We tried to throw a little birthday party on Friday night for one of our good friends here, Jennifer, who is a teacher at the international school. The only problem was, we didn't have all the information we needed to be exactly accurate on the timing! She had told us her birthday last year was on Nov. 20, but that was actually based on the lunar calendar rather than our normal solar calendar. So we had a surprise set-up for her, with signs, balloons, cupcakes, a gift, etc., only to find out we are a little bit early this year! She's not even exactly sure when her calendar year birthday is this year! Isn't that crazy?! We all decided that you don't really need to have a good reason to have a party anyway, so everyone had a great time celebrating and eating strawberry cupcakes, but we did have a good laugh about the timing of birthdays here in China and how confusing it is to so many people because of using two different calendars (not to mention how many people I've met who have had mistakes made when they are renewing different id cards; leaving them with multiple birth dates on official documents. I have one teacher who has no idea when her actual birthday is, as she has three different records of it and her mom's memory is based on the lunar calendar and is not totally accurate!).
On Saturday night we had our last night with Kevin's dear friend, Lief for a while. He is headed out of town to do training with a new job he's just gotten--teaching English to kids! He will no longer be a professional baseball player, and is really excited about this opportunity to help open up his future. He's been looking and hoping for something else to do (besides just playing baseball), and feels like this is His provision for him. On Monday night he came over and the kids and Kevin and I taught him three kids songs in English (Wheels on the Bus, Hokey Pokey, and one other I'm blanking on now) along with the hand motions to go with them. We practiced for hours! Kevin and I laughed after he left that the best thing we could be doing at that time to serve him was to sing kids songs with him for hours on end! Hey, you never know... But his interview was on Tuesday and they loved him, so by Wednesday he had accepted the offer and is now beginning a month-long out of town training process. We're sad that we won't see him for quite some time, as he returns right before Christmas when we will already be back in the States. We're also wondering how this will affect the easy access Kevin has had with the baseball team, now that one of the players has left the team to go teach English (presumably due to Kevin's influence). There's a good chance that the coaches will put an end to Kevin's weekly English lessons there at the field, but we're sure hoping that it won't!
One of my best friend's husbands wrote a book (Donovan Campbell, Joker One) that Kevin and I have claimed a line from. He writes, "It was a solid plan, and it worked for about twenty meters." We like to think that we have a solid plan going here, but also realize that in reality, it may very well be more of a 20 meter plan than a well-working, long-term one! We're doing all that we can and lifting it up each step of the way; the rest is just not up to us!!
So two things happened this week that totally threw me for a loop that NEVER would do so in the States. One was a note home from Karis' school, giving instructions about clothes she has to wear for her Christmas school performance in two weeks. She is supposed to wear jeans (not a problem, thanks to G Ma and G Pa sending a pair this spring that fit!), and a dark, solid-colored shirt (with nothing on it). Sounds totally simple and easy, right?! Not so! In China, finding something without "bling" is truly next to impossible! There just is not Gap style clothing (meaning more basic) and certainly no Target or Wal Mart anywhere close by! I went to a local Chinese market that I've been hearing about having great factory-reject stuff that should be exported to the US, but came up totally blank. So Karis and I took off across town on Saturday afternoon while the boys were having rest time to our one hope--the H&M store that has recently opened this fall. We returned 4 1/2 hours later successfully, after having gone only to Starbucks, H&M, and a restaurant where I had ordered food in advance for us to pick up. And the duration of the trip was NOT due to our extended shopping time, it's just amazing how everything here takes so long! The lines for the fitting rooms, the lines for the check out, trying to catch a taxi, fighting traffic. I tell you what, living in a city of 11 million people is enough to make me long for the wide open spaces of my family's property in east Texas--and my own mini-van to get there in!!
And the other photos (besides the first two of Jennifer's bday celebration) are of Hudson with his pre-school teacher and my friend Natalie (and her daughter Jenda) who host the group of kids each day. The pic of Noah is him with Blaise, Natalie's little boy who is a month older than Noah and his good buddy at Sunday school!
On a humorous note, I had a totally awkward question asked of me this week--and it wasn't the first time to get it. While talking with a group of Chinese ladies at a store, they asked me which of my 4 kids was my favorite! I insisted (as best I could with my limited grammatical structure knowledge) that I loved them all equally and did not have a favorite. They informed me that this was just not possible, and insisted that I tell them which one I liked best! It was crazy! And I was so thankful that the kids did not understand enough to know what was going on; but talk about counter-cultural, where in the US we go to SUCH extremes to make sure every kid knows they are loved equally, etc. That just isn't the case here in China! If you are the favorite child (which normally doesn't apply, since the vast majority of young families here can only have one kid), then you know it and that is just the way it is. One cultural difference our family will never adapt to, for sure!
Off to awaken the sleeping dragon (that would be Noah, our child known throughout all of Tianjin for his "large temper and disposition") and go play outside with the boys before heading to class myself. We're so thankful to have warm enough weather still to take advantage of lots of outdoor time! I have no doubt this winter will fly by compared to last year...
