I try to keep up with this blog, and i post a lot of stuff on Facebook but I thought I'd post what a regular day/ week looks like in our world in case anyone is wondering what we do day to day other than teach cute little Chinese children....
So here goes...
Sundays - we are apart of two fellowships here in shenzhen... One is pretty small, mostly Chinese Believers and the other is quite big (hundreds of people from all cultures) .. We LOVE being apart of both of these families of faith. Wish I could write more about that on here ... Anyway we usually spend sunday afternoons having lunch out somewhere as a family or with church friends, napping, and then preparing our lesson plans for the kindergarten that are due for the week.
Mondays... Back to the grind ;) We start the day by dropping grace off to her kindergarten class. They always have breakfast ready for the kids when they arrive at 9:00 - which is usually some vegetables, fruit, noodles... Healthy and filling. There's no fruit loops going on in there haha. We kiss her goodbye and usually watch from the window for a few minutes. She is the only American in the class and her classmates welcome her with open arms. Usually screaming "GRACE IS HERE, GOOD MORNING GRACE, GOOD MORNING GRACES MOMMY!!!! "
Monday evenings I help one of our Chinese teachers with her English. She is one of my favorite people here, and I absolutely love that we can finally communicate with each other.
Tuesday- we teach in the mornings at the kindergarten, grace goes to her class, then in the evenings I host an English tutoring session for 5 year olds in our apartment from 7 to 8pm. Jon takes grace outside to the community court yard/ playground where EVERYONE gathers in the evenings. Moms, dads, our students, grandparents... You name it. Chinese people love to be outside, and everyone is like one huge family. The kids in our neighborhood usually run up and tackle Jon when they see him. When Jon is not breaking up scooter fights you can find him chasing kids around the playground, or playing basketball with the dads... Basketball games that involve 3 year olds that like to ride their tricycles right through the middle of the games with not a care in the world.
Wednesday- We all start off at the kindergarten, then I usually get to have a lunch date with Jon by this time in the week. Wednesday nights Jon has a tutoring session for some of his 5 year olds from our school, then he comes home we have dinner. Later on in the evening I leave for a ladies bible study that I recently put together at one of our local coffee shops. There are lots of Chinese women who are new believers that come, and there are also some amazing American girls that come who are going to help lead these new friends in their faith.
Thursdays- pretty tired by now!! More teaching at the kindergarten, usually a staff meeting during lunch. Jon tutors a Chinese teacher at school from 5-6. Then he recently started a men's bible study with a few friends that goes from 7:30-9:00. Thursday night used to be date night, but that is now Friday night.
Fridays - I teach in the mornings, Jon has Fridays off!! We have Friday nights free to go out with friends, hang out in the neighborhood or do whatever comes up unexpectedly. Sometimes our neighbors invite us over for dinner with about 5 minutes notice ... Doesn't hurt our feelings :) We love when they invite us into their homes, and they LOVE to feed us until we can stand it any longer.
Saturdays are spent sleeping in, except for Jon he tutors 5-6 year olds from 9-1030 every other Saturday, the class is crazy it's 13 boys and 2 girls and boys don't exactly Iike foreign language training on early Saturday mornings! Saturday is also our ORPHANAGE day. We get to take 4 orphans each time on a family outing to places like the park, dinosaur exhibits, grocery store, mcdonalds, movies, play lands, pizza hut etc... these kids take turns going on outings in groups of 4. Some have never been outside of the orphanage so it is a way for them to see the outside world and also get some special attention that they don't receive inside the welfare center.
I know I left a lot out but at least you get the gist of what our week usually looks like. In between all this craziness we have ALOT of family time, lots of time for Hong Kong and Disney Land and lots of time to get to know our new friends that we are making all the time in Shenzhen. We have a pretty normal life ... Most of the time ;)
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