A Thread of Old Woven Throughout the New

How I wish I could transport each of you reading this into our living room right now. As much as I try to capture our life here in China and the daily activities as well as the challenges and differences, it really is just kind of one of those things you have to experience to really understand. There is still (after 2+ years of living here) a sense of strangeness in how many things seem the same and yet are so different! We've lived several of those differences out this past week...

The first was this weekend. Kevin took off early on Saturday morning to meet a group of ex-pat guys at a local sports bar that opened early in order to show the final game of the World Series. He got to watch an hour of the game with the guys before taxiing off to the International School where he had previously committed to help coach Karis' soccer game. So he was able to enjoy watching the big game with the guys--only instead of doing it in our home or someone else's, he was in a Chinese sports bar (which is unusual in and of itself) eating breakfast burritos because the game started at 8am!

Karis' soccer game would have felt like any other Lake Highlands league that we would have been a part of before we moved here to Tianjin, except that she was the only girl AND the only Caucasian (besides Eli, who was the guest player for the 2nd grade team as they were short a few) on the field. The kids had an absolute ball and they didn't notice anything strange about their team make-up or the environment (it was a pretty bad day on the pollution index, leaving Noah confused as to if the light in the sky was actually the moon or the bright enough to be the sun!). But I looked around me and observed the languages being spoken to encourage the young soccer players by the parents and felt again the uniqueness of our situation of being "foreigners" in so many different situations.

After the game, Kevin took Eli and rushed back to the sports bar to catch the end of the game while I kept the other three on the playground to play. I finally looked at my clock to discover that Hudson and Noah had both been on the swings for a solid 40 minutes before either of them was willing to get out! Swing sets are rarely ever found around here, and the boys were taking full advantage of the time being able to do so, chatting and singing the entire time. After getting off to stretch for several minutes, I was again taken by surprise when my incredibly active 2 and 4 year olds only wanted to return to the swings for more time of, as Hud put it, getting to "fly like a bird"!

After lunch we indulged in a super-fun treat--going out to eat lunch at a new Mexican food restaurant that has just opened, and happens to be close by our home, too! We were elated to find out that the food was really good and the atmosphere even conducive to bringing the kids along. And the place was crowded enough that it looks like they have a chance to stay in business, which, after one meal there, Kevin and I were thrilled about!

Saturday night we had a group of Chinese friends over for dinner and a movie night. After watching the movie "Soul Surfer", Kevin was fulfilling the role of the host by "song-ing" our guests home (which is when you walk your guests either to the taxi stop, bus stop, or their car; it used to be that you went all the way back to your guests' home to make sure they arrived safely, so we feel like this slight change in what is considered polite is a change in the much more convenient direction!). The group split up, leaving one single girl left alone to walk to her car. Kevin decided that it made the most sense to walk her to her car, and was really glad he had done so when upon arriving at her vehicle, they discovered that the car next to her had double-parked and had left no reason to believe that they were returning any time soon! Kevin was able to solve the problem by pushing the car that was double-parked (and apparently had a driver unfamiliar with the concept of using a parking break or leaving the car parked in first gear?) down the street and out of the way! Kevin said that the entire time his mind was worse-case-scenario-ing as he imagined bumping into the closely packed surrounding vehicles or losing control of the car he was pushing and watching it roll away.... Thankfully none of the scenarios played out, and he was able to push the blocking vehicle out of the way and then push it back (and least close to the original space!) to where it was previously parked with our friend being able to move her car out of the way and off down the street. Definitely a feeling of "where am I?" in the midst of the common courtesy of seeing a guest to the door!

Today in our International Fellowship that we attend on Sunday mornings, we were blessed by a student's spontaneous outpouring of worship. Our fellowship has about 200-300 in attendance on any given Sunday, all required by the government to be foreign passport holders, and a large number of those attending are students from Africa (mostly studying medicine of some sort). This weeks' worship team was being led mainly by several of these African students, and therefore had more of a African cultural feel to it. About half way through the time of worship, one of the young men who is a leader amongst the group jumped up on stage with the worship leaders, clapping his hands above his head, dancing around, and encouraging those of us in attendance to raise our voices. Kevin and I just looked at each other grinning, both thinking how refreshing it was to see such a genuine overflow of the heart in a way that was so culturally normal to so many in the pews, and yet how strange the scene would appear in any of our home groups with which we have fellowshipped in the US. We are thankful for the diversity in worship and cultural norms for which we get to engage in weekly with those we serve and worship with!

The last thing I've been taking note of this past week is Noah's responses to things that we experience here. As his language is developing, it is so fun to see what he says, what he notices, and how he pieces together both the world around him and the way he desires to express what he sees. His regular response to seeing those around us noisily clearing their throats and then hocking large loogies is, "Ew. Gross." Might I add here how thankful I am that this aspect of acceptable culture here in China has NOT become normal enough to him to think that it is okay to participate in! Another is the daily dodging of dog poop on the sidewalk as we walk through our apartment community. He has taken to announcing for all to hear (and avoid traipsing through), "Yucky! Doggie poo-poo!" His final, and my favorite, in spite of the severity of the situation, is his reaction to the electric bikes, three wheelers, or bicycles that regularly speed by, often times frightening him in the process because of how close they are to hitting you. His standard response once they pass: "Missed me!" Thankful for his ability to be able to laugh at situations that could be (and probably should be!) considered dangerous, knowing in Whose hands we reside.

