40th-41st Week

Guess what? Our little princess Emily is here!!! She was born on November 8th, at 15:52. She was 7 lb 4 oz and 19.5 in. For the past two weeks, David and I were awed by this little girl, trying to figure out what she needs and how to meet her needs, day and night ... We felt like two months have passed by. Often heard new moms talking about the survival mode they were in for the first couple of weeks, seldom did I truly comprehend what it meant. I have a new hightened respect for the moms who kept sending emails with baby's pictures and updating the blogs daily in their motherhood - where did their sleep go??? Please forgive us if we haven't replied to your emails during the past two weeks. We were in so much fun!!! And it was a real challenge for me to sit down with loads of stitches.

Our Emily is really a sweet delight! I still can't believe she is here right next to us in the bassinet sound asleep. She is such a good girl that she only cries when she is hungry or hurting. Even those cries are low pitch, short ones, sometimes I say cute alarming sound. She has her personalities already: always sneezes in three; most time uses three diapers per change; likes to smile in her dreams; likes to move her arms/hands (David said she is going to be the orchestra director/composer); has hiccups after every feeding; enjoys sleeping on daddy's chest; ... One day, David was holding her in the arms. I went close and put my face on her arm. Emily turned her face and reached over and gave me a kiss on the face - That surprised both me and David. David joked that she managed to steal a kiss from mommy! Emily also taught us many life lessons already: before she fell asleep, she always uses her corners of eyes to check on us (as if saying: are you still there?). Just as what we often do to our Heavenly Father...

David is such a wonderful father and husband. He got up three times a night to feed Emily most of time. Whenever he's at home, he always holds her, talks to her, and plays with her. Emily and I felt so well-cared for. I wouldn't have recovered so quickly without my sweetheart! He definitely is more sleep-deprived than I am.

We are also soaked in the support and love from our friends. Grandpa Jack took us home from the hospital and helped us to settle down. Dawn organized a group of friends to bring us meals every other day. Pam, Kathy and Fang cooked so many traditional Chinese meals trying to make up for the blood I lost. Jerry's parents cooked many delicious and nutricious food. Gail came over to clean the whole house for us. My previous co-worker Nadia came every morning to baby-sit Emily for a couple of hours so that I could take a shower and take a short nap. Gayla took us to the doctor's office for Emily's two-week checkup ... David and I offered thanks everyday for our wonderful friends! You all made such a difference in our life!

My parents are going to Beijing today. They will have the visa interview on Tuesday (Nov. 25th) at around noon (Dallas time Monday night around 10pm). If they are granted visa, they will be here on Dec. 3rd.

Emily is two weeks old now. She is as healthy as she can be. She weighs 8 lb. Her length is 21 in. As the weather gets cold and the flu season just started, we probably won't take her out for a while. We did take lots of pictures of her. But we haven't had time to upload them to the computer yet. Next time I'll post some pictures ...

Happy weekend everyone!!!

39th Week

Monday was the first day David transferred to his new job. He started training right away. After over 10 hours' setting up and hands-on training, his brain was full! But I knew he was fully charged for the day. After he got off work, his Friendspeak reader Jerry's parents called that they made some Chinese dishes for me. David drove by and took home a box load of food. Jerry's parents only had Mondays off and they spent their day off preparing the food for me! We were so touched by their kindness! Hopefully we will do something in the future for them.

Tuesday I went to the office in the morning. Two of my co-workers wanted to have a brief meeting with me before I take the maternity leave. They told me it was going to be a quick one. We walked into a conference room. I was surprised to see a group of guys in the room with a pile of baby stuff and two boxes of cookies on the table. "Come in!!!" They smiled. I realized that history repeated itself - I was tricked again. 14 guys in my group gave me a surprise baby shower (no girls were invited)!! Ron organized all these and did the shopping. All the baby gifts were spreaded on the table. While everyone passed around the gifts, Syed joked, "Ron spent all night to wrap the gifts ..." They began to share their experience as dads. What a group of great guys!! We had many pictures - but not in my camera. Maybe I'll post one or two once I have them.

