Hi everyone!
After 4 months of being blocked I am finally blogging again! The blogger website is still being blocked but we have found a way to bypass it. Well,..... Mark found a way to bypass it :)
So we are in the middle of our 4th week of school. James is in 7th grade this year and Abigail is in 3rd. They seem to be quite happy to be back in China which is wonderful. James is on the student council this year and Abigail just started swim team. Mark is busy as ever and has started teaching a theater tech course this year (on top of his regular math). I am keeping busy substitute teaching and will take another maternity leave for elementary PE after the new year.
The day before we left for Canada we moved apartments so everything was in boxes when we got back on August 16th. It was quite overwhelming and took me about 3 weeks to get everything set up the way I want it. Abigail and I went to IKEA with the rest of the SSIS staff last weekend and picked up a few things for the new place so we are starting to feel at home. I won't post pictures until everything is just right ;) Our new place is a little bigger and newer. James has a big bed and Abigail now has bunk beds. She loves that because she sleeps on the bottom and has big, comfy pillows and blankets on the top bunk where she climbs up and reads. We are on the 8th floor and have somewhat of a view of the lake. The kids have friends that live in the same complex so they can call on friends whenever they want.
I will post again this weekend. I'm volunteering at the orphanage in Suzhou this year and will go for the first time this Saturday. So we'll see how that goes. I'm expecting it to be hard.
To everyone we saw this summer - thanks again. We had a wonderful time in Oakville, Houston, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and New York (no wonder it went by so fast). It was great to see everyone and we were really touched by everyone's generous hospitality (especially the Pauleys who let us live with them for 5 weeks!)
More to come.... sending lots of love from China.
