My first adventure

Hello again!
Hope you Michiganders all enjoyed your snow day yesterday. Seriously. 4 inches of snow and you got a snow day?? Pathetic. When I was a kid you didn't get a snow day unless the power was out and there was a solid foot of snow on the ground. :)

The weather here has been 40 and rain. Great, right? I'd WAY rather have snow. This business is miserable!

Anywho, I had my first adventure out in the big city today and I wanted to tell you about it. I was very brave. :)

Oh, one interjection. My friends here can atest to this and may think I'm a bit obsessed, but...you'll see. I cannot, for the life of me, find swim diapers here. Really. No one sells them. Well, I can buy a 12 pack for $30 but the Dutch in me won't let me do it. Now, my other problem is that I am also on my last swim diaper until the air shipment gets here and I'm not even sure I can access them until we get into our new place in a month. UGH! So...annoying... The next question you're probably asking is, what do they do with their babies here when swimming? Yes, I think you know the fantastic answer to that. They don't even use diapers. They just put a suit on them and when they poop they just scoop it out of the water and toss it aside and keep swimming. Yeeessss....so, I guess we won't be swimming for a bit.

Ok, back to my adventure. Today my friend, Laura, took me to the art district downtown. She had been single parenting it for a week and needed some grownup time. I love it when that happens. :) The art district is this great place that is really really old and full of all these little boutiques and restaurants. Here's a few pics of our fun-

This is right outside where you enter. You go through these arches on the left to get inside the district.

Above is one of the three entrances to the district.

That's Laura on the left going into one of the stores.

Above is me outside of this little Thai restaurant where we decided to eat lunch. Thankfully, Laura had eatten here before or I don't think I would have been so adventurous. :) I'm so glad we went, though, because we had some amazing food!! I had chicken pad thai, some rodi bread (fried flat bread with spice-good!), and some chicken satay with an amazing peanut sauce. Here are some pics- I had to... :)

So, after we had fully gorged ourselves we did a little more shopping and came across some really weird shops. This one was a bit scary-

Then we walked around a corner and saw this at the end of the street...

It actually says "I heart Dong Xi" which was the store right there but since the "Xi" was covered by a plant it was made to be much much funnier.
:)

We did end up finding a few stores with really cute stuff. I got Sophia a handmade fabric Chinese doll which she LOVES and some really cute dresses!

It was a good day and I look forward to many more like it!

Tomorrow we are trying out a new church that is WAY closer to where we live (Shanghai Community Fellowship was a 45 min cab ride away- Shanghai West International Fellowship has a bus that picks up at our development and is just around the corner! Still a Bible-based Christian church- the pastor is from North Carolina or something). Here's hoping this place is good bc it'd be nice to have a church close to home that doesn't interfere with Coop's nap! Then lunch, nap, and the usage of that sacred last swim diaper!

Dare I say life is good right now? Don't get me wrong- stuff is still hard (we're living off of restaurant food bc I'm still so scared of the meat), but I'm seeing a hint of that new normal I was needing to find. Routine is good and that helps. :)

We miss you all and were really glad to Skype with the Oostings the other day. Sophie had a show-and-tell at school and brought pics of her besties- Ava and Gerrit. It was really cute (they even beat out bringing blankie- that's huge!).

Prayer requests:
-We are in the process of trying to find an ayi. This is a nanny/housekeeper and pretty much everyone has one. They are usually Chinese or Phillipino women, some speak English, most don't. We would like one to accompany Cooper to and from school. This would save me 3 hours a day in car rides so I can get other things done. I am concerned bc some Chinese look down on the mentally disabled and I don't want anyone treating him differently bc of his autism. I have spoken with many moms that have ASD kids here and all have had very positive experiences but I'm still very protective and worried. Please pray that God places the right person in our lives that would be a good fit for our family. I'm excited about having someone here that can help me and the kids learn more about the Chinese language, culture and how to shop here, but I'm also a bit wary still...
-Please pray for Sophie and I. We are battling a lot lately- she is acting out A LOT and I'm not being patient enough with her. I know the adjustment to all-day, every day school (and just being here) has made her very tired when she gets home and there are daily tantrums and meltdowns that just drain me. Pray God helps me be more patient and understanding and to not lose it so quickly with her. :)
-Send praise to our God for answering our prayers- my headaches are basically gone and I have been breathing much easier lately. I literally felt better the day after my last post so I know He hears us and gives us what we need!

