It's a....

I had big plans to totally redo my blog in either pink or blue, depending on the sex of our number two baby. Unfortunately I have no news to report on that front. I guess I could change my blog to yellow and green-the colors you buy for someone who is not sure what they are having. I went today to have my ultrasound-which was really cool-we had the 3D one done and I could really see the face and hands moving. But they wouldn't tell me the sex. It's illegal in China to tell the sex of the baby. There is a one child policy for most of the population and since many people want to have a boy, they will often abort if it's a girl. So the "no telling the gender" rule is in place to help curb that trend. It's a terribly sad situation so I guess I am glad they don't tell-I am sure many precious little girls have been saved because of this law.

With that said though, I've had several foreign friends who've been told what they are having. For foreigners they will sometimes make exceptions to this rule. But not this time. I almost cried when she wouldn't tell me but then I started thinking how thankful I am just to have a healthy little baby growing in there! Our little guy or girl was moving up a storm and Andy says they have the Ross mouth, not the Huffman mouth-which EG has.

If you want my opinion though, I think it's a boy. The lady stopped strategically on something that made me think it's a boy. But who knows. We had 11 ultrasounds with Emma Grace (literally) and I could never seem to understand what was what. I would look at one and think the hand was her head-so who knows.

Andy said that maybe we'll get an ultrasound right when we get back to the US to find out the sex but I am voting for just waiting til the BIG DAY to find out! Wouldn't it be fun to have a surprise come Dec 10th ish!!!??

Here's to yellow and green!

Marrying my external hard drive

Yesterday Andy and I celebrated our three year anniversary! We've known each other now for 9 years! I am so thankful for that man! It's hard for me to remember what life was like not knowing him! Maybe that's because my memory is really bad. I've basically already forgotten childhood and most of high school. It's a good thing I married him-otherwise I would've already forgotten college. He often reminds me of things we did or what our lives were like. I'm only 27 and my memory is already failing me! So when I married Andy I not only got a husband, I also got an external hard drive to store all our memories. This computer of mine is already about to crash! Actually on a side note, one reason I am so committed to our blog is because it's a great way for me to journal our lives and have it to look back on in the future. We are having our blog made into a book just so we and our kids can enjoy looking back in years to come.

On to the anniversary-We had a fun day. A random day but a fun day. I awoke to coffee and some new syrups to flavor my coffee with! Way to go Andy. You can see in the background I already have flavored creamers. I love coffee-I've even managed to convert my "I order apple juice at Starbucks" husband into a coffee drinker-not yet a coffee lover, but we are working on it! The thing about having a plan in China is that it is always subject to change. You really never know what you're gonna get in this country. The plan for the day was to go to a park in the city where we've spent many afternoons reading, relaxing, and enjoying the grass-it's one of the few places you can actually sit on the grass. This park was one of our favorite date spots when we first came to China and we've been back several times since we got married. You can imagine our surprise when we arrived to find our "peaceful, full of nature, quiet" park overrun with carnival type rides and exhibits. We decided instead of getting disappointed, we'd just join in the insanity. We even got sucked in to paying 5 dollars each to enter "winter wonderland."Random. I know. In the middle of this gorgeous park, they've erected a permanent winter wonderland where you can throw snow, snow tube, and check out the ice sculptures. After we left the FREEZING cold, we ventured through a "shoot the dinosaurs" area in which they've converted one area of the park into a dinosaur zone where you have to shoot dinosaurs while pedaling these really futuristic looking cars. It was like Jurassic Park meets Back to the Future. Weird. Anyway, after all that, we ventured off the main path and finally found a nice spot for our picnic....Without food. We were planning to get lunch from KFC (very popular here) and take it to the park but by the time we got there we were both starving, so we ate it there and opted for a no food picnic. We enjoyed hanging out by the water, seeing some ducks and interesting birds and reading our last book in our summer "Book-it" program, The Count of Monte Cristo. The best part of the afternoon was when it started pouring down rain! We were sitting on a blanket under some great weeping willows, so we had a nice canopy over us. We gathered our stuff around us and both sat under an umbrella-continuing to read in the pouring rain! It was awesome!

Marriage is such a sweet means of grace from God in my life. What I mean is that God uses a seemingly "common" thing like marriage to pour out his grace in my life in so many ways. I see Christ as more wonderful and fulfilling because I see him not only through my own eyes, but also through the eyes of my husband. I am more like Christ because of the constant daily refining that happens when two oldest children marry each other! My life is full of so much joy because I get to spend the exciting and mundane moments with my best friend. This union we have is only a reflection of the union we will have with Christ in heaven. I can't imagine what it will be like! Here are a few snapshots of the past 9ish years:

My 22nd brithday...In front of the mountain where we were engaged...Andy entering his "night at the Oscars" bday party. Marianne and I threw this party for him because he loves movies and loves quoting them even more! We got tons of movie posters and put his face on all of them. This poster happens to be my favorite...Best buds...Notice I have a crown on! I won queen of the tacky prom our senior year in college! I also managed to rip my 1980's prom dress while dancing. oops.

