A Little Sleep

by Ruth
I know you have been eagerly waiting for an update of Operation Juliana Sleep.  Okay, or you couldn't care less.  But I'm going to tell you anyway!

We are now 50 days into "No Cry Sleep Solution" methods of trying to get Juliana to sleep better.  The first 44 days were incredibly depressing.  I can't say there was no progress, but it sure seemed that way.  Juliana's naps got better, and she started going to sleep more easily, but she was still waking up 5+ times a night and never sleeping longer than 2 hours.  44 days might not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but it's a long time.  A very long time.  Especially when you have already been sleep deprived for 6+ months. Usually several times a week I ended up crying in the middle of the night because I was so tired and frustrated.

BUT in the past few days we have actually, finally started to see some sleep improvement!  Not just for one night, but for several nights in a row.  The other night, Juliana slept for 4.5 hours in one stretch!  4.5 hours!  She has only slept longer than that two or three times in her entire life.  For several nights now she has only woken up three times during the night!  That might not seem great, but three is sooo much more manageable than five or ten times.  It's not yet "sleeping through the night" (defined as 5+ hours), but it is more than I dared hope for.  I have actually started to believe this may work!

Not only that, but Juliana has been taking many 2 hour naps (up from 30-45 minutes), and the other day she napped for 1.5 hours in her crib!  This is unprecedented.

Juliana is still convinced that she doesn't need more than eight hours of sleep at night, and consequently has started waking up at 6 or 6:30am to make up for that extra sleep time during the night.  I'm not thrilled about that.  And sometimes it still takes 40 minutes to get her to fall asleep for a nap, and sometimes she tries to wake up every 5 minutes of her nap.  But slowly, things are improving.  And without ever leaving her to cry.

I think this nighttime sleep thing is a huge breakthrough.  I am tentatively thrilled.  Tentatively, because I'm not yet at all convinced she won't flip back to her old ways any night now.  But I have hope for the future, for the first time in ages.

Additionally, the past few nights I have been pumping some milk so Kevin can take over the first night feeding, meaning that I have been getting 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep!  Well, I still wake up at least every couple of hours because my body has forgotten how to sleep anymore, but I don't have to get out of bed or stay awake.  It's amazing to go to bed at 9pm and know that I won't have to get up until 3am.  This new influx of sleep is both wonderful and a bit dangerous at the same time.

Dangerous, because all of a sudden my body seems to remember this kind of sleep is possible and is yelling, "Give me more!!"  I have actually felt more tired/sleepy/foggy than normal in the past few days.  I also feel just enough more with it for my mind to start going crazy as it realizes I have accomplished nothing in the past 6+ months.  Last night I lay awake past the ungodly hour of 9:30pm, my thoughts going crazy, enthusiastically jumping every 5 seconds to completely unrelated topics.  It reminded me of that time in Gilmore Girls where Loralei traces her chaotic thought patterns...

"My brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish. I'm writing a letter, I can't write a letter, why can't I write a letter? I'm wearing a green dress, I wish I was wearing my blue dress, my blue dress is at the cleaners. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue, 'Casablanca' is such a good movie. Casablanca, the White House, Bush. Why don't I drive a hybrid car? I should really drive a hybrid car. I should really take my bicycle to work. Bicycle, unicycle, unitard. Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants!"

That's kinda what my thought pattern was like.  I keep having bizarre, irrational thoughts.  However, the fact I can recognize their irrationality reassures me that perhaps I am not completely crazy yet.

