda today was to go to class and then stop my the eye doctor on my way home and order new contacts. Sounds simple, right? Well, no it was actually a totally frustrating experience. They couldn't find my name in the computer and wondered if I had been there before. The receptionist had limited English and I had no clue how to say contacts in Chinese. It wasn't even in my dictionary. So I left the eye hospital in defeat. No contacts. None ordered. No way to solve this except with another eye exam. Walked to the bus and headed home. But then as I was most way home, the eye doctor (who speaks excellent English) called me. She remembered me, had found my name in the computer and did I want to order the contacts? Yes, oh happy day! But that is the way things go here sometimes. When things work, it is amazing and you love it. And when they fail? They fail BIG. But that is all part of the adventure - how will things go today? Will it work? Will it fail? Will it end up totally unexpected? You just never know. . .

Freeing the feet

2011-04-25T10:25:00.001+08:00

A friend and I started an annual tradition a couple years ago. When Spring starts to peek around the corner, we begin to talk about it and dream about the day we can:

free our feet from their sock bondage!

Now to most of you that might sound like a simple pedicure. And it is, but it is also more for us. Winter here is cold and damp and really just miserable. It is not that it is any colder than where we are from in Ohio. In fact, the temps here are usually warmer, but it is this strange thing that you just cannot get and stay warm. I am northern girl through and through (not a Southern magnolia unused to cold winters) and laughed when everyone told me how cold it got here. But a big factor is that inside it tends to be colder than outside. Somehow these concrete buildings (and that includes our house that is constructed primarily of concrete) act as refrigerators. Combine that with poor insulation and inefficient heating, and it leads to this chill that just never leaves you. So after one winter here, I decided I would react as the Chinese do -- and layer up. From the months of December to March, I live in long underwear. In January, I was even doubling up with tights, long underwear, and THEN jeans! For us our first pedicure of the year, means saying goodbye to our long underwear and saying hello to . . .

pretty toes!

Though I must mention as an aside something funny that happened during the pedicure. Since I have started running, my big toes often have a crack in them. It doesn't hurt so obviously, I keep running. The guy who was doing my toes inspected it, called someone else over and then they began to question me about it. I told them that I run long distances, this often happens and it is not a problem. That all they needed to do was cut and paint the nail. It is actually really common in runners. Here is an article about it. But clearly, they didn't believe me. In fact after my pedicure was done, the nail technician gave me some advice: 休息一会，别跑步。[meaning: Rest for a while, don't run.] Hmm, while I appreciate the thought somehow I don't think I will be following that advice.

While running. . .

2011-04-21T21:57:00.000+08:00

I have run for several years now. When it starts to get cold here, I take my run to the treadmill. Because as it gets wet and slippery outside, dodging e-bikes, buses and trucks becomes a little too challenging. I prefer to run outside, but running in China is seriously an extreme sport. Because of where we live, I run in a largely industrial area. To be honest, I could run more in the city, but that means more traffic (bikes and cars) and the blocks are shorter so I have to cross the road more often. So I run by factory after factory. But that is not really what makes it extreme. In my daily life (shopping, on the bus, walking down the street) I get stared at, but when I run, it seems that the world stops and watches. I might be exaggerating a little (cause I have been known to do that from time to time), but only a little bit. Part of the reason that many people stare is that exercise is just becoming more common in the last few years in China. For many people, life is hard and there is no reason (or even time) to exercise. And many jobs are so physically demanding that people have no need or desire. Even though gyms are becoming more and more common here in Suzhou, people are still shocked to see a foreign woman running down the street. Another reason I get stared at is that many people think that I must be cold running in shorts. In fact, yesterday when I was running, a man on a 3-wheeled bike with a cart came alongside me and started keeping pace with me. He asked if I was cold. Keep in mind that it was in the upper teens (speaking Celsius, in the 60s Fahrenheit). He then commented that running was good for my health. Then he asked me where I live (and this is not a creepy question, this is a common thing to ask someone). Finally, because he had to turn he stopped talking, otherwise I think he would have kept firing questions at me. On the same run, these are just some of the experiences that I had:

