Josh's First Day of School and Intro to Danny's Classroom

Today started off great, with a pancake breakfast, and skyping with both sets of grandparents. It is the morning of Josh’s first day back to school. This year he is at the same school as last year, but now he is the “big kid” in school and in the oldest class. What a different perspective this is for him than last year. He has many friends that will be returning and he is already familiar with his teacher and the school.

After we eat, I take pictures of Josh before we go…he so sweetly asks Danny to come to school with him and into his classroom (it was so sweet that I did not point out the fact that since Danny does not start school until tomorrow, he has no choice but to have Danny come with us J ). We take our golf cart and head down the road to school. We arrive and it is so nice to see all the teachers and staff welcoming Josh back. Josh’s teacher tells us how his good friend Fitz was waiting for him and asking for him all day yesterday (I kept Josh home the first day so he could start on a half day of school—Josh will have three afternoon programs—cooking on Monday, swimming on Wednesday and Music on Friday—he had swimming last year, but we felt he was ready for the other additional days). Josh put his bag away and he and Danny headed to the slide and ball pit they have in the open play area. We were not there long when his two friends, Fitz and Annabelle arrived. It was so cute to see them reunite--they were truly joyful to see one another. It made me feel so good about leaving him there for the school day.

After saying our good-byes, Danny and I headed to the bank and the bakery for more bread. It was fun to just spend the morning with Danny and myself. We headed home after our errands for me to try and give Danny a haircut. I have begun giving him haircuts here in China as they are never consistent when I pay someone else to do it. I had brought Danny to a hair place before we left Indianapolis, but apparently I did not ask for enough off, as it still looks like it is thick and hot. Danny suffered through the long ordeal of me cutting his hair, and I was actually quite pleased with my handy work. We spent a little time reading and then headed off to the restaurant to meet everyone for lunch.

I did not realize it was such a huge group, but it was a lot of fun. The group was made up of women and their children that attend our church. There were a lot of our friends there, and some new people that are just moving into the area. Danny was a little overwhelmed by the group at first, but I brought him over to where his friend Matthew was sitting and playing, and they quickly bonded all over again. They decided to sit on the opposite side of where many of the children were sitting. The other boys must have liked this idea, because within minutes they had joined Matthew and Danny on that side of the room. I was totally impressed with the service of the restaurant (service is NOT a strength of China) and how they quickly got everyone’s drinks and food. After quickly eating while visiting, I left to grab Josh from school and bring him back. I arrived to get him at 1pm and they looked at me like what are you doing—turns out his day does not end until 1:30 on his short days. I still had the schedule from last year. They kindly allowed Josh to leave early, as I had planned to have him nap before I left with Danny to his school at 2. Josh and I raced back to the restaurant, and we visited for a few more minutes before we all left. We were able to get home and have a much desired lollipop snack and read some books before Josh went up for a nap and Danny and I left for his school.

Danny school has made some changes, and the main one I would say is the color they painted the walls…it is a bright and I mean BRIGHT yellow. So, this was a little bit of a shock as we entered the building. We quickly recovered though and headed down to his new classroom. Danny was just brimming with excitement. He is so thrilled he is a Kindergartner this year! His teacher and teacher assistant greeted us and we explored his classroom. Both teachers were both very sweet, and I am really excited for Danny. She had many students stopping in to say hello and give hugs (that is allowed here in China, unlike the US where it is now such a huge no-no. I was actually surprised to see it happen last year, but now I am back to thinking why on earth are we so crazy over this issue?) I felt this was such a wonderful sign of the type of teacher she is in her classroom! We looked at his schedule of his day and Danny just lit up over the idea that he now has science class, art in the art room, and drama at the end of the day. There is of course math, reading and writing and Chinese class, but he had those last year, so it was not as thrilling. J I am really looking forward to this year for the boys, and just know already that they are going to grown and mature so much!!

