Returning 'Home'

Spring break started early when Kelly arrived back in Shanghai!  It was a surprise for the three littlest siblings...Joseph just screamed and hugged Kelly, Zoe kept saying "Oh my goodness is this real, are you really here?" and Abigail said "Oh I remember someone at school told me.  I knew you were coming, but I forgot!"  Too funny!

The week was focused on...just spending time together and it was WONDERFUL!  No time for jet lag with just a week visit.  Puzzles, Skip Bo, fake market shopping, visiting Joseph at school, watching Kim Possible & eating shrimp fondue, having family dinners (with everyone here!!!), going out for Krispy Kreme on Nanjing Rd (only to find it isn't there any more).  And of course getting real Chinese food...YuYuan for pork dumplings, South Beauty for lotus root/kung pao chicken/lettuce rolls/Chinese Yams/Fried Green Beans and Hot Pot!

 So good to have our girl back home - just feels right!



Family Elevator Picture!




Eating at Hot Pot (a favorite for these two!)



Joseph is also a fan of hot pot







A morning out at YuYuan Gardens





Some sisters out for lunch at the fake market

4...3...2...1

4 weeks...3 hospital visits...2 surgeries...1 ambulance ride.  Tough start to the Year of the Snake!

The day after returning from Vietnam, Zoe headed over to Shanghai United Family hospital in Puxi for surgery on an inguinal hernia.  Something done as outpatient surgery in the US, but here you stay one night for monitoring.  The surgery went smooth although we did learn a few things about Zoe.  When she is scared, she gets mad and when she is mad, she yells.  It seemed like she felt this was optional and was all of a sudden just choosing not to...umm not helpful.   Thankful it was ~24 hours total for her from admission to going home!  Everything from having to put on the hospital gown to IV needles to not being released as early as she wanted upset her...kind of draining for all of us.  Have a few things to work on coming out of this experience!

On the flip side is Abigail who one week later headed down to Hong Kong with Andy for surgery on a perforated ear drum.  For Abigail, it was an adventure and, with apparently a high tolerance for pain, she didn't mind any of it!  Strangely her surgery was scheduled at 7pm so she only needed to start fasting at Noon.  She then spent two nights in the hospital with amazing views and very loose rules.  On the second day (surgery the night before) the nurses told Andy they could leave the hospital if they wanted (go sight see, out to eat, etc) just needed to come back to spend the night. So, it was kind of just  like their hotel.  As Joseph would say, "That's weird".  And for Abigail, she actually wanted to be at the hospital - watching Disney channel (something we don't get here) and playing card games with Andy.  On the third day they were released and headed home...via train!  20 hours in a soft sleeper car with 2 middle-age Chinese ladies (Abigail & Andy on top bunks, Chinese ladies on the bottom).  Very normal & common in China to share a car with perfect strangers.  Andy & Abigail...they did their best to spend as little time in the sleeper cabin as possible!  Much time in the dining car (where apparently the food wasn't all that bad) and in the passageway (reading books, doing word search).



Ambulance Ride!



And finally, our unplanned adventures this week with Joseph.  As you may recall Joseph has epilepsy and Tuesday had his first seizure in over 14 months (it has been such a blessing that he had gone that long!).  Assumedly the seizure was actually triggered by his fever that spiked to 103.  When he wasn't recovering from it as normal, Andy took him to the hospital.  Outside of the fever still, everything else had returned to normal however they decided to admit him to monitor him - which did mean once his fever came down, they needed to transfer him from PuDong (the west side of the city where we live) over to their main hospital in Puxi (the east side of the city & about 45 min away).   By this time Mr Xu had picked me up from work and I was at the PuDong hospital with them.  So Andy, Joseph and I get in the ambulance (after Joseph gives Mr Xu a hug) and Mr Xu gets in his car and we all head to Puxi.  We quickly notice that we have not taken one of outer ring roads but have gone straight through the city and then we aren't even on the main elevated roads in the city but are on little side streets sitting in traffic, going really slow.  Now we had read about ambulance scams before...just never thought we'd live one.  So we FINALLY get to the Puxi hospital and of course Mr Xu has been there for a long time and he is FURIOUS!  He begins to yell at the ambulance drivers and tells us not to pay them anything (here in China the ambulance service is paid in cash immediately following your ride).  They follow us into emergency, Xu still yelling at them, them asking us to sign stuff, us not signing anything and just trying to focus on Joseph.  They follow us up to the pediatric floor and eventually right into Joseph's room.  At this point our objective is to just get rid of them...so we pay them only what the PuDong hospital said it should cost (still more than they deserved!) and they finally leave.  Had it not been for Mr Xu, we are certain they would have asked for significantly more money because it took them so much time.  Once again thankful for Mr. Xu!  So Joseph gets blood drawn (not fun, but as soon as it's over he says "I'm okay.  Thank you".  Then has a chest X-Ray that reveals pneumonia.  So now we're thanking our heavenly Father for the seizure that caused us to go to the hospital so this could get caught so early.  2 nights in the hospital, lots of breathing treatments and IV antibiotics do the trick (along with lots of meds & inhalers sent home with us too!).  We do believe that Joseph was probably the most favorite patient on the floor...he was so friendly, very inquisitive, always said thank you to the nurses & cooperated (even when it hurt!)...and of course sometimes he would just look and give them that smile with those chubby cheeks and melt their hearts!

Definitely knew God was watching over His precious kiddos as they went through these journeys.  We had lots of prayers coming from the West & the East (the little girls elementary classes have been very faithful at praying for the planned and unplanned events!)...and are grateful for them and all of you!



