Preparing for another year

You won't want to know that I've been up all night as we prepare to leave in a few hours to catch our flight at BWI, and I'd probably be better off not having told you - but, truth is I've just about pulled an all-nighter for my last full day in the U.S.

There's a lot of things I'd like to share with you, probably the most important of which is to say that I probably won't be able to post on this blog for the foreseeable future. As near as I can tell, China has continued it's block of blogger and we won't be able to post new entries. For those of you who aren't on our newsletter list, you can send an e-mail to jaybomb2[at]yahoo.com and I'll promptly add you to our list.

The next most important thing I think I could say is that this blog will be outdated, not because I won't be able to post, but because it will still think we're in Hangzhou when this just isn't true any longer. We were able to land a teaching position at Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua, just an hour south of Hangzhou. We're very excited about it - they're building a fancy new apartment complex that should be finished in about a week, and we'll be able to take Chinese classes for free. It's more than we thought we could get, and actually the situation improved after we signed the contract. When we first decided to go, we didn't know for sure that we'd be able to take the Chinese classes and the apartment complex was on permanent standstill. Another neat opportunity is that Audriana will be able to join a Chinese pre-school and get a lot more exposure to the language. We're thinking to just take her two or three times a week, though we'll be paying for full-time enrollment. We think it will be a great opportunity for her, but are a little concerned about the adjustment into a new environment - it will be a big one!

We've had a great visit this summer and were glad that we were able to see so many friends and family. If we didn't see you, let us know you missed us and we'll do our best to make it happen next year. Also on the periphery - we hope to have a yard sale in Winchester next year as a way to raise funds to help pay for summer expenses. We'll also have one in Mountain Grove, but the Winchester sale will feature imported goods from China. We've already got several neat keepsakes put up in storage and will probably add to the booty over the course of this next year. We still desire to be self-supporting and this is one way to help offset costs. We have considered trying to get help in order to pay for health insurance next year - that $800 every year will be hard to come by on our own.

Life doesn't seem to slow down anymore...I don't know if it is completely related to being a father of two or if I need to learn to practice 'resting.' I could use some encouragement in making sure I take time to consider the important things in life.

Best wishes to you all from the other side of the world...well, at least that's where we should be by the time you read this. We hope to be in better communication by e-mail this year and improve upon the two mass e-mail broadcasts we sent by newsletter last year.

Blessings,

Jay and Victoria
Audriana - Joseph

family time

A portion of a recent e-mail we sent to Jay's sister:

"Joseph is getting so fun. Now he's old enough to really laugh with you. Which is quite possibly the sweetest thing ever...babies laughing with you, I mean. Just earlier, I was changing his diaper and I had to take off his clothes because his diaper exploded in poo. When I took it off over his head, he was ticklish under his armpits and laughed uncontrollably....well I took advantage of that...I just tickled him and 'attacked' him finally kissing and blowing his neck...he laughed so much! I think it's the first we've heard him laugh as much as that. Then I would grab his feet and bring them together and kiss them and munch on them - which he likes...and then get him in his armpit and finally with the neck. . . I did this several times resulting in family fun for all. :)

Joseph also likes to be lifted into the air. You stand him up on his legs - which he likes, and then I'll sometimes let him 'power himself' into the air...when he pushes up I pick him up...that almost always makes him smile.

Yesterday he really liked pulling my hair. I don't know if it was texture or whatever...but he really liked it...I think he laughed then too. If he's upset, he likes to go outside. Seeing the sights, feeling the fresh air, calms him down. I let him touch the grass (when there is grass :), and he likes that too."



I'll have to get some new pics up at the top sometime soon...

Red tape

We've had a lot of red tape to deal with recently...

Let me see if I can remember some of the fun to share with you...

Currently, we're having to deal with getting visas for returning to China in September. Because Jay's passport expires like April 2010, we have to go to Shanghai to renew his passport before Zhejiang Normal can issue us new visas.

