Pre- Camp and Little Buddy

At camp each team has a different color. And team spirit gets lots of points. So we did a little pre-camp shopping for each or our team's colors. We found some cute green shirts for Sophia...

My Dr. Pepper yellow tattered shirt was interesting and I wore it proud. (And on day 1 the canteen actually had Dr. Pepper, the one time a year I get it).

I opted out of this blue shirt for Isabella. I found lots of inappropriate English and laughed through many shops.

In other events, Tobin's class had a bring-your-own food party. He loves this because people always bring sushi, his favorite food. Here he is helping himself to a local dessert drink, pao lu da. He took American pancakes, which his class loved.

While I was gone, camp 'little buddy' (for those who aren't old enough) commenced with bike rides to the noodle shop, sand play, and other fun weekend events.

During the week it was Tobin's job to read to Gabrielle, and she read to him too.
David found them like this, in a fort reading, when he came back from a run.

And though I left a menu and a plan, I told David to feel free to go off the reservation and ask our helper to make him local food he loves. Here is one dish. And what do you know, Tobin loved it too: sour and spicy vegetables.

Camp Buddy fun coming up....

Sophia and Isabella: Early Birthday Party!

These girls are growing up. With all of our travels we decided to do a joint birthday party on June 9th, quite early for both their bdays, but we really wanted them to have fun with their local friends. 

They each still had their own home made cake, and both wanted to go to the new water park. Each invited 2-3 friends to join and then three of our teammates kids also joined.  

Of course we started with 'morning-of party' chocolate chip pancakes. 

And their gifts from us. Ballet clothes and a ballet bar, to go right along with their gymnastics beam. They are in a real ballet class now so they have gotten into it. 

I have to say, these cakes were hilarious. Sophia wanted CC's chocolate chip pound cake (YUM).

And Isabella wanted vanilla cake. I used some Ikea crackers for the letters, because of the humidity my icing was melting fast, even the writing icing.

We sang separately. 

Chowed down on cake....

And piled in the car! We had fifteen total folks, including our family.

Sophia and Isabella had three local friends each...none of whom were strong swimmers. This meant David and I needed to be on our game. Though it was rainy, the kids had a blast. They had no idea that David and I were stressed most of the time trying to keep up, especially in the wave pool.

After we packed it up we went outside for local snacks and then drove everyone home. This was a 2:30-8:30 event.

Happy 9th Birthday Isabella!

Happy 11th Birthday Sophia!

These are precious little ladies that are growing in godliness and are a joy to parent. 

Less than a week later these two and I headed to Thailand for Camp Buddy. 

Swim Competitions and Children's Day

Next up was intramural swim competitions.
This year Isabella got to participate.

She was very nervous but did great. I was so glad she conquered her fear and competed.

The water is FREEZING. And while we barely had a hot season in May, the rains came steady and are now strong daily. This made it hard to jump in the water.

And the continual shock to me is that at these competitions kids are always being pulled from the water because they can't make it (25 m). This year it was particularly awful as I watched at least two kids really really struggle until they were pulled. The technique used for saving these kids is to use bamboo poles (like what I used to fish with at Grandma Pinnie's house), the teachers put it out for the struggling kid to grab. If he is really struggling another teacher will come alongside with one. One particular time the kid didn't make it 3 meters and he was in a middle lane. The teacher in charge nonchalantly offered the pole, he struggles to grab it, goes under many times, tries for the dividing ropes too, goes under. The other teacher comes with his pole. Finally the kid gets it. I am aghast at this scene and was about to jump in. Then I realized, I doubt the teachers can swim either. Scar-y!

And of course June 1st was children's day.
We tell our kids this holiday is redundant as every day is children's day :).

Looking cute and handsome, these two could be twins, and most people think they are. But then folks here say that about any two of our kids walking around. Two days ago a lady asked if Sophia and Isabella were twins....(Sophia is a head taller, just to name one of many dissimilarities).

Tobin earned his 'red scarf' this semester by doing well in school. 

Gabrielle celebrated at her kindergarten too with all kinds of fun games, and they could go buy things from others which was lots of fun for her!

Isabella got invited to a play date with her best friend, they went to the pool (spring-fed), and had a blast!!!

Happy Children's Day!!!

Mommy Goes Away....Part 2

I had been looking forward to this Home School Conference for months. I knew it would be awesome. Great city, great friends, (no kids, no offense ;), great speaker. 

