The thing about America...

This is a picture my friend Sheryl took while we were hanging out at the city park a couple weeks ago. As you can tell, EG's hair is getting long-we're going for her first hair cut in a little while! I'll post some photos soon!

Well, we left the NC fall and headed straight into a WV winter wonderland. We drove through the snow and arrived at Andy's parents' home-covered in several inches of snow! It's been really really cold here and it's snowed twice already. We're moved into our little house just a mile from his parents and it's just splendid! It's cozy and has a little fireplace and everything! It's gonna be great for EG to get into a routine again and get ready for the little addition heading our way soon. We don't have Internet at our house so my blogging will be limited-but I'm gonna try to keep up. I'll post some pictures of our Norwood Rd house really soon.

I went to the doctor this week and he said said I'm definitely having a baby. He said I was measuring about 3 cm smaller than I should but he thinks that it's because Buffy has already dropped. (I totally agree-I can actually breathe now!) He thinks he's about 7 lbs right now-but there are no signs he's coming any time soon. So we're just hanging out and enjoying every precious night of good sleep we can. Plus I'm also enjoying the freedom to go and do-which will be pretty much obsolete once our little man gets here.

Speaking of going and doing-I like America, I really do. And I like going and doing-i.e. shopping. But I just don't know how to live in this country-how do you Americans do it? I mean, first of all-it took me 3 hours to buy groceries yesterday. The store is so big and there are like 40 different types of Tide-how do you ever decide which one is right for your family's needs? I got really confused and kept walking up and down the entire store looking for items I'd forgotten. By the time I got to veggies I was so tired and had to pee so badly that I almost gave up-it was 11:00pm at that point. But the thought of having to go back just for a few veggies gave me the boost I needed to finish the job. I guess it's just that I've never lived in America as a cooking wife and mom and I don't really know how to live here. (Andy and I lived in America after we got married for about 6 months but I didn't really cook then so the grocery store was a non-issue.) So, kudos to all you American moms out there-conquering meal planning and grocery shopping in this country is quite a feat! Funny that China, with all it's inconvenenices somehow seems simpler to me-guess it's just what you're used to-and I'm not used to 80 kinds of spaghetti. I finally landed on thin wheat spaghetti.

Ok, well we're off to cut the Bean's bangs. Hope you are doing well!

Grandparents are the best...

While my parents were out of town, I had just a teenie tiny tad bit of fun with my grandparents. Check me out here with my Mamma Nette... She took me to the pet store, to the library, to Lowes, out to eat, and of course gave me lots of juice boxes and snack bars anytime I asked for them. I even was treated to the "white soup" at Blue Ribbon Diner. Thanks Papa Dan for introducing me to the world's best soup...

And by the way, if you're wondering what's in this soup-the ingredients include ice cream and milk, blended together and normally served in a glass. But I like it better as a soup! Thanks guys for a great time! Things are not so fun now that Mom and Dad are back in town!

Reunited...

And it feels so good! We are back from the beach and reunited with our baby girl! We had a great time on our anniversary trip but I missed Emma Grace just a tad. She did much better than I did with the separation! Andy said, regarding how I did leaving EG for 3 nights, on a scale of 1-10 I landed at about a 2. WHATEVER! The fact that I left her for 3 days and didn't come home early should land me at a minimum of 6! I won't tell you how much I called to check on her but I will say I had a great excuse. I left her battling the same cold I had and mine got worse while we were away-so that made me concerned for her. Thankfully hers seemed to get better while we were gone, though I'm still battling a serious cold that started in my head, moved to my lungs and is now back in my sinuses. No fun!

Ok, back the anniversary-I was determined to take a few pictures on our trip. If you saw our honeymoon pictures, you'd think I went to Paris by myself and had random strangers take a few photos of me along the way. We took very few photos before EG was born and most of them are dorky pics of one of us standing in front of something. Next time I'm on my computer, I'll post one of these dorky pictures from our honeymoon. Anyway, so I decided that I need to start documenting things in our lives other than our children-like, um, the reason we have kids in the first place-our marriage! So here are a couple, boring, I know, pictures from our fun anniversary trip.