Day After Surgery





Noodles on the street in HK

     

Going through Dongguan...her
original hometown on the train





Watching the nurses work





Visiting the nursery...until the babies
started crying!

 

Coloring with Abigail...a
favorite activity anywhere!





Excited about being released!

 

 



Lantern Festival

The official end of the 15 day Chinese New Year holiday is the Lantern Festival.  So when one wants to see the most Chinese decorations & people out & about for the holiday in Shanghai you go to Yu Yuan Gardens. When we told our driver that we wanted to go to Yu Yuan he kind of looked at us and said...oh, bu hao (meaning not good), traffic, people...and we said "Yes that's exactly why we want to go!"  And it did not disappoint...every lane had different lanterns hanging, there were decorations (compliments of Pepsi Cola!) in all of the squares and major decorations in the ponds & gardens.  And of course the last night of the new year ended with what other than...more fireworks!  Happy Year of the Snake to all!



Tea House in the middle of the Gardens



The 'kitchen' for some very good street food...how often do you think they clean this??

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

After some smoggy days in Shanghai in early January we decided it would be good to bring in the Year of the Snake at the beach in Phan Thiet, Vietnam!  With a 4 hour flight to Ho Chi Minh and then a 5 hour drive, we arrived at the Phu Hai Resort and have been surrounded by beautiful blue skies, sandy beaches, the South China Sea, pools and Russians ever since!   We've spent mornings at the beach (where Joseph has progressed from not trusting standing by himself on the sand to running along the shore throwing all the shells back in the water!), afternoons in the pool and then gone into the local town Mui Ne for dinner.  We've enjoyed some great Asian BBQ and a favorite restaurant is Jibes Kite & Wind Surfing Shop/Diner...on the beach, with a bunch of surfers (so quite the relaxed atmosphere!) and some of the best Western food we've had since moving to China!

A few of the fun happenings:

* The money situation has been interesting as one USD = 20,780 Vietnam Dong.  So you get a bill for dinner and it is 625,000VND.  And where in China the largest bill is 100RMB (worth about $12) here the largest bill (at least that we've had) is 500,000 (worth about $25).  Takes a little getting used to!
* Given this was somewhat a 'last minute' trip, we didn't do as good prep as we should regarding the language...didn't know how to say anything and here way less people (Vietnamese and Russians alike) speak any English so communication has been a lot more challenging.  We have learned hello and thank you...but that is the extent of our Vietnamese!
* Our first day on the beach included having 3 cows walk by (thankfully that hasn't happened again) and also a sweet elderly Russian lady who was holding a fish and then came over to give it to Joseph...we were all quite interested in how cute it was until we realized it was dead.  Umm...let's go wash our hands, again!

We did take one day to tour the local sites...a fishing village (way cool with such rustic looking boats), the White Sand Dunes (most arid spot in all of Southeast Asia, where we also rented ATV's...which are VERY easy to get stuck in the sand!), the Red Sand Dunes (smaller than the white ones, with lots of local children there to get you to 'rent' a sled to slide down the dunes), and Fairy Stream (no idea where that name came from but you walk in the stream which is red from the canyons surrounding it with red sand/clay).  Only cost 2,000,000VND for the entire day...including a Jeep ride to take us everywhere.  Yes that's 5 hours, a Jeep ride for 7 people and 4 different local sites for $100...not a bad deal!

It has been a great escape for our family....you just can't go wrong going to the beach anywhere in this world!

Snapshots in the Snow

Family, Friends & SNOW!

Christmas holiday started with an amazing reunion in the Denver International Airport as Kelly arrived from Tulsa and the seven of us arrived from China!  With lots of hugs, Abigail & Zoe each holding onto her legs and Joseph in her arms, Joseph looks Kelly right in the eye and says "You came back!!"  So precious!  We spent 3 days in Denver (some crash shopping trips including getting a prom dress for Megan, lots of ski gear that we still needed, get our internal time clocks adjusted) and met up with the wonderful Linn family before heading up to Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA Camp) in Winter Park Colorado!  Endless fun with our small crew of 18...skiing/snowboarding, sledding/tubing, playing cards, doing puzzles, volleyball, roller skating, floor hockey, sitting by the fire chatting, late night movies...it was simply amazing!

Hustle & Bustle

For a country that doesn't officially celebrate Christmas, they sure do like this amazing holiday!  Christmas carols (religious ones at that!) have been playing in the local Carrefour the entire month of December and, sometimes unlike what can be said in the United States, stores & buildings have the "Merry Christmas" greeting posted everywhere!  As for the Thielman house, it was a short but busy time between the Thanksgiving holiday and leaving for Christmas vacation!  We are definitely looking forward to living back in the States for Christmas next year (still the current plan although we don't actually have a plan yet...patiently - sometimes - waiting on God to reveal His next steps for us!) as this year with timing, travel & availability of things here we didn't decorate any cookies, have any presents wrapped under the tree (much to Abigail's confusion), or hang the stockings on the staircase (since they kept falling last year!).  We did put up our tree and manger scene...and that was about it!  The older girls visited Santa at the Concordia School Bazaar along with all the kids from the WILL Foundation (Walk Into Life & Learn for disadvantaged kids in Shanghai).  Andy had the opportunity to be Santa again, this time at the Baobei Christmas luncheon.  Joseph stayed with Monique (his foster Mom from Belgium before joining the Thielman clan!) and when Santa came out, Joseph got real close to his face and said 'Hey that's my Dad'.  He then proceeded to follow Santa around the room, often saying "Hi Dad".  No confusion there!   Most of our December was spent pleasantly preparing for and anticipating our Christmas trip back to the States to go skiing with Kelly and the Linn family!