God's Continual Faithfulness

Today was a day just filled with moments of God blessing me in different ways. We headed to Danny's school and from there I went with one of the other moms to a women's bible study group in the neighborhood next to us. We were running a little early, so we were trying to walk slow. On the way we bumped into a mutual friend that neither of us had time to catch up with yet since being back in China. It was great to finally be able to stop and visit for awhile rather than just passing on the go.

We arrived at the bible study and I began meeting the women already present. We had a nice visit over coffee and a light breakfast. We then moved into the other room and did the formal introduction of everyone. It was great to hear everyone's backgrounds, and where they had lived before Shanghai. There are quite a few Americans in the group--quite a few actually from the midwest. Josh did pretty decent in the meeting, he had been pretty tired before we took Danny school--so much so that he brought his blanket with him. As Josh was still doing okay, I stayed a little longer and visited with some of the women after the formal meeting part ended. One of the ladies just got here a couple of weeks ago and was visibly in the part of ready to scream running about how crazy it is to live here. It amazes me looking back, that the culture shock I felt and what she is going through was not in the big things like I thought it was going to be, but rather in all the small things that just drove you nuts. (i.e.--not stopping for pedestrians, etc). After talking with her and another lady that I had previously ran into at our church, we began talking to our host. We were talking about grocery shopping and where to purchase items that you can feel safe about feeding to your family and self. There are quite a few stories here about the amount of pesticides they use here and other methods of not so safe food processing. Our host gave us two fantastic sites--one for ordering vegetables and another for purchasing meat. I am really excited about this, and also the great resource these women will be to me not only in finding things in the city, but also just a great support network.

After leaving the bible study I headed home with Josh, I was able to stay longer than I thought because Josh actually fell asleep shortly after the meeting. When we got home, I was expecting our ayi to have lunch prepared for us (I had requested this last week, and even had Dustin help translate). Unfortunately, when we got home, she did not have anything made. (She had brought in the ingredients this morning, so I knew she was prepared to make it, and was not sure what happened). Josh and I just sort of regathered up our stuff and then headed down to the clubhouse for lunch (I am sure she was trying to figure out why we came back only to leave two minutes later). I was a little frustrated as we headed to the clubhouse, but God turned it into a great blessing. Josh and I had no sooner sat down when some of the women from the bible study came in for lunch (as I was leaving I had overheard that they were going to go out for lunch). I was therefore able to have lunch with them and had a great time visiting more with them. If our ayi had made lunch I would have missed out on this completely.

As Josh slept earlier, I kept him up (with the plan for him to nap later with Danny) and we played until it was time to get Danny from school. Before we went to get Danny I started feeling extremely tired. The kind where I feel like just weeping. The great news to my exhaustion, really an answer to prayer, was when I got downstairs (we were playing upstairs) our ayi was making up what I thought was going to be the lunch. So the fact that there was a major miscommunication actually worked out for the best in the end, because I have dinner already made now. The boys are sleeping now for their nap, and we will try her dumplings for dinner. God is so good.

While I was typing this out our ayi came in to say goodbye and she tried to tell me something in Chinese. The only part I understood was tomorrow. I thought she was talking about the meal she made, so I was trying to say that we were going to eat it for dinner. Of course I was saying this mostly in English with Chinese thrown in. She shook her head and asked for paper (with hand motions that is), and she wrote out a phone number and three Chinese characters. I have no idea what the characters mean. She then spoke again in Chinese with the only thing I understood was telephone (she held up her hand like a telephone) and the number three, I know my numbers up to ten. So, I have decided that there are a couple of scenarios she could have said to me--She might have said she cannot come until three tomorrow and she will call, or I am to call this number at three (which may or may not be hers), someone is going to call me at three tomorrow, or she was saying someone called here today at three and she will see me tomorrow. I am sure there are plenty of other possibilities, but I have no idea. I just had to smile to myself and think of how funny life can be here in China, especially when you do not know the language. Definitely makes you realize you have to depend on God for everything and trust God in everything, because the self reliance thing can only go so far here--you can pretend so much easier that you are the one in control in the US. I guess I will find out tomorrow what this message means. Although, now that I am thinking of it, maybe I will go to the office and see if they can read the characters she wrote out and dig through my contacts to see if the number matches anyone I already know.

Looking forward to a short evening and heading to bed early. I am going to the fabric market with Erin tomorrow and that should be a lot of fun. I believe I successfully told Tom when to pick us up and the street we need to go to tomorrow. Just in case though, I texted Dustin what I told Tom, so if I said something wrong, he can maybe straighten it out. Tomorrow will be another adventure I am sure. Overall, a truly blessed day, and I look forward to what tomorrow holds.