But still the Father chose to humble me greatly and have me have to depend on him and others to help me. My travel day I did okay, day 10 of sickness. The next day I was okay but symptoms came back, I was weak, tired, and not eating much still. I was finally ready to say that my virus went bacterial and take some meds. My spectacular friend, M, tried many pharmacies. But we weren't in Kansas anymore...in our small towns you can buy almost anything otc, but stricter in the cities, they weren't budging. She was finally able to get me an antibiotic and parasite meds (for good measure). 

I started this but was still unwell and missed the second morning of the conference. But by the afternoon evening, like normal, I was feeling better...so I went out with the girls. 

We even shopped! And while I wanted the big hamburger, I chose a sandwich and only ate a little.

The next day the stomach was worse (but I knew the meds had to be starting to work). I was just quite weak, so my girls convinced me to go to the global clinic and get IV fluids, so I could get home in one piece.

The Local Doctor on call met us there (it was Sunday). I explained everything, he agreed with my medicine regimen, explained some other weird symptoms in regards to the trauma to my intestines, and agreed to start the IV.
The problem was my blood pressure. It was so low when I arrived. They put the needle in (which I hate anyway), the fluids start going in, and I start getting woozy.

Again, M was with me, a true BFF.  I haven't passed out yet, but I am getting there...the nurse is looking scared, my lips are blue (according to M). I ask for a wash cloth. The nurse starts to call an ambulance. I am clearly alive but they can't find a pulse. I am squirming and seeing black. But finally settle a bit. They take out the iv. Other things go on, I won't do more details. The doc was calm as he should be and knew I was going to be fine and I told them so too. But they were still very concerned about my BP/HR.

They next start the Oral Re-hydration and I drink a ton of this. I just want to be strong enough to walk out of there. He also gives me some Chinese Medicine, he knows westerners don't like it, don't agree, whatever, but I tell him I've lived here long enough I know there is something to it. 

It is vials of stinky stuff with a teeny straw. It really is various tree barks I think. And don't laugh, just look up where your aspirin comes from...
The doc says this would help, I took it, two of them. The nurse told me I was fantastic for doing this! I finally laughed out loud at all this. 

Melissa was texting David the whole time, he couldn't believe my blood pressure either.
So we waited it out. Melissa and the nurse taking care of me, giving me ORS, checking my vitals. I apologized to the nurse for scaring her.

And then the reinforcements came. Such. Good. Friends. They took care of me so well this whole weekend. They had me laughing hard. Just their presence encouraged me so much. And indeed, I walked out of there and did not end up in the hospital! Praise the father.
As an inside joke, SK gave M the 'Friendship Badge' and it was so well deserved, she was so selfless and gave up time at this conference to help me. The Father just showed me that community and love is what this life is all about. Glory to him, he provides all of our needs.

Love these peeps.

Mommy Goes Away...Part 1

I told myself that if I was still feeling so bad the morning of my trip I wouldn't go. But by morning I was feeling better, still not eating much, but managing. And I couldn't wait to see some of my BFFs, and get to hear one of my fave speakers (homeschool famous), Andrew Pudewa (go listen to any of his talks right now, you won't be disappointed). 

I had everything planned so well (hee hee)...where the kids needed to be, how they would get there...it took some algorithmic thinking, but I did it. I talked it through with our helper at least twice, typed it up in Chinese and English. Tobin had lots of rehearsals, yada, yada. 

It was planned that the kids would walk home from school, which they love to do. Apparently I did not foresee every possible scenario. As soon as I landed in Kunming I got the text, which meant that as soon as I took off from our town, an 'emergency' happened. Sophia, using our helper's phone did an audio text, voice shaking, saying something like this: "I got hurt pretty bad at school, it bled worse than anytime ever, it was gushing blood all down my leg. I couldn't get in touch with you or anyone (this because supermom here didn't give her our helper's number to memorize or uncle J's, who would have gladly come to her aid). My teacher sprayed the stuff on it, and because I had to get all three of us home, she hired a van and brought us home, but I am fine, really."

