Sick Day (3)

The fever didn't go away. I called the doctor's office. The nurse worked me in right away. The doctor checked my ears, throat, lung, and asked some questions. He thought the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet. So he let me to go home and come back if I still have the fever on Monday. I took another sick day!

David suggested me to order some Chinese food for lunch. I drove all the way to Legacy and 75 to order the dishes and buy some Chinese grocery. I was tired after the shopping. But the food was so delicious! David and I had them for dinner too.

This was the night that our China team met without us. The purpose was to see how they would interact with each other as a team. David and I prayed that they will have a good plan meeting and they will experience God's power in China so that they will go back to China again and again in the future!

Sick Day (2)

I got up and tried to get ready for work. David didn't rest well last night- He had too much on his shoulder. So he stayed in bed a little bit longer. Before I went out of the door, I felt cold again. I called my manager. She insisted me staying at home. So I went back to bed. The fever came and went for the whole day. Telynol only could work for several hours.

I was planning to take a heavy coat to the EEM dinner. Bobbie called and commanded me to stay at home. She suggested me to call the doctor tomorrow morning if the fever stays. I really appreciated her loving care! David came home and stayed with me. We called Robert H. to cancel our seats. We also called Amy about the possibility of canceling the trip to Austin tomorrow night. I actually felt well enough to drive to Austin. But Chloe is still fragile. The last thing I wanted was to pass the fever to her. Maybe we could see them at the Memorial weekend.

I couldn't appreciate my husband enough: I knew how much he wanted to go to the EEM dinner and I was ready to detect a little disappointment in him. But I couldn't see any of it on his face throughout the night. He was joking, talking, taking a walk with me ... A sick night at home couldn't be any easier than this!

Sick Day - 1

I had a chill and fever last night. Luckily the doctor's appointment was this morning. The doctor listened to the baby's heart beat - 156 per minute; measured the tummy, and gave me some antibiotics for the fever. I took the whole day off for the sick day since I've accumulated over 200 sick days over the years.

I was very glad that the doctor spent about an hour for our appointment. Many people complained that their OB/Gens only spend 5 minutes with them. My doctor asked me whether I had any concerns or questions. I asked about the organic food, sleeping on the left side, papaya, etc. He dismissed many stress for me. Now I know that I don't have to stress about sleeping on the left side even with a sour arm and leg and face. Mother Nature will take care of it on its own.

David went to Friendspeak at night. I rested and read some baby magazines. It was so relaxing to read them. I didn't take a long walk although I tried to walk outside. My body was too weak ... I realized my spirit was weak too since I seldom spent time reading Bible, devotionals, etc. They seemed to take my mental energy. As David noticed, we don't pray together as we used to. I was often too sleepy early in the morning and too tired late at night. The only time we prayed consistently was at dinner time. Father, please help me to regain some of the energy so that I can take some steps toward you!

Joan

Joan was my co-worker who just retired last week. We've been working together for several projects. She asked me out for lunch today. We went to the Chinese restaurant. Joan was known as the quietest person in the office. Her words were always minimum, especially in the meeting. I remember in one status meeting, everyone elaborated the whole week's effort. When it was Joan's turn. She only had one word "Issues" (which means she worked on the issues for the week). All of my co-workers and managers know her personality. So nobody asked her to say more. But I like Joan. She is thorough and responsible in everything she does. She also thinks about me when doing her job so that it would be easier on me. I know I'll miss her in the future. During the lunch, Joan was not the quiet person that everyone knew. She talked about her children, her plan for the future, her friends and listened to me talking. We had a great time. In the end, she asked me to take one of her Christian friends to church someday. I gladly agreed. I asked Joan whether she was a Christian. She said not yet. I pray that she will be a Christian soon!

I had too much for lunch. Joan kept putting food in my plate. I was so full even at dinner time. So I skipped dinner - not completely, since I had a kiwi and some rice soup later on. David ate at Taco Bueno for the late Cinco De Mayo. We went to Sprout to get some grocery afterwards. After I came home, I felt cold. I covered myself with the blanket and read the baby magazines for a while. Then I went to bed. David was preparing for the Sunday lesson. When he was ready for bed, I took the temperature and found out I had a fever! Fever again! I took some Telynols. David made the ginger tea for me and put a wet towel on my forehead. I started to pray for God to protect our baby - tomorrow we'll have the 12 week checkup.

