Full House

This past weekend we set a new record--26 people over to join us for dinner on Saturday night! Several of our western friends have just gotten back in town after a summer in the States, so we kind of had a reunion at our place. Our apartment is not exactly made to hold that great a number, so we got a little creative in spreading out to find places to eat, but the evening went off with out a hitch (as far as the hostessing aspect goes) and with everyone seeming to have a grea time being back together again. It was so sweet to touch base with dear friends, as well as welcome a few new ones to Tianjin, too. We've had Sam and Charis staying with us this past week as they are getting settled in to a new apartment here in Tianjin. After spending the past year in a different city in western China, they are moving here to Tianjin and start language study at the same school Kevin and I are attending. We have been so blessed to have them in our home this past week! As you can tell by the pictures (Eli wrestling with Sam and Noah reading with Charis), the kids LOVE having them around and have gotten super-comfortable with them! Charis and I did a run to E Mart yesterday with Hud along for the ride, and whenever she would get out of sight he was quick to ask (with great concern), "Mom, where is Ms. Charis?" He was keeping close tabs on her for certain!

The other pictures of Hud with the punching gloves on are him showing off a new "gift" he got from one of his favorite people here--Ms. Barbara. Ms. Barbara's son (now a senior in high school) had those gloves that she gave him when he was 3, and she thought she should pass them on to Hud, with the understanding that he is to share them with the other kids. I'm still trying to figure out it the gloves actually soften a blow or add more force to it when he swings, but either way, the kids are loving playing with them (with Hud and Eli most often each wearing one and swinging away at each other--with the rule of no facial punching!), and they normally end up in bed with them, too!

On Sunday, Kevin went to Beijing for the day to watch a young Chinese pitcher throw and give his coaches and agents an evaluation of his performance. He took Karis along with him, after much pleading and some pretty impressive reasoning on her part, even though he knew the day would be long. They had a good time on the trip, but definitely came back with one tired little girl, and we've heard the first complaints this week coming from her about having to get up and go to school so early! I'm pretty sure once she's caught up on her rest, she'll be bouncing out the door as normal, but for now she's dragging more than her usual (yet still comes home with a smile and great stories about her day when she gets off the bus).

Kevin and I started our fall semester this week. I have my same teacher (which I am THRILLED about, as I love her teaching style and her friendship!) and Kevin has one new one and one that he had this summer--both of whom he thinks really highly of. So we're off to a good start!

The other big news is that Hudson is (as I type) at his first morning of pre-school! We walked the 25 minutes to a neighboring apartment complex where a western friend has organized for a Chinese teacher (who also speaks English) to teach a group of 5 little 3-year olds. Our plan is for Hud to go two mornings each week, and hopefully learn a great deal (of Chinese, mainly!) in the process. When we got to the door this morning he started off hiding behind the stroller, but then emerged, was able to manage a "Ni hao, lao shi" (which means, hello teacher) and then bounded into the room at the sight of the toys and things out to play with! He didn't mind at all when Noah and I walked back out the door!

Blue Skies!

Last week ended up without any major incidents to report--thank goodness! Karis and Eli finished up their first full week of school, and both are still LOVING it! In spite of the early mornings and even the homework that Karis has every night, they are anxious to return each day and have LOTS to share when they get off of the bus. They even both learned a song in their Chinese class that they sang to Ayi today when they got home, to her great pleasure! We are super thankful that they are enjoying learning and making new friends like they are!

This weekend was a busy one with friends. We were planning on going to the baseball game on Friday night with a group of western friends, complete with a hot dog picnic dinner packed (and other traditional baseball food that takes a little hunting to find here in Tianjin!). Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs, which (fortunately, due to the amount we spend walking and on bikes!) doesn't happen very often here. We decided to switch plans and most of the group came to our place instead. I was very thankful for our large living room area, since there were about 18 of us dining together.

Saturday turned out to be a rainy day as well, and after a full week of school, the kids were pretty content with sticking close to home and just being together. With the older two being gone so much of the daytime hours, all 4 seem to have a renewed joy with being able to play together! Saturday night we did make it to the baseball game with a group of our teachers and other students from our language school. It was wet, but we still had a blast cheering on the Tianjin team in the last official games of the season. The kids, of course, watched a few innings and then spent the rest of their time running around the infield of the track located behind the baseball field. As you can see in the photo, Noah is keeping in line with the Joseph family tradition of loving baseball, even trying to swing at pitches tossed his way! In spite of a good amount of rain (at least from our Tianjin perspective), we had beautiful skies on Sunday and today, even being able to see blue and some clouds! I couldn't resist taking a photo off of our 11th floor balcony.

