What Store?

Friday after our office good-bye lunch, Jacob came home with us. As I was putting Keely down for her nap, he went to run some last minute errands. When Keely woke up, he wasn't back yet. Keely asks me where he is and I tell her he'll be home soon. A few minutes later she asks, "Is Daddy at work?" "No, he had to go to the store," I tell her. "He ride the red car?" she asks. "No, he didn't ride the red car," I tell her. "Oh, he went to a different store?" she asks. Yes, though that wasn't quite the reason why he wasn't able to ride the little car under the cart at Big C but no he didn't go to that store either!

Share

We have been using the word share a lot in our house, surprise, surprise!! Keely does well with anyone that isn't her sister...but I'm sure that is normal!! It is funny in the past week or so the ways Keely uses the word share.

1. To share a snack (i.e. goldfish crackers) with someone. After playing at a play area, Keely always knows there will be a snack as we walk out to the car. One week, one of her friends left with us and Keely shared her goldfish. The next Sunday before fellowship, she told us that she wanted to share her goldfish with some of her friends in her class (she named the friends). When we got back in the car, we gave her the goldfish and she got so upset when she realized she didn't get to share them!

2. To share Mommy or Daddy's food. The other morning, Jacob was eating an English Muffin and Keely looks over at it (she had already eaten her toast) and says, "Daddy I want to share." Sometimes when I have tea, she gets a little in a special cup. One afternoon, I had finished mine and she saw that and told me, "Mommy, I want to share your tea."

3. To have Mommy play on the ipod with her. Every couple days Keely gets the special privilege to play some games on my ipod and when she wants me to play with her (there are a couple matching games and we take turns trying to make matches) she'll tell me, "I share the ipod with Mommy."

4. To let other play with her toys. This is one of her definitions...sometimes. Two different times when people have to come to pick up something they have bought, they have brought their sons. Keely has played really well with them and has shared her toys. Like I said in the beginning, some days it is easier to share with Jordan than others but I have heard a few times, "Mommy, mommy, I shared my toys with Jordan!)

Scrapbooking meets activity

Keely has a sticker book and her favorite page on it was where she had to count the different items in the picture and put the coordinating number sticker next to the item. She did that activity over and over taking the stickers off and putting them back on until the stickers would no longer stick. I decided I wanted to make her one like it but I don't really have the design skills to make my own objects. Then I browsing in a scrapbook store call The Lily Pad and found these by Jackie Larson. Then I created these using her farm pieces:

The counting picture using these

The page to put the numbers

The number "stickers."
I used these templates for the numbers and these papers for the green.

My plan is to print everything on cardstock and laminate them. Then I'll cut the "stickers" put double sided tape for her to stick them in place...we'll see if that works. We'll give it to her on one of the plane rides to Hong Kong. Since our trip back to this side of the world, we have been giving her small presents on the plane that helps occupy her and gives her something to look forward to. (We have been on 12 planes since we left Springfield in January). Especially when she is impatiently waiting in the boarding area...knowing there is a present coming up seems to help!

I think she'll like it!

My Sweet Girl

Right before Jacob left for work today, I started getting terrible stomach pains. Jordan likes to go back to sleep after breakfast, so I managed to changer her diaper, dress her and get her to bed and then I fell on the couch into the tightest ball I could. Jacob left around 8:20am. Keely asked me if I wasn't feel good and I agreed with her that I wasn't feeling good. So, she got her puzzles, snuggled down at my feet on the couch and worked puzzles for awhile. Then she got up, rubbed my back for a minute and said, "It's ok mommy, it's ok." From then on until a little after 10 I went in and out of sleep. And my precious little girl was ok with this...no she wouldn't be ok with this every day but she knew I didn't feel good. She would wake me up every little bit to help her with something. One time either she hurt her knee on a puzzle or discovered a scratch that was already there and wanted a band-aid. Thankfully, I had organized all of the band-aids into a small formula can and she knew exactly where it was...so half asleep I applied a band-aid to her knee. A couple other time I'd awake with either puzzle pieces or flash cards on me and then she'd have me put them back in the box and close the box. I also remember being woken up to be asked where Mr. Potato Head's ears were. I was cold and she even went and got me a towel from the bathroom cabinet (the blankets are packed...how sad is that!). What a sweet little girl. I'm still exhausted but am afraid to fall asleep because I'm afraid it'll make me more tired! Oh well...maybe I should pick up the living room of toys. My sweet girl played so well by herself that she got out almost every toy we owned!!

