The recovery is on...

The tonsil girl looking a little worn out!

But Leah is actually recovering well. Thanks for all the prayers for her. The only bad part about her surgery is the day she had it I came down with a NASTY cold and cough that I tried desperately not to pass onto Leah but to no avail. So the last couple of nights have been a bit rough. When she lies down, her nose gets stuffy and she can’t breathe so she opens her mouth to breathe and then her throat dries out which according to her is very painful! So the last 2 nights I have taken no chances. I just wake her up every 4 hours and give her a nice shot of Tylenol with Codeine. It seems to do the trick! Thankfully, she could never get addicted to it because it tastes awful!

The China plans are moving forward. I can’t believe that in 6 weeks we will be leaving. Our scheduled day to leave is July 12th. The only tricky thing is as of right now we still have no place to live! It's getting a bit frustrating as we have “lost out” on 3 different places for various reasons none of which we completely understand. So for the time being our plan is to move to China in July even if we don’t have a specific place to live. We have secured temporary housing in a furnished 3 bedroom apartment so will just live there until something gives in the area we want to be in. It’s wild really how their occupancy rates are above 99%, especially in the villa type places. Something will work out eventually. We are just continuing to trust God to provide for us. He always has so I have no reason to doubt now!

I hope y'all have a great weekend. We are FINALLY having some warmer weather here and it's about time. It's almost June and I think this is only the 2nd day I have been able to wear shorts! That is too much cold for this Southern girl!!!

Tonsils & other updates...

Well, because we don't have quite enough on our plate right now, we've decided to add one more thing...a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy for Leah - tomorrow! The day after we returned from Shanghai we had an ENT appointment for Leah at the suggestion of our Ped because her tonsils are so huge. The ENT took one look at them and said they need to come out. So we told him then it would have to be done pronto because John will be leaving soon to go to China for an extended visit. The ENT was able to get Leah in tomorrow. It will be done around 8am tomorrow so we appreciate you praying for Leah during the procedure.

As for the house search, as I had posted last time, we put contracts on two different places in hopes of getting one. It appears however that BOTH of those have fallen through - one went to someone else and the other the landlord isn't sure he wants to rent it. So, we are back to square one. Our guide in Shanghai is going back over to the area we want to be in to look at a few more houses, take pictures and then send them over to us. We'll just figure it out the best we can and go from there. Amazingly enough, I'm not too stressed about it. I do know that God has the perfect place for us to live so I'm just resting in that. Hopefully, in the next week or two, we'll know something more on that front!

So that is the latest and greatest around our house! Leah is a bit apprehensive about the surgery tomorrow but is very much looking forward to all the ice cream, Popsicles and juice that I have purchased for her! I'll post again soon!

The benefits of smoking...

OK, so all of my life, I have been anti-smoking. It’s just one of my things - I don’t like the smell of it and it’s bad for you. But today something happened in my life that has altered my opinion of smoking. Here’s the story…it’s long but maybe you’ll stay with me on it.

John and I went to the lobby of our hotel this morning and the concierge hailed a taxi for our one hour trip to the airport. Now I have to admit that I do not like riding in taxi’s and never have. But John takes them everywhere on his travels so I trust his judgment and usually feel secure because I am with him. The taxi ride started out like most do - uneventful but with me feeling a bit uneasy because I don’t know where we are going given that I don’t know the roads.

After riding for about 15 minutes in the car, John asks the taxi, “Pudong?” meaning are we going to the Pudong Airport? OK, little red flag goes up in Cristi’s brain but the driver assures us we are going to Pudong Airport. Then a minute or two later, John asks me if he can see the Shanghai map I carry in my purse…red flag #2! But then John finds where we are on the map and sees the method to this guys route so I am at ease again (kind of). Then the cab driver starts just randomly hitting the brakes. For example, we are driving on what would be like an interstate in the US but we are going much to slow and then all the sudden braking. Why? There are no cars around us and we are alreayd going much slower than the traffic! Then a little more driving then braking. This goes on many, many times.

I’m watching the guy’s eyes in the rear view mirror and I tell John, “I don’t think he sees well because he is squinting a lot”. But how can this be - a cab driver that can’t see? So we continue the random braking/slow driving with me clinging to the arm rest and then we notice that he is falling asleep!!! Yikes. After another minute or two of him trying to drive with his eyes open, he asks through sign language if he can smoke (holds up the package of cigs) telling us that it will help him wake up. Both John and I say, “No!” because really at the end of the day, I don’t want to smell like cigarettes for a 14 hour flight home! So he puts the cigs away and continues driving in the very braking, slow driving kind of way.

