Signs of Life

What a great way to start off our cousins' visit! Our church Easter brunch yesterday morning, held at a nearby hotel, included live chicks and baby bunnies to cuddle and play with in the courtyard area. Maggi, Gwen, Meredyth and Madelyn could barely be persuaded to eat from the sumptuous buffet, so attached were they to these cuddly critters.
The funny thing was that anyone who wanted to could claim a couple of chicks or a bunny and take them home with them! We had many pleading requests, but I didn't think it would be a good mix with our two cats at home. Good excuse, right? Some families who did claim chicks brought the tiny provided wire cages right into the ballroom where we were eating, so their little peeps could be heard everywhere!
I'm not sure, but I think Maggi might be snuggling this chick a little too tightly...
Scott and I with Jenna and Andrew. Just in the couple days since Jen and Andrew arrived, several people have commented on how much Scott and Jenna look alike.


There was a bounce house for the kids at the brunch- Caleb and Seth and a couple of friends decided to give it a try and found they could dive through the windows in the side... if they were careful to watch for toddlers. :-)
Uncle Andrew and the girls

The Cousins Are Coming!

We used to love the music of Tom Chapin. He's a singer/songwriter for children and has recorded a number of cd's that are fun for adults as well as kids. We never owned one of his recordings, but borrowed all the cd's our library had over and over again. These days I have just a couple of my favorite songs of his on my iPod, partly for old times' sake, to remember the days that we all sang along in the car, and partly because I still enjoy them.

One of our favorite Tom Chapin songs was "The Cousins Are Coming." It has a rollicking, toe-tapping melody, and described the great excitement of anticipating the arrival of cousins and then all the adventures that happened while they were in town.

We have been anticipating the arrival of cousins for months in our house, and today is the day! Scott, Madelyn and Gwen are at the airport this very minute, picking up cousins Meredyth and Maggi, along with their parents, of course. It's the first time in our four years that cousins have come to visit, so it's a big deal! Can't wait to show them our life here in China- our home and church, the places we love in Shanghai, and even the Great Wall and other sites in Beijing. It's going to be such a fun spring break, because the cousins are coming. :-)

Running

A couple of Sundays ago, we all participated in the local 2K/8K race, as a part of the Baobei team. We had planned for the girls and I to do the 2K and the guys were going to run the 8K, but Seth had to switch to the earlier 2K because of a time commitment. He ended up coming in third place out of several thousand people! Madelyn, Gwen and I, mostly walking, ended up at least 30 minutes behind this guy. :-) You can see in the picture below that there was no one close behind him, either. Scott caught this photo of Seth on his phone as he was finishing the race. Because the race organizers were a little unprepared for how quickly some participants would finish the 2K, they didn't have the finish line ribbon set up yet when the first two runners came in, and so Seth actually got to break the ribbon. :-)
Scott and Caleb ran the 8K together. At least they started out together... but there was a bit of money on the line, and Caleb was able to pull away from his dad and beat him by 7 or 8 minutes. Scott was happy to have finished the race well, and decided that next year he will train a little more and beat this year's time. :-)

Explained

Gwen, explaining to me why I must surely love her the best~ "I'm the special-est, because I'm the smallest and adopted, the only one."

Scott and Gwen, Boracay, 2011

Fair Warning

Just in case you had considered doing otherwise.

First Month

Madelyn has had a cell phone for about a month and a half. Scott got the first bill from her phone a few days ago... how many texts do you think a 5th grader can send in 30 days?

510. Yep, that's five hundred and ten separate text messages. In thirty days.

Now fortunately texting is super cheap, equivalent to about a penny per text. So it's not about the money. No, more about how are we spending our time? And wouldn't it really be more efficient to just CALL the person with whom you want to converse?

But then again, I think I may also be guilty on this count of over texting. Probably best for me to stop talking about it.

Maybe I'll just text you.

Spring

Love these flowers in the park the girls and I went to with friends last week. We hadn't been to this park since Sarah and Shann visited us in April two years ago. The flowers were just like this then! Lovely to see them again.

Pondering

Taking care of a special needs orphan this week for a few days... has me thinking about the preciousness of life, God's faithfulness, and His mysterious ways. What would He have me learn from this child's life? The world might find no value in this life... yet God finds infinite value. How does He measure? What will this child be like in heaven, with a completely whole, new body? In the daily-ness of life, I met physical needs but didn't take time until tonight to rock this little one, sing, and try to consider what God thinks of her. Help my unbelief, Lord. Don't let me miss what You have right in front of me...

Under the Sea... sort of

I don't know about you, but I found this diving tank at the hotel we stayed at in Sanya just a little bit funny! It was salt water, and had some colorful fish in it. We all gave it a try... the fish were fraidy cats and didn't come too close to us. Perhaps a little food would have helped. Seth's giving me a thumbs up from inside the tank in this photo!

Field Day

It was a beautiful afternoon for the elementary school's annual field day competitions today! The K-4 graders were divided into mixed age group teams to participate in a wide variety of relays and other games, moving from station to station. Eighth graders ferried the elementary groups from one game to the next, which meant that Seth got to be outside enjoying the sunshine today as well. I watched for a while, loving Gwen's grins and enthusiasm!
The three-legged race is always a fun one!
Two students had to pull a third- as the smallest, Gwen got to be pulled. :-)
I think she thought she was helping her team win this tug-of-war game...

Macarena with a View

Madelyn, Gwen, and our friend Audrianna did a little dancing in the late afternoon sunshine!
We spent the three day weekend in Sanya, on Hainan Island, off the southern coast of China with four other families.

I like these things in my kitchen...