Wednesday we had the doctor appointment. I began to have the blood show. The doctor told us the baby may come any time, most likely before the due date. The effacement was 90% and the dilation was 1 cm already. David and I became a little bit nervous and excited. Baby girl, get ready to greet the world!

David has been reading the book "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" to Emily every night. We all enjoyed this daily ritual.

38th Week

I've been having such an easy time of pregnancy until this past Monday, when I got a bad cold from a co-worker. Running nose, low fever, coughing, low energy ... The doctor didn't seem to concern about it. His prescription was to drink lots of liquid and rest. I had planned to use my afternoons to prepare for the upcoming childbirth. Now I ended up doing nothing except sniffing the nose. David said it was funny to see my belly dancing up and down every time when I laugh. Now with the lung-deep coughing, Emily must have thought she was riding a roller-coaster inside! Hope the cold will pass soon, at least before Emily arrives ...

Tuesday David and I had another car seat check. It was at the hospital this time. Both David's car and my car have a car seat now - his is an infant car seat (Graco) and mine is a convertible car seat (Britax). Using a separate car seat in David's two-door car made it easier to take the baby in and out.

Wednesday was Friend Speak Day. David had two readers scheduled that night. But he didn't feel well - I must have passed the cold to him. He ended up canceling both sessions.

Thursday night David and I had booked the seats at the Bible Institute benefit dinner. I was still having the bad cold. David went although he didn't feel well either. He had to go because two other couples who were on our table went there because we planned to be there. David came home before the program was over. He said he liked the speaker's message very much: very persuasive and authorative! We also had the 38th week checkup. Everything seemed to be fine. Emily is at the right position and she has dropped. No infection of any kind. The cervix effacement (thin out) level is 75% and no dilation (open) yet. We'll see next week ...

Friday was the "Trick or Treat" Day!!! That was David's favorite day growing up. We had trick or treat in the office from 1:00-3:00pm for the kids downstairs. Our cubes were all decorated with pumpkins and baloons. Some co-workers brought wii games for kids, the tossing balls, etc. Others dressed up in costumes. I missed it because of the cold - it's better not to pass the germs to the kids! Here are a few pictures from our office - my group was disappointed that there was no pictures of our decoration ...

David bought lots of candies and chocolates. He said when he was little, when he saw the houses with lights off during Trick or Treat, he would connect that with the people in the house being cold and distant. He wanted to be the light to the kids and give them the biggest and best candies! So he cooked the dinner well ahead of time so that it wouldn't interfere with the Trick or Treat. We put the fall decoration and the candies out and saw a few neighbor's kids in their costumes already. The temperature was perfect outside. We waited and waited. Finally the first door bell rang - he was a ninja warrior! Then more kids came - we had about 20 kids in total for the whole evening. I remembered we had around 50 kids last year at David's old house. David said it might be that our neighborhood is international. Many Asian, East European people don't do Trick or Treat. That may be true. One kid was so excited to see us waiting for the kids at the front porch with the candies. He probably didn't see many houses with the lights tonight. But I know another reason that not many kids come out for Trick or Treat was there are many organized trick or treat activites from churches or city because of the safety reason. One benefit of having the candy leftover is that David got to have a big Reeses in the middle of the night. He normally doesn't get that treat!














Here are the belly pictures of me this week (it becomes difficult to lean over for food at the table):












Here are some wontons I made to be freezed for the first couple of days after Emily is born:












Here are some dishes David made:











Here are the abundant peppers from the back yard. David made his own pepper sauce out of them:

More Update for 37th Week

Last Thursday night, we had our accountability group meeting at Dawn's house. Dawn really went out of her way to prepare the dinner for us. We had a delicious dinner and a wonderful time together. This month, my goal list was the shortest, with the only focus on the baby and myself. We always ran out of time before we realized it. When I got home, it was already past the bedtime.

