News not new

News went out when church bulletin announced David's China trip while Emily's and my names were left out - yes, we got news: just two days after we booked the tickets and finalized all the travel arrangement, we found out we are expecting our second baby! After lots of considerations, we decided to keep David's travel plan. Emily and I dropped out of the trip at last minute. It was hard to bail out, not only because all the tickets were non-refundable, and we've planned for the trip for so long; but also because of the disappointment and sadness we and our family and friends felt that we won't be able see each other this time. We've done the training and planned for the activities that we were going to do with the LST readers; We've dreamed to develop brotherly relationships with the local Christians; We've anticipated to give and receive encouragement from our missionary friends ... But God had a different plan for us. Fatigue and indigestion came in right off when we found out the pregnancy. Traveling with a baby and doing LST is just not feasible for me. But we are happy that David is able to go. He will carry all our dreams and anticipations to Beijing! We set up a blog for the China trip: http://pcchina2009.blogspot.com Johnny and Leslie will be David's teammates. Please join us pray for a safe trip and health for them, and receiving hearts for the people they contact with.

It's amazing how similar the two pregnancies are: both pregnancies happened right after we planned for the LST trips for China; We had hard time to book the tickets both times; We had to cancel the non-refundable tickets at last minute both times; We bought new cars at the same pregnancy week (week6); We sold old cars at week 8 both times; Jerry's parents invited us to their house for a feast at week 7 the first pregnancy and they brought us lots of food they cooked at week 7 this time ... Just going back to read the old blogs in April last year made my jaw drop! Our Emily doesn't feel anything different yet. But her gentleness and sweet demeanor toward all her stuffed toys tell us that she will be a very loving big sister. One thing different for me is that I don't think about the new baby as much as I thought about Emily when she was in my tummy. That may be common but I want to give them the same amount of attentions. Someone said that when you have more than one baby, you learn to expand your love rather than divide it. I pray for that expanded love, attention and energy to come!

David is packing up now. He has two big suitcases and one carry-on. The biggest suitcases are full of the things people asked him to take over. We had to take some of them out to put in the second suitcase so that it won't be over-weight (We bought a scale just to weigh the suitcases). He took out some of his clothes to put other people's stuff in. He is leaving early Friday morning here and arrives saturday afternoon in Beijing time. He will be the team's official scribe for the blog. I can't wait to read what he puts on it!