Birk Adventures

Since the blog is now my journal and the text for my scrapbook, here is an update on everybody.  Eve has been a champ. This is her first time getting up at 6:30 consistently and she is tired in the mornings. She's a good sport about it though. Last week was a stressful week for her at school. They had been working on a project on iPads and Eve had been having a hard time with the formatting. Her teacher saw that she had completed only two slides and told her she was behind and needed to hurry up in order to be ready to present to the class. This really upset her, and she cried to me that afternoon, begging to not go to school the next day. It brought out some strong emotion, with her feeling trapped and missing home. Since we had been studying Paul's New Testament letters written from jail, I talked to her about Paul and how he chose to have a good attitude no matter his circumstances. That night after I had put her to bed, she came downstairs and asked me for a New Testament,

 With the kids being in school I've gotten into a routine where I drop them off at the bus stop then go on a run. Our neighborhood is situated on a super busy road. Along the road is a frontage road of sorts for scooters, bikes, pedestrians, and sometimes cars. I haven't totally figured out the traffic rules yet, and I'm not sure any of the drivers here have either. It's craziness! Running along the frontage road is a little treacherous so I usually run in the neighborhood or on a path around a lake/canal close by. That path is much better but still has the occasional scooter, bike, or even car. However Adam told me about a park nearby that he'd seen on the map so I set out this morning from the bus stop to find it. I was excited to find a beautiful park next to another lake. And there wasn't a single bike, scooter, or car on the path! I took some pics because...well I guess because I take pictures of everything right now. And I like to share with friends and fa

Things are going well here on the other side of the world! The girls started school this week, which has been fabulous! They started at Wuhan Yangtze International School, a private Christian school. Thankfully it is a benefit provided by the government as it is between $25,000-$30,000 per year per kid! The kids started on Monday which was also Columbus Day, so Adam was off. We got them to the school bus which arrives on the street in front of our neighborhood (we are in a gated neighborhood with one car entry and several pedestrian entries) then he and I took a Didi (taxi/Uber) to the school. We got the kids outfitted with the school uniform: white and green polos with the school logo on them plus tan or navy pants that we buy. The girls look so cute in their uniforms! (This picture makes Emmy look way taller than Mini. She is taller but not that much taller.) Then Adam and Eve (I love when I get to say that!) met with the elementary principal and the other girls and I met with the se