Thanks for reading and we'll talk again soon.
We love you!

Another typical day in Shanghai

So, how are you all doing?
I hear life in Grand Rapids is odd and warm (you suck- it's freezing here. Well, 40, but still...) We miss you guys and the blissful ease of life with friends and family we love! But, we're getting along here ok as well.

Sunday morning we were able to Google Hangout with my family. It was hilarious because Jenn was in a bar parking lot in her car in Florida (I'm sure people were thinking she was doing BAD things), Ben and Michelle were in Chicago, and Mom and Dad were at their place in Greenville. Man, I love technology! SO fun to hang out like that.

We met up with Ben and Liz (and their kiddos, Mia-3 and Isaac-2) at the pool around 1030. Usually the pool is around 96 degrees and the hot tub is 110 but today the hot tub was 96 degrees and the pools were freezing. We all know where I stayed... Sophie saw Mia swimming and felt a challenge, I guess, bc she suddenly strapped on her swim cap, threw on her goggles and started to swim under water. Seriously. It took her about 20 minutes of practicing putting her head under water and suddenly she decided she can swim about 8 feet underwater without help. Yeah for peer pressure!. :)

Afterwards we ran into Laura and Patrick (and their kiddos, Aubrey-7, Collin-5, and Quinten-2) and grabbed some lunch and chatted. This is why we picked to live here. The houses may have been nicer but you can't beat the social scene here!

We headed out for church at 345 and got their around 430. Technically church starts at 4, however, they sing for 45 minutes, standing, with like, a thousand other people, so we thought we could show up a little late and still be good. We forgot about getting Coop to nursery, Soph to church school and still finding a seat. Needless to say, Ben got all the way to Soph's room (it's in another building on the compound) and she freaked and refused to go in. We ended up in the upper edge of the balcony, Sophie sitting on my lap. The message was on Hosea- it was nice to sit and hear God's message. Dinner at Pappa John's after was a disaster (I had to change Coop's poopy diaper on my lap while squatting in a "bathroom" which was a hole in the floor) and the cab ride was long to get home but we made it.

Monday Cooper started his school and he loves it! He walked right in like he owned it and had a great time. There are 3 other kids in his class but none were there that day. One was jetlagged, one was still on holiday and they didn't know where the other one was. Femke is his primary teacher (she's from the Netherlands!) and his secondary teacher is Bing-Bing (yes, Chinese). The rest of Monday was a nightmare bc we had to go get Ben from his work (an hour drive) then head to PuDong for our residency visas (another hour drive) and then go home (another hour drive). Coop and I were OVER IT!! Thankfully Laura had gotten Sophie off the bus for me and fed her a snack. Yet another "yay" for living close to friends!

Tuesday we got to pick out our furniture for our new place. That was fun bc we got to have fun with rugs and accent pieces. I figure, we're only owning this stuff for 18 months, we might as well have fun with it. We got this awesome purpley chair for Soph's room and a fantastic black and white lounger for ours. Ooo, I can't wait to show pics! However, we did find out that we won't be getting into our place until Feb 15. Ugh. It'll be great when we finally do, though!

Oh, I wanted to post a pic to show you an idea of traffic here. Given, this is the worst I've seen it.

