He's got it taken care of

You know those kind of days... The ones where you feel at your whit's end, then something happens where Dad totally ministers to you... I had one of those today. Grace has been sick off-and-on all week, nothing truly serious, but last night she woke up with a spiked fever around 104 degrees. She was burning up, sweating from head to toe, and her hands were shaking. (Why is fever always worse at night?) I had visions of having to go to the ER, not an experience I want to repeat after a trip there during my pregnancy. But fortunately the fever came down quickly with some tylenol and a wet sponge. We prayed over Grace and went back to sleep about an hour later. This morning, Grace didn't have fever but was still fussy. I was feeling down about it because Kevin had to leave today for 5 nights/6 days. At club, we heard a US shepherd speak on trusting in Him, and some of the story illustrations were even about being in Asia without good medical care. It was timely for me to be reminded that my faith should not be in having handy-dandy ER's with the latest medical equipment, but in Him. Sometimes, when all that other stuff is taken away from us, we really get to the heart of trusting Him and realize He is enough. This afternoon, Kevin left and 30 minutes later Grace woke up with a spiked fever again. I called an American doctor friend and asked him to recommend an antibiotic, knowing tomorrow I'd try to search for suspension (liquid) antibiotics to give Grace. They are hard to find here, so I wasn't looking forward to getting out and searching all morning for that. But, our doctor friend just called back and told me he found the needed medicine while out shopping and went ahead and bought some for Grace. I started crying, realizing how stupidly tense I've been over this. Such a small thing, yet such a big Dad. He takes care of our needs before we even know them.

wedding bells

We had another Asian-first today; we finally got to attend a friend's wedding! This wedding could best be described as east-meets-west. Typically, in this country, the couple throws a big banquet and a certificate is read that makes them "man and wife." (There's not usually a big ceremony.) But, our friends wanted to have a ceremony to let everyone know of the hope that they have, and it was quite a celebration! They had several brothers and sisters who helped them write the marriage vows and marriage charge. The whole wedding was very participative, and I might add, "relaxed." After the couple was married, there were performances, and many family members came to sing and offer blessings to the couple. Then the chairs were cleared and a big banquet was served.

Confetti...lots and lots of confetti! The symbol in the background is the "double happiness" character and is most often used in weddings here.
This group danced to a song called "love one another..."
The two little kids in the front did a great job singing. They knew their stuff!
Grace was so happy that our helper BoLing was there. She had a good time at the wedding, even though she woke up with a fever (again) today. We gave her enough Tylenol to get through but had to leave before the banquet started since she was going downhill fast.

real or fake?

Yesterday, while grocery shopping, a man approached me and asked: "Excuse me, is your child's hair color real or do you color it?" I informed him that yes, my child's hair color is natural. Not an hour later, Grace was playing in a play-land area and I saw an elderly lady come and ask a store worker, "Is that child real or fake?" The worker laughed and pointed to me, saying, "yes, she is real and her mom is over there." Apparently, Grace was standing still and looked a little too much like a store mannequin. I can't make this stuff up!

this week

I have some random thoughts swirling around in my head.

Over the past week...

• I realized once again just how much I miss my husband when he travels.
• This week, I was reprimanded many times for not giving my daughter enough clothing to wear (because here, 70-degree weather obviously warrants at least 2 layers!) And then, when I showed a woman how Grace was sweating her only response was that she didn't have enough calcium. Huh?
• One day, as Grace and I were walking to a bus stop, a woman asked me for milk for her child. Now, we sometimes encounter beggars and usually they want money but we will offer to go buy what they ask for. This woman surprised me in that she was willing for me to actually buy the milk instead of giving her money. She would not walk alongside me (only behind) because she feared others would scold her for begging. But she really did just want milk. It broke my heart to see how grateful she was to have something so simple for her daughter.
• This week, (today in fact) someone stole my shopping cart at the store! Now, I had waited a while for the "special" shopping cart. You know, the one with the kid-car underneath so your child (and therefore, you) can enjoy the shopping experience. I had let Grace get out for a few minutes to play in the kid area, and before I knew it someone had taken the things out of my cart and put them in a regular cart so they could have the kid-cart! Ugh, very classy.
• This week, after several weeks of relative calm, Grace decided to re-test several boundaries to see if they're still there. Yes, definitely still there.
• This week, I made guacamole! Good Tex-Mex and Dr. Pepper are two of the foods we miss the most from America. One would think that since we live in a sub-tropical environment that avocados would be easy to find. But actually, most folks here don't know what they are. So, when our little western pantry started selling them recently, word traveled fast among the foreign community.

