Big Decisions

Things sure have been busy around here for a while, I normally try to post once a month but I've completely missed May in all the chaos. 

I spent the beginning of April excitedly getting ready for my sister Annie to visit. I wanted to get everything in order in our house and stock up on some groceries. When she finally got here, I was so nervous on the way to the airport to pick her up. I hired a driver to take me there and then wait for us but I had never picked someone up from the Beijing airport before. I was terrified that something would go wrong and my sister would somehow end up lost or stranded in Asia and it would be my fault! But, everything went smoothly for the pickup and for her the rest of her trip actually. Her whole three weeks here we never had any mishaps.

I had been hoping and hoping for nice air and good weather while Annie was here so that we'd be able to go and do all of the touristy things I wanted her to see. We were so lucky because we only had a few bad air days while she was here and we were able to do just about everything we wanted. We ate LOTS of great food at our favorite restaurants and took her to all of our favorite tourist spots and even explored some new things that Joel and I hadn't done before.

I think my favorite was the unrestored Great Wall at Jiankou. Most tourist parts of the Wall have been rebuilt and restored because the original Wall has started to crumble and fall apart. We had to take a bus to a remote mountain village and hike straight up a mountain to get there but it was definitely worth the trip. 

 My next favorite was Datong to see the Hanging Monastery and Yungang Buddha Grottoes. It was a four hour drive and we saw some pretty amazing things. And Will even swam in the hotel pool. Bonus!

 After Annie left, I felt really lonely. I felt her absence far more profoundly than I had expected. Even now that she's been gone for almost a month, I still catch myself missing her often. We had so much fun and I am so grateful that she traveled all that way to come and visit!

Joel and I had some big decisions facing us and we finally worked through them all and Joel has signed a contract for one more year at his school. 

In February, we had pretty much decided that we were going to move back to America after this school year. I was so excited, it was all I could think about. It didn't make a lot of financial sense since we didn't really have a plan for what we would do when we got back, but I was too excited to stop and think about those things. I was really afraid to think about it too much because I didn't want to change our decision. I really wanted to be done and come home, regardless of whether or not it was actually going to be best for our family in the long run. I didn't want to pray about it because I was pretty sure I knew what the answer would be. I was so stubborn. But one day I had the distinct impression that the decision was ours to make and we would be okay if we moved home in July but I also knew that we would come to regret that decision if we left now and that we would end up wishing that we would have stayed one more year in Beijing. My heart was changed completely and I became more excited about being here a little longer. There are still more things to do and see and overall we are very happy here. Living in China has blessed our family greatly and will continue to do so for one more year. Our ideal plan is to live here one more year and Joel can apply to graduate school at the University of Utah for the Fall 2015 semester. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he can get in to the program the first time he applies!

Summer trip tickets are also bought, I'll be home on July 6th and Joel will follow on July 12th and we get to stay until August 24th. We already have our summer to-do list started and we're looking forward to spending time with friends and family. 

Little Will is growing and developing like crazy. One day, he just erupted into all these words and he continually impresses us with his growing vocabulary.  Toddlerhood definitely has its share of challenges, but having Will around brightens our lives and brings us an unbelievable amount of joy. 

Last week, Will and I went to a bookstore to buy a book for a friend's birthday and while I was browsing, Will was busy "reading" books. He would take one very carefully off the shelf, open it up, say random words and babble in a very matter-of-fact tone, and carefully close it and re-shelve it. It was seriously adorable. He had a whole group of young girls totally entranced, they just kept watching him and trying to take pictures when they thought I wasn't watching.

His favorite things are Skyping with family, riding his scooter, going for bike rides, anything that has to do with Elmo and going to the market to buy "bananies."

Sorry for the picture overload, while Annie was here we took 16 GB of photos alone. So I tried really hard to only post my favorites.

Take care!

New resolve

Do you ever feel like you have lots you want to write down and then when you actually have time to sit and write it, you are suddenly incapable of recalling those things? 

