We’re back in Hong Kong after a 2-month vacation back to the “States.” I realize that some of you may not have been aware that we had even left Hong Kong, but I like to keep things somewhat on the down low in terms of our whereabouts. I’m sure you understand.

Anyway, it was our first trip back to Jacksonville and other parts of the U.S. since our move to Hong Kong. I try not to say “back home” because, well, at the moment, the U.S. is no longer our home.

It was, of course, wonderful being back in the U.S.

When we disembarked our plane in Atlanta and as the U.S. immigration agents greeted us, the first thing Webley said to me was, “it’s so nice to be able to understand what people are saying.” Oh, yes, my dear, I could not agree more. I thought it was equally as nice to be able to respond to their greetings and say something like, “it’s great to back in the U.S.” and then hear back from them, “welcome home.” They were so sweet with their southern drawls and big, warm smiles that I just wanted to drop to my knees and kiss their feet.

It’s amazing the things you miss when living in a foreign country, not able to speak or read the language.  I’m trying to learn Cantonese, but I’m barely at caveman level at this point and I think I know maybe 4 of the Chinese characters (someone told me that you have to know somewhere around 2,000 characters before you’re considered literate.  Oy! Only 1,996 more to go!).  I know you find it shocking that neither gets me very far.

Idle chit chat and the exchange of pleasantries with the grocery check-out lady is virtually impossible.  Once I get past the initial “leih hou” (how are you?), I’m pretty much tapped out.  Over-hearing a funny story on the MTR doesn’t happen either.  I can’t even turn on the TV to find out what the heck is going on in this town.  It can be terribly isolating and humbling and lonely.

When we got back to Jacksonville, we all just slid back into our old life. No offense to anyone, but nothing really had changed back in the ole ‘hood. After all, we had only been gone 6 months and I’m sure that if we were still living in Jacksonville, I’d be doing the same old things too: homeschooling, schlepping kids around, church, volunteering, work, grocery shopping, wash, rinse, repeat.

But for us, EVERYTHING was different about our new life in Hong Kong.  Then suddenly we were thrust back into Jacksonville with all of our old friends, family and surroundings. It was just so SURREAL. I had to ask myself: did we really move to Hong Kong? Do I really have this whole other life on the other side of the planet that in no way intersects the life I had in Jacksonville? I felt like I had just awoken from a dream and I was trying to recall the people in it and this new place that was supposedly our home.

The question I got the most during our visit was: “so, do you like it in Hong Kong?” I found that question to be difficult to answer. My canned response ended up sounding something like this: “well it’s been hard, but it’s been good for me.” And that’s the truth.

Years before we moved to Hong Kong, a friend once said to me that he thought it was  a good exercise to get outside of one’s comfort zone from time to time because it reveals to you the sin in your life. I didn’t really know what he meant when he said that, but now those words reverberate in my head over and over. In Jacksonville, I may have looked like a foreigner on the outside, but I really am anything but. I’m American through and through. I can’t speak another language and I certainly can’t read any other. Being only one generation removed from immigrants, I always considered myself to be a lot more sympathetic to the plight of foreigners in America then the average American, but still, America is the only place I know and I was so busy, busy, busy.

I think back to all those people who crossed my path who were foreigners. There was the Chinese lady in my BSF class; the Mexican laborers who worked on my house; the Burmese refugees who were at Humble Harvest; the Bosnian family shopping in Winn Dixie. Did I ever go out of my way to be helpful to them? Was I kind to them or was I impatient because they couldn’t speak English very well? Did I try to befriend them or was I too busy to make the extra effort because I couldn’t understand them?

Now, living in Hong Kong, I am the foreigner. I may not look like it on the outside, but I am. As soon as I open my mouth, it’s obvious to those around me. Sometimes I don’t even have to do that. They can just tell somehow by the way I dress or hold myself. It’s a busy, bustling city and people have places to go and things to do. They can’t be bothered to help the foreigner understand what the grocery check-out lady is saying. The language barrier is too difficult to try to be friends. Trust me, the bitter irony of it all is not lost on me.

