Summer Palace

Our May holiday has officially begun! Our friends from Wuhan (The Clays) came up to show their friend from the States Beijing. We took them to the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperor of China would live . . . you guessed it . . . in the summer. (How Brilliant!) My favorite story of this place is the life of the Empress Dowager CiXi. She was a despotic leader consumed with a desire for power. To do that she bannished the rightful heir to the thrown (her 27 year old nephew) to a small Palace-island in the the middle of Beijing. (It's actually not a very nice story huh?!)

The weather was nice and cool but very smoggy (typical for Beijing). But my favorite part of the day was watching the Clay's two month old son while they went to climb up the mountain. I pretended that I was a mother of two for those 20 minutes. It was fun but nice that I could give him back when things got rough.

Happy Day!

Morning Star (aka ChenXing) is a Chinese school down the road from where we live that Jeremy & I taught at last year. Because our schedule is a bit busy this year we do not have time to teach there this year. The Bassetts and Vosslers are still very involved there, however. On Monday, April 30, the school put on a festival called "Happy Day". There was a lot going on there. The kids put on performances for their parents, there were activities, games and food for all. People were selling things. (I believe all the proceeds went to the school.) Matt & Alicia headed up some games for the kids and I just got to enjoy everything! I love watching the kids - they are so adorable - as long as I'm not responsible for them (hehe)!

Beijing Blue Zoo

We took Anna to the Beijing Blue Zoo which is a small aquarium. It was a lot of fun because it was the first time that Anna was old enough to enjoy it. She was actually quite afraid of the fish at first. She would point at the fish and want to see them but when we brought her closer to them she we squeeze us tight. Once she put her hand in the water to touch the star fish she was not scared anymore. They also had a people mover through a tunnel where we saw lots more fish as well as mermaids!

This aquarium is not anything compared to the BJ aquarium but it was small enough that by the time we finished Anna was too.

Future in China

We have finally made a decision about our fate here in China. Our motto for the past few months has been “Find a Job or Go Home.” For those of you who we have had direct contact with, you know the emotional ups and downs that we have been facing for the past few months in looking for a job. Finding a job is never fun. And interviewing, for me is even less enjoyable. I have pursued job lead after job lead, and interview after interview. Finding a job in China is relatively easy…for someone who wants to teach English. Therein lies the problem…I am no longer willing to teach, and that has made searching for a job difficult. Finally though, something has come up…at least for now. I have accepted the position of Volunteers Coordinator with a Chinese foster care organization called China Care. China Care’s goal is to:

“give Chinese orphans the opportunity for a life of love and American families the means to provide it. And, in the process, to positively affect the lives of those who help as well as those who are helped, compelling all involved to pass the feeling on to others.”

You can visit their site for more information. www.chinacare.org .

The only problem now is that the job is only for the summer, which means “Find a Job or Go Home” is still going to be a recurring phrase in our household. There is a definite possibility that I could stay on with China Care after the summer is over in a different capacity. We are looking at this summer position like an internship that could possibly turn into a permanent job.

Thanks to everyone who has been thinking about us concerning our job situation. Please continue to do so in the coming weeks and months as I start the job and seek to make a good impression.

Beijing Botanical Gardens

Spring Is Finally Here!

Friday, April 20, the Carman family went on an outing to the Beijing Botanical Gardens. We had a lovely time! There were so many tulips out and blooming. It reminded me of the many trips to Pella, Iowa for the Tulip Festival that my family used to go to - good times! The cherry blossoms where out as well - I really liked the dark pink ones. But I think my favorite thing was walking through the lilac garden. It smelled so wonderful! We also visited the conservatory which is the tropical greenhouse. There, they had orchids (Anna's Chinese name), cacti and other beautiful plants that I don't know the names of. I encourage you all to get outside and enjoy the beauties of spring!

Anna Mae's 1st Year

A Year In Review

My Pooy Baby!

Yesterday (April 10), after we came home from our walk, I was putting Anna's stroller away when I heard that blood curdling scream that every parent dreads. I went to see what had happened and realized that Anna had gone to our water machine and turned on the hot (boiling hot) water. It ran down her arm and burned it. I felt awful, my nightmare had come true. We have talked about how dangerous having a toddler and hot water in her reach but never did anything to prevent it (except the occasional "no! that's dangerous!" and a spank).