Here are some pictures from this past week...

We had another fun outing with Qiao qiao and his mom, Liu liu. You can tell from the look on Grace's face that she is absolutely freezing in the sunny 70-degree weather...
But no worries, because Qiao qiao's mother gave her extra clothes to wear!
Good friends must be sure to shake hands.
Guacamole! We enjoyed it for several days. Ok, I admit, one night for dinner all I ate was chips and guacamole! Grace even ate it, too!
Now we find excuses to put guacamole with just about anything. Here Kevin's enjoying it with some ribs from a friend's birthday party that he had to miss. Grace had just finished eating but had to go mooch some off of her dad, too.

a surprise

Kevin has to be out-of-town quite a bit this month, so he surprised me a few days ago and told me he had arranged for Jeff and Amy to keep Grace so we could have a day-long date on Saturday! Our day o' fun yesterday included a trip to the zoo, lunch at a Thai restaurant, a shared fruit smoothie at our favorite drink stop, wonderful hour-long massages (for a whopping $3.50 USD), and finally to our favorite coffee shop. It was fun to be carefree for a few hours. Thanks Jeff and Amy for babysitting! You are wonderful!


I was pleased with the landscaping at the zoo. We've lived here almost three years but this was our first trip. Aren't we terrible for not taking our child with us? (We will later, but this was a scouting mission!) Can you tell from this picture we are in the year of the pig?

The dolphin and sea lion show we saw was ok, but the real show happened when some monkeys escaped from their cages! It was ironic, because not even an hour earlier I was talking with Kevin and conjecturing about how often they have animals escape. For some reason, there was a hole in the monkey cage, and the smaller monkeys made it through. Soon after I took this picture, a small crowd gathered. One lady (I assume a zoo employee) put her umbrella over the hole so more monkeys couldn't escape while another worker chased the 2 fugitives to a separate monkey area.
The white tigers did not have a big place to stay. This particular tiger was put into a smaller cage before a zookeeper came to attend to him. We thought he was going to give the tiger a shot, but he just put some sort of yellow liquid into his cage without actually touching the tiger. Not sure why he just "spewed" the liquid at him, but the tiger didn't like it and swiped and growled in protest.
Just remember, you should never stride around ferocious animals...
Here's our Thai lunch (not authentic, but good enough), which included pinapple rice, barbecued beef on a stick, shrimp cakes, and cucumber with Thai sauce. Deee-lish!

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to my mom, Judy Gerlt. We love you, Mom and wish we were there to celebrate with you!

play dates

We had a fun outing today with a new friend I met at the gym (Liu liu) and her son, named Qiao qiao. Qiao qiao is only 3 weeks older than Grace. He truly is a cutie, very well-behaved. I am really thankful for today's playdate, because I've been looking for some closer relationships with local folks. I think Liu liu and I can become good friends. I love my foreign friends who live here in our city; don't know what I'd do without them. But I really need to develop deeper friendships with Asians, too. I am a nerd and sometimes get a little nervous before meeting with a new friend. For instance, sometimes I think, "Will she get frustrated if I can't understand what she says?" "Will I do something culture-stupid?" But, we had a great time and I don't think I did anything too stupid! She even taught me a few new words today. It's funny how in spite of cultural differences, we are so much the same. Our kiddos had fun playing today and we enjoyed talking.

