我們的小女兒Ellie在今年一月二十七日誕生於Denton Regional Medical Center。Ellie跟她的哥哥姐姐一樣,剛出生的時候體重沒有非常的重(身長45.72公分,重2,755公克),但是出生後就突飛猛進。到三個月健康檢查的時候她的身高體重已經超過平均了。Ellie跟哥哥姐姐不一樣的地方是她從一出生就非常的好動。Samuel和Emma都是到了七、八個月才會翻身,而Ellie四個月就會翻身了。Samuel和Emma到了十個月之後才會爬,Ellie七個月就會爬了。看來我們兩個運動細胞不發達的爸爸媽媽總算生了一個比較好動的小孩。
It is our great pleasure in this holiday season to share God’s blessings in our family with you. We used to write letters like this a few years ago, but we haven’t done that for a couple of years. This year we decided to resume this tradition.
Our youngest daughter, Ellie, was born in January 27, 2011. Like her older siblings, Ellie was relatively small in size (18 in.) and weight (6 lb. 2 oz.) comparing to other newborns. However, Ellie grew fast after going home from the hospital, and by her 6-month checkup she was weighted at 75th percentile. Unlike her brother and sister, Ellie was very active and her physical development was more on schedule than her siblings. Neither Samuel nor Emma was able to roll over until about 8-month old, and none of them could crawl before 10-month old. In contrast, Ellie started to roll over at the age of 4 month and she could crawl at 7 month. Ellie is now able to walk by holding onto the side of chairs or end tables. We expect her to be the most athletic person of our house.
Samuel turned four in August this year. He is now in charge of not only his sisters but also his dad and mom. Samuel has always been a very curious and cautious child. He not only asks why all the time, he also wants us to explain the reasons behind every decision we have ever made. Sometimes we feel so tired of answering his questions, but we recognize his intelligence and eagerness to learn new knowledge. Samuel has very good memory and he likes to read and count numbers. He will start kindergarten next year.
Emma is now 2 years old and she is the happiest child of our house. She laughs a lot and she is the joy of our house. Emma also likes to talk and we are very impressed by her language ability. Since this August, Emma has been attending a half-day mother’s-day-out program with her bother three days a week. She is the only girl in her class of 10 students. Emma is very creative and she likes to paint, draw, play music, and do all kinds of artistic activities. She also likes everything that has the picture of princesses or Hello Kitty on it.
Raising children, serving in the church, and working fill the time of our life. Since Daniel must teach evening classes each semester, Yang-Ching has to take care three children from morning to bed time all by herself a few days a week while also doing cooking, cleaning up, and grocery shopping. This is a really challenging task, but we thank God for His providence that we have survived relatively well so far. We trust in God’s grace and we believe He will provide what we need to raise our family.
Daniel is in his 4th year working for the university. His tenure clock is ticking and he is one and a half year away from his tenure review. Daniel spends more and more hours working on his research and also with doctoral students on their dissertation research. Daniel puts a lot of pressure on himself and he hopes to generate enough publications to earn tenure and stay at UNT.
Both Yang-Ching and Daniel have blogs (in Chinese) and we share our thoughts, feelings, and life trivia on them. You can follow our blogs at http://ypchen.com and http://pushih.com. We wish you will also share what happens in your life with us. You can make us your Facebook friends or email us.
Last but not least, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
經過兩年多在Indiana University當研究員的生活,我們決定該是前往人生下一個驛站的時候了。2007年底我開始寄出履歷表應徵助理教授的職位,之後有好幾個面試的機會。我對於工作的要求其實不多,最重要的是希望能去一個有華人教會的地方。從一月初開始面試到三月底,雖然談了好幾間學校,而且對方似乎也都很喜歡我,卻沒有一間學校願意給我聘書,反而是信箱裡一封又一封的拒絕信。我心想上帝大概要我們繼續留在 Bloomington 服事祂的教會吧!沒想到四月初的時候我接到我的母校 University of North Texas 打來的電話,他們希望我回去面試高等教育助理教授的職位。於是我風塵僕僕的回到了 Denton ,這個曾經是我生命中的曠野的地方。其實我從接到UNT電話的那一刻就覺得上帝似乎要帶領我回德州。面試的過程非常的順利,我對於UNT高等教育系的前景非常的看好,系上的教授們似乎也覺得我正是他們缺少的那一塊拼圖。
前年(2004)八月,仰晴在Ohio University完成她的音樂治療同等學歷課程後便來到Florida State University繼續攻讀音樂治療的碩士學位。因為仰晴是我在FSU的一個好朋友的學妹,因此我便理所當然的幫助她在Tallahassee安頓下 來。我幫仰晴搬家,又帶她去買車子。仰晴跟我都是基督徒,因此我們同在Tallahassee唯一的一間華人教會聚會。開學之後大家都很忙碌,便沒有太多的交集,頂多在教會見面打個招呼罷了。