5 people took my picture. At least that I saw, there could have been more. I wanted to tell them that I wasn't very exciting while running.
At least 10 people called out "hello!" to me. And this is a very common occurrence, pretty much happens at least once a day. Sometimes it makes me perversely want to say something to them in French. Well, if I could I would speak French. Ironically enough, our French friends also get "hello" yelled to them in English all the time.
Almost caused an e-bike crash. Though it would not have been my fault. He kept looking back at me even after he passed me and almost hit another bike. (And this is not the first time that this has happened)
Had to stop in the middle of the road because a bus came through a red light.

All I can say is, can you see why sometimes the treadmill is just easier?

Outgoing

2011-04-21T09:48:00.000+08:00

The power of our cutie. We hope to harness this for good. . .

Our little T really just knows no strangers. Combined that with her fluency in Chinese and you have quite the combination. She has been known to ask total strangers to give her some of what they are eating (and, much to my embarrassment, they DO give it to her), ask people what they are doing, and just insert herself into most situations. When we were in Shanghai a couple weeks ago, someone gave up their seat for her on the subway. She sat down next to this young woman who was playing a game on her phone. Of course Tori asked her what she was doing and then if she could play (naturally, this was all said in Chinese). Sometimes I worry that we are creating a little monster that expects that everyone will give her what she wants. While she is not singled out at school in most situations, there are times when she is given special privileges. Then as we go about life people just give her stuff. Part of it is her general cuteness and then with her language, people cannot resist the power of Tori. In order to combat this, sometimes at home I don't let her do things or have her way. And sometimes there is not a reason for it, just maybe hoping to provide some balance. While her language is a gift that we are so thankful for, there is a price and I only hope that our consistency and rules at home can balance it out.

A Traveling we will GO!

2011-04-20T10:12:00.001+08:00

People often ask us (both here and in the US), "How do you travel so many places with your kids? Don't they melt down? Is it stressful?" And in answer to these questions, I guess they travel well because we really don't give them a choice since we have traveled with them since they were born. Yep, we just drag them with us. Andy and I love to travel, so for us it became travel with kids or don't travel (since traveling without them just doesn't appeal to us). While there are special trips we have taken just the two of us, for the most we enjoy taking the kids with us. I think sometimes the thought of traveling with little people can be worse than the actual deal. And yes, our kids melt down just like yours do. And I have lost count the number of places where our kids have gotten sick. I am sure that you don't want those details! But over the course of our travels, we have learned a few hints that can turn a trip from stressful to enjoyable. I hope I don't come across that we have it all together and our kids are always well behaved on every trip. In fact, most of these we have learned ~~through crashing and burning~~ - the hard way!

Hint #1: Begin traveling with your kids when they are young. Don't be afraid that you can't do it. Andy and I have a theory that ours have adjusted well to traveling here because we took MANY car trips with them in the States. And if they are used to waiting in a car/bus/train/plane then each time gets easier. Well, at least in theory. Surprising for many people that when I do the 24 hour+ trip from the US to China with the kids (by myself) that the hardest part is the not the 14-hour plane ride. Yes, it is long. But the hardest part is navigating the airports themselves. Even the standing in long immigration lines is not hard. Tiring, yes. But not hard. Because our troupers know what to expect. While it is not their favorite of things, they know that it has to be endured.

I think that since we traveled with her since she was born, she can fall asleep ANYWHERE! (on the train from Shanghai)

Yes, she is asleep! (on a boat on the Li River, South China)

Hint #2: Pack snacks. Or find them on the way. When we first would travel and our kids were little, I applied "home rules" to travel time. You know, things like, don't eat too many snacks, don't eat them too close to meals, yada, yada. . . But I have found, when our kids get grumpy we eat. Whether it is 10AM or 3:30PM, we just stop and find a snack. Or even a complete meal. Then often in these down times, we have a great time with our kids. We talk, laugh and have time to just enjoy them. We have found Starbucks in crazy locations and then enjoyed. . . (well, this leads me to our next one) reading a book together.

