China
Blog A23

A Break in the Clouds 08-06-2009

Just now, I’m sick of hotels, unfamiliar food, and generally
feeling displaced.  Even when we get our
house, we won’t have access to the things we packed until they get here in
another five weeks (you’ve heard about the slow boat to/from China – that’s
what they are on).  Brad has been to work
every day these last four days and we’ve been stuck here with nothing to
do.  We are all going a little stir
crazy.  Grumpy me.  I think I need to go for a run.

School is supposed to start next Wednesday and we are still
putting in applications to schools.  AISG
is not going to work out, they base admissions too heavily on the entrance exam
performance; our 13 year-old son has never taken that sort of test before and found
it confusing.  Our 15 year-old daughter
has limited experience with those exams also, add jet-lag into the mix, plus
our late application, and I think it was not good.  We have talked with another international
school which doesn’t require an entrance exam, and they place into grades
according to age.  This is how it was
done in Utah
and we were able to help our kids through the transition from homeschool to
public school quite well.  It took a lot
of effort at home, but it did work out. 
I already know our 15 year-old has the ability to do just fine in
whatever school she goes to.  She’s
already made the transition to “regular” school.

Someone from church just called to tell me she has a car and
would love to take me shopping for some of the things that we will need in
order to get a home set up.  That was
really a nice ray of hope in a dreary day. 
We can make it through this and I know the Lord is mindful of us.

It’s finally stopped raining now.  I even see some blue sky at the moment.