Also, ZUCC scheduled our current visa to expire on July 18th, even though all the foreign teachers will be completely done with their duties more than a month earlier. Apparently, there's some rule that stipulates we can't begin the next visa process until two weeks prior to the expiration of the current visa...which means that we get some extra time to tour Hangzhou and move into our new home in Jinhua! We were planning on staying a bit longer, but I don't know if we'd have chosen to stay a whole month. :)

We nearly 'lost' our return tickets home! We bought our tickets from some shady looking website that looks like a fly-by-night deal...not the first time we've taken a bit more of a risk in order to try and get rock-bottom prices on tickets. I think this was the second time in a row we've gone a bit riskier path to get tickets. This particular group (sponsored by some company named Trilix - I have found a couple of other shady looking websites also sponsored by Trilix) appears to no longer be in existence. The parent company, Trilix is seemingly impossible to find contact information for. We discussed when we purchased the tickets how we thought it was possible we might end up getting scammed. Everything seems to be in order now, but because our travel agent didn't exist any longer, it was a bit difficult to get our e-ticket numbers to give to the airline so they could find our reservation. :) We eventually had a tip from one of the airline representatives to call our credit card company, who were able to look up the ticket number in their system! We had the original e-mails from when we purchased the tickets, but they didn't have any of the information we needed....For a while there, it really did look like we were going to have to buy one-way tickets home! We still have to purchase Joseph's ticket, as well as reserve Audriana's - there was a slight hiccup in getting Audriana's ticket reservation as she had a paper ticket. Our flights home are scheduled for July 4th - which means we'll miss the festivities for Independence Day, but that was the earliest the officials at Zhejiang Normal thought they'd have time to get the visa process completed. Actually, we scheduled the tickets for one day earlier than the earliest day mentioned by our new school. They had even mentioned waiting until perhaps the 15th of July!

Fun fun. I wonder why they call it 'red tape' anyway?

口水 kou shui (mouth water)

Yesterday I learned another Chinese word...it's great to be in a place where they speak the language you're trying to learn. It really helps.

Yesterday's word that I learned is slightly interesting, and very appropriate for my everyday life. To repeat the title above, the word is 'kou shui', which literally means 'mouth water.' I get a kick out of how literal Chinese can be sometimes, and while sometimes humorous for the learner, I'm sure Chinese people rarely think about the words they use in the same way a foreigner learning the language would. I'll let you all (Americans and non-Chinese) think about what the meaning of what 'mouth water' might be for a bit before revealing the answer at the bottom of this post.

What's a good word combination set that we use in English...? How about house shoes... or butterfly maybe? This sort of combination occurs much more frequently in Chinese, where one character will be used in conjuction with another character to produce a combined meaning from both of the characters. The word for train, for example...火车 (huo che) literally means 'fire vehicle.' Or consider the characters for 'milk mouth,' (奶嘴) which are used in combination to mean pacifier or the nipple on a bottle. Incidentally, we're approaching the same category of every day use that I have for 'mouth water'...

While 'butterfly' might not be humorous to us as native speakers of English, someone learning the language might seriously wonder why we would call such a beautiful creature a margarine mosquito, for example. Thus is the source of my delight in words such as 'kou shui.'

Now that I've bantered about on one of the finer points of learning Chinese....let me appropriately tell you at this time that we have signed contracts to go to Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua next year. We're excited, as it seems God is leading us there. We may have mentioned before that the situation to work there next year more or less developed on it's own with very little work on our part...and in many ways it seems that it will be a much more ideal situation. Whether it turns out to be that way or not, we are excited to be following His will, although we aren't sure why we are favored enough to rest in it. His grace and mercy are truly amazing.

Now, to turn back to the appropriateness of our aforementioned topic. The meaning of 'kou shui?' It is drool. A very useful word when you're the parent of a three month old.

where's the time?

well...I have thought of a lot of things to share recently...problem is, if I don't do it soon after I think of it...it disappears into the recesses of my mind...lol

We've been busy recently...a little crazy even. However, in spite of stress it has been very pleasant to see the Lord at work in small ways all around us.

