Easter was more weird than any other holidays we have spent here. Christmas ranks 2nd, but at least most of the locals have heard of Christmas. Easter? Hardly any. I actually taught some of them the name of Easter in Chinese. (Interestingly, it's translated "Raised from the Dead Festival." Hmm..wish we could go a little more literal in English.) Nothing Easter-ish was being sold anywhere. It was as if we were in our own world for this one. But, we went all out anyway!
Friday: Coffee House for the students, Easter theme. Lots of great convos there!!
Saturday: Dying eggs with believing students and their friends. Fun!
Sunday: Egg hunt w/ our community and dinner with our team.
The egg hunt was hilarious. We had 20 plastic eggs and 30+ real eggs. Most of the team went out in our complex "park" to hide the eggs and we moms followed with the kids about 10 mins later. By the time we got there, 80% of the eggs were gone! Michael discovered a forgotten bag and began walking around, hiding them. As he did, he had a literal train of grandmas following him, picking up every one he set down! HA! Their thinking: this crazy foreigner is setting food on the ground..I'm going to pick it up before it gets too dirty! They didn't get the whole idea, I guess. :)
Of course, I'm glad His truth reigns whether the people around me are celebrating it or not. It just made me even more aware that I'm surrounded by people who need to hear about Him..
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A great day equals...
Skype with family. This time it was Michael's bro and his wife. Hilarious couple.
A visit from a retired couple from our company who comes to visit each new family in China. They make sure we're still alive, basically. Great people.
Ayi's food for lunch. More on ayi later..she deserves her own post.
2 packages arriving in one day. I rode my bike to school to retrieve them, but had to taxi home because one was so large. Talk about showered with love and goodies!
Homemade pizza that actually turned out. Halleluia for a successful meal. It's been a while.
10 hours of sleep. Michael thinks I'm nuts; I think it's blissful.
A visit from a retired couple from our company who comes to visit each new family in China. They make sure we're still alive, basically. Great people.
Ayi's food for lunch. More on ayi later..she deserves her own post.
2 packages arriving in one day. I rode my bike to school to retrieve them, but had to taxi home because one was so large. Talk about showered with love and goodies!
Homemade pizza that actually turned out. Halleluia for a successful meal. It's been a while.
10 hours of sleep. Michael thinks I'm nuts; I think it's blissful.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Baobao Felder
Well, we went to the doc on Tuesday. 2 major things to find out: what in the world is going on with my blood tests and to find out the gender!
Gender: BOY! We're stoked. Really, we'd be stoked either way. A boy is exciting because he'll be just over 2 years younger than Josiah. From what I've observed in several families, close in age = pretty good buddies. We can reuse most of Josiah's clothes. They'll be a little off, but I'm hoping they'll still work. And Michael is one step closer to creating his dream team. :)
Blood test: I'll leave out most of the annoyingly frustrating details. It's been a long process. Basically, I have the antibody E in my blood. Antibodies fight off things they don't like. It may fight off something it finds in the baby's blood. Not good. But, the docs and research say one, this is a rare antibody and two, it seldom leads to anything serious. I just have to have my blood drawn every month to watch the levels. We're trusting it's no big deal.
I started feeling the little guy move at least 2 weeks ago. This is probably a month earlier than I felt Josiah. I'm also having Braxton Hicks every day. I definitely didn't have those until the last 2 months with Josiah. I see these two things as gentle reminders from the Father that everything is ok. Thankful for them. :)
He is due late August, so we'll stay in the States until his arrival. Another comfort that wasn't promised....thanks, Dad.
Now to pick a name!!
Gender: BOY! We're stoked. Really, we'd be stoked either way. A boy is exciting because he'll be just over 2 years younger than Josiah. From what I've observed in several families, close in age = pretty good buddies. We can reuse most of Josiah's clothes. They'll be a little off, but I'm hoping they'll still work. And Michael is one step closer to creating his dream team. :)
Blood test: I'll leave out most of the annoyingly frustrating details. It's been a long process. Basically, I have the antibody E in my blood. Antibodies fight off things they don't like. It may fight off something it finds in the baby's blood. Not good. But, the docs and research say one, this is a rare antibody and two, it seldom leads to anything serious. I just have to have my blood drawn every month to watch the levels. We're trusting it's no big deal.
I started feeling the little guy move at least 2 weeks ago. This is probably a month earlier than I felt Josiah. I'm also having Braxton Hicks every day. I definitely didn't have those until the last 2 months with Josiah. I see these two things as gentle reminders from the Father that everything is ok. Thankful for them. :)
He is due late August, so we'll stay in the States until his arrival. Another comfort that wasn't promised....thanks, Dad.
Now to pick a name!!
Monday, April 11, 2011
what the preggers wear here:
Thanks to a preggo friend in South China for snapping this.
