Fermenter?

This morning Mr. Li called Jon and asked him if we had a fermenter. Jon said no. Why would we have that? What is it? Do you use when making beer? Then he said that the school has decided to give us one because of N1H1 (swine flu).
A fermenter!? How is that going to help? Then he said he would give us five and if our temperature is over 38o we should call him immediately!
Oh!
Now do you know what a fermenter is?
Yes, he meant thermometer. Of course in his defense Mr. Li speaks three languages, Chinese, English, and German. It is ok that he makes some mistakes. Sometimes even if someone speaks English it can still be hard to understand some things. But it does make for a funny family joke.

I guess it was good that we did not have the fermenter last week. I know I had a fever, but I did not know how high it was. I don’t guess I had the flu because so far no one else in the family got sick!

We go Monday to have our annual Chinese physical exam. It is always interesting. Maybe we can get some pictures this time. Last year they told Jon he had fat in his liver and I had gallstones. I wonder what they say this year.

HAPPY DAY, SAD DAY

Caleb started day care at the Kid Castle yesterday. The Kid Castle is a great facility with clean rooms and toys. They have an American English teacher and it is right next door to our building. Caleb’s teachers are Teacher Becky and Teacher Chokehold.
We took Caleb to his classroom where 17 other parents were dropping off their child. Ten of the kids were screaming and crying. Caleb turned around and ran straight for the playground. We had visited the Kid Castle as a family many times. Caleb was always excited when we said this is Caleb’s school. But when he figured out Mom and Dad were not staying in school that was no good.
GaoYan gave him a firm talk. Then Caleb grabbed my hand tightly. “What about you? (Are you going to stay?)” We felt so sad. Finally we handed him over kicking and screaming to Teacher Chokehold.
GaoYan and I are happy we have more free time, but we feel sad remembering Caleb crying when we took him to school that morning.

Clarks: The Junie Report

A couple of days ago we went for the second OBGYN visit. It went really well -- much better than the first time (which was fine, too) -- because, for one thing, we had a different doctor to see Cec who was more communicative and more calming. We were told clearly that the "liver issue" we'd wondered about is nothing at all to be worried about, and that everything else seems good also. The doctor used a hand-held microphone and speaker set to let us listen to Junie's heartbeat. [Oh, Junie is the baby's name -- until s/he joins us on this side of the womb. Maybe you can figure out why "Junie" a little faster than I did when Cec first said it to me... Get it... June-y... due date of March...] The doctor didn't seem impressed, but we're pretty sure that the faint "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" was Junie and not just Cec's Doritos. [We ate Doritos in the cab on the way to the doctor.] Anyway, after the doctor visit we were led by a nice young lady from the Int'l Dept. to the OB unit. She introduced us to the English-speaking head nurse [whose Eng. name is Wendy -- we don't know the tour guide's name], and we got to see the rooms for pre-/post-delivery, the outside of the delivery room (which was occupied by busy mommies, thus not available for touring right then). We found out clearly and concisely that -- YES! -- I will be able to be in the delivery room to assist & support Cec. That's not the common practice in China, and we'd heard conflicting reports about the policy at this hospital. And, there are even private rooms available with beds for Mom, Dad, and Baby -- another unusually comfortable situation for Chinese [and American?] hospitals. So, all-around... it was a very useful, encouraging, and informative visit. Oh, and we signed up for Chinese pre-natal class. There's another mom-to-be signed up for the February class [you take the class on one single day the month prior to delivery] who also shares our March 8th EDD, so maybe we'll have twins! Well, you know... not real twins, but... OK, so that's all, I guess. Pray please for things to continue to go smoothly. I know you will, so thanks in advance. We really, really, really appreciate your support and encouragement more than you know.

Clarks: frustration

I guess that usually the blog is supposed to be a good news forum. But if you will suffer it, today I want to share my frustration and despair. Today is not a happy day. Today is a day when all my blessings feel like curses. The more I'm given, the more is required of me. And the more that is asked of me, the less I feel I have to give.
Someone - some of you, no doubt - would say that "it will pass" and that the troubles I feel are so serious and monumental today will seem like nothing in a day or a week or a month from now. Maybe so, but what about today? Why does today have to be suffered through? And besides, whether or not these exact problems are still hounding me a month from now or not, there will be next month's problems - and as the good book says, they are enough.
A curse - an illness - brought about our decision to seek house help, a maid/cook to come over a few times each week. Actually, the curse would not have been enough by itself. A blessing - the pregnancy - also influenced our decision; the idea being that Cec needed more reliable nutrition and I needed help to not be constantly doing dishes and sweeping. The curse seemed at the time to have a silver lining, in that it was the thing that pushed us to make the decision we'd been thinking of. The price, though, seemed prohibitive. Two other blessings - a part-time/temporary writing job for good pay, and a free mountain bike - came along just before the curse of illness, by the way. But before I could ride the bike [still haven't], the cold/flu struck me down; and now, the extra work... It is no longer a joy but a burden; it is no longer extra money - it is just what we need [actually, still a little less] to pay for the blessing [or is it curse?] of the maid. Without the money, we couldn't afford the help; but without the help, we wouldn't need the extra money, and I could be free to accept or reject the work offer without obligation. I guess I'd already accepted the work before the maid... I don't know...
I can't even think or write clearly b/c the maid, and Cecely, and the washing machine, and no telling what else are all demanding my attention - which ought to be focused, not on a gripy blog post, but on the freelance writing, anyway.
So... I'll just wrap this up...
Look, I may end up taking this post down soon after I post it. But I am going to go ahead and put it up here for now, and I would ask, if you're one of the people to see it, maybe you can just make a comment below and say a prayer above and just hope for the best. Today, I am frustrated. Sometimes this is how it feels to be me.

video of the apartment

I hope this works. This is a video of our new apartment. It is a little dark at times, but you can get the overall feel.

Jason is well.

Just a quick note: I'm feeling much better. I think it'll take a while longer for all the residual symtoms to fade, but yesterday and today I've been well enough to go outside. The fever is all gone -- I even scored a perfect 98.6 one time! It's mostly just a rattle in the chest at this point. I will say, though, that one time I had a "rattle in the chest" for about six months straight while living in Jingzhou, so it's probably not quite time to stop praying! Thanks to all of you who have been, and maybe next time I'll be well enough to write about something other than my health.

Beginning with Prayer

Cecely here:
We have had two times of prayer together so far. The first one was last Saturday. It was a prayer breakfast at the Clarks', and the Hardins had already scheduled some time with Alex, so they couldn't make it, so we had to call in some replacements: we asked Heather and a friend of hers, Bethany Bates, to come and help eat up the extra eggs and biscuits and bacon that Jon and his ilk missed out on! Anyway, after we ate, we prayed. We thank Him a lot for what He has already done, we pray about daily life concerns, and always we ask for more contacts and more opportunities. You can join us in asking for that.

Today we had another great time of prayer in the Davises beautiful new home. Again, we petitioned Him for contacts, "ways in" with people, discernment to be able to recognize those who will be willing to share the message, and we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship, and then some good watermelon, grapes and delicious Josh-made brownies. Too bad Jason missed it because he was home with 100 degrees. But he called over there a time or two so that we would not forget that he was home missing out! And I did bring him some brownies, which sort of melted into a lump in my hot purse in the 104 degree heat (wow! the weather is even hotter than Jason's fever).