And he's off....

That's right...Joseph decided one night last week that he was ready for walking - and so he started and hasn't stopped since! We are so thankful to Jesus that our little guy is walking now! When he first arrived over Chinese New Year in February this year he barely was cruising the furniture and really lacked confidence. With lots of practice, therapy appointments and new glasses (!!!) it has finally clicked and he is so happy with his new mobility! He loves to just walk everywhere and we just love it too!

We also celebrated Abigail with her 7th birthday! She was simply so excited to have people say 'happy birthday' to her...I think that was the best gift of all! It was a wonderful day of celebration with Dad, Joseph, Grandma & Grandpa for lunch, a special birthday snack of Dunkin Donuts at school, some very fun gifts (playing cards - Abigail's favorite!, coloring pencils & books and a new umbrella & lunch box), and dinner at one of her favorite restaurants (she calls it 'the one with the round meat', we call it Little Sheep hot pot). One of the oldest kids in her class now...but still the smallest!

Starfish Foster Home

For my high school interim trip, I (Lindsey) went to Xi'An to serve in the Starfish Foster home and learn a lot about Xi'An history & culture. It was a wonderful experience and I would go back in the blink of an eye! I worked with this one boy named Malin, he was the sweetest thing! He and I had a connection from the moment we met! On the first day, Malin walked up to me and asked for me to pick him up, not wanting to say no, I did. From then on we were always together when I was there. We bonded over the next few days and Tuesday afternoon when we were leaving, all the kids were going down for a nap. So Malin and I left the dining hall where we were coloring and went to find his Ayi. She was in his room and told me to put him down on the floor, when I did, he began to cry, so I quickly left so I wouldn't cause a problem. I went to the front of the Orphanage and got on the bus. Three minutes later, Malin came to the door, saw me on the bus and started coming outside. I quickly ran off and took him back to his Ayi. As I was leaving for the second time, I heard footsteps running down the hall, and turned around to see his smiling face with tears in his eyes. It was the hardest thing to leave! On Wednesday, I found out that he is going to be adopted in December which makes me so happy! I had a wonderful trip and really want to go back!

A few things I got from the trip:

-A wonderful experience serving in an Orphanage for a week

-A beautiful new friend

-Knowledge of the history of Xi'An

-Great relationships with my group leaders and members.

-Oh, and immunity to chickenpox ;)

Blessings from Buffalo!

Once again it was a wonderful reunion at the airport as Andy's parents arrived for two fabulous weeks in China!! They didn't have much time for jet lag after arriving Wednesday night and leaving for Beijing on Friday with Andy and Kelly. Andy was headed there for the Beijing Marathon (yes the full one this time!)...it was good - running by lots of famous sites, lots of people and running with cramps for 12 miles (I ask again why people do this?!?!). Kelly was the tour guide! Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, the Olympic village...the hot spots for a weekend in BJ. Back in Shanghai there was the sightseeing (Zhujiajiao water village, Century Park, Pearl Tower, the Bund at night), lots of eating out (Little Sheep hot pot, Johnny Moos, Sherpas order out) and shopping at the fake market (although US border control was quite interested in the Uggs that were being brought back for the grand-daughters and kind enough not to confiscate them!). The best times were had simply being together - going for walks, having lunch at school with the little girls, trying out bubble tea, watching our latest favorite TV series "White Collar", and playing cards. How good it is to be with family, to share our world with them and spend time with the ones you love! Dropping them off at the airport is another reminder of what we truly miss about back home!

More Pictures from the desert!

An Oasis in the Desert

Sunday we flew to the northwest of China - Dunhuang; a small town of 180,000 people, an airport with just two gates and located literally in the middle of the Gobi Desert. It was SO COOL! It was also quite cold being so far north (almost into Inner Mongolia) - ~32F in the mornings, but then warming up to mid-70's by afternoon. Also given that China doesn't do any time zones (everyone is on Beijing time) the sun rose ~8am each morning and set ~8pm each night. Helps to keep the little ones sleeping later when it is freezing cold and pitch black at 7am still! We stayed at the Silk Road hotel - with a sand view room!

On the first day we went to Mingsha Hills - 25KM wide and 40KM long range of sand dunes. We boarded our camels and, after convincing Joseph that it really was okay to ride it with his Baba, we were off! The views were just breath-taking and for everyone else we were quite an attraction too as we were just about the only foreigners there! We rode up a couple of hills and 'parked' our camels to then do some bamboo sledding down the hills. Finally we took off to the Crescent Moon Spring - a small oasis at the edge of the desert. It was just like nothing we had ever seen before! For lunch we went into town for some local food - noodles and donkey meat. We all tried it...Zoe cried thinking of lovable donkey's from TV (aka Eeyore) and Abigail decided she loved donkey meat (along with all other meat!). It was quite a lunch (and we all had Snickers mid-afternoon to curb the hunger before dinner!).