I have been thinking for the last few days that I wanted to write a blog post, but for the life of me, I suddenly can't remember what about. 

Maybe if I just start writing, it will come to me.

I was thinking this week about my love/hate relationship with Beijing at the moment. There are days when I think "I really love living here," and there are days when I would give ANYTHING to be back home in Utah. I've recently come to terms with the fact that we will likely be here for one more year. There are still lots of things to do and see in China that I have yet to experience and someday I know I will miss being here once we've moved back. My new resolve is to make the most of Asia while we are here, it's not going to last forever and I don't want to have regrets about things that I didn't do while we were here because in all likelihood, we will never come back here after next summer. So I want to be more excited about living here and to take advantage of the unique things we can do while we live here.

China has blessed our lives in a lot of ways, we've learned so much about what we are capable of and we've met lots of really wonderful people. Living here also gave me the chance to be a stay at mom, which was not possible for us in the situation we were in while living in Utah. We were both working full time but somehow we still seemed to only make enough to live paycheck to paycheck. I loved my job, but it was a long commute from home and I hated having to spend so much time away from my little boy. The summer after he was born and I went back to work, Joel was the one who was taking care of Will everyday since he was on his summer break. But I worried about when he would start teaching again, I had no idea who would watch Will and I didn't want to put him in daycare. I prayed and prayed that we would be able to find a way that I could stay at home and although it was not was I expecting, our prayers were answered when Joel was offered his job here. Not only are we able to save almost half of what we make each month, living here has taught us a lot about budgeting and how to do without certain things. And the best part is that I get to be at home with my little boy. It's not always an easy job, but I feel blessed to be able to be home with him instead of at work.

And because we live in Asia, Will and I can do things like spend the morning at the Forbidden City, just because that's where I felt like going. We may not have Target, but there are so many cool sights to see here and I need to remember how lucky we are that we get to experience all of this.

The Forbidden City from above

My sister Annie will be visiting with us in a few weeks and I am so excited to see Beijing through her eyes. She gets to stay for a little over three weeks and I am working on compiling our list of everything we are going to do and see while she is here. Her visa just came and now it's all official, everything is taken care of so that she can come for a visit. I am so excited that someone in my family will be able to see what our day to day lives are like and I'm hoping that my parents will get to come next spring (if everything works out so that we can stay another year). 

And, my happiest news is that spring is finally here! Beijing is an UGLY city in the winter. No snow, just dead and brown. Now there are leaves and cherry blossoms everywhere and it's finally starting to be warm. Spring in Beijing is my favorite and now that it's here, I'm hoping that those bad air days are mostly behind us.

This is the view from our window on a REALLY badly polluted day. See how gray everything is? That's not fog my friends but toxic air.

This is the same view today, when the air is clear.

Have a happy spring!

Late night breathing problems

I am deep in the midst of a pity party this week. Spring is finally here and the weather is warm, but we've been mostly stuck inside because the air has been so unhealthy. Today, it's 70 degrees out but Will and I only ventured out once (quickly!) in our pollution masks to buy groceries. It's absolutely miserable to not be able to go out and enjoy these warm days with our little boy.

We've always been pretty pollution conscious, but as of late we've doubled our efforts to limit exposure. Two Saturdays ago, we had a really nice warm day but the air was bad. We would normally wear masks with the level of pollution there was, but we were so determined to go and enjoy the warmth outside that we left them home. We were outside for far too long in the bad air and that night, Will woke up around midnight and couldn't breathe. The pollution had irritated his throat so much that his airways had swollen and he literally had to gasp for air. It was truly terrifying. Joel and I turned on the hot water in the shower and sat with our crying, gasping and wheezing toddler in the steam reading him books to try and help him to calm down. My wonderful mother had the foresight to give me an Albuterol inhaler to bring back even though I don't have asthma. I didn't even know if it was okay for a toddler to use it, but Joel and I gave him two puffs on it anyway. Almost immediately, his breathing eased and I've never felt so relieved! We moved his crib into our room so that we'd be able to hear if he had breathing problems again, and sure enough, at 6:00 am that morning, he was wheezing and gasping again. More steam and two more inhaler puffs later, he could breathe again. At the doctor visit on Monday, she told me that having that inhaler on hand had very likely saved us a trip to the emergency room. She also said that little children can be very susceptible to the irritants that are present in pollution, especially during cold season, when even a runny nose can cause a child to be hypersensitive and have a severe reaction like Will did. 

