Nevermind...

Change of plans again...
After four contractions during language study this morning, we've decided to go ahead and move up our flights and get to Bangkok as soon as possible. So we're leaving tomorrow morning to take the train to the capital and then we'll fly from there to Bangkok, getting in at 9 pm. Pray with us that Caleb will remain patient and won't feel the need to join us too soon!
Edited to add: I'm only 34 weeks at this point and while I feel that the chances of him coming before he's full term are pretty slim, it's not something we're willing to gamble with in The Big Chicken. We'll update more after I've seen the doctor and we're all settled for the next couple months in Thailand! :)

Life and Pool Parties

You know how when you entered the 7th grade and your parents sat you down and had the "Choose Your Friends Wisely" pep-talk?

No?!?!  Surely I wasn't the only one!

And then you had the grand task of going forth and deciding which friends would inevitably impact you and your world more than you could really understand as a 13 year old.

If only we could all be so lucky as to have life just choose our friends for us, because let me tell you, it's working out well for us!

Because that's just what Life has done for us in the past few months. When we followed what God had in store for our family's Life, little did we know that simultaneously, He was working out that plan in several other families lives.

And we just so happen to get to do Life together. And doing Life together in the Big Chicken, not only brings you close as friends, but essentially makes us family too.

We got to celebrate the 4th of July together... pool side.

We've bought a short membership at the local Crowne Plaza hotel so we can swim in their pool. It's the kids' new favorite thing. I have no idea what kind of smile this is of Eden's, but it cracks me up.

Pictured below is Brandon pushing Salem while racing Kevin pushing Sami and Becky pushing Micah. Micah and Sami are new nephew additions, who have recently gotten to come home from Ethiopia to their new parents Kevin and Becky (not to be confused with Bekah and Kevin...yes that's only slightly confusing to the kids :)

Yes the guys are wearing swim caps. Yes that is a weird rule for Big Chicken swimming pools. Yes we do think it's weird. And yes sometimes we wonder if the pool employees are as concerned about the hair on Brandon's chest as much as they're concerned about the hair on his head.

New mama, Becky and her oldest, Micah, who has the coolest curly hair and eats like the rapture will happen tomorrow.

Sami, chillin like he owns the place...




Also joining in on the fun is OTHER uncle Kevin (yes, again, confusing much?) and his oldest, A, who fondly calls Salem, "Buddy!" Which I find adorable and too cool for school.



Kevin's better looking half stayed at home with their baby boy, D, who is 5 months old and happened to catch the nastiness that Eden brought home from preschool last week.
Yes, we were the responsible parents whose 3 year old passed along a vomitous illness to an innocent blue-eyed baby boy. So he missed the swimming fun.

So you'll notice, as opposed to a few weeks ago, the boys are taking over and outnumbering the girls now! With the welcome addition of Micah and Sami, and with Caleb coming soon, Salem and Baby D are gaining power!

Life seems to have chosen our friends wisely. We're blessed beyond words by our new friends and family here with us in the Big Chicken. We're grateful for their friendship, for the way they love on our kids, the blessing that their kids are to us, and for how the Lord is growing our relationship with them!



Caleb even got some pool time, which was very welcome for this ever-growing belly!

We're scheduled to leave for Thailand on July 19th to wait for his arrival... However, Saturday night we were almost convinced that we needed to move that date up because I had 7 Braxton-Hicks contractions within 2 hours. Since then, Caleb has become a little more patient, and doesn't seem quite as eager to make his debut in China. For now, we're still planning on arriving in Bangkok on the 19th.

Friday Fotos - Preparing for Monday!!

Eden couldn't see the point in leaving parts of it white! We're still working on those little details.



Happy 4th of July from halfway across the world!!

The Day My Son Fell Into a Hole

It started just like every other normal day.
Eden spent the morning at preschool. Brandon and I spent the morning in language study. Salem spent the morning playing with his trucks, trains, and tractors.
Chinese food for lunch. Cherries for dessert because they're about $1.30 for a pound.
Then nap time for mini-man and quiet time for the little girl.

3:30 p.m. rolled around. Nap time was over. Inside play time had been had. And the kids had reached the it's-time-to-go-outside melting point. And so had mommy.

