Back to the Future

We made it!! And had a very uneventful 2.5 hour flight in to our city, which is always great considering our flight previous to that one!
We're adjusting well and getting all sorts of things accomplished for our new place. There will be pictures to come of it soon, for now, we're just happy to be up and running on the internet.

Brandon seems to be the slowest of us to have returned to normal from jet-lag. But who can really blame him when he's the one out of all four of us to have not slept a bit the entire trip up until our hiatus in Hong Kong. We're still ready to head to bed around 9 pm every night, but we're getting there. His asianese language skills are coming back quickly, he's thoroughly enjoying the fact that we live less than 2 kilometers from Papa Johns....(meaning they deliver straight to our door for one dollar extra!!), and he's a hop skip and a jump (about a 5 minute walk in non-April terms) from a Starbucks.

Eden is totally in her element. The girl is thriving in this Chinese Food society. Given the choice of Papa Johns and local food tonight, she adamantly requested the local stuff. She shovels rice in with a handy dandy Chinese spoon, has declared that she loves Chinese broccoli but doesn't care for the American version of the same stuff, and has decided that maybe squatty potties aren't so bad after all. (I have to disagree with her on this point)  We have visited the kindergarten she'll most likely attend. I can see the front door from our living room window, she'll be the 6th student with three teachers, and the Head Teacher is a super sweet sister. It couldn't be a better situation!

Salem had now slept two full nights in his own bed...well, pack n play for now. When we hit the ground in Hong Kong he digressed to sleeping next to mommy mode, which he hasn't done since he was a couple months old. But he seems to be better now and completely adjusted to the time change. Hopefully our blinds and curtains will be installed in the next week or so and the sunrise at 5 am won't wake the kids up any more! He's totally loving the freedom that comes with living in Asia and the lack of car seats. But does a good job sitting still in my lap in the back of the taxi!

As for me, I'm really loving our new apartment. The Lord knew what we needed, and He has provided. I've been doing lots of shopping to get the place comfortable and functional, and we're making lots of progress. Although, I'm excited about another IKEA shopping trip in the near future to get some finishing touches for the place! My language seems to be coming back quickly as well and I'm surprised at how much I can understand. One of the many perks that comes with living in The Big Chicken, is the affordability of house help. I'm incredibly psyched about the lady who will be spending lots of time with our family beginning next week. She cooks, she cleans, she does laundry, she speaks Chinese so the kids and I will be forced to listen up and learn the language quickly, and she's a total master at Chinese Amazon. She already knows how to make tortillas, homemade granola, and all kinds of western stuff! There's so many more perks about her coming to work for us, I'm sure if I started a list, I'd surely forget lots of things! But one of the great things about her is that her presence here will allow me to spend lots more time being tutored and studying language without the kids being a distraction. With that valuable time, I'm hopeful that I'll reach an important level of language acquisition in the near future! Hooray for a house helper!!

That's a long update on us!
Pictures to come soon!

Bilingual Salem

Brandon brought home a surprise for Eden and Salem yesterday while out running errands in Hong Kong. (yes, still here! :)
A SIX dvd set of Dora the Explorer. No lie. Just about every Dora episode in existence, we now own. Kill me now.

So of course, Eden wanted to watch it right away. She watched one episode in English. And then, Brandon switched it to Chinese speaking Dora...because that's what he thought was so fantastic about this 6 dvd set...the fact that Eden can watch Dora AND be learning Chinese!

Well, turns out that Eden wasn't the only one picking up some of the language.
Salem had his own interpretation of what Dora was saying:



update:
We're leaving HK tomorrow! Our time here has been restful. We've recuperated, have got a handle on jetlag now, and we're ready to say goodbye to HK for awhile! We've enjoyed it, and we're super thankful to friends that have been so eager to help us!
Our last leg of our journey to our new home is tomorrow!

48 Hours

Disclaimer: This is a long account of the last two days, some of which only the grandparents will care to read. But I'm sharing it all, even the miserable, disgusting parts. :)

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse... they did.

But let me back up to the beginning.

Our first flight left at 5:30 in the afternoon. An easy peasy flight of 51 minutes passed quickly and we were on the ground in Dallas in no time. We'd heard rumors of a Pappadeaux in one of the terminals and we quickly located it to have some fine dining (in an airport!) for our last American meal.
Shrimp for dinner. Mac n cheese for the munchkins.

Then we set out for our gate to await our flight to San Francisco. The kids ran off some energy while driving other awaiting passengers a little bonkers. The SF flight left at 9:15 Texas time and lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes. At the end of that flight I found myself incredibly wishing that flight had been the long one. I couldn't believe we still had a 14 hour flight ahead of us still. By the time we boarded the SF flight to Hong Kong it was 3 a.m. Texas time. We'd already been up for 21 hours. I kept psyching myself up though, thinking, "All we have to do is sit there for 14 hours. How hard can it be?!"

Harder than I thought.