For example.  The other night I woke up and bumped my foot into Kevin's.  He kind of jerked it away in his sleep, and for some reason I thought that seemed really weird.  I thought, "Maybe it's not Kevin's foot!"  I reached out to touch it again and he jerked it away again and I sat up all freaked out, "That doesn't feel like Kevin's foot!  There must be something at the bottom of our bed!  Maybe it is a small animal!  Oh no, maybe it's the baby!  Somehow she has ended up at the end of our bed and is suffocating!!"  I was looking over and seeing Juliana sleeping peacefully in her crib but at the same time still thinking, "Maybe it's the baby!"  I was picturing a little raccoon or baby possum wiggling around, as if we were camping instead of on a third floor apartment in the middle of the city in a country where I have never seen raccoons or possums.  I was a little bit more awake at that point and realized that both of these ideas were pretty crazy, but I still had to reach over and feel Kevin's leg to reassure myself that it was indeed his foot. 

It was pretty special.  Perhaps I still need more sleep.

A Day in the Life of Juliana

6:30am - Time to rise and shine! Play! Talk! Enough of this sleep stuff.

By morning I am usually in mommy and daddy's bed, so sometimes we get to play as soon as we wake up.

Playtime! I have so many fun toys. I especially like the ones for chewing. Of course, I'll chew on anything.

Sometimes I "talk" Grandma Yaya, Grandpa, Nana, and Gramps on the computer. I don't really understand what's going on, but mommy and daddy point a little video camera at me and I do my best to perform all my new tricks.

After a few hours, I'm getting pretty tired from my early morning wakening and mommy says, "Naptime for tiny babies!" I try my hardest to wiggle my way out of her arms and keep yelling that I don't want to nap, but eventually I give in and fall asleep. Sometimes I even sleep in my crib!

When I wake up, daddy holds me over my little potty...well really it's just a little pot, but it's the perfect size for me! When he whistles, I know what to do! It's pretty fun.

Time for eating! I still like mommy's milk best, but this whole food thing is a fun new way to play. Today I'm having some squash and oatmeal. Mommy thinks it should go in my mouth, but I know better - it's much more fun all over my face and hands and chair and floor and mommy's shirt...

More playtime! This time I do a little hopping in my "Juliana Jump-up."

I'm not tired. I'm really not. But the soft music is playing and I'm sucking on my pacifier and daddy is bouncing me around, so maybe I'll just close my eyes for a minute... But none of this crib stuff this time. I insist on daddy's arms.

I like to go on walks in the afternoon. Sometimes we walk around the school and see lots of adoring fans, eh, students. Sometimes we walk out into the fields where everything is turning green and pretty.

Time to eat some more food!

Did I mention that I love bathtime! More playtime! But in the water! I love to splish and splash - and eat my ducky. :)

Storytime! I like feeling the books and trying to eat, um...I mean,  turn the pages.

I hate to admit it, but I'm getting a little sleepy...

Night-night. Sleep tight. Will you miss me? Don't worry - I'll wake you up again in a couple of hours!

Cold Water

The other day some visiting students got to observe a baby feeding session. They thought it was hugely interesting and took tons of pictures and video. They laughed as Juliana lunged eagerly for the spoon and helped smear food all over her face, bib, hands, her clothes, my clothes...pretty much anything in the surrounding two foot danger zone. After she was done eating, I gave her the bottle sitting out on the table so she could drink/play with the water inside.

The students were shocked: “You are giving her cold water??” In all fairness, the water was room-temperature, but most Chinese consider anything cooler than steaming-hot to be cold water. And drinking cold water is as big a taboo as say, not wearing long underwear in November. And for a baby!

I reminded them that crazy foreigners often drink cold water and will even give it to their children. I know they hear these things, but I'm not sure they really understand. I should probably explain in greater depth.

“Crazy foreigners drink cold water pretty much all the time. They actually add ice to perfectly good water to make it even colder. They never or hardly ever drink hot water, except in the form of coffee or tea or hot chocolate. But plain hot water? Warm coke? They just don't do it. Even in the wintertime people drink cold water.

Children drink cold water. Old people drink cold water. Sick people drink cold water. Pregnant people drink cold water. People who have just had a baby drink cold water. And sometimes, even people's babies drink cold water.”

