flying solo

You can pray for me, and Ash this weekend. Tomorrow I am flying to a different (but beautiful) city for a conference by myself! To be real, I am excited and not excited. Make sense? I always get a little apprehensive when I leave my babies but am glad to be forced to have some time to myself. Ash has complete guardianship while I'm gone with the help of Anne Marie and Chris, and, well, everyone else on our team :) It's amazing all the little things that the daddy's don't know about day to day schedules with the kids. I'm sure he'll do great though. He's the best dad.

On another subject, 26 month old Mallory said some really cute things today and I want to remember them...

When I went into her room this morning as she woke up I asked, "Mallory, what do you want to do today?" She responded, "I want to go swim!" Then I asked, "What else would you want to do today?" Response, "I want to go to Micah's house!" (Both of which we obviously couldn't do)

When we were out today heading to a supermarket there were the typical people in public trying to get her attention, touch her, get in her face, etc... She always responds with a bossy "No!" By the way, I am trying to figure out how to approach this response with her. So far, nothing has worked. Anyway, they usually laugh and say "No, hahahhahah", in return. But this particular time she looked at me and said "I be shy, I be shy" which comes from her hearing me say, "She is being shy" when she completely ignores the taunting.

I asked Mallie today, "Mallory, do you want mommy to have another baby?" She replies, "uh huh". (Which by they way has absolutely NO meaning :) I say, "do you want mommy to have a baby girl or baby boy?" She replies, "I want Haynes." (I asked this at 2 different times during the day and both times the answer was exactly the same)

On our way home from the supermarket she made the comment, "Mommy, I don't want to go home right now." I think this may be her longest sentence yet.

Other daily phrases:

"Mommy, you okay?"

"That's my di di!" (word for younger brother in Chinese)

"I need medicine, I'm sick."

"I want my bitamin"

"I wanna watch a mooovie, I wanna pick."

She has a fit to push the button in the elevator every time, by herself! She wants to put her shoes on by herself. She opens the front door by herself and yells, "comin!" as she is running. She is almost obsessed with what character is on her diaper. I can't remember what Pamper diapers are like in America (they may be the same) but the Chinese diapers have cartoon animals on the front. She pretty much demands the tiger everytime. Although lately I've made a good fuss about some others such as koala bears, lion, kitty cats, and sometimes she will be okay with that. So funny!

(picture taken on our team retreat)

Haynes is 9 months old!!

*This has been revised since first posting. I re-weighed and re-measured him and have a more accurate reading.

Let me start out by saying that I never thought that I would really wish I was in a place to be able to take my child to his regular well-child check-up. There is something about just going, and knowing he is growing and developing as he should. And we moms love to know their percentile for their length, weight, and HC, don't we!? Okay, maybe its just me. I have weighed him but it is on a scale we have so it may not be accurate. The scale read 8 kilos which translates to 17 lb 6 oz. His length is 29 1/4 inches and his HC is 17 3/4 inches.



Doesn't he look so big? He is such a grown little boy! His hair has grown a lot lately. At 9 months he crawls anywhere to be able to pull up to stand and he is slowly walking a few steps as he is holding on. He likes to blow bubbles with his mouth and he loves loves loves to be held. I will admit that Ash and I are both enablers in this area. We have had the hardest time letting him cry it out. The longest I have gone during the day is an hour and a half. At night he does better but still not great. He sleeps in the pack n play in our room because his room is downstairs and neither one of us want to go up and down stairs multiple times during the night.




He does love his sister and I love watching him watch her. Soon enough I'm sure he'll be bothered by her but for now I'll take the sweetness.
Did I mention that I've been making his baby food? I may post about that soon...

(if anyone can tell me his percentile i would be so grateful!)

definitely blogworthy

When I woke up today it looked like it just might turn out to be a nice day. The sky was clear and the air was cool, like "fall" cool. But I didn't want to get my hopes up. A clear morning might not turn out into a clear day. But, dear friends, today Sunny Block was SUNNY!!!!! It made my somewhat-discontent-heart from the day before turn into "ok, i do love this place" attitude.