Of course it's hard to see bc we're under an overpass so let me help you out. There are 2 cars to our left trying to go through the intersection in front of us. There are 2 cars ahead of us- one trying to go straight and one trying to turn left (like us). There is a bus on our right that's in the middle of the intersection trying to go through and a bus and a car facing us interwoven into the other cars in the intersection. Everyone's honking and flashing their brights. Like that'll help. I used Google translate to ask our driver, Andy, how this type of situation gets fixed. No one could get anywhere bc the vehicles were all stuck in the middle of the intersection. He laughed and typed into his Google translate- "normal". Oh, he had turned the car off about 5 minutes prior, as well. I think he knew it was going to be a bit. Eventually, some cars backed up, went over curbs and we all found our way through. It was ridiculous! There are simply no rules for driving here. Earlier in the day I was on a road where it was supposed to be 2 lanes in each direction. However, traffic and bad driving made it 3 lanes one direction, 1 in the other. And, cars would still pass us in that 1 lane to get ahead- into oncoming traffic!! And no one cares!! No one thinks it's weird or odd or dangerous or rude. Many times I have just looked around bc looking out the front of the car stresses me out!

Just another day in Shanghai, baby... :)

Oh, some bad news. Ben found out today that the carpool he was hoping to get into denied his acceptance. It's hard to imagine that they would leave him hanging bc they didn't want to squeeze in a bit. This really bums us out bc it was going to be a huge answer to prayer about our driving situation and a way to save a huge amount of money. So, now we're back to square one which is frustrating. We just can't seem to catch a break in our favor with this driving thing...

Prayer requests:
-That the driving situation gets resolved and Ben finds an inexpensive way to work that doesn't take an hour and a half each way and Cooper finds a way to school that will get him there on time (and that makes it so I don't have to spend 3 hours a day in a car getting him/dropping him off).
-The shoes have been found and are being shipped to us (we had left them at my sister's). This is a huge praise as I still haven't found any more tights or shoes here!! Seriously!!!
-I would like to ask for prayers for my health. I am having daily migraines that are barely under control with a lot of meds. Headaches have always been a problem for me but having them every day all day is just draining. That, and my cold is still here. I'm starting to wonder if it's partly the air quality as well. So, no headaches and open sinuses for me, please. :)

Thanks and God bless!!

A Shang"low" kind of day in Shanghai

And things had been going so well!
We've actually had a few days where things were falling into place here and I was feeling like I was able to tread the water more easily instead of barely keeping my head above water.
Sophie's first day of school was great, her second even better because she has swimming lessons on Thursdays and she got to wear her uniform. Here she is in a few variations of it-

Oh, we did have one issue on her second day. She started riding the school bus on Thursday. She was so excited to do this and be a "big girl". I guess I had forgotten to warn her that I didn't go with her on the bus because she climbed right on, realized we weren't behind her and came screaming off of it as fast as she could. Ben thought, for some reason, this was a good kodak moment.

Thankfully, my new friend, Laura from Chicago, was watching us while her kids were getting on a different bus (There are 3 buses that all go to the same school). Soph and her daughter have become friends and she suggested Soph get on with her daughter and even talked with the bus monitor so she could bring Sophie to the right classroom. It saved us because Sophie was having nothing of that other bus! A quick call to the school changed her bus permanently so she's been fine ever since.

Thursday was also the day we did house hunting to find our permanent place for the next 18 months. After 3 houses and 5 condos, we had it down to one house in Rancho Santa Fe and a condo here in the Racquet Club. The closeness of the social stuff for the families won out and we picked the condo. It's a penthouse 2 story with an amazing view, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. The previous tenants had just moved out and the place is currently trashed so I won't post pics until it's renovated. The annoying thing is that it's going to take 3 weeks to get it how we want it. The nice thing is that we're getting a lot of say on how it's fixed up. It'll be great once it's done and we're in it.

Ok, so, school's good, Ben had his first day on Friday and it went well. I had the driver, Andy, for the morning so we made a trip to Ikea and got some bakeware and other essentials. He doesn't speak ANY english so I HEART Google translate!!! I couldn't be here without it! I had a moment of panic when I lost the driver and thought someone had pick-pocketed Ben's IPhone (it wasn't). My solution for the driver? Buy an Ikea hot dog and ice cream cone and just wait for him at the checkout to show up- and he did, after about 30 minutes... It was stressful but I survived.