Kids choosing a snack while I bargain for a good price (Xi'an, China)

Mmm, meat on a stick! My boy's idea of the perfect snack. (night market Hua Hin, Thailand)

Hint #3 Have a bag of tricks. It could be as simple as a few crayons and a notebook or a handful of small toys. One of our kids absolutely favorite things to do when we travel is to read a book as a family. We pack a longer book (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was our first and recently we read Redwall) and whenever we have to wait somewhere, we pull out the book and read a chapter. And suddenly our tired kids who have been waiting in line for over an hour perk up and are ready to go on. (and this is not an exaggeration, we have waited in lines for 3 hours or longer. After all, this is China with SO many people and sometimes you just have to wait) Find what works for your family.

my iPhone would be part of my bag of tricks (Starbucks in Chengdu, China)

Hint #4 Be flexible. While we generally have a plan of what we want to see and do, we have learned to allow some flexibility in the midst of that plan. If you have a particularly busy day, follow it up by a low key one. Often when I let go of my plan and am just enjoying is when we find those unexpected things: a lake where we can rent row boats, a man painting Chinese characters on the sidewalk. Another thing we have started experimenting with is letting our kids take turns to plan a day, excursion or even part of our time. They come up with things that we would never have thought of!

Skipping rocks on the bank of the Li River (Guilin, China)

Totally unexpected -- a puppet show that the kids got to participate in. (Xi'an, China)

One of those finds - a fountain that had a nightly light show (Chengdu, China)

Riding stone lambs (Hangzhou, China)

Our kids were getting tired of all the walking in the Yellow Mountains. Becca and Josh came up with the idea to count all the steps and see which was the longest. (Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China)

Now we will need to apply these as we are scheming and dreaming about our fall trip. We are undecided about where to go, but on the list of possible places are: Tibet, Xinjiang (the northwest province of China, on the border with Kazakhstan), or Inner Mongolia. Oh, yes a traveling we will go!

Chinese lesson 1.2

2011-04-11T23:51:00.000+08:00

A couple posts ago, I started with a fave word to teach you just a little Chinese. We will pick up with another favorite and very useful word. 麻烦 pinyin: máfan (this one is somewhat easy to pronounce: maa-fahn, not really fan. Think more nasal). The meaning:

1. Troublesome, inconvenient; To trouble, or bother somebody. e.g. "Because of all the construction, that road is really a bother to drive on." But this is one that even though I say that sentence, I am not sure that you get the full meaning of 麻烦 . For example, think of something that is such a pain to do that it is virtually impossible. And then you are getting close to the meaning. Because sometimes things in China are just difficult to get done (for various reasons), and nothing else describes it like this word. In fact, we don't even say this in English anymore. We will be talking along and drop this word in the midst of an English sentence. Chinese do this as well. One of the engineers at the company was talking to Andy about fixing a machine. He said that, "It would be broken for a couple more days and then they were going to have to build the part and it was going to . . . " (and here he paused, trying to think of a good way to describe it) . . . and finally he summed it up with: "it is going to be 麻烦 ."

2. Excuse me (with the intent of asking a question), . . . Because much like in English if we are going to ask a question of a stranger, we don't usually just walk up and jump in. Usually we say something like: "Excuse me, where is the . . . ?" Similarly, in Chinese you would say: "麻烦您, . . ." which literally means: "Can I bother you, . . . ?"

I think next lesson, we will tackle the tones. You know, those funny marks over the vowels. That adds a whole new level of hard.

Field trip?