Friday David and I had the car-seat inspection at Babyrus. Unfortunately, the police officer and the fireman told us we had to get a new car seat. We had dinner at Cici's (my favorite pizza place) and did shopping at Baby Depot. The next day, we shopped for the car seat for the most of the day. In the afternoon, we went to church for the fall festival. Hongyu and Sandy were there. We had good time watching the kids running around with costumes. I wish I took some pictures ... Next year Emily will be in her cute costume!

Sunday we met more people at McDermott. People there were so friendly. David went to their Friday morning men's Bible studies on the world religions. He liked it very much. They have women's Bible studies on Thursday nights too. I may check it out when I have time. David did Friendspeak with Hongyu and gave him some peppers from our backyard - we have way too many peppers this year!

Starting from last Friday, I began to work only half-day. It felt so nice to be able to relax and do some personal things in the afternoons. I ran some errands, met with friends, read/wrote a little, and prepared the recipes for the first couple of weeks after the child-birth... Saturday afternoon, I had two brief cramping pains. But other than that, I haven't felt anything yet. I guess we'll shoot for the due date - November 17th!

David planted some honeydew melons back in July. Five of them were pretty big already. But the weather cooled down this week. We were afraid the melons were not going to ripe. Wished we had planted them a couple of months earlier. David also had his dental appointment last Thursday. He liked his new dentist very much. All the staff have morning prayers together everyday before they open the door. After talking for a little while, the hygenist told David that one of our Prestoncrest members Meredith Moore works there. She just had her twins earlier this month! It was a small world!

Emily moves more and more - that type of gentle wiggles. David is such a loving father that he talks to her and touches her all the time. Every time as soon as David put his hand on Emily and talked to her, she would calm down and stop moving, as if she was listening! She would start moving again after David finished talking.

Fang sent us the verse on Eph. 5:15. David was reading Ephesians on Sunday. So I'll pick Eph. 5:15-20 as the verses of the week:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Week 37

Most people eat out during the weekdays and cook during the weekends. We are the opposite. David practiced Chinese cooking all week long. By Friday night, we were ready to eat out. We went to the new Uncle Julio restaurant off Stacy road and 75. It was packed inside and out! We were told to wait for 1 hour and 15 minutes! I remembered the coupon we got from Babyrus that a new store just opened in the same shopping center that day. So we went shopping at Babyrus and bought Emily some beautiful wall decorations. After we finished shopping, it was almost our turn. It worked out perfect!

Saturday we took the Infant Care and Baby CPR class in the hospital. It was a full day class - from 9 to 4. After the class, my feet were very swelled. It was the last class we registered. Full of useful information. At least, it boosted our confidence of taking care of our baby. While I popped my feet up and rested, David made delicious chicken pot pie! I told David that I was not hungry. But to his surprise, I ate 3/4 of the whole pie! By now David already knew my eating capacity even when I'm not hungry.

Sunday we visited McDermott again. We saw a couple of old friends who used to go to Prestoncrest. David was interested in their Friday morning men's study on different religions. We got some materials for that. After a good rest in the afternoon, we went to Friendspeak. It was nice to talk to Ray and Olivia. Ray hadn't been to Friendspeak for a while. He just dropped by to say Hi to David. We pray that he'll come back again someday.

We are looking into the airline tickets for my parents these days. Although the fuel prices dropped down, the airline tickets still remain high. Hopefully we can take care of it before Emily comes!

Emily is more and more real each day! This week I bought a few books on baby food, vaccination, and children's bible stories. Beside those books, I sneaked in a CD called "Bless my little girl". It has great reviews on Amazon. I can't wait to play it for her!

36th Week Update

This week I've been in the training classes all day long. I'm glad it is over today. My brother emailed that my parents made the visa appointment on November 25th at noon! Suppose they can get the visa several days later, they should be able to get here around December 1st. I began to think about all the arrangement: airline tickets, hotel rooms in Beijing, travel companions if I can find any, ... But no matter how much I can plan for them, it still will be a very challenging trip - can you imagine two people who seldom get out of the village in far Northwest of China coming all the way to Dallas? Only the love of grandparents can make them do that!

David got a couple of calls this week from work - his company offered him a new job in the North building in Richardson! We are very excited because this new job is more rewarding and has a great career path. It may be stressful for him to take on a new role both at work and at home at the same time. But I'm very confident that he will be excellent at both places!