Salem and I were in two seats next to a window and Brandon and Eden were in the two seats directly behind us. Salem fell asleep almost instantly. Why wouldn't he? It was 3 a.m. in his world. Fortunate for the little man, he missed most of the "excitement."
About 45 minutes into the flight Brandon tapped me on the head and said, "Eden just threw up."
And it was totally our fault. We'd given her her medicine (amoxicillin) on a fairly empty stomach as soon as we got on the plane. Had I mentioned that we took her to the doctor that morning for a relentless cough? He gave her some amoxicillin and hydrocodone to help with coughing and sleeping.
Oddly enough, the hydrocodone hasn't seemed to accomplish either one of those goals.

Back to the throwing up, though. I picked her up and hurriedly took her back to the bathroom and stripped her down completely. All the while she was crying that awful, "I just threw up on my favorite Tinkerbell jammies" cry. Ah yes, the jammies. The jammies I'd been promising her she could wear once we got on the big airplane. They were now covered in vomit. So I was in tears now because not only was I physically and emotionally exhausted, mad at myself for giving her the medicine on an empty stomach, but also upset that she couldn't wear her beloved Tinkerbell jammies on top of feeling so awful.

I began to scold myself for even thinking of getting on an airplane that afternoon when she felt so awful. I began to list all the reasons we had for not being on an airplane at that moment.

And that's when God began reminding me that he's faithful. Even when the enemy was throwing vomit darts at us, God is faithful. Even in the midst of our exhaustion, He was guiding our steps. And He had been from the beginning. Thank you Lord for being there.

As I took Eden back to her seat I was thinking in my head that things couldn't possibly get any worse than Eden vomiting on an airplane.

And that's when I started feeling nauseous.

I repositioned Salem who was snuggling up next to the poor, unfortunate man sitting in our row. Took my seat and began to take deep breaths and try to shut out the feelings I had in my belly. Hoping maybe it was just Caleb shoving things around inside of me. When I felt like it was my turn to throw up, I climbed back over the poor, unfortunate man, shouted at Brandon real quick that I was headed to the bathroom to throw up.

I was confident that the oh so beautiful shrimp at Pappadeaux actually had an evil side that was coming back to haunt me.

But nothing. I was so hoping I could throw up. I know, that's disgusting. But I knew I'd feel better if I could. But nothing.

I stretched out on the flight attendant's seats for awhile, hoping to regain my composure. The combination of the shrimp, the stuffiness of the plane, Eden's previous vomit, and the smell of the airplane food was overwhelming.

Nonetheless, I headed back to my seat hoping I could just sleep. I knew I needed to sleep while Salem was sleeping.

I stretched out and got comfortable.

Next thing I know, I'm waking from passing out, am covered in vomit and have more coming out of my mouth. Brandon was leaning over me holding a bag in front of my mouth. Poor, unfortunate man was holding sleeping Salem while standing in the aisle next to three flight attendants. And Eden was screaming from behind me because Brandon was blocking her view from watching Tangled.

Horrid. Absolutely horrid.

Brandon claims I was convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Lovely. What every wife wants to put her husband through. I remember his frantic pleas with the flight attendants to get the plane turned around. He told me later that he thought at one point that I was dead.

The captain came on the intercom and paged anyone who was remotely qualified as a doctor to come and help. What do you know that an anesthesiologist who specializes in nausea and vomiting came to the rescue! There was little he could do on an airplane, but still, it was nice to speak with him. Well, Brandon spoke with him. I was busy cleaning up my foamy mouth.

The flight attendants found poor, unfortunate man another seat somewhere else on the "completely full plane," along with 2nd poor, unfortunate man that was sitting next to Brandon. Which left Brandon to sit with both Eden and Salem in the 3 seats behind me and me to stretch out on my three vomitous seats for the remainder of the flight (11 hours.) They strapped an oxygen tank on me like I'm 95 years old, and I slept for 3 hours right away.

I'm not sure who had it worse...
Me with my fainting, vomiting fit, then trying to sleep despite the nausea, and being covered in my own puke for 11 hours, while being completely incapable of helping my husband care for our kids.

Or Brandon, taking care of the kids for 11 hours, having Eden's puke on him, my puke on him, and Salem's pee (yes, leaky diaper), orange juice spilled all over his pants, Eden coughing constantly, and being completely unable to sleep a wink the entire flight.

I kinda vote for Brandon.

And now? Now, we're in Hong Kong. We had a friend who met us at the airport and personally escorted us to an apartment in the city. We decided to not continue our journey which included one last 3 hour flight. We all showered (finally!!) and tried to cope with what we'd just been through. Then that afternoon our friend took me downtown to see a doctor and have an ultrasound to be reassured that all was ok with me and Caleb. and it is. Thank you, Lord.

We've been here for a day and a half now. Resting. Relaxing. Adjusting to time change. And all feeling much better. I'm completely back to normal and Eden's cough seems MUCH better today.

It was an awful day. One that I hope to never, EVER repeat in any form or fashion.

But out of it, I've learned a few things.