So I couldn't help but keep my camera around my neck and spend most of the day outside! Seriously, a day like today hardly ever happens here, especially in November. It renewed me!



This is my bike. And that is a seat for Mallie! And, no, there is no seat belt and so far there are no kid helmets. But don't worry. Mallory holds on very tight and she loves it.

Before the day really got started Mallie and I took a ride around campus, just the two of us, on my bike. But for lunch Ash loaded up both kids on my bike and me on his, and we rode to "Sunny Block" for a delicious Chinese lunch!




I got my beloved "bing da cao mei nai cha" which translates to "cold strawberry milk tea" while Mallory eyed the little turtles at the flower shop next door.




After naptime, we went out to do some painting. Since we are actually attending a Fine Arts school there are lots of little art supply stores around. So, I bought this cheap canvas and we used some fingerpaints and made art!







I was so thankful for this day!! I hope for many more like this. Stay tuned for a post about our team retreat this weekend (you can also read about it here) and a post about this sweet baby boy Haynes that turned nine months today!

more happenings

Just a reminder that you can go here to read more stories about what goes on in our lives!

not your usual pumpkin patch post

This weekend we had a costume halloween/birthday party in part of the city with all of our group. This numbered around 25 people. It was so much fun and really filled the void for all the pumpkin patching/carving/trick-or-treating/costume partying that we might be doing back in the states.

As far as I've seen, this is the shape of all the pumpkins around here.

Mallie even almost bobbed for an apple. She really wanted to, but never could get past putting her face under the water.

Here is our whole group. As you can see we went as the Incredibles. To our surprise, the kids did really well with the paint around their eyes. We painted Haynes when he was asleep! And we won best overall costume and the reward was the privelage of being the first to eat lunch, a delicious potluck meal that reminded me of home.

We also have with us a thug, Bleeker and Juno, a doc fighting H1N1 and Jem and the Hollograms.

We also got a fun package in the mail yesterday from Ash's parents that included some fun Halloween decorations! It came at the perfect time and made our day! Receiving packages here is like Christmas all over again. Thank you Jim and Anne!

Happy Halloween everyone!

the lip and our week

Sorry if this grosses anyone out but this is how her lip is healing for all of our family members who care to see !

another cute picture of Haynes just because

Our friend, Lauren, went home for a week (for a wedding) and she brought us back goodies sent from my mom. It was seriously like Christmas morning for me! We needed some winter clothes for Mallie, somehow I hardly packed any!

Cameron Head came in town for a few days and Mallory loved him! It makes me long to have an American friend here for her to play with. She enjoyed being with him so much.

This weekend we got some of our friends together to sing the ever so popular KTV karaoke!

so behind

I have moments (and I did just now) when I am sitting at the computer, entranced in a blog or two and completely forget where I am. In a matter of months our life drastically changed. On top of the fact that we added a second child to the family, we also recently moved across the world and it happened quickly. I love getting out of our apartment and realizing where I live. I sure do miss "home" but I also love where I am.

Hardly any buildings around us actually look like this (above). This is a fairly new building made to look old. Please notice at the top right side of the building exactly why we are going here.

(Starbucks and Subway)

If we stop to do anything really, this is usually what happens. A large crowd gathers and out come flashing cameras. Sometimes it drives me crazy, sometimes I don't really care.




This event actually dates back to earlier in October, hence the blog title. After enjoying our five dollar footlong we took a river cruise and risked keeping the kids up fairly late to enjoy a fun night with all of our friends!

this might be random

i think he must be the sweetest boy ever!

