The Comings and Goings of Life

Okay, so blogging has been really, really non-existant. It's not that I've had nothing to write about in China - on the contrary, there has been a lot happening here. But the longer it's been since I last posted a blog entry, and life stacks up more and more - until before you know it, the pressure of your "I'm baaaaack" blog builds like a stomach full of mentos doused with a few big gulps of soda. So don't expect anything great or incredible from this entry - it's just me forcing myself to break the ice after a long, unintentional break.

So we live in Hong Kong. Well, we live in Hong Kong for another week. On January 30th, we move to Shanghai - where we will be as long as God has us there, as long as God is thinking 3-5 years like we are. The last 5 months here have been an absolute whirlwind; Mandarin classes every day, living with the Zacharias, going from a hyper-active social life with friends to a basically non-existant one. The hardest challenge has been the feeling of 'being neither here nor there' - we primarily came to Hong Kong first to have a unique time with the family, and to get to know Kylee Ming - who became our sister in August (or 150 sleeps, as she would say in broken, but really good English). But knowing that we were going to be moving to Shanghai in 5 months wasn't much motivation for getting 'plugged in' to a social scene here - which, although different, was also kind of refreshing. Although we miss our friends and family in the States tremendously, we are really looking forward to putting some roots down, and really starting to form an identity of 'our own lives' in Shanghai.

Life is again, about to change dramatically - and we'll be bumping up our study schedule from 2 hours a day to 4 hours a day - including studing Hanyu characters. We'll have an apartment of our own, which we need to find and move into with 5 days, which is when our classes start. We're enrolled at a language school that is affiliated with a University, which is good, but also means we will have very few vacations between now and June. Our speaking is coming along well, but living in Shanghai will dramatically improve our confidence and practical conversation skillset within the first few months, and be the key for foundational fluency within the somewhat foreseeable future. Once we've settled into our study-schedule, we'll start working part-time; there are a few opportunties we'll choose between when we get there.

It really is strange to think of what our life was like 6 months ago, and what it will be like in another 6 months. I am constantly amazed at the way Father uses everything - and I mean everything - to teach us, and bring us closer in our relationship.

So that's the update. Now I can start posting on random, deep, or other topics without feeling like they'd be inappropriate to post out of the blue. Hope life is treating you well, wherever you are.