The Return

We're back! Have been for a week now. It's been awesome!

The flight was pretty good. We left Liangxiang at 3.30am and got to the airport in an hour. Josiah was wide awake ready for his (special treat) donuts for breakfast. Malachi woke up without a complaint, but took a nap in the car on the way there.

We got through the 50 check-points and to our gate with about 5 minutes to spare before we boarded. We weren't rushed--just perfect timing!

We got situated in our seats--middle row of 5--and I was hoping the 2 seats to the right of me were going to stay vacant. Wishful thinking! They were soon filled. Ah well. The guy right next to me literally slept the entire flight. Even when Malachi kicked him or tried to take his glasses or cried. Incredible.

The boys weren't too bad. Josiah crashed for about 2 hours a few hours into the flight, but that was it. Wide awake the rest of the time. I don't understand that kid! But, he was bearable since he was distracted with playing games and watching shows on the screen on the seat in front of him.

Malachi....he just wanted to get down and crawl! He's a mover. He wanted to move beyond my arms. He wore us out. He slept in 20-40 minutes increments every few hours. By the end, he was not a happy camper! But, he really didn't have any extra-long crying fits. PTL

A few funny things happened in Chicago. As soon as we stepped off the plane, a stewardess had our stroller waiting for us. I said "xie xie." (thank you) She was American. Woops! Then, while we were walking to the train, a Chinese woman came up to me frantically asking me where her gate was. In Chinese. Did I look that fresh off the Chinese flight?! Haha. We had about an hour and a half layover, so we took our time strolling to our gate. When we got there, Josiah saw a little boy. He said, "xiao peng you." (little friend) He wanted to go meet him. I told him, "Sure, go show him your toys!" Michael said, "Ashley, we don't do that in America." Oh yeah...woops.

We arrived in KC to all the grandparents. What a sweet welcome! Josiah still (somehow) had energy and was excited to see everyone. Malachi wasn't about to leave my arms.

We went to Chipotle for lunch with everyone. I think that has been our departing/arriving meal every time we've traveled. I'll take it!! The boys did well through lunch--still awake--but the crankiness was starting to set in. So we hopped in the cars and drove the 3.5 hours to Branson. They slept the entire way minus one pit-stop. Glorious. :)

Everyone slept well through the night (well, Malachi reverted back to feeding once at night, but I didn't care--anything to get him back to sleep!) and took some long, hard naps the first several days. Now, everyone is back to their normal schedule. Hooray!

2 days after we got back was Michael's birthday. We did our best to make it special by surprising him with a few things, BBQ for dinner, and a homemade cheesecake. It was quite the process to make, but I'm just glad it turned out well!

Josiah isn't a nature lover...yet. He actually held this tiny lizard, thanks to Uncle Eric's coaxing!

BBQ for Michael's bday dinner. Nothing like KC's BBQ, but a nice welcome back. And we drank root beer. YUM.

Happy 30th!!

Josiah and Grammy playing a game with balloons. Grammy did all of the work picking them up!

Happy boy!

We've loving being back with family and friends, clear skies, and a car to go anywhere we want. :)

Another Chapter Closed

When we joined this organization, we didn't exactly realize we'd be moving around so much. And we're only getting started. We're learning a lot about letting go of control; we have to in this culture and this line of work!

Tomorrow is our last day in Liangxiang. I want to visit this "suburb" of Beijing (suburb is used lightly since it takes 2 hours to get downtown by subway!) in about 5 years. It will be completely different. Maybe it'll even have a Starbucks! Then I'll want to move back.

It's been a nice place to start our adventure here. Small-town enough that we got to see some farmland and minority people, but close enough to Beijing that we could sneak away to a foreign restaurant or get to the foreign hospital in a day's trip.

Things I'll miss (perhaps some of these are in other cities, but I wouldn't know):

- the dear friends we've made
- our team! Always hard to leave those whom we call colleagues, friends, and family.
- Muslim food on the street
- random taxi drivers saying "hallow!!"
- our ayi(helper) who understands my terrible Chinese so well and loves the kids to pieces
- the lady and her fruit cart--she's so nice!
- our apartment--everything is brand stinkin' new...and very nice! (provided by the school)

Things I won't miss:

- the smog!!
- the sand/wind storms
- the illegal taxis (because there are no metered taxis here) who rip us off
- my tiny, tiny kitchen and bathroom--although I should get used to these living here. Ours are just unusually small.
- Beijing breakfast. So good.

Excited to see what the next chapter brings!

Why?!

For our final team bash and to celebrate a birthday, we went to Pizza Hut. Classy, I know. But really, it's the classiest thing we've got around here. We take what we can get!

We were finished eating and Josiah had gotten down to play with his cars. In the aisle, of course. Soon, a family came in and sat in a booth across from us. The little guy (1.5) had split pants on. Nothing new. But it's what his momma did next that made me turn my head and cover my eyes. She plopped his bare bottom (and other parts that hang out) ONTO the table!!

To her defense, the Chinese see the table and floor as equals: both for trash. So I'm sure she wasn't going to let their food touch the table....but, still.

If you're unaware of what split pants are, click here. I'm afraid if I post a pic, I'll get flagged for having an inappropriate blog. :)

Do you wonder why they use such pants? Because they potty train their babies at about 6mos! It's amazing, really. (Minus the whole pants part.) The grandma (who is usually the caretaker so parents can work) will watch for the baby's cues to learn when they need to use the bathroom. Often, they'll make a whistling noise to correlate with the action. The pants make it easy to help the child go potty anywhere, anytime. :)

Seeds

It just hit me tonight that we'll be leaving here (probably) for good. 2 years isn't a long time to be in one place, but we still connected with a lot of people. And another round of good-byes begins.

We had our last Coffee House event tonight. We (the team, with Michael on guitar) sang a song in Chinese for the students that was about how bad our Chinese was. They got a kick out of it. :) They started pulling out their cameras before we even got on stage!

Afterwards, there were many pictures. What do they do with those anyway?! A couple of girls were there that I'm quite close to. One, in particular. She has been Michael's student for 2 years. We've hung out a lot, she's been to both of Josiah's birthday parties, and she loves my kids to pieces. (Her classmates tease her that it's on the brink of obsession. haha)

After we took our picture tonight, she hugged me. This is odd for the Chinese. They don't hug. Especially a Westerner. But she hugged me. At least 5 times. Long hugs. On the last one, she started to cry. I promised we'd get together again before we leave.

As far as I know, she doesn't have a relationship with the Father. I can only hope that she has seen His light through my life these past 2 years and perhaps that's why she's sad we're leaving. May He continue to work in her heart. I hope it wasn't "good-bye" tonight, rather "see you later" in a rockin' place upstairs!!