I have so many thoughts daily that I want to bring to the blog. Of course updates on us, and especially the kids. But also I really want to tell you all everyday what is going on here. I want to tell you everything I am seeing and learning and the ways I am being changed. Unfortunately for special reasons there are many things I cannot share on the blog. I can use some code and tell you a few things and I hope to do that off and on.

this pic explains a lot of what I'm dealing with here :)

Dad is at work! He always is! What I mean is, people here are in need of Him. People everywhere are in need of Him. He IS the only one who can fully fill the void that every single person has. We have seen so many decisions made already and are chatting for a movement. You see, we are overwhelmed at the work in front of us. There are too many students and not enough of us. There are at least 5 campuses surrounding us and there is no way to reach every student logistically speaking. Do you understand that it would be like having Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia all within a couple of miles and 11 of you are trying to reach students at each one. Our schedules are so busy. Even with Ash working full time and me working part time in the states, it was nothing like this. What is hard is that we have to plan just about each hour of our day. I have really never had to do this and it puts in perspective how you spend your time. My days go by extremely fast with the kids though! It is easy to work crazy hours of your day/week when you don't have an office to go to from 8-5. We are learning alot about what it means to be in full-time min and are thankful to gain new perspective and appreciation. Thank you to all of our family and friends who are supporting and encouraging us! We could not be here without you!

on a date night to a Thai restaurant and DQ!

global doctor visit #2

Long story short, Mallory and Daddy were "fast walking" around a bench in our den area Tuesday morning when Mallie's toe caught the rug and sent her face first into our glass coffee table. It is really a miracle that it didn't catch something else on her face but it did leave a pretty big gash in her lip. It was deep. It bled really bad for a few minutes and she cried but the the crying and the bleeding stopped quicker than I thought. I would be shocked if she wasn't going to need stitches. We went through the routine of calling our insurance over here and asking the best plan which eventually led us back to the not-so-cheap global doctor here. So we made an appointment, hopped in a cab, left Haynes with Anne Marie, and off we went.



Soon after arriving at 12 noon, they gave her a shot of meds to make her drowsy and told us to walk around for 15 or so minutes. Remember the office is located in the city's Hilton hotel. So we walked and we came back and she was not drowsy in the least. Fast forward to 3 o'clock and after many different attempts, she finally fell asleep. At this point the doctor told us stitches wouldn't necessarily be the best option, instead he would use glue to put the gap back together. So during her sleep he glued her mouth shut, with 2 layers and before the 3rd layer was applied she woke up.





So then we proceed to try and get her back asleep but during this hour she pulls the glue off. Back to square one. At one point we had an option of getting an anesthesiologist involved but that would mean taking another trip to the local Children's hospital and a lot more money that we don't have. At this point, she was not going back to sleep so we basically get her in the best, tightest grip we can while she is kicking and screaming, to get them to reglue her lip. Not so sure if it was as good a job as when she was still and sleeping but nevertheless, we left with her lip glued back together, just hoping maybe we would make it through the night with the glue on.








And, it stayed on one night and the healing process has begun. If you think about it, chat that it heals the best it can. I'll update with the healing process later!

just another transition

Since we moved in to our new place, Mallory went straight to her own "big girl bed". I knew she was ready for this because with all the traveling we did, she slept great in the hotel beds by herself. She was soooo excited to have her own bed!!




The bed pretty much sits on the floor. The very first night she did fall out once, but this was because her mommy and her daddy didn't set up the pillows on either side of her to form a barrier between her and the floor. That first night was the only falling incident!



The best part of this bed is it contains drawers!!!! I love the storage. So half of the drawers store the books we brought. She loves opening her draw and choosing what we get to read each night.



Now we just have to conquer potty training and saying goodbye to "dubi".


*stay tuned for a post about our 2nd trip to the Global Doctor today. To give you a hint, glue was involved and a good bit of blood. (Mallie not Haynes and she is OK, thank you JC!)

their 4th of July

About a five minute walk from our apartment takes you to an area with restaurants and shopping called "Sunny Block". This is where the 60th birthday celebration took place. So, we joined the thousands of people to watch the show and I hope you can tell how crowded it really was by the pictures below.



