White Elephant with Homegroup

A few Saturday's ago, Trevor and I hosted our first annual Homegroup White Elephant party. We are so thankful for our homegroup. It is so nice to connect with spiritually likeminded people at least once a week. Most of the group is from America, but we did let a few Canadians in. We had lots of fun gifts exchanged at the event, but I believe I came away with the best one. I got a bag of Honey Nut Cheerios!! This is pretty special to receive in China. Anyway, here are some photos of the event. I posted many photos of people but also the food tables. I love decorating, and decorating for parties is even more fun, and Trevor likes to help too!

Let The Countdown's Begin

There are a couple of things to countdown these days. I usually loathe countdowns, Trevor knows this about me and frequently starts countdowns just to make me crazy. I am okay with starting countdowns where there are only 5-6 days to countdown, but when people start at 25, I just want to run away and hide. I guess that number is just way too big for me to get excited about. The things I am counting down range in numbers, and most of them are actually in the double digits, sometimes I make exceptions. Here is goes:

-4 days until Jackson is two months old!
-5 days until we see family in America!
-15 days until we see family in Canada!

-20 pounds until I am back to my normal weight! (It might be better to start that countdown a little later...oh well....it's reality)

-25 days until I turn 31

-27 days until I start training for a race.

The End

I'll Be Home for Christmas and Maybe More

Bryan and David hanging out on a long tail on the seas of Thailand. The Bergmans fighting jetlag.

Trevor and skinny me by our wimpy tree.

Yes, for the first time in seven years, I will be home on Christmas Day. Trevor and I did make it back for New Year's a few years back, but this is the first time I will actually be home on the big day in a long time. It will be super great because my entire immediate family will get to hang out the weekend before Christmas. We are even more excited about that than being home at Christmas.

The last two Christmas's have been spent with different sections of the Bergman family, which was so special. They traveled over here and allowed us to take them on an adventure. We would not have traded it for anything, but it's our turn now to visit them. We will also be squeezing a trip to Canada in during the Christmas holiday. Jackson is already a world traveler. He has his two passports and is ready for a long journey around the planet.

The maybe more part refers to the fact that Trevor and I did not resign our contracts. This pretty much means we will be leaving China. There are jobs that match our qualifications in Hong Kong, Dubai, and many other locations, but we are feeling like North America is the next continent for us. This was a super tough decision. WE LOVE ASIA!!!! It's amazing, and there is no other place like. We love our lives here, I won't even tell you why, or you might think we are crazy for leaving it :) All that said, our families are not here, and we would like to be closer to them for now. We will see where we end up, could be Longview, Texas, could be Vancouver, BC. We know that the Lord is in control of this super big leap of faith.

I'll end or begin with a few pictures from the last two Christmas holidays.

Reflections on Motherhood before Jackson Started Smiling

I can so remember lots of people talking about how you can never "be ready" for your first child. I also remember thinking that Trevor and I were ready. We had been married five years, we were both in our 30s, we had both finished our masters degrees, bought our first house, ect. We were not ready. It is true, no matter how ready we seemed to be, it was all an illusion. Jackson has rocked our world, turned it inside out and back. I say that with love. He is for sure the biggest blessing Trevor and I could ever imagine, but wow parenting is not easy. Here are some adjustments that I was not prepared for:
Always eating later than planned.
Usually eating cold food.
Washing my hands 1000 times a day.
Sore wrists.
The loads of laundry tripling from all the spit up on everything.
Always hearing the cry of a baby, whether it is happening or not.
Catching myslef feeding my pillow in the middle of the night.
Getting ready for the day in five stages, spread out over three hours.
hmm, that is enough for now.
There are also wonderful adjustments that have taken place.
Trevor and I are learning to serve each other in a new way
There is a cute little guy in the house that gives us constant entertainment with his expressions.
We talk to our families even more.
Trevor and I have had huge shfits in our feelinds about life and raising kids.
We are smiling and laughing more than ever.

It is not all that bad, but let me be honest and say that this has been the biggest challenge ever in my life. Jackson is still quite needy and does not really offer anything to us yet, but this week he has started smiling just slightly, and I know that as those developmental elements begin to be common I will really feel more of the positive feelings of motherhood. Do you know what I mean?