Funny Quotes from the Birthday Girl
Today is my little girl’s birthday. She turns 3 (or 4 depends what culture we are counting by). When asking her a few days ago what she wanted for her birthday, she replies with “chocolate cake, candy, and a cat toy!” She is a blessing and we thank God for her!
Here are some other funny quotes from the birthday girl!
-My wife: “Finish eating your green beans!” My Daughter: “I can’t reach my fork.”
-On a Sunday morning I was expplaing to my daughter that momy was my wife and also the thing I was tying around my neck was a tie. That didn’t fully compute and now my wife is my tie!
-After she got in trouble for not listening I said “Why don’t you want to listen?” Kinda of a rhetorical question but she sincerely answered “Because I don’t want to.” Simple enough, problem found.
-Me: “Do you want to ride a boat? “ My daughter: “A dragon boat?” — Yea, it is obvious we live in China if she knows what a dragon boat is.
-During family devotions we use a kids picture bible along with what we read to illustrate the story. When we showed her the picture of the manger scene she inquired if it was “old macdonald had a farm?!”
-I asked my daughter what this character was “ 冷 “ and she said “it is a tent, see, and it is raining.” (It just means “cold.”)
-I was practicing memorizing some Chinese characters and my daughter informed my that “chinese words look like buildings.”
-“Daddy is big and mommy and me are little.”
Past Post about Funny Quotes from the Birthday Girl:
- Once Again, Funny Quotes From A Funny Kid
- More Quotes from Our Two/Four-Year-Old
- Quoting a Two-Year-Old
07.11.11
“I Survived N.E. China’s Harsh Winter!”
We are in the middle of summer and the weather is very nice. After a long bitter cold winter came a pleasantly warm summer!
I just want to congratulate my wife on enduring her first N.E. China winter. She endure through the snow, subzero temperatures, and frostbiting wind.
My wife comes from the foothills of Tennessee where the winters are mild and short. She had never been in cold weather over an extended period of time or seen great amounts of snow fall. She saw some of her first big snowfalls when were were in Ohio for deputation.
Therefore, the winter here in N.E. China was nothing-less than shocking! But she endured through all the hassle of living in a place that is famous for it’s cold winters.
Congrats to my wonderful wife who survived her first N.E. China Winter!
06.21.11
My Wife is Expecting! Again!
My wife is expecting!
A few weeks back my wife asked to stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a few things. I joke with her about getting a pregnancy test, so she did for the fun of it! After we went home she took the test and found there were two lines! But the one was really faint. Though we know there is no such thing as a false positive, the faint line still caused doubt. Needless to say, I was sent out to buy more test. I looked up the words for “pregnancy test” in Chinese but apparently it wasn’t right because the pharmacist didn’t know what I was talking about. Therefore, I had to try to describe what I was asking for in Chinese. That was interesting! It worked out and after several test later, we decided to believe it was true!
The neat part of this is that we found out on Wesley’s birthday! (Read My Wife’s Post)
We decided to wait to announce our good news until we could have an ultrasound and found out exactly when the baby was due…since every ones first question is “when is she due?”
Today, we went to the Hospital and my wife had an ultrasound (no appointment needed). The medical care is definitely different than we are used to. Things aren’t as private and the care isn’t as personable. I was surprised, though, at how nice the medical facilities were…much nicer than I excepted.
Here is what it felt like when we went today. A multi-story nice hospital building, extremely crowded (like being at an amusement park on a holiday weekend), and the waiting areas felt like an airport (huge areas with the the linked metal chairs as everyone sits and waits by the door).
Finally, after waiting in line a couple times, first to register and then to pay upfront, we had to wait in the airport style waiting room before they called our number. I wasn’t allowed to go in the room since there were other patiences in there as well. After they were done (she didn’t get to see the screen or receive any pictures) we waited another 20-30 minutes until we received the results. When we received the results we walked to another level to let a doctor examine them. A doctor standing in the hallway looked at the paper confirmed that my wife was pregnant and that was it. I inquired about a due date and he calculated in his mind, somewhere around the beginning of February next year.