Emily is doing wonderful too! With less and less room to move around, she still keeps up with her routine: sleep, eat/have hiccups, and move. Sometimes I can stare at her for hours to track her movement. We had 36th week checkup. Everything is normal. I've gained 23 lb so far. Walking and exercises are more and more difficult. David has taken such good care of me that most of time after I came home, I just ate and rested. Occassionally I picked up a few parenting books to read. But within 10 minutes, I would be sound asleep ... The dawn has arrived; the sunrise won't be long!

Here is a picture of me (and Emily) a couple of weeks ago:

Restful Sunday

David has cooked a lot Chinese food recently. He wanted to perfect his Chinese cooking skills. I am very impressed by the meals he prepared each day! He did Friendspeak on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Friday we went to Paul's new home in Rockwall for a visit. It was a really lovely house, filled with personality! We cooked and had a good conversation afterwards. Saturday we sent David's car for inspection and spent the whole afternoon in Baby r Us. We bought all the necessary items for Emily in case we don't have time to shop after she is born. Saturday night we washed the car seat cover, swing covers, stroller cover, carrier cover, etc. After that, we felt much more prepared.

Sunday we prepared to meet with the outreach minister in McDermott church. But he wasn't there. We got to meet one elder and another elder's wife since they spotted us as visitors. We also saw the Vietnamese lady and her two daughters who were baptised last month. They came in late and sat in the back row. Before we had a chance to say Hi, they already left. I thought all the international new Christians have the same problem: it's hard for them to plug in the church body.

We met with Ted and Mary for lunch after church. It was great to catch up with each other. I was so happy to hear that they found their new place at Farmer's Branch. Mary couldn't wait to tell us that her health has experienced a unbelievable leap ever since she deliberately cut down her activity level. Her face beamed with excitement and peace. David and I were inspired to really take Sabath seriously too. The secret to the deeper life is not found in activity but more often in restfulness, where we concentrate on the goodness and richness of the Lord and where we are taught by Him how to live each day according to His will. Seasons of quietness teach us how to find healing solitude in times of great activity. This is why Jesus told the disciples to abide in Him. When we abide, we rest, and when we rest, we experience great peace. So Sunday afternoon and Sunday night we rested. It seemed to be the very first fully rested Sunday for us. We felt so refreshed after that.

Monarch butterfly

The weather of the past week has been so pleasant! I love to look out of the glass windows at the break area in the office and see the flags weaving in the gentle wind and the leaves dancing in the bright sunshine ... As David said one day:" Wouldn't you love to be a squirrel, who can climb up high and sit on the roof or the tall tree to see everything around?" To me, one unpreceeding joy at this time of the year is to watch the Monarch butterflies! Did you see the big beautiful brown and black butterfilies gliding in front of you these days? I often wonder how these tinest creation can have such a huge sense of direction. And they seldom travel in big group. One here, one there. They must have tremendous power to overcome loneliness. After reading some articles on the Monarch butterflies, I found these interesting facts about them:

"The Monarch butterfly is known by scientists as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek literally means "sleepy transformation." The name, which evokes the species' ability to hibernate and metamorphize, is actually inspired by the Greek myth of Danaus, in which the daughters of Danaus, king of Libya, flee Libya for Greece in order to avoid marrying their cousins. The long, migratory journey of the Monarch butterflies is reminiscent of the daughters' flight.

Monarch butterflies are also easily distinguishable due to pattern seen on their wings. They have a very distinct orange and black pattern; females have darker veins on their wings and males have a spot on the center of each hindwing. Adult Monarchs possess two pair of brilliant orange-reddish wings, featuring black veins and white spots along the edges. Their wingspan is about four inches, and they weigh less than half an ounce. Males, who possess distinguishing black dot (stigmata) along the veins of their wings, are slightly bigger than the females.