Sleepless Nights

On top of everything that is going on with packing and trying to do last minute things like get our shots updated, take family pictures and have some final meals with friends to just name a few -- Keely is having trouble sleeping. In the past two or three months, Keely has at least one night a week that she wakes up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. That is one of the biggest reasons Jordan moved out, because after Jordan gets woken up she can't get back to sleep with Keely's tossing and turning and singing and talking and whatever else she does in the dark when she can't sleep. Unfortunatley, on those nights when she first wakes up it is normally because she is scared and so her crying at the door for us still wakes up Jordan. Monday night was one of those nights. Keely wakes up scared and uses the restroom. She calms down and we all go back to our own beds (after Jordan is soothed for a minute or so too). Then awhile goes by and Keely calls out again and it all starts over. Awhile after that she comes in our room and gets in our bed...and stirs Jordan who hasn't gotten back to sleep yet...and it all starts again. As most of these nights end, Jacob ends up in Keely's bed. This night was one of the roughest, because Jacob doesn't think she fell back to asleep until close to 6 (she woke up at 1:30) and then woke up at 7. (Jordan and I finally fell back to sleep around 3:30 but she does thankfully sooth herself in her own bed-- I just kenw that was when she stopped stirring). THEN she refused to take a nap because it was scary!! The poor thing was exhausted by bedtime. The irony of the whole thing is that this is the child that started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks and now at almost 3 has trouble sleeping through the night! We did get her a night light (even though when she was a baby, the minute I took the night light out she slept through the night) and that has helped her to fall asleep initally better. It just doesn't help nights like this. Has anyone every experienced this? Anyone have any ideas how to help her? Do you think it's just all of the transition? We've been in transition since August!! Thank you for any insight anyone has!!

What about...???

Everything we were selling has been sold for at least a week -- some things 2 weeks. BUT we still have many of the things because people hadn't picked things up yet until this weekend. Friday night the family who bought our TV came and picked it up. We had a little talk with Keely before they came to get it. However, she got distracted while they were here because their son came and played with her for awhile. After they left, she realized the TV was gone and cried a little. We reassured her that we had a new TV that we'd use in Hong Kong and she could still watch her shows on the computer. Today I was getting the coffee table and TV cabinet ready to be picked up. It really started to hit Keely and this is the conversation we had -- Keely style of course. (It did take me a moment to realize she was meaning to Hong Kong versus with us when we left the house today)

Keely: Crayons coming?
Me: Yes, your crayons are coming.
Keely: Elmo coming?
Me: Yes, Elmo is coming.
Keely: Veggie Tales coming? (Remember I'm cleaning out the TV Cabinet!)
Me: Yes, Veggie Tales are coming.
Keely: People coming?
Me: Yes, your People DVDs are coming.
Keely: This coming?
Me: Yes, your music is coming.
Keely: Books coming?
Me: Yes, your books are coming.

Hopefully by this point she realized that all of her stuff was coming!

Awhile later, Keely looked at the TV cabinet and asks, "What happened?"

Family Pictures

Because we like to do EVERYTHING we possibly can in three weeks, we got family pictures taken Tuesday! Before I share our favorites, I have two things to say. 1. Keely got tired long before we were finished. 2. Who would have thought my girls' hair could do such crazy things in the span of an hour! That's all I have to say. Oh...one more thing. And what's up with my eye? Ok...Enjoy!

Project 365

Have you heard of Project 365? Both in the digital scrapbooking internet community (where I travel) and the photography internet community (where Jacob travels) have been talking about it and working on it. It's a documentary photography project where you take a picture every day for a year. I actually didn't start reading about until January 2nd, so I felt like I was already too late for this year. Then we thought it might be fun to start up on June 1 when we move and document our first year in Hong Kong. The Daily Digi has a post here and here (with other links) talking more about it.

However, I have a dilemma. What do we do with all of the pictures after the year is finished? Below are some ideas I have come across.

Photo yearbook or books: On the second link above, she talks about putting the pictures and the captions in a book. That seems pricey to me though if you were to put 1 picture with caption on a page. (If you do photo books, as I have been researching I did find out about Viovio, which seems to be less expensive then some places). What other ways could I print them?