Meanwhile I am getting more and more nervous every minute wishing I could just get out of the cab and walk while John is looking more annoyed than worried! John and I have a discussion about the cigs again - thinking well, if it will help him stay awake then smoke away! So John tells him through sign language that he can smoke - a whole pack in fact if it would help! So the guy gratefully rolls down his window and lights up a cigarette. Literally within seconds of sucking on this cigarette the guys eyes are open and we’re trucking along on the highway at normal speeds as if nothing ever happened. He finishes his cigarette, flicks it out the window and happily finishes the 20 minute drive to the airport - wide awake. It was really comical at that point. So, although I am still not a fan of cigarettes, at least I now have a new appreciation for at least one benefit of smoking.

I think that is the best part of traveling - it opens my eyes to all kinds of new things. We are now in the airport waiting peacefully to board.

Our last day in Shanghai

Today was a free day because we originally couldn't get a flight out on Saturday. So we spent the day on the Puxi side of Shanghai in a hotel downtown. It would be the equivalent of staying on Michigan Avenue in Chicago (minus the large price tag) or 5th Avenue in NYC. It is a totally busy and chaotic part of the city. We walked from our hotel down to The Bund, a famous walkway along the river in Shanghai. We started out walking thinking it wouldn't be that far but it turned out to be about 3 miles away. So we walked, and we walked and we walked admist all the busyness of downtown. Eventually we made it to the Bund, along with about 100,000 of our closest friends! :)


Here is a picture we managed to take amidst the crowds of the Bund.


Well, we have finished up our trip in Shanghai now and are waiting around to take a taxi back out to the airport. We'll arrive back in Chicago Sunday afternoon. It has been a great trip and I'm so thankful my parents were willing to watch the girls so we could go it alone. This trip would have been impossible with the girls in tow. I think the best part about making this trip and seeing the houses, life, etc. really helps me to get a grasp on what life will be like when we arrive here. I'm sure it will have its fair share of ups and downs but we are very excited to start this new chapter in our life.

We've found a house...

Well, actually we have found 2! Basically in China, you find two that you like and begin negotiations on both of them. I guess there is a high liklihood that at least one of them will not work out. I like both houses a lot so either would be fine. We are just praying now that God would open the door (literally) of the house where He wants us for our time in China.

The houses certainly are different than what we have back home - that's for sure. To begin with all the floors and stairs are marble (the bedrooms have carpet)! It's funny that in the US we think of marble as a luxury but here it is cheap, durable and cool in the summer so all the places have it. We will have a little back yard but it's tiny in comparison to what we have in the US. I think we can still squeak in a little metal swingset for the backyard. The girls LOVE to go out and play so hopefully we can get that. The complex does have a playground and will have a pool opening soon so that will be nice. We will definitely have room for visitors so all of those who are wanting to visit China - the next 3 years would be the perfect time! :)

After doing our second look on the houses, we spent the afternoon exploring Century Park in Pudong. Pudong is the area of Shanghai that we will live in (east of the river) - Puxi is the older downtown area on the west side of the river. Puxi looks very much like downtown NYC to me. It has very narrow streets and TONS of people everywhere. Pudong has only been developed in the last 10 years so it is much more modern with very wide (4 lane) roads and seemingly fewer people - but that's a relative thing! :) Century Park was beautiful. It is the largest public park in Shanghai and would be comparable to Central Park in NYC. We rented a bike and went for a ride around the park. It was very nice. The funny thing though is it was wedding picture central! I bet we saw 10 different brides and grooms posing for wedding pictures. The brides rent western style white dresses to have their pictures taken in but for the actual wedding they have several Chinese style colored dresses that they wear. Even funnier to us was the grooms in these all white tuxedos or suits. Evidently they think that is what goes with the white wedding dresses.

We finished the evening by having a 1 hour foot massage. I talked John into doing it with me and he was hesitant at first. But I think by 5 minutes into it he was LOVING it. This was a really nice foot massage because they also did our shoulders, necks and arms. The massages here are cheap and awesome! This place where we had the massage is only about 5 minutes from where our house is so I will definitely get spoiled living here as far as massages go!!

I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera so I'll try to do that later but at least wanted to give an update on where we are in the process. Today we will move over to a hotel on the Puxi side so we can explore around those parts a bit. We figured it would be much easier to explore around there for the first time without 3 kids in tow! Then on Sunday we will head back to the US. I'll try to post one more time before I get home...because we all know that once I am back in the normal swing of life with 3 kids I'm lucky to get something posted once a month! :)

A day of sightseeing and shopping...

