An Experiential journey of our new house

We are so blessed and our cup runneth over! We were able to move into our new townhome on Thursday night. Once we got the go ahead to move in, I went shopping all day with a friend and then had our Ayi come over and cook dinner. I guess I wasn't as prepared as I could have been, but nevertheless, we moved in. So about 6pm on a Thursday night we start bringing loads over. Thankfully it was only about a mile away and took only about 4 trips as our neighbors had their 2 drivers help as well. I just need to say, the drivers here are some of the most hardworking and kind people I have ever been able to meet. They would not let us carry anything and if they saw me trying to carry something, they immediately took it away. (again, I am not sure how I am going to acclamate when we return to the U.S.)
Okay, so back to moving in... of course the kids are so excited and bouncing off walls and running all over the house, while Matt and I are trying to find the sheets and blankets that we brought with us. I might mention that the heat wasn't turned on, so the temperature in the house was about -5 degrees F (okay, maybe not that cold, but Matt wouldn't take his jacket off, so it was pretty cold) We turned the heat on and it only took about a day and half to heat up the house. We then had to make the beds, and to give you an idea of what it felt like...here is an illustration so you too can experience a bed in China. Bring your kitchen table into your bedroom, stretch your sheets out and nicely pull them over the corners of the table, put the blankets and pillows on and lay down (remember it is about -3 degrees F). I wouldn't say it was the most comfortable nights sleep, but if you like camping in the winter on the ice, this might be right up your alley. Thankfully we have western toilets in the house, and to let you experience what it like using those, you could go to your freezer and get about 4 frozen icepacks and lay them on your toilet seat. Then try to sit down and relax and do your business, in -12 degree F heat.
I am a "take a hot shower daily" kind of a person, so in the morning after sleeping in -15 degree weather on a table, I was kind of looking forward to a hot shower. I go into the bathroom and to help you really understand what this was like, you could go to your freezer, get a bucketful of ice, put it in the blender and then dump it on your head. I turned the knobs every possible way and it seemed like it only made the water colder and colder. I put my clothes back on, and decided to pass on the shower. I then realized that each water area in the house (sink, shower etc) has its own water tank and you have to turn the heat on each individual tank. So the thermometer said the water was 11 degrees C (which I think translates to -10 degrees F or something like that) So at 6:30amI turn the water heater on for that shower and on in the bathroom by the kids room. By 8pm that night, the temperature was at 68 degrees C... Yes, I will have a hot shower the next morning. :)
The first day in the house was quite fun. They provided BEAUTIFUL new furniture for us. Just so you too can experience what this new furniture is like sitting on, go to your nearest park, put a blanket over the bench so it looks all soft and fluffly, and then plop down on it like your going to be sitting on the softest most plush couch ever. I am really getting used to this new "hardness" factor that seems to be prominent here.
We have a lot of doors throughout the house. Even our kitchen had shower like doors on it (which we had removed)...not quite sure what the purpose for that was...they said to keep the cooking smell only in the kitchen, but if you open the doors to come out, won't the smell come with you? If there is a room, there is a door. If there is a door, there is a lock with 3 keys. So doing the math, just inside our house alone, we have about 15 doors and about 45 keys. Can you imagine our key ring? So each door has it's own key, and if you get the keys mixed up, a different key won't work on a door it wasn't made for. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until I had taken the keys out of about 5 doors and hadn't been keeping track to which doors they were for. (whatever happened to the little key you put above your bathroom door and could be used on any door?) The odd thing is...the door leading to the backyard, outside the house, doesn't have a lock or key. If you go outside into the back yard, the door won't stay closed, because in order to close it all the way you have to turn the handle down on the inside of the house, and that locks it so you can't get in from outside. You can't unlock it from the outside at all. The other odd thing is that the windows don't have locks or screens and one of my concerns was my kids opening a window and falling 3 flights to the ground. Eli already discovered that he can open the kitchen window and crawl through it to the porch outside in the back yard. That looked pretty fun. We also have windows inside the house that look to other rooms inside the house. Two windows actually open up to a little white space inside the house that isn't used for anything, maybe it will be my happy place.
We have a beautiful little kitchen, but not one drawer. Thankfully we still haven't gotten dishes, so we were able to use ALL the storage space we have in the kitchen with the little food we have. We are planning to buy dishes today at IKEA, so perhaps we will pick up a little shelving unit to put them on while we are there.
We have a washer and dryer in the basement and so in keeping with the whole Ayi thing, I thought I would show her how to use it. Since everything is written in Chinese and only a few things are translated, I thought her ability to read Chinese would come in handy. We put some laundry soap in different dishes (since we didn't know which one the soap was supposed to go in, we just put soap in all of them) We guessed on a setting and hit start. We waited and nothing happend, so we pushed some more buttons. Eventually the washer started turning, but there was no water. I then verified that yes indeed we were using the washer and not the dryer. No water. I started looking for the water supply to this area, and couldn't find one. HMM...well, I called the lady that works in the neighborhood office and she came over and then used her walkie talkie and called a maintenance man. He came over and as they were downstairs, my neighbor came over so she could learn how to use the washer as well. We were talking upstairs when we heard a thud. We looked down over the banister and didn't hear or see anything, so we continued our conversation. Up came the lady holding her limp arm. Yes, the poor girl fell on the steps and we later found out, broke her arm. The worker stayed and worked on the washer and then came up and told my Ayi something. She told me that he had to go get something, implying to me that he was coming back. Well I didn't see him the rest of the day, and I still don't know how to get water to the washing machine. Now that the girl is gone because of her broken arm, and I don't have a walkie talkie, I am not sure how to get in touch with the worker.
It may seem like our house is lacking...but we are soo very thankful. I will say, it does have a nice red panic button on the wall in living room right about my 4 year old Eden's height...and we didn't have one of those in Arizona.

I was very thankful yesterday that we had pack two 72 oz bags of chocolate chips. I found myself repeatedly going to the freezer and getting handfuls of choc. chips throughout the day.

We laugh a lot here over different things and I think our mighty God has a great sense of humor. He brought our family over the oceans to a foreign place and I am coming to terms with being an alien in a foreign land. One thing that has been constant is His presence. Although I knew He was here in China, I am so thankful to experience and see His hand at work myself. I told Matt one night that I wanted to go back to Arizona. He asked why and I told him because I didn't know why God brought us here. He laughed and asked me if I had asked Him why. Although I know it is for our growth and His glory, I want to know specifics. I guess if He told me, I might try to "help" Him out and I don't think He needs that kind of help. We want to keep a kingdom perspective and be moldable and useable for HIS purpose. I continue to say "here I am, send me." We love you Jesus, and want to share what you did for us on the cross with the people of China.