It's been three months since I last updated the blog! I knew this would happen...I'm hopeless at journaling. But I've kept it up off and on for two years, which is a big deal for me.
it's not that nothing has been going on....Kai started first grade in his new school and loves it. Kiara is doing all kinds of fun things like trying to stand, laughing, and trying all kinds of foods like spinach, pumpkin, and oatmeal. We moved to a village house and are in the midst of an ongoing drama with the Internet company who refuses to connect us, forcing us to live in a primeval cave-like state devoid of TV, cable, Internet, and other things that separates man from beast. On the plus side, the village sits on a mountain that is protected from development by being a state park, and there is a gorgeous and clean stream where we can swim under a canopy of lush green trees and other flora with butterflies dancing all around. It's like swimming in a fairy tale picture.
I told my school i would not re-sign a contract with them, and hoofed it all over Hong Kong trying to find a new job, terrified that I wouldn't get a job and I'd be homeless. Then I found a job at a school on the same street as my new flat (joy joy...no more 90 minute commutes each way for me next year!) and now I am in the process of getting my paperwork together to get a new work visa for myself and dependant visas for the fam. I am totally excited that my job duties will be very different from my current one, and it seems like the perfect match to my skills and abilities.
We also hired a helper from the Philippines to live with us and do all the cooking and cleaning and shopping and baby care so all i have to do when I get home is play with the kids, eat, and sleep. I can even have a date night with my husband, which we had done all of twice in the 6 years since we had Kai. Our marriage is 1000% better these days because we no longer have to fight about money or who is doing more house chores and who's being a slob etc. We have enough to pay the bills and some left over to get help to do the things we don't like to do and so we can relax and enjoy life and have a sparkling clean home, yummy healthy meals, and happy kids.
And I'm really excited that, thanks to the contract clause that pays for airplane tickets every two years for the whole family, I can afford to go back to the US to visit friends and family next month! We've already been invited to three birthday parties, so Mabo and I are hoofing it all over Hong Kong to find a shop that sells these cool bamboo toys we saw at a Toy Expo last year in HK that we are dying to give to the kids.
Wow, thinking back, more changes have taken place in the past three months than in the past two years combined! I had a time like that in 2004 when about a million life changes happened in the period of a few months: I got married, i attended two major funerals and dealt with end of life issues, I left my job, I moved, I started grad school, just to name a few. When it rains, it pours for me.
But the changes in 2012 have all been really positive ones and I'm happier than I think I've ever been.
Thank you Hong Kong. For all your flaws, you certainly do have some good points.
