Last Week of August

The second Glucose test came back perfect! No more needles!! As the due date comes closer, I began to investigate some other options: birthing center, doula, etc. I've heard many good things about them. I'm also interviewing some pediatricians in Plano and Frisco area. Hopefully we'll make a decision soon. Next week, I'll be in the last 10 weeks of the pregnancy! Emily now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is over 15 inches long from head to heel. With her rapid growth, her nutrition needs reach their peak during this time - eat more protein, calcium, folic acid and iron!

David has been busy coordinating the pickup for the new students who wanted to come to Friendspeak. Three from UTD and two from SMU. Since we are going to be in Tulsa this weekend, we had to find replacement to drive them to church. David found three couples who will give them a ride this weekend. We hope that the campus ministry will start soon so that the transportation will not be a major issue any more.

Granny is not doing very well. We'll continue praying for her healing. Amy and Kendall are driving over tomorrow and then we will head over to Tulsa tomorrow night. I'm sure Granny will be glad to see Chloe for the first time!

The Busiest Week

David's work has been busy this week and last week. He had to work overtime on Tuesday. After we had dinner, David got a call from Jason that he was cold last night because he didn't have any bedding in the dormitory. We brought some blanket, sheet, and pillow and drove off to SMU. Luckily David was familiar with that area. We took Jason to Target to buy the things he needed. When we got home, it was after 11:00pm.


I stayed at home Wednesday while David read with two readers. I did the grocery shopping, laundry and cooking. Time flew by quickly.



Thursday morning was my one-hour Glucose tolerance test. I had banana and sweet bun for breakfast, fasted for two hours and took the sweet solution at 11:00am. David met with me at the hospital at 11:30am. The regular checkup looked fine. I gained 4 lbs - right on target! David and I went to the breastfeeding class at 6:30pm. We learned a lot in those 3 and half hours. We were very tired after the class.



B1 class had the Mongolia and Asian mission presentation on Friday night. We wished we could go. But we decided to stay at home. I was glad that David's headache was gone. He had so much on his shoulder everyday. A side note about Granny - she fell during the weekend and went to the hospital. Her friend brought her a birthday cake in the hospital. She's been in great pain this week. We pray that she will get better and get out of the hospital soon!



David and I had the childbirth class the whole day Saturday. The class was scheduled from 9:00am to 4:00pm. But the instructor didn't show up. As a compensation, we all got four free valet parkings and a free baby sign language class. The substitute instructor came at 9:45am. She was very good. The class covered everything about pre-labor, labor, and early days with the baby: anatomy and physiology of the birth process, pain control, birth options, cesarean birth, and a hospital tour. We were stuffed with information. Hopefully we can still remember it when the time is right. Saturday evening, David and I went to UTD to attend the Chinese new students welcome party. David's reader Mike (the president of the Chinese student association) invited David to talk about Friendspeak. Several students asked about Friendspeak afterwards. Two girls already wanted to attend the class.



We didn't visit any church this Sunday morning - this way we tried all the scenarios. We'll be back to our regular schedule next weekend. It was great to see Nikki and Cole during the service. Cole was so cute! David and I visited with Dawn and Jerrod after the service - we always enjoy visiting with them! Then we drove to SMU to pick up Rusi and her friend Xuna for Friendspeak. It was the first time for both of them to attend Friendspeak. They really enjoyed reading with their workers. After we took them back to their apartments, we had a quick dinner at BlackEyedPea's. Then we realized that we missed the Olympics closing ceremony. Well, I already fell out of the loop since I only watched 2 minutes Olympics. David did much better - he watched probably 15 minutes in total. Two UTD new students need pickup for Friendspeak next Sunday. David called around to arrange the pickup. We are actively working to setup a Friendspeak site on UTD campus and SMU campus. Hope the pickup issue will be resolved after that. I went to bed early because I was scheduled for the three-hour Glucose test - I failed the one-hour test (blame on the sweet buns and the banana!).