As Dustin had to work late tonight, we gave him a call so Danny could share the exciting news of science class. ;) We ended the evening with the boys and I eating spaghetti leftovers (I over estimated how many noodles and sauce I needed yesterday, we are good on spaghetti for quite a few meals to come). We enjoyed talking and sharing about the exciting parts of the day and then heading to bed to prepare for another exciting day!

Meeting New Friends and Entertaining Colleagues

Today was filled to the max. I left the boys with my ayi and ran to Carrefour (as I have learned in the 2 years of living here, Do Not Take the Children Here!, as everyone stares and or tries to touch the children’s faces or hair). So, I left as early as I could to run my errands and left them in the skilled hands of Hong Li and a Curious George video (TV shows we bought and brought here with us). My trip needed to fit into a short period of time, yet I needed a lot of things. Not only items for our family, but also food for a lunch I was making that day for friends, and food for dinner I was making for Dustin and two of his colleagues. Finally, I needed to find a new showerhead, as literally the water this morning was just trickling down--not sure what happened over the summer to it, but a trickle is not going to work. I was so proud of how I whipped around the store and even ran to the BQ (similar to home depot, but not as good) to grab my shower head.

I got home and had about an hour before I told Lindsay that it was okay to arrive. Our lunch today was with my good friend Lindsay and her children and a mother we had both been emailing over the summer , who just moved to Shanghai for the first time. She was bringing her two little girls with her today.

I quickly moved into high gear to get the salad ready for the moms (children were going to be just having hot dogs and mac n cheese, so that was simple) Bless her, Lindsay offered to bring something, and I quickly assigned her dessert. The best part of the preparation for our friends arriving was how Danny helped me get ready. (Josh was good too as he went off and played while I ran around the kitchen--sometimes just the offer to remain out of the way is such a huge blessing :) ). Danny asked if he could help me numerous times. I know other parents will realize this actual big accomplishment of Danny here…he has moved from helping and it really just slowing me down, but I want him to learn, so I have him help me, to the point where he helps and it is a great service and help to me. I was so excited and so thrilled for him for how much he has matured and grown up. He is such a sweet guy and I really appreciated the extra help he gave me!

Lindsay and her children arrived first and this was so nice, as we had some time to just visit ourselves. I find that once school starts it is hard for her and I to connect and have that time one on one. (Her children go to the British school--this is fairly common here that some American families end up in the British school system here, but it leaves us and the kids on different schedules).

Our new friend arrived and she was just as sweet as her e-mails. Her two children were shy at first, but then slowly warmed up to our brood of kids (Lindsay has 3 children). In talking with her it brought back such a flood of memories. Her children are the exact same age my boys were when we moved here. She is full throttle into the time of happy exploration, and the overwhelming parts of daily life here. She has two blond children, and her youngest has the most gorgeous blue eyes. This of course has brought them the same crazy attention we received. Plus she said she has brought their double stroller, which does not obviously exist here with their one child policy, so I am sure she gets a lot of attention pushing that stroller. The good news is she has access to her driver fairly frequently, so this should help her settle into life a lot easier. I truly look forward to getting together with her again and getting to know her more.

Once all our friends left, I put Josh down for a much needed nap and grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on the sofa with Danny. I was exhausted! Of course we had not sat there long when I received a text from Dustin saying they would be early. So, I quickly drank my cup of coffee and swung back into gear. I prepared the bruschetta I was making for an appetizer and then worked on making the spaghetti sauce (Dustin and I decided we would keep it simple, which has also turned into my new mantra of entertaining…simple easy food that everyone enjoys). I of course had forgotten to get the meat out of the freezer, so I quickly put it into a water bath and was so grateful to God that it defrosted and I was able to complete the sauce before they arrived.

