The end of 2009 and of the Decade

(its hard to see, but the lemons say 2010)
So, the year is within a couple hours of being done (at least here in China!) Can you believe it??? 2009 has gone by so fast, and we think that it has been a really good year. January found us in the middle of a Canadian winter that was VERY cold. We really started making our plans to get to China a reality, with Chelsey getting her passport, us looking at dates as to when we could go, and applying for the programs. February, just after we bought our plane tickets mind you, we found out that we were going to be parents (remember the banana that made Chelsey cry??) and we were really excited about it, but also a little confused as what to do about our plans for China. After much prayer, and deliberation, we decided to push forward with our plans to go to China, even if it meant that the baby would be born there. March we took a quick trip down to Rexburg so that Chelsey could take a French test to test out of the class and graduate. Unfortunately, she missed the mark by 3 points! We were sad (and still have not yet figured her class out) but C'est La Vie. April went by in a blur! We were so busy getting ready for China and spending time with family that we almost missed finding out that our baby was going to be of the pink variety. May, we got on the plane, not knowing much of the what next, and made a 12 hour flight to Beijing! We spent most of may trying to find a job and an apartment, at the same time as trying not to spend all our money. It took some time finding the job that we felt comfortable with, as well as one that would get us the visas that we needed. We found that job, right after we got an apartment, and found out that we would have just enough days left in the month to earn enough money to pay the next months rent! They also told us that there would be "No Problem" in changing our visas. Three weeks later.... "Sorry, you are going to have to leave the country to do it." Welcome to China - Things change fast here. We knew that we had till August on our current Visa, and while weighing our options, we decided that it would be best to go home in August, have the Baby in September, and then come back on new Visas. We spent the HOT HOT HOT summer (it was even worse on Chelsey!) working our poor little butts off earning as much money as we could. We did not even go see many of the sights as 1) it was too hot and 2) days that I had off Chelsey had to work, and vice a versa. We have not even seen the great wall yet, is that not sad? We buy our plane tickets to go home, with Chelsey right down to the wire to get on a plane (most airlines won't let you fly past 36 weeks pregnant). Our plan was to fly Chelsey out first, then me the following week at the end of August. SURPRISE comes baby 5 weeks early, a week before Chelsey was supposed to get home. Jada, you sure came at an awkward time, but we love you! So all of a sudden, we are rushing around like chickens with no heads, trying to get everything figured out and done. Thank you Beijing First Branch! Without your support, I have NO IDEA how we could have done it all. Things worked out, we got our visas extended, plane tickets cancelled and re-booked, a passport and visa for Jada bean, and all kinds of other errands that kept us running around Beijing. Jada was small, but healthy - huge blessing! Believe you me, that night was one crazy night. Lesson learned - always have a plan 'B' - especially when a baby is due. We spent the end of September, all of October and most of November back in Canada, with out jobs, waiting on the stupid letter we needed to take to the Chinese embassy to get a new visa. We really enjoyed the time with family, and everyone loved having Jada around. As we had no idea how long we were going to be in Canada, we had Jada's blessing that first Sunday back in Canada. As the days turned into weeks, and slowly turned into months, we helped my parents repaint and re-carpet their upstairs. It was a lot of work, but it sure looks nice! They gave us a little money for it, which was a huge blessing in helping us make it through December in Beijing! We also had fun on Halloween, and even got some photos taken by a good friend of ours who is a professional photographer. She did a really good job, and also did it cheap! We loved the photos, and being able to surprise our parents with them for an early Christmas present. We finally got the letter and booked our plane tickets for the following Wednesday, went up to the Embassy on Thursday, got our visas on Tuesday, and left that next day. Wow, eh? It seems that this whole year, from start to finish has always been right on the edge of something! Yet it all worked out. Our money was about to run out that we had left in Beijing, and I got back to work with just enough days left in the month to pay rent (Sounds like May, eh?) As when we got back in November, our birthdays were coming up, so some of our friends helped through us a nice party, including a cake from Coldstone - yum! December came racing around that corner, and though we did not have a lot of money, things were starting to settle down and shape up. We got some pictures and carvings on our walls, as we had not done anything to the apartment to make it 'ours' yet. We are still planning on getting a 4 foot horizontal scroll to go over our couch, but for now, it looks good. We had a Christmas with tea pots, decorations and birds showing up in our home. All in all, it has been a really good year. We had many wonderful (and sometimes stressful) adventures. Even though it seemed like life was always on the edge (causing the stress), we had HUGE blessings that came right as we needed them, and we never fell over the edge - passports/work/visas/etc all came right before it would have been too late - sometimes within a day of it happening. We look forward to many more adventures in 2010 -- and we hope and pray that it is less stressful!!!!!!!!
We wish you all the best in 2010
Mike, Chelsey, and Jada-bean too!

Steal of a Deal

Today I was making some homemade eatmore bars and I realized that I had forgot to buy peanuts so I went to a small family owned grocer/convenience store in the first floor of our building. The had lots of peanuts but none roasted, de-skinned and non-flavored. I wasn't going to buy any so they volunteered to make them how I wanted right there and teach me how to do it myself. Well I couldn't pass that up; home-roasted peanuts, a cooking lesson and consequently a chinese cooking vocabulary immersion opportunity! And I just had to pay the price of the peanuts which was less than a dollar. I offered them a tip but they wouldn't take it. so apparently roasting peanuts is pretty easy and quick. You just dry-fry them over low heat until they turn a dark reddish brown, wait for them to cool and rub them between your hands to get the shells off. At least that is one way of doing it. They are very tasty.
Co-workers here are very family like. There is often a kitchen in their shop and they cook together, eat together, clean-up together and even exercise together.

First thing in the morning you can see all the workers out on the sidewalk in front of their work-place doing exercises. Another interesting thing is that the all stand in formation like military when they are getting a pep talk.

New Mom's Special Treatment

Some of the people who attended the baby shower went in together on a group gift. There were many parts to the gift but one of the parts was a massage. Oh wow! I have never had such special treatment, and I mean it was a treat. If any of you come to visit us in China you have to go for a professional massage!!!!!! It is so cheap here. For the equivalent of about $17 we got an hour and a half massage which included a very extravagant foot massage with soaking and lotions, ect. It was in a private room with just you and your friends, super comfortable, over-stuffed reclining chairs and all you can eat "room service". Now do you see what I mean. Do you want to come visit us in China yet???? Three of us went together, two of us are new moms and the other girl is very pregnant (being induced tomorrow). I needed to bring Jada but she ended up sleeping through the majority of it , maybe it was the low lights and soft music, hum. I am definitely taking Mike there the first chance I get, he would love it.

China Moment

It is often assumed that we don't understand so it can be quite entertaining listening to the comments people make. Yesterday Jada and I were on the bus heading towards Mikes work to join him for supper. There was a father and his young son.

Boy: The baby is crying.
Father: Yes, the baby is crying.
Boy: The mother does not yell at the baby.
Father: Yes, the baby is still very young.
Boy: The baby is crying again....now the baby isn't crying.
Father: The baby is asleep. Babies cry when they are tired, when they grow older they don't cry.
Father: The mother is getting the baby ready to get off the bus. (narrating what I am doing).
Boy: But I wanted to hold the baby.
Father: The baby is sleeping. You are going to have to find another baby to hold.

