A Crash

and no I don't mean a crash by Sadie or any things similiar, but it is the crash of our computer...yes, our life line to people back in the states. Last Thursday, I had no idea how that day could be so very emotional! I woke up from a nap to check my email before Sadie woke up and when I turned on the computer, I got a gray screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in the center. Never a good sign...I thought, hmm, let me turn it off and turn it back on and see what happens. Same results, I knew this was a very bad thing. There was really nothing we could do until that evening when calling the Support Center to get them to talk us through this thing. I started off that afternoon, tears of course, but being okay with this. You see, we had no external hard drive and ALL of Sadie's pictures from the first year of her life were on there. Yes, I am still mourning the loss and hopeful we can still retrieve them. The past week, I had been reading and studying a lot about trials and how we need to have JOY when we are enduring them. As I was reading and spending time with Father, I thought, okay, good stuff to remember but here again, I am not going through any trials right now...wrong, a few days later bam! a trial! I began that day with joy, thinking okay, I still have the health of me and Jackson, Sadie, and my husband. My family is safe and we are doing great. Computers are replaceable. I kept thinking how Father could turn this out for his good. Well, evening came, and more of my flesh came out. I was so upset I couldn't even talk. All I could do was lay around and think, what will we do??? We called the support people and to no avail, nothing worked. Nothing. The only thing left to do was go to Hong Kong, the nearest store, to get our computer looked at. We live about 5 hours away by plane so the tickets were super expensive, almost the price of a computer. There is an upcoming holiday in China and so getting tickets was really hard, we could get there, but couldn't gt back. Providence, I tell you. We weren't supposed to go. We slept that night and I just knew that Father was telling us that we weren't supposed to go right now. And so the next morning Clark and I talked through it and we didn't go. We thought, maybe Father wants us to be without a computer for this time to learn something. We knew that when we go to Thailand for Jackson's birth that we could get it fixed then. Well, that day, we had made our decision and I shared it with our friends here in our city. Our sweet friends then so graciously offered to let us use one of their computers until we leave for Thailand so that we will have access to the states. AMAZING or what?? Father answers our prayers when we ask!! So, we are able to have this connection and I was able to use this testimony of Father's faithfulness and also of my weakness of flesh to share with friends here. Please continue to pray for our computer situation, we still have no idea if we will be able to retrieve the information or what. But something that I do know...God is faithful even when we are not!

Another Year

Another year has come and gone and I have celebrated my 31st birthday! So strange to be in my 30's. I don't feel like it at all, I don't feel like I have one child and am pregnant with another. I still feel like I am in my early 20's, enjoying life without a care in the world. It is amazing that the older I get the faster time seems to go. Anyway...we celebrated my birthday with our friends here in the city. We had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and cupcakes. Yummy!! Then Sadie helped me open up my presents.
The night before I had a party with some of my friends. They didn't realize it was for my birthday because I didn't want them to spend their money on gifts. I didn't tell them until the end of the night! We had so much fun eating snacks and playing UNO for 2 hours!! I love these precious girls and am so thankful they have come into our lives.
That's about it for this year's celebration...oh, I have to tell you, Sadie can now say the word "cookie". I came home one day last week and Clark had taught her how to say it. I can't wait to get it on video, it is so funny. I can't believe my girl can say "cookie" and boy does she know when to say it!!
Happy Wednesday Folks!

Just Another Day....

Just another day in our life....enjoy a few pictures from the last few weeks....
Sadie's grandmama and grandaddy (clark's parents) got her full auburn attire for football season this year! So, each Saturday, she must sport her gear with pride! We have taught her to say "War Eagle" and she can now say Eagle...still working on the War part :) `

Right now Sadie is loving to wear my shoes, she is all the time trying on shoes and walking around the house, it is so funny!!

I wanted to finish off the post with this beautiful picture that Clark took one morning when he was getting ready for school. And yes, he does get up early enough to see the sun rise!

First Week of School

well, the first week of school for Clark that is. I thought I would post a few pictures of life for Clark on a school day. (**I might have posted these same pictures last spring and if so, super sorry, my pregnancy brain has forgotten!)
Clark wakes up at 5:20 each morning in order to be out the door by 6:45. He has a 30 minute walk to school and likes to get there earlier to prepare before his 8:00 class. This is one picture of his walk to school. I love how the sun is coming up and how it shines over the sidewalk.
Here is Clark's school. It's the school of science and technology and has a international students department.
And here is Clark's name tag from last semester. He now has a different name, this was only his name translated from English.
This is where Clark spends every morning, Monday through Friday. He has classes from 8-12 including: Speaking, Listening, Oral and Grammar. He is progressing very nicely and before you know it we will have one fluent chinese speaking man in our family!! :)
Here is Clark with his classmates from last semester. They are from Russia and Korea. This semester his classes have changed and he has new classmates. They are from Russia, Korea, Ukraine, Iran, and him-America. He said it is quite the challenge trying to teach Chinese to so many different nationalities at once because everyone has different pronunciation problems.

Anyway...I just thought I would share a few pictures of life for Clark right now! :) During this time, Sadie and I are at home doing home things, you know how that is with a one year old :) In fact, I am proud to say, I am typing this blogpost as my daughter is playing BY HERSELF...now that is an accomplishment...

3 years and counting....

Tomorrow Clark and I will celebrate 3 years of marriage! Has it really gone by that fast? In the past three years, we have lived in 2 different countries, had a baby and the second one is in progress! :) I wonder what the next 3 years or 30 years in fact will hold? All I know is that I am thankful to Father that He has given me someone as wonderful and understanding as my husband to share it with. Just today I was sharing our story with a friend. I was telling her that my prayer was that Father would be glorified through our story of meeting, engaged, etc. My prayer was that she saw that God was real through our story. And my prayer now is that people will continue to see that God is real in our everyday lives as we continue to live this story that He is writing.
Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!!

This is how we do it...

In our apartment, we have no hot water in the kitchen. Why you might ask? We have no idea, except to say that our landlord says we can't get it. Probably not true, but none the less, that is what he says. So, when we have a tough dish washing task ahead we resort to using the bathroom sink. Clark is the master washer when it comes to getting grease off of dishes, pots, strainers etc. So, today, I decided to catch him in all of is glory doing what he does best... :)


And there you have it folks, how we wash dishes in China.