Grace was afraid to get in the ball-pit, but Qiao qiao made sure she had balls to play with anyway!

time for a hug...

Qiao qiao would smile really big when his mama asked him to...

We had a little mishap on the way home, but thankfully it turned out ok. As we were flagging down a cab, I saw a huge concrete truck driving way too fast and heading right for the cab. He didn't have time to stop and smashed into the back bumper of the cab. I'm thankful both drivers were ok and that the cab didn't run over us in the process!

Yesterday Grace and I also went to our first ever play group. It's made up of several foreigner ladies and includes 12 preschoolers! Whoa, that's a lot of kids! Apparently it's the first-ever "foreigner" play group in our city. I guess there is a need for us to connect with other like-minded moms and for our kids to play with other kids who are just like them because everyone jumped at the idea. Again, Grace had a blast. She gets a little bored with ole' mom that she really enjoys getting to play in a new environment.

the good kind of bootleggin'

This country is well-known for its ability to copy things. Even art students here study how to duplicate masterpieces from well-known artists. So, it's no surprise that last week a new coffee-house opened up which looks almost exactly like Starbucks on the inside. We've seen it before, but we rarely get excited because usually the coffee is terrible, barely drinkable. BUT, this new coffee house even has excellent coffee like Starbucks! The cappuccino I ordered was the best coffee I've had here. Apparently this coffee house is a franchise from up north. Way to go, SPR coffee! (Ummm, don't know where the name came from except they told us it's SPR, as in "spring!")

Do the bag and coffee cup look a little familiar?

party central

We had some fun gatherings this weekend at our place. On Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for a friend. There were 14 ladies here and it was great fun! My friend wanted everyone to write down advice for her, then we read it aloud, and I felt blessed to hear all the advice, too, being relatively new to this mom-gig!

On Sunday, we had a suprise 30th birthday party for Kevin's cousin, Jeff. His wife, Amy, had organized things really well. Here's his surprised look...

I thought Jeff and Amy looked really cute in their scooter helmets!!
Opening gifts...

This is from the baby shower. Sorry it's the only photo I can share with you...

a fun time of day

One of my favorite times of the day is first thing in the morning. I can often hear Grace in her bed, talking to herself with all the fun new words she's learning to say. This morning it was Biiiible, Jeeeeesus, gege, didi, meimei (which means big brother, little brother, little sister in Asianese.) When she's eating breakfast, she's usually in a good mood and asks us for several kisses while in her high chair. Honestly, it's probably just a ploy for us to come over and pay her some attention, but it's fun anyway. If she gives one person in the room a kiss, she has to give everyone a kiss. That's fine for Mom and Dad, but sometimes our guests who might be around don't really want a slimy wet kiss from a toddler! Guess I need to teach her how to give pecks on the cheek.


Of course, we try to avoid giving kisses when she looks like this... Grace has a new fascination with peanut butter and loves to eat it straight. It's currently her third favorite food, behind oranges and dried fruit but just above green beans and chicken nuggets!

the half-finished photo shoot

It all started a few months ago when 2 friends and I talked about how we should all get pictures made in traditional Asian clothing for our upcoming wedding anniversaries. Granted, Kevin and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in July, but due to several schedule changes we put it off until this week! Well, this week also happens to coincide with a national holiday around these parts, so the photo place was quadruple-booked. By the time we got through the red tape, found traditional Asian clothing big enough for our western bodies, waited on tons and tons of other families in line, etc, it was nearing lunch time and Grace's subsequent nap time. We tried to stretch her out, but she got overwhelmed with the myriads of folks getting in her face. Ummm, it was, well, a fiasco. We got half the pictures made and had already paid-in-full, so we will be returning whenever we get our nerve up to go again. Whew! Since we didn't finish taking all our photos, I came home and shot a few myself later...(sorry, Kevin and I had to leave our traditional costumes at the photo shop, but here are some photos of Grace in a traditional qipao that I found in Hong Kong and also in a fun green dress sent by Aunt Jeanette.)