The show was actually impressive and we acted just as giddy as all the people around us. We did sing the Star Spangled Banner as an ode to America and all that we miss from home.





There are a few amusement park rides around Sunny Block - you may have seen Mallie on a carousel. College students here enjoy activities that 10 year olds would in America. Not wrong, just different. This is a statement I am saying to myself a lot. So we rode this little ride and got lots of attention doing it.





Now you may understand why many times I feel overwhelmed by all the people who desperately need to hear the truth that they have never heard!

8 months old

And yet another month has come and gone! I love this age! Except that we are not sleeping through the night! Well, Mallory is but nobody else. Although I did start sleeping bootcamp a couple nights ago. Now that we all have our own rooms, I don't have to do whatever it takes (nursing, holding, letting him sleep in the bed) to keep him from waking Mallie up. Naps aren't very consistent yet either but we are working on that too! The traveling and living in one room together for so long definitely messed this little boy's schedule up!


Oh how he loves his mommy and I can hardly stand it!
Just this past week he has started flapping his arm when we wave at him! He also loves for me to say "uhoh" over and over, it makes him laugh so hard! Not only is he crawling everywhere but he is also pulling up to stand on whatever he can find and I think he's rather close to standing on his own.



He is still nursing 4-5 times a day and eating baby food at two meals. He really wants to eat what we are all eating. He has his two bottom teeth but they are still low enough to where you can't really see them. He loves his sister and she makes him smile a lot! He loves grabbing her paci and her hair!



She couldn't stand the fact that we were taking his picture and she couldn't be in it, therefore here they both are. Forgive her dirty hair.

China turns 60 and a home video

October 1st, 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Anne Marie and Chris have a great synopsis of it here. It's a big deal and we enjoyed a massive fireworks on campus last night. Everyone was going crazy. I got some good pictures I will post later. In the meantime watch a video of our precious babies!

cheap finds at the junk market

Weeks ago we took a quick cab ride to the local furniture junk market to find some cheap items for our home. At the time I had no idea where we'd be living, so I didn't buy too much. I took pictures of more items than I bought but by the end of the price haggling we ended up with a truckload to take back to campus. I loved every bit of the search, except for the heat. I also ended up going back not too long ago and bought a few more things I will show you later on when I have pictures of our apartment (we are still not moved in but seriously only days away).






I bought this little desk for Mallory for maybe $3. It is so cute, it has a mixture of Chinese and English on it and some "special English" too like Apirl instead of April.



This is my favorite find! It seriously looks like something we sell at Greenbrier from a company that is having their stuff made in China. Only about $9 for me!




And one last pic totally not related. How cute is her milkstache!?

a trip to the hospital

This happened over a week ago, but I definitely had to blog about it! Last Sunday afternoon Ash was doing the typical flip Mallory over his back and catch her. He pulls her by her arms up over his head and then she does a flip sorta thing and lands in his hands right at his chest. She LOVES it. This one particular time though she began crying right after it happened and saying, "burn, mommy it burns" while kind of holding her left arm. At first I thought it was her elbow but it ended up being that her wrist started to swell. I just knew that something pretty major had happened and we would be getting a cast or something. So I run upstairs and tell Anne Marie and Chris that we are going to have to make a trip to the hospital. In the meantime she is still on the sofa with her left arm resting gently on her belly and still crying in a whiny kind of way. We had gotten ice and she wanted it on there, this is not typical for just any "boo boo." I tried to get her to squeeze my finger with that hand or move it just a little and she would not budge. "No mommy, no, it hurts."
So we proceed to call SOS (our evacuation insurance) to get the best advice about where to go. We knew about a global doctor here in the city and guessed this is where we would be headed. But we also knew it would be a pretty penny. When you think your daughters little wrist might be broken it really doesn't matter though. After making the phone call, letting our fellow American friends know what was going on, getting everything ready to leave (which was probably about an hour) we jump in the taxi to see the global doctor about 45 minutes away. The drive was fairly uncomfortable for Mallory. She seemed to be in a little pain as we drove but mainly just sat in my lap with her arm still rested on her belly, not wanting to move it.

