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catch up

A couple really good days to tell about.

Thursday, Mandy came over around 3pm and left at 7:30pm. She took a million pictures of Madeleine and Madeleine immediately loved her. In fact Mandy got to the apartment as Maddie was waking up and so Mandy went in the room with me to get her up. I picked her up and she looked at Mandy and then reached for her. Maddie knows what she's doing!

The three of us went for a long walk along the river which is just across the street from our apartment complex. The city has a really nice park like design that runs for a long ways along the river. It has nice smooth sidewalks so we used Maddie's stroller.

Phil was at home for supper and a coworker, Jolene, also joined us. Jolene and Phil went to an English Corner for the evening.

Mandy is excited to spend as much time with us (Maddie) as possible and we're excited to have a babysitter that's available almost whenever we need her! Plus we really like Mandy.

Friday, was a great day, too. We had a really good meeting at work. Then several of us went out for lunch. It was in the high 80s yesterday but the pool here at the complex was already closed for the season. Someone from the office got the management to open up the pool. There were 6 of us, including Madeleine, that swam/played for about an hour. The water was freezing! The Chinese staff must have thought we were crazy. We had a lot of fun.

I've decided to help out with the English class at the Seminary. Phil will teach all 3 days a week and 3 of us will teach one class a week. My day is Friday. So Phil and I will go to class together on Friday evenings. One of our coworkers will watch Maddie for us. I'm looking forward to it.

Today is beautiful. Phil's out right now getting copies made of the book we'll use for the English class. It's a study based on Mark. We'll have 2 classes - one beginner (Phil's) and one intermediate (we 3 ladies). Maddie's napping and after awhile we'll all go out exploring the city. We may take a ferry across the river to another section of Wuhan.

I know there are several influences that have made me feel better the last few days. One, just getting more settled (getting nice pots and pans really has helped), two, having a little more to do, and three, trying to be less selfish. I was really convicted walking around the city a few days ago with Maddie. We had gone out to get some paper from a stationary shop. We went through some really poor back allys. I was just taking it all in when it hit me that I live in such a nice apartment and yet I want more and want better. I can really suck at being like my Father. Good reality check but something I have to remember every single day.

Something I've been thinking about: he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty.

What perfect rest that will be and what I'm striving for.

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