I'm Back!!

It has been over a month since I last blogged, and I'm full of excuses, but I won't spend my whole time with the computer explaining my lack of writing.

Sometimes I feel I have nothing new to write....we are so used to our new life here, that it seems like everything is normal now. Jim has been teaching English for awhile. His class is from 3 to 4:30 every afternoon. He admits it's not his favorite thing to do, but he's doing really well. It takes him about 1 and a half hours every day to prepare for a days' lesson. He is very dedicated and I'm so proud of him. Neither one of us absolutely LOVE teaching English but it's what we have to do while we're here. Jim will probably only teach this term, which ends March 27 but I teach every weekend. Teaching English is a great way for us to meet people in our community. We went to dinner with Jim's class one Saturday and I invite a few children at a time from my class over to our home for dinner and to play our Wii.

One place we love to go and teach English is the orphanage near our home. We are treated like regulars there and we spend time their every Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The kids are very attentive during class and then we just visit awhile afterwards. Our young friend, Feng Sian is always a treat to visit with. He is one month younger than Joseph. He has a nanny that spends all her time with him. She sleeps in his private room and he is the king of that place!! He is the youngest, and all the kids there love him......and so do we. He doesn't reach for me yet, but he will let me take him from his nanny and she will gladly hold Joseph while I love on him. His nanny refers to Jim and I as his American mamma and pappa. His nanny wants me to talk to him in English all the time so he can grow up learning English. Everyone thinks it's a big deal to know English. Feng Sian's nanny is kinda a funny lady. She doesn't speak any English and always talks to me like I know Chinese fluently......apparently I've snowed her with my smiles and nods.....she nods, then I nod......she smiles, I smile.....she frowns, I frown....ect. I always take time to find her and visit. She is working as Feng Sian's nanny in order to save money so her son can offer a large amount of money to the father of the girl he wants to marry. Before some of you freak out, that is not the regular custom in our community but she is from a remote village in the country that apparently still practices this custom. I don't know much more, but I'm very interested in her story.

Our Chines lessons are going well......but slowly. Apparently Jim has beautiful Chinese handwriting.....who would have guessed? His English handwriting stinks, but our teacher says his Chinese characters are wonderful and that I need more practice. I'm not upset, my cursive is prettier than his!! We learn new vocabulary every day from our in-home helper and then 3 days a week we go to a classroom to work on writing and pronunciation. We are holding our own. I can only use Chinese in the community, so that's where I get my practice speaking. I've written before about my friend who's the baker. I now go to her bakery every Tuesday and Thursday mornings to visit with her. She has a friend who now joins us. Her friend knows more English than she does.....but it still isn't very much. We just sit and try to visit in the bakery as people come in and out. Joseph is usually with me and he is always a conversation piece. We also eat fresh bread from the oven !! Joseph goes into the baking area and watches her make bread, and if he points to anything and grunts, he gets to eat it. He takes a few bites of one cookie and then grunts for another and gets it!!! Those two women spoil him rotten and then I have to take him home. Yesterday when hot pans were taken out of the oven and set on the cooling rack, Joseph said "Hot! Hot!" without any prompting. Those women roared and had to tell everyone who came in what he did. So fun to watch others enjoy him!!

My children are not making friends as quickly as we hoped. We've just decided that they aren't the friendliest kids. They are given opportunities to meet new friends, but they won't do it.....I must admit it's the Day in them. Jameson has a Korean friend that visits us every Friday night. His parents are team members of ours, but their family lives in a nearby town. They come here every Friday for the weekend meetings. His name is Heman but some call him Ernie....I love calling him Heman because I don't know anyone else with that name. He and Jameson are so funny together. They talk a little, play video games together separately and wrestle on the floor alot. It's fun to watch these two boys interact. Jameson is content with Heman and when he has the opportunity to meet other boys, he turns it down.

The girls are still doing okay. Selah is refusing to do her school work, so she spends alot of time staring at her books. Emma gets her work done quickly so she can watch the latest American Idol on the computer. Emma is also a movie watcher and spends her spare time watching DVD's. Selah is like me. We don't watch movies much. She'd rather play in our sun room with her Barbies. She has some Barbie furniture and she has taken over a corner of the sun room, where our clothes hang to dry, for her Barbie world.

We keep so busy that our weeks fly by and our weekends zoom past. We are very happy and know that we are right where we're suppose to be!!