This is a regular occurance when we go to meet mike for supper but this one was especially cute so I decided to post it.

Potty Training update

A few people asked me to keep them updated on how Jada's potty training is going. When we were in Canada I was just letting her go in an ice cream bucket because it was easier. No carpet here versus carpet there and I was worried about her having a miss on the way to the bathroom. I forgot the ice cream bucket and over the two months we were there she had learned to associate the ice cream bucket with "it's okay to pee/poo now. So when we got back to Beijing she wouldn't go. I had to start from square one again. I took a day to take note of every time she peed or pooed and from that got an idea of how often I should ofter her the potty. While I was doing that I was also re-teaching her to associate the Q sound with potty not with which potty it was. That went really well, I was quite pleased with how fast she was back on track. I only potty her while we are in the house, during the day. At night and going outside and at church/other events I just put a diaper on her. You need to have flexibility, especially in the winter when you have to dress them up in sooo much clothes to go out. It is just not convenient. Jada does really well. I keep her in a Velcro cloth diaper (it is easier to take on and off) and she stays dry for the most part until her nap and then I change the cloth after her nap. Here the apartments are heated by hot water pipes that run through the buildings. I hand scrub the cloths and hang them on the hot water pipes and they are bone dry in a couple hours (we don't have a dryer). I have learned to just go by my instincts. I have got to where I just know when she needs to go and if I go on that instinct then she stays dry. It is very interesting experimenting with this totally new way of potty training considering that I had never heard of this method until coming to China. The first time I heard it, it was very hard for me to believe just because of our western way of thinking but it really works. It still amazes me but I guess it totally makes sense. Babies learn so fast, it is an optimal time to teach them new things. Other news about Jada; she is laughing now and it is so cute. Her first big laugh was at church when this other baby tried to steal her binky and now she is laughing more and more. She is just fascinated with watching the bird eat out of our hands. I hope that Amber will make a good pet for her as she gets a little older. Eventually we would like a parrot that we can teach how to talk and do cool tricks and are not so liable to get stepped on or squashed but they are sooooooo expensive. I don't know how much they cost in China, we will have to check that out.

Picture Christmas

Jada enjoying one of her christmas present. It's the coolest toy. You know those sticky hands... it is made out of the same stuff but it is an octopus that claps it's feet and has a flashing light inside its body. I think I like it even more than Jada.

Christmas party at mikes work. As usual, jada was the main attraction. Even while preformances were going on everyone just wanted to look at her. She got a little tired of all the attention after a while and I had to remove her to a quite place where she promptely fell asleep.

Christmas eve, after Jada went to bed, mike and I played a game of carcazone while enjoying our favourite christmas goodies (butter tart square, ginger snaps, sugar cookies, peanut brittle and mandarin oranges and drinking tea chinese style (sooooo much fun).

Jada on Christmas eve, looking like a big girl.

Jada looking at her new pet bird Amber.

Mike is a natural bird tamer; got her to eat out of his hand on day 2.

Baby showers, milestones and christmas parties

Jada will now grab onto things that are put close to her (within arms reach). She reminds me of a little kitten grabbing at anything that dangles in front of them with their paws and batting at it. She just gets cuter and cuter everyday.

My visiting teacher threw a baby shower for me and another girl who is due in 2 1/2 weeks. It was a lot of fun. Instead of games like the traditional baby shower, their was a bunch of appetizers and then we each were given a square of material that are going to be made into baby quilts for the two of use. They had some patterns for things we could embroidered onto the square of material or we could make something up. I thought that was such a cute idea. I embroidered a panda and the word china on my square for little boy Hunaker. He will be born in China. There are actually two babies in the branch under six months, one is Jada, who were born here and another 3 pregnant ladies who are having there babies here. That's a lot of babies for our little branch. I love babies, so I am excited.

It was also the ward Christmas party yesterday. Jada got a picture with Santa. We will post it as soon as we get it. We didn't bring our camera so we are just waiting for a member to email it to us. It was a fun Christmas party. We started out with a potluck dinner, and then the primary kids acted out the Christmas story, Santa Clause came, the kids went to do some activities and the adults watched part of the first presidencies Christmas message, then we sang Christmas carols.

We had spent a good portion of the say at the silk market Christmas shopping, which was really fun, so it was a full day for the whole family. Jada got really tired near the end but she had a lot of fun as well.

Belated Birthday Dinner

Mike made me a belated birthday dinner (we had to wait until a day off because he doesn't get home until close to 10 p.m. on work days). It was a redition of a special dinner mike prepared for me on our honeymoon. It was the same style of pasta, candles and music.

A few things have changed over the past few years: One being the location, and another a baby. But something that has not changed is that my husband is still have very loving and romantic. It was a beautiful evening. Thank you my love. And thank you to his mother for raising a great cook.

Be your posterity's best ancestor

As far as an update on Jada, she is adjusting well now to her new environment, I think she is even starting to enjoy all the attention.
There is a missionary couple in our branch, they teach english and are over family history and a bunch of other things here and there. The wife of the couple taught sunday school two sundays ago and while her lesson was on family history work she really emphasised what we can so now to be a good ancestor. She said, all of you who have children are already an ancestor. What legacy are you going to leave behind for your children. She showed a homemade decorative cloth for the table. It was nothing special looking, stitches were uneven and the pattern was unporportionate. The she read a quote from an elderly ladies journal who had pasted away. Through the journal entry we found out that this lady had made this for her granddaughter as a wedding gift. She had talked about the special relationship that this granddaughter and her had and how much it meant to her and she said "you know how I always say that the dinning room is the center of the home so I wanted to make something where a part of me could be in the center of your home. We also found out this lady had been practically blind at the time that she had made this.
The main point of her lesson I think was to encourage us to keep a journal with our experiences and testimony that our children, grandchildren, ect. will be able to benefit from. "Be your posterity's best ancestor."
Mike and I got this idea to create a book of a collection of recipes that come from our growing up years, foods that bring back memories and were traditions from each of our families. We also want to include comments and short stories that correspond. So far we are still working on jogging our memories and compiling lists of all the recipes we want to include. It will probably take some help of our mothers and grandmothers. We think this would be a unique and great way to leave behind a legacy of family traditions for our posterity. And it will help our children to feel connected to their ancestors and extended family. We have already made a recipe book that covered both of our missions and our goal is to at the end of our lives have made a recipe book series of all the major time periods of our lives, the places our family travels to and the traditions that come into our own home. I am really excited about this project. Food brings people together and so many of our best memories of family bonding moments and even outside the home are connected by a recipe.

Celebrate!