We recently had some friends from Shanghai come to visit for 'May Day' or Labor Day as it's celebrated in China. They took some excellent pictures which are posted on their facebook site. Unfortunately, our camera is pretty much defunct. It has slowly degenerated over the year. Now we are lucky to get even a few pictures on 'fully charged' batteries. We don't really have enough technical prowress to know what to do...stink.

Well - we're off to our favorite supermarket now - no time to write! We go to this place, Auchan - it's a French chain a la Walmart in the States. It is three bus stops away. We usually have KFC for meals there whenever we take a big trip as it helps calm down the nerves after a fun filled day at the Chinese marketplace. :) Plus, Audriana loves the slide.

It would be ideal to share more of our day touring Hangzhou with our friends - we had a fabulous few days with them. Took the water taxi downtown for the first time, and explored the lake by boat, and then an island in the center of the lake shaped like a set of interlinked squares with water in the spaces between the lines...

We love hearing from you - sorry this is all we have to offer at the moment!

Blessings....

Happy Easter!

Greetings! 复活节快乐！ Happy Easter!

Easter in Chinese literally has the meaning of resurrection, I think specifically referring to Jesus, but I'm not exactly sure about that.

We had a very tiring, but very memorable Easter - Audriana's and Joseph's first in China. Jay took care of the kids Saturday night, well he tried to. I think it would have been better had he not tried to warm up Joseph's milk to feed him in the bottle though....that decision may have tired us more than had Jay merely got up to give Joseph to Vikki (which is what we usually do when Jay takes care of the kids). If not for that, we would have had a rare peaceful night's sleep as Audriana actually slept the whole night through (lucky for Jay). Being up with Joseph, though, did allow us to get some chocolates and gummies in Audriana's Easter basket. Audriana was most excited about the gummies in her basket! She squealed with excitement, 'gummies! gummies! gummies!' We wished we had had a chance to get it on camera. Audriana may have liked the gummies, but we were most impressed with the Cadbury eggs sent by Vikki's sister - yum yum!

Friday night we had our friend's three children with us overnight and most of Saturday. Saturday morning we made Easter grass together by coloring paper and then cutting it into small pieces. We had a good time, it was interesting to see what life might be like six years down the road, though mostly we just played and had fun together. We didn't have too much responsibility. If I'm not mistaken, the ages of the children are 4, 5, and 8.

Audriana woke up this morning at about 6:20, which gave us just enough time to get to Chinese church this morning. We went to the adult service today after going to children's church last week. Vikki felt much better about Chinese church the last two weeks. Prior to that, we had spent most of the service with attendants almost constantly trying to hush Audriana. Children's church is quiet, but they don't have the same expectation for silence as they do in the adult service. Today we figured out the trick of staying on the first floor and watching the service on TV and the projecter screen. They hold the service on the second floor and there's also a balcony for a third level. Previously we had tried both the 2nd and 3rd floors, and we will probably continue to do the first floor from now on. There's mostly elderly folks and today there was also a five year old (who was smaller in stature than Audriana) running around and being more of a distraction - so we didn't stick out quite as bad! :)

Jay ran to the supermarket during our 'break.' We get about two hours before having to leave for our other meeting in the afternoon - which is usually just enough time to eat and maybe get Audriana started on a nap. Today we woke her up about thirty minutes into a nap, and to my surprise, she handled it pretty well. I felt bad for our poor kids getting drug all over China today. Hopefully it won't scar them too bad. On a separate note, while at the supermarket we were struck again by the fact that this is the tightest our money has been over the course of the year - we had an 800 yuan electric bill come in, which is a fifth of our salary, and every other month they take out 1400 as a fee for us having a two-bedroom apartment with only one teacher employed by the school. That 'rent' was deducted from our account this month. We also went to Shanghai this month, which took a toll on our finances. We currently have about $3 in our Construction Bank account, and we took out a 400 yuan advance of next month's salary (which is something we've not done previously). Jay had a little trouble convincing the school to do that, but it wasn't as much trouble once they found out that the size of the advance was going to be as small as it was. We do have access to our American bank accounts in China and also have a little bit of cash still in the Bank of China from when we first came over, but we'd prefer not to dip into those accounts if we don't have to...well, I'm getting sidetracked. Back to Easter...

