:: a beautiful, blessed life ::: China Journal 10-9-13 and Random China Pics

Sweet Graham lying on our bed

Walking the track

4 months pregnant

Silly Kiddos

International Church

Graham admiring the hotel

Ashtyn Loved this "Girl"

Playing make believe with daddy

5 months pregnant

Well I have officially been here one week. I honestly can’t believe I survived this long. Life is hard. HARD. Today I had to get a physical for my visa. Crazy experience. Almost words can’t describe. Lots of lines and people and tests.

I almost passed out when they said I had to give blood. If you know me…you KNOW I hate giving blood!!! It almost makes me not want to have a lot of babies…you know, cause you have to give blood a lot…no not really, I still want lots of babies  Anyways, I survived and she was actually pretty gentle. I think it was the tiny needle. Why doesn’t America have those?

Next came peeing in a cup. Now this wouldn’t be too bad, except they are squatty toilets (hole in the ground) and when I say cup I mean, tiny plastic shot glass….Do you have a visual…. Almost impossible. Seriously impossible…oh and the shot glass had no lid  When done peeing you had to unlock the door while holding your shot glass and try to pull up your pants while straddling a hole in the ground. Then walk down the hall and find the number on your cup and match it with a number on a tray…reach across the tray and drop the shot glass in…with everyone else’s pee Remember no lid!

Then came my ultra sound (which I was hoping they would sneak a peak at my baby, but they didn’t) Next was my sight test, which I failed. The lady actually got angry with me. But I seriously cant even begin to describe what it was like…actually I’ll try. You know those pictures that if you stare at a long time you might see something….Yeah that. It was insane. Again I failed. I actually said it was a g…and she said ,”NO NUMBER”..I still don’t know what it was I am starting to wonder if I am color blind? Was it a color blind test? Mom?

Then came an EKG and blood pressure test. I was able to opt out of the Xray and Vaccination cause I am pregnant…Thank you Baby Matlock #3.

All this, with about 150 other people and no social order…. complete chaos. To make everything more stressful, I left my babies with the school front office. They had said this should take about 40 minutes..ha! I left at 9:00am and got back at 2:00pm. I was sad and stressed. The kids were fine but happy to see me. The nice part of the day was…. I made a friend. They sent her with me as my translator. I really like her. She is originally from Zheng Zhou but has lived in England for 13 years. She is nice and fun and speaks English. She is not a Christian, so I invited her to church. She asked me if I went to church and I thought this is my opportunity. Pray for Rieka.

I am tired. I am thankful for things in America. I remember feeling this in Russia, but it is different here, harder. Pray for my kids…Pray for me. I haven’t written anything cause I honestly haven’t had the strength or desire to write. Life is hard. I decided I better start writing…even though I have no desire..its still a story.

On a happy note China had birthday cake oreos…Um Amazing! And I will leave you on that note….

Side note:
We are leaving for Hong Kong on Thursday (10-23-13) to extend our visas. We will be flying there, so your prayers are welcome. I will blog about that when I get back. Meanwhile here is my first journal entry...with more to come.
Side note: I am reading Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It is an amazing devotional. I look forward to reading it every morning and actually find myself coming back through out the day to re read and study. Just thought I would share...
(Thank you to Elaine for giving us the book...It was the perfect gift)