Sunday we had one of Kevin's summer school teachers and her fiance over for dinner. She believes the way we do about important things, and is hoping that her fiance will soon do the same. Unfortunately, he literally does not know one other person who is like-minded, thus the intro to Kevin with the hopes of a friendship beginning. I am so thankful for my husband's giftedness in language! While I am struggling still to get out more than a sentence or two in a row, he really is able to converse in a way that makes native-speakers feel comfortable. Talk about a blessing! We realize that one of the bigger challenges here in China is this: that so many of those who are like-minded with us on important things are female, with a huge gap in the number of males who also are like-minded. This obviously puts the ladies in a very difficult position, especially in a culture where marriage is SUCH a huge deal. If you're not married by the time you're 25, you can bank on facing tremendous pressure from your family. One of our struggles is how to encourage and instruct these young women as they ask our opinions on the matter...

On a different note, we're starting to think more about a return trip to Dallas at Christmas time as I look to purchase plane tickets this week! It's made Kevin and me talk about going back to the States and some of the changes we'll experience and feel in the process. We watched a movie the other night (our usual M.O is to rent a movie on iTunes to download and watch on the weekends) and both Kevin and I freaked out at two parts that probably none of you would even think twice about! The first part was when a young woman ran to a bathroom sink and used her cupped hand to get a drink of water from the faucet. We've become so accustomed to staying away from faucet water getting near your mouth, that both Kevin and I caught our breath at the sight! [I even noticed today when our Ayi was filling up our rabbit, Bo's, water bottle, that she used the bottled water rather than tap!] The second part that got our attention was when a guy climbed onto a bed to lay down with his shoes still on. Even though he was on top of the comforter, the sight of shoes anywhere past the first 3 feet of the doorway (which is our new normal, and all of Asia's, due to the incredible filth that is tracked in on your shoes from outside) made Kevin and I both let out an "Ugh! What is he doing?!" We've also see how the kids have gotten used to watching movies, but not so much tv programs. (We did just get cable, which allows us 20 something channels, including 2 kid channels--in Chinese, of course--and an English news channel. We were told by numerous people that this would probably help both us and the kids in our language progression!) When we let the kids watch a tv program and then call them in to the table to eat, their normal request is, "Can you pause it?", convinced that we will oblige (this is especially the case with Hud, the 3 year old)! We have to continually remind them that you can't pause a tv program (at least not ours!), to which we get many protests and arguments (again, mainly from Hud) before he is convinced that we are right! Ah, the transition phase continues...

Quiet House

This week has definitely felt different than our normal routine! With the older two kids at school from 6:45am until 3:45pm, Hudson, Noah and I have been trying to figure out what to do with ourselves! We're having a good time getting more concentrated play time in together, but Hudson has also mentioned at least twice each day that he sure misses Karis and Eli. We are so thankful that our kids genuinely enjoy one another so much! For the past year they have been one another's constant playmates, so I think that each one of them is feeling the separation. Karis and Eli told me on the walk home from the bus stop yesterday that they are sad when they have to part ways in the morning and that they wish they were in the same class.

When they get home in the afternoon, things seem a little bit hectic as we try to figure out the new routine of hearing the details of everyone's day and getting homework done before dinner. Because they are having to get up just after 6am, we're trying to get them in bed earlier, too (by 7 or 7:30pm). And Kevin and I have been amazed at how exhausted we are by that time, as well! I have to confess that there has been a night or two this week that we've been in bed before 10pm!

So Hudson and Noah and I have been doing lots of outside play (as the weather this week has been in the lower 90's rather than upper)--especially baseball--and reading and crafts inside. Hud and I had a "date" to the international school library while Noah stayed home with Ayi--a first for us all! Ayi LOVED the one-on-one time with Noah, and I am so thankful to be able to leave him in such capable hands for a few hours at a time.