(The ColdStone Cake they Got us... You could say 27 for Mike, year of the pig for Chelsey)

Since our birthdays are the 29th and 30th we had a joint birthday celebration. We made one of our favourite meals, spaghetti w/ meatballs and garlic toast and had some of our Chinese friends over. Our friends brought an ice cream cake from cold stone with them. It was cake batter flavored ice cream, pretty interesting because it tasted like cake but felt like ice cream. I liked it, the Chinese got a little sweetened out half way through, which is no surprise. It was very kind of them. We had alot of fun. A lady from the ward that I was talking to the other day suggested that we should start some of our own Christmas family traditions, this being our first Christmas with Jada. This will be Mike's and My third Christmas together. In Previous years we have done a combination of his family traditions and mine. Christmas eve is the biggest deal in my family. my mother has always spent at least a week before hand cooking all our favourite Christmas treats, savory and sweet, and we start out Christmas eve with a table full of tons and tons of different appetizers, little wieners, spinach dip, crackers and cheese, layered taco chip dip, deviled eggs, butter tarts, shortbread... you name it, it is there. Then we make pretty plates of Christmas treats and go pixying (Put a plate of treats on the doorstep, ring the door bell and run for it. Then we come home get dressed up in costumes and my dad reads the Christmas story as we act it out. Then we spend the rest of the evening spending time together as a family playing games and singing Christmas carol around the piano. I heard a really interesting idea that I think would be fun to start as a tradition in our family. For the Christmas eve dinner you have what is called a Bethlehem dinner where you sit on the floor and eat food with you hands, the kind of food that would likely have been on the table in the time of Christ. Flat bread, lamb, hummus, ect. You then have someone, usually the father read the story of Christs birth. I really like this idea for really helping the story of Christ to come alive for our Children. I also like the idea of choosing a family together that we would like to do a service for in the week leading up to Christmas. And of course you have to enjoy all the Christmas time classic treats like butter tarts and peanut brittle through out the Christmas holidays. It would be a great opportunity to spend time with our children in the kitchen and give then something to do during the holidays as well. If you have any Christmas family traditions that you would like to share with us please leave a comment we would love to hear them.

American Thanksgiving Plans

Our branch here in Beijing is doing something that I have never seen done before but totally appropriate for the area. The whole branch is organized into family groups. There is a family assigned (one that has a decent size oven I am assuming since those are a little scarce around here) to hold a thanksgiving dinner at their home. They cook the main meal, turkey, dressing and such and the guests bring everything eles. It is a great idea. Being so far from home the branch becomes a substitute family while your here. We need to pay special attention to taking care of each other because many here are out of their comfort zone in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar language and culture. Jada even has an "adoptive" grandma, Sister Johnson. We spent the first few days with Jada in the Johnsons home and she helped me learn all there is to know about taking care of a baby since I couldn't have my mother here. Mike and I are really excited, even though we already had two Canadian thanksgiving meals while we were in Canada, can you really get tired of the spirit that surrounds thanksgiving and the yummy food. Mike and I are bringing homemade rolls (buns). I am using the recipe that Mikes mom uses. I love this recipe for three reasons. They are delicious at the same time as being very cheap plus easy to make, no fluffing up eggs or kneading of dough for ever and ever. Although if you have a botch none of those are really that much work but for me with just a bowl and a tablespoon and a fork it is a lot of work. Yeah for easy, tasty recipes. To add to the excitement, this weekend is also mike's birthday and then mine on monday. Three days in a row of celebration. Happy thanksgiving to all the Americans out there.

Jada's new toy

Jada is so fun to watch on her new toy the wiggle worm she makes some great faces. This is just

one of them. She found her hands lately. She doesn't have alot of control yet but she does know how to get them in her mouth. Chewing on her hands is one of her new, besides the wiggle worm, favorite past times.

Back in China at last

We finally made it back t China. It feels awesome to walk the streets of Beijing and hear Chinese being spoken all around us and eat favorite foods again. We have both had a re-confirmation that this is where we need to be right now, we don't know for how long but we wouldn't mind staying a while. Before going to Canada we didn't take Jada out much. We were really careful because not only was she a newborn in a city of 17 million but she was premature. We are having so much fun now going out as a family and showing of our beautiful little girl. I wish I could tape some of the reactions that people have when they see her, especially the old people, they start dancing on the spot and lifting their hands up in the air and squealing with delight. It is so funny. Yesterday I was waiting for the bus to go meet mike for supper and it was a chilly day so I had jada bundled up in the sling. I left a little air hole in the blanket over her face. I heard an older woman behind me say I saw a little nose. When we we traveling on the bus she was still saying over and over again, "I saw a little nose!". Little babies are such a miracle. They bring so much joy and wonder with them. The first day we were back Jada just screamed whenever anyone talked directly to her. We assumed that it must be because they look and talk different and she just needs time to adjust. She is doing a lot better but she still reacts better to English speaking Caucasians. We are all still trying to get over Jet lag. Yesterday we were so tired that we took a nap after church and decided to just continue sleeping all night long. Jada is really mixed up with the time difference, she doesn't just naps all day and night. I am really concentrating on getting her on a schedule during the day to try and get her night time sleep back again. Other then that all is going well. We are so thankful to our parents for all of their help and support while we were in Canada. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there with family.

photoshoot

We decided to have some professional pictures done of our little family and some of just Jada to give as Christmas presents to grandparents and great-grandparents and since we gave it too them early because we are leaving to go back to china next wensday we can now post some of them on here for all to see without ruining any surprises. One of our friends has a photography buisness called mountain edge photography and she gave us a really good deal. We are really pleased with how they turned out. These are some of our favorites.

Halloween fun

So last week was halloween, and we had a lot of fun. We had not expected to be here this long, but life happens sometimes. The letter is finally on its way, so with all luck we will be back in China before long.

Anyway, for costumes we borrowed some things from Jeff, and had some fun with it all. We did not go out trick or treating, as Jada is a little young yet. We did have a little halloween party, complete with scary movies and home made root beer and other treats (the sugar rush made Jada quite fussy for a few days, something to look out for for other holidays)

Jada probably had the cutest costume!

Bubble bubble toil and brew

Beware the killer baby

Chelsey, Mike, Jada, Jeff

Jada got her two month immunizations today, 4 in total. It is usually three but the fourth was because we plan on returning back to China soon. HB is more of a risk in countries with dense populations. It is given to babies at birth in China but because Jada was born premature and below the required weight to receive the HB shot it was post-poned. She was shocked at first and then started crying pretty hard. It was so hard to witness. We gave her lots of hugs and love afterwards for the rest of the day, she is now sleeping sound and happy. One of the girls that I visit taught in Lethbridge 2nd ward before we left for China was due the same week that I was due but Jada was 5 weeks early and her daughter Ambrosia was born 4 days late. It was interesting comparing these two babies. It really hit home how much Jada has grown and changed in the last two months. It really is amazing how fast babies learn and grow. She is smiling more and more every day and getting more alert as well. Her eyes follow us around the room and she is really interacting with her eyes. She weighed in at 8 lbs 4 ounces at the clinic on wensday but 9 lbs 6 ounces at the health center today. The health center said that the 9 lbs 6 ounces was more likely so that is what we are going to go with. that means she has been gaining about a one pound per month since birth.

So far in Canada

So we have been back in Canada for about two and a half weeks now. We hope to be back in China by the end of the month, but so far things are going well here.


We have spent a week (so far) with each family. The first weekend we got here, Amy Mike and their three girls came up. Taylor, Jane and Claire all loved Jada. In fact Claire (Amy's youngest, who is about 16 months) was possessive about Jada, shooing everyone else away, and babbling away to her. Everyone just loves Jada! Jada also really loves the attention that she gets. She is getting more and more smiley, as well as more alert every day. She has these huge big eyes that just get so interested in things before she gives this really big smile. I don't have any pictures of that yet, but don't worry, they will come.











We also blessed Jada that weekend (September 27). My mom (Nana to Jada) got her this really cute dress for it. It is a size 2xs, the smallest one that she could find, but it fit her perfectly.
We had a little family dinner after church, which was a lot of fun. Again (just as she should be) Jada was the star attraction, and people who see her can't help to comment on how cute Jada is.