We live on the third floor. It doesn't take us long to get to the front door of our apartment complex where there is usually a small crowd gathered of neighbors or the local trash pickers (that name sounds derogatory...I wish I could come up with something that sounds less condescending...but I'm sticking with it).

On this occasion, Salem insisted on sporting his sunglasses. And I'll be the first to admit, that he's a cute dude, and even more so when wearing shades. So of course, he started drawing even more attention than usual. I mean, he's two, so he has trouble paying attention to where he's walking, much less when every onlooker is oohing and ahhhing over him and he thinks it's cool to egg them on by smiling his "Yeah, I'm hot stuff" smirk.

But apparently his mama has trouble paying attention to where he's walking too. And I was too far from him to prevent the impending doom of what lay before him.

See, we have this hole. It's been there for a few weeks. Imagine a brick sidewalk...only what's below the sidewalk is something unknown. And there's a hole in the brick sidewalk about 2 feet by 4 feet. And what's in that hole about a foot or more deep is broken bricks and what looks and smells similar to the bottom of a port-a-potty. (and that's as far as I'll go in the department of speculation...for sanity's sake)

It kinda happened in slow motion. In my mind there was dramatic theme music playing as I watched wide-eyed and screamed "SAAALLLLLEEEEEEMMMMMM!!!!" toward my son who was oblivious of where he was headed.

As he looked back toward the onlookers with his smirky smirk, he walked straight into the hole of all nastiness.

In all seriousness, he's lucky he didn't break his arm or crack his head open. Praise the Lord.

But what covered his right hip, leg, and right shoe was a substance I'd rather remain naive to it's actual contents. I picked him up by his hands, held him at arms length like he had some sort of disease, turned right around and headed back inside.

I didn't need to say anything to him. Eden was taking care of that for me, "Salem, you have to be careful where you are walking. You fell in a HOLE!!"

He was crying. Not because he was hurt. But because we were walking back inside and he wanted to be outside.

I knocked on the door. Handed him over to Brandon who could tell by the look on my face that I was not in the mood for an explanation. Within minutes our house helper was on the phone with our apartment manager speaking entirely too fast in Chinese for me to understand words, but loud and stern enough that I could understand her meaning...and she was one seriously unhappy Chinese woman. She and Salem are pretty tight.

The nastiness was washed down the bathtub drain. His shoes and clothes were washed. And he was ready to head back outside within minutes.

I, however, was not. In my mind it was China's fault that there was a hole outside my apartment. It was every Chinese person's fault that my son fell in that hole. And I was not ready to face them again for the remainder of the day. My son falling in a hole and having who knows what all over him had rendered me culturally useless.

For some strange reason though, I got it in my head that we'd head back out after dinner. This time, to the bus stop to go to the park.

We waited. And waited. and waited some more. And the bus that is usually so timely, just wasn't coming. So we headed to the intersection to try to flag down a taxi. After 20 minutes of waiting, and flagging, and waiting some more, one taxi driver pulled over.

Insert Man Who Shall Remain Nameless.

He swoops in from nowhere. He jumps in the front seat completely neglecting Brandon's hand on the door, Salem in Brandon's arms, and sweaty, pregnant me standing there holding Eden.

I lost my cool. I was in over my ears in culture shock. And I flew off on him in English like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. (did you catch that Matt?)
I even darted off after the taxi yelling absurd things (yes, still in English) about how he should know better.

I'm sure at that point that I looked really cool. Giant pregnant me, being the responsible sane woman that I am, holding my 3 year old daughter, chasing after a taxi yelling things in English toward a man that obviously didn't understand or care. It's a good thing I haven't learned Chinese curse words yet.

It's times like that that I feel certain that God is nodding his head toward me saying, "Ok, April. You're right. I picked the wrong person for this job."
I have one-sided arguments in my head trying to convince Him that I'm in the wrong place. On days like this one, I feel like my behavior should be fairly convincing to Him.

Thankfully, these hard days are few and far between. Salem hasn't fallen in a hole since, in fact, it's been fixed! We were all quick to learn the Chinese word for "hole." It's not one we'll ever forget. And since that day, I haven't felt the need to learn any local curse words.