You can imagine the pain Anna was in if you have ever burned your self. Well, she had boiling water poured down her right arm! She was screaming and I was trying to remember what to do. I finally came to my senses and took off her clothes and placed her arm in the sink and ran cool water over it. I called Jeremy in to take over so I could make some phone calls. After talking with Sue Bassett and a Doctor and seeing a few blisters appear (and the big one popped just from the water running over it) we decided to take her to the hospital.

We knew the burn must not have been too bad when Anna was pretty well behaved on the 15 minute car ride to the hospital. However, she wouldn't let us touch her arm and would scream if anything touched it (which can be expected). Once at the hospital (we went to a local Chinese hospital) the doctor took a look at the burn. He confirmed our thoughts that it was not that bad of a burn but was concerned about it getting infected. (The water that comes from our tap is VERY dirty and since the blister popped while in the water it obviously got some of that contamination in the wound.)

After the doctor prescribed medication he took us upstairs where they were going to administer the treatment. We walked into the IV room/nurses station. This room was full of parents holding their babies who where all hooked up to IVs. Since that room was all full they took us to their private room (which costs extra). The ironic thing was that we SHARED our more expensive "private" room!

The nurses took some blood and gave Anna a test to see if she needed an IV of antibiotics. Next, they cleaned her burn and then popped the other two blisters. Then they set us up in front of an electromagnetic lamp where I had to hold down Anna's arm for 10 minutes while she fought and screamed! Finally, they put some smelly brown cream on her arm and wrapped it up with gauze.

You would think that the torture was over, but it had only began. Next, they took us to the nurses station where they laid Anna down, wrapped her arms like a mummy and made me help hold her down while the nurse put on IV in her forehead! (Fortunately, I was prepared for this since when I first walking into the "IV room" I saw many babies set up just like this.) I was then able to take her in my arms, go back to our "private" room and distract her from pulling out the IV.

There is not much left to the story. We waited for the IV to finish and then went home. We had to go back today for the second dose of antibiotics and a clean dressing (which Anna did not cry as much for). Anna is pretty much back to her fun, busy self. We are all glad that it is over and have turned off the hot water so it won't happen again.

I took a picture of Anna with her IV (the bandage is there to keep it in place) and you can see her arm (right) bandaged up. The Chinese woman is our helper who comes and takes care of Anna in the morning and cooks lunch for us.


This picture is her wound 24 hours after the incident. It looks 100% better then even this morning, but is still not a pleasant sight.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Today we had a lovely service at our fellowship celebrating resurrection Sunday. We sang great songs, saw the kids do a stick dance to "Arise My Love", and had refreshments. At 4 we had an Easter dinner party with our small group. The kids went on an Easter egg hunt while the adults ate yummy artichoke dip! For dinner we had ham (which is a rarity here), sweet potato casserole, and many other delicious dishes. We had plenty of dessert consisting of two cakes, peanut butter pie and I made cherry berries on a cloud. It felt more like Thanksgiving with all the eating we did. It was a wonderful, reverent day!

Anna would like to thank Grandma Carman for the beautiful Easter dress. She enjoyed wearing both the dress and the chocolate she got from the Easter egg hunt!

Happy Easter!

This Friday at school we had an egg decorating activity. It was a lot of fun to just sit with the kids and talk about anything (other than school work of course). We learned that Alicia's favorite Veggie Tales character is Jr. Asparagus and Matt likes to destroy things. (He kept saying he wanted to throw the eggs off the roof.) Alicia left one egg in the yellow for so long that the shell got eaten away by the vinegar.




At the end of the day we had a contest in two categories: creativity and best color. Jeremy won in the most creative egg category with his egg named "Asylum" (the pink faced egg). Matt won the best color with his half blue-green & pink egg. The prize was a handful of black jelly beans. Since Jeremy doesn't like black jelly beans, I (Jacquelyn) ate his. Anna didn't get to color any eggs but she did enjoy holding them up and dropping them. She also really likes eating them.