Other then this, not much has been going on so far. We have been having fun, but are really looking to going back to China as soon as we can. However, due to what they told us right before we left, it might be a couple more weeks before we get all the visa stuff settled. The October 1st holiday added a week because the government all shut down. So for now we just sit and wait, but we are excited to go back home. I know, I just called China home... Not in the sense that we are going to live there our whole life, but it is where our home is right now - our own place and life. We are both comfortable there, and enjoy it. So it is this way that China is home.

We will put up some more pictures later and other updates a little later

Growing babies and stuff

So we took Jada to the doctor again.
She gained quite a bit of weight!!! She is now 3.3Kg (7.27Lbs), which is an increase of .8 Kg (1.76lbs) in two weeks. She is also now 53 cm (20.86 inches). This makes us quite happy. She is still in the low end of the percentiles, but that is putting her against full term month old babies. She is in a good range for if she was just born. Because she has good weight gain, the doctors are not too concerned. In every other way she is healthy as can be, and we are really glad to get this news.

We pick up her visa tomorrow, so it seems like we are all set to go home next week. We are planning to do Jada's blessing while we are there, that first Sunday we are home in Lethbridge.

China is gearing up for the big 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China on Oct 1. It is going to be HUGE! There have been a couple of times (one a few weeks ago, another tomorrow) where they are doing rehearsals for the parade (including tanks!) so have to shut down downtown Beijing. It would be really intresting to see, but home is more important right now.

See you next week!

fluke or not...we will see

Jada rolled over today, probably just a fluke as she is only one month old and can't even hold her head up, but it was cool none the less. She was having some belly time, we do this so she can practice lifting her head and strenethen her neck muscles, and she got her head over, took a break and then the rest of her body followed with a push. Pretty cool. You all must think we are new parents or something. hehe! It's true, we are such proud parents and we love our little girl.

We're on a roll

The Canadian embassy emailed us today and said that Jads's Passport is ready to be picked up. We are being blessed so much. We can get her chinese visa, that she needs inorder for us to take her out of the country started. Her passport is ready 5 days early, and the chinese visa should only take 5 buisness days so we should be able to have every thing ready to go by the monday before we leave. We are going to get the last steps rolling tomorrow. Mike has a day off so it is perfect timing. On the list of things to do tomorrow 1) Pick up her passport 2) Register her at the police station 3) Apply for her visa.

Jada is such a smart girl

Before Jada was born I did a bunch of research on the way that they potty train their babies in Asia/Africa because I found it really interesting. I have since developed a method that is a mix of the way it is done in the west and how it is done here in china that I feel comfortable with. If you ever come to China and have never heard of the way they potty train their babies you will be really confused when you see all these babies and kids wearing pants that have a big slit from front to back in the crotch of the pants and bare bottoms. You are probably already confused. Essenially they start potty training their babies when they are infants. They observe the times when the baby pees and pooes, then teach the baby to associate a sound made by the parent with peeing and pooing that they use as a cue and offer the baby potty breaks at those times. The split crotch pants are for convienence. They just hold the baby in a sqwat and the baby goes, no messing with pulling down pants. Where their babies go around bare bottomed I been using diapers and we have been taking it slow to start. For the first two weeks I just made a sound everytime I noticed that she was eliminating and observed at what times. The third week when I would change her diaper I used the cue sound to encourage her to empty her bowels before I changed her diaper. Today I started offering potty breaks and I am amazed at how well she has caught on. She pees and poos, as long as she has some, when I make the cue in the toilet. I sit on the toilet and I hold her in a sqwat with her back and head resting against me. When she can sit I will get her a the traditional potty-training potty. I am so thrilled that I just had to share it. I expected it to be a while before I started seeing progress but she has surprised me. We definetly are not going to put her in underware anytime soon, at least not until we have using the potty established for a while and she is not having to many misses, which are inevitable, we are just taking it slow. I probably won't ever use the split crotch pants although she already has some that were given to her as gifts. I am taking a relaxed, slow, no pressure approach. I just offer and if she takes it she does if not she doesn't and the diaper is always there for
back-up. It works for us. It is more about Jada learning other ways to communicate with us and saving her some diaper rash along the way. And between you and me, I kind of dread the struggle of potty training a toddler, this is so much easier.

Thoughts on Being a father

So, Mikey is a father... Yea, I know. I'm scared too.

Even thought I was excited about the prospect of fatherhood from the time I found out Chelsey was pregnant, and I would always talk to the bean when she was in the womb, I was still scared, and nervous about it. However, now with Jada here the fears are a less. I still worry sometimes about things, such as if I am going to be a good father for when she is older, if I will figure life out sooner than later, and all the other questions that I have. Chelsey has been such a huge help with this, as she always has faith that I will be a great father, and that I will be able to figure things out, and that all things will work out fine.


Most guys are a little envious of their friends who are fathers. We want to see the kid be happy when they see us. So I am actually happy to be a father, even if it is a little strange. Even though Jada is not yet old enough to knowingly smile, I know that she is happy when I am there.

From the time that we took Chelsey to the hospital, and we found out that Jada was on her way, I was both scared and excited. This was not what we had planned at all, yet it was happening. I am so glad that we had people we could call - such as Jeff Hall, one of the councilors in the branch presidency. I don't know what I would have done with out having anyone to turn to! I was scared, because it was happening really fast. But excited, as I was going to be a father... But truth be told, I was not really excited until after she came.

It is a time that I will never forget. Even though I got light headed and needed to sit right after Jada came out, I remember hearing her cry, and the doctors say "shes OK". There was a huge wave of relief wash over me, and I was happy both mom and baby were good. After a few minutes, the doctors were done with Jada, and even though they would not let me hold her because she was premature, I got to sit beside her.

I put my hand on her back and just looked at her. She had a very tired, but happy look to her. She was very alert, and was looking around, and looking at me. When our eyes met, I knew that she knew me. She knew where she was, and was happy. I can't describe the feelings that I got when I looked at her, but it was really special. I was also quite amazed at how well she looked, and how pleased she seemed that she made it here.

So far, being a father has been fairly easy, even thought I don't get all the smiles that will come. I do my best to make sure Chelsey's and Jada's needs are met, which means that I need to work to make money. I also run (or continue to run) most of the errands, so Chelsey can get her rest. I enjoy having Jada around, and love spending what time I can with her. I love how she looks at me sometimes, and gets hints of a grin.

It is a special thing, being a father. Even though most of the time I have no idea what I am doing, I am glad to have this opportunity.

