Happy New Year! We've been in China for almost seven months now. ... That still sounds really weird. Most of the shock of getting the kids in school has worn off, and the general craziness of having four kids plus also living in a foreign country and in a small branch where most of your church friends live far away and hardly any of your neighbors speak English. Right. So maybe the shock has mostly worn off, but it's still a lot of insanity for... well, me. Hence the lack of posts. In the words of the great Inigo Montoya, "Let me essplain. No, is too much. Let me sum up:"
Mark has been dealing with the urgent to the extremely urgent ever since we got here. Seven months ago. He took off Thanksgiving and the day after, three days for Christmas, today (New Year's Day) and will probably not need to work tomorrow as everyone he works with will be taking the day off, but other than that he's been working, including some Satudays. And weird hours. So he'll get the kids ready for school and often walks over to pick them up, but he'll also have calls at midnight from time to time, and mornings, and some evenings, and many afternoons. Instead of working mostly from his office in the apartment, he has spent a lot of time going to other people's offices for meetings, and visiting factories. He's pretty much exhausted, poor man, but he heroically soldiers on. We think that maybe possibly the end (of this particular project of utmost urgency) is in sight, and his now-boss knows how hard he's worked and how many miracles he's pulled out of his ear and how much all the positive things about the state of this project are due to Mark's hard work and general awesomeness, so at least he's getting verbal appreciation. Personally, I'm hoping they'll throw on a raise once the product starts selling. Hopefully it will manage to do well in spite of what a train wreck the development and production process has turned out to be. *rolls eyes*
Maddy and Jack are doing very well. They get top marks in school. Everyone is very impressed by their Chinese. They seem to be getting along with their classmates. Close bosom friends like Lily and Matthew are not to be found here, as yet, but they have kids they get along with, and, best of all, they play very well with each other and with Gideon and Juliet nearly all the time. Without easily accessed playmates the siblings have turned to each other, and I think they are building bonds that will last throughout not only their lives but the eternities. I think they will grow up truly being friends, and close, and understanding each other, which is one of the most precious gifts living here so far from friends and family could bring us. I try to remember that on the hard days.
Gideon is in a growth and learning stage, which is not always comfortable for him or for us. He has some of our insecurities and weaknesses, and we're not entirely sure how to help him through them. That's true of all of our children, but Gideon is struggling with more things at once than any of the others. He is, however, doing amazingly in spite of that. He, partially due to Mark's careful tutoring, is beginning to blossom in Chinese. He spent the first two or three months having essentially no idea what his teachers were saying to him. Pretty much ever. They recognize that he's very smart, and he does very well in English and math. Chinese has taken a bit longer, but it's coming and he's starting to do fairly well. We were surprised at how quickly the difficulty of his Chinese homework escalated. Even Mark is learning new things as they go through it together. It's reassuring to see him catching on and growing. I hope his confidence is growing along with his understanding, because he has good reason to have growing confidence.
Juliet is a trip as always. If she didn't so much dislike having people fawn over her as they do I would consider getting her into some kind of show business. If finances ever permit I will put her in a dance class poste haste. She's clearly gifted and charismatic. I can't leave the house with her without someone telling me she's beautiful. She doesn't like it when people speak Chinese to her. She'll hide and/or glare, and tells me she hates Chinese people. *sigh* I don't think she really understands what "hate" means, and we've been talking about that lately, that it's a mean, ugly word and a mean, ugly feeling. She'll respond much more positively to people who speak to her in English, but she still shies away from strangers. It's not shyness, really. More a discomfort with the unfamiliar. In the right mood, she'll chatter and talk and sing and dance in the elevator and on walks -- just only to me. She's my funny little diva and she makes life sunny and funny and exasperating all at once. She's one in a million, and if I could bottle her charisma I'd be filthy rich. I can't even imagine what she's going to be someday. We're planning to start a sort of preschool class with the two girls her age from the branch who live close by. Our three families do a lot together and hopefully will start doing more soon, including this preschool gig. It should give me two mornings a week to myself and one outing a week to get me out of the apartment.
I'm doing pretty well. I've found two chiropractors now. One is in Hong Kong and it takes about 7 hours to get there and back and have my appointment, but I really like her. One is in Shekou and takes about an hour there and back by taxi. He's okay. He does adjustments by poking at your bones with a machine instead of with manual manipulations. I'm going to give him a try for a while and see how it goes. He says he's has a "functional" focus instead of a "structural" focus. I should ask him what that means sometime.
Mark and I have plans for the new year. Better habits, focused goals, optimism. And hopefully travel. We'll be coming back to the States this summer to renew our visas. Other than that, we're not entirely sure what the new year brings. A year ago I was looking ahead to graduating and moving to China. Now I'm not sure what's coming. A year from now I may be right here, in this very apartment in Shenzhen, or I may be some place completely different. When your future depends on visa approval it's hard to know. I may be waiting to hear back from graduate schools or I may have felt inspired to push it off another year. I'm beginning the research process. Hopefully I'll get some good school-related reading in while Juliet is at other homes for preschool during the next few months.
While the holidays, starting with Thanksgiving (even Halloween) and going through New Year's have been challenging with the very different atmosphere here and being so far from family, we're coming up on interesting times. Chinese New Year will probably be annoying in many respects, but it will at very least be interesting and different, and possibly quite awesome. The children will have the ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY off from school. (Heaven help me.) I'll have to do some good planning on what to do. It would be hard to travel because it will be expensive and extra crowded, but if we're stuck just in the apartment for a month somebody's going to die. Or there will be a lot of yelling and fighting. Unless I'm REALLY amazing and on top of things. I'm sure going to try. I'm starting to plan now.
As I reflect back on 2014, I've done some really cool things this year. I graduated, which is awesome and amazing. I've traveled to London and Hong Kong. I moved to China and I've lived here more than half the year. I've really grown as a person. Even though I don't get to talk to her as much as I'd like, my mom has noticed it, too, and of course Mark has. It's harder for me to see, but I can see it a little myself, and I trust their opinions. I'm much stronger and more capable than I was. The funny thing is we're not really happy here. None of us actually enjoy living here. Sure, there are nice things, but once you start counting nice and not-nice, the not-nice wins pretty quick. There's so much we miss. But we're here for good reason, and we have the opportunity to learn and grow. There ARE wonderful things about living here -- wonderful people we would never have met otherwise. If nothing else, the relative isolation we feel here has helped us weed out distractions and start focusing on what's really important. We have spent more time with each other as a family, and started putting more emphasis on the spiritual priorities in our lives. Lately Mark and I have been spurred to really ponder what we want and what makes us happy, what we want out of life and where we want to be. We're still exploring those questions, but it's a hopeful and enlightening journey.
Here's hoping 2015 brings many more new experiences, new sights to see, new foods to taste, new dreams to pursue, new habits to create. New joy to feel. New friends to cherish. And time with old friends we cherish, and family we adore, too. Blessing to you and yours in this new year. May the Lord bless you with what you need, and give you a glimpse of His wisdom and hand in your lives, and the same blessings for me and my family.
With love from China,
Lyz
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