Hi everyone! Sorry It’s been so long since I last updated you on what’s going on. 8th grade has been going great (a little tough, but bearable) and so far the school year has gone very smoothly. I decided I would write this blog to highlight some main things that have happened during my 8th grade year. 

The school year started out great with the Middle School Fall Camp. My Team (The Peace Warriors) won second place. We played games, competed, and had alot of fun!

During the Second quarter of school we had the Middle School Science Fair, my project was about bacteria growth (gross, yet interesting). I placed second overall in the Middle School.

My (long) winter break was awesome (having Michael home was so great)! Christmas went great and our extended break for the Chinese New Year was full of relaxation and family time. We got to take a small trip to the beach which was a very nice get away from the freezing Tianjin (burrrr). 

In the second Semester we moved into our newcampus (yay!) and the dynamics of school definitly changed. It has for sure been nice to have a bigger school building so that we can all spread out more and we finally have a really gym (huge praise)! 

Next up is my birthday which is coincidentally during Spring Break (woohoo). Before I start getting excited I have to get through the whole moving stuff. After that I will definitly be relaxed and ready to party! See you next time, bye! 

This winter break all of us kids decided to create our own combined personal blog called Connecting Four. We wanted to share with you guys everything that has been going on in our lives. You can find us by typing in the URL: http://auditreddi.com/. We really hope all of you are able to visit our website, and don’t forget that if you do stop by, comment! Hope to hear from you soon!

I had my helper cook one of the fish that the bike man gave to Megan. I gave my helper the other 2 to take home and cook for herself. The flavoring was so nice, however the bones are another story. It was such a little fish to begin with, so it was very hard to find a piece of meat with out getting a bone. Megan wasn’t too thrilled about tasting it.

With the expiration of our current apartment lease drawing close, we have been working with our housing committee to find a different apartment for us to live. After much searching, prayer, and discussion, we found a new place. It is a huge blessing to be able to move closer to our new school campus. Since January when our campus moved, we have had to endure difficult commutes in heavy traffic each day. Sean has missed his 5 minute bike ride, like the one he had to our old campus. A lease was signed last week, and we received the keys to our new place on Friday.

Please pray for us as we transition to a new neighborhood…learning all over again where to buy vegetables, fruit, meat and daily essentials. We have so many fond memories in our current Apt. 801. It will be bitter sweet to move.

Other prayer requests:

• perseverance in cleaning and getting the new place ready — Chinese don’t clean like Headricks, and there is much to be done
• patience with one another as we prepare to move — we only have one week to get ready, our move date is scheduled for April 2nd
• new friendships to form quickly in our new community
• energy for Sean in this upcoming week (our school 3rd quarter ends on Friday and he must write personal comments for each of his 25+ students)

One big praise, which we are truly grateful for, is that our organization does pay for a moving company for us, so we do not have to pack, load or transport our stuff to the new apartment. FYI, our new apartment just happens to be #902, just one digit up from #801, but I don’t think Sean will change our domain name to Apt902.com. I will send a complete new address soon (after I get it myself 🙂

When we say dirty, we are talking dirty…these rags used to be white!  Also pictured, Rachel cleaning the girls’ bathroom and Megan with Susan holding the keys to our new place.

Saturday we went down to the basement bike garage to tend to our bikes. The man who guards the bikes happens to be the grandpa of one of the boys who was in Megan’s class at the Chinese kindergarten last fall. We had to share the news about our upcoming move, and pay our bike storage fee to him. He told us he would be sad to see our family move. He told Megan to wait that he wanted to give her something. He opened his storage closet and pulled out a pail of water with live fish in it. He grabbed a plastic bag and put 3 small fish in it for Megan. (They look like little perch). He expected us to cook them for dinner. I was embarrassed to tell my girls that my fish cleaning skills are not very good.

Here’s Megan with the boy from her class, and also holding her bag of fish.

At first glance this photos looks like a man with his new puppy. But look closely and you will see that this animal is no dog at all, rather it is a pet pig!

We glanced out the window of our apartment on Saturday and saw this man with his pet. All the girls were eager to run downstairs to see this little piglet. The owner told us that they got the pig from Thailand as their new pet. Interesting pet to have in a city of 14 million. Here’s Megan trying to feed him dead grass.

Our school often provides professional development for native Chinese teachers of local schools. One kindergarten/preschool in a nearby city, is sponsored by like-minded friends “if you know what I mean”. All the teachers in the school live by the same principals we hold dear in our favorite Book. Our family had the opportunity to provide housing for one of these teachers, who came to observe classes in our Early Childhood Center. It was exciting, to hear her stories. The girls taught her how to make snickerdoodle cookies, while she was with us.

Susan’s mom, sister and little niece were able to come to China for a short visit. We squeezed in many fun things around Tianjin, including a walk to our local vegetable and meat market, a trip to Ancient Culture Street for Chinese souvenirs, a visit to our new school campus, a ride on the Tianjin Eye (one of China’s largest ferris wheels), and the favorite, a trip to the Great Wall.

Rachel acted as tour guide, photographer, and babysitter to her little niece, Elaine (Ellie)!

Megan’s class hosted their weekly morning chapel, by presenting the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Megan played the part of one of the sheep. Their class did a nice job teaching others about the principles of honesty. Sean was able to join us since he teaches most of his classes after lunch.

In Megan’s kindergarten class there is a brother/sister set of twins who are from Poland. Megan’s teacher asked these Polish parents to come to share as part of their social studies unit. Megan’s class has a very diverse demographic including students from Holland, Taiwan, Korea, Poland and the United States.