Our Home town, 西安中国

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:05:25 +0800

Hey! He ate my cookie!

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 17:39:18 +0800

In our October E-newsletter, we announced a ‘caption contest’ for this photo of Samuel. It was a tough choice, but in the end, simplicity paid off. With four kids,“Hey, he ate my cookie,” just seems like something we’d hear around our house!

Here were the runners up:
"look ma, no hair!" (Holly)
"Mom help casper is biting me!" (John C.)
"Ugh, this guy doesn’t have any hair or teeth!" (Cheryl)
"So, this is what Budda looked like as a baby?" (Jake)
"Whoooaa...and they say I'M white for an Asian kid!" (Twyla)
"Ahhhh...help me rescue my friend from this [crazy] dog!" (Twyla)

Trip to an orphanage

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:25:08 +0800

Hey everyone. It has been an amazing first 5 months living in China. (Ha, just as I began to type some workers showed up at the door to check our radiators and request advance payment for heat. Of course, I didn’t know what they wanted. There in lies the stress of living in a foreign country. Even though I feel learning the language is going incredibly well there is soooo much I still don’t know and every day, normal events can be incredibly stressful, even scary.) Well, that isn’t why I began writing. I am just so excited to share with you all the amazing experience Noah, Sophia and I had yesterday.

We had the opportunity to go to an orphanage outside of Xian. A member of our team here who already can speak awesome Chinese has been working on relationship with the orphanage over the past year and she invited us to come along to deliver much needed food and help to teach the kids some english. The orphanage has around 60 kids and was started by an amazing local police woman who became burdened by the many children who became abandoned when their parents were put in prison for a variety of crimes. With the help of many local and international friends she has been able to house and care for many kids, but it isn’t easy. Especially since the Sichuan Earthquake has drawn attention away from her ever-present need to feed these children. We had the privilege of pooling our resources to buy much needed vegetables, meet, tofu, eggs and noodles. It was so touching to see the happy excited faces as the kids helped our team load and haul food from our bus to the cooking area. Ages range from approximately 3 to 18 with the older taking care of the younger. One little guy stole my heart, he looked to be the same age and development as Samuel and the was toddling around while we loaded the food on the carts. He accidentally dropped his little tub of play-dough just as the older kids who were caring for him were trying to get him out of the way of the carts. They hadn’t noticed and thought he was just being a stinker. As soon as one of the kids on the team picked up his play-dough and returned it to him he was happy as can be.

I was so touched as the director of the orphanage expressed her appreciation for the food that we bought that she felt would feed the kids for the next month. She has worked so hard to feed them, buying food and hauling it back without a vehicle of her own. I really don’t know how she could do it using the available public transportation. It must be so difficult. Her eyes held back tears as she thanked us. We were then given a tour. There are 4 or 5 dorm houses, each home to approximately 18 kids, a dorm parent, a bathroom and homework area. We were told that another international group had come and helped to paint their bunkhouses in colorful designs. The last little bunk house was for the youngest little ones with little cribs side to side.

After our tour we had the privilege of doing a little presentation to teach English. I led the kids in singing “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and then a wonderful song called “I will change your name.” (Some of you who helped at RFKC may remember that one.) It talks about how we don’t have to live up to the negative things that are expected of us but that each one of us is created for better. Then we told the story of the younger son who demands his inheritance and wastes it and is forgiven by his dad and loved back into the family. Then we did a craft project with them, giving them new English names. Noah and Sophia both enjoyed giving the kids names, many of them after friends back home.

It was an amazing day, especially after our difficult week with everyone suffering from sickness in our house. We are planning to go again in November and perhaps teach them about our Christmas traditions.

Be sure to check out our photo album of pictures from this trip.

National Day in the muslim quarter

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 14:01:05 +0800

Patty and I had heard that it can take quite a while to send things back home, so we thought we’d do our Christmas shopping nice and early - taking advantage of the free time we have right now. It’s “Golden Week” in China, marked by their National Day. Most people don’t have to work, and all schools cancel class. It’s very similar to our Christmas season.

So, we ventured to the Muslim Quarter, a place known for lots of hand-made gifts. We soon realized that several other million people had the same idea. I’ve never seen so many people in all my life! The street was packed from side to side and as far as you can see -- everyone sampling ethnic foods, and picking up gifts for people back home.

At the end of our walk, we found a place that sells dragon beard candy. My sister had told me about it before, but until then, I hadn’t seen any. Sophia and I made a little video so you can see how it’s done.

The next day, Patty and I made our first trip to China Post to mail all our ‘finds’ to family back home. We were given two options: boat (which would take about 2 months) or plane (which would take about a month.) We opted for the boat since they don’t have to get there until Christmas anyway.

The experience at the post office went fine, just a bit slower than we’re used to. We spent about 2 hours sending 8 packages. They like you to use their boxes, and they also like to look thru the things you’d like to send -- just a security precaution. The great thing is that they even help you pack and wrap your package. As a side bonus, I learned that I can buy an English newspaper, “China Daily”, and an English magazine, “China Today.”

Noah turns 10

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:32:39 +0800

Noah hit the double digits. He’s now 10 years old. Man, how time flies. We keep telling our kids to “Stop it! Don’t grow up so fast!” But, as you can imagine, they keep growing.

We spent the day at a brand new park in Xi’an. I would tell you the name, but we’re not sure what it is yet! We hear it has least 4 different names, but the one we hear most often is South Lake Park, so we’ll go with that one.

We were a little nervous before the party. Noah is the first kid in our family to celebrate his birthday in China, and we knew he missed his cousins and friends back home. School had just started, so he hadn’t developed many friendships with all his new classmates. But, it actually went very well. He invited one boy from Korea, a kid from Canada, and a kid from Washington State. (They all live in Xi’an now, of course). What an international Birthday!

Another challenge was his choice of cake. He wanted a Chocolate “dump cake.” That’s what we call it anyway. It’s a mixture of cake, pudding, and whipped cream blended together into a wonderful and delicious mess. Perfect for a group of boys. The problem? No pudding mixes. No cake mixes, and whip cream is hard to come by! We did find a can of whipped cream, and Patty found some great “from scratch” recipes for Chocolate Cake and Microwave Chocolate Pudding, so it turned out great.

If you want to see a few more photos of the party, go to our gallery page above, and look for our September gallery.