老師有問題 Prof, We Have a Problem!

Dear Friends,

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 https://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.

時間很快的就過去了，溥士和仰晴來到印第安那也已經一年多了。從單身邁入婚姻生活，加上從學生到上班族的生活轉變，這一年我們學習了很多功課。

先說溥士吧！上班的第一年很多事情都還在學習中。花了好幾個月的時間來適應上班族的生活，總算慢慢習慣了每天面對電腦螢幕、作統計分析、寫研究報告的工作型態。我的工作應該算是很多人眼中的夢幻工作：上下班時間自己決定、請假跟自己請就可以、要做多少事情也是對自己負責。雖然如此，我還是忙得不可開交。其實之所以會這麼忙主要的原因是我有個很偉大的夢想：我希望自己能夠對大學教育的改革盡一分心力。可是我會的東西不多－做研究是我唯一會的事情。所以我只好盡我所能的生產研究成果，希望有一天我的名字可以列在高等教育的教科書上面。

在教會服事方面，今年也是非常忙碌的一年。我們所在的Bloomington原本沒有華人教會，但是在今年二月的時候我們所參與的印第安那大學華人學生團契正式由學生團契轉換為布魯明頓華人基督教會。這個轉換的過程中有許多大大小小的事情要處理，而溥士這個從來沒有在教會中擔任過執事的人竟然第一次當執事就被推選為執事會的主席。在一個沒有牧師的教會裡，我的責任除了主持執事會以外還要講道、主領聖餐、領會、以及兼顧其他大小事奉。感謝神的是祂在過去這幾年裡帶領溥士在不同的教會中有許多不同的學習：在德州我學到怎樣研讀神的話語，在佛羅里達我學到怎樣帶領查經班。原來神給我們的裝備是為了讓我們更多的事奉祂。我們也非常感謝神讓我們在Bloomington有一群非常忠心愛主的弟兄姊妹，我們一起事奉、一起學習神的話語、一起禱告交通，神的恩典真是夠我們用的。

在婚姻生活裡，我們兩個都更多的認識了自己。溥士以前一直以為自己是一個脾氣很好的人，但是結婚之後才發現其實自己的脾氣沒有那麼好。以前以為自己脾氣好是因為單身的時候想做什麼就做什麼，沒有人管也不需要徵詢別人的意見。結婚之後很多事情都必須要兩個人做決定，而當仰晴的看法與我不同的時候我就會心裡嘀咕。其實我心裡很清楚兩個人不可能在所有的事情上都有一致的看法，但是我們都還在學習如何互相妥協，在愛中互相包容與忍讓。

仰晴這一年一直都在適應不同的生活：從結婚，職業婦女，家庭主婦，到只當了一個禮拜的媽媽，覺得自己好像都跟不上生活上的角色轉變。從一個人到兩個人的生活對我（仰晴）來說並沒有適應上的困難，反而是生活上多一個人照顧我讓我覺得很幸福。另外一方面，從學生到職業婦女，對我來說卻是一大挑戰。從每天一大早起來做早餐，上班，回家之後準備晚餐，也許看起來沒什麼，但是我每天吃完晚餐就累的不想動了。溥士常常笑說我躺在床上只要一秒鐘就可以睡著。我常常等不到他關燈或是跟爸媽電話還沒講完，我就已經睡到不省人事。不過，職業婦女的生活也讓我學習到節省時間和凡事做好計畫。譬如說：早上就把晚上要煮的東西從冷凍庫拿出來退冰、把乾的食物先泡水、或是買可以放比較久的青菜。這樣就不用常常開車去買菜，我也可以在下班之後馬上準備晚餐。

就在已經開始習慣每天從起床後就要開始忙到晚上吃完晚餐的時候，溥士在今年七月一日正式拿到美國的工作簽證，我也跟著從原本的學生身份（Practical Training）轉換為配偶身份。美國的移民法規定持配偶簽證是不能工作的，所以我便不能繼續工作了。原本我的學生身份可以讓我工作到九月一日，但是因為身份的轉變，我必須要提早兩個月結束工作，在家裡開始學習當個全職的家庭主婦。我心裡頗受打擊，因為我已經開始習慣上班的生活，現在卻必須在兩個禮拜之內結束我的工作，而且時間還比我想的早了兩個月。

今年仰晴也開始帶領教會的查經班。這是我第一次帶領學生團契，所以便開始努力的研讀聖經。我希望在帶領別人的同時自己也能更與主親近。帶領學生團契的另外一個責任是要解決契友之間的人際問題－我覺得這比帶查經難多了。以前安慰或是幫助朋友只需要站在自己的立場來說話，反正說對說錯都只是我個人的意見。現在我必須以查經班組長的身份來給別人意見，很擔心自己給了不好的建議。在人際關係上我也很努力的學習和與我做事方式不同的人相處。教會裡面的每一個人似乎都有不同的做事方法，該怎麼與其他的弟兄姊妹同工對我來說是一件需要學習的功課。

今年的印第安那到了十二月還沒有下雪，十一月底的時候甚至還有華氏60幾度的暖天。十二月中我們將會到佛羅里達州的Disney World去玩。這是溥士來美國八年多以來第一次去Disney玩，因此我們都非常的期待。如果您們願意更多的了解我們的近況，請參觀我們的網站http://ypchen.com 從那兒您們可以連結到溥士與仰晴的個人網誌。若是您願意，我們很希望能夠知道您的近況，您可以透過E-mail或是我們的留言版跟我們聯絡。

願神的恩惠與慈愛常與您們同在！