It is a known fact that around 5 million Monarch butterflies from areas of North America travel to smaller sites that are scattered along the coast of California. These beautiful butterflies also follow the same migration pattern every year. Each adult butterfly lives only about four to five weeks. But one of the many wonders of the Monarchs is the annual creation of a unique "Methuselah generation." As autumn approaches in their sites of migratory origin, a very special generation of butterflies is born. Unlike their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents -- all of whom had ephemeral lives measured only in weeks -- these migratory butterflies survive seven or eight months. In human terms, given our average life span of 75 years, this would be like having children who lived to be 525 years old!This generation performs the incredible feat of flying from Canada and the United States to the center of Mexico -- after which they begin the northward journey again. Once they reach the United States, a kind of relay race begins: their short-lived offspring, with only four or five weeks to live, continue making the trek northward over several generations.

Of all migrations by small creatures, few are as astonishing as the one performed by the Monarch butterfly. The embodiment of fragility, these insects travel between 1,200 and 3,000 miles or more between their starting and ending points -- a feat without parallel. What is even more remarkable is that the ones that return to the places where Monarchs hibernate have never been there before. These are the great-great-great-grandchildren of those that performed the intrepid journey from southeast Canada and the United States to central Mexico.
Like several species of birds, bats and whales, the Monarch butterfly of Canada and the United States migrates to places where the climate is less extreme. Winters are too cold in the places where the butterflies reproduce; Monarchs would not be able to withstand either heavy snowfall or the lack of plants on which larval caterpillars feed. As such, the Monarch heads south each fall, where it will stand a greater chance of survival-as well as the chance to "return" to reproductive sites in North America and give rise to future generations of reproductive adults that will complete the annual cycle.

It is also believed the Monarch butterfly uses the magnetic field of the earth to migrate. They also depend on the position of the sun as well. The Monarch butterflies that migrate southward in the autumn are guided by the sun's orbit as they travel through North America. Even on cloudy days they stay on track thanks to an internal biological compass that functions according to the movement of the sun.

The migration moves at a pace of about almost 50 miles a day, though there are some butterflies that have flown up to 80 miles in a day. Throughout the migration, they continue to store and replenish energy each day by extracting nectar from flowers they encounter along the way. But the butterflies also suffer from illnesses and infections that can be fatal, and must face other dangers including bad weather, predation by birds during hibernation, and big losses in the population due to winter storms.

At the end of October and the beginning of November, after traveling two months, the butterflies settle into hibernation colonies in the mountains of central Mexico, where the States of Mexico and Michoacan meet. There they will spend the winter hibernating.From mid-October until mid-February, the Monarchs' hibernation colonies remain relatively stable. The monarch groups congregate or meet at the same places each winter, where the trees may be completely covered with monarchs. In Mexico, there have been observations that suggest the Monarch butterfly sleeps in the winter in the branches and trunks of fir trees. Sometimes, due to a large group of these Monarch butterflies, a branch may tend to get heavy with the weight, which results in the breaking of the branch. During the second half of February, when temperatures rise and humidity decreases in the forests, the butterflies come down from the slopes to mate. And the butterflies that survive the hibernation in Mexico return in the spring to the southern United States."

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David and I worked on the nursery these days. It looked much better. Through trial and error, we learned how to put up the wall border. The bedding set brightened the room instantly. I started to put things in the suitcase too. Yesterday I went in to see the doctor because of the excess swelling on my right foot. Dr. Thomas examined everything and it was fine. He said the reason that my right foot swells more is because Emily stays on the right side of my tummy a lot. That presses on the veins to the right leg and foot. I did notice that Emily likes to stay on the right side. But I never linked that to the swelling ... I was really thankful for Dr. Thomas to work me in. My 36th week checkup will be next Thursday...

Angela's shower and Plano International Festival

Robert H. invited us to attend the World Bible Institution benefit dinner honoring George and Ela Beth Bailey last Thursday. But we decided to pass it this time. It’s too hard to sit for hours after a whole day’s work. I need to put my feet up to relief the swelling. One day I was walking, a lady behind me walked by. She stopped and told me:” Your feet are really swelling. You should go home and put your feet up! … Oh, you are pregnant!” She was very kind to tell me that. I did what she suggested right away. And I should remind myself to do that regularly during the last several weeks. It's already too late for me to take off the wedding ring. We tried but didn't succeed. Guess we'll have to see what happens. David has taken on so many household chores. Friday night he cooked the delicious vegetable pancakes and the vegetable lasagna. I loved both dishes!