My thoughts on motherhood

With Jada has come alot of change to our lives, but all good changes. When we first found out we were pregnant I remember a couple in the ward who had a new baby telling us how wonderful it was being parents. They were so tired yet they didn't mind because they were so filled with love for their new baby girl. I feel the same way about Jada. She is so precious and also so helpless and dependent. Having the responsibility of her health and wellbeing on my shoulders is humbling, intimidating, and love enhancing all rolled into one. I love being a mother. Every moment we share together is so precious to me. I love her with a tenderness and only want the best for her.
A sacred experience that I will never forget was the first time that I looked into Jada's eyes and her into mine shortly after she was born. Behind her eyes was maturity beyond her few short moments on earth and recognition, she knew me, and was very pleased to be here. There was a moment of unspoken communication that passed between us. An hour later when I saw her again at NICU, that was gone, she had the look of a sweet, innocent and ignorant little newborn. I feel so priviledged to be her mother, I felt her spirit and she is full of so much peace and kindness. Other mothers have told me that they had the same experience and that it happened with everyone of their children. It is a very special experience that is deficult to put into words. One that I will always hold sacred in my heart.
She is such an easy baby and I have had a really quick recovery and so adjustments have come easy. I have really felt that my body and mind have been blessed to help me with the task. Normally it would be very taxing on my body to be on a twenty-four hour schedule that required me to be awake for an hour every 2-3 hours but somehow my body has adapted very quickly and easily. I was scared that for the middle of the night feedings I would not wake up but from day one my body has woke me up at regular intervals went it is time for Jada to feed and I look in Jada's basinette to find her awake with those happy eyes looking up at me and sucking on her fingers telling me she is hungry. Also Mike read online that a womans milk will adjust to meet the needs of her premature baby. I have also read that the most perfect nutrition for a growing baby comes from the baby's mothers milk and that there is no substitute, not even another womans milk. It is really miraculous if you think about. Every detail of how are bodies work is so perfectly set up.
I know that I have been blessed. Just in the fact alone that Jada is healthy and thriving. I want nothing more than for her to achieve her greatest potential. We gave her the Chinese Name yu xuan hoping that she will emulate the characteristics in that name. Yu wishes that she will speak beautiful, kind words always and Xuan wishes that she will easily forget her troubles and therefore live a happy life. Her english name Jada not only represents a aspect of chinese culture and the country of her birth, but it stands for virtue, purity, grace and beauty in many chinese idioms. We hope that her names will be a reminder to her when she comes across choices in life and help to shape her life and her attitude towards it. I know that more important than a name will be the environment we have in our home and the guidance and teachings that we provide for her. Her joy and success means so much to me. Now more than ever I feel the importance of my influence, my example. I am greatful to my parents for the examples they have been to me and the loving environment I grew up in. I have had a very blessed life because of my parents.

Jada grew!

We went to the doctor today to do a checkup for Jada. She is still small, but healthy in every way!
As most babies, she lost weight after she was born. She was born at 2.47Kg (5Lbs, 6oz), went down to 2.38 Kg (5lbs, 4oz) a few days after she was born, and she now is 2.5Kg (5lbs, 8oz)! YAY! She regained her birth weight plus a bit. Now you are probably thinking 120g/4 oz is not a lot, and your right. Remember Jada is only two weeks old, so that is quite an achievement for her, as well when you are that size, it makes a huge difference. Comparitably, if I were to gain weight at the same rate, I would have put on 5Kg (11lbs) or more in two weeks - assuming of course I did the math right. I weight about 250lbs (113Kg). If someone figures I did this wrong let me know ok? This would be unhealthy for me, but for Jada, it is right about where she needs to be. For a while starting from now, she should be gaining up to 1 kg (or 2lbs) a month. A couple more good things about Jada. Her Jaundice is down by halfish (according to the readings) and is barely noticeable on her face now. She is also at a weight and age where she could get vaccinated in China. Their schedule is to give a BCG (for TB) and Hep B shot at birth. I know that Canada they don't do those right away. Any thoughts - Should we follow the Chinese Vaccination schedule or the Canadian one?

Other things are going well. We are hopping to be on track with our visa issues, we will find out for sure on Thursday when we go pick them up. We are still planning to go to Canada, now on September 23rd. We will be there for a few weeks, then come back to China to finish up my contract with work. From there.... We have yet to decide exactly what is going to happen once we reach that. I am looking at a couple different options, and I might just try to go for all of them, and see which one fits the best for us.

For the time being, I (usually) enjoy teaching English. There are students I like, and others that try my patience, but on a whole, it is quite enjoyable. I'll post more on this when I gather my thoughts a little more. It is slowing down a little more, as school is starting back up soon. Not that I teach children, but we have a lot of university students.

That is all I can think of to say now
Mikey

Passports and Visas

So Jada is a now a week and a half old. We have been really happy with the decision to bring her out of the hospital, as we would have missed her way too much! We love seeing her, and when she is alert, she just sits there looking around, and has really cute eyes. I love being around her, and seeing her. She is a really quite baby too. She sometimes cries really loud (espically when changing her diper or clothes!) other times she sqwaks. It is also becoming easier on Chelsey, as Jada is sleeping and eating better. Some nights Jada still is snacky during the night, but most times is sleeping really well.

Yesterday we had a bit of an adventure. We went to the Canadian Embassy to get Jada her Canadian citizenship and passport. First we had to get photos with her eyes open. So we tried to time it to when she would be waking up. But the taxi probably put her in a deeper sleep, so it was a bit of a struggle. But the photogropher got a good one, and it only took six or eight tries. At least we did not have to worry about hands being in the photo, because they had her on a blanket lying down. They also photshoped it a bit to make it look nice. It was really cool watching them do it, as the guy that did it knew what he was doing, and it was so quick! It was a photo place recommended by the Embassy, so I'm assuming that they knew that the photo place would photoshop a bit. Did I mentention that the Embassy closed at three at that we were at the photo place until 2:30? This is because we took a little longer then we thought in getting out. But we did make it to the Emabssy at 2:40, so it worked out well. I am glad that we were able to apply for both the citizenship card and the passport at the same time, as it takes between 6 and 18 months to get it! We were going to apply for an emergancy passport, as we were worried about time, but they told us that there would be no problems in getting the passport in time, and still have time to get Jada a visa for China. We also went to the bank and got certificate of deposites for both of us, so that we can show that we have 3000 USD each to extend our visas. We got new plane tickets for September 23, so pray everything goes well, and that there are no delays.

With Jada's passport getting started, that leaves one thing left to do this week, and that is get our visas extended. It should not be any problem now that we have the certificate of depostits. I don't know what plan B will be if it comes to that, but hopefully we don't need that!

The Joys and the Worries of New Parenthood

Last Sunday we were able to pick up Jada from NICU. The nurses undressed Jada and showed us every inch of her skin so that we could see that no harm had been done to her, we found that amusing, and after a bunch of paper work she was finally in our arms and we were free to go. She seemed to settle down immediately and looked very peaceful and happy to be reunited. Staying at the bishops house with their support and experience in caring for newborns was a huge blessing. I don't know what I would have done without Sister Johnsons help and confidence. Warning: if the words breast and nipple make you feel uncomfortable, don`t read on. Breast feeding proved to be a challenge that I had not expected. Luckily my milk came in the second day but Jada is a baby that is nei to impossible to rouse from sleep, often not sucking and my nipples were not cooperating (probably why she would not suck) . We were only having 3-4 successful feedings in a twenty- four hour period which was really worrying us. I put some of my milk in a bottle and tryed feeding her that way which was successful,so the next day I went and bought an electric breast pump and the success rate immediately jumped astronomically. Then I found that I could use the pump to stimulate my nipple and get the milk flow started and Jada would then feed off the breast. The last few days we have gone back to the breast, my nipples are now reacting like they should and Jadas appetite has really made leaps and bounds. I have not had to use the breast pump even once today. So it has been a positive learning curve for both of us. She is almost a week old and already made so much progress, we are so proud of her.