I should tell them all that but and maybe they would understand a little better. But probably they would either think, “I can't actually believe that. It's just too crazy,” or they would think, “This explains a lot about foreigner's crazy behavior...the cold water has gone to their brains!!”

In other news, I am jealous of you if

• You ever sleep for more than 2 hours sleep at any given time
• You get up less than 5 times a night
• You don't have to go to bed before 9pm in order to get enough sleep
• You have had a good night's sleep in the past eight months
• You bought Girl Scout cookies (unrelated, but they sure are good...)

I am not jealous of you if

• Your baby wakes you up every half hour
• You are in your last three weeks of pregnancy and so uncomfortable you can't sleep at all
• You are being tortured by means of sleep deprivation, because not only are you sleep deprived, you are also being tortured, and that can't be fun
• You are currently in a long-term coma and sleep all the time (ok, a little jealous)

6 Months Old!

Hard to believe our little girl is already six months old!  Hard to believe how much our lives have totally altered in six months.  Hard to believe how hard it still is.  Hard to believe that any other baby could be quite as great as ours is. :)

Juliana is now rolling over, jumping in her Johnny Jump-up, deftly grabbing toys to gnaw on, and squealing in a multitude of pitches.  She recently started eating some solid foods, and seems to like the rice cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes she's had so far.  She particularly likes helping out with putting the spoon in her mouth (i.e. Smashing it into her cheek, smearing food on her fingers, and flinging it on the floor). 

We love finding ways to make her giggle, like giving big dramatic kisses, swinging her in the air, and blowing raspberries on her belly.  She still hates to sleep and likes waking up practicing her new noises...every hour.  She enjoys seeing new people and being admired.  She likes being naked even though it's too cold for that. 

Naked time!!

Oh, and she has started using the potty after naptimes!  We aren't going full-blown split-pants method, but we are doing some casual 'infant potty training/elimination communication' and Juliana seems to be picking it up quite well.  Probably because she's brilliant.  No but really, I have heard that babies brains develop while they are in those light stages of sleep, and since Juliana dwells mainly in those stages, we're probably going to have a genius on our hands.

Thinking profound thoughts

So I thought I would share a few new pictures just in case you forgot how cute she was.  Happy Half Birthday Juliana!

Two Juliana videos

We thought we'd share a couple more videos of Juliana from recent weeks. Enjoy...

Operation Juliana Sleep

By Ruth

Warning: This may not interest you at all. I am writing a whole long entry about sleep, not because it is the most fascinating topic (to you, at least), but because it is the current obsession at our house. And since I spend all day and all night obsessing over sleep and not getting any sleep, I console myself with having an outlet to write about it. But the good news is - if you're not interested, you don't have to read it! Just skip right over or save it for a really boring day. And you can't say I didn't warn you.

Juliana Back in the Day: "Ah, I love sleep."

Juliana is a wonderful baby. She is almost always happy – smiling and laughing and treating everyone like her best friends. She is lots of fun. She just has this one teeny-tiny little flaw: she hates to sleep. I'm not quite sure where this particular trait was inherited as both Kevin and I both love to sleep.

Ever since birth, Juliana has been a poor sleeper. No, that's not true. The first couple of weeks when she was all jaundiced, she slept all the time. We had trouble getting her to wake up! Why didn't I appreciate that when I had the chance? Apparently Juliana felt she wasted far too much time sleeping those weeks, and she has tried her hardest to stay awake ever since.

She would sleep anywhere! (well, as long as someone was holding her...)

There are probably about 4-5 times when Juliana has “slept through the night” (5 hours at one time). I could still count the number of times she's slept longer than 4 hours, and her average sleep length is still about 2 hours, and she is often up several hours during the night fighting sleep. Sometimes she's unhappy, but most times she just seems bored of sleeping. I don't think Juliana has ever in her life slept as much as they say a baby her age “should.”

For our sanity, and Juliana's greater sleep needs, we have decided something needs to change. Thus we have begun Operation Juliana Sleep. This Operation involves a lot of different things, but one thing is notably missing from our strategy: the “cry it out” method.