Dustin’s colleagues were very nice (we had met one, but our family had not met his other colleague). I went up to get Joshua from his nap and the poor guy was exhausted (still trying to get over that jet lag). He just clung to me. Then, once I got him unglued from me, (remember I am trying to pull of a dinner party--even if it is with just spaghetti I had still things to complete) Josh just sat in the kitchen with me. Finally, I was able to get him to sit with me on the sofa between Dustin and one of the new colleagues. He warmed up about half way through dinner, and by the end of dinner was dancing to the music Dustin put on—his normal self.

Overall, it was a great day back into our life here in China—filled with friends, new friends, and entertaining visitors. Now tomorrow we have Josh starting school a lunch out with friends and more new people moving into the area, and Danny meeting his teacher and seeing his classroom. Should be another great day!

Making the Transition Back to Shanghai

Had the most wonderful summer with family and friends! We are so truly blessed by our family. They continually worked their schedules around for us so we could spend the maximum time with them while we were home. So sweet and lovely! My boys so enjoyed spending time with their grandparents and Aunts and Uncles, but most of all with their cousins, who they consider to be their best friends. It fills me with such joy to see them all getting along so well. I was blessed with similar relationships growing up with my cousins, and prayed my boys would have this same closeness. It is so wonderful to see them play with them all.

The hard part of this summer was that Danny was one year older, and therefore truly able to understand what it means to head back to China and say goodbye for now to our family and friends. While there was anger and tears, I was so proud of how he was able to fairly quickly redirect these emotions to looking forward to our life in China and looking forward to when we return to the States to see everyone again at Christmas time.

I think the part of living here that astounds me the most is how separate our lives at home in the US and our home in China feels to us. I truly feel like I have to switch gears going from one location to another because life in both places is so widely different from each other. The differences span from the appearances of our surrounding to the way of life, to the simple fact that in China we are separate physically from family and friends back home, and when in the US we are separated most usually from Dustin and then also from what has become our surrogate family here in China--our China friends (mostly from our expat community and church community here).

I must say the transition is a little like you having to flip a light switch…of course you have a 14-15 hour flight to do that flipping in, so it is not too bad. By the time we were arriving here this time the boys were excitedly talking about the upcoming school year and their friends and of course the most about seeing Dustin. When they awoke in the plane to land into Shanghai, they were literally jumping up and down (no worries…this was sitting down style jumping with their seatbelts on) in their seats and chanting “we’re going to see Dad, we’re going to see Dad.” So unbelievably cute!

We unloaded the plane and headed to security to be greeted with the fact that the man in security did not feel we qualified for the special lane (usually families get to go in this lane and speed up the process as the little ones are still really tired upon arriving). After smiling at the camera with our passports, we headed to baggage. (Chinese security requires them to look at each passport then ask you to look at them to make sure it is really you, and then you must smile into a camera…this of course is quite funny now as Josh’s passport picture is really a baby photo and Danny is about the age of Josh is now in his photo. I also have grown my hair long, so it is quite a leap for them to make).

At baggage, I usually have someone help me pull all the bags off the conveyor, but that evening no one was there. So, I lugged the 5 suitcases onto two carts myself, and had Danny help me push one. I then pushed the other cart, while pulling Josh in the stroller behind me. He fussed at first, but I explained he was being like Mater (Cars movie) who drives backwards a lot. We as always were a sight to behold. J We were of course greeted almost immediately by the worst part of Chinese society--the rudeness…while trying to push through the last security arches with the two carts and stroller. I cannot tell you how many Chinese people tried to push past us with their carts or rolling suitcases. All I could think was, you have got to be kidding me…you see a 5 year old (okay he looks like he is 8 because he is so tall, but that is still a young child) pushing a large cart that he can just barely control, and a mother pushing another cart and with her other free hand she is dragging a stroller loaded with a very tired toddler and you do not think to give them some room, or even more shockingly offer to help. Their total lack of awareness or care for others is to me one of the craziest and saddest part of their society. We made it through finally, and Dustin hopped over the line of people to help Danny with his cart. Unfortunately, it was out of security that I realized that I left a suitcase behind. We came with 6 not 5 bags. Thankfully it was not the situation I did on the way to the US, in which I left our suitcase at the end of our bed…yes the suitcase that contained all our clothes, toiletries and presents for everyone. Rather, I left it on the conveyor belt. Only problem is we’re in a communist country with tight security and a language barrier. Thank the Lord for my husband, who has master quite a bit of Mandarin, and he was able to explain what I did and that we needed to go get it. After a little stress, we got all the bags and headed home.