We are back in our apartment. We hired a lady to do a really deep cleaning of our apartment while we were at the bishops house so that we could bring Jada home to a sterilized, dust free environment. They did a really good job.

Mike has been super busy. He got 4 days off in a row right after the birth but he didn`t get much rest as there have been so many things to get done fast. He has been running errands all over Beijing. We still have Visa issues to take care of. We are seeing if we can get our current visas extended for 30 days. That gives us time to get Jadas Canadian citizenship card, passport, and a visa (still not sure exactly sure what has to be done there, she is considered a chinese citizen right now and we will need some sort of visa for her before we can take her out of the country). Thirty days is really rushing it so keep us in your prayers that all will go smoothly and we will be able to get it all done in time.

We took Jada to Amcare Women and Childrens hospital for a wellness check. The doctor said that she is healthy just really low in the percentiles for height and weight which is to be expected considering she was 5 weeks early. She has a little jaundice but it is in normal ranges so we had been giving her some time infront of the window every day, that is suppose to help as it gives her vitamin D. We are going to go back next friday for a check up on her weight gain and jaundice.

All in all, things are going well just rushing around alot trying to get things done and doing the best we can to ensure Little Jadas health. Keep a look out for new Jada photos on photo bucket as we will upload new photos there periodically.
http://s921.photobucket.com/albums/ad59/mdinnes/

Another Bean update (with pictures... hopefully)

Jada is now here with us.
She has been sleeping a lot, looks healthy and fine.

http://s921.photobucket.com/albums/ad59/mdinnes/

the proxy server we had been using (hot spot sheild) has not been working lately, so we are trying another one, but it does not allow us to post pictures (or hyperlinks so copy and paste.) So by going to the photobucket site one should be able to see it.

Update on Jada

So a quick update on Jada. We went into the hospital today with a Chinese speaking branch member, to check upon Jada. Everything is well, her temperature is stable, her breathing is stable, she has peed and pooped, and she is eating. The doctors are a little concerned that she is not eating enough, but that is about the only concern (they have her on an IV right now to help). So tomorrow morning we are actually planning to take her home. Many of the sisters in the branch have recommended this to us, and it seems as if it is the right thing to do. Chelsey feels good about this, especially on hearing that Jada is healthy. We had to sign a weaver saying that we are taking her out on our own will, and that we understand the risks. We think that because she is healthy, and doing well, we feel that this way we can be part of her life, make her more comfortable, and such. Breast milk is important to babies, as well as having a more comfortable environment with her parents, and home has less germs then hospitals. We are going to take her as an outpatient to another hospital on Tuesday to do a general check up on her, and make sure she continues to do well. There has even been some speculation among those are that helping that she may actually have been full or very close to full term (closer then we thought) considering that she seems to have healthy lungs and also has some body fat according to Chelsey.

Right now, we are staying with the branch president. They are taking good care of us, and Sister Johnsen is going to help Chelsey learn about being a new mom. We are EXTREMLY blessed to have such support from so many people. We will be here for a couple of days getting things sorted out.

Chelsey is doing really well, and we are both really tired. There is still a lot of things to do, but it is coming together. Among our todo list for the first of the week is get birth certificate, start passport for Jada, see what we can to do get our visas extended a month, talk to the airlines.... just a few of the things we have to do! Busy, but exciting!
Look for pictures soon!!!

Welcome Jada Rose Innes to the World

We are now parents. That seems so strange, but we are also thrilled, even though it is a little sooner than we had thought.

Jada Rose Innes came into the world just after midnight (12:10) on August 15th, 2009, in Beijing, China. Even though we had decided to have her in Canada, we guess she really wanted to be a Canadian born abroad! She is about 5.5 lbs (2.47Kg) and 18.5 inches (47 cm). She is a cute looking baby, with blue eyes, and medium dark hair. Chelsey thinks that when it is washed and such, it will be dirty blondish. Chelsey also thinks she looks more like an Innes. We did not have a camera, but the Branch president took a couple of Pictures, and we will post them when we get them. Jada does not have a lot of hair, but enough that it covers most of her head. She seems to be doing well. She is still premature, having come at about 35 weeks, but she is breathing on her own, and has a nice healthy pink colour to her. There is no problems right now with anything, she sucks well, she breaths well, and had a good cry when she came into this world. There is still the risk that something could happen, so the doctors want to keep her in NICU for about two weeks. We miss her, as we are not allowed to be with her. We are only allowed to see her twice a week, which is going to be really hard, but at the same time, we feel safe with her there. All things are in the Lord’s hand, and we are sure that angles are watching over her.

Ok so, now that you know that little bean is safe, and healthy, you probably want to hear about the birth story. Chelsey had been having back pain for most of the day yesterday; we had no idea what was wrong. About 8:30ish, it got worse. Baby gave two large kicks, and Chelsey started leaking fluid with a bloody tinge. She continued to have lower back pain, but more frequent and starting to get more intense. We decided to go to the hospital. The first hospital we went to was a private hospital, and they did some checks, and said that the baby may be coming early. They wanted a lot more then we could afford to pay to deliver the baby, so we took an ambulance (this was about 9:30) to a public hospital with an international wing. That is something that I never thought that I would be doing in Beijing – riding an ambulance down the street with a pregnant throwing up wife (she only threw up twice; once in the first hospital, and once in the ambulance right before we got to the other hospital.) They first put us in the international ward, thinking that they would be able to communicate better with us. Well, we actually had more trouble communicating with this doctor. She spoke some English, but did not use it with us because when she asked if we could speak Chinese, I said a little. However, I was getting a little frustrated with how things were going; this doctor wanted a lot of money (up front), and would not listen to us at all. We only had a couple thousand RMB on us (a few hundred USD), and they wanted more than we had, and they wouldn’t listen to what we were saying, they wanted money they could have right then and there. This aside, neither Chelsey nor I really trusted her, it felt as if neither Chelsey nor the baby was important to this doctor. So they moved us to the Chinese section of the hospital (this was sometime between 10:30 and 11:00) which was a lot cheaper, and once we settled the bill – again up front (they would not have treated her if I did not pay!), things went a lot smoother. The one doctor in this section DID speak English to us, even when we spoke in Chinese to her. I had calmed down a lot, and even thought I was nervous about other things, we both felt more at ease and confident with this doctor. Chelsey by this time was having urges to push, and the doctors kept telling her “Don’t push! Don’t push!” Chelsey tried, but it was really hard to resist that urge. They did a couple checks, including an ultrasound, and the baby was already starting to move down the birth canal. The doctor could feel the head in the check, and the ultrasound showed it as well. The ultrasound room was right beside the birthing room, but they wheeled Chelsey down the hall with little more than a hand towel and my bag to cover her. The hallway was fairly crowded, but all thoughts of modesty had fled Chelsey’s mind, as she was only thinking of the bean. They did the ultrasound, and by the time took her back to the room, and got her on the birthing bed, the crown of Jada’s head could be seen during contractions. Picture this: Chelsey in Labour, baby is coming, doctors scrambling to get things ready, telling Chelsey not to push, and holding the baby just a little bit so they could get all the things they needed. They rushed a lot, and got things ready, and Jada was born shortly after that. Right after the birth, I felt extremely light headed, almost as if I was going to faint. I went down with my head near my knees, and I started to feel better. I got up, and felt it again, so I sat on a little stool beside Chelsey while the doctors where checking Jada. It is really hard to describe the feelings, of when we heard her cry (nice and loud, one of the Branch councillors could hear it over the phone!) and the doctors said that the baby is ok. A lot of relief washed over me with those words.
They still wanted to send her to a NICU, but the hospital we were at had no beds for it. So we went to our third hospital of the night. Both the branch president and the aforementioned councillor met us there. We got Jada registered there, paid some money, and then we got to finally hold her. Just after the baby was born, we both got to put our hands on her, but this is the first time that we got to hold her. She seemed really alert for a newborn preemie, and we are sure that she knows who we are. Even though she could not focus well, she did look into our eyes, and would react to us. She is a special child! We also had the branch president and the councillor give Jada a blessing, that she would be healthy, that she would get stronger every day, and that things would be ok. We did not get home until close to 3:30am. We wish we could be with our little girl, but we know she is getting the care she need. It has now been about six hours since we saw her, but we feel assured that she is ok right now, and that things are going to work out.