So, it has been hard adjusting to life in Hong Kong, but it’s a good kind of hard. Just as my friend said, it’s the out-of-comfort-zone-hard that’s revealing. I now have such compassion for foreigners and the illiterate. Whenever it is that we move back to the U.S., I hope to never be blind to those people around me. Because I know how they feel and I know what they are going through.

Here are some random pics of our trip back to the U.S.  We were on the road quite a bit.

We went up to Chi-town to visit Benjy’s stepmom, more affectionately known as “Nana.”  Here’s a shot of us at the Cantigny gardens.  The flowers were stunning.

I got to spend some girl time with all of my BFF’s including this one.  I’ll be submitting this pic to the Chi Omego Eleusis.  Lol!!

The kids attended a camp in Asheville, North Carolina along with some other friends from Jacksonville.  While the kittens were away, the mice (parents) played.  Among other things, we went whitewater rafting.

 and went to the Biltmore Estate to experience how the .001% lived.

Then we headed to Benjy’s and my old stomping grounds.  I seriously have never seen more beautiful beaches in the world and I kind of think that’s saying something.

Aaron did a lot of fishing, especially with his best fishing buddy, Lolo.

And we had a wonderful time hanging out with all the Filipinos.

Cousins

After eight weeks and about 15 pounds later (due to our binge eating of Mexican food and other cuisines we craved since our move), we were back in The Kong…

…and back to all of its peculiarities and ideosyncrasies.  Here is a ginormous snail we saw as we were on our way to church on Sunday. The leaf gives you some perspective.  Aaron said he’d be good bait (the kid is always thinking about fishing).

And instead of the Dog of the Day, here’s the rare Cat of the Day pic. He was sitting in a shop on top of a stack of dried cuttlefish. I tried to get him to look at the phone, but you can see how un-cooperative he was being.  He was just like the dogs that I previously photographed around town….only the exact opposite.  That’s why I love cats.  Their aloofness cracks me up.  The nerve of me photographing him!  He’s telling me with his eyes to pound sand.

Our last stop was Chengdu and was a special request of Webley. She wanted to see panda bears. After doing a bit of research, Benjy found the Bifengxia Panda Center, which is a panda preserve about 2 hours outside of Chengdu. For a mere $100 per person, we could actually pay to volunteer to care for the pandas for a day. The volunteer application was quite extensive and required that we submit a doctor’s note certifying that we were healthy enough to care for pandas. Since I don’t personally know any doctors in Hong Kong (especially one who would certify as to my health status to care for pandas), I had to ask one of my friends in Jacksonville if she could write a letter for each of us. She was kind enough to do so, but said that it was the silliest doctor’s letter she ever had to write: “I hereby certify that Tala A. Woods is medically able to care for panda bears.”

So, what does one do as a volunteer for a day at a panda preserve? We were told that we would clean cages and feed pandas. My sister did some research and discovered that pandas excrete their weight in poop each day. Pandas weigh around 200 pounds, so that’s a lot of poop to scoop! Not to worry, though, we were told that panda poop doesn’t stink. I wasn’t sure if I believed that. My sister started to loudly protest the panda poop scooping tour, but there was no getting out of it.

The Poop Brigade reporting for duty!

We did scoop a lot of poop.

And it’s true that it really doesn’t stink.

We fed them bamboo, which first had to be karate chopped into smaller pieces. That was Benjy’s job.

We also got to feed them panda cake.

And we discovered something about pandas that we didn’t know before. Pandas have opposable thumbs. So instead of just gulping down the panda cake, after it was given to them, the panda would take it out of its mouth and eat it like a candy bar. This made them all the more endearing to me.

After about an hour of eating bamboo and panda cake, the pandas fell asleep with bamboo still lying on their tummies. Two hours later, it was time to feed them… again.

I love pandas….

Especially baby pandas. Aren’t they so cute?

I’m overloading on the panda pix because I’ve had many requests.

These are my favorite pix.

And after all her protesting and complaining about the panda poop scooping, at the end of the day, my sister admitted that THIS was her most favorite part of our trip.