2011-04-09T00:25:00.000+08:00

Today Tori went with her kindergarten on her 春游 (Spring Field Trip). We got a notice last week informing us of the trip and all of the particulars. You know, the where, when, what they need to bring, how much. All that good info. But of course it was in Chinese. I wish I could just show you typical communications from the school. I read it (well, sort of) and figured out the day, the cost, and what she needed to bring. But I had no clue where she was going. When she was talking about how excited she was and how much she was looking forward to going on her trip, I asked her where she was going. Her response: "I don't know." Then today after school, I was trying to figure out exactly what they did. She told me that they went on a carousel, saw a seal show, saw sharks and jellyfish, rode on a shark scrambler, and saw a real mermaid swimming with really flat fish. I guessed the aquarium. When I asked her about it, she said, "No, not the aquarium." But after talking more, I just don't think she knew what an aquarium was. I think is one of those times I will just need to make an educated guess. Cause when your information is obtained in Chinese and then via a 5 year old, it is not that reliable. ;-)

But regardless of where they went, she had a FABULOUS time. In fact, she talked non-stop about the trip throughout dinner and the evening. My favorite part of her description was when she was describing the real mermaid that she saw. In her words: "She was really, real. She was swimming with the flat fish with wings (known to the rest of us as rays). But I think she was just an 呵姨 (ayi)* dressed up"

**呵姨 (pronounced: ayi) literally means aunt, but is the polite way to refer to women who are about your moms age. kind of like the equivalent of ma'am or miss in English.

Travel stress

2011-04-08T23:50:00.000+08:00

Becca is our worrier. In fact, I often tell people that I don't need to worry about things because Becca will take care of that for me. This is particularly evident when we travel. If our plane is delayed, she worries that we will miss our connection. If we are running late, she worries that we will miss our plane/train/bus/boat (as the case may be). When we were in Vietnam for Chinese New Year, the kids and I were going to return to China by ourselves and Andy was going to immediately start traveling for business. We got to airport to check in and were told that they had overbooked the flight and we were going to have to take a flight back to China the next day. Andy and I proceeded to argue with the airline representative, to no avail. If we were in the US or even China, I don't think that I would have worried about flying the next day. And while I had enjoyed our time in Vietnam, I was ready to go back home to China. As we were discussing things with the check-in attendant, she was fairly insistent that the kids and I were going to have to fly the next day. Suddenly, it proved to be too much for our girlie who of course had been listening in to every word. She burst into tears. And within minutes, the kids and I went from not getting on flight to being upgraded to business class.

This week we had a holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day) and we took the opportunity to go to Shanghai for the day. We enjoyed a great day. Took the bullet train in -- only 25 minutes from Suzhou to Shanghai. We then met up with friends for lunch. After lunch we went to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Finally, we finished our day up with dinner out. Truly a terrific day as a family. After dinner, we had a little bit of time. Andy wanted to walk down to the river, but B was worried about missing our train. Andy insisted that we had time, so we started walking. We got to the Huang Pu (the Pu River) and Becca was stressed out, feeling that we needed to go catch the subway to the train station. After less than 5 minutes, we left the river and started the journey to the station with Becca asking every couple of minutes what time it was. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:04 PM. We arrived on the subway at the train station at 8:50 PM. We then sprinted through security, up the escalator, found our platform (keep in mind the Shanghai Train Station is HUGE), practically threw our tickets at the attendant. Just imagine our family running, and yes the kids were running as well. Tori was running and giggling the whole way. We boarded the train and it started moving. Seriously a close one. As Andy said later, "ok, going to the river might not have been the best idea. Not my finest moment."

Now most of travel experiences are not quite so extreme. Through all of our travel, Andy and I generally don't get too stressed about delays or other incidents. We keep waiting for Becca to get to that point. But for now, she just suffers from travel stress. Every time. But Andy and I think we are ready to audition for the Amazing Race. Cause at moments like those, it seems like we are in training for the Amazing Race - family version.

Which stop?