So obviously, our plans in going back to Canada are changing. We don’t know everything yet what we are going to do. We have to look at a couple different options on what we should do, but we will keep everyone informed. We still have to worry about the visa, Jada needs to be strong enough, also needs a passport and other documents, and Chelsey probably would not feel up for a 17 hour (total time) trip in a week. We will keep you informed as we learn what is going on.

Already the Branch here has been such a huge help and blessing. They are concerned for us, and will continue to look after us.

Don’t forget to keep both Chelsey and Jada Rose in your prayers. It is an exciting, and nervous time right now, one that we won’t forget.

Eclipse, Ice Cream, Plane Tickets and Peaches

So as you may of heard, the longest solar eclipse was this past week on Wednesday. It passed over a large part of China, including around Shanghai. No, we did not get a view of a total eclipse in Beijing. In fact, we did not get ANY view of it. Stupid weather! It was just really over cast that day, so we could not even see the partial eclipse in Beijing. The sky went a little darker during the eclipse, but that is all we could tell. Apparently, if you had the patience, you could see a little bit of it through the clouds every few minutes, but I did not have that kind patience. We did see some videos on line of it, and it would be very cool to see in person. I have never been in an area that is even close to the eclipse, so It was a little sad that we could not see it at all. The next eclipse that is to pass over Canada is in 2024, including a bit of the total eclipse in Montreal. Road trip anyone?

Friday we decided we wanted to treat ourselves. We went to a Japanese restaurant close by, which is reasonably priced (Just over 7USD for the both of us). This is a treat to us, as often spend about 5 USD/day for food for the both of us. We just wanted to have some fun, and as long as we don't do it too much it is fine. But here is where we really treated ourselves. We decided to go to the Haagan Daz store there as well. In China, it is set up more like a cafe, with comfortable chairs, menus, ect. You just don't go in and get a cone to go, but sit and enjoy an amazing ice cream creation. We got one treat to share, and that one cost about 11USD!!!! It was really fancy and tasty and filling! Check out the picture and description at Lost in Manhattan! This is not something we do a lot, but it was fun.

So we are headed home, Chelsey on the 21st of August, and myself on the 29th. Chelsey has to fly before her 36 week, which is the 24th. We decided that I should work that last week, just to make sure that we have enough money to pay our rent while we are gone. We are also looking at the option of having someone 'house sit' for us, and then they could pay our rent. Whatever happens, we are headed home to take care of the baby and visa stuff. But believe you me, getting Chelsey's plane ticket was a hassle!!!! We were first going to send her on Air Canada, but the partner airline Air China that would get her to Vancouver does not let pregnant women fly past their 35 week (meaning, if you are at 35 weeks, you are not allowed on their airplanes). So we started looking for other flights, as we did not want to be separated for two weeks. We found on on China Eastern Air, that takes her to Vancouver, then a West Jet flight to Calgary. So we go to buy this ticket, and it refuses my credit card. I try calling both the website that was providing the ticket, and China Eastern, but I could not get a hold of the website people, and China Eastern air (at least their new york office) was less then helpful. They suggested I try calling the Vancouver number, which had a wrong number listed on their website.... go figure.
We called my dad, and had him buy the ticket for us. He had to try two different cards as well, but we finally go the ticket, as well as the conformation that it is bought. Hassle it was, but we got it done!

It is peach season in China. All the fruit vendors on the street are selling deliciously ripe peaces, most of them very large! We love fruit. And there is always something in China that is in season! YUMMMMM!!!!

What's cooking goodlooking?

Who would have known that you could do anything in a toaster oven that you can do in a standard oven? Not me. I would have thought the heating would not be even enough for baking. The things you learn when you are in a foreign country, without an oven, and you have a craving for moist rich chocolate cake or good old traditional biscuits and eggs for breakfast. Some friends from church who moved back to the U.S. sold us their toaster oven for really cheap and so we have been baking up a storm ever since. The toaster oven fits an 8'x8' pan (there abouts), which is about perfect for the two of us. We have seen some that are slightly bigger. Most expats in Beijing use toaster ovens to bake with. We managed to track down some baking powder and baking soda, thank goodness we are in Beijing and not in rural china, it is a little easier to find some familiar things here. We also found an enormous 3 kg bag of grated mozzarella cheese. So we have been indulging in all the foods that we miss from home. We have made lemon loaf, chocolate cake, biscuits and pizza all in a toaster oven. Chili burgers and enchiladas are on the menu and whatever else we get a craving for. Beijing has a great climate for baking cakes. They come out so moist and soft. Then again it could be the flour that makes the difference considering I have no idea what kind of flour I am using because the labels are all in Chinese. Even after we move back to Canada we might decide to keep a toaster oven around. Especially for those hot summer days. Toaster ovens don't heat up your house like a standard oven does and they use a lot less energy.

Go home or not?

This is a question we have been studying out for some time. We want to do what is best with all things considered. I have felt sad that our families would not be able to be there to share the joyous, miraculous feelings that newborns bring, especially considering she is the first grandchild on my side of the family. It would be something very special for both Mike and I. Beijing visa regulations are constantly influx. Near big holidays the rules tend to tighten and then loosen afterwards. During the Beijing Olympics they really tightened from what I have heard. Coming up soon in September is the 50 year anniversary of the Chinese revolution, pretty big deal in china. Visa regulations have already started to tighten. We are needing to change our visa status and considering the Chinese Revolution coming up it would be very difficult and expensive to get the visa status changed while remaining here in Beijing ( the capital city of all places). Needless to say our work is not willing to fork out that much money so they gave us two choices, both involve leaving the country in order to have the visa status changed. One: we can fly to Thailand and hang out there for a week or Two: we can fly back to Canada. If you were given that choice, which one would you choose? especially with a baby on the way. That is exactly what we are thinking! What a great chance! Why not take it! In what other circumstances would Mikes work allow him to take a two month vacation. But they were the ones that suggested it so why not!!!
What a chance is what we are thinking. Go home at the same time the baby is due, which is right before our current visa's expire, and be able to share the special moment with our families. We aren't officially announcing our coming home yet because things could change but not likely. It looks very promising that we will be coming home. God has blessed us so much, we feel so greatful. Thing have just worked out. It is the Lords hands and so we have confidence that what ever happens will be for the best!

An update on the bean

So Chelsey has entered in her third and final trimester, Monday will be the 29th week.