When we were planning our trip through mainland China, Benjy and I decided that we wanted to have an authentic Chinese experience. To accomplish this, we booked an overnight trip on a sleeper train from Beijing to Xi’an. This, in our minds, would achieve three things: (1) provide cheap overnight accommodations, (2) give a fun train experience for the kids and (3) afford us a look into how locals travel.  Well, our mission was certainly accomplished. (1) Travel on the train was truly cheap, especially compared to the average cost of a hotel in Beijing. However, as we all know (and what Benjy and I sometimes fail to remember), you get what you pay for. (2) To Aaron, this was the highlight of our entire trip through mainland China, and, as a 7 year old boy who loves trains, of course this would be the case. (3) It was truly a “Chinesey” experience.

Our room was at most 8 x 8 feet.  It had 4 beds in it and a tiny table.  Here is the only picture we took of our train experience.

Our entire train car shared only one toilet.

I’ll take this opportunity as an aside to explain that in a mainland China bathroom, the most you can reasonably expect to get is either a squatty potty (which is basically just a hole in the ground) and TP OR a proper toilet, but no TP.  You just don’t get both.  Most of the time it’s BYOTP regardless of the hole versus toilet crap shoot (sorry I couldn’t resist the pun).   I don’t know why.  And I really question the assertion that China will take over the world as long as they cannot get the toilet situation worked out. Of course, this is all just my opinion and I know that cultures are different, etc., etc., etc., but to me, it’s really the difference between a third world country and first world country.  It’s not a stable currency; it’s not a solid middle class population; and it’s not a booming manufacturing industry.  It’s whether you can go to a toilet in an airport in a city so large and metropolitan that the Olympic Games were held there just 4 short years ago and not have pee splashing on your ankles as you squat precariously over a hole in the floor or have to stare at someone else’s poo that didn’t make it down the hole. I mean come on folks let’s get with the program.  You’ve already put the hole in the floor.  Just spend a few extra quay and throw the toilet on top of it.  Anyway.  Sorry.  I digress.

It is truly an extravagant luxury to have both TP and a toilet in a bathroom in mainland China.  The little toilet in our car had both, but extravagant luxury…not so much. There were at least 40 people in our car and only 1 toilet for an 11-hour trip. There were also only 3 sinks in which many people felt free to all but take a bath in and then not clean up after themselves. I’ll let you use your imagination.

A sleeper car has only 4 beds and wouldn’t you know that we had 5 in our party. Benjy, being the gallant gentleman that he is, took one for the team and took the single ticket for the room next door and shared it with 3 other strangers. Actually, there were 4 others because one man shared his bunk with his not so small and quite rambunctious 8-year old son. Benjy said that at one time during the night each of his 4 other roomies was using an electronic device, either listening to music, watching a movie, playing a video game or talking on the phone.  No one, however, was using ear buds. <sigh> I guess it’s a good thing Benjy has the ability to sleep through just about anything.

We made it to Xi’an early the next morning, un-showered, hungry and tired.  Our tour guide met us at the station.  He said, “oh you took the sleeper train.  Those are so nice.”  My sister and I didn’t say anything.  The kids, on the other hand, enthusiastically nodded their heads in agreement.  We got in the van and road to the terra cotta warrior exhibit.

From 221 B.C. to 206 B.C., during the Qin Dynasty, the First Emperor of China, Huangdi, ordered that the terra cotta warriors be created for his tomb.

Huangdi believed that the warriors would protect him in the afterlife.

Over 8,000 warriors were made.  Each is unique.

These weren’t the real terra cotta warriors, just a photo op we couldn’t resist.

After we saw the terra cotta warriors, we toured other parts of the city of Xi’an, including Moslem Street which is known for it’s street food vendors and noodle shops.  We happened upon this enormous bun steamer that was outside of one of the restaurants.

Now that’s a lot of steamed buns!

Back in Beijing, my sister, Webley and I took a Sichuan cooking class, while the boys swam in the hotel pool.

We, of course, could not leave Beijing without visiting some of the popular tourist spots.  There were the usual suspects…

Tiananmen Square (with the famous picture of Chairman Mao in the background)

The Forbidden City

and the Summer Palace.