[Ruth enters, climbs on soapbox, waves fist passionately in air, and begins...]

If you are into the “cry it out” method, you can find lots of support. Most of the people I have talked to have at least tried letting their babies cry it out. It is a widely accepted idea, even considered the norm. So if you are into 'cry it out,' you can find plenty of people to agree with you. I think it is time for the other side to have a say.

I am not going to leave Juliana to cry herself to sleep and here are just a few of the reasons.

• I believe Juliana has psychological and emotional as well as physical needs. Just because she is fed and dry doesn't mean that she doesn't need parenting.

• I do not think her cries are manipulative or demanding; I think they are expressing an honest need. If she stops crying when I pick her up, I doubt she is thinking, “Ah-ha! Tricked you!” She's probably thinking, “Ah yes, that is what I needed.”
• I think that Juliana is learning to trust or distrust people. If the people who love her respond to her, she will recognize she can trust them. She will develop a sense of security.
• I don't think that Juliana is old enough to understand what is going on. If we go away, she doesn't understand that we will come back. I don't want to leave her alone crying, feeling completely abandoned.
• I don't think that Juliana needs to be independent of me. She is a baby. She should be treated like a baby.
• I think leaving your baby to cry totally goes against a mother's instincts. It seems like almost all mothers have had a really hard time with letting their babies cry, even had to be restrained because they want to comfort their baby. Perhaps if something goes so completely against what I believe are God given instincts, it means it's not a good idea.
• While I would love it if parenting were an 8am-8pm kinda job, I don't think that I should ignore Juliana just because it's dark outside.

I know people have a lot of different ideas of what it means to let your baby cry it out. Many people don't go to extremes, but I actually had someone tell me to let Juliana cry for hours, if necessary. They said, “The worst thing you can do is pick her up after she has been crying for an hour because that will teach her that if she cries for an hour, she will get her way.” Yes, that does sound like a bad idea!!

And one final grievance with this method – it bothers me that “let your baby cry a lot” is the only solution some people seem to have to any sleep problems. It's supposed to be a comprehensive fix-all. Can't we come up with anything better than that?

[Ruth begrudgingly descends from soapbox]

So, we ruled out all the crying, but that still left us with this big problem: We all need more sleep!! I got a book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution and decided to give it a try. I like this book because:

- You never leave your baby to cry

- It has a whole variety of ideas to try

- You create a customized sleep plan based on your babies individual sleep difficulties

- Your goal is to figure out what works best for you and your baby

- It's realistic: no promise of overnight change but rather hope of gradual progress

- A group of 50 moms with poor-sleeping babies tried out these ideas, gave feedback, report on real setbacks and progress, and saw lots of improvement in their babies' sleep!

Juliana Today: " Sleep? What's that?  I've got places to go!  People to see!  Let's get going!"

Step 1: We created a sleep plan. Our plan includes things like consistent naptimes, attempting longer naps (she's terrible about napping too!), a consistent bedtime, a consistent bedtime routine, and getting her back to sleep without nursing as often.

Step 2: Follow sleep plan for 10 days. It was a frustrating 10 days. Juliana and I both got colds. Then I got a stomach bug. Juliana has started pre-teething and seems bothered by her gums. Night after night, Juliana would not sleep longer than 1.5 hours at a time. In between times, she would stay awake for an hour or more. She would wake up every time we tried to put her in her crib. We felt supremely discouraged.

Step 3: Re-evaluate sleep plan. While we hadn't seen much (any?) progress, we want to continue with most of the ideas in hopes that they'll pay off. We tweaked a few that didn't seem to be working. We also decided the biggest hang up with Juliana's sleep is that she will only fall asleep when she is being held. This means that every time she wakes up she wants someone to hold her. So now we are starting a long, multi-step process of getting her to fall asleep on her own, beginning with putting her down while she is just entering the light phase of sleep.

