Fun at Home

Just a couple more random shots - Mason's a lot more into posing for pictures than Reister. Note that his eyes are so straight. It's still a miracle to me the difference. So many pictures of him from last year show his eyes obviously VERY crossed. Praise God for the success of his surgery!

In fact I'll show you one from last fall at my Mom's house (not one of the worst, but you can see the crossing)

One of Reister's new favorite passtimes is to fill up a water gun and shoot himself with it. You can see his reaction here...

New Pajama Fun

Finished Product

Here is the Chicken with Pasta & Peppers - It turned out pretty good. The only change I made was to use a little milk when making the chicken broth (I used boullion I bought in the states instead of local chicken seasoning that I've used in the past). It was pretty good - I think I might could have roasted the peppers longer or more completely. It was a light and probably healthy dinner - Micah and I tend to like heavier, creamy sauces, but we should probably stick to lighter ones like this for health's sake!

We ate it with salad and bread and had enough for two small servings of leftovers the next day.

Home Cooking

Although the term probably brings to mind good southern dishes, my meaning is a little different... I mean cooking almost completely from scratch at HOME (my home in East Asia that is)
I have to admit I didn't cook very much while we were back in Texas. We "group" cooked at my in-laws - we all pitched in, but my mother-in-law did the most. Micah did a lot of grilling out on their nice gas grill (wish we had one here!) and we had a lot of good food. When in Austin with my parents, we mostly ate out (at REALLY good places like Chipotle, Mighty Fine Burgers, Rudy's BBQ, and Chic-fil-a. But now that we're back here, we are eating out Chinese, eating in Chinese (that my helper makes a couple times a week) and cooking at home. (Oh yeah, we will eat out American food from time to time but it's expensive and we're trying to live on a tight budget) I am not a super creative cook nor do I just LOVE to cook. In fact the first couple times I cooked at home I was like "yuck! I have to get my hands dirty - while making pizza dough, or homemade pork sausage." Something I've never really successfully done is meal plan. I know lots of moms plan out their meals at the beginning of the week but so far I haven't. I aspire to be that kind of homemaker! The best I have done is plan a day or two in advance. Micah and I both tend to be more spontaneous I guess.
As I've considered WHAT to make at home, I have become very thankful for my friend Sara Beth's recipe blog. Today I'm going to try her "Pasta with chicken and peppers" recipe and just finished roasted red bell peppers for the first time. It was kind of fun and smells very good.
We'll see how the dinner turns out. I'm planning to have salad and bread with it. Maybe I'll even take a picture to show you! :)

Back to School

Reister is going to go to the preschool just across the street from our gate. We went to check it out together yesterday and the principal decided to put him in the 4-6 year old class. He would change to that class anyway when he turns 4 so it will avoid another transition. Plus, the kids in that class are speaking clearer and hopefully interacting more than in the younger class so hopefully that will help him learn Chinese faster. Today I went and stayed for almost an hour and then left him by himself for a little over an hour. He didn’t like the “exercise” routine that they do first. I assume they do the same routine to music everyday (for about 15 minutes) so maybe he’ll learn it eventually. They will be practicing a lot the rest of this month for the June 1st Children’s day performance. But I know Reister would HATE participating in that, so I’m not going to make him. Plus he might miss out on some practices just going half day. We’ll probably let him go 3 times a week till after the June 1st holiday then start him 5 mornings a week. I feel good about his teachers – they all speak standard Mandarin rather than the local dialect. I think the children do too. This morning on the way there I asked Father to give Reister one boy that would be his friend. When the teachers took all the students to the bathroom (they go all at once every hour or so) a boy came up to Reister and took his hand and led him along. I almost cried! I hope that boy will continue to “take care of” Reister and become his good buddy. One girl was in Reister’s class last year when he went to that school and remembers him and wants to play with him. But Reister doesn’t really want to have anything to do with her or the other girls. Ha ha!

Playing Outside

I'm thankful for a apartment complex that we can enjoy - ours has some nice paved roads and sidewalks as well as a couple playgrounds. We have gone out several times since we got back. Reister and Mason have both been happy to ride their "bikes". This particular day, though, neither wanted to ride back from the playground and I was by myself and it ended up being quite an ordeal to get them back to the apartment. I actually left Reister's tricycle at the front gate and got it later after Micah got home. I had to carry Mason's and hold his hand and also coax Reister along. I think jet-lag is still creeping up on us at times.
Micah traveled this past week and it was quite a shock for me taking care of the boys completely on my own. At first I couldn't figure out why - I've done it lots of times before - but then I realized that after staying with our parents for the last 6 months I had gotten used to a lot more help - not to mention ways to entertain the boys. I've been having to pray for LOTS of patience and grace in parenting. It's so good though, that I'm kept dependent on the true Provider!