Photo blog + blog book: Someone mentioned doing a blog with all of the photos and printing a blog book. I know some of you have done blog books and maybe you can tell me more about it. Jacob found SharedBook. What places have you used? I got more interested in this idea when I realized that it was totally customizable.

Scrapping them and then printing a scrapbook: I would scrap it digitally (that's how I did Keely's 1st year book). If I choose this way, I have other decisions to make.

Scrap it by week: Here and here are some templates I've found for doing it by week (for examples). I also thought this one and this one could work with some tweaking. My question if I do it this way, is should I change my layout or keep it the same? Would it look boring if all 52 weeks were the same layout? Or could I do the same 4 layouts and change every 4 weeks...so that each month would look the same?

Scrap it by month: Here and here are some example templates I found for doing it this way. The problem with the second example is that there wouldn't be room for labels or to journal about it and I'm afraid a few years down the road we may have no idea why we took a certain picture. Of course I have the same problem with the first example as I do with the scrap by week option...do I change my layout each month or do it the same?

Is anyone doing this? Does anyone have any ideas? I have thought about this for over a week and I'm STUCK!! Please help!!

To: Aunt Su Su

Dear Aunt Su Su,
Now that Elmo is back and fixed, everytime I play with him I think of you. I ask mommy every day if you are here. I even made you a hamburger to eat the other day. I don't know why you don't come to play anymore. I asked mommy when we move to Hong Kong if you will come to my home. I miss you Aunt Su Su. I love you!
Love,
Keely

Keely showing Aunt Su Su (via the camera) her hamburger

Ipod Touch Apps

For my birthday, I got an Ipod touch. I do joke that it was for the family. Before our long flights back over to this side of the world, we loaded it up with the shows Keely likes to watch. On vacation, our friend was telling us about the apps she had put on her Ipod and I admitted I had never gotten around to looking for apps. Then I read this post on a blog I read and I was introduced to the world of kids' applications -- even for toddlers! (I still haven't looked for ones for myself!) Finally, I went searching for them and gave in to buy a couple of them (I like free apps! haha). Keely has really been enjoying them! Her favorite is Toddler's Teasers Quizzing. It quizes on numbers, letters, colors and shapes. It does one of each and then they get to pick out a sticker and put it on their sticker page. Another one I got was ABC Memory Match. She gets tired of this one quicker, but is enjoying it. It's a memory game and they are matching the uppercase letter to the lower case letter. Keely knows her uppercase but still has trouble with some of her lowercase, so I thought this might help some. The last one I bought was AniMatch . It's like the ABC one, but you are matching animals and they make their sound when you touch it. I bought into this because it makes me think it's a little better than her watching a show when we travel and is something that can entertain her during an appointment or something. (Though please don't think when we travel all she does is watch shows on my Ipod -- we do lots of things but typically towards the end of a trip she is so tired that she doesn't want to do the other things.)

Do you have any Ipod app suggestions? It doesn't have to be ones for children.

Girls Playing

Sorry I've gone a little video crazy lately! The one I was hoping to post was Jordan saying Ma Ma, but after looking at it I realized she was too excited about getting into the bath tub and I wasn't able to capture what she normally does! So I'll try that again! I did capture the girls playing with the curtains one night. Of course Jordan was laughing harder before I got the camera out, but isn't that always the way it is!! (In case you are wondering, Keely spilled her drink on Jordan right before this -- that's why she's just in her diaper. Just in case you were wondering!) Enjoy!

Activity!

*Update* I have a friend who has great activities on her blog for preschoolers that you really should check out! I haven't gotten to use any of her ideas yet, because like I said I'm not good at getting things ready ahead of time! But once I get organized hopefully I will!!

We're going to take a hiatus from talking about all things moving! (I guess I've been stressed-- I just can't get enough sleep and Jacob says that's how I deal with stress -- which adds more stress because I can't get anything done!) So, let's talk about something fun!

Keely loves to do craft projects. They got termed as an "activity." I asked her one day if she wanted to do an activity and that is what she started calling our craft project time. Keely loves anything to glue. Things get busy and it's hard for me to make time prepare a craft project so I found a GREAT site I want to share. Sometimes I'll ask Keely what animal she wants to do and I can just search the animal. It also has alphabet tracing pages and acitivites for each letter... all kinds of things! We have done a lot of different things but I think one of her favorites (which we haven't gotten around to finishing yet) is this caterpillar.

(you can choose to do the rainbow colors or other colors like black, white, gray and pink -- that's the one we actually did!)