As K and I disembark the plane I call to get the scoop and make sure Uncle J comes over to make sure she doesn't need stitches. She sent me a picture. It was a horribly gross skinned knee (skinned is putting it mildly). But J and I agreed it was too wide to stitch. I apologize profusely to Sophia for being the idiot mom who didn't give her emergency phone numbers to use for the one hour she might have needed them, and agree to give her teacher the Teacher of the Century award. We agree the injury needed to air out until night time (though it was still bleeding), when Uncle J would come back and bandage it for bedtime. 

I could tell she was trying to be strong, and she was. She did great. This time she wasn't even running and falling to skin her knees, someone plowed right over her as she turned around from a long line of sinks outside where she was washing her hands. (Other school injuries for her include: accidentally stabbed in eye with pen (not her fault), accidentally stabbed in arm with pencil (she was running through the halls). She has all kinds of scars and tattoos to remind her of her Chinese school days. 

When I texted David this scenario I think he really thought I was joking, because it wasn't like we had enough junk going on. You can't make this stuff up, I tell him (all the big and little things that had gone on the past month for us...and it doesn't stop here...read the next post). 

Sophia's wound started to heal and she, along with the S fam kids and ours, got to walk to school and buy breakfast on the way (even though it rained), something they had been looking forward too all week. 

The best thing about Daddy's ten days away was that God's grace abounded in my relationship to our kids and the way we related to each other the whole time. Certainly the sickness helped this, so I praise him for the sickness...it chilled me out, the kids took pity on me some I am sure, and we all got along great. Discipline issues were handled swiftly and calmly (all answers to prayer). I told David he needed to really praise the kids when he saw them. And he brought them these cute little nerf guns and had them strike a pose. I LOVE these pictures.

 And while Mommy was away Tobin lost his first tooth! 

An Arts Festival at School

The month of May was spent with the kids' elementary school gearing up for the Arts Festival competition. Each class in a grade competes with other classes in their grade in showing off talents like piano, drums, the gourd flute, singing, dancing, etc. While they had been practicing for weeks, the schedule of events didn't come out until the last minute. Both Sophia and Tobin were chosen to participate and somehow Isabella wasn't there on the day to sign-up (she was also sick on and off), so she didn't do it this year. 

Sophia's performance was the day before I left on my trip and two days before David was returning. I was feeling really ill this day and almost didn't make it to see her. Thankfully the symptoms subsided for a little while. 

This country knows how to put on a show and use lots of show make-up. Sophia was really hesitant, she has always hates how they do it, but since she was part of a group I encouraged her to try to look like them, and it actually wasn't that bad. 

They did great in their dance and she actually did a cart wheel in the middle of it too.
Their class came in 2nd place. Good job gals. 

 Tobin's class came in 3rd and he did great too, I was surprised he remembered all the moves!
His performance was on the day that I returned from my trip. K and I literally hopped in a taxi and went straight to the school to try to catch our kid's performances.

 They put lots of show make-up on boys too, but Tobin wiped most of his off. He also had a fiasco with losing his hat an hour before hand...all documented by the many texts back and forth as I taxied on my airplane and  tried to recruit class moms to help David since I wasn't there. I finally had to power-off and pray for the best.

Sophia and our helper finally found it (on Gabrielle's trundle bed??!!!)

Tobin receives the award for his class.

These were super fun to watch (some classes did break dancing, head spins with a helmet, etc.).
We were so thankful they got to participate and perform, always a good experience.

While Daddy was Still Away

I continued with stomach woes but was functional (and had to be) to get the kids where they needed to be and at least fed!

Magformers our favorite.

Sophia helping me by helping Tobin with Chinese homework, we finally did get a tutor!

Sophia had an all day birthday party to attend, Tobin and Gabrielle went to our helper's village, and Isabella and I taught English for three hours. Afterwards, I took her to her favorite restaurant as a mommy date. I was still barely eating (day 5-6 by this time). But I enjoyed watching her eat what she loves.

We also, as promised, had our 'daddy away' tea party. I serve tea or decaf coffee, or soda, and lots of yummy junk food that we don't usually eat: Oreos, chips, etc. This time we did hot chocolate because the Kimbrells brought us some along with chocolate peppermint sticks to dip in it! YUM.

Everyone dressed up. Tobin was Iron Man and went to invite the others to tea...
what a gentleman :). 

 And this HUGE event happened while Daddy was away: Gabrielle finished the book 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons'. Nothing too easy about it. But she did great and is reading quite well for her age. Since I was about to travel to a big city, I promised her her big 'treat' when I returned (from IKEA). We are so proud of her!