We Made It!

We are back! And boy are we excited to be back! I didn't realize how nice it would feel to be in our own home. Don't get me wrong, we are still missing our family and friends terribly but at the same time we know this is where we are supposed to be so it feels great to be back.
The trip went well. Amazingly, the 14 hour flight across the ocean wasn't that bad. The boys both slept for two long chunks. The food was good, the in flight entertainment was good (we each had our own tv) and the boys really didn't flip out about having to be on the plane for so long. The plane's seats were actually arranged in a 3-3-3 set up so we couldn't sit in 4 seats together but Mason ended up wanting to be in one of our laps most of the time anyway.
We arrived back to a clean apartment, with new paint on the walls and lots of basic grocery items thanks to our friends Ann & Heather. Jet lag hasn't been too miserable but I can't seem to shake the "swimming head". The boys were both very excited to play with their old toys and had no problem adjusting to their beds.
I know I still need to catch up on pictures from our time in the states and then start posting new ones of our time here. I will try to be faithful about posting!!!

Heading Back

We will board a plane in Dallas at 7:30pm Wednesday (CST)and have two layovers and finally arrive in our city on Friday at 1:00pm (local time in East Asia). It totals up to around 30 hours of travel. We are all packed and will leave Sulphur Springs with Micah's parents tomorrow at noon. We hope to enjoy one last meal somewhere in the metroplex before checking in and boarding our first flight. We are excited to return but don't enjoy saying goodbye to loved ones!
Please lift up our trip! We can always sense the prayers that we know are being lifted up on our behalf.
I still hope to update with pictures of the rest of our time in Texas but it will have to wait until we get back!
See you from the other side on my next post :)

October 2009

We arrived in Texas October 23, 2009. Micah's parents, Mike & Sandra, picked us up at the airport in Dallas and took us back to Sulphur Springs. Our first few days were quite tiring as we adjusted to the different time zone but we managed to get out and about some!

At a local park with Granddaddy


We were amazed with the clear blue Texas sky!


Playing with Daddy





We had already decided before we got back that Reister could be a cowboy for any Halloween parties or trick-or-treating we might do. The good thing about being a cowboy is that almost the entire "costume" was reusable!


And that was October! :)

Winding Down

Our time in the states is coming to an end. We have received the needed paperwork to apply for our visas and expect to receive our passports with new visas in about a week. We hope to fly back about a week after that - so we're looking at about 2 more weeks. We have already said our tearful goodbyes to my family in Austin and are in Sulphur Springs with Micah's family for the remainder of our time.
Our time back has been really good. We have gotten to do a lot, see a lot of people and just enjoy our families! Unfortunately there are people we didn't get to see and we're sorry for that! It's harder than we thought to transport kids for hours on the road and figure out where to stay, etc.
I hope to post some pictures highlighting our time back but it may take some time :)
We are looking forward to returning to our home in East Asia and reuniting with all our friends there!
Both boys are doing well - Mason is actually sick right now but on the mend. I'm thankful we're still here so we can easily get to doctors and get reliable medicine. But otherwise, it's fun to see how they've both grown and changed in the six months that we've been here. I'm curious to see how they will react to new surroundings when we go back. Reister remembers our home there, but I'm not sure Mason will.
Now it's time to enjoy the beautiful Spring day - blue skies and lots of green grass around here! We can't take that for granted because we definitely won't have that when we get back to Asia!

Wedding Bells

One of the most exciting things that has happened during our time back was that my brother got engaged! He proposed in Austin on March 4 and we were able to be there (hiding) in order to take pictures. After she said yes, we appeared and took some more pictures and then went to dinner with them (my parents kept the boys). We love Jenna and are so excited for the two of them. They are both in college and have about 3 years left, but are looking forward to their life together. We are thankful we were able to be there for the engagement because we won't be able to return for their wedding in July. :( It has been a blessing to get to know Jenna more and spend time with them together. I'm so excited to be getting another sister-in-law and so happy for my brother to have found his wife! We know God will be truly glorified not only in their wedding but more importantly their marriage!

A Little Update

We are still in Texas! I have really slacked on updating the blog and I'm sorry for that. We are still waiting on our visas to return to East Asia but for now we're enjoying time with family. Here's a picture from today - all the cousins on Micah's side of the family except the oldest one, Preston, who has graduated from college and lives in Denton.