Jay barely got back from the supermarket with enough time to eat before we left right about on time (to my surprise). We had visitors invited to our Easter meeting today and we brought Victoria as well as one of her friends who was visiting from Shanghai. We had a service together, our friend Josh spoke about the meaning of Easter, and then we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Audriana was excited to hunt eggs and gave some of hers to a few of her friends - she's a great sharer. We probably got home around 7:30. It took us a little longer to come back as part of the time we were going at Audriana pace.

Though it was a tiring day, Audriana had a great Easter. She still hasn't seen the Mickey Mouse marshmallow puffs Jay bought for her while at the supermarket. They're waiting for her in her Easter basket!

p.s. It's pretty much official that we will go to Jinhua next year to work at Zhejiang Normal University. We spoke with the university officials at Zhejiang Normal and though we don't have an official contract offer, they spoke as if the offer was withstanding. The school is looking to add several teachers this year, increasing the number of foreign teachers while here at ZUCC, they seem to be contracting the number of teachers they'll need. While we were out, Victoria asked us whether we had made a decision and we informed her about going to Jinhua, which she pretty much knew already, we just hadn't made our decision official. Now we just wait for the contract offer and are going to try to decide by Friday whether Vikki will also be teaching next semester. Incidentally, going to Jinhua should dramatically help with our finances. The salary there will be at least as good as what we make here, perhaps more, and we won't have to pay any utilities or 'rent.' They also will completely re-imburse airfare for teachers, while ZUCC has a cap on the amount they will re-imburse. What's more, the cost of living should be dramatically lower. Many products and services will have the same or similar cost as in Hangzhou, but I'm expecting we'll be able to cut in half the amount of money we spend on transportation. Zhejiang Normal is also going to extend night classes for teachers to study Chinese, which of course, is our purpose for being in China at the moment.

Quite a few things...if only I could remember them.

I've thought of several things to share on the blog recently. It's been a while since we've put a 'meatier' post up, so let me see if I can reveal a bit more of our life in Hangzhou.

We've been trying to go to two church services for a while, but it seems that there's been a lot of interruptions to that plan. Tomorrow will be like our fourth or fifth time to try to go to Chinese church. The idea is that going will be good for the kids and us to learn Chinese, as well as getting to worship with others and get plugged into the local community. Our friend Greg has also considered coming with us from time to time. Last time we went, Vikki was very drained - though a big part of that also came from the fact that we made a trip out to Xiaohe shan which is like two hours away...I think it might have taken us three hours that day for some reason...

Jay did some Christmas shopping today! It's all part of this crazy idea to bring back Christmas gifts to our families in June, and then ask them to keep it in their homes and not open the gifts for half a year. Why do we do this? To save on shipping of course!

Jay is also on a bit of a vacation at the moment. This weekend is the tomb-sweeping festival in China, where families go to the graves of their ancestors and deceased family members and sweep the tombs, also offering a bit of a sacrifice usually as well. Our good friend Victoria told me that for her family, it's a happy time because all her family members will get together and have a good time. This year her brother is coming from Spain and her family is excited about that.

Our school, and I guess most everywhere people will be off work on Monday, which Jay has off every week anyway...his biggest break is coming from the fact that the school in New Zealand for which our school has a joint program with (and Jay teaches 8 of his 14 hours for) is on spring break. No class in New Zealand means no class for Jay in China! It doesn't make much sense, but I like it.