We also saw the Bird’s Nest which is the stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics were held…

and the Water Cube, which is where Michael Phelps swam his way into history as the most decorated Olympic athlete.

Although it appears to the contrary, to be honest with you, we are not much of a sightseeing kind of family.  We much prefer active pursuits to walking around looking at buildings and monuments.  But, we are now homeschooling, so we can no longer opt out of the edifying parts of our vacation destinations.  Every trip we take is now a fieldtrip and will be notated as such in my lesson plan.

We allotted only one day to see Beijing and after awhile our private tour was beginning to feel a little like our own version of European Vacation (“Look kids, Big Ben!”).  Once we were finished with our whirlwind tour of the city, we were off to see the terra cotta warriors in Xi’an.

On day 2 of our hike of the Great Wall, we all woke up the next morning tired and very sore from the day before. We pressed on nonetheless and began our hike from Jinshanling to Simatai West. The weather on that day was even more brilliant than the day before.

There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the views we had throughout the day.

Someone once told me that seeing the Great Wall was one of the most under-whelming experiences of this person’s life. I whole-heartedly disagree. Maybe this person visited a part of the Wall loaded with tourists and trinket peddlers, but that was NOT our experience.

With every step, I felt myself praising the Lord for the opportunity to see and enjoy His creation and I was simply in awe of the tremendous human effort it took to build the Great Wall.

I was also struck by the extreme fear, anxiety and insecurity that the ancient Chinese must have felt to drive them to erect such a massive fortification.

I suppose those Mongols and Huns must have been fearsome brutes.

This is where our hike ended.

But we still had to walk down some 1,300 steps to get to the bottom where our van was waiting for us to take us back to Beijing.

My sister, Gay, was so excited to be finished that she decided to memorialize her receipt of her official certificate of completion.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a lunch of hotpot.

And then had a Chinese massage.  If any of you have ever experienced a Chinese massage, you know that our muscles were more sore when we left than when we arrived.  The Chinese believe one should lean into the pain.  I have to disagree with that point of view.

One of the benefits of living in Hong Kong is that all of those places that once seemed so exotic and far away when we lived in Jacksonville are no longer so.  Well, I suppose they are still exotic, but far away, not so much anymore.

My sister came to visit us.  We decided to make the most of her being on this side of the planet by doing a whirlwind tour of mainland China.  We spent 8 days hitting the highlights of the country.  Trying to see China in 8 days is like going to the Grand Canyon, Disney World, Washington D.C. and New York City all in one week.  There’s just too much ground to cover in such a short period of time.  What do you see?  We settled on the obvious choices, the ones you’d be ashamed to come back from a trip to China and say that you didn’t see:  The Great Wall, Beijing and the terra cotta warriors in Xi’an.  Our last stop was a special request from Webley to see the great pandas at a reserve in Chengdu.

I’ve decided to do separate blogs for each location.  Webley will be a contributing writer in some of the posts.  Please indulge me with all the pictures.  Team Woods has never been the shutterbug sort, but on this trip I think I may have uncovered a new interest.  I suppose it was the stunning views from the Great Wall that provided the initial inspiration and I continued to snap away throughout the remainder of our trip.  I’m actually quite happy with some of the shots.

We flew into Beijing late one evening and arose early the next morning to begin our hike of the Great Wall.  Benjy was determined to stay away from those sections of the Wall with throngs of tourists, so he arranged a 2-day hike of portions that were located a 2-hour drive outside of Beijing.

When he was planning our trip, Benjy tried to convince me to opt for the hike that included camping overnight on the Wall.  He made respectable efforts to sway me by citing all the possible bucket-list check marks we could accumulate by doing so.  He nearly had me convinced, but I knew the mental picture he was painting for me was quite different from what reality would likely be (especially for one bucket-list item in particular).  After doing a mental calculation of such matters as no running water, no soft ground (we would be on the Wall, after all), and, most importantly, no toilets, I declined.  I’ve never been a bucket list kind of girl anyway.