My wife is about seven weeks along and we definitely appreciate your prayers over the next 34 weeks or so. We are excited that Lord has allowed us to have another child. Our next appointed won’t be until August when we visit Beijing.
Thanks for your prayers!
| Posted in Amazing Journey, China Life, Family, Prayer Request, Wesley Allen Wei | 6 Comments »
Wesley’s Impact
Wesley’s life, though short, greatly impacted tons of people. Not only did he impact our lives but he especially impacted the lives of our friends and family. We have receive so many comments in the last 24 hours that it is amazing. A friend of our family and one of Natasha’s closest friend’s just posted on her blog how Wesley impacted her life. I encourage to go there and read it, “FIVE MINUTES… FOREVER IMPACTED“ (and you might need a cup of coffee because it’s pretty long).
We love this family and are excited that our little boy could have an impact in their life. Here is part of the post where she explains how Wesley taught her son the most important lesson of all.
“4. Wesley taught my son the most important lesson of all.
The day Mark and Natasha left for China as missionaries, I believe around 6 weeks after Wesley’s birth. I decided to go visit his grave and take flowers in honor of his parents leaving for their new life. I took my kids with me. when we arrived at the Cemetery we had to walk past several others graves and then we arrived at where all the little babies were buried. Curiosity hit both Luke and Emilee because they had never spent much time at a cemetery. They started asking about ages, and causes of death. I could see the look of concern wash all over Luke’s face. He then asked me where all the people were now. This led to a series of questions, questions that lasted all the way home. When we got to the house after believing Luke had a clear understanding of Salvation, of Heaven and Hell and a understanding that only the saved people in those graves were in heaven, the lost were in hell, he bowed his head and said the sweetest prayer I have ever heard.
I am forever indebted to the little bitty guy I held in my arms a year ago. I cannot wait to thank him for so many things. But the most important one being that He showed my little guy the importance of figuring out where he would spend eternity.”
Source: acoffeybreak.com
Praise the Lord! When we first heard this last year, we were so excited! Another testimony of God’s grace!
05.26.11
It’s been a year…
It’s been a year today, May 27, 2010 at 6:35 AM, that our little baby boy was stillborn (Read the Story Here). It’s hard to believe that a year has passed. Our lives have changed so much since being in that hospital room, but it is something that we will never forget. Holding our little guy and then having to let him go. Seeing him in casket at the burial grounds and having to walk away, knowing I could do nothing, these are feelings that are hard to describe.
One of the things that I prayed and asked God for was that He would allow us just a few minutes with the Baby. Just to see his eyes open or see him smile, but that request was unaswered.
But as my wife stated “healing is here.” Those 100 days prior to his birth were filled with joy and sadness, not knowing what to expect. The days following were just as hard as, but there is healing. My wife, who has been incredible through it all, wrote the following on here blog:
“Over the last few months I have experienced such healing (both physically and mentally,) and this week (to me) signifies moving forward. It doesn’t mean my baby will be forgotten or that I won’t think of him or look at his beautiful pictures, but it does mean leaving the sorrow behind. This is the last sad season….there are no more “1st holidays” without him, no more “this time last year” scenarios, just moving forward.”
All of Welsey’s names are family names that are carried down except for “wei” which is Chinese meaing “power, strength.” We have definately grown stronger through his experience and despite many odds, he was a fighter to the end.
Wesley helped us grow stronger, not because we are strong willed people, but from the time that he entered our lives when we found out that my wife was expecting, through finding out their was a problem, we realize how weak we were. No matter what we did, we couldn’t fix the problem. But in our weakness we found strength! Because when we are weak, He is strong!
Where did we find strength? The person that helped us the most is Jesus. Because of our realtionship with Jesus we had the most compassionate and carring person in our lives. He carried us through. Trusting, relying, and giving it all to Him! Thank you Jesus!