The global doctor's office was located in the Hilton. (By Dad's grace we will get to vacate and stay there at some point during the year, don't even get me started at the pool in that place!) I'm not sure what nationality he was exactly but he had pretty good English. About the time we walked in the (200 dollar) door (which by the end turned into the 400 dollar door) Mallory started moving her arm a little bit. Actually it didn't look quite as swollen and she was starting to act fairly normal but we didn't think too much of it. The doc had his nurse and a driver transport us to the Children's hospital about 5 minutes away. She was great and even though the place was packed with babies and IV's, we went quickly to where we needed to be and got her little arm x-rayed. Mind you, this was the most tragic part of the whole night. She hated having her arm held down. I must add that minute by minute this girl was slipping right back into her old self. Acting happy, friendly and somewhat saucy too and using that little arm more and more.




So the Xray turned out perfect. All I know is people were chatting and she was healed. Really there were only 2 options, drama or healing. But that was not the typical drama for a 2 year old who was hurt.

*I didn't feel great about popping out my camera but I never want to forget what I saw (and smelt) in that hospital. So thankful for American healthcare...Obama please don't mess with the best healthcare in. the. world.

a day here

We FINALLY got our computer working! So now all 4 of us don't have to share one computer in the apartment, yay! We are sharing enough I believe :) Every day when we are out and about I am wishing I had brought my camera along. There is so much here I would like to share and hopefully as the year goes along I will be able to. Everything we do is usually an ordeal and the last thing I think about getting as we walk out the door is the camera. We AREN'T in our apartment yet. I'm doing okay though. We should get a key on Monday. This doesn't mean we will move in, because we will have to purchase our air conditioners (no central air here folks) and set up beds, organize clothes, etc... But it is close, very close.
The other day we decided to get Mallie and Haynes out and walk down to a "playground" that we could see in the distance. Come to find out it is located on an elementary school yard. My friend told me that it is actually an international elementary school that Embassy worker's kids go to. Hmmm, should I enroll Mallie? Haven't seen kids there yet so I don't know when or if it is opened.



The playground was filthy dirty. We didn't let her stay on it long. Plus, Ash jumped quickly over the side of the playground wall to run catch Mallie at the bottom of the slide and his shoulder popped out of socket (same shoulder as in the seizure) and didn't immediately pop back. At first he didn't tell me. I was checking out the sandbox. Then when he yelled my name, it popped back, hallelujah.




On the way to the playground check out what we saw



An asian cow you might ask? My thought exactly...




Oh but no, water buffalo.




Not the african kind, who are well known for killing more people than any other animal in Africa.



Next time we'll know not to get so close.

high hopes

I am definitely behind in posts. Things happen every day that I would love to share here so hopefully soon I will catch up. Our internet connection is not great and so it makes everything harder. Plus, not all of us even have internet where we live so we are trying to share our time on the computer. It feels like the days do fly by here and every time I am going to bed, I am thinking about all of our loved ones waking up to start their day and then when I start my day, I think about everyone back at home sleeping snuggly in their comfy American beds :) Mallory is still trying to get over her little virus - if you were wondering, we are changing lots of dirty dipes throughout the day. She is still eating and acting like normal though. She got a precious book from SuSu in the mail today about their play date (made on Snapfish) before we left and so we enjoyed looking at that all day and thinking of SuSu. Haynes cut his first tooth yesterday, his front, lower, right tooth. He has been a good bit fussier than normal and so I am attributing it to his teeth. He loves his mommy so much right now and I am eating it up!! This week has been so fun min speaking. We are excited about what is in store.



Mallory sitting in her bath of baking soda (to help with the rash:) Notice the beautiful Chinese rose tile? and the squatty to the right?