We hiked for about an hour up a mountain to get to the Wall.  When we got there, we were met by a local villager in U.S. Army fatigues.  He was standing at the bottom of a ladder attached to the face of the Wall.  He reminded me of the troll under the bridge who wouldn’t let us pass without the secret password.  After some back and forth, our guide, Robert, took out his wallet and paid him some money.  After all of us made it up the ladder, Benjy asked Robert if that guy was shaking us down.  Robert responded somewhat sheepishly that the guy built the ladder, so we had to pay him to use it.

The first day of our hike was from Jiankou to Mutianu.  At this point, the wall was mostly unrestored and quite remote.

For most of the day, we had the Wall to ourselves with rare encounters with other hikers or villagers.

The wild cherry trees were in full bloom, the weather was cool and the sky was clear (sadly, a rarity in China, what with all the air pollution).  It really was a perfect day for hiking.

We stopped to eat lunch, but other than that we hiked non-stop.  The kids were troupers.  All-in-all, we hiked up and down steep inclines and declines for 6 hours.

At the end of the day, our hired van picked us up and brought us to a local farmhouse where we spent the night.  I know that “farmhouse,” especially coupled with the phrase “small village in China” conjures up thoughts of primitive accommodations not much better than camping on the Wall and that’s what our expectations were as well.  As it turns out, the “farmhouse” was quite nice with private bathrooms (with toilets AND TP!), soft beds and food that was delicious and identifiable.  All bonuses in my mind.  It was a good thing, because we were all exhausted from the long hike.

Contributions by Webley:

The first two days we were in China, we were at the Great Wall.  With the two days combined, we passed about 50 watch towers and walked about 18 km.  That is about 1/300 of the whole Ming Great Wall. Okay, you are probably confused when I said the Ming Great Wall so I’ll start from the beginning.  In about 480 B.C., China was divided into seven kingdoms that were almost always at war with each other.  Finally in 221 B.C., the Qin (Chin) under the rule of emperor Huangdi conquered all of the other kingdoms and called himself the First Emperor of China.  This name might sound familiar because he made the terracotta warriors. That’s not all!  He also made the first Great Wall of China to protect China from the Mongols and the Manchurians.  Since it was a long time ago, most of that wall is no longer standing.  Then in 1368 A.D., the Ming Dynasty began.  During that time the wall was almost completely rebuilt.  About 3,600 miles was rebuilt. The next and last dynasty continued construction after the Ming.

Now that I have told you some of the history of the Great Wall, I’ll tell you what we did there.  On the first day, we climbed up a mountain to get to the wall.  Once we got up on the wall that part wasn’t restored so it was a little difficult for us.  We were also lucky because the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and this only happens two weeks out of the year.  Most of the wall we hiked wasn’t restored.  After we passed the unrestored parts, we came to the restored part.  It was hard on our sore legs because we had to climb 250 steps.  After the hike, we tobogganed down the wall to our van.  After the long hike, we had a two hour ride in the car to get to a farm house.  We spent the night at the farm house and got ready for the second day of our hike.

Probably the hardest part of acclimating to Hong Kong for the kids and Benjy has been adjusting to the food. With nary a chicken finger or a cheese quesadilla in sight, the first couple of weeks were rough.  But, it’s amazing how quickly a growling tummy can broaden the taste bud horizons.  One of the first restaurants we ate at in Sai Kung was a dim sum restaurant.  The kids barely touched their food.  Now, three and a half months later, it’s one of their favorite restaurants in the area. 

Benjy and the kids have quickly had to learn how to use chopsticks.  All three started out with “training wheel” chopsticks that my sister had given them. 

As you could imagine, training wheel chopsticks in public are not at all cool, so those were swiftly jettisoned for the real deal.

 As for me, I’ve discovered that, when it comes to the food in Hong Kong, I am in that respect (and, sadly, only in that respect), like Br’er Rabbit in the Briar Patch.  All the salted foods like these dried fish, shrimp, cuttlefish and oysters are quite familiar to me.   

The heads on EVERYTHING are fine by me too. 

