Getaway!

Last week, we surprised our kids and told them we were going to the beach that weekend to celebrate our 1yr anniversary (we really believe in milestones and celebrating them with the kids). They were very excited. However, none of us really knew what to expect because we had never been to this place before. When you live here, you learn to keep your expectations pretty low....because you never know what you might find. A few friends had been to this beach before so they gave us advice as to where to stay, where to eat, what to do, etc.
Turns out.....we had a great weekend, and can't wait to go back.

Thanks to Hannah and Hudson's school principal, we stayed in a BEAUTIFUL hotel. We were very excited to have a lot of space to spread out and relax. This hotel also had a wonderful pool. It was clean, big, and beautifully landscaped.

We arrived Friday evening, after we all finished school, checked into our hotel, and headed to the local token Western restaurant called Tommy's. Coincidentally Tommy was eating there too. Hudson was so impressed because he had never eaten at a restaurant were the restaurant' s namesake was also there. It was really not a big deal, seeing Tommy is a retired man from Australia who lives on the 3rd floor of the restaurant. The food was excellent and we were happy. We walked down the pier after dinner and took in the vastness of the dark ocean in front of us then returned to the hotel.....Hudson wanted a late night swim. No one else was willing to swim because it was too cold. (He lasted 15 minutes)

On Saturday we hit the beach. As I sat with our stuff (see massive number of people in the pics, we were told not to leave our stuff alone) I watched the people. We all laughed quite a bit that day watching people. Some of our highlights were the grown men doing cartwheels and handstands or sprints and leaps as they enjoyed the beach (never in America would you see this....especially when the men are wearing speedos). Or there was the 8yr. old kid who wore only his birthday suit. WOW, my kids didn't know what to think of that. The best was when his parents asked for him to take a pic with Hannah and Hudson. The look on my kids faces was priceless. Then there was the man who wore a spandex swimsuit, made to look like denim. Hmmm.....not the best choice.

Here Hannah is being bombarded by picture takers. Each one of those girls wanted their own picture with her. Rob had to go and rescue her because more and more people kept coming up joining the crowd to have their pics taken with her. It was very overcast, windy, and a little cold......perfect beach weather for the locals who hate being out in the sun. My crew braved the cold and swam in the ocean, played in the sand, and had a very good time. I, however, was the party pooper and didn't swim, it was too cold for me. Rob was the hero. After cleaning up we found a great dinner place, walked around the main square, rode in some pedicabs, and made it back to our hotel. On Sunday we slept in, ate lunch at Tommy's again, then went back to the hotel pool and swam for a few hours. It was warm, beautiful and the pool was very refreshing. After that, we boarded the bus for the 3 hour trip back home. It was a great weekend! Perfect retreat before the busy weeks ahead!!

The Wedding

I love to go to weddings. So, I was extremely excited to be invited to my first one here in this country. I knew it wouldn't be like any wedding I had been to in the past, and I was excited to see what would happen. The wedding started at 5pm, and the bride and groom asked us to arrive about 4pm. Before I go any further, the bride and groom have already been married for a while, in fact they already have a sweet baby girl. They have just never had their formal wedding celebration. So, now that the wife is past her "3o days after giving birth" seclusion period, she can come out and celebrate. So, they decided to have their wedding.

We arrived at 4pm and the groom met us at the bus station, then took us to the hotel where the celebration would occur. We were escorted upstairs and sat down and met all the family. We ate sunflower seeds, candy, and visited with the bride, groom, and company until 5pm. At 5pm, everyone went downstairs for the welcoming.

As visitors arrived, they were greeted by the happy couple, given cigarrettes, candy, or sunflower seeds, then ushered to the money table. At this table people wrote down their names, the amount given, and then the giver signed their name.....there was even change being made in case you didn't have small bills. It was all very interesting. Lest you think the names were written down so "thank you" notes could be written....wrong. Names and amounts are customarily written down so you can know what level of friends you are with that person. For example, if we are just acquaintances....a small amount is acceptable. However, if we are BFF you better bring a large amount!!

We had been told about this custom so we were prepared. We had placed some money in a red envelope and were ready to hand it over when the groom told us not to worry about giving any money. We insisted and he took the envelope. We, however, didn't have to record our amount or sign our names to it.