Oh, on to the apartment. The word is that they are cleaning it tomorrow! (Thursday) When I say clean, I don't mean clean like you clean a newly built house in America. The newly built apartments here are filthy from top to bottom, inside every cabinet and everything. I may have to go back and reclean it before we start moving in. But, all that to say, I can't wait!
I have wondered why Dad had it all work out this way. It obviously is huge that now we are going to be right next to Am and Chris so it has been worth the wait. I have thought about how as a wife and a mom, my home is so significant to who I am. I feel like I cannot function in my roles fully without it. I, in a way, have lost a sense of who I am, and my purpose. As hard as some moments have been I have tried to listen to what Dad might be teaching me. First is that I can still serve Him, my husband, and my kids, without my own place. It may not be to my choosing but I still can. Lots of "securities" are stripped away here and that has been one for sure. Also, I have definitely taken for granted my home and my life in America. There were days where I just did not want to cook dinner. I did not even think to be thankful that we had 2 extra bedrooms so Haynes and Mallory could have their own space, or a big kitchen to prepare whatever I wanted us to eat. Or even a big washer and dryer to do laundry whenever it was needed - which was just about every day.
Ash, Mallory, Haynes, and myself can still thrive even if we are all sleeping in the same room, living out of suitcases, having to eat out most meals, etc... I am so thankful for what I had, what I have, what He has provided and continues to provide. And I will be even more grateful for a little apartment to start moving in to here very soon!

life now

I am posting because there is nothing else to do. It is 9 p.m. here and the power just went out. (So the computer may not last too much longer). We have no clue why. It is SOOOOOO frustrating.... It is not like the power going out in America where you can call the power company and let them know and maybe wait at the longest an hour for it to come back. Here there is no one to contact and you just don't know when it might come back on. I'll just be honest and say that today has been hard. It is a day where I've wished I was just back home. In America, in Alabama, in Birmingham, in Ross Bridge, in my house, tucking my children into their beds after having a good dinner at our table, bath time in a tub, storytime in our rocker, and prayers

not on vacation

Don't be fooled by the pics. We aren't at an amusement park, drinking Starbucks everyday and getting massages all the time. Of course we are smiling in the pictures and rightfully so, we are happy! But, we are in East Asia. And it is dirty, hot, humid, smoggy, and well, just way different than America. If we go somewhere outside of our campus, it is pretty normal to have to leave an hour and a half before we need to be somewhere. One day this week the temp reached somewhere around 103 degrees F. Recorded to be the hottest day in our city in the past 30 or so years. Classes on our campuses were canceled because of the heat. The classrooms do not have AC.
Our apartment is still not ready. No one has been working on it all week. We don't know why, it is just the way it goes around here. Remember I talked about the work outside of our window? Who knows what they are doing but to me it just looks like a lot of dirt being moved around for no apparent reason.















































This is our apartment complex. We are on the first floor but the first floor still requires climbing 2 flights of stairs. The second picture shows the hallway and I'm pretty sure that open door is Am and Chris' place. Oh and don't be fooled by the green grass, there is hardly any of it around here.
























































I had my first dinner with a group of students last night. They were all so nice and I look forward to getting to know them better over the year. If classes are resumed, ours begin this Monday. And so begins our year and a somewhat more defined schedule. Hoping to watch the AU/MS St. game this weekend bc we have slingbox hooked up! Thanks Lathams! New post about kiddos below...Zi jian for now!

7 months old

Well I had to find a new chair to take Haynes' monthly pics in. So far, he has been in a leather chair the whole time even though this counts as his 3rd leather chair in just 7 months. We still have the consistency of the duck though :)





Haynes is crawling!!!! He officially took his first crawl at exactly 7 months. He rocked and looked ready for at least a month. He even comes to mommy and is reaching for us now!! We don't have a great area for him to crawl on so that isn't fun but he does love being able to get around. Oh and on the 9th I walked in to our room where he is sleeping in a crib (bought here) and he was standing up! He had pulled all the way up from a laying down position and Ash grabbed the video camera in time.