One Year!!!!!! Our family had a GREAT weekend celebrating our 1 year anniversary of our arrival here in China. It's so hard to believe that we got here Sept. 4 last year, and that a full year has already gone by. We had such sweet family time playing together and reminiscing on His goodness to us over this past year. So here's how we celebrated.
On Saturday, after Kevin finished up at the blind masseuse parlor due to wrenching his back once again, we took off for the Tianjin zoo--the kids' favorite spot and first choice for our family outing to celebrate on this special day. The zoo holds special significance for our family, as we chose where we live even partly because it is close to the zoo. One of our biggest challenges in moving to China is the lack of open, grassy play areas for the kids to enjoy running around. When Kevin and I took a "survey trip" here before our big move, we discovered the zoo and realized what a respite it was from the busy feel of the rest of this city of 11 million inhabitants. It has proven to be a place of retreat for our family (minus the small inconvenience of our family itself usually being considered one of the main exhibits and photo ops, often overshadowing even the most interesting of animals that live there!). So we felt that the zoo was a fitting choice of where to go on Saturday. We packed a pb&j picnic lunch and dined in style after seeing some of our favorite animals and even watching a little bit of the totally crazy show that goes on there (angry lions and tigers riding on the backs of horses, bears playing basketball, etc.).
While we were there, the kids even discovered a lollipop tree (as shown in the picture with Kevin). This is one of their favorite things to hunt for and has become a family tradition when we are out on "adventures". The kids still haven't totally caught on to their origin (except Karis, maybe!), and don't seem to be suspicious that there just happens to have one appear with the perfect number of lollipops for each child to have one!
After our return home and a short nap time, we had a family movie night (watching a new movie sent via care package--Lady and the Tramp!). We did a scavenger hunt for hidden dinosaurs, and each of the dinosaurs the kids found represented a point. For each point they received, they got the "privilege" of telling the family one thing that they were thankful for this past year they've spent in China. (I know--when they get even a little older this line of reasoning won't work--where the reward is "having" to tell something they're thankful for. But for now, I'm taking advantage of having at least 3 little ones who are usually competing for a chance to be heard over one another, especially at the dinner table where chaos tends to reign!!) They came up with some cute answers, I'll include a few of my favorites:
- Karis--"New friends at school."; "Having 2 Chinese friends here at Yang Guang (our apt complex)"; "Lady and the Tramp"; "salad dressing in China" (we were at that time eating salad with dinner and she knows it's hard to come by, and usually requires me getting the dry mixes in care packages!)
- Eli--"bikes"; "The Great Wall of China"; "the water at Yang Guang" (that he likes to walk past on our way to the taxi corner); "that we can find pizza in China"
- Hudson--"the water cooler" (being a typical 3-year old and wanting to be silly rather than try to give a straight answer!)
It was a fantastic weekend of much needed family time and even some rest thrown in. We feel so tremendously blessed to not only have survived our first year in this new place, but to feel like we are actually thriving as our roots continue to deepen and our love for this new community grows!