This morning I took the Glucose test - the solution was twice as sweet as the first time. They drew the blood from my arms four times after the drink. I did feel a little nauscious this time - my body never had so much sugar at one time before! Hopefully I'll pass the test this time. Emily really moves a lot. I feel more of her movement than her kicks now. A few days ago, I noticed the reapetative pulse like activities. It felt like a heartbeat but much slower. Normally it last for 2 or 3 minutes with 30 times per minute. I asked the doctor. He told me it's the baby hiccups!



Below is a picture of Rusi and Xuna (with Robert, Gail, and me). They just came to America two weeks ago ...

Happy Birthday Granny!!!

Yesterday was our one-year anniversary of engagement! It certainly didn't feel like one year. Today the exciting feeling of marrying to my best friend and to the man who I admire in so many ways is still as fresh as it was one year ago. For the people who don't know, David proposed on the traditional Chinese Valentine's Day and neither of us realized it until afterwards.

David and I had dinner with Nathan and Amy at Red Hot Blue last night. Then we headed off to the airport to pick up another new student Jason from HongKong. The flight was one hour late. But we left the airport in half an hour. It took us a while to find Jason's apartment. After we dropped him off, it was 9:30pm already. David was very tired since it was a long day for him. We didn't make it to Debra and Lance's Ukraine game night.

Today is Granny's 93th birthday! Happy Birthday Granny! When David talked to Dad about taking granny over this week, Dad said "I'll have to talk to her a month in advance to clear her busy schedule!" Granny is busy!!! A couple of weeks ago, she went to the hospital because of her racing heart. David called her. She told us how delicious the hospital food was. We never heard anyone liked the hospital food yet. I'm wondering what she is doing today: running between the birthday parties? playing games? walking in the mall? ... Wish we will have her energy when we are that age!

Nathan is having the surgery today. We pray that everything goes well and the cancer will be completely gone after this. David and I are often encouraged by our friends who face these trials in life with poise, faith, and strength. Go Nathan! It will be better.

A Cool Weekend

It finally cools down a little bit after the long-needed rain. I looked up the weather channel that it will be cool for the whole week!

This Saturday David cleaned the garage and put the things we don't need in the car so that we could give them away to the new students. After lunch, we drove off to the UTD campus. We called our Friendspeak reader Peggy to see whether she needed anything. She let us to put everything in her apartment and she will give them away later. It saved us lots of time and energy! We visited her new apartment which turned out to be the one that two of my old friends lived before. We are happy to know that she is on vacation now. She will go to Friendspeak this Sunday and attend the International Christian Fellowship next Friday. She's been attending an American church in Richardson.

After the grocery shopping, we came home and began to prepare for the dinner. Heidi, Hongyu and Sandy were our guests. They arrived at 6:00pm. We ate and talked until 9:30pm. David and I really enjoyed spending time with them. Below is a picture of us after the dinner.











We went to Greenville Oaks COC this Sunday. We felt like home since there were so many of our old friends: Nathan and Amy; Lori and Billy; Amy and Wes; Robin and Richard; Ron and LaJohnna; Kevin and Emily; Jennifer and David; Kate and Brian; etc. We met two of their elders and talked to several other people who were related to Prestoncrest. During the service, I saw a familiar face - it was my co-worker who sits at the other side of the floor! We were surrounded by friends after the service. So many people to talk to - and we still haven't figured out a way of talking to many people at the same time and not to make anyone feel left out!

After grabbing some food from Grandy's, we were off to Prestoncrest. Luckily David had a skill to eat and drive at the same time - we only had four minutes to eat lunch. The chicken thighs tasted especially good. David suggested that someday we open a chicken restaurant in China! We got to the class right on time. I was happily surprised that Hongyu was in the class already. Keith taught Matthew chapter 3. The building was still under construction. I could smell the paint fume even in our classroom. But one hour of the exposure should be fine. Hongyu went with us to the service also. That really exceeded our expectations because we thought he might want to go home and watch the Olympics. When I saw that there was no pages for the notes in the bulletin. I thought it would be a very casual message by someone other than Bob. I prayed that whoever deliver the sermon would speak to Hongyu. It turned out that Matt Mazza did the sermon. It was a great message on encouragement. Hongyu later told us that he liked the sermon very much.

