Green Spaces

So while the air quality wasn't the greatest this weekend (as you can tell from the picture of the kids by the lake!), we had a number of outdoor activities to keep us busy.   For starters Abigail, Joseph, Zoe and I (Andy was sick all weekend so he is noticeably missing!) went to Century Park.  We were hoping to play some soccer...but all of the grass spaces were roped off (yes that's right a park where we can't walk on the grass - green

spaces to look at, not play on!).  So we bought some bubbles and let Zoe have some fun shooting up about 300 pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras!).  One sight you will just about always
see at the park is a bride getting her picture taken...this time Zoe captured it (and runs back to me screaming "Mom, I got her picture and she's beautiful!"...cute but not very subtle!).  Tradition is that ~4-5 months before the wedding the bride/groom go to a bridal picture studio...they have their picture taken in about 5 different wedding dresses/tuxedos out & about in the city.  So you have a bunch of wedding pictures, in a bunch of different dresses, none which are the one you wear for the wedding - kind of funny!

Saturday night our girls scouts went camping...city style!  Lots of tents set up on the school soccer field - surrounded by all the city buildings!  Very fun with games, skits, songs, s'mores cooked over a fire pit, and eggs cooked in a baggie in boiling water for breakfast!  Oh...and our house was really quiet for the night!

One hour after the girl scouts vacated the soccer field, the Shanghai Ultimate Frisbee Association took over for their day long Halloween Hat tournament.  With Lindsey dressed as superman and Megan as a nerd, they joined up with this mainly adult league (plus their normal Sunday Concordia frisbee friends) and played hard all day!  They are both sore tonight - which is probably nothing to how they will feel tomorrow!

Love, Peace & Chocolate Cake

Love, peace, & chocolate cake...what a day celebrating Abigail and her 8th birthday! 

For late breakfast, Abigail, Joseph & I went out for pork buns (one of Abigail's favorite Chinese foods!).  Then we added in Baba & Zoe to go play at the playground before heading to get some street food (outside HuaShan Hospital so it has to be safe right?!?!) - Shanghai fried noodles and fried rice - to eat at Bubble Tea, where Abigail got a bubble coke no bubbles (yes that makes it Coke with 'Sonic-like' ice!).  She opened presents after returning home...her first comment was "They are all in bags, I thought at least one of them would be wrapped."  Now I know...bags don't count as wrapping to Abigail!  We had chocolate cake (compliments of Lindsey) and then played some card games & an intense game of CLUE.  To wrap up the day we went to Johnny Moos for dinner (another favorite to get chicken wings) before a great night at  church.  

Quality time and all her favorite foods...right up our 8 year old's alley!  How sweet it is to watch Abigail grow & be her unique, fun loving self!

It takes a team...

Two days after October holiday ended, Andy boarded another plane - this one headed back to Arkansas for a wonderful 10 day visit with Kelly!!!  We wished we were all on that plane...but work & school kept the rest of us here.  The Arkansas visit was a '10' just from being with Kelly, nothing else required!  2+ months since either of us had seen her - longest in our lifetime (clearly have a few issues still 'cutting the apron strings')!  Holding down the fort at home took a total team effort...

• Abigail and Zoe 'sacrificed' their normal breakfast fare of toast & eggs as upfront I told them cereal & oatmeal only during the week as we all try to get out the door before 7:30!  Abigail's first morning...can I have cheesy eggs?  No Abigail just cereal...okay can I have a fried egg?...No Abigail just cereal...okay How about egg on an english muffin?  (at this point I started the 'do you know what just cereal' speech means because she didn't negotiate any other morning!)  On the first Friday Andy was gone, however Abigail comes down searching for Dad - after I explain he comes home the next Friday, her first response is..."Ugh, it's cereal again."  Clearly a sacrifice! 
• Megan & Lindsey pitched in...in all ways!  Such big helpers!
• Joseph moved from 1/2 day preschool to full day - which was great fun to have lunch at school and then have nap!  He only missed school one day...as Mr Xu had a funeral so we didn't have a car and the thought of catching a taxi from home and then again from Joseph's school at rush hour (and then doing it at the end of the day again!) was just more than I could grasp!  
• Ayi took on walking Gobi each day she came
• Mr. Xu offered one day to pick Joseph up from school and indicated that he would love to take Joseph to his house so his wife could meet him!  Clearly trusting Mr. Xu (and with only mild hesitation!), he did take Joseph one afternoon for about 3 hours.  Oh how we were wishing Joseph could tell us more after his visit to Mr. Xu's house!
• As for me, I definitely had the spreadsheet, by day by person - who was where, when they needed to be picked up, what stuff they needed.  Happy to say I never forgot anyone anywhere!