Amazingly I have managed to unpack everything already, however, I must say I will be spending the first weeks of the kids being back in school organizing my storage room and closets that hold all the food and crafts and random things we cannot buy here (or cost an obscene amount here) that we have brought from home and is just randomly stacked in there now.

Looking forward to this fall and getting back into the swing of things here. Promise to keep this blog going as well this year. J

Snow, Snow and more Snow

The coldest time in Shanghai in 3o years and now we are having record snowfall. The past couple of days have been quite interesting with Josh being so sick (rota virus) and all the snow. It has snowed here for the past three days, but mostly melted. The newspaper said it was suppose to end yesterday (although weather reporting here is quite suspect), but we woke this morning to three more inches, and it has not stopped snowing yet. This type of snow is quite rare as we are even with Houston, Texas, and like there the city is not prepared for this type of weather. Bless their soles, the guards and people that help garden the public areas of our subdivision were out shoveling snow with garden shovels and brooms, as there is nothing else to use. Drove Danny to school in the golf cart thinking the whole time that this was not what the vehicle was meant to do. Yet, it worked great. Josh and I even made it the little farther distance to the clinic to have him checked out. I feel so bad for the little guy and she said at least two more days with this rota virus. I will definitely have the Toy Story trilogy memorized by that point. We have watched it over and over this week. One blessing is I believe the rest of us will not get it as rota virus is usually only contagious for little ones like Josh.

Well, he has fallen asleep next to me, so I am off to carry the little guy up to his bed.

A New Year is Dawning

We are back in China after a fantastic time home this past Christmas. We are quickly approaching our 2 year anniversary, and Dustin has been given the green light (not full green, but 98% or so) to build the plant. Actually as I speak he is signing contracts. This of course means our time here in China will be the full time of 4 more years. As it streches out in front of us, I must admit it seems like a long time. Especially since in that time we will say goodby to many of our closest friends here. However, we do feel this is our rightful place and are so excited for what the boys will be able to learn this this time period.

I must say our schedule here now that Dustin is in full swing of getting the pieces in place for the plant, okay really our schedule most times here, was a shock in comparison to the blissful family time we had at Christmas. He is having to work long hours, and has not been able to be home most nights. He did a great father son day with Danny last Saturday and I can already see that this will be some great bonding time for the boys. One great blessing of Dustin's work is his ability to schedule in the kids school activities, like Danny's upcoming assembly where his class will be doing a song. It is an adjustment for us all as we get back into the swing of things. This is always tempered by the fact that in China you get back into the swing from Christmas, and then everyone is off for Chinese New Year. I do pray that the time afterwards will be an easier adjustment.

Dustin and I anticipated this time between Christmas and Chinese New Year would be insane, so we made the decision to travel for this Chinese New Year. It will be some good family time before we all hit the grind again!

This week has lead to some adjustments back, but also was thrown a little loop when Josh came down with the stomach bug on Sunday morning. It will hopefully leave him soon, and hopefully skip over the rest of us, as this next week and a half before we leave for Chinese New Year is packed full.

We have pictures being taken this Saturday, and we have friends coming over that are sadly leaving China on the 1st of Feb. Our family will really miss them as they are wonderful people, extremely down to earth and sweet, and their son is one of Danny's closest friends here. We were expecting them to leave in June, but they are having to leave early due to her health situation.

Overall, we are back into the life God has blessed us with here. We are so fortunate, and we are reminded of this wherever we look here. We look forward to see what God has in store for us personally here in China and for our family. May God bless you all!!