Believe it or not, we're still alive here and kickin' in Tianjin.
I've just been swamped and haven't found the time to get to the ole'
blog! My apologies for any who feared we'd fallen off the globe
completely.....
So where to begin? I think the most
eventful things as of late have been our trip to Thailand and our
current preparations for our next transition. For Chinese New Year, our
family took off for a full two weeks of "vacation" time in Thailand.
Not much time to actually be lounging on the beach, but we made the most
of the clear-sky days that we could, finding lots of fun sea life
(including live eels that we stumbled upon while exploring some rock
formations not too far off the shoreline!) and drinking as many coconut
smoothies as we could find along the roadside. We had our fair share of
mangoes, some that we picked directly off the trees, discovered a snake
in our path (thankfully NOT a cobra), and were truly refreshed by our
time with friends and the meetings we had. 
Getting to
Thailand was the first part of the adventure. I had purchased our
tickets back in October, and had the confirmation numbers, proof of
payment, and all the other flight details all printed out in my file
that I showed them at the ticket counter when we tried to check in 2 1/2
hours before our flight. We were informed, however, that although they
had our names in their computer, our tickets had not gone through the
final confirmation process, so we didn't have seats! It literally took
the entire 2 1/2 hours to get the permission they needed by phone to get
us on the flight. And that happened 4 minutes before the flight was
scheduled to take off! We ended up sweet talking our way into the VIP
security lane, rushing through that to sprint through the airport--each
kid pulling their own carry-on bag--as if we aren't already enough of a
spectacle--and racing to get on the flight that they held for a few
minutes until we got there. They informed us that our bags would not be
on the flight (and they didn't know which flight they would be on),
that we didn't have seats confirmed from the other China city we were
stopping over in to Bangkok (our second leg of our ticket) and they
didn't have meals on us for the flight because they weren't counting on
six "extra" passengers! The good news is, I had a bag of pb&j
sandwiches in tow (I've traveled enough internationally to know that you
never know what you're gonna get!), our bags were the first ones off
the conveyer belt when we arrived in the other China city (they
obviously got them onto our flight somehow!), and we miraculously had
seats confirmed on the final leg of our journey. It was a really neat
picture to see the Father's hand in all things--He wanted us to get to
Thailand on time; so we got to Thailand on time, in spite of missing
every "mile marker" that we supposedly did (bags getting on, time to get
through security and board the plane, etc). Boy, did it make us
thankful to be in Thailand in light of the fact that we were so
uncertain for those 2 1/2 hours of waiting that we would actually get to make the trip!
We returned to find that it had snowed in Tianjin the day we arrived! Thankfully it didn't affect our flight's arrival; only our bodies were a bit confused to be sunburned and yet freezing in our long underwear once again. I must confess mixed emotions upon our return. It sure felt good to be back in our own home, but I was also pretty grossed out just walking out of the airport and dodging the huge loogies that were all over the sidewalk. There are some aspects of China-living that I'm not sure I'll ever get totally used to....
The
past 3 weeks since our return have been crazy busy. We jumped back
into teaching the day after we got back in town, and we've also added on
the responsibilities that go with preparing for a move. I've had 2
moving companies come to give us estimates over the past week (we're
planning on storing all of our furniture for the 4 or 5 months we are
not here, then having it shipped out west). We've had a friend come in
town--another American who started a baseball company in another city
here in China who is moving this next month to the same western city we
are heading to! He is trying to open a similar company and would like
for Kevin to join him, we're just not sure that it will be up and
running in time to be ready to provide a job (and visa) for us when we
need it. So Kevin has been hoping to still pursue other job
opportunities to keep his options open, but the recent events that many
of you probably read about in the paper that happened in a Chinese
subway have made the opportunities for foreigners a lot more complicated
(and less available!). We're still not sure all the implications that
event will have for us directly, but are anxious to see how it all plays
out and to know if a trip out there this month is going to happen or
not.
We just spend the whole day yesterday at a seminar
the international school puts on called "Leaving Well." There are so
many families who come and go that they've developed a really neat
program they walk us through to help make the transitions that come with
big moves (mostly international). The school graciously asked us to be
a part, even though we're not moving back to the US, but since they
know that this move out west might as well be going to another country.
It was really helpful to kind of be forced to process through a lot of
the details of how to wrap up relationships well, move forward with
purpose, and think through what underlying expectations we might have
that we don't even realize. So each of the kids had already started
this preparing to transition phase, and we've put together a family
notebook to keep track of all of our "leaving stuff"--the lists of who
the kids want to do special things with, the last places they want to
visit, photos they want to take, etc. I'm thankful we started the
preparation early; Karis' list alone might take us the entire 3 months
to fulfill! After I suggested the kids making these lists, Karis came
off of the bus the next day with an entire sheet filled in with tiny
boxes of names, party ideas, and other special things she wanted to do
with all her different social groups. She is truly my "lover of
people!" The difference in maturity in processing leaving is pretty
pronounced between her and Noah; when I asked what he wanted to put on
his "leaving list" his response was, "I'll just do whatever Hudson wrote
down." 
Our plans for the US are also at the forefront of our
minds. I must admit it's a bit mind-boggling to think of being back for
so long. We're planning on returning mid-July and not coming back to
China until right after Christmas. Our time will be full--several
different trainings to attend, homeschool to begin, people to see. But
in spite of how busy we always are when we're back in the US, it seems
like it will be the break that we're hoping for! This morning in
particular I was dreaming of going to Super Target, picking out a box of
cereal, fresh fruit, and yogurt all in ONE STORE, and calling breakfast
DONE! A bag of carrots that doesn't take me an hour to soak, scrub,
peel, and slice....Ahh. It's the little things. And that's not even to
mention the truly good stuff--the reconnecting with people that we just
don't get to spend time with like we long to!Before I get to carried away with thinking to the future....one of my favorite moments over the last few weeks. We took the kids to see a movie in the theater for the first time together as a family. Now I realize that I'm totally opening myself to all sorts of criticism for this one. And I really can't believe that we decided to do this. But our kids have now seen the "Lord of the Rings" movies. They love them, and they really dont' get scared by all the scary things that are on it (Gollum, orcs, etc). Which this alone maybe says something about how we've let them become desensitized.....Anyway. Without going any more into it--the funny story. So Noah is sitting on my lap in the theater and the Elves on the screen start talking in their Elven language. Noah turns to face me and Eli and confidently explains, "They're speakin' Korean." When we both started howling with laughter, he realized he must be wrong, so he scrunched up his face and this time less-confidently asked, "Chinese?" Total picture of his world; he hears a language he doesn't know and assumes it's Korean (what most of his classmates speak). If he's wrong, then it must be Chinese that he just didn't recognize!
The other favorite was when we were talking about this summer in the US. We're considering signing up the kids for a summer sports camp. Hudson was really enthusiastic, even willing to go without a sibling or a friend that he knew, after he asked, "Wait. Will the teacher speak English?" When I assured him that they would, be was ready to go--friendless or otherwise! I guess there's just something confidence-building about being able to communicate in a language without having to do the work it takes to communicate in a different language. :)
