A day in the life

Unfortunately I didn't make the post this week in time for Friday night laundry (although I did do my usual loads on Friday night) but my computer was on the fritz this week and it threw my schedule off a bit.

This week was fairly uneventful, but just what I needed. After the excitement of having a group here, having a new family move in, and still getting over culture shock, an uneventful week was exactly what my overstimulated self needed. One of my goals for this week was to get somewhat of a schedule in place. For those of you who know me well, you know how I thrive off of organization and routine. I felt like my first few weeks were full of me aimlessly wandering around wondering what in the world I was doing. So for those of you who have asked or are interested, here is what a "normal" day might look like for me here...

8:00-11:00 preschool classes
11:00-12:00 planning for preschool
12:00-1:30 lunch/break (...which should be spent studying Chinese...)
1:30-3:00 Chinese lessons on MWF; on T/TH I am teaching English to our Chinese teacher
3:00 on is up for grabs...
this is the time when I try to visit new kids or go play with some familiar ones (like my three little loves in the Peter Pan room), catch up on email, nap, read, laundry, go out to eat...you get the picture :)

In the "uneventfulness" of this week, I did take my first outing alone this weekend. To be totally honest, I was so nervous. Thankfully one of our sweet nurses, Jona, came with me to hail a cab and once I arrived at my destination there was someone there who spoke English. I visited an English language school where Mikey used to work to see if I may like to help out there during some of my free time. It felt so ironic that I felt more fearful traveling across town to get there than I did traveling half-way across the world to come here.

On a different note, I mentioned in my last post about the Martin family moving to Maria's Big House and wanted to take this opportunity to introduce our new family members to you. Dr. Steve and Laura Martin and their family are from Texas but have lived in Beijing for the past year at New Hope. They have 6 kids (ages 6 months to 8 years), so needless to say they have definately added some life to our 6th floor. We, as a staff and individually, are so excited to have them here. Just one more example of God's faithful provision.

Here are a few shots from the week...

Jaelynn and Isaac with their new classmates, John and Lillian

Fahlin and Naomi with their new friend Charlotte

Dinner with the Martin family to celebrate Lillian's 4th birthday