Herbs on the windowsill and freshly baked bread on the counter~
The herbs have gotten a bit leggy since I took this photo a couple of weeks ago, and the bread is long gone, but the pictures still make me smile. :-)

Madelyn and Caroline in Black and White

Madelyn and her one of her dearest friends, Caroline, attended another girl's birthday party together this evening. It was a "Black and White Karaoke Party." I thought these two looked so cute in their black and white outfits. Madelyn was quite creative coming up with her ensemble. She even tied a black and white polka dotted ribbon around her neck, and had a big black flower in her hair in the back.
Madelyn called me after the party, on her way to spend the night at Caroline's, to say that the karaoke was "SO fun!" There was lots of singing and dancing, and it sounded like she had a microphone a lot of the time, which she loved!

7 Candles!

A few shots from Gwen's birthday celebrations!

Birthday breakfast on Sunday with candles in crepes

Candles in cupcakes for birthday song at school

Caleb brings in the cake and candles- even though the girls
are blurry, I love this pic for the look on Caleb's face!

Birthday cake and candles~ pure joy and fun!

Daddy Daughter Dance~ At Last!

Just like it was for Madelyn a couple years ago, the Daddy Daughter Dance has been much anticipated by Gwen. In fact, being able to attend this event is the one reason Gwen wanted to join Girl Scouts this year. We had found a special dress for Gwen in a Barbie store we went into on a whim a few months ago, and we borrowed high heeled shoes from our neighbor. I took Gwen to get her hair done a couple of hours before the dance~ she couldn't wait to get home to show it to Daddy!

She couldn't help spinning and posing for me for pictures, and then she and Daddy were off to the ball!


Scott described the disco themed dance as "quite a party". There was lots of food, bubble machine, glow sticks, and a DJ that kept the dance moving with limbo, the macarena, YMCA, and the like. Gwen showed me all the dance moves she learned when she got home. :-)
Gwen's friend Audrey joined Scott and Gwen for several dances.
What kind of dance is this, Daddy?
So fun! This special night will be talked about for a long time to come.

Science in the Kitchen

Madelyn and her friend Audrianna had great fun this afternoon creating edible animal cell models to present in class tomorrow. They spread ready-made pizza crusts (the cell membrane) with frosting (the cytoplasm) and added lots of yummies! Madelyn's cell had a kiwi nucleus, Twix bar mitochondria, green grape lysosomes, spaghetti noodle endoplasmic reticulum and gummi worms for the golgi body, among other things. Caleb, Seth and Gwen all hung around to lick frosting off spoons and snitch gummi worms.
Caleb and Seth both did an edible cell model at some point in the past, and I remember doing one when I was in school, too. Anyone else remember this popular science project?

Ma

Reading parts of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" with Caleb recently. We came across the description of Ma Joad in the section we read tonight. I love this bit, describing her role in the family and how all looked to her to help interpret their own feelings.

And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. But better than joy was calm. Imperturbability could be depended upon. And from her great and humble position in the family she had taken dignity and a clean calm beauty.... She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook...

Love it . Makes me think of the woman described in Proverbs 31~

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her. Proverbs 31:25, 28

I've never read "The Grapes of Wrath", so this character is new to me. I'm looking forward to seeing where John Steinbeck takes her.

Fate of the Child with the Christmas Birthday

Yes, this is a post about Seth's birthday party. The party wasn't just late, but the post about it is coming nearly a month after the party actually took place as well. Not a problem for Seth, though. He always gets a party at Christmas with all of our extended family, something none of other children get to enjoy most years. But a friend party... that has to happen later, well after the Christmas holiday, and this year also after Chinese New Year. Seth planned a football party for himself last month. He sent an email to a crowd of his closest buddies for a Saturday afternoon game of full-on tackle football on the school field. It was a cold day, but it didn't seem to slow this group of 14 year old guys down a bit. They hit hard!
I think the ref was a little cold, but he sure had fun watching. I know he was silently praying that none of these unprotected boys would hurt each other too seriously!
Here's the crew, having escaped their contest unscathed. Seth's in the back middle, with a gray knit cap on.
My part for the party was to provide food... no problem. After a hearty dinner, Gwen served the cupcakes. :-)
Seth, ever the actor, played his role well.
Better late than not at all... Happy 14th, Sether! We love you, man.

Swimming Newborns

A Chinese friend of mine just gave birth to a baby last week. I visited her several times in the hospital, and on the second visit she mentioned that the next day her baby would be going swimming. I was pretty incredulous... how would a three day old baby go swimming? My friend invited me to come watch the swimming session the next day. Here's what we saw!

The newborn swimming area... surrounded by glass on three sides for viewing. See the cute "under the sea" themed decorating? This room contains six or eight deep, round tubs (see bottom left corner of picture), each for an individual baby to "swim" in. Two adults are allowed in this room with each newborn, all other visitors can watch through the windows.
The baby is completely undressed, a special seal is placed over their umbilical stump to keep it dry, and an circular float fastened around their neck. In this picture, my friend, the one wearing glasses, is peering over the shoulders of the nurses fitting the the float around her baby boy's neck.
Then it is swimming time! After the water temperature has been carefully checked, baby is set afloat in the tub. The tub wasn't filled very full, so the baby seemed to be far down in! All the babies "swimming" while we were there were quite peaceful. I'm sure it is a womb-like experience for them- aside from the plastic inflatable around their neck! My friend's little guy moved his legs around and floated quite happily.
After a short "swim", the baby is taken out and bundled up in a cozy towel, lotioned and powdered and diapered, and then fed something out of a little bitty cup by one of the nurses before being returned to his parents. For this whole experience, the new parents pay 50 RMB, about $7.

I described this whole scene to Scott on the phone later in the day, before I got to show him these pictures. He said that if he hadn't already lived in China for a few years, he would swear I was making this up! It's just one of those things I don't picture happening in the West. But who knows, maybe it will catch on. :-)