Living in Hong Kong has brought back gastronomic memories of the Filipino food I ate as a young child.  One of my favorite foods was bagoong (I’m opting out of providing the phonetic pronunciation for you) and green mangoes.  Bagoong is a Philippine condiment made of fermented baby shrimp and salt.  It’s the color of Pepto Bismal and it smells like, well, salmon-flavored cat food that’s been left out in the sun too long.  I also loved the oyster bagoong which looks like dark green slimy boogers (sorry for the graphic description, but I’m afraid it’s an accurate one) and I used to eat that with a bowl of steaming hot white rice.  After reading the foregoing, it is probably hard for you to believe that I was a picky eater as a child.  I’d barely eat any meat at all.   But, I’d eat bagoong with no complaints and I’d snack on dried fish, dried shrimp and cuttlefish similar to what’s in the picture above.  I confess as I write this my mouth is watering. :0)

I can remember my grandmother coming to visit us at our house in Meridian, MS.  We’d go fishing in a pond at a farm we owned and then she’d take the fish we caught and dry them in our backyard.  At the time, I didn’t think that it was odd at all to see fish hanging from our clothes line.  One year, we roasted a whole pig (head, snout, hoofs and all) on a bamboo spit for 3 days in our backyard in preparation for a party my parents were throwing.  Remembering it now makes me laugh and wonder what our neighbors must have thought of those crazy “Chinese people” drying fish and roasting a pig in their backyard.  It was the late 1970’s and it was Mississippi, so I’m sure we might as well have been from Mars to some of them.

So when I walk past this 

Duck egg yolks and fish drying in the sun 

And this 

I feel right at home and I’m loving it.

Lest you think that I’ve forgotten the DOD photos, here is another shot I took. 

These pooches live in my apartment complex.  Their names are Brush (on the left) and Fay(on the right).  In Hong Kong, it is a common custom for children to be named Chinese names at birth and then later, when they are older, they are permitted to choose a western name.  I was told by their human that Brush and Fay both have Chinese names, too, but I’d never be able to remember them. 

Guest post by Webley Woods

The first day we were in Vietnam we went on a “back of the bike” food tour to 5 street food places, while riding on a moped. A moped is like a motorcycle.

First we had goi du du bo which is green papaya salad. It tasted just like cole slaw.

Next we had banh khot which is coconut rice cakes topped with shrimp or pork.

Next we had bun thit nuong. This was our favorite. It was grilled chicken with noodles.

We had fried spring rolls, too.

The last food that we had was bun bo hue which was pho or meat with noodles.

Dessert was a lot of ice cream with different fruit toppings.

Over all I thought it was really fun. I know Aaron had fun because on the moped by the end he was able to steer or do the gas.

By the time we were back at the hotel I was stuffed to the max though.

Another place we visited was the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels are a whole underground village made by the Vietnamese during the French War. They continued construction of the tunnels during what they call the American War.

They slept, ate and even schooled and performed plays in the tunnels! They could stay down there for the maximum time of one month. When we finally got in the tunnels, Dad was on his hands and knees and those were widened for tourism, so imagine how small they really were!

The tunnels were also used  for transporting troops and supplies to the battle grounds. The tunnels had three levels and included sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, hospitals, and much more.

Here are some pictures of us there:

Aaron and I are in a crater that was left by a bomb dropped by a B-52 U.S. bomber.

On the last day Mom and I went to a cooking class. We made spring rolls,

green mango salad,

and then fried rice.

The class was really fun and the food was pretty good (even for my picky taste). Here are some pictures of us at the class:

It was a great trip!

Benjy, the kids and I just got back from spending some time visiting Doug and Janice Bush and their daughter, Sarah Grace.  Here are goofy pictures of us at KTV, which is a fancy karaoke establishment.  French provincial décor is very big here.   

The Bushes are family members of mine and they live just a two-hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong in a city called Zhongshan in mainland China.  Due to a couple of divorces, remarriages and various blended siblings in the mix, it gets a bit complicated for me to explain exactly how we’re related.  But, it is a wonderful thing that Jesus is in the business of redemption and has redeemed all of that familial dysfunction to bring the Bushes into our lives.  We likely would never have otherwise had the honor and pleasure of meeting them and getting to know the amazing ministry of which they are apart. 

