Last Saturday was one of the hardest days I have had...with all the joy and excitement in my heart to come to my next calling, I was really mourning the loss of my Wuhan life. My friends, students, the apartment, food, fellowship, easy access to stores, busses everywhere that I already know how to take, being comfortable....these are all the things I knew I would really miss. I spent the day saying goodbye...
This is Jack, Heubert, and Shirley...they had morning coffee with me:-) My last trip to Mr. Mai's for a while!
Then I was off to Aloha for my last American meal fo a while. But more importantly, I had to say good bye to all my AMAZING friends there. They have blessed me more than i can say. This is the Kitchen staff...We are BFF...the cooks taught me how to cook some chinese food before I left and I am looking forward to trying that soon!
I had quite a few tears after this pic was taken...this Aloha Family will forever be in heart:-)
Isabella came and spent the afternoon with Karen and Liping and me. I love this girl like I didn't know I could love:-) She is truly like a daughter to me and we had such good talks while we were together in Wuhan for a few days. God has overflowed my cup for sure!!!
LiPing and Karen...these girls are such precious friends...I had no idea I would move to China and make such incredible friends:-) I cried when we said goodbye and believe me i was more emotional that I ever imagined!!! God gave me these life long friends and I am forever grateful!
NOW...after all the craziness of saying goodbye..Isabella took me to the train station and helped me repack. I had too much stuff to take on the train so she took some home and mailed to me. Then, i almost missed my train because of the over abundance of people. I had originally bought a 30 hr train ticket with no air conditioning because all the others were sold out. But, my friend Sophia helped me fin another way and I ended up taking 2 trains....So from Wuhan to ChangSha, a 5hr ride, I stood up...with 2 suitcases a backpack, pillow, zip bag and violin. I am sooooo glad I didn't know any of the people around me who say me running to the train...i can only imagine what they were thinking...I heard more than i wanted to know anyway!! When I got on the train there was not enough room for everyone...as always...we were packed in like sardines! But I made friends fast and I had air conditioning. I didn't realize how hard it was to stand up for 5 hrs from 10pm-3am. WOW I was sooo tired. At 3am I arrived in ChangSha. I got all my stuff into the train station and waited until 7am for my next train to Guiyang. It was a long night to say the least. But when I got on that train at 7 am with all my stuff and finally got to lay down I was out! I slept almost the whole day. I love sleeping trains for that reason!!! The people in my room with me thought I was crazy, but oh well! I arrived in Guiyang about 8pm. Finally there...and since that moment I have not stopped(well that's what it feel like:-)) Marianne and Hans picked me up and she hugged me and said "You are finally here, the thing I have PRed for!" That was enough for me:-)
Now this is the front door...it has been quite the week...they have laid cement and and blocked the road and everything else but we make it through! This front door is very short:-) I have to duck!
I knew that when all my stuff I sent on the truck arrived i was not going to have a place to put it so we went to "furniture Street" and I got a few items to help organize....i don't live well in caos! This is the stuff I got:-) and the little place I got it from!
This is Furniture Street...every little shop has almost the same stuff and we bargin with them to get the best price:-) I love to bargin:-) My daddy taught me well!
This is part of the drive home!!
This week I have tried to take one of the girls with me is I had to go out. So Yao Ling went with me to get the Furniture and to get my new cell phone. She was so funny...she loved that I opened the window in the van so she could have her hair blow in the wind:-) She is 7 and so precious
I love the drive to our home from the city!
This is the back side of our home...we had to walk quite a ways because the road was blocked due to the cement....but the walk is always nice!
This is one of the popular shops in the village...because it's so hot! But not as hot as Wuhan!!!
You can buy your bedding at this store!
This is like a convenience store:-) Yao Ling liked the dog:-) We don't touch chinese dogs....Oh NO!
This is what happens with many people live in a small village...yep...traffic jam:-( It's crazy!!
This is our one bus stop in the village.
This is the way to our house...we have to wait because there are too many trucks blocking us...this is almost a daily thing...AHHHH!
Another place to buy bedding!
The people here work soooo hard...this woman fills the basket with bricks and hauls them off:-(
This little narrow way is to our home!
The day all my stuff arrived they decided to put the concrete bags in front of our entry way...OMG...it was so crazy to carry all my stuf over that! This is the view from my room!
The opposite direction...
YAY that everything arrived in one piece...well almost everything:-( My coffee press was crushed:-( Sad day!!
We got everything in!!!
I have no idea why I wanted to get in this box but this is what my Piano came in:-) lol I got creative with it:-)
Put the kids in it:-) They loved it!!!
This is Mo Xi...in English it's "Moses"...he was found all wrapped up in a basket so they gave him this name when he was a baby:-) He is precious!!!!! Such a lovable little guy..he is 4yrs old!
We decided to let the kids go swimming...it was awesome...we filled the pool up with water from the third floor with a hose to the second:-) Then we let them have fun:-) Most of them were in the big pool and some of the others alone in the small buckets! This is Yao Yao...she is 15 and such a sweet girl:-)
This is Rosa..she is 3:-) She is such a joyful little girl!
It got a little chaotic at times but all in all a fun time was had but all:-)
This is XuWei..she is our oldest, 17yrs. She is a blessing and a big help!!!
We took some of the kids to the big park in the closest city. They LOVED exploring and walking around seeing everything:-) It was so cute...I got my workout in for sure!!! The girls were showing Marianne everything!
KFC was a big hit as well this week! MoXi loved his ice cream! we took all the children but in 2 groups! It was so much fun!!! Most of them never eat cold things(because chinese people thing that everything cold makes you sick..HA...OH the things they think...)
This is Sissi and Ruth...they were having fun! they are 6yrs!
Rosa love the song "This little light of mine" and she figured out how to make her fingers longer with french fries:-) Sooooo cute!!! She LOVES to sing!!
Yao Ling and Xing Xing..what a sweet blessing they are. they are 8 yrs old and a ball of energy! Xing really loves the father:-) She is always singing about Him:-)
Yao Yao loved her ice cream!
Next up...Pizza Buffet with the 5 oldest!!! SO much fun...i wrote on my facebook "A pizza buffet with 5 down syndrome kids is like dreaming of eating pizza while working out at the gym:-)" It's true!!!
Yao Mei is quite special:-) She loved the choices she had to eat different things:-)
Rejoice LOVES to pose:-) She had a great time eating everything but she didn't wat to eat the pizza with her fingers...I had to teach her that is was ok:-)
Xing Xing is always the life of the party:-) Food is her favorite:-)
Yao Ling had a wonderful time picking her own food and getting to eat ice cream:-)
:-) Love :-) Rejoice calls me GeGe(big sister) and we are really good buddys!
Marianne is so patient with them and loves on them...they love their "momma"!!!
When we took this picture she held her hands up and "Jesus"!!! It was amazing!
Hans was such a sport to drive us all there and endure the adventure:-)
Ok, well I kinda got all my stuff settled!! My music room...and a sewing machine!!!!
This is my bed room...the "coffee table is the box my piano came in:-) I knew I would use it for something and it is very useful to put things in!
It has been a wonderful first week and I am so humbled and blessed to be here:-) The children are such a blessing! Please continue to lift us up as we try to do what is HIS best for the children!
They are all such a blessing and a light here! They don't get looked at very well when we take them out and we don't either for that matter but please PR for the people around us to have soft heart for the children. To see them as a cherished life!!!! more updates in the future...I'm off to teach Wu Wei how to make banana bread!
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