Graduation(s)

[Chinese is following, 中文版在下半部分中。]

It’s been a tough week for Emma and I, especially for Emma. As she was far behind her class and had 4 papers and 2 final exams due the last week, she barely had no sleep. The advantage of her was that she did not need any A, her GPA is over 3.8. Anything higher than F would be good for her. But I still did not know how Emma could make it; I am so proud of my dear wife.

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Wednesday was the due date of her Ethnography paper. After that, the teacher from our kids’ daycare called us: Lisa had pinky eyes. I was preparing the final of Wednesday afternoon, but in half way we went to pick Lisa (and David, too) to the doctor. Without appointment, the waiting time was very long. Only closed to my class we had finished checking them and went back home.

I don’t know what grade I will have in my History class, but then I had to come back and took over the kids. I also pushed Emma to stay in the library and finish her theological reflection paper of internship. That would be 10 pages.

Emma complained to me that she thought she could relax for a while. But I told her that if she wanted to graduate in Saturday, she had to finish this paper before Thursday. Then she went to the school and left me with two kids.

After 5 hours Emma came back and tired. She cried to me after putting kids in beds and said, why should our lives be so hard? Is that really our calling from God?

I had no word to say. Then Emma said, after talking with me, she felt better. And she slept.

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In the morning, Emma waked me early and said she was sick. She said to me the same thing: we are so busy; we even have no time to see a doctor.

So we checked which hospital will open in the morning and I suggested her one of the urgent care in Irmo. It will open at 7 a.m. Emma planned to go along, but when she was preparing, both kids waked up. It turned to be a family party in the morning:

David and Lisa went to a McDonald’s which has a place space. We enjoyed McDonald’s breakfast while Emma went to the hospital. After 2 hours, Emma came back.

Then we hurried back to school, meeting with a friend who wanted to buy our car. From school, we went to DMV and finished the deal. After we went back home, Lisa and Emma fell into fast asleep very soon.

I brought David to the pharmacy to pick up Emma’s medicine. That was Thursday.

That night, Esther came to babysit kids, and we went to CIU’s Spouse Appreciation Banquet. When I spoke of thanks to Emma, I was crying.

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Friday morning, David was sick. So He and Lisa both stayed at home. I took him out to school, for we had at least 4 things needed to be done: to business center and call insurance company; clear our balance with account office; ask for one more ticket for our friends Aki and Anne and sent tickets to them; produce prayer cards and print out several hundred copies; and more.

David was sick, and he slept in the car whenever we drove. Occasionally we came back home and took a nap. Then the whole family went to Publix to get grocery. Our refrigerator was empty now.

David did not eat, he asked to see a doctor. So I brought him to the same urgent care Emma went yesterday. When we came back, it was 9 p.m.

I worked for our prayer card till 2 a.m.

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Saturday morning, Emma and I were the last two candidates arriving at school. Everyone was on line waiting for us. In our hurry David fell down and cried, and I brought them to other Chinese students in the last minute before we marched into the chapel.

That’s where the pictures took……

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毕业前的一周是最忙的。Emma有4篇论文，两个期末考试。她几乎没有怎么睡觉。

周一完成了两篇论文。

周二考了两科。周三上午处理文化与世界观的论文。但是刚刚处理完，幼儿园就来了电话：Lisa感染了红眼病，要立刻送医院。

Emma于是紧急将我从图书馆叫回来，当时我正在预备下午的考试。12点，我们接了Lisa。David也不好，所以决定将他们两人一起送医院。因为没有预约，所以不知道需要多长时间。Emma说，如果来不及，你打电话叫人来接你去学校考试吧。

检查的结果还好，Lisa有点红眼病，但是David没有感染。1：30，我们回家了。我正好赶上考试。

草草做完试卷，立刻回家照顾孩子们。我提醒Emma，还有实习论文要写。如果想周六毕业，大约周四应该要将论文交给教授批阅。

Emma很沮丧，说刚刚才放松了，我又给她压力。不过她还是顺服地去学校了，把两个孩子交给我带着。10点钟她才回来，孩子们都睡着了。好在这是emma 生平写得最快的一篇论文，5个小时写了10页，天才呀！

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周四早上，6点我们就起床了。因为emma 生病了，需要去医院。除了急诊以外，最早的医院7点开门。结果我们一家人去了麦当劳吃早点，然后David和Lisa在麦当劳和我一起玩，Emma去附近的医院。

将近10点，我们赶回学校和一个朋友交易我们的车。不知道如何进行，网上试试不行，我们就直接去了机动车管理处。最后发现，其实只要我签字就行了，根本不用去那么远的地方。