Having said all of that, I think the most direct way to explain our family relation is to say that Doug and Janice are my half-sister’s mother and father-in-law.  There that wasn’t too bad.

Doug, Janice and their daughter, Sarah Grace work with a ministry called New Day Foster Home.  Based in Beijing, New Day Foster Home provides life-saving surgeries and a loving home to orphans with special needs.  Sixty percent of China’s orphanages, however, are located in the southernmost provinces of China.  New Day Foster Home wanted to do more for the children in these orphanages.  So that’s where the Bushes came in.  They opened a southern branch of New Day Foster Home in Zhongshan several years ago.  This southern branch is called New Day South. 

Benjy, the kids and I spent time holding the babies and playing with the toddlers. Because much of the children’s young lives are devoid of any human affection, they soak up every ounce of love and snuggling you give them.  It grabs your heart and it’s life-changing to be around them.

I’m not permitted to post pictures of the children on my blog, but you can visit New Day Foster Home’s website at http://www.newdaycreations.com/foster/

Please join me in prayer for the children and for the Bushes.  They do the work to which the Lord has called them joyfully, but I know (now firsthand) that it isn’t easy to be in a foreign country struggling with the language and cultural differences.  It can be lonely and isolating, so they need your prayer support for encouragement and assurance.

Doug and Janice provide inspiration to Benjy and me to stretch our faith further and do more to advance the Kingdom.  We look forward to spending more time with them and, of course, holding and loving on the precious babies.

Happy Chinese New Year!  This is our first time experiencing Chinese New Year and it has been quite an interesting look into the biggest celebration in China.  Think Christmas, New Year and Easter all wrapped into one and that about sums up the importance of this holiday to the Chinese.  

The Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar and not the Gregorian calendar used by western countries.  This year, Chinese New Year began on January 31 and will continue for 15 days.    

Preparations for Chinese New Year begin weeks before.  People adorn their homes and businesses with bright colored decorations (especially the color red) because bright colors chase away evil spirits. 

Bright-colored flowers and kumquat trees are purchased for good luck.

Three days prior to Chinese New Year, tradition requires that everything be thoroughly cleaned.  It’s considered bad luck to begin the new year with “old dirt.” Restaurants and other businesses pull everything out of their shops and meticulously sanitize from floor to ceiling.  People paint and freshen up their homes.  If something is not in proper working condition, it is either repaired or replaced.  For me personally, this was my favorite tradition and I especially appreciated seeing the restaurants undergoing a thorough decontamination.  Once everything is spic and span, cleaning cannot commence again until after Day 1.  Otherwise, you could wash away all the good luck that you worked so diligently to generate through your cleaning on the days prior.

Young children dress in traditional Chinese garb.

The dragons come out to scare off evil spirits and bless the businesses and homes around town.

Of course, a good Chinese celebration would never be complete without a spectacular fireworks display and I’d expect no less from the inventors of the pyrotechnics. 

In all, the show lasted 26 minutes and did not disappoint.  We had some of our own good fortune and were able to enjoy the display away from the crowds and up on the 30^th floor of a hotel right on Victoria Harbor.  The “good fortune” was courtesy of all the hotel reward points we generated after living in a hotel for month!   

 So, when you’re finally sick of all of the traditional food and too much up-close and personal time with family, where does one go in China to get a bite to eat when EVERYTHING is closed?

That’s right…Pizza Hut!  Note the line out the door. 

It seems a lot of you are just as amused as I am about the dog adoration that goes on over here, so I’ve decided to drop in dog of the day (“DOD”) shots as I come across some photo-worthy pooches.

I saved this pic for last.  I took it right as I was getting off the MTR.

Wait. For. It.

Note that he is wearing a traditional Chinese top.  There were quite a few people taking photos of him so his human was telling him to “wait” and then “smile” and that’s when he stuck out his tongue.

Priceless.