One of my favorite moments with Hudson this week was at the bank. He had found a caterpillar on the walk there, and proceeded to carry his new pet in his hand the rest of the distance. When we were in the bank, with caterpillar in hand, Hud sat down next to a woman who was there waiting. When the group of people gathered around us to look at the foreign kids saw that Hud was holding a caterpillar, they all kind of collectively freaked out. (I later found out that there are supposedly a lot of stinging caterpillars here, so the general consensus is to stay away from them.) The woman sitting next to Hud repeatedly asked him, "Ni hai pa ma?" (which means, "Aren't you afraid?"). Hudson, convinced he could communicate with the woman, looked at her and repeated emphatically, "CAT-ER-PILL-AR" enunciating each syllable as if trying to teach the woman to say the English word. The two of them went back and forth several times, each convinced that the other was going to catch on to their own native tongue and respond appropriately--which obviously did not happen! I, however, did get quite a laugh out of the whole situation, and was thankful at least for Hud's attempt to communicate in spite of linguistic differences!

A New Chapter

The house seems so quiet! As I write, Hudson and Noah are taking their usual afternoon naps, but I don't have the company of my oldest two as they are at their first full day of school. Karis went to half a day of 1st grade at the Tianjin International School yesterday, and then again this morning got on the bus with Eli (in the Junior Kindergarten class) today for the first full day of school for the fall semester. I am realizing now the turmoil that most moms (I'm sure) face as they send their little ones off to school for the first time. But honestly, I'm wondering if my feelings aren't even more magnified considering how close our family has been this past year compared to our "normal" back in the States. All four kids have truly been my constant companions for the past 11 months we've been here, with the exception of leaving them with Kevin when I go to class 2 or 3 times a week during afternoon rest time and our occasional date nights out. So it feels like going from a TON of really concentrated time with them to having them gone from 7am til 4pm. Ouch! We're feeling their absence! This morning at the breakfast table after they had gone, Hudson looked around the table and exclaimed, "Only three! That's really bad!" Confused, I looked at the plate still full of muffins and fruit on the table, wondering what we might have only 3 of that was concerning him. When I asked him what there was only 3 of, he responded with, "There's only 3 of us here now! That's really bad!" When I asked him if he missed Karis and Eli already, he admitted that he did.

BUT the great news is that this is truly a completely answered prayer. We have been waiting and hoping all summer that the kids would be accepted and the scholarship would come through that would allow them to attend this amazing school. And it all happened. The day before school started--but it did happen! We literally found out Tuesday morning through an e-mail that the kids had been accepted and approved, and we took off out the door to catch a taxi to catch a train to make it to the Beijing subway to get into another taxi to eventually arrive at the international hospital there in order to get the kids annual check-ups (required by the international school). After getting everyone checked out and a clean bill of health all the way around, we made the return trip home (3 hours of travel each way, to and from Beijing).

The first photo is of the kids "hiding" so that we could get a taxi. We've noted that the taxi drivers in Beijing are particularly "cranky"--and they generally don't like having kids in their taxis. I think I've written before about having the kids hide so that they don't see all of them until they've stopped, we've gotten at least one adult in, and it's too late for them to turn us down! This time, Eli suggested that since we were in BJ, they should hide behind the nearest tree while snacking on the tortillas I'd just purchased at the nearby import store so that we could get a taxi more easily!! The kids (and Kevin and I!) were pooped and ready for bed when we got home, so we rushed them through bath time and bed time routines knowing that Karis had a big first day on Wednesday! I left for school with all 4 kids on the 3 wheeler at a little after 7am. Luckily, the school had the whole morning planned so that the parents were there at the school for meetings, filling out paperwork, and even joining their child for lunch, making the transition a really smooth one for the kids.

Karis LOVED every minute. When she walked in the door after school (Kevin met her for lunch and then biked her back home afterward) and I asked how her first day, she beamed a huge smile and responded with a super-enthusiastic "SO GREAT!" It was priceless, and went a long way in making this emotional mom get things in the right perspective, knowing that my kiddos are exactly where they are supposed to be and that they are most likely going to love every minute of being there!

This morning they started the bus route, so I walked Karis and Eli to our taxi corner (about a 10 minute walk away) where the bus comes at 7am to pick them up and then returns them there at 4pm. The bus, by the way, is HUGE! Not your "normal" school bus for sure. But reflecting on the Tianjin traffic and general driving, I'm really thankful that they are in the largest vehicle on the road, safely wearing a seatbelt (and hoping that this will help them remember what those even are, as we literally haven't used them more than once or twice during our entire 11 months of living here!) I've had a fun day with just Hud and Noah, going to the market, playing with Legos and our bunny Bo, etc., but it will take some getting used to not having the older two here every day! Again, our new "normal" is being redefined. . .

