More thoughts from Kori...

More random observations from Kori

Pak's allergies seem much better over here. His asthma is non existent which makes me think it is all allergy related. Chien had been getting hives every other day when we were home and since we have been here he has had hives once and they went away before we could get the medicine in him. Makes me also wonder if he has allergies.

Yangshuo is incredible. The scenery is like nothing I have seen before. It is so beautiful I can not describe it. There are a lot of people here though. It is a national holiday. We still get lots of strange looks. An older Chinese man even took pictures of our boys on some playground equipment because we were so interesting. I wish the restaurants did not cater so much to westerners. Almost all the restaurants serve pizza and burgers. I just want to eat local chinese food.

China has lots of playgrounds with exercise equipment for adults. It is all free. Columbus needs these. John took a picture of me on the "elliptical" machine.

Our hotel is nice. The boys love the pool and ping pong table. The pool is outdoor and a bit cold but I finally was able to slowly dip myself in so I could swim the boys. We had a great time but I got sunburned.

My toe is doing really well. It did not hurt until Thursday last week. It now only aches a bit if we have walked a lot. Thank you for all who prayed for it. I have been able to do everything we have wanted to do.

I have had a lot of time to relax and contemplate motherhood while in Yangshuo. My boys are so very different from each other. Chien is so competitive and he views the world as something to conquer. Pak is so sensitive and honestly enjoys every aspect of life to the fullest. For example, we found a ping pong table. Chien of course was very good from the very beginning. He understands the strategy and has incredible hand eye coordination. And he wants to win. So all he wants to do is keep score and make it a game. Pak on the other hand struggles with learning just how to hit. But boy is it funny to him as he tries and tries and tries to learn. He doesn't get frustrated. He just has fun. And he learns how to do things along the way. 

Another example, the pool. Chien jumps in first thing and swims all around and wants to race Pak. Pak on the other hand is slowly gets in feeling the water and having fun experiencing it. After he gets in he just wants to swim around and be free. Once Chien has conquered the pool he is done and wants to get out and move on to the next conquest. Pak on the other hand will stay in the pool forever  just having fun until he gets cold or tired. 

Yet another example is homework (and probably school work in general). Chien wants to know how many pages he has to do. He wants to just do them and conquer them. He doesn't care about thinking about them or learning more about the subject, he just wants to complete it as fast as possible. Pak has to experience the subject. I can't make him move any faster on it. He has to move at his own pace. He loves to learn and think but hates to have to write it down or complete a worksheet. But boy does he retain what he has learned and can apply it to different situations. He is very intuitive. I have a lot of respect for all the teachers the boys have had and will have. 

Thanks you for all you have done for them. They are both truly incredible boys. I love them both with all my heart and soul. I don't always know how to best parent them. At times I feel very inadequate. Especially when it comes to trying to teach them both at the same time. And now we are adding yet another person to the mix and she is a girl. What will she be like? How will I be a good parent? How will I learn to teach her? God help me.