Wow. Talk about frustration hitting a maximum! I've been feeling totally swamped in trying to catch up on life this week, but "things" keep seeming to happen that slow me down! I set aside all last night to FINALLY catch up on the blog, and after spending well over an hour, it all (except for the first word!) disappeared into cyber space. Zenme ban?! (That means, "what can you do?!") So here we go again. Rather than going as in-depth as I had on the last one, I've lowered my goal to at least get you all caught up on the last three weeks we've been away from the computer, and then will have to follow up with details from this week hopefully later this week!
So in an attempt to justify my truancy from Chopstick Rookies, I'll back up to Jan. 18, the last date I posted a blog update. That night, I came down with horrible flu-like symptoms. After 3 days of total misery (with me feeling like death warmed over and unable to get out of bed and Kevin managing his usual load PLUS all the extra kid/home/school duties for the kids), we decided it was time to head to the international hospital in Beijing and get my body some help! Kevin had a speaking engagement that morning at the international school for the elementary kids' chapel service, so while on his way, he managed to get friends lined up to watch kids and a driver arranged to bring the two of us into Beijing. Thankfully, the trip only took about 2 and a half hours, and I spent the rest of the day getting pumped with all sorts of stuff through an IV (anti-nausea meds, ibuprofen, and finally antibiotics). After running tests we discovered that my illness was NOT a major bout with the flu, but rather a bacterial infection that had most likely come through something I'd eaten (so food poisoning!). What was almost as big a bummer as feeling like my body was absolutely going to shut down on me was the fact that I'm pretty confident that the food culprit was the Subway sandwich I had eaten for lunch the day I'd gotten sick! Talk about disappointing when one of the major tastes of home you can get is all of a sudden marked off of your list of possible comfort food options (at least until I forget about the misery it caused!)!!
So while we were at the international hospital, the cultural differences between Chinese medicine and western medicine still shined through! When we first arrived, my fever was at 104 and I was trying to keep down some cold water (which felt great on my parched throat). But in China, you're not supposed to drink cold water, especially in the winter! So I was totally fussed at by the nurse. And in fact, I'm pretty sure that she marked somewhere on my chart that the cold water must have been the cause of my condition rather than the bacteria I had ingested from bad meat!! Then when they brought me some Tylenol to take, the cup of water they handed me was hot water! I had to laugh a little as I tried to choke down the pills with water that was almost to warm to swallow comfortably!
After being treated all day, the doctor felt fairly confident in the diagnosis of the food poisoning, but I still had a fever and had only had the antibiotics in my system for a few hours (and I have a history of being somewhat resistant to different forms of antibiotics for infections). So rather than going back home to Tianjin, he recommended that we spend the night in a nearby hotel so that if my symptoms got worse, we could quickly return to the hospital. [He also gave us the option of spending the night in the hospital, but said that we wouldn't be getting treated, just observed, and it would probably cost us around $4000! He was pretty confident we could find a hotel that suited our preferences for cheaper than that.] So as I finished up my treatment, Kevin walked around the neighborhood and found a hotel. I found it ironic that the week before I had told a friend that I was having a itch to try to find friends to watch the kids and have Kevin and I be able to get away to a hotel for a night--away from the usual routine, early morning wake ups by the kids, and responsibilities you feel when at home. So I did get my night away with my hubby, but after 3 days of eating only 1/3 of a banana I'm pretty sure I was not the engaging companion that makes a fun trip like that as fun as it could have been! Talk about slightly different circumstances than I had imagined!
The antibiotics did work their magic, and by the next day I was able to walk around some and we headed back to Tianjin to the kids, arriving by early afternoon. While we were gone, the kids had a blast! We had two friends pick them up from the school bus and bring them home (Sam and Charis), then they went to another family's house (the Thorpes) to play and eat dinner, then another friend came over and had a sleepover on our couch (Barb), and then Sam and Charis came back the next day with lunch and to relieve Barb in watching the wild hoodlums until we got home. I'm pretty sure the kids didn't even know we were gone! We can't begin to express how thankful we are for the "family" we have here who are so willing to go above and beyond to serve our family. We are truly blessed beyond what we could have asked for or imagined!
So after we returned from Beijing I had several days to finish preparing for our trip to Thailand. Our company has an annual conference there for its employees that involves times of fellowship and training.
Our time in Thailand was amazing! We had fantastic teaching and time connecting with others, and to make it ever better, some of my family was able to come! My brother-in-law, Rob, and sister, Sarah, headed up the kids program for the whole week we were there. And they brought along my mom and their little 18 month old, Ben, too! So while we were in meetings for 7 hours a day, they were in charge of entertaining and keeping alive 31 kids between the ages of 1 1/2 and 17 (with several other helpers, too). They did an AMAZING job, and were thoroughly pooped by the end of the week! While having them there was a blessing beyond words, I must admit that the sweetness also left a bitter taste as we returned to China this past weekend and were reminded of how difficult the separation is from those we love so dearly. I have shed more than a tear or two this week in that capacity....
But on a lighter note, one of my favorite memories from the week was Noah and his response to the natural beauty we were surrounded by while in Thailand. One of Noah's favorite past times is to have someone hold him to look out the large windows in our apartment and look down (we're on the 10th and 11th floors of our building) on the world below to see what is going on. Being such an industrial city, Tianjin is spotted with tall smoke towers from the factories, that billow smoke out most of the time the factories are up and running, adding to the lovely pollution problem that stains the image of China (and our lungs!). Whenever Noah spies one of these towers, he frantically points with his hand and starts puffing air out of his mouth in quick spurts until you, too, acknowledge that you are aware of the smoke stack. So the first day we were in Thailand (and throughout our time there), Noah looked up into the sky, spied a fluffy white cloud in the clear blue sky, and started huffing and puffing away! It didn't take us any time to realize what he was thinking--that this cloud was another smoke stack--and we realized that he not only can't see the sun easily, but also how rarely he sees clouds due to the haze that covers the sky from the pollution! We tried to teach him the difference between the cloud and smoke, but not quite sure his little 20-month old mind is catching on yet!
So now we are back in China. The cultural adjustment has been harder than we expected. Man, what I wouldn't give for a backyard or a place for my kids to run out and expend some energy in for a few minutes while I finish getting dinner on the table! When we returned from the States, I think we had prepared ourselves mentally and emotionally for the adjustments back into a foreign country, but for some reason they seem to be felt more a month and a half later as we return from a more brief trip internationally. I'm off to help get the boys down for naps, but hope to return to the keyboard later this week with more tantalizing tidbits about our cultural realizations and how they continue to grow...