It was so comforting to know that Andy was with Kelly in Arkansas...but we were sure more than happy to have him arrive back in Shanghai!

More pics from Shepherd's Field!

Zoe and Bill

Abigail with Chris

Lindsey and Moses

Blowing bubbles with Kennedy

Snuggling with 5 month old Charlie 

Zoe and Hamlet

Megan and Josiah who is getting a forever family in NYC!

A piece of our hearts will be here forever!

When our original plans for the 9 day National Holiday to teach at an English camp fell through at the last minute, we needed a quick plan since the idea of a 'stay-cation' at this point in the year causes me some level of panic about what we would do here all day every day besides go stir crazy.  So when you have holidays and no place to go, the choice becomes pretty obvious - if my kids can't be in Fayetteville Arkansas, there is one other place they all gravitate to here in China...Shepherds Field Children's Village (SFCV) outside of Beijing.

Quick run-down on SFCV - they currently have 57 special needs orphans ranging from 2 months old to   20 years old.  They have one complex including a school, dining hall, medical clinic, a therapy house, 4 children's houses, an Inn, a huge playground and are building a vocational center.  In a word it is amazing!

Maggie & Abigail

Days are spent simply loving on the kids!  The kid's houses are open between breakfast-lunch and again after nap to dinnertime.  During that time you can go into any house and hold the babies/play with the kids/take them to the playground.  Most times everyone (old enough) ended up on the playground because the weather was so nice.  Maggie buddied up with Abigail the first afternoon and wanted to play with her every day after!  Bill & Luke just adored Zoe and did not leave her side every minute they could play together - at one point she came up to me and said "They called me Mama!"  She loved playing and

Zoe taking Bill & Luke back to their house

helping to take care of them!  Lindsey could often be found taking Kennedy in his wheelchair for walks around the complex or inside playing with Moses, Josiah and Cody.  Megan actually got connected with the SFCV doctor the first full day and helped him the balance of mornings giving all of the kids medical check ups and updating their files (a great chance to see so many of the kids, learn about the medical procedures SFCV has already gotten for them or future treatment plans, and personally love on each of them!).  Andy & I mainly played with all the kids along with Joseph out on the playground.  There was also a

Lindsey and Kennedy out for a walk

 team of local Beijing high school students each day - they loved on the SFCV kids and also took quite the liking to Joseph so he enjoyed playing with them too!

We had some great local Chinese food at the nearby restaurants for dinner (gotta love the pictures on menus because no one speaks English in this more rural city!).  We also took a quick trip to the local WM - quite an experience but we did purchase some ping pong balls that the Ayi's loved and got into some intense games as they waited in the dining hall for the prepared food to

Megan with Natalie

 take back to their houses!  Also as 'icing on the cake' someone abandoned a puppy at the SFCV gate on our second day...so the girls named him and provided him lots of love too when we couldn't be in the kids houses!

Lots of smiles & laughter....playing with the kids, hearing about who has forever families, watching the kids in each house take care of each other as family, seeing kids go off for cleft lip/palette surgery.  And also some tears...listening to the cry of a 2 month old (when you're already holding a 5 month old and no one else is around), thinking

Joseph enjoying the swings

 about the parents who tried to get their infant son surgery but it was more complicated and ended up abandoning him, saying goodbye to those kids who won't be there by the time we visit again as they go off to their forever families and promising the girls we will go to SFCV at least one more time before repatriating so this doesn't have to be their goodbye.

God has immensely blessed SFCV as they carry out His command in James 1:27!  And we were so blessed to spend one week with them!