Mocking Birds

Sandy emailed me about the newly opened Korean Supermarket H-Mart over Carrollton. She said it was really big and it had more things than any Chinese grocery store here. I'm thinking to go there sometime, at least before the baby is born, to stock up all the grocery need ed after the delivery. I'm also thinking to buy some dates. Lots of people told me to eat that and it was my favorite food before. I miss not eating them for a long time.

My friend in Beijing Wenjing emailed me her son's one-month old pictures (similar to the birth annuncement pictures here). I still remember last year when David and I were in Beijing, she was having morning sickness so she couldn't meet us for the dinner. Now her baby is one and half months old, healthy and cute! I can't wait to bring our baby to her next time when we are in Beijing.

David and I took a walk after dinner. We saw a snail on the way. David had compassion for it, thinking that it might be killed by the car. I hoped it knew where to stay, at least somewhere wet, like the grass area. When we got home, David pointed to a baby Mocking bird that just learned to leap in our bushes and said:" Hey, that's the baby of the Mocking birds. A family of three live in the tree in front of our house. I saw the mom bringing the food to the baby one day ... Look, the parents were on the mailbox." I looked over. The mom and dad were standing there watching the baby! They were excellent singers. Many times, they would land on the tallest light pole and sing in different voices - showing off!

Our neighbor just had a new addition - a puppy. But she kept the dog in the backyard. The puppy barked day and night. I hope someday, the dog will get used to the new environment. The vegetables in the garden look great! David looks at them everyday. The tomato plant already has some green cherry tomatos. The squash took off to the tallest. We will have some organic home grown produce this year!

David is preparing the lesson for this Sunday. He is going to teach the International Bible class. I'm very proud of him. He is a good teacher!

Sunday Eating Out

Gene Vance was out of the town. John B. taught the class today. We studied Psalms 22. It happened to be the chapter that I read a lot recently because it touched so many aspects of Jesus' death. The main point was no matter how low we feel, or what difficulties we face, Jesus actually experienced them all.

We happened to sit with Dawn and Kyri. Kyri already knew that she is going to have a baby girl. She told me one of her friends found out whether it was a boy or a girl during the 12th week. I looked forward more to the doctor's visit on Wednesday! We had lunch with Jerrod and Dawn. We had a great time. Dawn's birthday is coming. I had planned to give her the birthday gift during Friendspeak. But I found out she and her reader planned to watch a movie to celebrate finishing the book of John. I'll have to mail out her gift.

The auroma of the chicken filled the whole house when we got home. The chicken we put in the oven before we left for church turned out perfect! David and I couldn't help tasting it although we were both full. David and Hongyu watched the DVD Gospel of John during Friendspeak since Hongyu liked watching movie. Hongyu told David that the Jesus in the movie was not serious as he thought. In chinese culture, the highly respected people normally are serious and old. David told Hongyu that a person who was full of the infinite love and joy has to have a pleasant face. They had a good discussion after the movie. After I read with Maggie, I met two new readers: Lin and Josh. They just moved from Houston to Dallas and found out our program over Internet. I was glad they came today.

Mary and Ted asked us to join them for a dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We invited Hongyu and Sandy too. We had a great time in the restaurant. We were glad that Hongyu and Sandy joined us!

Men's Retreat

David left early for the retreat. I appreciate him driving back and forth to spend the limited time at home. I found the China culture training materials that I used before from the piles of paper in the closet. Then I snuggled in the sofa to read. Fang called that she was having lunch with Cody and Evan after the church cleaning activities. They were going to the Plano International Festival in the park afterwards.

David came home right after lunch. He tasted the carots dish and the celery dish before I put them away. He liked them. He told me more about the retreat. The speaker told them about a story that the village in Haiti was converted to Christians after the witch doctor was moved by the compassion that a missionary showed to his malformed dying child. I could tell that David really enjoyed the retreat.