In the beginning of the sermon, we watched a very touching video clip on Derek Redmond who competed in 1992 Olympics. Redmond arrived at the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona determined to win a medal in the 400. He had been forced to withdraw from the 400 at the 1988 Games in Seoul, only 10 minutes before the race, because of an Achilles tendon injury. He then underwent five surgeries over the next year. This was the same runner who had shattered the British 400-meter record at age 19. So when the 1992 Games arrived, this was his time, his moment, his stage, to show the world how good he was and who he was.

Derek's father Jim had accompanied him to Barcelona, just as he did for all world competitions. They were as close as a father and son could be. Inseparable, really. The best of friends. When Derek ran, it was as if his father were running right next to him. Here is a replay of what happened on that day (from http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/94)

THE MOMENT


The day of the race arrives. Father and son reminisce about what it took for Derek to get to this point. They talk about ignoring past heartbreaks, past failures. They agree that if anything bad happens, no matter what it is, Derek has to finish the race, period.

The top four finishers in each of the two semifinal heats qualify for the Olympic final. As race time approaches for the semifinal 400 heat, Jim heads up to his seat at the top of Olympic Stadium, not far from where the Olympic torch was lit just a few days earlier. He is wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Have you hugged your foot today?"

With the help of his father, an injured Derek Redmond completed his race in the 1992 Olympics.
The stadium is packed with 65,000 fans, bracing themselves for one of sport's greatest and most exciting spectacles. The race begins and Redmond breaks from the pack and quickly seizes the lead. "Keep it up, keep it up," Jim says to himself.

Down the backstretch, only 175 meters away from finishing, Redmond is a shoo-in to make the finals. Suddenly, he hears a pop. In his right hamstring. He pulls up lame, as if he had been shot.
"Oh, no," Jim says to himself. His face pales. His leg quivering, Redmond begins hopping on one leg, then slows down and falls to the track. As he lays on the track, clutching his right hamstring, a medical personnel unit runs toward him. At the same time, Jim Redmond, seeing his son in trouble, races down from the top row of the stands, sidestepping people, bumping into others. He has no credential to be on the track, but all he thinks about is getting to his son, to help him up. "I wasn't going to be stopped by anyone," he later tells the media.

On the track, Redmond realizes his dream of an Olympic medal is gone. Tears run down his face. "All I could think was, 'I'm out of the Olympics -- again,'" he would say.
As the medical crew arrives with a stretcher, Redmond tells them, "No, there's no way I'm getting on that stretcher. I'm going to finish my race."

Then, in a moment that will live forever in the minds of millions, Redmond lifts himself to his feet, ever so slowly, and starts hobbling down the track. The other runners have finished the race, with Steve Lewis of the U.S. winning the contest in 44.50. Suddenly, everyone realizes that Redmond isn't dropping out of the race by hobbling off to the side of the track. No, he is actually continuing on one leg. He's going to attempt to hobble his way to the finish line. All by himself. All in the name of pride and heart.


Slowly, the crowd, in total disbelief, rises and begins to roar. The roar gets louder and louder. Through the searing pain, Redmond hears the cheers, but "I wasn't doing it for the crowd," he would later say. "I was doing it for me. Whether people thought I was an idiot or a hero, I wanted to finish the race. I'm the one who has to live with it."

One painful step at a time, each one a little slower and more painful than the one before, his face twisted with pain and tears, Redmond limps onward, and the crowd, many in tears, cheer him on.

Suddenly, Jim Redmond finally gets to the bottom of the stands, leaps over the railing, avoids a security guard, and runs out to his son, with two security people chasing after him. "That's my son out there," he yells back to security, "and I'm going to help him."

Finally, with Derek refusing to surrender and painfully limping along the track, Jim reaches his son at the final curve, about 120 meters from the finish, and wraps his arm around his waist.
"I'm here, son," Jim says softly, hugging his boy. "We'll finish together." Derek puts his arms around his father's shoulders and sobs.