Looking back, it wasn't just the fact that Will was having a hard time breathing that was so scary. I didn't even know where the nearest international hospital to our apartment was, and even if I had, we don't have a car and so we would've had to go and try to find a taxi in the middle of the night and try to explain in our very limited Chinese where we needed to go. My mom and pediatrician were 6,000 miles away and I didn't know who to contact to ask for help or advice. We felt very alone and isolated.

To top off that exciting incident, the doctor that we went to prescribed a bronchodilater for Will to help keep his airways open. When I went home and looked up the medicine just out of curiosity, I read that it's not FDA approved for human use and that in the US, it can't even be used on animals that are going to be consumed by humans because it can have really major side effects even in small doses. So.... I didn't give it to him.

In other happenings, we have been trying to plan out what next year might have in store for us. We have been debating back and forth about whether to move home this summer or to stay here one more year. In the end, we've decided that we feel really good about staying here for one more year and we want to save a little more money before we move back and then Joel will apply to the grad program he's had his eye on at the University of Utah for the fall 2015 semester. But we are still waiting to hear from the Joel's job about whether or not they will renew Joel's contract for one more year. If they want him to stay, then that's great and we will happily live here for one more year. But, if they decide not to offer him another year, then we will go home and try to figure out what do for a year until Joel starts school. 

Trying to plan for the future can be stressful when most of it is out of your hands! 

Even though we don't know for certain whether we are returning, I just purchased round trip tickets home for July 6th - August 24th. It was a sad day for the bank account because we had to buy Will a real ticket instead of a lap ticket since he will be two years old, but I am SOOO looking forward to him having his very own seat.

Here are some of my favorite random Shegrud family photos from the past month:

Holding tight on the subway!

On our way to see Elder Holland speak at our church.

Chicken foot anyone?

It takes a lot of talent to tie down a load like this....

The ultimate Smart Car

Back to Beijing

Despite how nice it was to be home with our families and in America, it's nice be back in the good ol' Beijing. It's good to be back in our regular routine and be back in our apartment. Will especially missed all of his toys and was knee deep in them pretty much as soon as we walked through the door!

We had a really great holiday in the States and a super fabulous week in Mexico over the break.

Joel's awesome fish!

Will got lots of much needed cousin play time.

This beach bed was really fun until.....

It broke!

Our time in Utah with our families was especially nice. Because it was winter for this visit, we weren't as busy out doing things and were able to spend more time just playing at home with our loved ones.

The car was parked!!

Joel and I went to Rodizio's for our anniversary. Delicious!

Both of our families had presents for us and Will and so we were able to have a late Christmas. It was so nice!

We did a lot of flying this trip and thankfully each flight went really well. We are lucky that Will is happy to play by himself with his cars and stays content for most of the 11 hours on the plane.

When we made it back to Beijing, we hadn't realized that there would be a shortage of taxi's at the airport because we came back during the week of Chinese New Year and it had been snowing which means a lot of taxi drivers aren't out because they are afraid of driving in the snow. The waiting line for a taxi was SO long and it was freezing outside. Luckily, we found a nice guy who was doing some illegal taxi driving with his own car and he took us home so we didn't have to wait in the middle of the night and the freezing cold for a taxi to take us home. That was definitely a blessing!

Since we've been back, we've been pretty lucky to have mostly decent air quality and have been able to go outside most days. Yesterday was an especially nice day and Joel had a half day off work so we headed outdoors!

Will was so excited to be able to see clouds in the sky!

Hopefully we'll have more and more nice days as spring gets closer. I am getting antsy for warmer weather so we don't have to spend as much time inside!