Chelsey is happy because she is finally looking pregnant rather than 'plump'. Her belly button is becoming an 'outie', soon to pop. If she is laughing or coughing, her belly button pops in and out. It is actually quite funny to see! Bean is also getting stronger, and sometimes Chels asks bean not to sit in some spot - she does not usually listen right away... something we will have to work on later!

Beijing is getting HOT!!!!! We are frequently hitting 40C or more, and stays around 30ish during the night. At least there is a breeze most evenings that cools things off a bit, but our first purchase of next payday is a fan (or two). Other good news is that the buildings we work in all have A/C. We also have it at home, but we are just too cheap to use it very often. Many parts of China use a 'pay as you go' system with electricity, and it is kind of nerve-wracking watching the money go down so fast when you use it. To give you an idea, on average we use about 5 units a day of electricity (I think its 1RMB/unit, or about 0.15USD). If you have the A/C on, you use that in a mater of minutes - and that is having it set about 26C. So if you have it on for a few hours, you can just go watch the numbers move quickly towards 0.

Work has gotten our visa stuff started, and we went up to a clinic up in the north west corner of Beijing to do a health check. They took blood, height, weight, checked eyes, ears and throat, heart (including an EKG) and blood pressure, as well as a chest X-Ray. Chelsey did not have to do the chest X-Ray as she is pregnant. Essentially, there were four or five doors, and you just go to one, then the next - there is no order to the way you have to get it done, as long as you get to all five doors, and takes about 40 minutes total - including filling out the forms, paying, ect. This clinic is the only spot that we are allowed to do it in all of Beijing, which is really stupid because there are about 3 hospitals within spitting distance of our apartment, but to get to this clinic it took over an hour each way to get there. Stupid way to spend a day off, but it is something that we had to do. It was easy, just ate up a lot of the day.

Not much else going on. We hope that everyone had a good Canada Day (or a good July 4 for our American friends!) One thing we miss is BBQ! It's just a little hard to do it when you don't have a balcony. At least there is Chuar! Yummy meat skewers roasted over coals. They are dirt cheap and available all over - usally only costing 1-1.5 RMB/Chuar. Most of it is lamb, so Chels does not eat a lot of them, because she prefers the beef or chicken ones - neither of which are readily available near our home. She does like the Man Tou slices (steamed buns that are skewered, roasted and seasoned). This is making me hungry... I think I'll end there and go get some Chuar!

Mikey

Pay Day and such

So we got our first paychecks last week. I got just over 3600RMB and Chelsey got 700, plus 390 for a voice recording that she did earlier. We had not planned on getting so much, so it is a blessing. However, even this was not without its difficulties...



We had negotiated to pay our rent every month, instead of every third month (ie, pay 3 months rent at one time). The contract said that it is due on the ninth, but we let them know upfront that we would not be able to pay it until the 10th or 11th. We were supposed to be paid on the 10th. Chelsey forgot to get her 700 RMB from the company, but she got it the next day. As well, I spent 2 hours on my day off getting her 390 from the voice recording (this was also on the 11th). Why did it take two hours? Because it was on the other side of Beijing. If you look on the map, we live near Shuangjing Subway station (on line 10, the pinkish line on this map, SE.). I had to






go all the way to HaiDianHuangZhuang (also on line ten, NW). It is about an hour each way.
So Chelsey got here money all on the 11th.

Now, I was supposed to get the money on the 10th. There were going to deposit directly into my bank account. However, there was never any money in there all day on the 10th, and all day on the 11th. You could imagine that I was getting a little worried!!! What happened is that they kept saying that the name on the account was wrong. By the time Saturday rolled around, and the money was still not in there, I went to the bank and got a print out with my name and account information to give to them. They gave Chelsey cash on Sunday (June 14th), and said that the will try to figure it out for next month. I sure hope they get it figured out!!!

So what did we do about rent? We decided that it would be best just to take 2500 RMB out of our account back home so that we can pay the rent on the 11th. We have plenty of money now, and it has all worked out. It was just a little hectic!!

In other news, one of the local Chinese teachers that had just started took two weeks off. I have nothing wrong with people needing time off and such, but when you just start, and don't let people know in advance that you need that time off that soon, it kinds miffs me. Not only is she taking time off, but one of the other teachers had booked time off a long time ago around the same time frame. That means that we have all been a little extra busy, in trying to cover for these. It is a little more organized now, and they got a new Chinese teacher, so it is getting better.

Anyway, that's our latest misadventure!
have fun
Mikey

First thunderstorm of the summer

There was a pretty huge thunderstorm early this morning. Some of the lightning bolts were right in our vicinity because the flash of light and the thunder were practically coinciding. I think that it really scared little bean because she was kicking for probably an hour straight during the storm. Poor little one. I must have been sleeping pretty deeply because I didn't even notice the storm at first. I heard mike tell me "Don't be worried but you are going to see a big flash of light and hear a loud bang." I raised my head to look out the window and it looked like beijing was covered in a thick mist (when I was more conscious I realized that was because it was raining so hard) and almost immediately there was a flash of light and a big bang. I asked Mike, "How did you know that was going to happen>" he was really confused, he said "What, what are you talking about?" I said "you told me their was going to be a flash of light and a loud bang." He said "No I didn't." It is funny the way your subconcious is aware of things even when you aren't. It is almost like having two awarnesses that can talk to each other. Often through a dream in the voice of someone eles.

there was a fire

Yesterday we walk out the building to go to church, and we see this huge black cloud of smoke. We had no idea what happened, but we found out today. Apparently there was a fire in a downtown hotel. We don't know what happened, but it was kind of intresting to see a huge plume of smoke. (we did not take the photo, but found it)

Loving Life in Beijing

I am working now and loving it, it is seriously the awesomest job ever. It is so much fun and very fulfilling being an english teacher in China. I can see why other teachers that we have run into over the past month say that you become attached to and fall in love with your students. I am working at the same company as Mike. It is a good company, we feel very comfortable with them. The demo was totally surpassed, I don't think that anyone had time to do a demo so they just started me working. The company is fairly new and so the class sizes are small. 7 students is the largest class that I have taught and sometimes you only have one student. My first day I came with prepared lesson plans that included interactive exercises and grammar lessons. I surveyed the students in the last few minutes of each class to get their feedback. What they really seem to be interested in is an immersion experience. So that is the way I have been conducting the classes, with a focus on open discussion on a previously elected topic. The students average in their 20's and most already have fairly decent english so you can get some pretty good discussions going. It is so interesting hearing their thoughts and getting to know the culture a little better. From what I have observed mainland Chinese people in general are good natured, motivated, moral and happy people. I really believe that they are a chosen and prepared people.
They use the words full-time and part-time very differently here. Full-time means that you are paid salary, often with benefits, and you are working on a long-term contract. Part-time means that you are paid hourly ($15 American per hour is average for a foreign english teacher) and is generally given to people on short-term contracts. Generally there are no benefits. It has nothing to do with how many hours you work. You could have a full-time person working only 25 hours and a part-time person working 50 hours. Mike is full time and I am part-time. The students and all the staff really pamper me being pregnant so you don't have to worry about them trying to over work me. You feel so bad though when your chinese co-workers are being paid 1/3 of your wage and being worked longer hours. We went out to lunch with a co-worker and jokingly told him that he should go live in Canada just long enough to get a Canadian passport and then come back and apply for english teaching jobs.