Together, arm in arm, father and son, with 65,000 people cheering, clapping and crying, finish the race, just as they vowed they would. A couple steps from the finish line, and with the crowd in an absolute frenzy, Jim releases the grip he has on his son, so Derek could cross the finish line by himself. Then he throws his arms around Derek again, both crying, along with everyone in the stands and on TV.


"I'm the proudest father alive," he tells the press afterwards, tears in his eyes. "I'm prouder of him than I would have been if he had won the gold medal. It took a lot of guts for him to do what he did."















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If you are interested, here is a link to the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zi0_LjHHN4 or www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDsigCRtoyg

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

Hebrews 12:1(NLT)- "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish."

Acts 20:24 "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace."

Dear loved ones, when we are facing the challenges of finishing the races, can we sense our Heavenly Father who is running beside us and cheering us on to the finish line? "I'm here, son," ... "We'll finish together." When we see someone in the race, are we quick to run beside him and offer a shoulder? "I wasn't going to be stopped by anyone." I pray that our Heavenly Father will give us the strength and energy to persevere to the very end.

New Addition

I was debating whether to buy a cradle swing for Emily since we've already had a take-along swing. David said, "I really want Emily to have a swing that can move back and forth and from side to side." That set me off to the shopping mode again! Soon after I did some research and comparison, we bought this cutie for $40 and I can't wait to put Emily in it:

(The lady I bought from had the swing for 6 months and she hardly used it. Everything looks perfect clean and new.)

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265072

End of 2nd Trimester

This week marks the end of the 2nd trimester. How time flies! David and I finally picked the name for our baby - Emily Mae Woodward. Both Emily and Mae are easy pronunciations for my folks in China. Mae is David's grandma's name. It's also used in my dad's name. In Chinese, it sounds like the character Mei which means beautiful. It also sounds like another Chinese character which symbolizes the strength to prosper in a hash environment. According to the information on the website, Emily weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. She kicked and moved from 5:15am to 6:00am this morning. David said she doesn't know the concept of the day and night yet. Otherwise she wouldn't do that to keep her mom awake. I didn't mind about her moving at all. Actually I thought it was me who kept her awake because I constantly tossed and turned through the night to relief the sourness of my sides. Her moves reassured me that she was there OK and made me to worry less about the ambilical cord.

David is really catching up with his Chinese. Last night, we went to Friendspeak. Cloudia invited us to have icecream with our readers afterwards. Maggie rode with me and David. We began to talk in Chinese. David listened all the way and he understood most of our conversation. Sometimes I blurted out some Chinese when I talked to him at home. I didn't realize it. But he caught what I said right away. It was so encouraging! We were happy to see the girl we met at the airport last week came to Friendspeak - She's only been to American for one week!

We were so glad that Syed volunteered to host an Indian student who arrives today to attend UTD. It happened to be Kannan's birthday lunch. When my co-workers asked Syed why he couldn't attend the birthday lunch. He joked that he had a date. He got a phone call and left at around 11:00pm to open his apartment for the Indian guy. My co-workers winked: "It must be his girl-friend!"

Olympics Weekend

Mike came over Thursday night for Friendspeak. We were so glad that he offered to put up the office desk with David. The new office area looked so much better after everything was set up.

Fang invited us to her house to watch the Beijing Olympics Openning ceremony together on Friday night. Paul also invited us to his new house. But his invitation was 30 minutes late. We had a great time watching the program with Fang's family. I expected the ceremony to be a good one. Still it exceeded my expectations. In my co-worker Marcy's words:" Who can top that?!" Another friends of mine said, "That will put lots of pressure on whomever going to host the next Olympics." Many people said they will definitely buy the DVD if it comes out. I was glad that the commentary provided some history behind each scene before and during the openning ceremony to help foreigners to better understand it. There was so much history and culture content in those performance! Even for a person who understood nothing about the history behind the show, he/she could still sense the spirit of pursuing excellence in the air.

