I have been told that I need to update my blog. I wrote a whole page of stuff, but for some reason I cannot copy and paste it into blogger. Strange! I guess I will just have to re-type it. Here goes....
We are in the US now. The trip was pretty good. We left Hangzhou Friday after lunch. The school provided us with a van to the airport. We decided to stay in a hotel in the airport instead of leaving HZ at 4am. Our flight was for 8:30 (ish) on Saturday morning. The flight was about 13- 14 hours. The kids did pretty well, but they only slept about 2 or 3 hours. We landed in Detroit and had plenty of time to clear customs and all. We ate hot dogs for lunch!
We boarded the plane and all of the kids were asleep before take-off! That flight was about 1 1/2 hours and they slept the whole time.
We were met at the airport by my folks, Jon's parents, and Staci, Mitch, and Kelly. We grabbed our bags and went to Cracker Barrel. The kids enjoyed their cereal and Jon and I loved our sweet tea!
For the most part, I have been pretty clear-headed. I have not had much trouble sleeping. I have woke up pretty early a few days, but we are just about on a normal schedule. Jet lag can be terrible, but this time it has not been too bad.
Jon and I both took some pills called "No Jet Lag". I really think they helped.
Jon has been pretty busy with fireworks since we have been back, but the kids and I have occasionally felt strange to be back. It is usually just little things that we notice.
Eryn keeps announcing that the public restrooms are Western potties!
I keep forgetting that I can use the tap water to wet my toothbrush and rise my mouth!
We love getting drinks out of water fountains.
We had VBS in Henderson this week. I think that was perfect timing. It gave the kids something exciting and fun to do in the evening, when they normally would have been very sleepy. I am sure that has helped them get back on schedule.
I will try to upload some pictures to the blog in the next few days!
Yeah we are glad to be back, we needed a rest, but I am also very excited about next semester and going back in August. We are going to have a great year!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
blocked! and dates!
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that blogger was blocked. I was pretty sad because it meant that I could not post and I could not read my friend's blogs. Today someone gave the name of a proxy server and volia! I am back!!
We will move into our new apartment on Friday. We are excited, but I am also a little anxious. We will probably not have the internet at the new apartment until we come back, so I won't be online quite as much.
It doesn't look like I will be able to post pictures right now, but I will try to add some when we are no longer blocked. It is possible that we will not be blocked once a certain date has passed. We will see.
Get out your calanders and mark some of these dates.
We will travel to the US on June 20! We will arrive in the US just two hours after we left! (not really).
We plan to be in Henderson on Sunday June 21! We also hope to attend VBS that night. However we will be very jetlagged so who knows.
We will also be in Henderson June 28
Jenn and the kids will be in Milan June 29-July 4.
Henderson July 5
July 12 ?
Then we will travel to Hixson for a few weeks
we should be at Clear Creek on Sunday July 19, and 26,and August 2.
We will be back in Henderson on Aug. 9 and we leave for China on Aug 11.
If you have any questions about any specific dates, feel free to ask. We will try to see as many people as we can, but remember we ar human and can only do so much...ha ha.
We are super excited about seeing everyone in person very soon.
Please pray for safe travels and smooth transitions!
We will move into our new apartment on Friday. We are excited, but I am also a little anxious. We will probably not have the internet at the new apartment until we come back, so I won't be online quite as much.
It doesn't look like I will be able to post pictures right now, but I will try to add some when we are no longer blocked. It is possible that we will not be blocked once a certain date has passed. We will see.
Get out your calanders and mark some of these dates.
We will travel to the US on June 20! We will arrive in the US just two hours after we left! (not really).
We plan to be in Henderson on Sunday June 21! We also hope to attend VBS that night. However we will be very jetlagged so who knows.
We will also be in Henderson June 28
Jenn and the kids will be in Milan June 29-July 4.
Henderson July 5
July 12 ?
Then we will travel to Hixson for a few weeks
we should be at Clear Creek on Sunday July 19, and 26,and August 2.
