Spring? And other random musings

Spring has been slowly creeping up on us with flashes of beauty and warmth. Like the trees that are flowering about the city. Currently it is 9°C (48°F for my US friends), but I have hopes of warmer days. Spring, or at least what I think of as true Spring weather is rather short here in Suzhou. We linger in the lower teens (high 40s-low 50s) with threats of rain and then all of the sudden we jump up to the high 20s (low 80s). Somehow we skip, or least move very quickly though my favorite temps. You know the days where you wear jeans and just a shirt with maybe a sweater, but by the afternoon it is warm enough to wear just ONE layer? Oh, those are the days. But unfortunately, during Spring those days are shy and just don't come that often. But today, in spite of my many layers (and yes, we are still working the long underwear -- even under the jeans!), the sun and this beautiful flowering tree gave the promise that Spring is indeed on her way and will be visiting us shortly.

***************************************************************

In other news, it seems that all of that studying worked and the characters did indeed stick (for now). So for today, maybe not tomorrow because my brain is getting older and more like a sieve, I can write the character for earthquake. Just in case you ever need to know it. I came home after class to work with Tori on reading, and let me tell you I wonder what is in the future for our littlest. She is so creative that she takes my breath away and constantly astounds me. Just today, she wondered why she couldn't fly and asked if she could talk to God about helping her to fly. She then proceeded to earnestly pray that God would help her fly and was disappointed when she still couldn't. But I have to love her faith that what she asks for will be given. But being T, she was not down for long, instead just decided that she would be a pilot so she could fly. Of each of our children, she is having the most unique experience here in China. She attends a school where she is the only foreigner, where Chinese is spoken all day (rarely a word of English), and she sees this as normal. She asked me last week what her job will be when she is a grown up living in China. I told her that she may not live in China, she might live in the US or somewhere else. She then asked, "Or Vietnam? Or Thailand?" Of course, I answered that she might live any of those places. We just didn't know what the future held. She looked at me and said, "I might live somewhere else." When I asked her if they spoke a different language what would she do, she promptly responded with, "It's ok, Mommy. I am really good at learning languages."

And that my friends, is just one of the many reasons why life is good on the other side of the world. ;-)