Lao Wai Zou Le (the Foreigners are Leaving!!)

It's hard to believe it but the day after tomorrow we start our journey back to America. We really are overwhelmed as we think back over the last 3 1/2 years and all that has happened. Praise Father!

I have no idea when i will be able to post again, so I wanted to go ahead and let you know when we will be leaving so you can be lifting us up! We begin our thursday morning at 7:30 am (your Wednesday night at 6:30 Dallas time if you are in America) with a two hour taxi ride to the airport. Then, we take a short flight to the capital city, then a long flight to Chicago, followed by our final flight to Dallas. thankfully, none of our layovers are extremely long, so there should be enough time to get checked in, let Eliana run around a little and then board. Also, some of our friends here had brought their daughter over in a car seat, which she no longer uses, so they are giving it to us to use for the flight home! Eliana will quickly outgrow it too, but we really think it will be a huge help on the flight home. we've been letting her play in it inside the house so she can get used to it and not be freaked out by the strange contraption she gets strapped into! we've also got momma's tote bag stocked with new toys, books, and yummy snacks along with plenty of sesame street podcasts, baby einstien, and baby signing time videos to keep her entertained.

eliana is STILL going through some MAJOR teething trauma. she has four coming through on top, including two molars, and i'm pretty sure she has also got two molars coming through on the bottom (she never lets me poke around in there for too long without biting down!) She is also going through some MAJOR separation anxiety right now. She probably senses that things are changing and is not quite sure about it all. So, this clinginess along with the teething should make traveling hard for her! Please be lifting her up.

We had some good friends come over this evening to say goodbye and talk to Father together. I was so thankful that Father had connected us with them and that they cared enough about us to Remember us. they even lifted up little Eliana and all her issues of late. No issue is too small to take to Him! What a blessing from above!
she is still not sleeping super well these days, so when she went on a walk with Daddy the other day she passed out, and we just let her sleep in her stroller in the doorway! desperate times call for desperate measures, people!!
the three friends in their matching dresses! Eliana's going to miss these girls!
My teacher (in the striped shirt) finally came back from teaching in Korea, so she came over with Vip's teacher to see Eliana and say goodbye. she became my sister before Eliana was born, but i haven't gotten to see her much since then since i left to have Eliana and then she left for Korea. and, here i am leaving again! I hope to see her again when we come back next year and talk more about our favorite book with her!
this is the wife of the tailor who made Vip's suit for him. she's also the one who bought us all the goodies and made Eliana all the clothes i told you about recently. we went today to pick up some silk scraps for my aunt (another funny story i'll tell you later) and gave them a special Gift about our Dad we've told her all about. Hope that they take a look at it. look at what daddy let Eliana eat! whip cream! also, her outfit is courtesy of our tailor friend.
Eliana LOVES playing with "li yi"! tomorrow is our last day to see her before we leave, so that will be sad. I know that she will miss "li yi".

update on Elly Bean

Just wanted to let everyone know that Eliana is doing better now. Thank you so much for remembering her and us! she still has some sniffles and a little bit of a cough, but she is definitely getting better and i think she will be good to go by the time we leave. (which means we should be able to miss out on any swine flu quarantines!) so far, we seem to not be coming down with anything too serious either....just some sniffles, which are slowly going away and not turning into anymore. Praise Father!

now, on the other hand, the temper tantrums she's begun to throw are not so fun, but that's a whole other story! :) However, despite how unenjoyable (is that a real word??) a tantrum is, it is such a good reminder of her need for Father and how much i need His wisdom to guide her little heart toward Him. You can't start too early!! It's also a good reminder of how Father must feel when i throw my little temper tantrums and refuse to obey Him. Oh, how much we are in need, though totally undeserving, of His grace!!

Please Lift Up Eliana!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to ask real quick that you all lift up our little Elly Bean. She has come down with quite a case of the sniffles as well as teething on at least two molars right now, which means we are all a little sleep deprived right now as we make preparations to go! Please ask that she would improve quickly, be back to her sweet and easy-going self by the time we travel on July 30 (less than two weeks away!) and that Vip and I would also not come down with it! I know it's totally not a big deal in the big scheme of things, but little things like this can turn into a big deal when you are about to travel across the ocean for about 30 hours or more! I also really want to be able to take her out to play with her friends a few more times before we go, which i can't really do right now. i would be so sad if the last few days in our city for the next 6 months were spent in our apartment! anyways, thank you for lifting us up!! I'll be seeing many of you very very soon!

Yang Wa Wa (Little Doll)

We recently had Eliana's one year portraits made (as she is now 14+ months old, we are continuing our tradition of always being a little behind on these things!) and thought i would share them with you. It was definitely a DIFFERENT experience here! here's some of the fun highlights....

1. we got 15 free pictures for allowing them to hang Eliana's picture in their shop. she's a proffessional model now!
2. since she was their model, i let them choose 3 outfits from their collection for her to wear. can you guess which ones they chose?
   
3. We changed clothes 7 times, and, yes, that is about 6 times too many for a 14 month old!
4. I spent an entire day it seemed trying to find clothes that would coordinate perfectly for the three of us in our family picture. although i explained this to the photographer and his assistants countless times, i still did not get one picture with us together in the planned outfits! sadly (for me at least), the best family picture is with her in one of their outfits that i didn't care for at all (which for some reason would not upload! sorry...will try again later)
   
5. they attempted and FAILED to style her hair since they said it would be boring if it was the same in all the pictures. sadly, this was when she was in the super cute chinese dress! after that, they let me fix it for the rest!
   
