Very, Very, Merry Christmas

Sorry for the delay in posting. It's been busy here as we prepare for the move from temporary housing to the house. And, for some reason, the internet connection has gotten a little squirrel-ly.

Alas, here are some Christmas pictures. PSYCHE! THE PICTURES ARE NOT WANTING TO LOAD. I'LL TRY TO UPLOAD THEM IN THE NEXT DAY OR 2. We had a great day. I took just the day off from work since Christmas is not a holiday here. Aimee had fun making a big Christmas breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, orange juice, and the traditional grapefruit were enjoyed by all the Shanghai Bowman's.

We enjoyed watching the kids open gifts though they both got a little overwhelmed. Anna's favorite gift was a baby doll set with all the accessories - crib, bottles, changing table, diapers, fake poo, etc. Ok, so maybe the poo was not included. Elijah loved all his "choo-choo" stuff but the topper was the BIG fold-out train (thanks Tom, Shonda, and Tommy). That was a big hit with both kids.

I "hawked" most of Aimee's gifts down at the market, negotiating prices on everything from a purse to sunglasses. It was definitely a little more challenging than running over to the Rivertown mall and paying what's on the tag. In China, if you pay what's on the tag, you've been robbed. Most of the time, you can expect to pay 25% to 30% of the listed price. The final price depends on how good your haggling skills are.

I visited a local church for the first time on Sunday. It was really cool to find a Bible-believing, Christ-following church in a communist country. There were probably 300 people there and the pastor explained it was light attendance because of the holiday. They have small groups, adult sunday school and an appealing kid's program. Although, the brochures always look great, don't they? More to come on that front....

We move to the house this weekend. We get the key on Saturday at 4 and I'll deliver one van-load of stuff then. The rest of the stuff/family will go on Sunday. Not sure if our driver will complete our version of "Two men and a van" but we'll see. His official title is "driver" but he always insists on helping with carrying stuff in the house. I'm going to make him be consistent. "If you insist on carrying all 6 bags of groceries, you can't stop at the compact-car-sized pieces of luggage. No double standards here Mr. Liu!!" If he can help, that will be great. He is a great helper and is very caring. Pray that Mr. Liu doesn't have to get wheeled home on a stretcher Sunday evening.

We are all excited to move into the house. The apartment is nice but still a little cramped with our stuff.

Aimee had her first prenatal appt here in China. It went real well. The doctor is great and comes highly recommended. The only concern at this point is that Aimee was told and the doctor confirmed that anthesia is managed differently in China. They use less but feel that is safer because the mother can feel better when to push. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks. Supposedly, if you feel strongly about increasing the amount, you can drive the staff to increase the dosage.

My Chinese language skills are growing....Here are the phrases that I now can say in Chinese.
Hello, Thank you, Your welcome, Where's the hole in the floor....I have an emergency, I'm sorry, See ya, See ya tomorrow, I don't know

And sometimes to impress people here, I'll combine all of them into one run on sentence, "Hello your welcome where's the hole see ya tomorrow see ya sorry thanks I don't know emergency"

That usually scares away the people chasing our children around with the cameras.

Hope all is well with you on the other side. We think of y'all often!