Step 4: Continue for 10 more days. We are now on day 12 or 13 or so, and thing have gotten a tiny bit better. The other night, Juliana slept for 4 hours! And the past couple of nights, though she has woken up frequently, she hasn't stayed awake for hours each time. Baby steps.

So while we don't yet have a success story to report, we are starting to see a glimmer of hope. There may just yet (please, God, please) be sleep in our future!

Baby's First Words

We have a couple of little baby books we got from a baby store here.  They have pictures of some basic things and words in Chinese and English.  I have "read" through the books with Juliana a few times and she really enjoys it.  She likes the different tones of Chinese, which I guess makes sense since even we tend to use sing-song voices when talking to babies.  She laughs when I say the Chinese words - I will presume it is because she likes the sounds, not because she's laughing at my poor pronunciation.

The books include a lot of basic words, things like tree, chair, fruit, open and close.  Then we got to the page with cigarettes and beer.  Because those are must-need vocabulary for every young baby.  What??

Juliana's Thailand swim

We bought a tube so Juliana could take a swim at the pool during our stay in Baan Grood, Thailand. Enjoy...

The Miracle of Flight (part 2)

(If you haven't already read part 1, you may want to start here: http://ruvin2007.blogspot.com/2011/02/miracle-of-flight-part-1.html 

China Eastern plane waiting to be boarded in Kunming, China.

 By Kevin

It was only the beginning. Fast forward three weeks to Feb. 16. With an 8:45 p.m. flight scheduled, we got to the airport around 6:30 just in case there might be any problems. When we bought Juliana's ticket in Kunming, they said that it would also cover the Chiang Mai-Kunming flight back, but we figured we should play it safe and get there early since, in the last-minute confusion, they didn't give us a receipt for either flight. For a tiny airport like this, more than two hours would be plenty, we figured, since they don't allow passengers to check in before that.

Five minutes later and we probably would have missed the flight.

Here's what happened this time around: we got to the front of the check-in line and the woman checking us in – wearing a purple Thai Airways uniform, I might add – told us that our flight wasn't at 8:45 as listed on our itinerary. It was now at 8 p.m. Good thing we came early. This was the third time the time had changed on the flight (originally it was at 1 p.m.). She then asked for the credit card we'd booked the flight with (which unfortunately we'd left in China, but hadn't needed it for any of the other flights). “I don't have the credit card with me. Isn't our passport enough proof that it is us who bought the ticket?”

“We can't confirm the ticket without the credit card number.”

Then she asked to see Juliana's ticket.

“We don't have her ticket. We paid for it when we bought the Kunming to Bangkok flight, but it was a strange situation and they didn't give us a receipt.”

“Why didn't they give it to you?”

“I don't know. They had some problems issuing the ticket and we barely made it onto the flight.”

“If you don't have a receipt, then you can't fly.”

Grr. Immediately, I went to God in prayer, pleading for softened hearts and open doors.

I looked at the passenger list in front of her. Our names were both listed, as was Juliana's. “Our daughter's name is listed on the itinerary,” I said, pointing. “Doesn't that mean we have purchased a ticket?”

“But there is no ticket number listed.”

Grrr. “What can we do?” I asked.

“Do you know the name of the ticket agent at the Kunming airport? Maybe you can try to contact the agent?”

“No, unfortunately, I don't.”

“Well, if she doesn't have a ticket, then she cannot fly.”

“I understand.” After a few minutes of wrangling with her, with the realization that it was now after 7 p.m., so time was starting to run short, I made a suggestion: “OK, how about if we purchase another ticket for her now? Is that possible?”

She confirmed that this should work and pointed us in the direction of a ticket agency in the airport. As we left, several other teachers from our organization, who had been at the company's annual conference with us for the last several days asked what was wrong. “We have to go buy another ticket for Juliana,” I explained as I hurried away. “I don't know if we're going to catch this flight.”