2011-04-01T14:02:00.000+08:00

So another funny thing happened on the bus today. I was coming home from a friend's house and was trying to see if a direct bus went from there to our house. I read the sign and thought that it said that the 33 stopped at the stop by our neighborhood. When the bus pulled up, I asked the driver if he went to that stop. He said that he did, and I got on. But then as we are getting close, maybe 3 or 4 stops away, he hollers (of course in Chinese): "Foreigner, are you getting off?" He proceeded to do this at each stop, until I did get off. Funny stuff. I felt like he was worried about me. That I was lost or something. I wonder does this stuff happen to other foreigners?

Saying Goodbye Again. . . and Again

2011-03-31T21:07:00.001+08:00

. . . and yet again. Friends of ours are leaving. They found out 4 weeks ago and are moving back to Germany. Yes, you read that right. In 4 weeks time, they found out, packed their entire house and will be getting on a plane Monday to move to another country. So no more complaining about your moves, people. Their son is one of Josh's buddies (in fact he is one of the boys that was in the pic in the last post). I found my boyo crying one morning this week. When I asked him why, he said he was really going to miss Marcus. Last year at the end of the school year, Becca said goodbye to 4 friends. Another of our friends might be moving this summer. They don't know yet. I know this is just the nature of living in the expat community. People are always coming and going. The great thing is that new families are also moving in, but part of me just gets grumpy. Do I have to say goodbye again? And then on the other side of that equation, do you have to get to know another group of people only to say goodbye yet again in a year or two?

Please, don't misunderstand me. We absolutely love living here and cannot imagine moving back right now. BUT. . . I just don't want all my friends to move away either. [sigh] We have friends who have lived here for 10+ years. When they meet new people, they ask them straight out how long that family plans to live in China. If you answer anything less than 3 years, they just might spend less time with you. While that seems extreme, I can see their point. But the optimist in me, she just can't help it. She still reaches out and wants to get to know people. But for today, I am just going to wallow in my grumpy for a while. I am ignoring my optimist. She might be back tomorrow.

Maybe.

Chinese lesson 1.1

2011-03-30T22:49:00.003+08:00

Now that I have been studying Chinese for a while, I feel it is my duty to share this knowledge with you all. Don't worry, I will go slow. Actually, I just want to teach some of our favorite words and phrases. Most of these are now so part of our lingo that even when we are speaking English sometimes we use one of these because it just says it so perfectly. So let the lessons commence.

But first, I feel like I need to give you a little background. Each Chinese character has a reading (the way you pronounce it) and meaning. Put various combinations of the 1000s of characters together and you form words. But unlike English, each character is usually a word on its own. But when combined with another character(s), it forms more complex words. Are you tracking with me so far? During the 1950s, someone came up with a way to transcribe these characters in order to teach. This pronunciation method is called pinyin. Nowadays, people also use pinyin to input Chinese into computers and when sending texts. But where it gets complicated is that while pinyin uses the English alphabet, most of the letters are not pronounced the same way. Are you still with me?

Because it would be too complicated to teach you how to say each thing in pinyin, I will show you the character and the pinyin, but then in parenthesis I will write it out phonetically the way it sounds. Okay, we have all of that out of the way. Oh, wait. I forgot about the tones. Hmm, maybe we will leave that for another day. Just know that the marks above the letters mean something and we will get there.

One of our favorite and a very useful phrase/word is: 差不多 pinyin: chàbuduō (cha-boo-dwoe). The meaning:

1. Similar or about the same. e.g. You and I are about the same height. 差不多

2. Approximately or just about. This is my favorite usage. For example: Is the part for the machine the right size? 差不多.

Do you know the way to go (when asking a taxi driver)? 差不多. Ah, the uses are endless.

Alright, that is the lesson for the day. Astound your friends and neighbors with your knowledge. Or at least, impress us when we come back this summer.

Happiness is . . .

