Silver Linings

My mom took this picture! I stole it from her facebook to use here. :)

We've been traveling for 3 weeks on business. Busy busy busy!  Yesterday (Saturday) we came home! After a long time on the road, we were happy to be back in our town and go home.  We were in a taxi, on the way home from the airport when we got a call from Andre, a Chinese friend of ours. He told us that our landlord was in our house right then and was mad about something.  #1. We were thinking, "What!!?? Why is he in our house!???" But, we had heard that this has happened to some people. It's still not ok, but it happens.  #2. We were thinking, "We don't want to have to deal with this now because we are so so so so tired from traveling." #3. "What's he mad about???" #4. "What!!?? Why is he in OUR HOUSE!???" (Haha! Yes, I know I already mentioned that one.)  :)

So, we stepped out of the elevator and our door was wide open and the landlord (whom we had never met before) was standing outside our door.  After some awkward glances (because we knew we couldn't communicate very well with each other) we walked inside and he made himself at home while we put our baggage in our room.  We called Andre back and asked him to translate.  After it was all said and done, the landlord said we had damaged the apartment and he wanted us out by the end of the month.  Keep in mind, this apartment was never in our name and we were not responsible for those damages.  We took over the rent from some friends who we work with.  The damages were minor and the previous owners had cleared it with the landlord.  5 months ago those damages were not a big deal to him, but suddenly now they are.

There is so much more to tell, however, I didn't write this blogpost to complain. So I won't say anymore about how unfair this situation is.  The bottom line is we have to leave our apartment by the end of the month.

Silver linings....

#1. We are leaving China on May 16th, to come to America! We will be there until sometime in July. While this is pretty stressful to have to move everything out of our house when we just got settled, we have some friends who are going to allow us to keep some of our things in their house while we are gone.  When we get back we will have to find a new place to live, but meanwhile, we will at least have a place to put our things.

#2. This month, we have had a few extra bills that we have to pay.  Because we are essentially going to be homeless, we will not have to pay rent and utilities, and that will free up some money! Not that we couldn't pay it before, but this is so helpful!

#3. If we were going to continue living here, our rent would be due on May 15th.  Like I said before, we will be leaving China on May 16th. How much more perfect could that be?  I mean, really?

This situation stinks so much. It's not fun, and it makes me feel so stressed every time I think about it.  But when I think about the good things which are coming from this, it makes the stress not matter at all.  Sometimes I don't know if God has his hand in things directly, or if he just turns a bad situation into a good one.  It doesn't really matter if I know or not, He gets the credit and the glory no matter what!

I am thankful for this horrible situation and I pray I can keep this positive frame of mind until we get back to China in July. In July, we will have to begin the search for a new apartment. We will not have enough time to look for an apartment before we leave to come to America.  I pray I will have patience and the right frame of mind to deal with the frustrations of that.  A verse has come to mind during this situation.

Phil. 4:8

I pray we all can look for those silver linings in our lives. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Chinglish!

More Chinglish pictures! There are a lot that were from a menu. They are always so funny! The last one is my favorite!

Who would like some Jumping Tongues!?? Anyone?

I wasn't aware that plums were green, or had bones. :)

Pork Nuckles!

Spiced Salty Chicken Feet! A delicacy here!

Who would like some goose webs?

Salty Hoof!

"Who you callin's..."

I love to get my food massaged.

This one is far away for you to see the whole picture, but it says, "Care yourself. Do a healthy person."

I enjoyed these so much! And I hope you did too! Have a great day everyone!

Chinglish... kind of

Hey! I've only gotten a couple of Chinglish pictures since we've been here, and I hoe you enjoy! Hopefully I can remember to take a picture of the next ones I see! I haven't gotten into the mind set of remembering to take pictures of the Chinglish I see. Also, as you can see from the title, there is one that didn't have any writing on it, but I thought it was hilarious! Enjoy!





Stan demonstrating what type of a person might buy this product...?


A baby "dummy" to show how to put a diaper on.


I wouldn't dare enable to become the imagination. Not in a million years.


Oh how I love these. So funny! I hope you enjoyed them! Have a great day!

Thankful

I know, I know, It's been a while since I blogged, but we've been so busy blah blah blah. You've heard it too many times. Anyway, I felt the need to blog about this because it's something I am constantly thinking about. When I'm doing something in China, I think of how I would do that same thing in America, and vice versa. For example: In America when I am driving down the road in my car with the heat blowing in my face and it's 38 F outside, I think about traveling the same distance in China. There are 3 options:

#1. Taxi (the heat isn't always working in the vehicle. And you must wait an eternity to find a taxi at certain times of the day)
#2. Bus... I believe I've talked about the struggles of a bus ride before. Read about it here. Second paragraph.
#3. E-bike (or any 2 wheeled mode of transportation.)

By the way, all 3 China options cause feelings of frustration.

I am thankful when I am driving my car in America. In China when I have time to sit on the couch and enjoy time talking with my husband, I think about how much time we don't have for that in America. Life is just slower in China. It takes longer to do things, so you don't plan as much in one day and everything feels more chill. It's nice.