You can print the projects out in black and white or color. Most of the time I have done color because Keely gets too excited about the gluing part that she can muster the attention to color! But on this one I did black and white and helped her at first with telling her which one to color which color. After that she started playing a "game" with it and would search for different colors of crayons (we have a big bag of misc crayons) and then looking for the right color to color. Each time I bring it out to work on -- it's taking me awhile to cut it (like I said I don't have a lot of time to do things ahead of time) -- she'll play her game. We should glue it together together soon!

I would love to hear your "actiivity time" idea that you do with your child(ren)!

Bath Time Singing

Keely likes to sing throughout the day. Sometimes it's an actual song and sometimes it is a made up song. One Sunday morning she was take a bath and this is what I heard. (Hope it's not too hard to hear, I was trying to stay far enough away that she didn't notice me - at least immediately!) Hope you enjoy her little concert!

Selling Things in Asia

We are blessed that we have someone in this city that manages a classifieds list that goes out at the end of every week. Many of us have learned to e-mail or call almost immediately (depending when the classifieds came out) or what you were wanting may be gone! I guess the best thing I bought were our baby gates (they are super expensive here new due to import tax). We decided since we had quite a few things to sell, we set up a sale blog to post pictures and information and put the site address in our ad last week. We sold a good portion of our stuff immediately and then this week we sold most of the stuff that was left.

I think this is the only thing we haven't sold (as long as the lady who bought our larger stroller contacts us again!). I still like it and it looks like we have room for it, so it'll probably be coming with us. I guess it was meant to stay with us. (Keely used to say the lamp was scary but she has given her stamp of approval of keeping it)

Saturday was a garage sale that the International School sponsered. The divide the area into spots and you purchase one and that's your area to sell from. They do two a year and this is the third time for us to do the spring one. My wonderful husband has done it for us every year with help from my dad the first year and help from a great friend the other two (with one car and little ones it's hard for both of us to go but Jacob tells me this is a rowdy bunch and you NEED two people). We did well and he came home with only about a box and a half or so left (we had about 6 boxes plus some freebie comforters and pillows we got with mattress purchases). It was easy to weed through what didn't sell and decide where everything would go. So, now I have those boxes and bags sitting in the dining room to be distributed!

Some of the stuff we sold, was to a family who is not here yet. So, it's actually perfect so we don't have to hurry and clean those things out yet! The family that bought the crib and bedding (Jordan has decided to boycott the crib - never slept in one until 7 months old and decided she liked the pack n play better - I didn't have the energy to train her to like it and force the issue) didn't have a way to pick it up. Being the nice people we are, we delivered it to them. We met a lot of people in our stage of life through selling stuff-- too bad we can't stay and get to know them better!! Below are pictures of the girls helping Jacob take the crib apart.

Pictures From Last Month

Since I didn't blog much in March, here are a few pictures Jacob took in March.

Like I said in the post about Keely-- she loves to help me. Below are pictures of her helping me wash dishes. She loves to put them in the dish dryer and even sometimes finds that she needs to rinse them again too!!

When we move...

we get to take most of our stuff! We are able to take a 20 ft container filled with our things with us. The moving company came a couple weeks ago and measured everything we are taking and with their estimates they actually think we have some room left! We will be taking all of our appliances and most of our furniture. The furniture we have sold either we were already talking about getting rid of in the first place (a couple decorative things that we bought to fill space before children) and the other things are storage type pieces because we will have built in closets (no closets in the walls like the U.S.) that take up a lot of wall space and should give us plenty of storage space (hopefully!). We are planning on packing most of our stuff ourselves (unless the world falls apart -- there was a flood the week our friends were trying to pack up). We packed a lot of our stuff up before we went to the States and kept most of it in the boxes-- so a lot of it is done. Basically everything that needs to be packed up now is being used. We will let the packing company pack up breakable dishes and kitchen items. They will come pack things up and do whatever they need to do to prepare appliances and furniture on May 28th and then on May 29th they'll bring the container to the house and pack it up! The container will be trucked down to Bangkok and then put on a ship to Hong Kong. They say it should be in Hong Kong between June 6th and June 8th.

One of you asked us several questions a few posts ago and some were more about the school Keely will be going to. We will be paying for all of the girls' education. They do not wear uniforms at this school. Since they call it Kindergarten that makes it confusing, but it is preschool. Since we haven't had a chance to visit the school, the principal and teacher we don't have many answers to the other questions. When we get to Hong Kong, we will visit the school and Keely's future teacher. We won't know what different children and their ethnicities will make up her class until she starts class. Thanks for asking all of the questions and we welcome anyone's questions!