After the greetings, everyone filed upstairs to the dining room. Each table was piled high with food. More food than we could all eat. Apparently another custom is for the guests to take away a "doggie bag" full of food from the wedding. Who knew? Our family was seated with 8 friends of the happy couple. We had a lot of practice speaking their language with them and were pleased we could carry on dinner conversations. Here is a pic of our table. Please notice all the food.....this was AFTER we had all eaten and there is still so much food.

After the meal, it was over. No ceremony, just a meal. It was very interesting, but fun. We really like our friends, the bride and groom. She has such a beautiful smile and is very warm and personable. He is very outgoing and friendly. We were very honored they invited us to participate in this special celebration with them. Ahhh......the obligitory peace sign picture.

New Friends

We have finally lived here a year.....which means people are getting used to us. That includes the children that live in our complex. Hudson and Hannah have run into the children at times, but their school schedules are not the same, which has made it difficult to make any friends. (the language barrier doesn't really help either) Easter changed all of that! During the hunt, Hudson made friends with some brothers. They are 7 and 9, so they all get along well. Rob and I were invited to their home after the Easter event, and we visited with the family for a little while.

Since then, every day after the brothers get home from school and do their homework, the boys go out and play together. If Hudson doesn't go out and play, they come and buzz our apartment asking if Ou De Sheng (my son's name here) can come and play. The first time they came to our house they ran in, peaked into all the rooms, and said, "it is so clean", "it is so clean". A few times they have stayed until dark or until we have had to tell them we were about to eat dinner, would they like to join us. The first night one of the boys said, "Where is your rice?" I explained that we don't eat rice with every meal.....they always decline to eat with us. They have sampled cornbread, which they quickly wanted more of, and Rob grilled sausage one night on our little balcony....and they were fascinated that we would cook out there on our 6th floor balcony.

Hudson introduced them to the Wii. It is SOOOO funny to watch them play. They have never played anything like it before. I caught them on video the first time the younger brother played Mario Kart. (the older brother had already played before so he is concentrating) I am the official interpreter when we are at the house, but when they go outside to play Hudson says they try to compromise and use what they know of both languages. It is really helping Hudson's language come along!

Always Counting....1 Year Post

It seems that we are always counting up or counting down. In 2007 we began counting down until we moved here, now we are counting up how long we have been here, and we are still counting down until we get to see various family members throughout the year! Always counting.....

Today, April 15, is the first anniversary of our arrival here in our new home. It is so hard to believe that we have been here a year already. Then again, it seems like ages ago since we owned a home, drove a car, or had a lawn to mow. So....tonight I decided to give you the top 5 things we DO miss most about home......and the top 5 things we DON'T miss about home. Always counting....

TOP 5 Things we MISS:
1. Sonic/Dr. Pepper/Mexican Food/Rib Crib....and various other eating establishments :)
2. Driving a car
3. Running back in the house to grab a forgotten item without having to climb to the 6th floor to get it.
4. Being able to properly identify all the food on the table.
5. Milk.....it does a body good.
**The overwhelming #1 thing we miss is YOU....but that is a given so I left it out

TOP 5 Things we DON'T MISS:
1. Cleaning my own house, doing my own dishes, doing laundry.....props to Aiyin, my fabulous house helper
2. McDonalds, Walmart, KFC, Pizza Hut.....we have them all here and we visit them often.
3. cable tv.....except during football season
4. Spending hours in a car driving to and fro
5. Mowing the lawn

Still Counting....

People Watching

Our weekend has been full, from a wedding to Easter activites to new friends. What a great few days it has been. I will start with Easter and in a few days give you details about the wedding.

PART I: The Hunt

Sunday morning we celebrated Easter with our friends, sang many wonderful songs and listened to the children tell the story from Scripture. But the big event was Sunday afternoon. We had a massive Easter Egg Hunt for our apartment complex. Our Georgia friends, who live in the complex with us, invited their daughter's kindergarten class to come the hunt, and we all invited our neighbors and friends to take part in our "Easter Party".

All of the "westerners" brought dozens of dyed eggs, treats to eat, and lots of candy.

The plan was for the children to listen to half of the Easter story, hunt easter eggs, listen to the last half of the story, hunt eggs, then eat refreshments.

However, there are several problems with the easter egg hunt in this country.

1. Eggs are a common food.....if there are free ones lying around anyone will take them. Especially the older women. 2. After retrieving the eggs the first time, the children don't want to give them back to be hidden a second time.