Andy always picks on me for looking sleepy in pictures. I just can't seem to get my eyes wide open for photo ops. Here we are our first year in China working on my eye opening skills...The big day!
There you have it! Nine years of knowing each other, most of those spent loving each other in some way or another and three of those years as husband and wife! And now we have our precious EG and one of the way! Tomorrow we will find out if it's a boy or girl! Check back tomorrow to find out!

On my way to Italy

Last year while we were still in America, I suggested to our great, wonderful, amazing friends Sheryl and Andy that we should meet in Italy to vacation together. That would help break up the 2 or 3 year stretch where we won't see each other because we are living on opposite sides of the globe. Sheryl and I have been best buds since first grade. God has used her and her family in huge ways to help me know and love Christ. And don't you just love it when your hubby and your dear friend's hubby get along? Andy and Andy really hit it off and I am grateful for the fun the four of us have together! So, on to my Italy idea...I said this without first consulting my hubby, who happens to actually know how much money we have. HEHE. I'm definitely a dreamer and I really think if we save aggressively for this trip, we can make it happen.

Earlier this year, after returning to China, Andy and I had a conversation about how to make it to Italy. It went something like this:

.

Andy: EA, if this Italy thing is really going to happen one day, we have to seriously figure out how to start saving money for the trip.

.

EA: Well, we just need to cut back on our budget busters.

.

Andy: What are our budget busters? What do we spend money on?

.

EA: (in all seriousness) CHEESE!!!

.

Thus began my Italy savings plans. Not less cheese, just cheaper cheese. This needs some explanation I know. See, Andy and I are serious about dairy, as you can tell by our milk consumption. And we love cheese. The problem is that cheese is really expensive here. The "Land O Lakes" brand costs me about 5 dollars for 2 cups of shredded cheese. Do you know how fast I can go through 2 cups of shredded cheese? So I decided it was time to start buying a lower quality, non-import, cheaper cheese. For about a third of the price of my imported cheese, I can get an "ok" cheese-now we're on the fast track to Italy. The only catch is that in order to get the super savings, we have to buy it in bulk. I think the pictures says it all.

That's 44 lbs of cheese which equals a couple hundred dollars in Italy money. But darn, they use the Euro, so we're down to about a hundred Euros in Italy money...but still you get the idea! Actually it's not even that much. We split this cheese between four families, so my savings plan might not have me on the fast track to Italy, but at least I am on the track at all! The 11 lbs of cheese that I bought will last me for 4 or 5 months. Last time we bought it, Andy and I spent hours shredding and then froze it all. It was really handy to have shredded cheese just waiting in my freezer. We will have another shredding date this week.

This thing is huge. You can imagine the jokes as we discussed how to cut the cheese in order to shred it. Sheryl and Andy, you know I love you if I am willing to give up the good cheese to meet you guys in Italy-Now we might be well into retirement before my cheese savings plan lands us in Italy, but I'm working on it!

Paw Paw

This is too good not to post! Emma Grace loves the pictures on our refrigerator. She is always pointing at them and I tell her who is who. She is especially attracted to the picture of Andy when he was a little boy. My friend Laura gave me the idea of printing some pictures and having them laminated so EG can hold them and look at them. (which also means she will eat them, slobber on them, kiss them, and throw them-but since they are laminated, that's no problem!) Anyway, yesterday I gave her several laminated pictures to look at-they include ones of our families as well as her grandparents' pets! I hope this will help her to know you guys when we come home! She convinced me yesterday that it will! For a while I had this picture of my parents sitting on our table beside our couch. I recently moved it because "little hands" kept grabbing it and I was afraid the frame would break. I got the same picture laminated for her to hold. As soon as she saw it, she started pointing to the coffee table where that same picture sat for months. She is so smart! She knew she had seen that picture before and she even knew where she had seen it! I am convinced she will know your faces when she sees you in person because she's been paying attention to the photos in our home and the ones she can now play with. My favorite moment was when Andy was telling her who was who in this picture. He said, "and this is Paw Paw." She immediately said "Paw Paw" and has been saying it ever since! LOVE IT! Paw Paw, I can't wait to see you and evidently Emma Grace is pretty excited about you too! love you!