Friday night we had been invited to Laura and Patrick's condo, along with some other new friends, Ben and Liz from the UK, for pizza, beer and to just hang out. It's funny. We ordered Pappa John's and, God bless them, it tastes just like the Pappa John's at home. SO nice to have that comfort! We had a great night- there were 7 children "running ferrel" (as Laura likes to say), we stayed up too late, drank too much, but only had to walk across the big lawn to our condo! It was a great night getting to know new people!

See, life sounds good, right? I had even made another dinner (spaghetti and carrots)...until today.
Soph needs more tights for school as well as a good pair of black shoes to wear with her uniform. The pair she had have vanished so she's been wearing a pair that's way too big.
We took the shuttle bus to the Metro station- took the Metro to a shopping district that actually reminded me a lot of downtown Chicago. There was an H&M, a Gap, and a Marks & Spencer (it's from the UK-kinda like Macy's). You would think we were all set, right? Yeah, wrong. We found only 2 pair of tights between all of those stores (but really, I was happy to have found 2). However, NO shoes. Not one pair of girls' black shoes. We had to leave bc we were meeting a coworker of Ben's who is here house hunting with his wife at the AP Plaza. This is a crazy place with a million shops. You can get knock off Coach purses, Uggs, jewelry, coats, shoes, etc. We ate at the KFC, which was a nightmare bc there were a million people there, it was super loud, Sophie and Cooper fell apart...
Anyway, then we went to go try and find some shoes when we noticed Sophie's coat was missing. Her only winter coat until the air shipment gets here in 3 weeks. So, now she has no coat. In January. Whether it was stolen or we dropped it somewhere, I don't know, but it's gone, so, whatever. So, now we need a coat and shoes. After an hour of looking for both, finding no freaking shoes, bardering prices on coats, people touching and pointing at the kids, Cooper falling apart bc it's way past nap time....see where I'm going with this? I was done. Like, DONE.
We paid too much for the coat (bc she knew she had us), got in a cab and started the hour trek home. Thankfully both kids fell asleep (did I ever mention how there are no seatbelts here???). So, an entire day for 2 pairs of tights. And I have no idea what to do next about the shoes. Ugh.
This day was what expats refer to as a Shang'low' day.
Needless to say, we're hoping tomorrow is better bc we're venturing out to church and it's not exactly next door- and we still need to find shoes.

Prayer requests: shoes. Seriously, I just need to find Sophie some good shoes.
I also need to relax a bit. Everything seems to send me over the edge and I don't want to be there anymore. I'd like to take things in stride and see the humor in situations and I'm struggling to do that.
Please pray that Monday goes well. Ben goes to work at 630, Soph gets on the bus at 810 and I need to leave the condo before 8 to get to Coop's school by 830. I'm not really sure how it's going to work out. I think I could ask one of my new friends to watch Soph but I also don't want to ask too much of people I've just met and wreck a new friendship. Pray it just falls into place bc I really need something to be easy, just once. Well, since this will be happening every weekday, I really need it more than once... :)

Our First Meal, if you can call it that. :)

We've had a few dramatic days with Miss Thing so I wanted to post a few quick pics.

The day after we got here, after HOURS of Sophie begging, we decided we were going to go swimming. They have this amazing indoor pool place that has 2 indoor pools and a huge hot tub. It's all in this grotto-type area with plants and rocks and waterfalls. Anyway, I get my suit, Ben's and Cooper's, but Heaven forbid I can find Sophie's. So, she's devastated. Like, the world has officially ended, which, in a four year old's mind, I can understand. Anyway, we go to the little store in the clubhouse that sells some sports stuff- mostly tennis, and start digging for suits. I find 3 that are big but might work so we go to try them on. The first was the one we ended up with, ONLY because she was SO elated with it. I mean, she dances and sings in this suit. It is SO gawdy so I need to put on here that she INSISTED on this suit because I know in years to follow she will blame me for letting her out in it. :) Here is the suit...