As far as updates on Karis' friend Adah, she is finishing up her first round of treatment of chemo there in Houston. The outpouring of love and offers of service has been amazing and so encouraging. The treatment has gone well so far, but we did just get word that she has developed a fever and had to start antibiotics again, which is a concern due to her severely compromised immune system. The whole family would so appreciate your continued prayers as they journey down this long and incredibly heart-wrenching road.

Tough Week

This week has been one of our more difficult ones emotionally since we've been in China. We found out on Tuesday that our best friends here, Jason and Sara, had to take their daughter in to the hospital due to a fever and some strange arm pain. After hear her symptoms and finding her white blood count to be extremely low, the doctor at the hospital there in Temple, TX (outside of Waco, where Jason, Sara, and their two girls were with family on a two-month leave from China) wanted to have Adah, their 6 year old, tested for Leukemia. They found out that Adah does indeed have an acute and rare form of the disease (AML Leukemia), and she was admitted and immediately began pretty aggressive treatment. The family has since been moved to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX, where Adah will undergo treatment for 6 months or longer, with her almost two-year old sister, Claire, most likely to be her bone marrow donor (assuming she is a match, which is being tested right now as I write).

The news has shocked and horrified all of us here in Tianjin, and has broken our hearts for this whole family. The amazing thing has been to see how so many people have stepped up to help out--with everything from offering cars and housing, to wanting to help out financially, as the medical bills will obviously be huge.

On a personal level, the reality of the situation is still setting in for our family. Jason and Sara have been our best friends here, with the rare combination of both husbands and wives genuinely both loving spending time together, making double dates and family dinner nights part of our regular routine. Jason and Sara have truly been our kindred spirits here, as well as voices of wisdom, since they have lived here in China for about 8 years now. And Adah and Karis are the best of friends (who even allow the little brothers and sister to join in their fun), so the kids, too, are grieving the fact that their friends are not returning, at least for quite some time (we are hearing that it will most likely be a full 2 years before international travel would be permitted for Adah, assuming that all goes well with the treatment). Kevin and I have been able to stay busy, trying to coordinate logistics for our friends of letting people know what is going on and trying to help take care of details, both in TX and here in China, so I think the depth of pain is still to be felt. And yet the hole of missing loved ones already is still very much there.

The photo I'm including is of Karis' birthday celebration with Adah and her little sister Claire at the table. The family would so appreciate your prayers!

On a lighter note, our family had a fun Sunday (last week) celebrating Kevin's 34th birthday! We had our usual Sunday night pizza and Dr. Pepper for dinner, with Kevin's favorite brownie, pudding, and whipped cream dessert (thank you for that recipe, Amy B!). After eating the dessert the kids wanted to know how much longer we had to wait before it was some else's birthday again. . . :)

The kids also had interviews with their potential teachers this week at the international school. They both passed (whew!), and I got good reports from their teachers at the conclusion of the meetings. So now we're only waiting on the details of their possible scholarship (which is a necessary condition of them attending the school, due to the high cost of international school tuitions). Considering that school starts this week on Wednesday, I'm chomping at the bit to find out what the details are, wanting to so badly to plan and prepare. But alas, I think I am going to have to be patient until the last moment, trusting Him with the details! (And I'm realizing more and more that this is NOT my strong suit!)

On the way to their interviews, I overheard Eli in the back of the three wheeler talking with Karis. He told her that he wished he was a bird so that he could fly to Dallas! It was really cute--and not said with a sadness or frustration with China, but just a genuine desire to be in Dallas and see people and places that he misses. I followed up on his comment with a talk about our upcoming visit to Dallas this December, and it was really cute to see the kids all getting excited about people and things there. He's started praying at the dinner table before meals, "And God, please let the days go by quickly until we can go back to Dallas to visit."

The other pic I'm including is from the baseball game we attended last night. We went to cheer for the Tianjin team and spent time with Lief's parents who were there, as well. I think our 4 little ones drew more attention than the game did (if you can see in the background of the photo, more people are watching the picture being taken than the game!), and I captured just one of the many photo ops that our kids have, initiated by Chinese parents wanting to have their kids photo taken with a Western kid.