The older ones, Katie (top left) and Blake (top right) are Micah's middle sister, Paula's. Sadie (bottom right) is 3 weeks older than Reister and is Paula's youngest. Jackson (in green) and Rachel (bottom left) are Robin's - Micah's older sister. Paula and her family live just around the corner in Sulphur Springs. Robin and her family live in Denver but are here visiting this week. So we're having lots of family fun!

Mason's Surgery

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a long time! In case there are some of you that didn't hear about Mason's surgery, I'm pasting the emails I sent out below...

January 28th

Hi Friends!

We just wanted to remind you that Mason will have his surgery tomorrow (January 29^th) at 7:30am CST. He will have both eye muscles operated on as well as his circumcision. He will have a blood factor administered to help his blood clot properly shortly before the surgery. Micah and I are in the hospital with him now and will stay with him tomorrow night as well. Reister is with my parents in Austin. We hope to send out an update tomorrow night to let you know how it goes. Thank you so very much for your support and pr@yers! We are trusting in our Sovereign G0d!

Blessings,

Michelle for all the Webbs

January 29th

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for your prayers! We truly felt them! We both had a real peace as we waited during surgery and were very much aware of G0d’s presence and sovereignty. Mason got out of recovery by almost noon and has been resting/sleeping in the hospital since then. The surgery started a little late because there was a mix up on getting him the blood factor that he needed to help him clot properly. Once it was finally found and administered, his surgery began and both the circumcision and eye muscle surgery went fine. We spoke with both doctors afterward and they said that everything went well. So far Mason has been asleep (but moving around and sometimes trying to rub his eyes) since he returned. We’ll just pretty much hang out here in the room with him and wait for his eye doctor to come by later to check on him. The urologist will check him out tomorrow morning. Then, as long as the hematologist is satisfied with his recovery we should be discharged tomorrow.

What a blessing to have access to such great healthcare and physicians. We are very thankful that Mason could get this taken care of during our time in the states.

As far as his eyes, he will most likely continue wearing his glasses but will hopefully have less crossing as a result of the surgery. It would be awesome if the surgery provided more of a complete correction, but only time will tell for that.

We love you all and thank you very much for your prayers and encouragement!

Michelle for all the Webbs

Update as of February 7th:

Mason is recovering well. His eye doctor saw him again on February 4th and said he looked good but to continue wearing his glasses indefinitely. Mason is far-sighted and that problem is isolated from his strabismus (eye crossing) problem. We have to give him eye drops and ointment every night that he doesn't like very much but other than that he doesn't seem bothered by his surgery. His circumcision is also healing well.

Sweet Reister

A couple of nights ago when I was laying with Reister for a couple minutes before he went to sleep he said "Mommy..... I love you all the world!"

I sure love my sweet Reister! (even "all the world")

Happy New Years!

I guess I should say Merry Christmas too! Maybe I'll eventually post some Christmas photos...

We had a very busy December as we traveled all over Texas before landing in Austin to spend Christmas with my family. It was a lot of fun to be there with LiLi and Poppo and Uncle Sean! But right before Christmas we got the sad news that my grandfather (my Dad's father) had passed away. My Dad, brother and I all drove up to Kansas to be with my grandmother and attend the memorial service. Micah stayed in Austin with my Mom to keep the boys. We were able to still be with my Mom's side of the family on Christmas day. The day after Christmas we drove up to Denver to visit Micah's oldest sister, Robin. Micah's other sister & family and his parents joined us as well. We had a great time together and got to enjoy the snow as well! Reister was a big fan of sledding while Mason enjoyed being pulled around on the sled.
Now we're in Sulphur Springs for a week. We'll be traveling to the east coast next week and then be back in SS for several days before heading back to Austin. The latest with Mason is that he's most likely going to have a combo eye surgery and circumcision on January 29th in Temple. He's going to have a trial procedure on the 22nd ordered by his hematologist to see if a certain injection will cause him to produce the necessary blood factor to make surgery safe for him. Although the eye surgery is normally a short out-patient procedure, Mason will need to stay overnight for observation to make sure he doesn't having any problems related to his Von Willibrands (bleeding disorder).
I wish I was better about posting updates and pictures but I feel like we have just been SOO busy and crazy with all of our traveling. For those of you who still read our blog, keep coming back! I really do hope to catch up someday - especially before we head back to the land of slow internet! :)