You can't tell but it's full of Winnie the Pooh and clouds. Oy. Needless to say, swimming really takes it out of her, though. She is usually a bit of a wreck afterward- probably hungry and just still feeling off. She has so much fun swimming that we put up with the rest... :) Yesterday she was in rare form so she was sent to her bedroom. This usually ends up with her falling asleep for a bit which is what her brain needs then anyway. We went to go release her from her timeout and couldn't find her in her room. Where we found her was sleeping on the floor of her walk-in closet. Well, kind of, at least. She was sitting on a small shelf in the closet, then had bent forward and fell alseep bent in half with her head lower than her legs. It looked SO uncomfortable. Here's that one:

Tonight we "made" our first meal. Beyond struggling with the language, not knowing where anything is and not knowing anyone, I have been having a really hard time trying to figure out what to feed my family. Everything is different here and the food is no exception. I have no way of cooking anything in this "furnished" temporary housing and have bought very little food because I'm wary of all of it. So I had some organic Chinese chicken breasts, some Chinese potatoes, some French butter, some Australian milk, some German olive oil and (God Bless America) some Lawry's. I fried the chicken in oil and lawry's, boiled the potatoes in bottled water, and there we had it. SO pathetic, but, a start...

Here's hoping after a few more trips to IKEA I will have some bakeware and cookware and a clue as to what I'm doing... :)

The First Few Days...

Are the hardest, right? Because then it's going to get better, which would be good. :)
Really, I make it sound so bad, don't I?
I think if we could just get the kids to eat and sleep when appropriate we would be fine. However, right now, Cooper is just plain not sleeping at night and Sophie won't eat during the day.

Well, since she did sleep through the night last night (well, until 5am- but we'll take it!), she really just doesn't want to eat. It's not that the food is weird- things do taste a bit different but she's never been a really picky eatter. But, cheese pizza, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets- staples of an American child's diet (ugh)- we can't even get her to eat these. Toast works, maybe an occasional yogurt....yeah, that's about it right now. Hopefully she'll eventually get hungry enough that she decides food is worth it. :)

Cooper is really really struggling. It's ironic because we expected drama and issues with Sophia- she's old enough to know things are changed and different. But with Cooper, he's never struggled with transitions from one thing to another. I know this is a trait of autistic kids- trouble with change- but he had never shown these symptoms before. We always assumed he wasn't completely aware of his surroundings and just kinda went with the flow. Well, apparently we weren't giving him enough credit because he's not loving life right now.
It seems as though he is constantly taking things in, not really relaxed, realizing everything is new and he doesn't know what to expect from any of it. Sometimes he's ok, playing, swimming, eatting. But he's always on high alert, looking around and eventually just loses it. Then it's hard to get him to calm down. Usually these meltdowns have been happening at meal times. It's perfect bc we're struggling to get Sophie to eat, Cooper is freaking out, and we're always in a restaurant when it happens. We must look like the perfect little family to the Chinese- ha!

It's easy to keep a bit of humor about it right now bc they are both currently asleep so the house is quiet and we are able to just sit and relax.

Really, though, we're doing ok overall. We met a really great family yesterday after breakfast (where Soph wouldn't eat....). There's a playplace made out of a racquetball court and Soph and Coop were playing and a mom and her 3 kids came up and sat by us. The kids started playing together and we started talking with the mom. They're from Chicago, he works for Bosch, they were in HongKong for a year before moving here in August. Their son goes to BISS (the British International School of Shanghai) and could be in Soph's class. We ran into them again today and hung out for a few hours while the kids played. It's great to have met a friendly face!
Here's a pic of the playplace-

The nice thing about it is that there's a balcony where I took the pic where we can sit and watch the kids play while we chat. It looks really pink here but it's not in real life. :)

Here's a pic of the park area behind where we live. We walk through here to get to the clubhouse.

