Get This!

We played the waiting game.

We wait to hear from the Foreign Service. We know that invitations to their training classes go out only 4-8 weeks before the beginning of a class. So we wait.

And although praying for The Ultimate (that being a call to D.C. and the Foreign Service this summer), we are beginning to realize that God's plan may take us somewhere else first.

So, we wait on Uncle H--. We waited for Uncle H-- to decide whether they wanted to send us to Hong Kong, or might prefer to ship us back to Chicago. I placed some confidence in this decision, thinking that once Uncle H-- chose between Hong Kong and Chicago, I would only have 2 cities on my preschool application list.

Yeah. So get this.

Uncle H-- in China came back to Dave with a package for Hong Kong, and they truly low-balled it. So low-balled that Dave had to refuse the offer. Simplifying, right?

Dave told Uncle H-- in Chicago that he'd rather just come back home right now.

Uncle H-- in Chicago replied that they feel a stronger need for Dave in Hong Kong than in Chicago, and would try making the case to a global budget. This means waiting a few more weeks.

Yeah, and get this.

Uncle H-- in Chicago comes back to Dave today.
Not with "We're going to make Hong Kong work."
Not with "We're bringing you back to Chicago."
Nope.
"How about New York?"

Just for fun, lets run a few numbers. In St. Louis, we lived in a 3-bedroom house about 20 minutes by bike from Dave's office, downtown. Here in Shanghai, we live in a 3-bedroom house about 20 minutes by bike from Dave's office, downtown. For the same thing in Chicago, Hong Kong or New York?

St. Louis - 1800 square feet - $600 per month
Shanghai - 1800 square feet - $4,000 per month
Chicago - 1600 square feet - $2,600 per month
Hong Kong - 1700 square feet - 85,000 HKD or $11,000 USD per month
New York - 1600 square feet - $6,500 per month

In his current pay scale, Uncle H-- holds the lease and we do not pay our rent every month. The same is true of our children's school tuition. We have a classic expat package, meaning that Dave's salary goes straight into our bank account for groceries and bus tickets every month. It seems that any of these options would include us paying for our own housing... plus, putting 2 children into preschool. In most of these places, tack on an additional $1,000 per kid per month.

Don't expect any fancy Christmas presents from our family this year!

And please, continue to pray that God takes us to DC this summer, or assures us that wherever we go next is certainly the right place at the right time for each member of our family.

Many prayers have been answered so far - the most significant being for peace through this pregnancy. I continue to feel happy and peaceful, and this baby continues to have a spirit of peace about her. The girls continue to be happy, and our day-to-day lives have only been overwhelmed by the massive bureaucracy of renewing our adoption paperwork. It is all a bit unsettling, which came to a head last night when Dave and I could not settle on a name for this baby. We don't know where we're going, how we'll pay for it, whether the adoption will work out, or even what we'll name the baby that's going to join our family in a few short weeks! Unsettling, to say the least!