Corny Joke

Meet Michael. He is one of the Little People characters. (In case you didn't know, there are Little People DVDs that introduce the characters. That is how we know their names.) Michael is Keely's favorie. He paints a rainbow in the color and shapes DVD. Here is a statement from Keely that made me laugh.

"Here's Michael, Jordan."

Our Apartment

We do know some information about the apartment we will be moving to in Hong Kong. The pictures are of the outside of it. It is the one "dressed" in green. The whole apartment is undergoing renovation-- hence the green covering. Our flat is also undergoing renovation and that's why I don't really have any pictures! The kitchen recently got new cabinets and counters, so it won't be renovated. However, practically everything else will. Right now it's suppose to be done by the middle of June -- so hopefully we'll only have 2 weeks in a guest flat!

The flat is on top of a hill and we've been told that we will probably only want to go up it when we are in work out clothes and doing it on purpose. Also, from what we can tell and have been told it is in a residential area so there aren't many shops. However, there is a mini bus stop right outside our building that goes to a mall (that has a grocery store) and a MTR station.

Questions Answered About Our Apartment:
Will you be living in an apartment with grass?
From what I can tell, I don't think so. However, from what I have been told I believe there is a small "walking" park across the street I think maybe with some benches. My friend told me it was a place we could go blow bubbles. I have also been told that there is a park with play equipment down at the bottom of our hill. We'll have to update more on this after we move. Of course there are lots of great parks in Hong Kong that we can visit too. The girls will have plenty of opportunity to run around and play outside.

How high up is the apartment?
Our apartment is on the 7th floor.

How many rooms in the apartment?
The apartment seems to be good sized and we don't think we'll really be losing a ton of space. We will have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The living and dining room will just be divided by furniture (it's not divided by walls). We also have a small balcony (enclosed by bars). Don't worry, we'll show pictures once we get there and actually see it (and the renovations get done).

The view from our mini bus stop

Another view of our building

Play group and play areas

We have quite a few nice indoor play areas in Chiang Mai and since it has been HOT, HOT, HOT we have been visiting them quite a bit lately. On most weeks we try to go twice, Tuesday on our own and Thursday our play group meets at one of the play areas while it is hot. We've been trying some new ones out and Jordan says she likes the ones where there is room for her to crawl around and play in the balls! The one we went to last week wasn't really big enough for her to crawl around and not get hit by a big kid going down the slide. Here are some pictures and video of our recent adventures at the play areas.

Keely going down the elephant slide

Jordan crawling around in the balls

Keely and her new friend Nate riding on the train

(can you tell how hot they get from playing in there?!)

In some places we have visted in Asia, there are fitness parks. One of the fitness "machines" is like the one Keely is "exercising" on in the video above (of course this one is kid sized). It cracked me up and I had to take the video to show Jacob.

Keely loves to do forward rolls on the bed. It makes me nervous on the bed, but these soft pads are a great place to practice!! Keely calls it upside down. "Go upside down Keely."

Our Upcoming School Girl

As I am starting to realize, I believe it is a typical Asian thing for children to start preschool at 2 or 3. Here in Thailand, like the US, the program/ curriculum is flexible so a child can choose to go less than 5 days a week. In Hong Kong, preschool is structured more like kindergarten (and actually is called kindergarten), therefore to go less than 5 days a week is not an option. It is also a 2 year kindergarten program, so to not enroll for the first year would make it practically impossible to get in the second year. When she would start school at age 5 (in what they call Primary 1), if she hadn't gone to kindergarten she would be behind socially (knowing how to sit in a chair when she is suppose to, follow directions, get in line, etc). Children begin kindergarten the year they turn 3-- so Keely will be one of the younger ones but it's the year she turns 3. She'll actually start 5 days before she turns 3. She will go for 3 hours 5 days a week.

The school she is going to is taught in English. I would love for her to go to a Cantonese or Mandarin speaking kindergarten, but many focus on writing and memorization and things like that. We don't think Keely would do well in that type of atmosphere. There are probably some that aren't like that but since we aren't there yet we can't really investigate. When she starts Primary 1 and on up, she will be learning Mandarin as one of her subjects in school. The school is also very close to where we will be living. We are told it is about a 15 minute walk or a mini-bus ride plus about a 5 minute walk or so. Jacob's schedule will be more flexible so we are hoping Jacob can take her to school and then probably Jordan and I will pick her up. There is a bus service we can pay for her to be on, but we are going to try taking and picking her up first.