Here are also some pics of our place- we're definitely not totally unpacked and organized- not even close- but we're getting there.

We have a neat sleeping area set up for Cooper. We didn't want to have to buy a crib here, but he won't stay in a bed, so we did some research and found this bedtent specifically made for ASD kids that like to escape. Cooper struggles to wake up from naps- you can tell he's in a deep overnight type of sleep so it takes him a good hour to snap out of it. Today was no exception but I made the mistake of sending Ben to go wake him up. I didn't see or hear them for a bit so I went to investigate and this is what I found-

It was pretty cute. :)

We got the chance to talk with Jenn right after the US New Year and then we actually Skyped Christy and Peter Oosting for a bit after their night of fun and "had one more" with them. So great to see friends and talk with family. It's so easy! I can't imagine doing this without being able to see and speak with those we love.

Ok, prayer requests: obviously, the kids. Getting them to eat healthy (finding healthy and safe things to eat), getting into a good sleep routine. Also, that Ben and I be more patient with them when we ourselves don't feel great and are tired. Sophie's school orientation is Wednesday- she starts Thursday. Pray this new transition goes well and that she is able to make some friends and enjoy her time there.

Thanks for reading- I love reading your comments! If you ever have any questions- feel free to ask!

We made it!

Good grief, was that ever stressful! But, God is faithful and got us through it!
On Wednesday, December 28, both sets of parents as well as my sister, Jenn, and Ben's brother, Joel, came to see us off (and to help us get our 13 bags and 7 carry-ons and a stroller into the airport). Come on, what do you expect, we're moving to China! Anyway, our first flight was scheduled to leave GR at 0747. We were at the airport at 0630 and still barely had time to say our goodbyes bc TSA had to check EVERY bag we brought and it took forever. We had first class seats (to Chicago- woo hoo!) and were all strapped in and taxiing out when Sophie declared she HAD to pee, right then. Good grief! After much distraction, we made it until we were safely in the air so she could go.

We had a quick layover in Chicago which consisted of large amounts of stress for Ben bc they changed our plane, and therefore our seats, and Ben was worried the new set up would be bad.
However, we got really lucky and had this great little cove of our 4 seats that were tucked away from everyone else.
We discovered that our flight would only be 14 hours instead of 15- I was thrilled! The kids really did quite well. Movies, some snacking, a little meds to help get some sleep, some more snacking, more movies, a bit of walking around, more sleeping...you can see where I'm going with this. The only hangups were that I got a really bad cold about 2 hours into the flight (that I'm still dealing with) and that the kids only got about 5-6 hours of sleep total. The worst part of the flight- the part where I left my IPad in the back of the seat pocket. We were in such a hurry to get out of the plane that I totally forgot it. It makes me sick just thinking about it...

Oh, the way we flew was up and over Alaska, through Siberia and then into China. Here's what Siberia looks like (in case you ever wanted to know)...

Super interesting, isn't it? :)
Anyway, we got all of our bags, loaded them onto 2 tiny carts, slooooowly made our way to customs (but got right through, thankfully!) and met our 2 drivers who drove us the 45 min to the Shanghai Racquet Club, our temporary home for the next month. We got to our apartment only to find that the electricity was shut off and we couldn't find the main switchboard bc it was so dark. After about 30 min we figured it out but it was just one more thing and we were just done.We were all very tired but I felt like a bus had hit me, and then backed over me, and then hit me again. Ben got some food from SRC's clubhouse, we fed the kids and got them to bed by 8. I was in bed by 830 and alseep by 831.

The first night was rough- Ben and the kids really struggled to sleep. Sophie was up from 0100-0330, Cooper was up from 0130-0430 and cried a lot. Ben was up and down for most of the night. I was able to get some sleep except for an hour where I tried to help with the kids but was worthless.