Saturday morning I went to Angela’s baby shower. It was very nice. Dawn made a diaper cake as the center piece. I got to talk to several people that I hadn’t seen for a while. Angela got a tote and a baby’s outfit monogrammed with Ethan’s name. They were so cute! Angela’s birthday is next Tuesday. Several of us brought her birthday gifts too. Her mom said they were going to celebrate her birthday Saturday night. Happy Birthday Angela!

David went to the Plano International Festival. He worked there from 9:15am to 5:15pm. It was a long day. Obviously he was tanned. Paul, Bob, and George came to the booth for a while. They handed out about 50 business cards and 15 people signed up for Friendspeak. George asked us to pray for him as he was going to announce the new pulpit minister/preacher in Prestoncrest. (And he was the special guest that George brought to the LST dinner last Saturday. He had been the secret guest at Prestoncrest for the past two Sundays ...) David and I really didn't expect church to announce it so soon!










Sunday morning we went to McDermott again. We talked to the community outreach minister Paul about Friendspeak. Many people who were interested in Friendspeak said that Prestoncrest was too far. So we were exploring the possibility to start Friendspeak at McDermott. Paul seemed to be very interested. We’ll talk more with him next week.

David wanted to attend the Chinese class in his spare time. We visited two Chinese schools Sunday afternoon. Most students there were kids. We wished there were some adults in those classes. But very few adults are as motivated as David to learn Chinese. I am so proud of David. He is very disciplined: everyday in the morning, the first thing is to read Bible and in the evening, the last thing is to study Chinese. Little by little he is making progress in Chinese each day.

Monday we got our baby home-coming dress! It was so precious! It’s a Sarah Louise Pale Pink Smocked Bubble with Matching Bonnet (The picture of the smocked bubble is darker than the real color. The real color is the color of the bonnet in the picture). We can’t wait to put them on Emily to welcome her home!

I Dare Not To Ask

This week's verses are:
"Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now." Proverbs 3:28
"Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers" (Galatians 6:10)

The incredible servant of God John Wesley had his motto like this:
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." A small act of kindness can brighten someone's whole day. Yesterday close to the end of the day, one lady came over to my cube and handed me a pink bag:" This is for you!" I opened it: it was the gift bag for the baby: 6-pack booties, two sets of baby outfits. I was speechless. She was a lady that I bumped into the elevator a couple of times. And she was a good friend of one of my co-workers. That was all I knew about her. Her kindness boosted my spirit for the whole evening!

David is preparing for the boothe at Plano International Festival this weekend. He worked on the Friendspeak business cards on Monday night. I spent the whole evening writing the Thank-you notes. Tuesday night, Dawn invited us to her house to play Scramble games with her friendspeak readers. We had a great time. Dawn was an excellent host. The table setting was beautiful Chinese and the food was delicious. Finally the teachers team (Dawn and Bivi) won the first place and the Ph.D team (Dawn's reader Xuan and her boy friend) got the second place. David and I helped them to win!! :-) David had a new reader Wednesday night. He asked David where those different human races and skin colors came from. David came home and did some research and sent him a long email. We can learn so much from our readers and their questions! David and Robert Stolte also worked on the Friendspeak exhibition board. It looked fabulous. We can't wait to use it during the international festivals!

A college student we met in my hometown last year sent me an email reminding me that Oct. 1st is the Chinese National Day. I totally forgot that. All the Chinese have almost one-week off! Our friends in Beijing are having a retreat during this time. One thing that made me and David laugh on this day was: when I was taking a break in the afternoon, Cindy from Level II tech support came over. She said "Hi, Gene came over to my desk and asked me, 'I dare not to ask, but is Wendy Pregnant?' I told him that the due date is in 6 weeks ... "