So, I am thankful. I used to work at the Exchange Club-Carl Perkins Center for the prevention of child abuse. I left that job to come to China to teach English and share some good things with the Chinese people. Things I experienced while working for the Carl Perkins Center (CPC) just stayed with me. Like any experience leaves a foot print on your life, this one walked all over my heart. Certain daily rituals of mine remind me of experiences I had while working for the CPC and the children who were positively effected by it. I almost feel like I'm in a movie having a flashback. Some of these are strange, but true.

When I am washing the dishes, specifically rinsing the soap off of the dishes, I remember a certain sweet grandmother of a sweet little boy I helped. I remember the first time I went to see her she was rinsing the dishes off and crying because times were hard for her. She took in her grandchildren because her daughter was not a good enough mother to take care of her own children. I so vividly remember the little boy coming in the house from the bus after school and showing his grandmother a picture he drew for her. She wiped her tears and thanked him for the picture. As he ran to his room, she sat down at the kitchen table with me and said she didn't mean to get upset, and that she is so grateful for her grandchildren.

When I wash my hair, specifically when I squeeze the shampoo from the bottle into my hand, I think of a 14 year old girl I helped. I think about her telling me of a time when her hair was pulled so tight from her scalp, her head ached the next day. I think about her giving me an angel figurine when I left the CPC because, "You helped me out of my hell."

When I use butter, specifically when I put the butter into the pan to cook something, I think of two little sisters who were 2 and 4 years old. I walked into the house and saw the 4 year old eating butter. Me and a colleague then looked in the refrigerator and found nothing but a stick of butter. The poor mother had nothing and thankfully the CPC was able to help her get on her feet.

It's very strange because these things consistently enter my mind in the same circumstances. Whether I am in China or America, these things come to mind. Yes, I said some of the things are weird, but it is 100% true and very specific. I don’t know why I think of these things when I do, but I feel like He is helping me to be thankful for the things I have. The grass is never greener on the other side. I'm thankful I have a good mother. I'm thankful I have loving parents who didn't abuse me. I'm thankful I have food to eat. I'm thankful I have a Father who loves me more than any person could. Be thankful and tell Him about it! Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Change!

I feel like I'm the type of person who can handle change quite well. But then when I find myself not handling it so well, it makes me angry that my coping mechanisms which worked before are proving to not work, and then I have to change THAT. I get irritated that I have to cope when I don't have time to cope because all I want to do is get our apartment fixed up the way I want it. The lesson to learn from this? Being selfish isn't a good thing. Stan helps me to stay calm when I get irritated at these sort of things. We finally were able to move into our apartment. There are just a few things to do: get the gas turned on, get ID cards to get into the building (We are just having them beep us in right now until we get the cards. And I think the office has moved, but they didn't tell anyone. Yay China.) We also have some decorating to do, but we might have to wait until June to do that when we come to the U.S. for my sister's wedding. Also buying a coffee pot is on the list of things (they are a rare find here, but I think we can find one online. We'll see) Anyway, we have some things that need to get done personally, but also we are learning things we need to do for our new jobs! I am needing to brush up on my blogging skills because part of my job is going to be keeping up the company blog! Fun! I'll be videoing what's going on with the company, and having a schedule of who will write the blog of the week each week. The purpose of it is to show customers what type of people we are as a business and young professionals. Just to show how fun we are! Things that I'll be videoing are gonna have to be creative and me and Stan already have a couple ideas, but your ideas would be much appreciated!! Comment below! :) We'll also be heading up some activities with the other employees to keep the type of attitude in the company going that is desirable. So that's fun!

Just an update on what's going on with us! I'll be able to give more details as I learn my niche. Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully be blogging more often! I love you all!

Ahhhhh! China!!

These past 2 weeks have been crazy and life changing! As you all might know, me and my husband have been wanting to go back to China, and have been praying things would work out in the future for that to happen. We have wanted to have the opportunity to return to China and start a coffee shop! At this point it has been a dream because, well, we don't have any money! Well, 2 weeks ago we received an offer from some friends we got to know pretty well last year while we were in China, Jonathan and Danielle Jenkins. They offered us a position in their growing company, Order With Me. They will have people from different cultures working for them. They said they would like for us to come and be a part of their company to help with gelling the two cultures together, and sort of help with developing the company culture. Also, there are some other exciting things that are possibilities, but those are all things that will be discussed as we get to China and start our positions. They would like for us to be on our way to China by the end of January, 2012. So, what are we up to these days? Packing, organizing, rearranging, and getting rid of our things! Meanwhile, we've been decorating for Christmas! We bought our tickets to China yesterday and we leave on January 26th. Ahhhh! It's just so crazy fast, but I'm now getting used to the idea. We are excited and it's so wonderful that our friends and family support us. It makes the process so much easier on us! I just wanted to write it all out so everyone we haven't told yet can know what our plans are! Thanks so much for reading! I love you all!