I read and rested for the afternoon. David worked on the yard. He put in some grass sods and fertilized the grass. After the dinner, I wanted to take a walk. David suggested walking in the Babies4Us. We got there and saw so many baby stuff. It was really difficult to choose what to register. But we did great by scanning 20 items in half an hour! David continued playing piano for the baby everyday. I wished we could record all of them! One day I even thought the music was from the TV! It was beautiful ...

Amy's Birthday

Today is Amy's Birthday! We wished we could see her, Kendall, and Chloe. Later on, Amy emailed that the best birthday gift she received today was Chloe's first laughter! She laughed when Amy was singing to her. How adorable! David and I can't wait to see Chloe laughing next time!

I put on the new radiation proof jacket to the office. Everyone came over and asked about it. They liked the style and the color. I told them that many companies in China stock this type of dress in the office for the pregnant employees to wear. They never heard about that.

Heidi emailed to ask me to go to the Cinco De Mayo activities in the down town area tomorrow. I told her that I planned to do some house work and reading instead. Maybe we can get together on some other weekends.

David went to the Men's retreat tonight. I cooked, took a short walk, did the laundry, and called home. Kathy dropped by to get a letter for her. She said her dad is going to come to visit her soon. I read some baby magazines Amy gave to us. They were very informative. When David came home, I was in bed already. He liked the speaker very much. But I wished I was conscious enough to remember all the things David told me. I was glad he had a great time!

Lori's BD party

I came home for lunch. Right before I left the house, the door bell rang. It's the Fedex guy. The package from my sister arrived! It only took four days to get it from China. I opened the box and took out the purple radiation proof jacket first. It is a little bit big for me now. But I'm sure some day it will be fit!

David called that Lori's surprise birthday party was 6:00pm. When I got home at 5:35pm, David was playing piano. He put the salad in the bowl and took out all the salad dressings already. We arrived at the Turnbow's house at the same time as Amy and Nathan. Amy and Wes were already there. We met several other couples from Greenville Oaks COC. After everything was ready, Amy W. called Billy. We all held our breath when Billy and Lori opened the door to the garage. "Surprise!!!"

We enjoyed the food and talk there. Debra and Lance were there too. Most people from Greenville Oaks left the party after the dinner. Amy and Wes, Lori and Billy, Nathan, David and I sat there chatting. We all remnancred the time when we partied together as singles. How things changed in short period of time! Lori gave me a pile of Amy W.'s maternity clothes on our way out. I was so thankful for their genuine support and friendship.

Good Or Bad

I bought a papaya several days ago from Sprout. Mary asked me what it is for. I told her that I saw from the what-to-expect website that Papaya is a natural digestion aid. It's good for the heartburn. I have been putting it off to eat it because it's not my favorite fruit. This morning, after the breakfast, I finally had a slice of it hoping that the heartburn would be relieved soon. Later on I went to the website to find out the nutrition values of the papaya. I was glad to know that its nutrition content is one of the top three among all the fruit! I was ready to send that to David and ask him to eat more of it. Suddenly a pregnancy forum caught my eyes saying that papaya is not good for pregnant woman because it serves as the abortion inducer and it can cause miscarriage and birth defects ... Oh, I wished I could spit out the papaya I ate this morning. I started to pray to God to protect the baby. Although I did my best to read what to do, what not to do, what to eat, and what not to eat, ... still ... I couldn't help wondering how the women in old days survived without all these information! Or, all these contraversal information makes it more difficult for the pregant woman today to pass the 40 weeks pregnancy.

After I came home, I told David that I wouldn't eat papaya any more. David held me in his arms and said, think about the people who live in the islands where papaya is the daily consumption. If they survive, you certainly can survive with a slice of it. That's right. Think about the Japanese who eat fish (or sushi/sasimi) everyday and think about the Chinese who eat MSG for generations ... I need to learn not to sweat on these but to trust God!

David and I didn't have readers. But we still decided to go to Friendspeak, anticipating that some new students would show up. As a result, 35 readers came. The girl I read with last Sunday brought a new reader. David and I read with a guy from Nigeria. He was a Christian already. Both David and I admited that we enjoyed more reading with unbelievers and doing evangelical study. Bobbie gave me a can of prune juice during Friendspeak. She is always thinking about others.