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Thankful Thursday Texas Style

  • For our trip to China. What an amazing experience to live in the culture for a month! I think we learned a lot and have a great foundation to continue our language studies. It confirmed our desire for Nadia to know Chinese in case one day she wants to go back for a visit as an adult.
  • For our bed. Oh sweet softness!
  • For the quiet.
  • For our shower.
  • For our kitchen.
  • For our dryer.
  • For central heat and air.
  • For being able to READ everything I see.
  • For Joy and Janis. Totally awesome people who took care of our house so we didn’t have to worry about a thing while we were gone. We love you!
  • For Karen M. watching the KIDS HOPE program for me.
  • For clean water from the tap.
  • For all our friends and family. We love you!
  • For Jess P. and Tahni who celebrated their birthday’s this week. I love you!

Now before you think this post turned into something silly by mentioning the dryer and stuff, it’s not silly. I am so grateful for the conveniences that I use on a daily basis that I basically never think about because they are there and they have always been there. God has blessed me as an American greatly and our trip to China reminded me that I need to be more grateful. It’s just not something commonly mentioned in day to day life in America because we all have it and mostly take it for granted.

Here’s an answer to Mutha’s question from yesterday’s post. In the area we were in, the bottom floor of all the apartment buildings had little businesses. There were hair salons, foot massage places, restaurants and clothing shops. The building across the 6 lane street from us had a hair styling place that pumped out crappy American pop music 12 hours a day. The same 20 songs OVER AND OVER from 8 am – 8 pm. Example songs include Pink’s “Get the Party Started” and a song by Usher. One from Justin Timberlake and the rest I didn’t have clue who they were. Sounded like 50 possible groups that all play the same music. Miss Nadia and I went across the street one day to check it out and they had four-foot tall speakers right outside the doors of the salon that faced our apartment building.

I told Mike I wondered how different our experience would have been if we had been in an apartment that faced inside instead of outside?

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Thankful Thursday & Our day

China 2008: March 27th
China 2008: March 27th (click to see album)

I know I missed last week’s TT, so here goes:

  • For cute little Dustin born to Jeanette, Brian and big brother Jack last week. We can’t wait to meet you blue eyes!
  • For Travis’ successful surgery.
  • For the 3 of us being completely healthy for the entire trip.
  • For all the people who have prayed for us during the trip. We are so grateful.
  • For the kindness of the Chinese people. We have really been treated well and with respect our entire time here.
  • For the KHUSA subs…. you guys are so faithful and I am grateful.
  • For Kiki as my tutor. She was a perfect match to me and she really made this month special for me. And as a bonus I feel like I learned a lot.
  • For not being “afraid” of Mandarin anymore. I don’t know how to explain it, but it just doesn’t seem so overwhelming anymore.
  • For all the wonderful emails and blog posts that we have received on the trip. The connection to home has been wonderful.
  • For the work that World Vision is doing around the globe. I know I have said it before, but we had a conference call today and to once again hear stories about how people are working to change the lives of children and their communities brings me to tears.
  • For anyone that sponsors through World Vision. You are MAKING A DIFFERENCE and saving lives in a tangible way!!!
  • For Mike’s boss and the elders of the church allowing us the time off to make this trip. It’s been so amazing to be immersed in a different culture.
  • For the staff of the school taking care of us this month and making us feel so welcome in the country. (2012-8-20 Removed dead link. School may not exist now. -Mike)
  • For getting to come home in a couple of days 🙂
  • For not having to hear round the clock coverage of the primaries. Even though it was the first time in decades that Texas mattered!

Today Mike went to school and I started organizing our stuff to pack. It looks like a small tornado hit the place! We mailed our postcards and then stopped to pick up a few more odds and ends. I had to get one last Totoro bun (YUM) and we got some wonderful sandwiches for lunch at Tous Les Jour. We bought Nadia 10 more books…they are so bright and cheerful. We got her a set of 6 that were $0.70 each and come with a CD that we “think” has the Chinese version and English version of all the stories. For that price we decided to chance it. I can’t believe how cheap books are here. We also found out that we are flying out of the brand spanking new Terminal 3 of the airport that opened the day we arrived here.

Here is Nadia with all our water bottles for a month.

Water!