When we first even thought we might be moving to Hong Kong (when we didn't have a job and didn't really have a reason to believe we'd be moving to Hong Kong), we had our friend put an application in for Keely at this kindergarten. The application was turned in on a Monday and she was accepted. On Thursday, our friend picked up our acceptance letter and we found out that they had a record number of students apply -- 178 for 75 spots and Keely got one of the last two spots! She also got into the morning class, which normally is given on a first come first serve basis. We really thought she'd be in the afternoon class and were a little weary about this because afternoon probably is her hardest time... morning and evening are much better times for her (night kindergarten class anyone?). We are really blessed Keely was accepted into this kindergarten and is in the morning class!! We'll see how this chapter of her life goes!

Picture Out Takes

"Okay, that's enough for me. I'm outta here."

"I got her dad. Hurry take the picture."

"No, I wasn't kidding Keely. I'm really finished."
"No, no Jordan. I'm not letting you go anywhere."
"Okay Keely, Jordan is finished. You can let her go now."
"No, she needs to stay here."

Giveaway Answers #3

Will we ever be taking a trip to Nepal?
We don't have one scheduled yet, but we probably better wait until the girls are a bit older and could enjoy it a bit more! We do hope to get to take a trip some day to visit our friends living south of Nepal (yet again though probably later rather than sooner). I would love to visit again some day and miss it all of the time. I can't believe that was the first place overseas that I actually lived and in 5 weeks we are moving to Hong Kong! That's just really weird. I also can't believe that the people there still have a huge place in my heart and so we do wonder what Father has planned for later (long down the road not soon). However, there are a lot of people from Nepal that live in Hong Kong. When Jacob was single, a friend of his took him to a Nepali restaurant there! So, we are hoping to find some good restaurants and people to get to know. We also found out that Keely's prekindergarten teacher is from Nepal. She has lived in Hong Kong since she got married and has an 18 or 19 year old so she is probably more like a local now, but I thought that was really interesting too.

South Asia Rocks Questions
Most of your questions seem like we should experience things first before answering so we'll answer those after moving!

Again thank you everyone for asking questions and feel free to ask more. It was fun answering them!

Sisters

Since my brother and I have a large age difference, watching my two girls bond has been really fun. I didn't realize siblings bonded so quickly. It is amazing, however, it's amazing how mean they can be sometimes too!! The girls play well together most of the time. Keely has the hardest time sharing Daddy. It has been heard in our house, "No, that's my daddy." We really are glad that the girls have each other.

Giveaway Answers #2

What are some challenges to raising kids overseas?
It is a challenge raising our kids away from family, even though if we were in the States it wouldn't mean we would be near family. However, it was really hard when we returned in January to see how close Keely got to know everyone and then had to leave them. It's also difficult when it's a hard day or you need a last minute baby sitter.

Raising children in a different culture is also difficult. In Asian culture, it is common to give your opinion to a complete stranger or someone you don't know well and make them feel very small. Here in Thailand, they don't let their children cry (at least in public), but sometimes children have temper tantrums or melt downs and you get a lot of "you are an awful mother" stares. It makes it hard to stand your ground on things and not give in so you won't get stared at and muttered about.

It is also difficult admist all of the spiritual darkness. My girls are very sensitive and both Keely and Jordan can sense the enemy around certain people and they won't feel comfortable (now Keely sometimes loudly says they are scary). Keely has dealt with some bad dreams and "seeing" scary things in her room that I wonder has to do with the darkness here.

I know many parents that live overseas try to teach their children different things that are common to American children so that they will fit in, however, it's difficult for me to figure out what things are important to do that with and which aren't.

I'm excited that the girls will be global residents and will have a global view. I'm excited that at some point (it may be as late as when they start kindergarten when they are 5) that they will learn and hopefully eventually know another language. We hope that living over seas and being in different cultures will make well rounded and understanding people. Having children overseas also allows for a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of people I never would have and for people to see that I live here rather than just visiting. Hopefully that may even lead to some opportunities. I'm sure there are other joys to raising children overseas, but since ours are very young either I haven't seen some of them or just can't see them yet!