I went to Erin Hughes' baby girl shower Saturday morning. While I was in the Babyrus to shop for the gifts, I bumped into a couple from Frienspeak. They studied with Don Barnett and just had a baby girl a month ago. I was late for Erin's shower. But I was glad to have a minute to talk to Amy A., Angela N., Liesl B., and many other ladies while I was there. It was a nice shower. Friday night, David and I went to our friend Sally's house for dinner. Mary Ann and her husband were there too. We had a wonderful time talking and eating together.

We visited our 5th Chinese church off Hillcrest and Frankford Sunday morning. It happened that the young preacher we liked at the first Chinese church English service was invited to preach here for the Chinese service. He did an excellent job again. His message today was "Carrying the Cross". He used so many interesting illustrations and stories and his preaching was so practical that I didn't have any time to translate to David during the sermon. I had to reserve the translation for him while we were driving to Prestoncrest. We met two families who are going to move to China to teach English in the Universities. We also bumped into two of our Friendspeak readers: Bill who studies with Jeremy E. and Brian who studied with Robert H. They were so happy to see us there and we were very glad to see our readers plugged into all these Chinese churches we've visited! We stayed for the lunch, which happened to be one of the senior member's 90th birthday celebration. The couple who sat with us were former missionaries to Vietnamn and Indonisia. We wished we had more time to visit with them!

Hongyu came to the International Bible class with us. Keith did a great job teaching this week. After the class, Hongyu asked some questions about how to recognize the voice from God. Those were really good questions. He didn't have lunch before the class so he didn't go to the service with us. There were lots of people in Friendspeak! Maggie and I read about Noah's Ark. We had another good reading session. After Friendspeak, we went to April's apartment to give her some household stuff. She called yesterday that she needed a matress, a book case, a shoe rack, an organizer, some dishes and clothes hangers. Dawn had an organizer and some dishes and hangers to give to her. DG found a shelf. We had a few dishes and hangers. That should get her started in her new apartment. We did see someone giving away a shoe rack in UTD. But when we knocked at the door, nobody answered. April was so happy to see all the stuff that we took to her. She invited us to sit down for a glass of juice. We talked for half an hour before she brought up some questions: Do Christians think all the unbelievers bad? Do Christians work in order to be saved? ... We were really shocked when she said that she really believed The Tower of Babel. She told us she actually had a Bible and a Christian teacher at her University went through some Bible studies with her. We had a wonderful conversation about belief and life until 9:30pm when I suddenly remembered that I had to call my parents. April has a sharp mind and very good conversation skills. I'm sure we'll coss each other's paths many times in the future.

Amy sent us a scripture tree. We decided to click on one flower on the tree to pick the verse of the week. It turned out to be Luke 10:16 "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

New Student Pickup

We planned to invite Heidi and Xuan over for dinner. But they couldn't come because of the last-minute change. It is time for all the international students to rush into Dallas for school again. David and I began to pack a care package for the SMU girl we were going to pick up Wednesday night. We put a quilt, sheet, pillow with pillow case, frying pan, forks, spoon, knife, chopsticks, glass, cup, electronic can opener and a bowl into two big sacks. That should get her started for the new life here.

Wednesday night, we had dinner at church. The spaghetti was delicious. After dinner, we went to Friendspeak to talk to George. Syed was supposed to meet us at the building. We didn't see him. After David talked to George, DG's Friendspeak reader came over and said, "I saw you at our church on Sunday!" We found out he goes to DCBC church that we visited last Sunday. He has been a Christian for 4 or 5 months. We wished he introduced himself while we were there!