2011-03-28T23:38:00.003+08:00

I was reading another blog yesterday and someone posted about things that made her happy. It reminded me of the day before when I had been looking back over pictures of the last year. And even before reading her blog, I was smiling and thinking of why each of those pictures made me happy. Really they made me happy because our kids, my amazing husband, and our crazy life makes me happy. Those pictures made me happy because each one represented a memory, a fun experience. So in the midst of a week of sickness, I am reminded of what it is that brings me joy and happiness.

Happiness is . . .

. . . finding joy when things don't go as planned. When it is only 65°F for your beach vacation. But then that time turns out even better than what WE imagined.

. . . jumping in the waves in a sweatshirt.

Happiness is . . .

. . . hearing the kids beg to "Read just one more chapter, Mom."

. . . sharing the love of a great book together. When we travel, we take a book to read as a family. And we have literally read on a plane, while waiting for a train, in a boat, and while drinking yummy floats.

Happiness is . . .

. . . embracing every step of the journey.

Happiness is . . .

. . . watching your kids grow in their self-confidence. And knowing that they are happy.

Happiness is . . .

. . . enjoying the ridiculousness of our kiddos. Tori was absolutely insistent that she was not going on the Rafting Ride unless we guaranteed her that she would NOT get wet.

Happiness is . . .

. . . cousins! Time with family is a precious thing, but it becomes an even more sacred and wonderful thing when you live so far away. (Though to be fair, this cousin and his Mom and Dad are practically our neighbors, living in Japan)

And most of all, happiness is . . .

. . . the adventure of life. The happy, healthy days and the sick, sad ones as well.

So what is making you happy today?

A sleepy, sick week

2011-03-24T11:55:00.000+08:00

This has been a week filled with tea, lots of vitamin C, naps, and not much else. Because when Mom is sick, then just not a lot of other things get done. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday on the couch. Fever, sore throat, chills, the works. This would be one of those times where I am so thankful for our ayi (house help). Yes, one of the perks of living in China is house help. And while I used to feel guilty (and honestly, if I could share her with you all, I would), but really I don't anymore. She is such a blessing to our family, and I know that we are same to her (she has said as much). But anyway, she made dinner, picked up kids and just kept things running smoothy.

Finally, Wednesday as I was turning the corner, Tori stayed home from school complaining that her tummy was hurting. That afternoon, I got a call from the kids' school that Becca had a headache and wanted to come home. This would be one of those moments where it is more difficult being in China. I couldn't just drive over and pick her up. In order to get her, I need to call my driver and have him pick me up, wait for the 20 minutes for him to arrive from the company, drive to her school (another 25-30 minutes) and then back. No, not a simple solution. So, since the school was letting out for an early dismissal in just an hour, I told her to hang in there and just come home on the bus. Seems heartless, but it was going to get her home quicker than the other method. And last night, Josh complaining that his head was hurting and he didn't feel well, voluntarily went to bed at 7. Today, he woke up with a fever of 39°C (103°F). I debated going to class, but even though our ayi was going to be here this morning, I stayed home. Cause I just had a feeling that my boyo would want me. About an hour later, I knew this was the right decision. "Mommy! Mommy!" Josh was hollering for me. I ran upstairs to see what he needed.

"What's wrong, buddy? Can I get something to drink for you? What do you need?"

"Nothing. I just wanted you, Mommy." My heart melts to hear my big boy say this.

So as he dozes, I am sitting here beside him. Typing and loving on him. That's the kind of week it has been for us. I hope that your week has been healthier than ours!

Wilcoxen fam

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thwarted

stories of life

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adoption update

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sunday snapshot: {the leg of lamb}

Week in review

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at home with the littlest

paperwork hurdles

feeling crafty

Christmas carols

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1st Thanksgiving

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sunday snapshot: {thanksgiving #1}

and it continues. . .

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Sunday Snapshot: Paper cut outs

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and so it begins. . .

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Talking with T

Sunday Snapshot: Celebrating 3 years

85度 开办了！

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Agra/Day 2

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Saying Goodbye Again. . . and Again

Chinese lesson 1.1

85度开办了！