We will be back in Henderson on Aug. 9 and we leave for China on Aug 11.
If you have any questions about any specific dates, feel free to ask. We will try to see as many people as we can, but remember we ar human and can only do so much...ha ha.
We are super excited about seeing everyone in person very soon.
Please pray for safe travels and smooth transitions!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
General Hardin update
We have an apartment for next year. We have signed a lease and paid for 6 months rent. We even have keys and everything. We are pretty excited about it. It is in a very nice apartment complex with lots of areas for the kids to play and lots of kids for the kids to play with. There is even a nice pond just feet from our building ( where we will set the turtle free). The apartment has enough rooms for Liam to have a separate room and the girls to have a girl bedroom and we will even have a school room. There is a couch too ( we only have chairs here). The only drawback to the apartment is that it is on the 4th floor and there is no elevator. We feel that it is not much of a problem for us ( we are used to it now), but visitors might have some problems. The apartment is in the same complex that Bobby and Bonnie lived in last year. We will try to get some pictures up soon.
We had thought that we were going to live in an apartment complex this year. When we landed we were told that we were going to live on campus. Last semester it was probably a good thing since we had students watch the kids while we were in class. However, there are not many other people that live on campus and there really are not any kids for ours to play with. We are very excited about the opportunities at the new place.
We are not sure exactly when we will move but probably in the next few weeks. We still are not 100% sure where Jon will teach next year. We should know something pretty soon though.
Jon's weekly meetings with Alex are going very well and even though he is graduating, we will see him lots next year. I think he is interested in continuing his study!
The last several days have been HOT! I think yesterday the high was 97! It may have been a little cooler here because of the mountains. Thankfully it is going to cool off some over the next few days. Teaching in that kind of heat is not fun at all.
We had thought that we were going to live in an apartment complex this year. When we landed we were told that we were going to live on campus. Last semester it was probably a good thing since we had students watch the kids while we were in class. However, there are not many other people that live on campus and there really are not any kids for ours to play with. We are very excited about the opportunities at the new place.
We are not sure exactly when we will move but probably in the next few weeks. We still are not 100% sure where Jon will teach next year. We should know something pretty soon though.
Jon's weekly meetings with Alex are going very well and even though he is graduating, we will see him lots next year. I think he is interested in continuing his study!
The last several days have been HOT! I think yesterday the high was 97! It may have been a little cooler here because of the mountains. Thankfully it is going to cool off some over the next few days. Teaching in that kind of heat is not fun at all.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
more about Easter
We echo the statements about Easter. We had a great time! I let others write about the day, I will just add pictures.
The couple that you don't know is the Beamons with their baby Joseph that was born in China.
Woah! She looks way too grown up!
Josh telling the story and Eric's dad translating.
The hunt is on!
Look at them go!
Caleb found an egg!
Hallie got along very well with Alicia, Margret's daughter. I will have more pictures of these too soon!
The couple that you don't know is the Beamons with their baby Joseph that was born in China.
Woah! She looks way too grown up!
Josh telling the story and Eric's dad translating.
The hunt is on!
Look at them go!
Caleb found an egg!
Hallie got along very well with Alicia, Margret's daughter. I will have more pictures of these too soon!Saturday, April 18, 2009
More Praise from Easter Sunday
We have really enjoyed spending time with Jun and his family. Jun is one of China’s top researchers in the area of liver, stem cells, and rats. Sounds complicated? Sometimes I try to help him proof read some of his English presentations and the medical words I can’t pronounce I just assume to be correct.
Our last spiritual conversation, a month ago, was about the differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs and other random facts about the Bible. I always think of Jun as a person far too busy to study spiritual matters.
But God keeps surprising me with open doors.