High theft item at Wal-Mart? Honestly…. they were padlocked.

High Theft?

The Lotus Center that we went to at least every other day for grocery items. You shop differently when you have to carry it home.

Lotus Center

The street the school and our apartment building are on.

Zhongguancun

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Thankful Thursday

China 2008: March 13th
China 2008: March 13th (click to see album)
  • I am thankful for Travis and Chrissie’s sweet one Thessalie being born today. We can’t wait to meet you!
  • For the fact that our whole family has been healthy on our trip so far.
  • For the Internet and modern technology. Without it we couldn’t have made the trip, and to be able to email and call people halfway around the world is comforting.
  • For all the tasty new foods we have been able to try here.
  • For Coca Cola Light! More comfort.
  • For progress in language lessons even with it being hard.
  • For Roger and Paula buying another back up baby for Nadia. You guys ROCK!
  • For Joy and Janis taking care of our house. You ROCK too!

Kiki came to tutor me this morning and told me that my pronunciation has improved a huge amount which made me feel good. She said that I need to learn to recognize the words without reading them, but they all sound the same when I’m not looking at them. So she did drills with me today using words that sound alike. I thought my head might explode, but I survived. Mike continued working throughout the day with small breaks to see the cutest baby ever in between naps.

I bought Nadia a bubble gun at the Lotus a few days ago and today it was nice enough to go out and try it. I bundled the cute girl up and we headed over to the playground. I started blowing the bubbles and Nadia was getting really excited about it. That is, until the other kids noticed and ran over screaming and started chasing the bubbles. Nadia got freaked and started crying and it was so sad for me. I felt bad that she got so startled by the other kids. A grandmother was there with her grandson and she came up to Nadia and offered her his toy. She loved it and I moved over a bit and kept blowing the bubbles for the other kids who just ran around screaming in delight! Nadia would look over at me every so often and shake her hand at me and say “NO NO!” I said, “No bubbles?” And she would nod. She cracks me up. So all the photos are of her playing with the other child’s toy.

Tonight we hung out at the apartment, but I did run over to Bravo for take out. Mike got a personal pizza and I got a thing they call Doria (the name is taken from a famous Italian painting). It was basically fried rice, tuna, and assorted mushrooms all baked in a creamy Alfredo sauce. Talk about rich! Nadia loved it!! I swear the child is a little garlic and strong food lover like her mom. Last night I made penne pasta at the apartment and Mike just topped his with some salt. I smothered mine in garlic, salt and butter. Nadia went to Mike first for a bite and just spit it out on the floor. Then she came over to me and I gave her a bite and she ate it and started her usual “MORE, MORE, MORE!!!” chant that she does when she really likes something.

On another food note, we bought Nadia some Nestle Rice with Chicken and Vegetable mix that you just whip up with water (the directions say milk, but I didn’t know or have any). She just loves the stuff and will eat 2 big servings. Today for lunch I just made her a giant bowl and she ate the whole thing. Then she wanted it again tonight and still finished off a whole bottle. Of course, they don’t make this in America. I may just be bringing some home for her. It could just be a trade out for some of the weight in food we brought with us for the return. Hee hee.

I do have one prayer request. We will be going to a foster home on Saturday and I pray that if any of the little ones there are sick with a cold, that Nadia will not catch it. She has been healthy the whole trip and I pray it stays that way.

Bubbles

Playground

Playground

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Thankful Thursday – Goodbye Aunt Johnnie

Aunt Johnnie

My Grammie’s Aunt Johnnie died yesterday. She was 100 years old. Many of you sent cards for her 100th birthday party that we attended in November in Clifton, Texas. The photo above is from the birthday party and I had it up before on the post about the 100 year old with the 1 year old. My Grammie summed it up by saying that she was a good example to all her relatives and a really neat person. Grammie said that she spent her last 2 days telling all the nurses and nurses aides thank you for taking good care of her and planning the last details of her funeral.

I am thankful that I got to visit her a couple times in the last year and most of all that she was such an important person in my Grammie’s life. My Grammie is so important to me and my heart hurts for her today because she lost Aunt Johnnie.

There are lots of other things I am thankful for this week, but I prefer to leave this post as a tribute to Aunt Johnnie and the great love that she showed for all the “kids” in her life like my Grammie 🙂