We have offered to keep another American couple's three children for a sleepover one night during the next two weeks if they want to do that. Audriana would love that and I guess we're looking forward to it too.

We could possibly try to go to Jinhua again soon. ZUCC (our school in Hangzhou) wants to know by the 17th whether we intend to stay here again next year. We've been in contact with Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua and have had some positive developments.

Joseph is getting so big! He coos and smiles for us often. Vikki wants to get family pictures during the next few weeks to have a record of when our boy was two months old.

Many people have a hard time accepting our family in China as we have two children. With the one-child policy in effect, most families in China don't have the option to even consider having more. We're such a spectacle here. The other day, there was a huge parade of students dressed up in different costumes. Some were horses, cats, sheep - there was a guy with a bag on his head...maybe a play? Vikki thought Halloween had come early. It was hard to say who was staring at who more. Us at them or them at us. Jay remarked to Vikki to wonder whether if both the costume party and our family were walking along the street, who would get the most gaggles? I think it might be a toss up. Some of our American friends might find that hard to understand. Typically in China, foreigners still get more attention. You might find some of the same treatment for rural parts of America in the midwest towards foreigners, though Americans in China have more of a 'celebrity' status. People want to take our picture, say hello, it can be overwhelming. This was much more true in Hunan - which is more central and inland, away from the more affluent areas on the coast. Hangzhou is much less like this, though Audriana gets a ton of attention. Many times we are out, people will give her trinkets or candies. She makes out very nicely at the Chinese church we have been going to. I was surprised while in Shanghai recently (which is very cosmopolitan) that we got attention there as well. You can see foreigners everywhere in Shanghai, I did not expect that we'd command much attention there - but we did get some, I guess especially due to our two children.

We have just about two months remaining before heading back to the states. We are already starting to look forward to the summer and hope to see many of our American friends while visiting with family. We have been told that we'll need to reserve our open-return plane tickets soon, otherwise we may not be able to come back until September! That would not be good.

Audriana has been getting 'potty' training ever since Grammy was here. We are slowly learning, I think. Recently though, she's started to take off her diaper by herself in bed, which I'm afraid will lead to an 'accident.' She's such a good girl - we're so blessed! However, recently she's started to test limits and become more independent, as is the norm with her age. We have been looking at pictures of her when we first came in September and from what she looks like now and it was hard for us to accept just how much she's grown. Such a bittersweet thing, parenting.

I wonder how our heavenly Father feels about that?




. . . .

Photos on facebook

FYI: Vikki put some photos on facebook of Audriana's birthday party. They are pretty fun. If you're on facebook, but aren't friends with Vikki yet, you can find her as Victoria Beamon. Let me see if I can put a teaser on here for you:


P.S. Vikki also told me that we can also e-mail you an invitation to view the photos on facebook as well. Let us know if you'd like an invitation!

Audriana's two!

Our little girl turned two yesterday. We're celebrating with a party today from 3-5. Vikki counted about 26 people expected to come. We're excited. Last night Vikki hosted some students in our home with our co-worker Greg for a 'game night.' We went as a family to KFC and Audriana got to play on the slide. We later went up and played with the coin-op toys at the supermarket where we were at with KFC. She picked out a toy badminton set for her birthday from her dad.

It's hard to believe that she's turned two on us. Jay still carries around in his wallet some pictures from last Easter and an 8 month old picture of Audriana during Christmas time.

The other night, she was so cute singing 'Hallelujah Amen' over and over again in bed resisting sleep. =)

Gmail correspondence

This is two weeks old, but our friends who helped us find our two jobs in China that we've had sent us a message to 'encourage' friends to come to China. =)

"Hey folks,
...I’ve been home for almost a week now, and am trying hard to dig up some additional new teachers for fall. If you have any friends or family that might be interested, now is the time for arm twisting, bribing, etc. :-)"

Audriana is learning to count...