The ticket agency was closed. I ran back to the airport information desk. “Where can I buy a China Eastern ticket?”

I learned that there was no China Eastern ticket window in the Chiang Mai airport (and in fact, there are no China Eastern employees there – they only have one flight each day). They suggested we buy the ticket at the same travel agency.

“It's closed,” I told them.

“Perhaps you can wait until tomorrow...” they suggested.

“Our flight leaves in an hour.”

“In that case, perhaps you can buy it at the Thai Airways ticket counter. They are partners.”

Confused, since I knew that Thai Airways is mileage partners with United and Air China and the Star Alliance, and we were accruing miles for our China Eastern flights on Delta (part of the SkyTeam), I rushed to the Thai ticket window and explained our situation.

They asked the same questions and began making some calls. As the clock ticked, they suggested calling our travel agent – Expedia. Thankfully we still had some money on our Thai SIM cards, which offer inexpensive international calls, so Ruth called Expedia while I talked to her mother to ask for the credit card number (we'd left it with her to pay hospital bills a few months ago). Expedia told Ruth to call China Eastern directly, but the only phone number they offered was in Pasadena (I recognized the 626 area code from my days at the Star-News). That office was closed since it was the middle of the night in California. Not very helpful.

After making numerous calls, they sent me back to the check-in counter. Since there were no more passengers checking in, the woman at the counter scrambled to find a way to get us onto the flight.

“So you don't have a receipt?” She asked. “How about a boarding pass from the earlier flight?”

I dug through our papers and found the boarding pass for our flight from Kunming. Unfortunately, it didn't contain the information she needed.

“Here is the phone number for China Eastern's Kunming office, maybe you can call that,” she suggested.

Again, I explained our situation and asked if I could buy an infant ticket over the phone. “Can you call back tomorrow, during regular business hours?”

“Our flight leaves in less than an hour.”

“I'm sorry, it is not possible for us to sell you an infant ticket at this time.”

“How about a regular ticket?”

“That is also impossible.”

“So you're telling me that there is no way for us to buy a ticket to carry our baby onto the plane. That is absurd.”

“Yes.”

The check-in agent asked if she could talk with the China Eastern representative on the phone, but she got the same answer.

She hung up and scurried over to talk with a supervisor several times. 7:30....7:35. I noticed that she'd printed out boarding passes for the three of us.

“You have printed out boarding passes,” I said. “Can we please just use them and get onto the plane?”

“I'm sorry, unless she has a ticket, that is impossible,” she said, picking up the boarding passes.

The clock kept ticking. 7:40...Around 7:45, she confided to us: “If something doesn't happen in the next few minutes, you will have to take another flight.”

The prospect of spending a night in an airport with a screaming tired baby was beginning to look inevitable. But we hung onto a thread of hope and asked for God to intercede.

Then suddenly, at 7:50, she hurried over to us and handed me a boarding pass for Juliana. She said that if we hurry to the Thai Airways ticketing counter, they would sell us a ticket. I sprinted a couple hundred yards to the ticket counter. A half-dozen people were in line. My stomach sank. I anxiously tried to make eye contact with the ticket agent I'd talked with earlier, praying that God would clear a path. She waved for me to come to the front and I handed her the boarding pass.

“We can sell you a ticket. It will cost 1,150 baht (about $40)”

I frantically scanned my wallet. I counted the baht – 874. Not enough. The rest was with Ruth in the backpack. “Can I pay with a credit card?”

“We need cash.”

Then I remembered a separate stash of money I'd put with our passports. Two crisp 1000 baht bills. “Ok, I have it. Here.”

She asked for Juliana's passport and wrote out some information. Then she made a phone call. 7:55. “Ok, we have issued a ticket for the baby. Now go back to the check-in counter.”

I sprinted.

By the time I got there, Ruth already had our boarding passes in hand and was approaching the stairway, hands filled with the baby, backpack, daiper bag and styrofoam ice chest (for Juliana's vaccinations).