Days like this one remind me of the Lord's sovereignty. They make me ever-so-thankful for his grace, mercy, and forgiveness toward my sinfulness. They remind me that even though we're right where we're supposed to be, it doesn't mean it'll be easy. They remind me that I can't "handle" China on my own, and that I'm supposed to delight in my weaknesses. Thank you Lord for days that my son will fall in holes and that Chinese men will do rude things. Help me to walk in your grace and not to lose my cool. Please don't stop reminding me that I will always fail when I attempt to live on my own strength.

And thank you Lord for bathtubs, washing machines, and Chinese men that don't understand my English rants.

He's TWO!!

TWO whole years have passed since we made this announcement.
I can hardly believe it!

It's been TWO precious years with Salem. TWO years of laughs, smiles, cries, hugs, kisses, songs, trucks, trains, tractors, and scraped knees...and everything else involved with a TWO year old boy!
We've loved every minute and look forward to many more birthdays with this sweet boy!

We had a little birthday party for Salem and invited all his friends here. Unfortunately for mini-man, almost everyone in attendance were girls...which I'm sure he'd be thrilled about that fact if he was turning 20 instead of 2. But on the plus side, he didn't have to fight with anyone over his new bulldozer.
He did have one dude here to party with him, and the girls were totally ga-ga over him!



When it was singing and cupcake time, he seemed puzzled...


But he was just playing coy. He knew what was up. He knew what to do. It's only taken one birthday for him to figure out the whole candle thing...


And of course, taking after his mommy, he knows how to put away a chocolate cupcake too.


But I promise he didn't learn this from me...


Happy Birthday to our Boy of A Thousand Faces!



Salem, you are truly a joy! A cuddle bug who I can always count on snuggling with during a movie, kisses before bedtime, or laughs during meal time!
WE LOVE YOU!!

Field Trip, Green Pants, and Science Museum...oh my!

Eden's excitement about preschool has waned quite a bit since her first day of attendance. She's gone through screaming spouts, crying, worrying, waking up in the night complaining about not wanting to go the next day.

And as is my tendency to give up when the going gets tough, I felt as though we were making a mistake by pushing her to continue going.

Fortunately, God's blessed me with a smart husband. A guy who doesn't give up when the going gets tough.

So when I felt like pulling her out of preschool, he went the opposite direction.
"Lets send her 5 days a week, instead!!"

His logic doesn't make sense to me sometimes.

But turns out, the man was right (again). And the persistency of everyday attendance has helped her overcome her preschool fears faster than she would have if she went just twice a week...as was the original plan.
I was, however, justified in my fears about her eating lunch there (felt like I had to throw in that tid-bit about me being right about something! :) and she comes home everyday before their lunch time.
And I'm purposefully leaving out my reasoning behind this so as to not make your stomachs churn.

So last week we took the day off of language study so that we could go with her on her first preschool field trip. She was sooooo excited that Mommy and Daddy were staying with her at preschool that day.

We showed up to the classroom and every other kid there was dressed alike. My first reaction was completely selfish, "oh sure...lets make the white kid stand out even more!"

And then after they danced a few dances:


They pulled a package out of the closet just for Eden.


I wish I could tell you what that 'M' stands for on her shirt. Really. I wish I could.
But I don't even know myself.

Then they formed a line with a nifty jump rope and a few rings and we set out for the Science Museum!


Look at my boy's bright and shining face when Teacher Wu included him in the fun!


The day of the field trip was "Children's Day" which is kind of a holiday here...or a day for all the other preschools to take field trips. So it was a little redonkulously crowded at the museum. Despite the crowds, Eden is always a show stopper.
I'm including this picture not so that you can see the big pregnant lady's ever-growing abdomen, but so that you'll notice the people on the far left of the photo.


The man's face that basically says, "oh!! look at the little white foreign kid!!"
We're becoming quite familiar with that face.  :)

Eden had a blast on her first preschool field trip. She took cookies that she'd helped me make and handed them out to all her friends and teachers. Most of the kids didn't like them at all...most "sweets" from America are wayyyy too sweet for kids from the Big Chicken! But she loved handing them out, feeling involved, and having a way to participate in the day.

Today when I asked her how preschool went, she said, "Good! I didn't hit anybody today!"
Well, fabulous, Eden!
Good to know she's still got her priorities in order.

Land of Bikes

Parking lots look a little different here...