Where we didn’t find strength? One thing that I noticed during this time is that my attention kept getting pulled away from true strength and healing. What was pulling us away was thinking that true comfort comes from, “one day you will see your baby in Heaven” and I hope I do, but I needed something more. Also, people would say something like “you’re baby is an angel now, getting his wings” or “God is playing baseball with your son.” I found there is no comfort in void promises unless I wanted to trust in the hollowness of the “Christian Bookstore Christianity.” But I didn’t, and my family didn’t, we needed something concrete, we needed the real thing.
What else brought healing? The grace of God and His word! It wasn’t a misleading view on heaven, but it was leaning on the fact that God loves us, God has a plan, Romans 8:28 “His purpose, His glory.” It was “I don’t have to understand or know why but I know God and I know He is good and all of His ways are good. As His Child, He doesn’t think evil against me.” It was Psalm 23, it was the example of Job and David. It was knowing that through this trial we might be able to help others. It’s “Gods Grace is sufficient…period!”
The support of friends, family, churches, partners, and so many…were also an encouragement to us. We knew that we were loved and had a great support team. Thank You for everything.
Today
We will spend time together as a family and celebrate the time that we have together. There is still sadness, feelings, and hurt, but also healing and moving forward.
05.25.11
Being on the Mission Field with a Kid (3 of 3)
Click the following to read Part 1 or Part 2 of this series.
Trusting Your Kid With Others
Another thing that has been tough on the mission field is leaving our kid with others. At first I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, but after our first babysitter, I reconsidered. Here is what happended: I think it was right when we started language school, we hadn’t found a full-time nanny to watch our daughter, so we got one of the girls from the church to watch her. She spoke some English so it made us feel more comfortable. But somewhere in the explanation when my wife explained to her what to do, a few key details were lost. She thought that my wife had told her that after she put our daughter down for a nap, that she could leave, so she did. About an hour later, we return home from language school and found our daughter standing on a stool in the kitchen looking mischievous. We started to look for the babysitter and she was no were to be found. We looked in all the rooms and nobody! My heart started sinking. Our two-year-old daughter had been home alone for almost an hour. I am glad that she was most likely asleep for the majority of the time. We made some phone calls and figure about what happened.
After awhile we realized that a lot of the college age students here don’t have the same experience with kids that most Americans do. I think this is mainly do to them being the only child (because of the one child policy) and the grandparents seem to take of watching the kids so babysitting opportunities aren’t as common.
Another example is after church one night, one of the girls was watching her and she let her go to the water machine and push the hot water button. Of course the next thing that happened was that the hot water burned her hand. It wasn’t too bad. After talking about what happened we realize that she told our daughter “no” but she wouldn’t stop her from pushing the hot water button. Apparently, she didn’t have much experience with a two-year-old.
We let them know that is was okay to treat our daughter like a normal kid, or as their kid. I think they were a little scarred of not being too strict with the foreigner’s kid.
Things like this helped us learn patience. Of course, we got mad and frustrated at times, but we didn’t quite or ride everyone off. Since the church is fairly “young” in those who attend we helped them know what they should/shouldn’t do. For example, we requested that they would ask us before they gave our daughter anything to eat. Not because we are super picky about what she eats or don’t trust them, but because they spoil her with so much candy. Our daughter would eat tons of candy but then she wouldn’t eat her lunch or dinner. They understood the situation and still spoil her…haha!
Language School
During language school our daughter stays with a nanny at our house for 20 hours a week. It took sometime for our daughter to get adjusted to her, but now she adores her. We watch our daughters reactions closely and how she treats her. We can tell that the nanny treats her well. Also, my wife taught her what to do and even stayed home several days just to make sure everything was working out. It is hard to leave your kid with a stranger, but it’s exciting to see our daughter take a liking to her, watching them play together and see her learn so much Chinese!
Closing Thoughts:
-It’s hard to leave your kid with others.
-Be responsible and use common sense.
-Don’t be paranoid about your kids and others.
-Be willingly to be patient.
-Be willingly to teach.