She loves Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer, among others...Pooh is probably her favorite though. We watched a Pooh 123 movie several days ago and afterward the next day she counted to like 12 on her own! We don't know where she got that from as the movie only counted to ten! She's gotten as high as 14, but she's now very inconsistent in her counting. She'll usually start with 4, and then count to ten, and usually say 'eleven, eleven, eleven...' She also knows counting in Chinese somewhat too! Especially the number eight - 'ba'

Cram session

Vikki's mother leaves March 5th and we're trying to check items off her list of things she wanted to do while she was here. Last night, we went and Vikki and her mother got a pedicure. Jay watched the children, though he did cheat and bring the laptop so Audriana could watch a movie. Before that, Janie spoiled him by taking us to a Brazilian Barbecue in town. It wasn't near as good as the one we are used to from our days in Changsha, but servers bringing meat to your trays anywhere is nice. We got there during the last part of the dinner rush and then stayed until almost 9:00. We just barely managed to make it to the place where we had planned to take Vikki's mom for the pedicure as it was closing...but then found another store across the street that was willing to do it, even though they would be closing in another forty-five minutes. We were surprised that it took until midnight! We had all the kids out with us, getting our nails done (except Jay, of course) until midnight!

We're thinking about taking a trip to the countryside on Monday and then a friend from the States, Rachel Rasmussen, is going to visit for a few days. While Rachel's here, we will probably take a trip downtown to see West Lake once or twice. Janie leaves Thursday morning while Jay is in class. Victoria has arranged for her father to take Janie and Vikki to the airport and help with the kids.

We'll miss you Grammy!

Everyone is well!

We ate a lot of oranges, drank orange juice, took Vitamin C tablets, and mostly tried to rest. I guess yesterday may have been the first day that everyone felt back to normal. Yea!

sick-o's

For like two days, the weather in Hangzhou reached an unexpected high in the seventies, pushing eighty degrees farenheit. Then, on Saturday the weather started changing back to it's usual winter self. I guess that may be what prompted our family to become ill. For the past two days, Vikki, Jay, and Audriana have had colds. Nothing too bad - and fortunately Grammy and Joseph have been unaffected.

Our desire to put a lot of hours into either searching for a new position for the upcoming school year or language training isn't going too well, but we have some direction on where we might like to go at the moment. There is a school in Jinhua, not too far from Hangzhou, that provides language instruction for teachers and that a friend is strongly recommending to us. Jay was surprised that Vikki apparently would even be more interested in the school there than staying in Hangzhou. It may not be possible to teach at the school in Jinhua. We've heard that there is not much turnover for teachers and that it is difficult to get in as it is a top tier school in all of China.

I guess at the moment, the school in Jinhua and trying to stay in Hangzhou may be the biggest propects as far as what we're thinking to do for the fall, but if anyone knows of schools in China that offer Chinese language instruction, we'd love to hear about it!

It just seems like it's been a while since I last posted an entry

Things are starting to heat up again here...

We have decided to try and implement a system of working on either language training or job search for the coming school year, or some combination of both. Jay is starting this week trying to put twenty hours a week into improving our current situation, whether we stay in Hangzhou or move to another city. Vikki will try to put ten hours a week mostly into language study, but will also probably help some with looking for an improved situation. This year we had planned to do ten hours of self-study a week on Chinese, and are just now trying to put that much time to use towards our purpose to be here - which at the moment is to learn the language.

Jay starts classes again next week. Currently he has twelve hours of teaching scheduled, though there's a rumor that four of those hours might dissipate. He'll have Mondays and Fridays off this semester which will help greatly if we decide to take any other side trips for the purpose of visiting schools.

Vikki's mother leaves early March. She has spoiled us so much since she has been here. She does all our laundry, has cooked several American dishes - tacos, hamburgers, spaghetti (yum!), and is a great help with taking care of the children. It will be hard for us to see her leave. Audriana will also miss her very much I'm afraid as her Grammy spends all her nights with her in her room.


