I'm Short!!

And for a girl that is over 5'6” that's saying a lot! ;)

These are the blog posts I hate to write the most.

That is one of the two main things I want people to

know before they go into reading this!

The other thing I want to make very clear is that

I honestly have such a peace about it all! I am not

chomping at the bit or worrying myself crazy over this!

It has happened in the past and Father has ALWAYS taken care of it!

So, if I am not height short, I am sure you have guessed by now

I am meaning on my budget! 

Not once have I had the money needed be I have ever come to China. 

Not once have I had the money needed before I went.

 Each time, the money has been there when I need it and not before!

This time, I thought that for the most part I would be fine.

Even along the way I have had some of the most amazing provisions you

could ever hope to hear about! 

{Finding out that I did NOT owe another 3,360 in dorm fees being 

among the biggest and best bits of news I could ever have hoped to imagine hearing!} 

That helped out so much, and again when my tax return was far larger than 

I thought it would be. Yet it seems that ticket prices this year

have gone up and I now do not have the money to return to the U.S of A! :(

It is not just that I do not have the money needed for the flights.

That is the greater chunk of my need, I admit, but I also am about to

run out of living expenses money.

 For this reason, I will have to dip into the money I have for my ticket in 

order to pay for food and necessities while still at school and camp.

In order to buy the China to America ticket {I will take more than one flight as it is less expensive that way and also allows for me to travel in a group which I feel will be better for my back.} I need another $200. I try to keep my daily budget at 20rmb in order to allow my cash to last as long as possible. This means that given what I have left with me now, I will need to get money out near the end of May. My time here in China is quickly {oh my goodness!!} coming to an end, meaning that $150 should be enough to last me until I am to leave. 

All of this means that before I can buy the first ticket to the States, I need $350. 

{I will still need to purchase the ticket from where I fly back into the States to America, but this can be purchased at a later date so I do not need that money right now}

Because I hate to do the “Give me Money!” cry, I am not going to say that here!

What I will cry out is, please join me in asking for continued peace over the situation,

and that His will is done both in this case and in my life in general! Buzz that I will

find the answer to this problem and be able to use it to Glorify Him!

I always love seeing how He works these things out.

Again...not once have I had the money I needed when I left! But not once

have I been left in danger, or stranded! I have always made it to where I am suppose

to be and have always seen His mighty hand at work!

Thanks for reading everyone!!

Look at me

The wifi has gone out in our entire building and has been that way for 24 hours now. 

Yesterday, on my way out of the castle to get some dinner,

I walked past WZH. She was busy and I didn't want it to seem like

she always had to talk to me, so I just kept walking. As I got out

the door I heard a little voice in a very heated tone call out
"Jiejie!! Jiejie!!"

{Sister, sister}

I turned around to see her standing just inside the door, so I 

turned around and went back in to ask her what the problem was.

"You didn't even look at me as you left!"

She said with a little pout. I apologized for it and we talked for a few minutes. 

#ItsTheLittleThings

To all my adoring fans.....

I'm still loving doing the Zumba work outs I have found!

Thats how many weeks going? So awesome!

Though I do not feel any weight loss {or inches either}

at all, I am feeling stronger and better!

But MAN are they hard! And hot!!

Tonight, I decided to turn my bed post fan on.

"AAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOO"

{picture the sunlight bursting through the clouds

and beautiful singing coming down over all}

Though I was still a mess by the end of it all,

it made it so cooler! This room gets stuffy! lol!

I am telling you......#ItsTheLittleThings

Whats that bird called?

As I was heading out to get dinner tonight, 

my little friend WZH was in the lobby. 

I snuck up behind her and sat on the couch where she was playing. 

She turned around, smiled, and began chatting with me,first asking

me to tell her what the English name of the bird was that was flying

around the lobby. We talked for a bit, she sang me the song she is

learning in English class {We chatted about how she doesn't really

like English or learning it and doesn't remember it much after. Her 

parents are always wanting her to ask me how to say things and to

get her to practice with me. But she would rather just talk in 

Chinese! I'm perfectly ok with that!} 

After a bit of chatting and singing, I went off to get my dinner and

heard her say "bye bye!" 

#ItsTheLittleThings

I had my speaking midterm today. 

Though I was the first one in the classroom, I ended up

going last. Which I didn't really mind actually.

We had to choose two questions from a row of papers that were 

face down, and then we had to do the same for a topic.

My questions were about mode of transportation

{What I liked best for traveling. Such as cars, planes, trains, etc} 

and the pros and cons to having/being an only child. 

Then, as it would have it, the topic I was to talk about

was also about only children. 