We hurried up the escalator and made a b-line for the security check. An airport official, apparently aware of our predicament, offered to take the styrofoam ice chest through security for us. “It's medicine,” I explained, when she asked about the strange container, hoping that the vaccinations wouldn't cause any problems. Thankfully, there was nobody in line. Nobody asked any questions. A clear path.

Then we had to go through the Thai border inspection. Again no line, a clear path.

We were through. 8 p.m. Flight time. We frantically looked for our gate. “Where is it? I don't see it.”

Then we saw several hands raised. “Kevin and Ruth,” someone shouted. “Over here.” Several colleagues from our organization, who were on the same flight, were waiting near a gate. “We haven't boarded yet.”

“That's awesome.”

Inexplicably, they'd held the plane for us.

Briefly, we tried to explain what had happened to our colleagues, thanking them for their prayers. “I don't know how we got a ticket for her. They said it was impossible. It was a total God thing. I think He just worked a miracle for us.”

It probably helped that the airport is tiny and the plane only seated 50 – half of whom were returning home from the same conference as us, but it was a complete answer to prayer.

A few minutes after 8, they began the boarding process for the plane, insisting that those with children board first. They looked at us and held the line. We were the first to board. We sat down, smiled, and took a deep breath. “We made it.”

My heart was racing from adrenaline and excitement. God had made a way for us.

Lesson learned. In the future, we won't even attempt to buy an infant plane ticket for international travel at the airport. Probably the best bet is for us not to buy our plane tickets unless we are allowed to buy one for our daughter at the same time. In the meantime, we praise the one to whom all praise is due.

Some will scoff at my suggestion that God cared enough for our situation to answer our prayers. “It's just circumstantial,” some might say. “You would have made it anyway. What about those other times you prayed and God didn't seem answer?” Perhaps He did, but I wasn't willing to hear Him say “no, you need to go through this trial.” Perhaps I didn't paint the picture clearly enough – we had no business getting onto either of these planes. God showed up and made a way. It is only because of His mercy and grace that the hearts of the airport officials were moved upon our behalf.

As I wrote this today, I noticed a quote in a free kindle book, which I've working through a few pages at a time, called “Answers to Prayer From George Müller's Narratives.” I echo the sentiments of Müller , who wrote about God's last-minute provision for orphanages in 19^th century England when circumstances looked dour: “it was from the beginning in the heart of God to help us; but because He delights in the prayers of His children, He had allowed us to pray so long; also to try our faith, and to make the answer so much the sweeter. It is indeed a precious deliverance.”

What Happens When We Disappear

 by Ruth
You may be wondering about the month of silence followed by a barrage of blog posts.  Our communication silence is not due to any lack of fondness on our part but is rather because we have been busy traveling.  We have just returned from our annual jaunt to Thailand for our conference and a bit of relaxation during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year).  You usually miss out on this part of our lives since we are too busy traveling around to tell you about it, but this year I will fill you in on a few of the highlights (and "low-lights") of the past month.

Well traveled

We'll start with the bad parts:
*The travel: Each leg of our travel was fraught with frustration and difficulty, which you can read more about in Kevin's posts.  Suffice it to say, we almost didn't make it out of China, and then we almost didn't make it back into China.  But in the end, we got there and back and only aged a few years in the process.

*The sickness: Kevin and I (along with about half of the other teachers at conference) were taken down by a nasty 24-hr stomach bug.  Fortunately, we were not sick at the same time, so someone could take care of the baby, and extra fortunately Juliana stayed well!  Yay for nursing-produced immunities!

*The travel: I already said that, didn't I?  For the most part, Juliana handled the travel very well (her 5-9th flights), but all the upheaval did lead to a crankier, crazier baby.  She definitely cried a lot more than she had been at home, poor thing.  And boy does she have a strong voice...