Easter Sunday I had prepared a short summary of Jesus’ life, death on the cross, and resurrection. I had written it all down carefully on a piece of paper. Hoping to get some help from the audience, I was even going to try translating for myself because I knew the word for resurrection and crucifixion. I sat down on the bench in our newly discovered pagoda auditorium to review my story. Jun and his son Eric came and sat next to me. I said to him, “Today I am going to tell the story about Jesus.” And before I knew it Jun had the paper and he was reading and carefully teaching Eric the story sentence by sentence. When everyone had gathered for worship, I asked Jun if he would like to translate the story for me. He said, “Sure!” In half an hour Jun heard the story two times and taught the story two times, once to his son and once to the group gathered on Easter Sunday.
Matthew 13:31 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
Our last spiritual conversation, a month ago, was about the differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs and other random facts about the Bible. I always think of Jun as a person far too busy to study spiritual matters.
But God keeps surprising me with open doors.
Easter Sunday I had prepared a short summary of Jesus’ life, death on the cross, and resurrection. I had written it all down carefully on a piece of paper. Hoping to get some help from the audience, I was even going to try translating for myself because I knew the word for resurrection and crucifixion. I sat down on the bench in our newly discovered pagoda auditorium to review my story. Jun and his son Eric came and sat next to me. I said to him, “Today I am going to tell the story about Jesus.” And before I knew it Jun had the paper and he was reading and carefully teaching Eric the story sentence by sentence. When everyone had gathered for worship, I asked Jun if he would like to translate the story for me. He said, “Sure!” In half an hour Jun heard the story two times and taught the story two times, once to his son and once to the group gathered on Easter Sunday.
Matthew 13:31 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Easter Sunday
We had a great Easter! Instead of meeting indoors, we headed out to a secluded park very near the Clark residence and met under a pavillion and then hid and hunted eggs out in the grass and trees around us. Also, we decided to invite some additional people who don't usually meet with us -- a couple of sisters, Margaret and her daughter, and Shenli -- but mostly visitors with whom different ones of us have been working and hoping to share with. This informal setting, and the fact that we had something especially fun for the kids to do, made the perfect opportunity to invite them to meet with the larger family.
It's really difficult to know what this is going to look like once it's laid-out online, so you may have to just figure out what captions go with what pictures!
We sang; Josh told a good story; family members shared the supper... all in a beautiful setting. And we were blessed by having the rain held off until later in the evening.
This last picture features (L-R) Jenn, Gao Yan, Cec, Margaret, and Shenli.
It's really difficult to know what this is going to look like once it's laid-out online, so you may have to just figure out what captions go with what pictures!
The kids all had lots of fun, of course. Liam had Caleb in stitches. [btw: The Clarks' cat nearly had Caleb in stitches, literally, earlier the same day when he suddenly lashed out and landed a pretty big scratch on Caleb's arm. Ouch!] 
The Chinese kids had never had an egg hunt before, so it all new for them.
Audriana is the Beamons' little girl. Always cute.
We sang; Josh told a good story; family members shared the supper... all in a beautiful setting. And we were blessed by having the rain held off until later in the evening.The lady in red on the right and the little girl in pink are Liona and her mom, friends of the Clarks, whom they met through the Egg Lady. Liona is the Egg Lady's neice; she's eleven.
The other lady in red is the "new and improved" Shenli.
The "other" American couple are the Beamons, Jay and Vikki and baby Joseph.
The other Chinese couple you can see clearly are friends of the Davises.
This last picture features (L-R) Jenn, Gao Yan, Cec, Margaret, and Shenli.
Clarks: Shenli's Sunday
We had a wonderful day last Sunday; Shenli took the big step we have been praying for, and it was a well-attended occasion: Margaret, Shenli and her family (her husband Tony and daughter Linda), Josh, GaoYan, and Caleb, and Bob,a brother of ours that we taught in Jingzhou 6 or so years ago who was passing through visiting, and of course the two of us were all here at our apartment to welcome the big event and cheer her on. It was really wonderful to know that she took her time and made the decision when she was ready. It was also nice to see Tony standing by smiling and taking photos and to see Linda clap and cheer. We were really joyous for her. Please keep her in your thoughts. We want her to have a strong start and grow in Him. Also pray for Tony and Linda, that they will continue to be supportive and that they will be influenced by her step to do some thinking about what they believe as well.
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