Chasing Education

Teachers have been emailing J.C. and students have reporting to parents, who have been sharing with us, that the year has started well.  The vibe, culture, at school has been a positive one.  It feels like a campus focused on instruction.  With that focus will come challenges.  Challenges that I hope each of us will…

Christopher Celebrates Three with Friends.

This has been sitting in my drafts for over three years.

Not a Zombie Apocalypse

I really thought the plane ride would resemble something as horrifying as a zombie apocalypse.  The passengers would have that wide-eyed stare and slowly approach me, ready to kill, while my children screamed and cried, unsure about what was happening.  But it wasn’t that bad, though my husband would probably disagree.  I didn’t sleep.  I…

Take-Away

It has already become a frequent conversation about how long we plan to live abroad.  The cost of living affords us a lifestyle we can’t otherwise have, and we’re in a great location to travel to places neither of us has ever visited, so it doesn’t feel like any time soon.  But little things like hygiene and…

Photos of our neighborhood, Shekou, Shenzhen, China

In and around our neighborhood of Shekou, Shenzhen, China.        

He’s Every Bit Two

Many of you want to know how Christopher is doing. My little boy is still the joy in my world. And the frustration. His favorite food is “riceandeggs”, as if the two are inseparable. He surprised me recently by liking soup, particularly chicken and fish-based broths. When we take him out to eat…yeah right, we…

Like the Movies–Scarlett’s Birth

Birthing babies ain’t like Hollywood would have you believe. Pregnant women groaning in the back of a taxi, taxi driver nervously glancing in the rear-view mirror while driving extra carefully and extra fast, baby born an hour later with dad almost not making it. Except–that’s exactly how it happened. I had been having what I…

This A’int No N.Y. Taxi

My taxi driver nearly took out a herd of people in the crosswalk as he sped through a broken stop light. Someone’s going to die, I thought. Them or me. At least the driver knows which hospital to take me to. I had already shown him the address—I was on my way to my 38…

Time Ticks

I’ve made a few facebook post smiling on the decadence of having an ayi—a person that cooks, cleans, grocery shops, does the laundry, and takes care of Christopher. It’s been fun for J.C. and me to joke about only needing two pairs of underwear because the one pair in the laundry basket we leave in…