What could be better than spending a day going all over Shanghai with a personal guide and driver...not much! Today, we got to see all parts of the city and it was great to get that perspective of where things are.

The first place we went to was a fabric market and there were stalls upon stalls of fabric vendors with tailors to make anything you could want - coats, shirts, suits, dresses, even jeans! They had TONS of beautiful cashmere coats in every style and color you could imagine all custom made and all for about $60!!!! I CANNOT wait to come back and get some made!

We then went to a very touristy area of Shanghai but it was neat to see because the archetecture was very traditional Chinese. We ate lunch at this place and it was awesome! Really yummy dumplings which are very typical in Shanghai. We really like this last picture because it is so telling of Shanghai - the old is still around but the new is looming in most every picture!

Today we go back to three houses to decide which one we will begin negotiations on. It will be several weeks before we know if everything is all set up. Our plan is to move in the middle of July when it is nice and sweltering here! :)

Here are a few more pictures from our day:

People waiting in line for the delicious dumplings.

One of the dumplings we ordered for lunch - it has a soup inside that you drink with a straw (and scald your tongue with) and then you eat the dumpling. Interesting and pretty good. John thought it was delicious, but then again, what doesn't John like! :)

Old China being torn down to make room for New China!

Househunting day!

No we won't be living at the Oriental Tower but I thought you all might like to see it.

We finished our first day of househunting and everything went fine. We saw 7 different properties within 2 different complexes. On John's last trip, he narrowed down the choice of complexes to 2 (from about 10) that he thought were best. Houses at both complexes were good but we liked the houses at one complex a little more than the other. We will go back on Friday to look over 2 or 3 of them again (and maybe a couple more if Jane, our great guide, can find more) and then make the decision and begin the negotiation process. Because we are in China...everything is negotiable! :)

It has been 7 years since I last looked for a home but it's funny how it all comes back to you pretty quick. We certainly had the feeling of - "why can't house 1 have house 2's location" or "why can't house 2 have a kitchen like house 3?" It's funny how it doesn't matter where you live in the world, I suppose that one thing is always a constant - no house is ever "perfect", we just have to find the house that is "perfect" for us! :) I was relieved that everything we saw today was VERY nice and would be a great place for us to call home for 3 years! We are praying that God would lead us to the exact place he wants us!

In the middle of our househunting day, we went to a beautiful resteraunt that had delicious Chinese food (of course, here it's just called food). The specialty in Shanghai is Inside Out Fish. It is a Mandarin Fish cooked in some weird way that it turns inside out. Well, those who know me know I really don't like fish...at all! But trying to be the adventurous soul that I'm not, I tried the fish and amazingly, it was really good! "Why Sam, I am, I DO like Green eggs and ham" is how I felt since I just always opt not to even try the fish. I'll attach a picture of it here for your viewing enjoyment but I must say it tastes MUCH better than it looks! I had to tell myself that many times as I tried it!


We finished the day looking at more houses and then John and I went to SuperBrand Mall last night. It's the largest mall in Asia so it was amazing to see! It's 10 stories tall and with tons of stores...even a Crocs store. Today we go on our City Tour with Jane. She asked what kinds of things we want to see so we told her the important stuff...you know, landmarks of Shanghai and the best markets for shopping! :) She happily agreed - because she loves to shop also!

Househunting!

Well, we made it to Shanghai without any trouble. It has been 5 years since I have made that long flight without any children and I was amazed at how EASY it was with only myself to worry about!

The photo above is the view from our hotel room window. It's safe to say that for as far as the eye can see in all directions I see huge tall buidlings! It is still very surreal that this is our new "hometown"! I think it must feel like the equivalent of moving to New York City from our small midwest town! Crazy!

We meet today with a lady that will take us around to view the different properties available for us to rent. So I'll post later what we find. More to come...

We're off to Shanghai...

Well, at least John and I are! We leave this morning from Chicago for our househunting trip. We will get into Shanghai on Tuesday and be there until Sunday. We are looking forward to it. My parents are here to watch the girls so I know they will have a good time hanging out with "Grannie & Papa." Although, Kate's response when we said we were leaving to go to China was, "can I go, too?" But then for some reason she got it in her head that she was going to the beach so she was OK with us leaving. Mom & Dad will have fun pulling off a beach trip in the middle of the Midwest! :)

We'll post again once we have some pictures and something to talk about! Please pray for safety for us and our girls as we are apart. Thanks!