-Be willingly to forgive.
| Posted in Amazing Journey, Chinese Culture, Cultural Adaptation, Culture Shock, Family, Missionary Life | 2 Comments »
Being on the Mission Field with a Kid (1 of 3)
In the same month that we arrive on the missions field, I wrote an article called “Twinkle Linkle Little Star” about all the attention my daughter gets when we go out in public. This post is partly a follow up to that post.
As time went on, all of the attention continued. But we started seeing a problem. Our daughter would cover her eyes, scream at people, and her attitude just wasn’t that great. The dad side of me wanted her to be happy and be comfortable when we went out in public and at the same time, which broke my heart, I couldn’t allow her to act like she was to others. The missionary side of me wanted her to love the Chinese people and be ok around them. After all, this is our new life.
I know things like this also upset my wife. She hated to see our daughter so upset and then get in trouble for reacting to something she hated…all the attention, touching, in-your-face people, strange language, and picture taking. I would image this is a problem for most MK’s living in place where they are the major minority, but in China, it seems to be an extreme case. Our blue eyed, blonde hair, white skinned child sticks out of the crowd pretty easy. Of course we have the constant staring, pointing, head-turning, and nice comments from others …all things that we can deal with. But there are two extremes that we had to take into further consideration.
1) Pictures
Picture taking is huge! It’s common for strangers on the street to come ask (sometimes) permission if they can take her picture. Other times we will be sitting in a restaurant then someone will come over and ask if they can take a picture with our daughter or the waitress will whip out her camera phone and start taking pictures. Sometimes when we are out shopping and our daughter is sitting in her stroller, I will turn around and see a group of people kneeling around the stroller while someone is taking their picture.
An another example of this was at the Christmas party. The church put on a huge Christmas party that was a success. During the party, my wife and I were asked over, and over, and over from different people if they could take pictures with our daughter. It was to the point that if we allowed it, that it is all we would have done that night!
Now our daughter loves to take pictures, even one of her little Chinese friend’s taught her how to make the typical Asian peace sign when taking pictures. Other times she will come over to me and want to take funny pictures on the computer. But she hates strangers taking her picture. So we decided to not let strangers take her picture. You can’t stop everyone, but we politely tell people “no” when they ask or try to take her picture. We don’t think we have to force her to take pictures with everyone that wants to because we are missionaries.
With that being said, she loves to take pictures with those at church. The Chinese people that she knows and adores, she has fun taking pictures with.
Next Post: Being on the Missions Field with a Kid (2 of 3) – Touching
| Posted in Amazing Journey, Chinese Culture, Cultural Adaptation, Culture Shock, Family, Missionary Life | 6 Comments »
Once Again, Funny Quotes From A Funny Kid
Our daughter is growing up so quickly! We all love to have laugh and have so much fun together. We enrolled her in a music class that she takes each week that lets her get interaction with other kids her age. They usually have a time during the class where they ask the kids to sing their favorite song into a toy microphone. I asked her: “Do you want to sing, what is your favorite song?” She said “Jesus Loves Me!” Me: Ok, go sing it!” She runs up there and sings Jesus loves. Everyone clapped for her when she was done. Then she returned to sing a traditional Chinese kid’s song, in which everyone joined in singing with her. Fun times! Here are some more quotes from her that you might find humorous!
Me: “What are you doing?” My daughter: “Nothing, standing on my school (stool). I’m not gong to eat it.” …As she looks into an open jar of peanut butter M&Ms.
As she looks in the mirror and talks to herself: “I’m so mad” “Oh, I’m sorry, do you forgive me?” “no, I’m so mad.” …Don’t worry she finally forgave herself, making faces to go with the expressions. — Is this a sign of multiple personalities? jk
DVDs are know as “DV-DVs!”
All babies are know as “Isaiah,” the only other baby she knows.
From my wife: She just said “that’s cool mama” and giggled….umm I’m not ready for “cool” to be in her vocabulary.
