Thanksgiving...China Style

So when you take away the friends & family, the football games, the really delicious food (turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole!!), what do you have left…still a whole lot of blessings and reasons to be thankful! This Thanksgiving sure was like no other…actually on Thanksgiving Day, the girls still had school and I was traveling in Guangzhou. So we moved our celebration to Saturday – trying to keep some of our traditions and celebrating Kelly’s birthday too! We put up our Christmas tree (more about this in a later post!), watched ‘Miracle on 34^th Street’, and dined on pumpkin bread, white chicken chili and stuffing – it was one of the best meals since we arrived and tasted just like at home! Had to go to 5 different grocery stores to get all the ingredients – but it was worth it (although I’m pretty sure Mr. Xu thinks we are nuts sometimes!).

We also celebrated Kelly’s 17^th birthday – WOW 17! This was the third birthday we celebrated since arriving in Shanghai and we are getting closer to 'normal' – her presents weren’t wrapped in pillow cases and she got an actual cookie cake! When we went out shopping (for the dinner items!) and got into the car, Mr. Xu gave Kelly a present (miniature figurine of the Great Wall) – very sweet and also another indication that he understands more English than he lets on since we had only talked about it in the car the night before!

In terms of other happenings, last weekend Lindsey finished up the soccer season with tournament day - at the soccer fields for 8 hours, played 6 games and won the entire Division A international school league! It was great fun to watch them play so well (especially given an 0 wins-2 losses-2 ties season record!) Great experience for Lindsey to play on a more competitive team and a chance to make more connections with other girls her age!

Megan has also ‘co-founded’ the Concordia International ultimate Frisbee team with a friend in 10^th grade (yes the grade she still feels she is meant to be in!). They have about 10 co-ed kids playing Sunday afternoons – another great carryover of such fun from back home!

As we think of all the blessings in our lives, we are so thankful for all of our friends and family back home…we miss you all immensely!

Random Happenings

Starting with the big news...Zoe lost her first tooth! Quite uneventful as she pulled it herself but then proceeded to put her wallet under the pillow with the tooth! Of course with today's exchange rate for the first tooth you do get 30RMB!

We've had a busy fall with field trips - the BioFarm for the kindergartners, Carrefour for the first graders (yes that's right, a trip to the local grocery store!) and an amazing race day riding the metro for the eight graders! Lindsey & Kelly have been busy with soccer that wraps up tomorrow with a day full of tournament play. Kelly also worked on the backstage crew for the Fall play - had a great time doing make-up, costumes, props and head sets. Megan and I found the M50 art area - a very neat area of local artists & photographers, art supply stores (quite the find) and some very cool graffiti!

Now that we are completely settled with things from home and have some key amenities (like silverware, etc) we hosted Ling Tong (a friend of the Harlan's who was at the University of Arkansas) and his family for dessert. Their 10 year old daughter Dreamy didn't speak much English - but we found that coloring is universal!

We are also now the proud owners of a lovely enormous map of China (which is exactly what we wanted). Our driver, Mr. Xu, heard us talking about getting a map and on his lunch break one day he went out and got a fabulous map that is now hanging in our den - our goal is to mark all of the places we have visited while 'on tour' here. Unfortunately Sue is seeing a bit more than anyone else right now with lots of travel for work!

Given there is no reason to celebrate Thanksgiving here, they have moved right on to Christmas - apparently everyone here loves to celebrate Christmas so the decorations are in full swing and the carols are in the air. Now we just need to add a bit more Christ into that Christmas!!

Too Short!

How do you sum up two weeks with Courtney and then a 3 day weekend with Betsy & Karina too? One word...BLESSING! What a joy for our hearts it was to spend time with best friends from home - it refreshed us, renewed us and reminded us that we are here for a purpose!