Tuesday was our historical tour day - Great Wall of the Han Dynasty (built completely different with stones/sand/straw and over 1000 years before the Ming Dynasty Great Wall that everyone sees in Beijing today), Yumenguan Pass (built in 121 BC as an important point on the Silk Road - also named Jade Gate pass for the large caravans of jade leaving China to Central Asia on the ancient trading route) and the Black Gobi Desert (large rock formations in the middle of the desert that is completely covered with small black stones on top of the sand). While the sites were amazing just at how they have survived for so long and the history behind each of them, what will be most remembered is our van ride...lots of laughter in the car, traveling at 'high' speeds over the desert not on any roads, and eating peanut butter with chopsticks for lunch!

Wednesday morning we visited the Mogao Grottos - one of the three famous rock grottos in China and regarded as a storehouse of Buddhist art in the world. There were over 492 grottos each containing murals painted over 1000 years ago and colored statues. We saw the third largest Buddha in the world (over nine stories tall) - still not impressed with him but did have a great opportunity to talk to Zoe about the one true God and how Buddha is not. Thankfully our tour only visited 10 caves - although Abigail & Zoe did amazing touring each cave (I think by cave 5 Kelly & I were more bored than the little girls - sorry shallow, I know.) Joseph & Lindsey (along with Megan who has already been to the grottos) also decided to stay outside and watch all the people as the caves were a little too dark & crowded for their liking. Wednesday afternoon was our favorite time of all - we just went back to Mingsha Hills - with our backpack, some food/drinks and a frisbee and played in the sand for hours! We did splurge and have Lindsey & Megan each take an ultra-lite/paraglider trip over the desert to see the view from above - they both loved it! We climbed some hills to slide down the sides - which Zoe & Lindsey especially found most amusing. Kind of like being at the beach and the mountains at the same time - beach mountains - it was wonderful!

We did have some favorite vacation quotes (mainly from Abigail who was just on a roll during our trip!)...

Upon seeing the only option for going to the bathroom was a squatty potty, Abigail says to Kelly "One of us is going to get pee-d on, it's either you or me!"

After a tough evening of being upset, Andy says to Abigail "Remember the Bible says to not let the sun go down on your anger." Too which our very literal Abigail says "Too late."

It was a great time as a family to just relax, refresh and see new parts of China! We are glad to be back home in Shanghai with still a few days to catch up on things before work & school kick back in!

A weekend in Xi'An

This year we decided to brave the popular travel season and head out of town for October holiday (the seven day long national holiday to celebrate the beginning of the People's Republic of China - works for me!). Our first stop was a weekend in Xi'An - home of the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. An amazing historical site dating back to before 221 BC - yes that is BC! The Emperor Qin Shi Huang (who unified China) built the army starting when he was 12 years old to protect his tomb when he died (now that's planning ahead for you!). They remained buried, unremembered, for thousands of years until 1974 when farmers were digging a well discovered them. It was just amazing to see rows upon rows of them and the unique faces on each one! After a morning at the warriors, we walked on the city wall (one of the few preserved ancient city walls remaining in China), had a treat of ice cream and finished up with a walk through Muslim square (Shaanxi Province with Xi'An as the capital has the largest population of Chinese Muslims).

A few updates on daily life before the holidays: We had a major scare with Joseph who woke up one morning with a seizure. After a day at the doctors and hospital, with blood tests, an MRI and answering lots of questions, we recognized that this was most likely his second seizure (he had one the day before we left the US that we didn't see, but saw recovery from) so it is officially epilepsy. He was an amazing trooper through it all. During the day we also saw the doctor who operated on him when he first arrived in Shanghai with his encephelocele - the doctor was absolutely shocked to see him in such good health, almost walking & lots of talking and said he never would have predicted this progress for Joseph - yes that's right we have a really BIG God who continues to have His hand on our little guy! He was not surprised about the seizures (based on how much Joseph's brain has been through since birth) and started Joseph on medication to hopefully eliminate them. A long day and several long nights as we sleep a bit lighter now listening for him should there be any issues...but all is good now.

Shortly after that we also discovered an unwelcome house guest...a RAT. That is correct - not a mouse, but a full sized rat. Completely disgusting. I saw it one morning as it ran from the pantry to the dining room - I'm pretty sure I was blocking its path to the kitchen so I really think it started chasing me - which only made my screaming even louder. We had about 4 days of trying to trap it - finding it had holes under the kitchen cupboards and behind the electrical box in the pantry (who else would have put the gummies in there??). Our landlord's first solution was to tell us to get a cat. Umm, allergic, that won't work. Their second solution was three 'sticky' traps that we saw the rat jump over, our dog eat the treats from and Zoe step in. Umm, that's not working either. Their third solution, close up the holes in the house - using wood in the kitchen and packing tape in the pantry. Seriously - these people think packing tape is going to stop a rat. Ugh. Finally, one night Andy actually cornered it behind the water cooler and he resorted to the trusty tennis racket and garbage can! After a short duel in a small bathroom, with lots of the racket hitting the wall and me still screaming from the other room, Andy (my hero!) trapped it in the garbage can and took it outside across the street for its freedom. Zoe was happy we didn't kill it (although I had pretty much convinced her on why it should die!) and I was happy it was finally gone. We have thoroughly disinfected every bit of can/box/bag of food from the kitchen & pantry, every square inch of counter & floor...but still look intently every time we turn on the lights at night for anything that moves!