Pictures are back!

Egad! I think the pictures might actually load! The connectivity speed has moved from zero to 4 on a scale of 100 so we are making progress!

We are all moved into the house. Our driver was a huge help in the move, driving the van back and forth and helping us to unload. He was a workhorse.

I took him out to lunch as a sign of our appreciation. It was interesting to have lunch with a guy that doesn’t speak your language. We both had our translation dictionaries and talked about our hopes and dreams, rice crispy treats and Kim Jong Il.

Well, actually, maybe we just pointed at the food and pronounced the Chinese and English words for it. There were no verbs, adjectives, prepositions, or adverbs spoken. Just imagine Jane and Tarzan meeting at a Chinese restaurant rather than in the jungle. This was certainly a meal where the talking was more awkward than the silences. : )

Today, Saturday, we interviewed 3 potential “ayis” (pronounced I-E s) or home helpers. They typically help around the house with kids and cleaning. We would like someone to work a couple days per week to help Aimee around the house, especially as the baby delivery approaches and thereafter. We also explained to the ayis that we’ll need someone full time in June during the 3-4 days that Aimee is at the hospital. We hope introducing them to the family now will provide ample time for a comfort level to develop between her and the kids.

The ayis speak very little English and so we had an office worker from our neighborhood serve as a translator. Aimee has been practicing her charade skills. The Bowman charade games are really going to pay some dividends! We hope the ayi is a good charade “guesser”. Perhaps we should have run a mock charade game during the interview. Hmmm.

They all seemed like good candidates but 2 of the 3 stood out a little more and fortunately, those 2 currently work part time elsewhere in our neighborhood so we hope to talk to their other employers.

I think we’ll make a decision quickly and begin that adventure within the next week or so. You could pray for that transition because it will most definitely be a new and challenging experience, at least, initially.

Tomorrow, we are going to go to church as a family for the first time in 6 weeks. We are excited though our new home is much further away than the temporary housing was.

And thanks to Phil B and Paul T for the rousing kareoke votes. Aimee and I both were laughing out loud! Thanks for the input! I am taking it into careful consideration!

Sigh Jyen!