We left at 7:35pm to pick up the Chinese girl Rusi. We saw Syed just came to the single's classroom. He said he could visit around by himself. It seemed that he could go around without our introduction. So we left for the airport. We met Rusi and her classmate April five minutes after we got to the luggage claim area. While we were gathering the bags for the girls, another Chinese girl was looking for help. David found out that her destination was Houston. But she came to the luggage claim area thinking that she had to get her luggage and recheck-in to Houston. Her flight was in another terminal (Terminal B) and she had already missed her flight. We wished that we could drive her to Terminal B. But we had to take care of the two girls that we just met. Finally after lots of explanation, she went in the airport gate and tried to catch a tram to get to Terminal B. I hoped she would catch the next flight. Rusi's classmate was picked up by a guy from SMU. He happened to know Ray, Olivia, and Brian. We also met Hannal from Friendspeak. She was picking up a UTD student. It was so sweet of her to do that! Rusi had bad ear-ache from the decending of the plane. We took her to her new apartment and met her temporary roommate, who will move back to China soon. We were glad to see that she had some basic things to start with. That reminded me of my first day in America nine years ago. David and I talked about it the whole way back home.

As soon as I came into the office today, Syed told me that he really liked the message he heard during the single's class. He also volunteered to pick up new students if there are any during the next couple of weeks. I was very happy to hear that.

25th Week

We had the 24th week checkup last Thursday. The doctor measured my tummy, baby's heart beat. Everything seemed to be fine. The only thing is that I could have gained a little bit more weight (although the doctor didn't say that). I gained 2 lbs during last month. Maybe I'll be on track next time. Next time I'm going to have the Glucose tolerance test. Hopefully I'll pass the test.


David and I ran some errands Friday night. It was hot - even in the evening! We went to Babyrus to see whether the bedding we registered was available or not, so that we can tell Eric the colors and patterns for him to work on. Then we dropped by Bed Bath Beyond to return a couple of wedding gifts that David just digged out from our garage - can't believe we are still doing that! We figured if they stayed in the garage for such a long time and we even didn't know they existed, we probably can get by without them in the future. I love BedBathBeyond. They made the returning so easy.


Saturday morning we had the baby girl's shower for Kyri. There were so many cute stuff in the shower. Kyri's friend made the center piece in a cake shape with diapers and other baby items. Dawn made mini pacifiers with life-saver candies and red jelly beans. I wished I took some pictures of them! The baby clothes are all so cute. I was glad that the fall sweaters came up already. I'm sure Kyri will use them.


Sunday morning we visited another Chinese church - Dallas Chinese Bible Church. It was a big church - I guess all the Bible churches are big! It has three services in the morning. We went to the English service. It was amazing to see how many people were there. And most of them were in between 20 and 40 years old. After the service, while we were trying to figure out what to do, a girl from the worship team came over and invited us to the class on James. She garanteed us that we would love that class. We went there. The preacher came over to talk to us. He told us that there were 22 Chinese churches in DFW area. His dad was an early missionary who was sent to plant churches in America. So his dad founded this church 40 years ago. He asked someone to bring us lunch and drinks and dessert. We had our lunch while we listened to the teaching on James. The teaching was very practical. I liked it. But we had to leave early for our class at Prestoncrest.


We came to our regular class. Robert Stolte started a new series on Matthew. We were glad that Heidi came to the class. She went with us to the service afterwards. We all sat with Debra, Dawn, and Paul. I was glad that Heidi liked the sermon. On our way back to Friendspeak, my co-worker Syed called. He was at the building. We took him with us to pick up the Korean girl. But we found out the Korean girl wasn't coming. So we turned back. Syed met with several people in Friendspeak. I was so happy that he came! Later on he told me that he wanted to come to our single's group.


Maggie and I studied more on Genesis. She had many good questions. I was glad to see that she brought her daughter here- she didn't want to miss Friendspeak. It was said that the temperature was 107 degree today! Shawnda gave us some watermelon. We'd better head home before the watermelon went bad!

Working In Progress

We finally moved the baby furniture into the baby room and assembled them. Now we will start to clean and organize the room before we can do any decoration. Here are some pictures of working in progress ... The bedding is the one we bought at a garage sale for $30 as temporary (second) set. We got the bouncer for $25 and it looked like new.

Also, David chopped off the two trees in front of the house. It looks much cleaner and our house number can be easily identified now.