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!!