PS-in this picture I am wearing my favorite maternity shirt-8 months pregnant with EG. Today I put it on again-I'm back in maternity clothes in a little over a year! Here we go again! Woohoo!

Flower Market: My mom's paradise

Yesterday we had the chance to visit some friends who live even farther outside of the city than we do. (but not for long) They recently moved to a small town about 30 minutes from our house, which puts them about an hour outside the city. Here's the thing-they are outside the city now, but in about a year, the city will be moving to them! Our city is relocating to this area-literally. As the population in our city got bigger and bigger, the government landed on a DRASTIC plan to handle the overload-MOVE!!! It kinda reminds me of LOST where their island keeps relocating-at least we know where our city is moving to. Basically the government bought land from farmers about an hour outside the city and has begun to rebuild itself out there. There are government buildings, apartment complexes, and plans for parks, shopping centers, and even a light rail that will go from the "old city" to the "new city." Our friends have their own car, which is rare among foreigners here, so we did lots of riding around and looking at the progress. The most astonishing part is by far the "University City" Imagine Duke, State, Carolina and a handful of smaller colleges all relocating to the same place. The universities are all back to back and when completed will house almost the entire college student population of our province in a few square miles. INSANITY!!! But it was neat to see-I can't imagine Raleigh deciding to relocate to Rocky Mount, can you???

One of the other neat things we did was visit the "hua hui"-A GIANT FLOWER MARKET. This place is my mom's dream come true. When you enter, there is about a half mile stretch of stores filled with every kind of plant and flower imaginable-all at very reasonable prices. There are stores that carry only pots for potting plants, stores that carry only soil and ones that carry everything in between in the way of gardening. My recent dream for the next place we live in China is to have a patio or a big roof top balcony. The second part of my dream is for my mom to come over and go with me to this flower market and help me plant a garden on said patio. Who knows if those two things will happen, but one thing I love about God is that he often gives us those little gifts that aren't essential to our well being, but show his love and personal care of us! So who knows!!!!

At the end of the road of stores is a GIANT warehouse type place where hundreds of sellers come in daily (at about 3 am) to sell their fresh cut flowers to vendors from all over the province. We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and almost all the flowers were gone. I imagine this place is quite a sight at 3 am! The flowers that are sold in our small town and in the city are definitely from this market, only they are more expensive than what you pay for them wholesale. For example, these roses cost 1 kuai a dozen-about 15 cents. In the city, you can pay anywhere between 4 and 10 kuai per dozen. Still a good deal compared to America though!

There were so many interesting kinds of flowers that we can't get in our small town and I was determined to buy some. However, when it was all said and done, I ended up with carnations. I actually don't really like carnations and I can get them daily in our town. BUT, this really cute grandma came up to me and wanted me to buy her flowers and I just couldn't resist. Who can resist a cute granny working hard for her money? NOT ME!!!

Mixed with the carnations are a couple other kinds of flowers-she sold me the whole thing for 5 kuai. I think I should have tried to bargain more, but oh well. That granny had been there since 3 am and I bought her last bunch of flowers! I think she deserves the 5 kaui! I hope to convince Andy to take me back there on a date. They have classes to teach you how to arrange flowers and I think it would be fun to go sometime and learn the Chinese art of flower arranging!

Amazing Trip

This is a LONG post with LOTS of pictures! I hope you enjoy!

We just got back from Xiao Li's house and we had a GREAT time! I have so much to tell you about and I thought I'd let the pictures do most of the talking....

We arrived at Xiao Li's village after about 6 hours of travel-the last 20 minutes was on foot. Her village is tucked in a valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains. It's cloudy in this picture so it's hard to appreciate the breath taking views!

Her village contains about 30 houses and is totally surrounded by farm land. They don't buy food really-they just eat what they grow. It's corn season now and it was everywhere! Corn grows great on these terraced hills. They also had lots of green beans and potatoes.

Here we are walking. We brought rain boots with us because the roads are extremely muddy. It's rainy season, as you know, and the animals walk on the same road as the people-that makes for quite a mess!
Most of villages have 20-30 houses and are a mile or two from each other.