I'm beyond grateful for:
- Our Lord. Our Provider. Our Protector. He is in all things and in Him all things hold together. (including my sanity.)
- My husband. What an amazing man he is. Even during the kid's screams and cries, he'd reassure me that everything was fine and that I should go back to sleep.
- Disney movies. In the midst of our misery, hearing Eden sing to Tangled and The Lion King brings this mother's heart such joy. I love that little girl's voice.
- Salem is THE best travel buddy. We've always known he's a go-with-the-flow kind of dude. That airplane flight proved it.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for us!!
We'll hopefully update soon when we reach our final destination!

Lasts

I had imagined this post to be full of pictures of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Pictures of them cuddling our kids, eating in our living room, hanging out at Gigi's house. Pictures of the people who we'll lay in bed at night thinking about and praying for.

But time has gotten the better of me and I'm just simply all out!

So words will have to do. And just a few words at that.

My heart feels like an ocean full of emotions. Calm at times. Tumultuous at others. Huge waves of emotion overcome me late at night and early in the morning. (thus the blog post at 7 am!) I'm a little bit of a pregnant emotional basket-case anyway, but it seems I'm even more so lately.

Tonight we'll spend one last night in this house. A house that has been such an enormous blessing to our family. A house we hope to get to stay in again someday!

Today I'll go to one last doctor's appointment for Caleb in the USA.

We'll make one last trip to Academy to pick up one last trunk for packing the last of our things.

We'll meet Audrey at her school for one last school lunch.

Tomorrow we'll spend our last full day in America enjoying family, eating the foods our stomachs will miss, and frantically finishing up the last minute moving and packing.

Tomorrow night we'll spend one last night at my parent's house....probably with me not able to sleep much out of fear that I'll forget the little things. The smell of their home. The feeling of waking up to see my mom's bed hair. The walk to the barn to feed the horses.

Thursday we'll have last hugs and kisses. Last goodbyes to the people we're least excited to say goodbye to.

And then we'll board a plane that afternoon headed to our new home.



But just in case you thought this post was going to be ALL Debbie Downer...rest assured that our hearts are also incredibly excited about all the FIRSTS that wait for us!

The first hug with new friends.

The first local family friend we'll meet. You never forget that first friend!

The first night in our new apartment. (and the first time we get to paint the yellow walls! :)

The first hot pot meal. YUM!

The first (of many) times that Eden will look at something and say, "What's that?!?!"

And the first time she'll say it in Chinese instead of English.

The first time family comes to visit.


Our world is literally about to change. And with the change comes some incredible heartache and many tears, but also some excitement and reassurance about where our family is meant to be!
We praise the Lord for His goodness and provision and that when everything around us will be different, He'll remain the same.

Looking forward to many new firsts!!

Friday Foto

21 Weeks!

Thanks to Sharon's persistent nagging encouragement :), I'll have at least one picture of me to document this pregnancy!

A Long Overdue Blog Post

I should be kicked out of the blog-osphere.
It's shameful that it's taken me this long to update our blog.

But, really, I feel like I have a pretty good excuse.

We're moving our family overseas. Remember?
Oh maybe you forgot, since it's been awhile since you've heard from us!

The countdown to April 14th is on.
A countdown that includes lots of boxes going into storage.
Lots of tears. Yes, I am becoming that emotional mess I spoke about.
And pulling out the big suitcases to see which ones make the cut for a 30 hour trip.

Meanwhile in the past few un-blogged weeks:
I've turned 28.
We celebrated our 6th Anniversary.
I surpassed the halfway mark of this pregnancy.
A garage sale.
Caleb's first movements are being felt finally!
Eden and Salem have parted ways with some treasured toys, which they handled surprisingly well!


Looking forward to some special time with family before the departure day.
Looking forward to meeting new friends in our new city.
Looking forward to finding a new apartment that we'll hopefully be able to call home for the next several years!
It's a season of our lives that has lots of excitement and lots of tears. Many mixed emotions are floating around this household!

My teacher, the Three Year Old

This week Eden has been mastering the art of coloring purple butterflies, writing uppercase B's, matching uppercase letters with lowercase ones, and glue-sticking. "Glewery" as we call it around here.

And by purple butterflies, I mean, purple butterflies.
She insists on coloring things all one color lately: purple.
The purple marker will meet it's death any day now.



While working on her "homework" yesterday, I came across an interesting idea she's got in her head.

Notice her name on the paper?

Yes. Her name.

You know. The part that says "NEED"



I asked her to write her name on her "homework."  (by the way...she insists on calling it this because cousin Audrey does homework.)

So she did just that.
She wrote an E, a D, another E, and an N.

I asked her what it said, to which of course she said, "EDEN!" with a little "duh-mom" sound in her voice.

And then I went on a tangent about letters being in the right order, etc, etc, all to which I'm sure she was listening with attentive and open ears.

And then she said in her best 15 year old voice possible, "Mom, it doesn't matter. All four letters are still there. It says EDEN!"

So there you have it. Lessons from a three year old.

You can just call me RIPAL.