My wife: “No, you can’t watch that right now.” My daughter: “You’re killin’ me!”
And to end with my personal favorite quote from my daughter: “Ooh yeeaah boooy!” (yea, I taught her that one.)
If you missed the Past Post of other quotes from her, you can find them here: More Quotes from Our Two/Four-Year-Old & Quoting a Two-Year-Old.
02.28.11
More Quotes from Our Two/Four-Year-Old
In China they count your age a little bit differently. When you are born, you are 1 not 0. So in China our daughter is four, even though her birthday isn’t until the summer and will be turning three. Whatever her age is, she has gotten the talking gene from her mother and talks up a storm. Her English is quickly expanding. She can also speak and understand some Chinese. We are not fully sure how much because she only likes to speak to us in English. But when she is around kids her age, she will try to speak in Chinese. As her interaction with others increases, she will pick it up quicker. In the meantime, she keeps us laughing. Here are a few more quotes from a two/four-year-old:
- “Dad, you are my friend, and my dad and my fishes!” Her attempt to get me to play with her and it worked!
- “Spicy, I don’t like spicy” she declared about her applesauce. We thought she was trying to get out of eating her applesauce since applesauce is obviously not spicy but sweet. We told her it isn’t spicy but sweet, thinking she mixed up her words and made her to start eating it. As she was eating it she made weird faces and declared “it’s spicy!” I reached over and grabbed her fork and tried it for myself, WOW! it was spicy. Spiced with fermentation. Yuck! I guess it was well passed the “use in ten days from opening mark” not to mention the crack in the lid. It tasted horrible and Ava was right, it was spicy!
- “eeooooHHH big green dirts” she yelled describing seeing the mountains in Honk Kong (we have no mountains in our city life and no green during the long winter). “Yep, those are mountains” I said. “That’s dirty!” she said.
- We were at a church and a Chinese lady ask her in Chinese “Can you speak Chinese?” My daughter responded by shaking her head no. Then the lady asked her in Chinese, “So you can’t speak Chinese?” Then my daughter responded by shaking her head yes. I think she understood the questions.
| Posted in Amazing Journey, Chinese Culture, Family, Language Learning | 3 Comments »
Moving On
We have been blessed with such good friends and family. With today’s technology we have been able to stay in touch with many people from the states. We can “skype” in during the holidays and call over vonage anytime we like (if the time change is right). We have received several packages, cards, emails, etc. from many, and they have been such a blessing. Even with all the effort that is put forward by both sides (in which we are very thankful for those staying in touch with us) there is still something that becomes a realization in missionary life: people move on.
When you move to the other side of the world it is like you died in the place that you previously lived. Life as you know it just ended. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a complaint in any way, shape or form, it is just realizing the way things are. Life goes on without you and things just don’t feel the same.
It is hard to be “best friends” when there is no time to hang out anymore. Your family is still family but since you are not around you are out of the loop and no longer part of the plan making. Your church continues right on without you, even though you felt that it couldn’t run with out you.
“Closeness” slowly fades from those who were apart of your everyday life.
This is to be expected. As the saying goes “out of sight out of mind.” We are no longer around, so everyone needs to move on. You can’t expect anyone to live in the past when the current situation is radically different.
It is just difficult from the missionaries point of view because it is our lives that have changed, not everyone else’s, so this effects all our previous relationship, not just one. Sometimes you can feel left out or not needed.
It doesn’t stop there though because there is an upside to this…
New opportunities arise for the void to be filled. Those you left behind find a new closeness with others and many are challenged to fill your shoes.
For those of us on the field, we move on as well. We have made new friends and “family” that we have become acquainted with. No one back in America even knows their names but they have become some of the dearest people in our lives. A new life emerges.
“Closeness” is slowly reborn as we learn to love the new people around us.
Now we wish our new friends and family could meet our old friends and family, so both sides could know the joy that we receive from having each of them in our lives.
Ok, enough with the sappy stuff.
| Posted in Amazing Journey, Family, Quotes | 2 Comments »