Here we are at the entrance to Xiao Li's grandmother's home. She has been a believer for 30 years! She goes up into the mountains to fast and pray every Friday and has not missed a Friday in all those 30 years! WOW!!!!! Lord, make us faithful lovers and followers of you like this precious woman! Many people in their minority group are Christians and the small church is located just beside her home.
All the homes are built like this: There is a courtyard in the middle and one side houses the animals and the other the people!
When we arrived, Emma Grace was sooo happy to see her A Yi (aunt in Chinese!) We also really enjoyed spending time with her parents. Her mom is my hero. She makes all her own clothes, down to weaving the material that she makes them with. She made a great pair of shoes for Emma Grace. She wears this everyday. These clothes are traditional Ei people clothes. Xiao Li told me that Ei people can tell how old someone is by the style and "fadedness" of their hat. One thing we enjoyed was seeing all the animals. They have cows, pigs, dogs, chickens, and a cat. Each day Xiao Li's dad takes the cows out (they live at their house) to eat. This takes about 2 hours and he does it twice a day. Andy and I accompanied him our first morning there. Man, people in the country have patience! He spends four hours everyday just watching his cows-come rain or shine-and has been for the past 50 years! Their pig is sooo close to having her little piglets.
Andy is an animal lover. Here he is holding the cat.Emma Grace loved the cows. She says "booo" when you ask her what a cow says.We did ALOT of eating while we were there. We had some amazing green beans, corn, several meats, mushrooms and lots of rice. Here is their kitchen. They cook over a fire for the most part but the government recently installed gas in their home in an effort to conserve firewood. Times are a changing-but around here, it's slowly changing! They still do most of their cooking over the fire. They killed a chicken for us. A Xin has just finished boiling it and is taking it out of the pot to chop.Xiao Li cooking the most amazing corn I've ever tasted.Here we are preparing the corn.

There are no cars in these parts...

One of the fun things we did while there was go on a hunt for mushrooms. They are in season right now. The rain provides the moisture they need and the sun the warmth. These two combined make for the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow. Here we are heading out....

On the way we saw a woman harvesting potatoes....We are heading towards those mountains-the perfect spot for mushrooms!
Along they way we saw some really beautiful animals. Emma Grace saw more animals on this trip than she has in her entire one year of life!

Ok, so mushrooms are pretty amazing. Did you know that they grow really rapidly and decay really fast. During mushroom season you can go to the same spot everyday and there will be new mushrooms every morning! This is a great way to earn a little extra money. Xiao Li's mom goes out most mornings and walks for about an hour to reach the mountains. Once there she spends her time down on her knees looking under brush for these little guys. She sells them at a nearby market. Andy managed to find the most expensive mushroom of all-but it was a little small so we figure he would get about 5 cents for this one! But still, way to go Andy! It was kinda like hunting for Easter eggs. Pretty fun. I managed to find a few and got really excited. Then Xiao Li told me that all but one of the ones I found were not edible. Oh well! I am still an apprentice at this whole mushroom hunting thing. In total, Andy and I managed to find about 4 mushrooms that were edible. Xiao Li on the other hand loaded up. Here she is cutting some mushrooms her mom gathered to be dried and used later...

Emma Grace and a farm bath...We went to visit the neighbors and it was like Halloween. They just kept loading her pockets and my hands with candy. She didn't eat lunch that day because she filled up on cookies at their house. Check out her stash...

She's lookig at me like "mom, don't even think about taking my cookie from me!" I just love this picture of Xiao Li, A Xin and Emma Grace. They love her so much and are such a blessing to our family. While we were there, we spent lots of time talking about life-we come from two totally different worlds but it is so neat how God has allowed our paths to cross. They are such a tremendous blessing to our family and their friendship and help are some of the most obvious ways God uses the Chinese to bless our socks off! We love these guys.
One of the things we talked about was how people from "two different worlds" can be great friends and learn from each other. This bond is made so much stronger by the common faith we have in Christ. Knowing that God is working in people's lives in this village "worlds" away from my home in America makes me love God all the more. He is amazing-He's the God of all nations and I look forward to the day when we see people from each tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping him in their own unique way!

What a great trip! On a final note: I did survive the week without a shower but not Pepsi. (BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT!) Xiao Li lugged 6 bottles of Pepsi and Coke to her house and kept pulling them out for us every time we turned around! The Chinese people are so giving. We were sitting down for a rest after our mushroom excursion and out she comes with snacks and Pepsi! I have to admit I was pretty thrilled but I am telling you-I could've survived without it. Well, that has not been proven but I really think I could!


On our way back to our city, we stopped overnight in a nearby city for the torch festival. All these people are minority people and are doing a traditional dance. This festival was way more commercial and Chinese (versus minority) than we thought it would be. We were expecting a bonfire and a bunch of old people dancing around it. This festival had lots of minority flavor to it, but also added in were loud music, flashing lights and 20 of the 2008 Olympics mascots running around. What are those things anyway? China really is a collision of the old and the new.




All in all, a wonderful trip with wonderful friends! We were so blessed to spend this time in "another world" with people who serve the same God as we do!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev 7:9-12)