Going for a swim

Most of the parts were good, though:
*We got to spend five days at a beautiful Thai beach with my good friends Mallary and Chip. It was great to relax in the warm, sunny weather since conference itself is usually a busy time. 

*It was also wonderful to actually hang out with friends!  I loved having a really good friend around - someone you can say anything to without having to explain or justify because they already know you so well.  One day something was bothering me and I thought, "I really want to email someone about this."  Then I realized, "Wait a minute, I have a friend right here!  I could actually talk to her about it!"  I did, and it was very satisfying.

*We got to eat pizza, burritos, hummus, burgers, milkshakes, pad thai, and all number of delicious foods we miss in China.  I'm not going to lie..eating is always a highlight.

*The weather was warm.  The sky was blue with those little puffy clouds.  The people were all smiling and friendly.  These are a few of the reasons my friend calls Thailand, "The land of all good things."

*I got to be around other mothers!  It was so encouraging.  Nobody can commiserate about things like waking up all night long for months on end like someone else who has been there.  It's great to be around other people who can say, "My baby is/was like that too!  You're not doing anything wrong and it will get better!"  And this unique group has lots of practical advice for raising children in Asia.

*Our conference was good (the parts we actually made it to).  It's always nice to be around a lot of people "like us."  In China, it is glaringly apparent that we don't fit in.  Even in America, we're not exactly average.  But among this group of displaced persons, we find others who drink hot and cold water, wear three layers of long underwear and shorts (not at the same time), love dofu and cheese, and live otherwise convoluted lives.

Juliana gnaws on Mallary's finger

It was quite a month for Juliana as well:
*She put her feet in the sand and in the ocean and did a little swimming in the baby pool at the beach.  Did we tell you we bought one of those little neck inner-tubes?  Pretty fun.

*She enjoyed seeing so many new sights.  I could almost see her brain going crazy trying to process it all. Up to this point in China, she would usually fall asleep when we went out (being bundled up helped).  But when we walked down the street in Thailand, her head was constantly whipping back and forth trying to see everything at once.
 
*She loved being around lots of people.  She is a total extrovert (where did she get that from?).  We would get into the (usually crowded) elevator at our hotel and Juliana would excitedly look around for people to admire her.  She was friendly to other westerners, but she immediately beamed at Asians like they were her best friends.  And (no surprise) everyone loved her.

*Juliana was dedicated!  It was the first time they had done a baby dedication and I'm really glad they did.  It was very special, and we got to write our own prayer for Juliana.  Video to come!  Five other babies were also dedicated - including a three week old, born in Chiang Mai, and a set of twins born to a fifty year old!  There are now 120 children in our group, I think 14 born in the past year.  Juliana will have lots of friends!

*She went to childcare for the first time.  That was a new experience for both baby and parents, but Juliana had fun playing with new toys and even (gasp) fell asleep there once!

*She rolled over for the first time!  That was just a few days ago and already she is flipping over so fast I hardly have time to capture it on video.

*She has started drooling a lot and gnawing on everything she can get her mouth on.  I sincerely hope the teeth will hold off for a while longer!

Now we are back in Weinan, and though the nasty fog/smog/gloom is rather depressing, it's good to get re-settled.  I think Juliana will miss all the excitement and stimulation, but she is probably overdue for some calm time.  We still have two weeks before classes begin. 

Kevin is planning to start preparing for his classes because -for the first time ever- we actually got the class schedule before the holiday!  This means that two whole months before classes started they knew (1) what classes we would teach, (2) days and times for the classes, and in some cases even (3) room numbers!  We are still in shock.

I am planning to use this time to begin Operation Juliana Sleep.  You may hear more about this in the future.  Ideally, I will also go through some of our things and figure out what we can get rid of in anticipation of our move (still four months away).  But we'll see...this sleep thing might be pretty time consuming.  Juliana is a rather "high-needs"/resistant sleeper.

So that was our last month.  And now, back to reality. :)