(tacos with Grammy)
We've been scrubbing mold the last two days. We 'insulated' our windows in the house with plastic lining, thereby creating a bit of a greenhouse effect resulting in a lot more condensation. Quite a nice habitat for our moldy friends. We left for Shanghai without taking care of the problem and were gone for four days...that was a mistake! There is only one more balcony to do and it may be the least affected.

I'll have to try to think of some better things to say next time!

Enjoying the holiday

Joseph was born about three weeks after Jay's class duties ended. We still have a little more than two weeks left before classes begin again. Our days are filled with tending to our two little ones, and we are ever grateful for Grammy's presence and help. We are preparing for two difficult transitions, (1) having to get back into a routine fixed schedule with due duties and (2) Grammy's pending departure in early March.

It has increasingly seemed that God blessed us (again) by having Joseph be born during this lull in time on our extended vacation for Spring Festival. He also came just before everything closed down and the country went on vacation when the New Year arrived Jan. 26th. Had he been born during that time and had we needed medical services, it would have been much harder to find good care.

We went back to the hospital yesterday and picked up Joseph's birth certificate. We hope to be busier next week, probably making a trip to Shanghai to get Joseph's passport and citizenship papers started. We also have a good friend from our former days in Changsha coming up to visit her family in Hangzhou. We are very excited about Gao Li's visit, she was one of our best friends during our time in Hunan. Another good friend from our days in Changsha is going to be visiting our friends in Shanghai this next week from Guangdong province, in the extreme south of China. It will also be a joy to visit with her if we have the chance.

Spring Festival is a time to re-connect with family and friends. We sure are enjoying ours.

a little bit of info

Everyone is doing fine here at our house...we won't have any exciting news to write about in a while now that Joseph is with us. A few thoughts and a brief mention of Jay's sister getting married is what this is about. We had our second group of visitations come last night when several Chinese friends (Frank, Julia, Smile, among others) called on us. Our first visitor was Victoria, who came Monday morning, the day after Joseph was born. We're expecting another American friend today and are just enjoying time with the new addition to our family while Jay is on extended vacation due to Chinese Spring Festival (New Year). He won't go back to work until c.a. Feb. 13th, which is another possible blessing from the Lord - that Joseph's timing came during Spring Festival allows us to have nearly a month home adjusting and enjoying our little one.

Jay's sister, Jael, was wed to her best friend Cole on January 17th. I just received a slideshow from their wedding should any of you care to take a gander and you haven't received the link directly.

Cole and Jael Hastings wedding

Joseph was born a day later than Jael and Cole, on the 18th, but due to the time difference between China and the U.S., he was actually born three hours prior to the start of their wedding. Go figure. So, while Joseph was not born on our anniversary, in a way, he will always share the day with Jael and Cole.

May God richly bless the life of my dear sister and her lover and friend.

Joseph Micaiah

born c.a. 3:05 a.m., January 18th; weighing 7.9 lbs., 20.5" long

IN OUR HOME!!!

Wow...amazing. Although we had Audriana's birth at our home in Winchester, VA and though we are partial to home birth, we did not plan on having Joseph here at our home in China.