She asked me about why it was that Americans are having less

and less children and why they wait longer to get married

now and my thoughts on family and all. She already knew

that I want lots of kids so she knew I didn't think having only

one child would cut it, but I was able to explain my stance on

others having only one etc, 

We shall see how I did! 

May 3rd!

My day:

Slept in after having stayed up past 2:30 am for a much needed LONG

Skype with my sister. 

Worked on my dictation characters for tomorrow.

Had some lunch

Did my dishes

Made a pot raspberry iced tea {well, none hot tea} 

and started a pot of Chamomile Sun tea

Did my laundry

Swept and mopped the bathroom floor

Cleaned the bathroom

Swept and mopped my bedroom floor

Went to Sunday meeting

Saw a friend who made a surprise trip to SIAS or the weekend!

Did a new combo of Zumba for a workout

Ate a banana and yogurt for dinner. 

And relaxed for a bit before its time to call it a night!

#ItsTheLittleThings

Translating!

The thing that made me so happy today

was how many times I heard "Can you translate for me?" today,

and was able to do it to boot!

I am so thankful for the chance to go hang out with kids 

today! It proves to me over and over that

it is where I am suppose to be! Not in a classroom!

I am meant to be surrounded by young ones who need

someone to speak two languages! 

There was a little boy who was unaware of course that I spoke

Chinese and could understand what he was saying.

He was standing in front of me and two other foreign

women, critiquing our 'health' and weight. 

Picture a little boy, hands behind his back,pacing in front of us.

"You're ok. You don't need to loose weight." {looking at the lady next to me.

He then turns to me}

"You're fat. You need to loose weight!"

Me: "Yeah, I know!" 

The little boy became a bit shocked and frightened as he realized

I had understood and responded. He then regained his

footing and said again

"You should loose some weight, you are fat!"

So once again I said "Yes, I know. I am fat! I'm trying to loose weight.

I do exercises everyday to try to work on that! Thank you! I am 

trying, I will loose some more weight!"

That seemed to satisfy him and he went on his way. 

#ItsTheLittleThings

Lest a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it produces no fruit at all!

Does this mean I'm lazy?

 I saw this on a webpage and wanted to see if it would work for me! 

It does!

 I have them mounted on the wall now so that I can

read without having to hold it, or watch TV on it

or use the Skype {voice only of course, it would be strange to 

use the video in that position!} 

or just charge them!

My first kindle {On the bottom, the broken one}

still works enough for me to do things like use 

Skype to some extent and I still use it as my alarm clock. 

The positioning of the hooks turned out to be a bit harder than 

I anticipated and *ehem* didn't

go so well.

No worries though, right? It gets 

all covered up with my kindle anyway!

No one will know any difference right?

I don't anticipate it being a big problem in the future 

when I leave, either, as there are so many of these rooms

that have huge wall stickers and such left on them, 

I will just be keeping all my hooks up and letting the next

occupant figure out how they want to use them!

Wouldn't it be funny to be here in the room when they 

look around at the six hooks so closely clustered together

and wonder what on earth those are for!

Or when they see ow many I have next to my desk, where I clip a bunch of post it notes, 

my schedule and little reminders. 

It kinda makes me giggle. My room is so 'decked out' and has a 

very large number of little hooks and clips in various

places, it is going to be strange to see it without all the photos and 

stuff up when it is time to take it all down and move out. 

#ItsTheLittleThings

That time is drawing closer too!

Like, super close! 

I won't go into details right now about any of it....as i want to keep this

particular post more light hearted,

However, I would ask that you please keep that in buzzing for me!

I have yet to purchase my plane ticket,

Though the reasons have been back and forth as to why

{looking for the best price, waiting for a confirmed day,

waiting to see if I could go back with my parents,

etc etc} 

I wait at the moment because tickets

are at a price that I can not afford now!

Tonight I was at a ladies meeting tonight.

There is a teacher who has been here for MANY years who is

now leaving to move to a difference province and start a new path.

She was talking about how things were going and how she was not

fully at her support amount and how fast approaching her leave date was,
"Every time I start to freak out about the fact that the money

isn't there, I also have this feeling of 'its going to be ok, Father will take care of it'"

I was nodding my head pretty hard to that statement, as

I too have been feeling this way.

Again, I said I don't want to go into great details about it, and I don't

want to {yet} burden you all with that! lol!

But it is enough to say that I too have moments of "WHAT?! How?!" and then

they are always quickly followed by a sense of peace that it is going to be ok, 

I don't yet know how, but I know that it is going to be ok and that all

He has planned for me is going to be better than what I think.