Thanks Tim and Kathi for letting us stay at your beach house. It was awesome! We swam in the pool, walked on the beach, enjoyed a 30 dollar trip to the movies (that was for an afternoon movie, popcorn and 2 drinks-America has really gone off the deep end) and made a yummy dinner one night! Andy and I realized that we often end up choosing marriage themed entertainment for these occasions, though not on purpose. On our honeymoon, we read the book, The Wedding, and this time around we spent 30 dollars to see Fireproof. The acting wasn't great but the message of the movie was really encouraging. We recommend it! It was so refreshing to see a movie that encourages us toward Christ and pursuing his plan for our marriage rather than pulling our hearts toward worldliness!

We really enjoyed the time away-it was a great chance to relax, spend time together and gear up emotionally for the big change that's coming our way in a few weeks! I slept in all three days-til about 8:00 am-what's wrong with me? Why can't I really sleep in anymore? We were glad to get back and see the Bean. She had a lot of fun while we were away. Check back for a picture of the "soup" Papa Dan gave her for lunch one day. She learned several new words while we were gone, including "toothpaste."

Andy had to hit the road just a few hours after we got back so now it's just me and EG hanging out with my family. All in all, a great time! Here's to taking pictures of something other than my child!

One month to go!

We have one month to go til our due date! Yipee!

We are finally getting settled in and Emma Grace ate veggies tonight for first time in about a week! Yeah! We are making some progress getting back to normalcy! Settling in just in time to leave-Andy and I head to the beach this Wednesday for three days to celebrate our three year anniversary. We decided to wait until we got back to America to celebrate since North Myrtle Beach sounded more appealing than the options near our city in China. We are mostly looking forward to sipping coffee on the porch, spending good time the Lord, and having lots of uninterrupted time to spend together. After the beach we'll be heading to West Virginia to hunker down til our little man makes his debut.


Emma Grace's vocabulary is exploding these days. She can even answer some questions now. We've been visiting the horses across the street from my parents' house and when I asked her what horses eat she said, "grass!" I know, we have a genius on our hands. Her little brain just amazes me!

I am pretty sure we need to get back to China as quickly as possible-otherwise Emma Grace is going to think the world revolves around her! She is getting more attention than she knows what to do with! HEHE. Actually it's been really fun to have my family get to know her. We had a shower this weekend and it was great to see lots of family as well as have them meet our Bean. Here's Andy blowing bubbles for EG and my cousin Catherine's little girl, Gracie.





My other cousin, Brandi, has two little girls as well. Unfortunately for Peyton, the party was not quite as fun...

She took a nose dive in some mud while running around the pond-nothing a shower and some clean clothes couldn't cure. I couldn't resist the photo op. I meant to take more pictures of family but I was too busy hanging out with them!
We have a play date tomorrow with Landon, the Dickey's youngest, who is only 2 weeks older than Emma Grace. Then I'm having lunch with Sheryl. It's fun to catch up with old friends!

My life insurance policy

From the pictures on our blog, you might think all we do in America is play outside. Emma Grace wishes that's all we did! To her disappointment, we also ride in a car-so not fun, mom-and go to restaurants-also not a favorite past time for my little girl. But the time we spend outside is absolutely delightful! This week we walked around downtown Mebane and played at the playground nearby. We also met friends at the Burlington city park for a picnic lunch and then a dinner! Scroll down to view the pics and find out Andy's opinion of the cloth diapers!

When we are inside, she's been a big helper. Xiao Li would be proud!

We are over jet lag after 2 weeks. Andy and I had a great time last night with our dear friends, Andy and Sheryl-we went to my high school for a football game. I am pretty sure our team lost, but I was pretty busy catching up with Sheryl and not really watching the game. Andy Lynch, who is a big soccer fan, was showing my Andy "jelly car," a game on his iPhone-so my guess is he wasn't that interested in the game either. But my Andy really enjoyed it and got his high school football fix! He's planning to go to a WVU game on Dec 6th-my due date is the 10th-we'll see how that goes!