Friday morning I had a medical exam at 0830 (part of the process to get a residency visa here- Ben had his in November). It was supposed to be a 40 min drive but our driver (who doesn't speak or really understand english) was SOOO lost and it was very hard to get him to A) admit he was lost and B) follow our directions and C) stop just driving onto highways in random directions. After an hour and a half we made it to the clinic where my blood pressure promptly read 139/113. Seriously. It's normally 90/60. The doctor goes- "OH! You blood pressure high!" I was like, yup, under a bit of stress here... The rest of the exam consisted of a blood draw (at least they used sterile technique!), an ultrasound of my liver, an eye exam, a chest x-ray, and EKG. It was all done in about 20 minutes. They are very efficient here...

Then off to the local RT Market to get some food and supplies. And by local, I mean, LOCAL. We were definitely the only Westerners in there. Several women came up to Sophie and Cooper and touched their heads and would smile and nod. We were warned this would happen bc our kids are so blonde they become a bit of a circus show. Almost every single person there stared at us and some would try to practice their english with us by showing us where the Tide brands and Coke brand products were. We were only there about 30 minutes but were exhausted by the time we left. The products here are quite different as well. For instance, in the juice aisle we found this...

I have no idea how that could be tasty so we did not try this. We did buy a few other random things and have been pleasantly surprised so far.

We ended Friday with a swim in the pool at the Clubhouse and then dinner. Needless to say, Sophie didn't quite make it through...

Well, that's our first day and a half here. The weekend shows to be much slower- unpacking, church and swimming more. Hopefully the kids sleep tonight- they were both in bed and alseep by 730. Ben's been nodding off next to me since then and it's just 9. :) He's really been amazing- I've lost it several times (esp when I discovered the lost IPad) and he's really been a rock.

Ok, prayer requests- if you would be so kind as to pray for my cold to go away, for the kids to sleep (at night) and maybe that Sophie could meet/make a friend. Today in the car she made up a song asking if there were any little kids in China. :) She also did remind me that any friends she does make here would still never be her best friends because her best friends were Ava and Gerrit. :) What her little mind must be dealing with...

Thanks for reading and I'll post again soon with pics of our place (once we've actually unpacked and it doesn't look like a bomb went off in here...)

3 weeks...

It's really setting in for me, finally.
3 weeks from today we will be in the air, on our way to Shanghai.
Things keep moving and falling into place. The movers came out on Tuesday and we will be able to take pretty much everything we had hoped to bring to Shanghai- minus Cooper's slide. But, really, that was kind of a reach... :)
The house packing has begun and I am blown away by the things I'm finding as I pack! Seriously, I own a coffee grinder, a tiny crock pot for dips, an espresso machine, all these random little plates... these are things I've owned for years and had totally forgotten about. How does this happen???
Anywho, Sophie's school orientation is set and I'm already trying to set up a babysitter for Cooper so I can go. See, things aren't so different there... Sophia's teacher has already been emailing us and setting things up to help her transition be easier. We've been really impressed with the school and how much they are wanting to be involved in every aspect of our family coming to Shanghai. It has relieved a lot of stress I've been feeling about the school situation ever since we found out there were no openings at the Shanghai American School.
We've also had some issues with getting Cooper to and from his school but we're hoping our back up plan of hiring a car and driver ourselves will work out. I'll be bringing him and picking him up for a while until things feel more comfortable there. Keep us in your prayers as these details get worked out.
Other prayer requests- we are realizing that Sophia is starting to figure out something big is happening. She has known for months that we are moving to China but you never know how much she really understands. In these last few weeks friends are starting to tell her they will miss her and grandparents are getting sad when talking about the move. The way this is manifesting isn't so great, however. She is regressing some and acting out more which has been elevating the stress level in the house. Please pray that we are all more patient with each other and more understanding that we are all under huge amounts of stress. Also pray that we are able to give these stresses to God who can effortlessly take care of them!
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers that continue to be felt daily!

If you are interested in knowing more about Sophie and Cooper's schools, here are their websites: http://www.bisspuxi.com/ (Sophia's school) and http://www.theessentiallearninggroup.com/ (Cooper's school/therapy place).