Snowy Shanghai

What a week! It started with me (Em) going to see the Doctor for a sinus infection. Thankfully with new drugs and some rest I am feeling better. Then the snow started! According to a friend here they have not gotten this much snow in Shanghai in ten years! My MN->AZ kids did not know what to do! So, Joab took them out and they made mini snowmen!

Here is the view from our living room. I am pretty sure there are no snow plows in Shanghai but they could use some today!

On Saturday some of Joab's co-workers had a Chinese New Year party. Joab and Miriam are making some traditional rice ball dumplings.

This is a fox pelt that Miriam decided to cuddle up to at the party. Actually, it keeps you quite warm! Also if you squeezed the base of the mouth the jaw would open this kept the kids pretty entertained.

Miriam decided she wanted to take a picture of us.

Here is another story from the week.

Friday was Miriam's last day of Chinese preschool until Feb. 18th- they break for Chinese New Year. So all week her teachers had told me "You need to bring Miriam's bedding home (from where she naps in the afternoon) to wash it". No big deal I thought, I had done this before. She has a pillow, sheet and comforter and all the sheets zip off so you just take the sheets home to wash. Well, I get there on Friday and they mean I have to take ALL of the bedding home. The pillow, the huge comforter all of it. This means I needed to some how get this on my stroller with Asa! I finally wedged it between the two handles of the stroller- Asa sat in it (with all the bedding hanging in his face). Then we tried to get a taxi...but was starting to snow/rain and it was impossible....SO...we took the subway. We were quite a sight! In Shanghai there are escalators but they only go up- not down. So I had to take Asa under one arm and then somehow get the bedding/stroller down with the other one. If you have ever taken a subway anywhere in Asia...you know the pain!

So, we get home. Miriam is whining, Asa is sick of the bedding all over him and I just want a cup of coffee!!! We get into our elevator and push the button for our floor- 8. The door opens and at that exact moment Asa realizes he was never strapped into the stroller! And out he pops to stand next to Miriam. Well, with Asa out this makes the stroller unbalanced and it falls over. So I can not just push it out of the elevator and then help my kids off. So, I tell Miriam to keep pushing the elevator door open button and I walk the stroller to the other side of the hallway. I turn my head only to see the eyes of both my kids wide open as the elevator door shuts on them.

My heart drops and I race over to push the "down button" hoping the doors will open. But no, the elevator just keeps going up and up and up....9,10,11...should I run up the stairs or stay put. My mind is racing but my feet won't move! Then the screaming starts...it must be Miriam I think. Okay, if I can hear her scream I know she must be okay (crazy thought I know). So I listen to the screaming until the elevator hits the 31st floor! Then I hear her scream all the way back down to the 8th floor. The doors open to find a pretty hysterical Miriam and a nice Grandpa looking Chinese man who asks me in English "is this your daughter". Thankfully on the 31st floor he was able to talk to Miriam and she was able to tell him she lives on the 8th floor.

I hug Miriam and then I notice ASA IS NOT IN THE ELEVATOR. Up until this point I was really doing okay, but now I was starting to lose it. Mainly scared that he would wander into some unknown corner of the stairwell and get hurt. So, I ask Miriam "WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER!?"

"I don't know" she responds. So, I rush back into the elevator (with Chinese Grandpa) and we go from floor to floor looking for him. Finally on the 18th floor I find him totally chilling in the arms of a Chinese Grandma surrounded by two Chinese Security Guards. Asa was not crying at all! He must of gotten sick of Miriam screaming and gotten off on the 18th floor.

We FINALLY get back to our apartment, pray together and talk about how how we can prevent this from happening again.

Miriam says " I think I need popcorn and a movie to feel better." So we made popcorn and watched Finding Nemo- an appropriate movie I thought!