Saturday we picked up our overnight travelers and headed out for some traditional Chinese food at the Zhujiajiao water village. Dumplings, tomato & eggs, fried rice, chicken, and noodles (lots of them!) - all the simple yet tasty, harmless stuff! Quick trip on the canals and then it was off to the underground market to pick up Courtney's Chinese dress (beautiful!). Sunday, after a relaxing foot massage, we headed out to Century Park - along with lots of other people who went to the park to sit in their tents...we however went to enjoy a bike ride on a sunny day! Topped off the day with church and Courtney's favorite Sweet n'Sour Chicken for dinner. At the last minute the older girls all decided to go trick or treating! It was fun watching them come up with costumes at the last minute (cat, Ninja, paparazzi, Book-face, and the Bollywood star Karina!). We sent them off with 100RMB (about $15) to buy Snickers from the convenient store in case there wasn't any candy to be had...they came back with a good small load of candy and a Snickers for everyone! My favorite candy they all got was a piece of Viactiv....yes, the carmel flavored calcium chew (clearly some people think medicine really is candy!).

Monday morning was a special time at the Healing Home - playing with the toddlers and holding the babies, all until they fell asleep in our arms! Precious Rachel (celebrating her 1st birthday), Andrew, Anna, Jenn, Joy, Sophia, Samuel...such a wonderful home and adorable kiddos! Monday afternoon we learned (not to anyone's surprise) that saying good-bye for a second time doesn't make it any easier! Abigail asked yesterday how many sleeps until we go back to Arkansas...sadly, too many to count!

On the bright side after a sad Monday night, our sea shipment arrived on Tuesday! We now have all of our stuff from home...not quite unpacked yet, but everyone has a bed, we all have warm clothes and some decorations for the big empty walls!

Beijing and bargaining

This post is long overdue! As most of you know, we (Andy and Lindsey) had the chance of going to Beijing with Courtney in October. We left Shanghai Thursday night by sleeper train and arrived in Beijing Friday morning. The sleeper train was a wonderful experience! It was very smooth and we all slept well. Beijing's weather was very cold in comparison to Shanghai!

After settling in at hotel we walked over to the Forbidden City. It was an awesome experience! It is so much bigger than what we had expected! In ancient times, only the emperor and his advisors and servants were permitted in the Forbidden City and (we were told) the emperor did not leave the Forbidden City. It was an incredible maze of hallways and buildings like the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Andy could have used to spend more time there) and the Palace of Prolonging Happiness (who wouldn't want to hang out there?). To think of the history that took place there is pretty remarkable.

After that we walked across the street to Tian An Men Square (similar to the Mall in Washington DC as it is the center of China's government) and then took a short cab ride to the site of the 2008 Olympics. Very cool to see in person what we watched for so many hours 2 years ago; the Water Cube where Michael Phelps won 8 golds, the Bird's Nest where Usain Bolt broke 2 individual world records...but the most welcome site for us was the McDonald's. We were very hungry and pretty cold. 'Nough said.

Friday afternoon we visited the Museum of Natural History in an effort to stay warm and dry. About 5:00 p.m. we left to go back to the hotel. Ever try to find a cab in Beijing on a cold, rainy, Friday afternoon during rush hour? It was definitely an answer to prayer that we made it to the Acrobats show at 7:15. Amazing show if you ever get a chance.

Saturday was completely filled with a tour of the Great Wall (amazing), Tombs of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, a tour of a Jade museum, delicious lunch, foot massage (for everyone on the tour except Lindsey and Courtney..."not healthy for young people" (what?!?)), a visit to the Silk Museum, and a tea tasting. It was packed and it was really worth it.

Woke up Sunday to nasty weather and visited the silk market which is actually a shopper's paradise. Courtney was able to further hone her negotiating skills buying souvenirs for her family. Caught a cab to the Beijing International Church Fellowship for a really cool time experiencing God and then headed to the airport to meet up with Courtney's Uncle David Addington who was passing through Beijing a few hours before our departure. Very cool of God to arrange that meeting.

Arrived back in Shanghai about 8:30 exhausted from an amazing weekend and happy to be back with the family.