3. The adults have never easter egg hunted in their lives either, so they try to beat the children to the eggs, and they ended up hording eggs.

It was still a fun time had by all. Here it the best pic I could get of Hannah....who couldn't slow down long enough for me to take a good one. Our apartment complex is beautifully landscaped with rocks and greenery everywhere, which made it a great place to hide eggs.

Here is Hudson and his friend listening to the Easter story. This is one of my favorite picutures. As we told the story there were many people walking by, and quite a few of them stopped to listen to the story.....like this lady. PART II: The Food

After our hunt and story were completed, we invited everyone to the refreshements table. I am continually learning new things about the culture and etiquitte here. The basic rule of thumb is.....FREE FOOD.....HURRY.....IT WONT LAST LONG!!!!

By the time our hunt was over.....the whole area was packed with people who were all trying to fill plates. All looked like this little guys plate.

Cupcakes, candy, fruit, chips, all piled high. This is what the table looked like very quickly.....EVERYTHING GONE! We couldn't believe the scene that was in front of our eyes as the food table opened.....words can't describe. My friend Lisa with her people watching skills would have been busy all day!!

We made so many new friends, and shared the story of Easter. It truly was a great day!

Easter Past

I suppose I am feeling a little nostalgic tonight.....so you get to see some pictures from Easter gone by. Something must have happened between 2002-2005.....mom didn't have a camera or something because I can't find any Easter pictures from that time.

Here are Hannah and Hudson's first Easters. 1999 and 2001.

This picture was taken with our friend Austin. Can you believe how small my children are??Obviously this is the Dark Period where there was no camera.

Easter 2006, such sweet faces! And our Easter Feast tradition began. In 2006 Hudson asked us why we didn't have a huge Easter Feast at our house, because after all Easter was a time for celelbration. So, we began having all of our family over to celebrate Easter. We sure do miss our cousins!!These pictures are a little frightening to see, becasue noone in these pictures looks the same anymore!!! Everyone is growing up sooooo quickly. I can't imagine what all of our sweet friends will look like when we seen them next. And our cousins are getting big too!! Easter 2008 was the beginning of a new and different way to celebrate Easter. Gone are the new clothes, big pageants, etc....

Easter 2009.....coming soon. This year we are anticipating a FULL and busy weekend. We are excited for the opportunities to share this celebration with many this weekend!

Also....we are attending a wedding this weekend. It will be our first wedding to attend here. We are pretty excited. I am sure there will be a post soon!!

Daddy's Song

Hooray for Easter!! What a great time to focus on the Son, his sacrifice, and the joy of the resurrection. Tonight, during our family devotional time, we started to read the Easter story with the kids, but they stopped us and both said they are reading it every day and discussing it at school. Hudson said, "I think this is the most popular story this week." Hannah then interjected how sad the story is, and she really doesn't like to hear all about Jesus dying because it is too sad. She has always felt this way.

I will never forget the first time Hannah, age 3, heard the story. Her Memaw had given her a movie called "Little Lamb" and it was the story of the Crucifixion told through the eyes of children and their little lamb. Hannah intensely watched the whole thing. When it got to the part where Jesus was crucified, she verbally gasped and threw her head down on the couch. However, a few minutes later, as she continued to watch, they portrayed the resurrection......she began shouting and laughing and dancing around, she was so happy. She watched that movie over and over again. Eventually Hannah began running out of the room during the crucifixion, then coming in and dancing at the resurrection.

Tonight, during our family time, we opted for an old favorite.....Daddy's Song, a 20 minute allegorical story wrapped around a simple song by Dennis Jernigan. It was a beautiful parallel to the Easter story, and tonight we introduced it to our children (Tom, wish you were here with us). It is the song/story of a Father's love for his son. The song portrays the beautiful story of love and redemption and how the Father made the ultimate sacrifice for his son. We listened (Rob and I wiped tears from our eyes) together, than were able to observe our kids draw the beautiful parallels of our own lives to that of the son.

I couldn't help but agree with Hannah. How sad it is that death had to occur. Knowing my own faults and shortcomings, I can't help but identify with the son in Daddy's song, who finds himself tangled in his own sin. I think too often it is easy to skip over the death and focus on the resurrection, which is the best part. However, as Hannah reminded me again tonight, the reality of the crucifixion is sad. Good thing the weekend is almost here.....there will be dancing.