About the cloth diapers-I think I've worked out the leakage problem-definitely need to double the inserts if you use them at night. BUT-hehe-my husband is not liking them as much as I do. Being quite the servant, he let me sleep in this morning. Unfortunately for him, Emma Grace had a big poop in the cloth while I was sleeping. He came into our room to change it and I heard quite a few gasps and "Oh no's" from him when he saw what was in there. I got up and took care of it, as it doesn't really bother me. The funniest part was when he said this, "EA, if you die, I can't do cloth diapers. I am going to use your life insurance policy to buy A LOT of disposable diapers!" Glad to know he'll put that money to good use! We were both rolling! So, all that to say-I am liking the cloth but Andy doesn't love them-I definitely want to get the rice paper inserts so the poops will be a little easier to manage. (sorry for all those who aren't interested in my cloth diaper news) So Alisa and Laura-can't wait for you to start using the cloth!

We have a busy weekend-dinner with some new friends tonight and a shower tomorrow! Then we have a few days before we head to the beach. I am already starting to get really sad about leaving Emma Grace. I mean, I've been with her for about 99% of her life so it's harder on me than on her when we're apart! But it's gonna be a blast and she'll have a great time with my parents!

Cloth Diapers and other musings

(This will only be interesting to my soon to be cloth diapering buddies, but I know you wanted to hear what I think of the cloth)

We've officially made the switch though the verdict is still out on what I think of them. Having some trouble with leaking which is annoying-not sure if I am doing something wrong or what. And they seem to be a little tight around the legs though they say they are big enough to fit til potty training. But I am gonna keep at it for sure-the washing part is really easy which is nice. Will let you know what I think for sure once we've used them a little longer. One thing is for sure-they give lots of extra padding to her tush so she's now fitting nicely into some of her previously too big for her pants!

In other news-a week and a half into our time in America, we are finally back to normal in terms of sleep! EG slept til her normal 7 am this morning so that was a treat! Now that we're all sleeping through the night again, I must ENJOY this last month of being able to sleep more than 3 hours at a time. Oh my, I am so not looking forward to those middle of the night feedings but I am getting excited to meet the newest member of our family!

The NC fall weather has been amazing this week and we've been outside a lot today. We spent over an hour collecting and sorting rocks! Well it's 9 pm and I can't think straight so I'm off to bed.

Getting back to our Rural Roots

I haven't been on the blog much as of late but I blame that on slow jet lag recovery! We are still getting up pretty early with the Bean and the time change last night didn't help! Oh well! When our awake times coordinate with daylight, we are spending lots of time outside! We are helping EG get back to her country roots-lots of playing outside, picking up rocks and sticks, looking at horses, deer, cats, and birds! Yeah for nature!

looking at some hawks...

Katie and her boyfriend fishing the pond. I think Emma Grace may have scared the fish away!

One day it was really cold so Andy and EG bundled up and went outside to find some treasures! This picture is for Xiao Li-check out this mushroom Xiao Li-how much could EG earn for this one? (Laura will you show this to Xiao Li?)

And this week when it was FREEZING (literally) outside, we did lots of playing inside with some new Grandma toys-which included an umbrella!

Emma Grace has been surprising lately with her use of Chinese-when we tell her to say thank you, she chooses to say it in Chinese! How fun that she is starting to really use her small Chinese vocabulary! We all miss China but we are enjoying our time at home. We basically hibernated for the first week and we're slowly coming out of our cave! We have managed to eat Chic Fila twice though!

There was an Ugandan Children's Choir at church this morning. Most of the kids are orphans. They came to promote partnerships with local churches here in America. I literally cried the whole time they sang. Not sure why-maybe pregnancy emotions? I was just so overwhelmed at the thought of different nationalities worshiping God in their own special ways. I get tunnel vision-thinking only about China and America and it's good for my heart to be reminded of how God is at work in all nations!

On a final note-EG is doing great with her Grandparents! We were able to leave her with my mom one evening and yesterday when we went out for a breakfast date. I am feeling more and more confident that we'll be able to leave her to go on our anniversary trip! We are really picking up the pace next week-trying to visit with lots of friends. I am so thankful we came home a little early. We really needed a week to recover and get adjusted.

Well that's the update for now. For all our murder mystery friends-it looks like you guys had a great time! Wish we could have been there!