Vikki was in labor for all of one hour. Jay was too busy making sure our suitcase was ready to go, getting oranges and drinks for Vikki, and by the time all of that was nearing its completion Vikki had sensed Joseph's imminent arrival. Probably after about 30 minutes of labor, Vikki was thinking we should go ahead and get to the hospital. We had debated whether if Joseph started to come between the hours of 12am and 2am whether we would go to the hospital or wait until morning. We were pretty sure we were going to wait it out if he started to come closer to 3am or later. Vikki began her labor around 2am, and at first she was thinking we would just wait until about 5am to head to the hospital. Again, around 2:30, Vikki started to think we should go ahead and leave sooner than later. Jay couldn't believe that there was such a rush, but as we got closer to 3am, Vikki started to get more and more anxious. Jay had just about put the finishing touches on getting us ready to leave and asked whether Vikki wanted him to send an e-mail out to friends. She said she would, but that he would have to be quick. Jay didn't realize just how quick he'd have to be. Five minutes later, Joseph arrived. Vikki pushed through three contractions. Jay caught him as he came out (we were on our way from the bathroom to the bed - where Jay thought he'd leave his wife and then call a taxi). After some deliberation, we woke Grammy up so that she could help us get ready to complete the last and third stage of the delivery. We had to clamp the umbilical cord with a clothespin. Vikki and her mother were not too worried about that, though that was perhaps the most uncomfortable part of the birth for Jay - having to cut the cord. We had prepared some alcohol beforehand and sterilized some scissors before Grammy cut the cord. Audriana came in shortly after we were finished with the delivery and got to see her new baby brother. After toasting with juice and thanking God for his protection and assistance, everyone got some rest while Jay cleaned up some around the house. A few hours later we got up and got around to go to the hospital so that they could check mother and baby to make sure everything looked good. The doctors were all astounded. Later, an administrative assistant (whose English was much better than the doctors - though several of the doctors were able to communicate with us effectively in English) told us that the staff and physicians couldn't believe that the baby was just a day old and that Vikki had just delivered earlier that day as the baby and mother both looked so good, vibrant, and healthy.

Praise God!

baby is coming

Vikki started labor at 2 a.m. and we'll let you know more later. We're off to the hospital!

Still waiting for the new baby...


Here are a few more pictures from Vikki's birthday present photo shoot:


Also, feel free to check out the new video(s) at the bottom of the page.

An update

...still no baby! Vikki hasn't had any further signs of the baby approaching, no other contractions. She just has a lot of pressure from time to time with the baby sitting so low. She is not able to get around very much either. We'll try to let you know as soon as Joseph arrives about all the details.

Early contractions

Saturday night Vikki had some early contractions and the baby moved even further down in preparation to be born. Since Saturday night, she has not had any other contractions, but is much more uncomfortable with the baby's new position. =)

We went to see the doctor yesterday morning and she informed us that the baby could come tomorrow or two weeks from now. She has been very inspiring with her information.

Last night we celebrated seven years of marriage. Simple, yet wonderful. Vikki wanted to go out with Jay, but he convinced her to stay home as walking has become more of a chore. It was a good thing she stayed as the small dessert place Jay had found sometime ago was not open as advertised. We shared some 'cheesecake' and a candlelit time of talk while Grammy watched a movie with Audriana. We thought we will have to hire a regular babysitter for next academic school year! It was precious to spend that time together without interruption - something we are not really used to anymore.

Joseph spared us a lifetime of sharing his birthday with our anniversary. How much longer will he wait?

Love to all.

New pics out!

Vikki did it! Well, we haven't had the baby yet - but she did manage to put some pictures out on Shutterfly. If you're not already on our automatic update list for Vikki's pictures at Shutterfly and you'd like to be, e-mail us or post a comment on this blog.

This from Vikki's Shutterfly 'blog':

"My mom is here!

We are really glad to have my mom here. She has been adjusting really well - she just thinks it is too cold. :) We had a wonderful Christmas - my mom brought tons of stuff for Audriana and baby Joseph! Audriana was having a blast opening presents and playing with them. She got a bunch of new clothes for herself AND for her babydoll, which she was especially excited about. :) We got a new DVD camcorder from my parents and Jay's parents, so we should be able to get some great footage of the new baby when he arrives. Only 10 more days until his due date! We will see when he decides to come! :) We still have a few more things to buy before we can bring him home to our cold house, but we are mostly ready and waiting. I packed a suitcase today and got my mom a copy of the hospital address and our address to show cab drivers. :)

The other day Audriana looked at my belly and said, "Didi, come out!" so it must be getting close to time. :)

Blessings to you all. We will be giving you an update soon!"