Clarks: brief update

Just a quick update to say that all is well at the Clark house. Phoebe is doing great. The weather has brightened and warmed, so we're spending more time out of doors. We've got a few coals in the fire, as far as the WORK goes. I'll not take the time to go into specifics right now, but I will say that English Corner has led to some pretty interesting conversations these past two weeks. We've got some adults, too, that we're making connections with. Anyway, we'll keep you posted.

Baby Shower for Joy

Cathy and Tanner hosted a wonderful baby shower for me last Saturday. Many ladies came. Cathy had us play a game where everyone guessed the size of my belly with a string. Margaret stood up and put the string around her waist and stretched out a big belly to estimate my belly size. It was fun to watch them. Liwen, who is a biological engineer, won the closest measurement, just 4-5 inches off.

Jen made the new tradition, diaper cake and pink cupcakes. Everyone was very gracious and brought baby Joy many wonderful gifts. To come home, we tied all the gifts on Bonnie’s pink bike.

I am 36 weeks pregnant. Soon Joy will come to this world. God has always given us so many blessings in our life.

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter afternoon we planned to have an Easter egg hunt at a local park. This was the same park we used last year. This place is really nice. And it is not over run with too many people. My family colored 35 eggs and then we also had some plastic eggs. I think all in all, we hid 50 eggs.


While Jon, some of the moms, and Frank hid the eggs, the kids ate cupcakes (made by me) and brownies (by Josh).


We used Easter plates and napkins sent by some of you! Thanks!

Then we let the kids start hunting!

The eggs were all found pretty quickly. There were 8 kids looking for the eggs.

After the eggs were found, the kids ate some eggs, candy and more cupcakes. They also played while the moms and all chatted. The weather was wonderful. It was a great time of fellowship. I think this will be something we do EVERY YEAR!

Adventures in Practical Missiology (Peach Pit Theology 101)

To your left is a picture of our maid, or "auntie", Miss Li.
Li is a great worker, very careful, diligent,and helpful. She cooks good meals for us and loves having the baby here, even though it means more work (bottle & pump cleaning, extra laundry) for her. She even went out of her way to visit us and Phoebe in the hospital [see picture].
One thing about Li is, she pretty much speaks her mind, regardless of what she's thinking or how we might take it. That's not to say she's rude - not at all - but she is forthright and plainspoken.
If we're talking politics, she's not afraid to ask how in the world Americans could elect a black president, since he's obviously "not handsome" like Bush! [I don't think even Glenn Beck would be bold enough to say that.] Again, I'm not trying to portray her as racist - not in the sense that you and I think of racism - but you can tell that she thinks like a Chinese and isn't afraid to show it.
Likewise the issue of religion: The other day, when Gloria (Cecely's mom, who bought a ton of souvenirs, like we mentioned in a previous post) showed her a peachwood comb she'd bought for a friend, Li said, "Oh, that's great! Peachwood protects you from demons!"
Cecely asked, "Really? I mean, do you really believe that?"
"For sure," she replied, pulling out a peach pit talisman from her pocket, "Chinese all know that peach pits and peachwood protect you from demons; I always carry a peach pit everywhere I go." Then she added, "Just like you have Jesus, I have this peach pit!"
And there it was, a rudimentary, first-year missiology lesson as illustrated by Miss Li: Peach Pit Theology 101.
"Well, Jesus is much stronger than a peach pit," I noted. She laughed.
At any rate, we know where she stands, and vice versa. And maybe this is our next point of reference: that if you have faith as small as this peach pit...

A day at the zoo!

About 2 weeks ago we surprised the kids with a trip to the zoo. The kids and I went to the zoo with Jake and Shelly when they were here in October. Jon had to teach so he could not come. He was excited to see the zoo this time.

China is known to have some pretty terrible zoos. It can also be shocking how people treat the animals, but the zoo in Hangzhou is really pretty nice. There are lots of trees and nice trails. There are many different kinds of animals there.

We saw elephants...

birds, dogs, raccoons, pigs, deer, caribou, monkeys, giraffes, tigers, leopards, a panda, and lots more.

We even got a chance to feed some of the animals....

The kids rode a kiddie ride and shot toy guns from a bumble bee.....(strange, but they loved it!)

Liam said his favorite animals to watch were the ducks...

I think Eryn liked the lemurs...


There were a few times we thought we were on display instead of the animals. A few folks wanted to take the kids pictures. Hallie and Eryn charged 1 yuan and earned a few. Over all it was a really nice day.

Tulip Garden

Just before baby Caleb was born my youngest brother, Judah, father of three, gave me a great piece of advice, “Josh if there is anything you want to do, do it now!”
GaoYan has been green with envy listening to people talk about the tulip garden this spring. I said, “We better do it now!”
Wednesday was one of those overcast days where the sun would shine through a hole in the clouds for a bit then become covered over again. A perfect day for taking pictures. GaoYan and I sat on a stone bridge and watched tourists posing by a waterfall rolling down the mountain. We ate our picnic of boiled eggs, apples, and crackers.
The cherry blossoms had just finished blooming, so that each time there was a breeze the white pedals would float through the air like snow flurries. The tulips were brilliant.

Poppa and Granny

Man, I am so behind in posting on this blog. I have posted on the family blog, but not on the team blog. I will try to catch up. By the way, if you can't get enough of us, you can check out the family blog at www. hardinclan.blogspot.com.

Anyway, in February, my dad and step-mom (a.k.a Poppa and Granny) came to visit us in China.

We took a train to Beijing to meet them. It was a headache to get train tickets at that time of the year. We had originally planned on all of us taking the train to Hangzhou, but we could not get tickets, so we had to fly.

The train trip was pretty nice. We took "soft sleeper" so we had a small compartment all to ourselves. Eryn slept in the bed with me, but everyone else had their own beds.



This is Hallie reading the night time story to the kids. They are already in their pajamas.

Our train arrived in Beijing around 6 am. I was worried that the kids would not want to wake up, but they did great! I guess they were excited about being there.

We were in Beijing about a day and a half before Poppa and Granny arrived.

What did we do before they got there? We ate western food. Beijing has some nice places to get some food that we cannot usually get here in Hangzhou.



While in Beijing we ate Mexican food including crunchy tacos. We also had hot dogs one night. We drank Dr Pepper! I even let the kids have some.


While we were in Beijing we visited.....


The Great Wall,


Tienanmen Square,


and The Forbidden City.

We also introduced my folks to Chinese food and shopping. After 4 days in Beijing we flew home to Hangzhou.

While in Hangzhou we took them to tourist spots like West Lake and Hufeng Street. We watched fireworks on Chinese New Year. And we worshiped with Christians from two continents.

They got lots of hugs from the grandkids....

(We know the real reason they came!)

They also got to make cookies with the kids. Boy that was different! Cooking in our little toaster oven with ingredients that aren't quite the same is an experience.

We tried to show them a glimpse of our everyday life.

Right after we arrived in Hangzhou, I took my dad to the bus stop to meet Jon, Hallie, and Eryn ( we had taken a taxi, but they took the bus). As we stood there waiting, I thought, "woah! I am standing at a bus stop with my dad....in China!" It was a surreal feeling, like two worlds colliding.
I really enjoyed having them here, and the apartment seemed a little empty when they left. We can't wait to see them again this summer.