6. we had to do the "photo shoot" in two parts before and after her afternoon nap. a cranky baby does not make for a happy model.
7. they include the digital digital copies in your package, which means i can print out more myself whenever i want to, which is so awesome! but, I spared yall having to look through the 50 different pictures and just picked the highlights. :)

Happy Anniversary!

On July 5th, Vip and I celebrated 6 years of being married! I feel very blessed that we found each other so early in life and love him more now than ever! Some friends offered to watch Eliana, so we took her over after her afternoon nap and had a few hours to go play and have dinner.
Vip was a little camera shy for the kissy kiss picture! He's giving me Eliana's "what are you thinking?" look. :)
Do your dates include walking by monkeys on leashes performing tricks for money? Well, our's do!! Actually, we enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner at the steak restaurant and then strolled over to the department store to window shop since it was raining and there wasn't much else to do. all in all, it was just such a treat to eat with two hands and be able to hold hands while we walked and didn't get totally stared at. (the looks without a child are nothing to the looks we get with her!)

Happy 4th!

I know this is a little late, but better late than never! we had a fun 4th weekend with some friends here. sadly, there was no pool to swim in, but we did at least get to grill some burgers and throw the football around!

She was about ready for her nap by this point, but at least she wasn't screaming!
(what do you think of my stenciling job on the walls?? I'm halfway done!)

Apartment Tour, Part 3: Our Bedroom

I figure if I am going to finish my apartment tour before we leave for America and aren't in this apartment for 6 months, i better hurry!! So, here's our bedroom. It's mostly clean. the pillows are placed a little funky on the bed and the curtians are a little crooked, but you get the idea!
hopefully, sometime in the future, we will be able to attach some kind of door or curtain to the "closet" but for now it's just open. there is also a border of black flowers like the ones around the quilt along the top of the wall. I'll have to take another picture and attach that to the next apartment tour post.

a few "bloggable" events

Okay, i often forget to post the funny things that happen when you live over here, so here you go. hope you get a laugh at this glimpse of life here!

1. the other day, while at lunch with some friends, my friend was asking me about baking a cake and if she could do it in a microwave. So, i told her that most cakes are baked in an oven, but that i did have a recipe for one you can cook in the microwave. Then, Vip proceeded to tell her that she would need baking powder for a cake, which is not common here and is only available in one grocery store in town that we have found. as he was telling them about baking powder, our two friends started laughing really hard. it turns out that he messed up the tones and was telling them to buy "heavenly poop" to put in the cake! so, we corrected those tones and moved on to more instructions. our friend then asked if it had sugar in it, and i said it did. she said that her mother-in-law was diabetic and couldn't have sugar, so could she make it without? i told her that all cakes have sugar or some sweetening agent in them. she said that she can only eat bitter things, so she would have to make a cake that wasn't sweet, to which i replied that is just bread. then, we moved on to another topic! :)

2. we went by the tailor this morning to get a suit made for Vip, as he will need one in the states when he goes to speak in different places. we hadn't been there in a while, so it was quite crazy when everyone saw Eliana again! as usual, she had a host of admirers surrounding her, but today, she came home with much more loot than usual. first, she was given a pair of pants that the seamstress had made for her the last time we went with some extra fabric she had. and, since these are a little short now, she is going to make her another outfit that will be lighter weight. then, she was given a sausage on a stick. then, our seamstress friend bought Vip and I both popsicles as it was so hot out. she was very polite and took the posicle out of the wrapper for me (while i was still holding the sausage on a stick and chasing Eliana around the market) and also gave me vip's to hold (he was able to stop her from opening his since he was getting measured). then, while we were still working on the sausage and the popsicle, she was given a boiled egg to enjoy!! ahhh!! so, in the span of about 20 minutes, we were given 1 pair of pants and an outfit to be picked up later, 2 popsicles, 1 sausage on a stick, 1 boiled egg, and purchased 1 suit, and 4 bilingual picture books that Eliana was going crazy over while eating her sausage on a stick. oh, the craziness of being a local supermodel!

an unexpected adventure!

sorry that it's been so long since i posted. it's been quite busy around here these days! We've got the suitcases out, have started putting things in them here and there and making lists of what to put in them, are continuing to empty out the pantry, spending time with friends we won't see for 6 months, hosting visitors, tracking down new toys and treats that will hopefully entertain Eliana on the LONG plain ride, stopping Eliana's morning nap (much to her mother's dismay!), and also just keeping up with daily life (you know...laundry, grocery shopping, etc...)

last Friday, we had a sweet friend come to town so she could introduce us to her sweet friend who just moved to our town. it was a very impromptu outing (meaning, i didn't bring the good camera!), but it was fun nonetheless.
Eliana loved Ying Yi! she let her carry her all the way from our house to the taxi, sat in her lap in the taxi, and walked with her all over the park. she NEVER does that with new people! anyways, we were all quite excited to make a new friend who is also a sweet sister.
the picture isn't the best, but it still captures the craziness that was that night! we found a log ride of all things in the middle of our park. and, because we were in such a crazy mood, we went on it! Eliana watched from the side, of course, but she really wanted to come for a ride in the boat!
since, we couldn't take her on the boat, we settled for riding together in the little cars. these weren't quite as cool as the remote control ones, but it worked. we also found a carousel that she rode with daddy.