Seeing The Unseen

So until a few minutes ago I have to say I had no concerns about turning 30, it seems fairly normal and I have never before had any sort of birthday anxiety so I didn't expect to have any now. But then this afternoon I did have a twinge of impending doom. My 20 something friends here were all running around town carefree and fun-loving. And I was vaccuming, reading Clifford, and cleaning up chicken nuggets&ketsup. I confess to feeling lame and completely boring. Then I had this nagging thought: Am I really this old? I wonder if this is the end of having fun? What if I just get older and more boring from here? I mean I already spend most of my days working on the A,B,C's and potty training. It might not get any more exciting from here. But as I am writing this my children are stumbling out from their naps all groggy and climbing up to snuggle with me. And I have to laugh at myself. I can't imagine anything I would rather have done with my 30 years than thi...

Little by little we are settling into our new home here. I'm going to attempt some before and after shots of our apartment so you can see how it's been coming along since we arrived. When we came back we walked into a jumble of suitcases and boxes since we had only had time to deliver our belongings to the apartment before our trip home to America for the summer. Our apartment this time was completely unfurnished so we've been picking up a little here and a little there. We have some very generous friends who have donated furniture they aren't using at this time to help us out. It has been quite a challenge to furnish an entire apartment, but fun also! What girl doesn't like the chance to re-decorate and pick out some "new furniture". In the end we didn't actually have to buy very much at the store. We were able to pick up a couch, armchair, coffee table, carseats, and 2 beds from friends. That left us with one bed, a wardrobe, a de...

Maddie and jetlag So we've been back in China now for 1 month as of right now. It has been a long month. Starting over again is never easy. While I love a bit of adventure, I also really like familiarity and comfort. Moving again to a new city, a new apartment, new friends, and all new surroundings was a bit harder than I thought. I always forget (maybe intentionally so) how difficult it is to get anything done here. My friend Carrie always reminds me that when in Asia you must adjust your expectations and realize that you can only really achieve 1 thing in any given day. If you plan to achieve more than 1 you will be continually frustrated because accomplishing things here is really Mafan (troublesome). Robbie helping Daddy assemble our bed Where Robbie fell asleep during assembly We arrived home to an apartment full of boxes with nothing yet unpacked or put together and with much of the furniture still missing. My first task was to purchase a refri...

So I wrote this a few weeks ago.......but didn't have internet. It's a little late, but better than never :-) I woke up this morning at 3am. Tried for an hour to go back to sleep, but I finally gave up and so while I'm passing the time waiting for everyone else to wake up I guess I might as well catch up on my blogging! We're moving into our new apartment today and I am so excited! I can't wait to get going! It seems like such a long time since we've been "home" and settled. We had a wonderful 6 weeks in the states. It was refreshing, encouraging, and even a bit relaxing :-) Being with the people we love there, both family and friends, was great! We stayed primarily at my parents house, where the live with my grandmother. That house has lots of great memories for me from my childhood on up. I always loved visiting my grandparents and playing there. It was so fun to spend the summer watching my kids enjoy this home that has always held so...