Indonesia

One of the benefits to living in Asia is the travel that otherwise would probably NOT be very likely for our family. We were blessed to be able to enjoy that benefit this past week when our family traveled to Indonesia. Now before you get too green with envy as you read, let me start off by stating that actually getting there was NOT necessarily part of the enjoyment. Between our going and our returning home, I calculated that we spent 16 hours flying, 6 hours driving, and 17 hours waiting at the airport in order to make the trip a reality. My conclusion: my kids are amazing! I know that they are mine and therefore I am necessarily biased, but I've got to say that for a 7, 6, 4, and 2 year old to be able to travel they way they do, with the patience, creativity, and attitudes that they display MOST of the time, it is nothing but His hand of grace being evidenced in them! Oh, and did I mention that MANY of those hours of travel were in the wee hours of the morning? (For example, our flight leaving Indonesia departed at 1:30am, causing us to arrive at the airport at 10:30pm and wait several hours, in an airport with no seats, no carpet, no designated "waiting area" until we were actually able to enter the gate--which was 30 minutes prior to the plane taking off--which was, in essence, when it was time to board the plane.) It's this kind of "normal" for our kids that makes me see how people often say TCK's (third culture kids, a term for kids growing up in a culture that is not their parent's home culture nor fully the culture in which they live (for us, that is Chinese), making their culture an entirely different, or third, one, unique to them alone) are so travel-adept and willing to go and see new places. The fact that my two year old can pop out the hand-held remote in the seatback in front of him on the airplane and operate his tv on his own, knowing which button NOT to push because it will "call the lady" (aka the flight attendant) is proof enough that our kids do more time on planes than the average!!

Besides the time away being incredibly helpful to our family in thinking through our life in China and having sweet time meeting with dear friends, we had two scares (one big, one not so much) while in Indonesia. The first was an earthquake that hit on one of our last days on the island. While we were meeting on the fourth floor of our hotel, everything in the room suddenly started shaking violently. Even thinking about it now makes my heart beat faster and my stomach drop. Kevin and I immediately stopped what we were doing and ran out the door with a quick agreement that he would get the boys and I would get Karis (who was at that time in a different location). We ended up meeting in the hallway and all flew down the four flights of stairs to the open-aired courtyard below. Supposedly the earthquake was rated a 6.4 on the richter scale, but I'm not sure how far away the epicenter was from where we were. Close enough to be too close for comfort from my perspective, for sure! Later that afternoon, when we felt another aftershock and repeated the same drill of running to pick up kids and race downstairs, my stomach again was churning for about an hour after the last pulses of the quake had passed. My comic relief was Noah's reaction--his repeated "Shake! Shake!" that he continued saying with huge eyes and raised eyebrows as I held him close outside in the courtyard.

The second event was not quite as scary, but still a bizarre phenomenon. A shuttle from the hotel took us to the beach our last day in town, with the plan of letting the kids play in the sun and waves for long enough to wear them out so they would take afternoon naps, thus preparing for our late night at the airport. When we arrived at the dirt parking lot near the beach, we all disembarked from the van, only to find out that there were huge red ants all over the ground. I never saw an ant hill or even a large hole from which they came, but they instead seemed to be swarming all around, right near the door of the van. The kids were immediately fascinated, and, as they usually do with our friendly Chinese black ants, stopped to investigate and have a closer look. As soon as they did, the ants started climbing into their Crocs, causing screams from the kids as some of the ants began to bite! Before we knew it, we had screaming kids dancing through the parking lot, as the vicious ants bit several of the kids and clung to their shoes and clothes with a vengeance. I was shocked when I tried to knock them off of my own flip flops at how aggressive the little creatures were and how tightly they clung to whatever they wanted to keep a hold of! We finally managed to rid our shoes of the little red devils and continued on to the beach, with the kids screaming bloody murder any time any sort of any crawled close to their path. Pretty sure we discovered the Indonesian cousin to our Texas fire ants.

One of our highlights was Eli finally loosing one of his front teeth! The tooth has been loose for MONTHS--literally since we were back in the US this summer, and has just been hanging in there! The photo of him up close (and with a messy face!), is him showing off both how untidy he can be while inhaling large quantities of pizza and how wiggly his tooth was just prior to it falling out!

The other shot of Eli and Noah together was taken at the Hong Kong airport, which we became quite familiar with after spending about 7 hours there on our return trip. We were sooooo thankful to find a kids' play area that was ideal for little ones running around and stretching their legs some!

National Holiday

(Sorry for the delay!) The first week in October China celebrates it's National Day each year, giving the kids a much-anticipated break from school and a chance to sleep in past 5:45 in the morning!! We spent most of the week getting together with friends. The first picture is of Karis with her brothers and her friend Michelle from school who came over for a play date. Michelle is a precious little girl (who also happens to be a twin and share the same birthdate as Karis--June 17th!) that Karis became friends with last year. She is Chinese, but is a foreign passport holder (she was born while her parents were living in the US), and therefore is allowed to attend the International School. As you can tell by the looks on their faces, the kids all had a great time playing together for the morning!
We also got to spend time with some of our closest friends here--Natalie and Andy and their two little ones (Jenda, who is Hud's age and Blaise, who is Noah's age). You can see from this pic that even Andy got into the theatrical performance that Karis prepared for us all to participate in as our evening's entertainment. The final two pics are of the kids playing horses with their stall being located under the kitchen table. I am continually reminded of how creative kids can be when you let them run with an idea, and am challenged to join in with them in their imaginary worlds.

Kevin and I had a break from class as well, and with the beautiful fall weather and the kids at home I kept busy trying to find the balance between getting a few home projects done and taking time off just to "be" with my kids, playing outside, walking to the local joint to get milkshakes, and finding lots of preying mantis. Which, I might add, I found pretty freaky after I watched one that Eli caught kill and eat a spider that we put in the insect catcher with it! Our down time was a much needed respite from our usual routine and a great chance to be able to spend more quality time together as a family and with our friends!