MUCHO thanks to a friend nearby who just had a baby who loaned all of her maternity clothes. Let's all do a dance because I won't be wearing these!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Credit: the necessary evil?
This seems to be a controversial topic. We all have our opinions. Feel free to share yours, nicely.
Michael and I hopped on the Dave Ramsey wagon when we first got married. We happily paid off our debt in a few years. What a relief! We were so thankful to not be tied to anything financially when we decided to come here.
However, in the back of my business-minded hubby's brain, he knew having no credit cards, never owning a house, etc., could bite us sometime down the road.
And now it has. Not too badly, but it has. We, after many days of thinking and researching, decided to go against good ol' Dave and apply for a credit card. The whole reason: to earn frequent-flier miles. As of now, we fly approximately 17,000 miles per person every year. We thought, why not earn extra miles with this handy little card?
We applied. They denied. Their reasoning: we don't have the right credit history!!
This strikes me as extremely annoying. Basically what they're saying is, in order to obtain their card, they would rather see us with several other cards and debts than with no debt at all. I guess that's where the evil part comes in--they want to see that we'll rack up a huge amount and have a hard time paying it off so they'll earn more in interest.
Ugh. I don't even want to think about if we ever want to buy a house or anything big. We'll never get the chance because of our good er...bad? credit history!!!
Disclaimer: I'm not against you if you have credit cards! Obviously they're a benefit if used wisely.
In other news, I have already started having Braxton Hicks contractions. Isn't this a bit early for my uterus to be toning itself? With Josiah, I had them the last 2 months or so. This makes me even more anxious to find out the doc's guess of a due date!
Michael and I hopped on the Dave Ramsey wagon when we first got married. We happily paid off our debt in a few years. What a relief! We were so thankful to not be tied to anything financially when we decided to come here.
However, in the back of my business-minded hubby's brain, he knew having no credit cards, never owning a house, etc., could bite us sometime down the road.
And now it has. Not too badly, but it has. We, after many days of thinking and researching, decided to go against good ol' Dave and apply for a credit card. The whole reason: to earn frequent-flier miles. As of now, we fly approximately 17,000 miles per person every year. We thought, why not earn extra miles with this handy little card?
We applied. They denied. Their reasoning: we don't have the right credit history!!
This strikes me as extremely annoying. Basically what they're saying is, in order to obtain their card, they would rather see us with several other cards and debts than with no debt at all. I guess that's where the evil part comes in--they want to see that we'll rack up a huge amount and have a hard time paying it off so they'll earn more in interest.
Ugh. I don't even want to think about if we ever want to buy a house or anything big. We'll never get the chance because of our good er...bad? credit history!!!
Disclaimer: I'm not against you if you have credit cards! Obviously they're a benefit if used wisely.
In other news, I have already started having Braxton Hicks contractions. Isn't this a bit early for my uterus to be toning itself? With Josiah, I had them the last 2 months or so. This makes me even more anxious to find out the doc's guess of a due date!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Because I felt like posting...
- The American docs here (at the int'l hospital) are just as annoying, pushy, and hard to get in touch with as back in the States. Been trying to chase mine down for over a week now. Tried to call today to talk to any doc...no can do. Ugh.
- I stubbed my pinky toe pretty badly today. It's now blue and purple. Sick. I'd like to say it didn't happen while riding my back, but that would be a lie. This is my 3rd bike "accident" in my adult life. Slightly embarrassing. But, I should only get better since it's my main form of transportation now, right??
- When Josiah got up this morning, he proceeded to say every word that makes me laugh, all in a row. My faves: "marker" that sounds a LOT like "Michael"(thus, making it more funny); "motorcycle" that starts with an "m," followed by at least 5 other random syllables; and "banana" that also starts with an "m" and is followed by at least 3 "nanas". That kid is hilarious!
- Michael and I will go into Beijing next week to 1, celebrate our anniversary (yes, a month late) and 2, hopefully find out if this babe is a boy or girl!!! From a few unofficial polls, girl is winning.
- I stubbed my pinky toe pretty badly today. It's now blue and purple. Sick. I'd like to say it didn't happen while riding my back, but that would be a lie. This is my 3rd bike "accident" in my adult life. Slightly embarrassing. But, I should only get better since it's my main form of transportation now, right??
- When Josiah got up this morning, he proceeded to say every word that makes me laugh, all in a row. My faves: "marker" that sounds a LOT like "Michael"(thus, making it more funny); "motorcycle" that starts with an "m," followed by at least 5 other random syllables; and "banana" that also starts with an "m" and is followed by at least 3 "nanas". That kid is hilarious!
- Michael and I will go into Beijing next week to 1, celebrate our anniversary (yes, a month late) and 2, hopefully find out if this babe is a boy or girl!!! From a few unofficial polls, girl is winning.
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