Update on the crew

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, saying she wanted to read about Paul. It melted my heart. I emailed her teacher, hoping to relax the pressure on her. The next day after school she had inflamed eyelids. She told me she had been picking out her eyelashes to wish on them, wishing she wouldn't have to present. Again, it melted me. The teacher did tell her that I had emailed and I guess the class didn't do presentations or got my time or something. Anyway, this is a big change for all of us and I know Eve is feeling it. She has a fun crew of neighborhood kids that she plays with. Next door is another consulate family with 10 and 8 year old boys and down the street is a consulate family with 12, 10, and 8 year old boys. One last story about Eve: last Saturday afternoon Adam and I were busy writing our talks and the older three girls were doing homework. Eve was bored (we only have what we brought in our suitcases or have bought, so not many toys right now). I had made what I thought were good suggestions (read, draw, play with Bella) but Eve didn't want to do any of them. Finally I told her that she needed to go clean the bathroom because maybe that would help her not feel bored. She emphatically told me, "I have no choice! I have to be bored!" She makes a cute Hufflepuff witch for Halloween.

Liv is doing well. She gets a lot of attention because of her golden curly hair. She seems to have a found a fun group of friends at school and also enjoys the neighborhood crew. Good recent quotes: In DC she told us, "A lot of times I don't think Mom and Dad's jokes are funny. I just laugh at them because I feel bad that no one laughs." And last weekend we were trying to figure out why movies were being watched on our Disney Plus account that we haven't watched. Liv conjectured that Grandma Phyllis wanted to know what our modern life was like, so came back to earth and was watching some Disney Plus movies. 😆She had her 12th birthday this week. We celebrated with chocolate chip pancakes in the morning, me taking her to McDonald's by the school for lunch, her favorite Chinese dishes for dinner (fried potatoes sold at a roadside stand by our neighborhood, fried rice, and re gan mian--the hot dried noodles that Wuhan is known for), then Adam's brownies and ice cream. She and I will go on an overnight date this Friday--something I do for the girls when they turn 12. Liv loves all animals, stuffed or real. For her birthday we got her a big panda with a bamboo home and a matching baby one. I love the excitement on her face when seeing the baby one!

Emmy seems to be adjusting well. Her schedule is busy, as she and Mini both have early morning seminary from 6-6:40 am Monday through Thursday. She is very conscientious to get her exercise in every day, making sure she does cardio, legs, arms, and abs each day. Super impressive to me! It's fun to hear her use her Chinese. She and Mini are in the same Chinese class, HSK 4. They are one level down from native speakers and can take the standardized Chinese language test (the HSK, similar to the TOEFL or ACTFL) if she wants. It would enable her to go to college here. She has a good sense of humor about things here...one night she and Adam were getting dumplings from a roadside stand and the lady told Emmy (in Chinese) that she shouldn't eat them because of her acne. I'm glad Emmy got a kick out of it. Funny quote from Emmy: After dinner at a shop one evening we saw an adorable Chinese toddler that I waved at. Emmy turned to me and said, "Maybe if you get really lucky here you can have an Asian baby!" It took a moment for it to sink in for both of us then we both burst out laughing and she corrected herself with, "Grandbaby!" (Which is also funny because I don't think I'd consider myself lucky if one of my teen girls had a baby in the next two years. I think she was saying they could find themselves a Chinese boy to marry...all in all a funny comment.) She made a cute happy birthday sign for Bella to wear:

With limited possessions here, she and I came up with being twins to wear to the Halloween party at CG Lan's house:

Mini is definitely feeling the academic pressure of being a junior and starting the school year two months in. She is taking two AP classes (statistics and world history) so is working hard to catch up in those. She's had a couple negative experiences in seminary which is too bad. It's an online class that meets at 6 am so I feel like the teachers should cut them some slack and be grateful the kids are there. But the teachers are strict and focus a lot on memorizing scripture mastery verses. One morning in her first week of seminary here, Mini got singled out for a scripture mastery verse that she didn't know and the teacher kept drilling her on it. It was humiliating for Mini, who is such a good student at school and church and cares about looking prepared. The next week she was late for seminary after needing to take care of a personal "girl" matter and the teacher kept her after to lecture her about not doing homework during seminary. Sunday School and Young Womens are also online, so there hasn't been a great connection with any of those kids as of yet. Definitely a growth experience. She is really thriving at school though, enjoying the people there. And she is fantastic at Chinese and connecting with the Chinese people. She loves the food, going out to eat, and experiencing China. She has been sick this week and had this lightbulb quote: "I think sickness makes me tired." Ya think Minz?!

This picture is at a random photo spot in the metro.

Liv is catching up to her quickly and Emmy has already passed her.. She just may end up being the shortest of our girls (me included): People often think she and Emmy are twins or that Emmy is older.

I am figuring out life here, enjoying the adventure, and of course feeling all the feels that come with moving across the world. I have been blessed with the gift of time but not companionship so am figuring out what to do with my time. I have applied to a part time job at the consulate but won't get security clearance for a long time (maybe 6 months?). So far I've enjoyed running, napping, blogging, Marco Polo-ing, and venturing out to new places. Last week I went to the Hubei Provincial Museum (Wuhan is in Hubei Province). Most of the items were recovered from tombs and date to around 400 B.C. It makes America look like such a baby!

This sword is on exhibition temporarily so there was a long line and large crowd around it. If you are claustrophobic, a crowded Chinese museum exhibit is NOT the place for you. Getting jostled, elbowed, and pushed are just part of the culture--no apologies needed or given. Here is the sword:

And the crowd around the sword:

I appreciated the chance to get together with other church members in Wuhan. A member of the district presidency from Shanghai, Owen Messick, and his wife Athena were in town so offered to take the members here to dinner. There are about 15 members here in Wuhan (6 of which is my family) and we had most of them together. It was wonderful to be and pray with other members. Ashley, the cute girl next to me, came to our house for online church.. We loved having her and it was nice for her to be able to take the Sacrament.

I have not appreciated so much the weird reaction I've had on my forehead the last week. My best guess is that it is from a spider bite (ewww). I had a sweet tender mercy from the Lord though. This thing started developing Friday and by Monday I was a little worried, wondering if I needed to do anything about it. I prayed for guidance from Heavenly Father. That afternoon I was on my way out of our neighborhood and ran into Cheryl, the sweetest woman who is also American AND happens to be a family practice doc. I was able to show her my forehead and she reassured me that it wasn't some crazy or urgent issue. She is a devout Christian, so after she looked at it and we chatted for a few minutes she asked if she could pray for us. So we bowed our heads on the road in our neighborhood and she prayed for me and our family. It was a sweet experience. I know only one American doctor (or doctor at all for that matter) here in China so having her be plopped down in my path on the day I needed her was a reminder to me that Heavenly Father is aware of me. Here are a couple pics. Over the weekend it was pretty swollen so Adam called it my horn 😝

Adam seems to be settling in to his new office, coworkers, and situation. The consulate office is supposed to move to a new space anytime (waiting on Chinese authorities) so it is very crowded at the office until they move. He is in the consular section and right now is doing what the local staff would normally be doing as they are short on local staff. So he is helping to process and print visas. He will go to Beijing for a couple of weeks in November for training, which will be good as their consular section is functioning at a higher level than the one in Wuhan. Yesterday he went to an event hosted by the Korean embassy, celebrating their founding. He got to ride in Consul General Lan's armored BMW with the American flag posted on the outside to the event, which he thought was cool. (And so do I.) He is enjoying pushing his Chinese to the next level. His goal right now is to say things as the Chinese people would say it, rather than in roundabout foreigner ways. He is also

on a quest to make his cookies as good as here as they are at home. The girls and I are grateful beneficiaries of his efforts.

A couple more pics. the girls and me on the path behind our house. I love how China lights up their buildings at night.