Happy Birthday Nicole!

Nicole's birthday was this week. She was very excited. On her birthday, several friends made cakes and gave her gifts. Also, Caitlin and some of their friends threw a surprise birthday party for her. She was very excited. It isn't Nicole's turn to have a party this year (my children get a party every other year), but the party was somehow at our house and we bought the pizza... I shouldn't be confused, should I? We will have her family birthday tomorrow. She wants pavlova and chicken pockets for her special dinner. Nicole is a great fifteen year old, and we love her so much. Happy Birthday Nicole!

Here is the group right after they surprised her. The surprise was funny. Her friend Simone told her that Simone's mother wanted Nicole to come and get all of Nicole's clothes that were at Simone's house that Simone had borrowed. The day before, she came over to get more of Nicole's clothes. When Nicole was over getting the clothes from Simone, she was extremely confused because she had seen those clothes in her own room just the day before! Very tricky, huh? Simone, Rachel and Caitlin didn't make it into this photo.


NIcole's friend Levi made this cake for her.



My calling is in nursery right now. I LOVE it! We have had three little children, two little girls, and a little boy. Clara went back to the US a couple of weeks ago, so I wanted to take some photos (with their parents permission to be on my blog, of course!). Isaiah was out of town, so I didn't get any of him yet. I'll have to add that later.

Clara

Charlene


Too cute!

Hong Kong 2009

We recently had spring break. We decided to go to Hong Kong, for a nice break from everything. Trying something new, we flew from Nanjing to Guanzhou, where we heard you could catch a train to Hong Kong, about a 2 hour ride. I had seen some really good prices for the flights to Guanzhou, so we jumped on them. It all turned out great. The train ended up one subway stop from our hotel in Hong Kong, so it was perfect! Hong Kong has a fantastic transportation system. You can easily ride the subways and busses, and ferries, anywhere in the city. We stay on the Kalwoon side at the YMCA. It has a great location, and a harber-view. Plus, they have a family room for the boys and Mike and I, and the girls share a room. We are one block from the ferry, and close to the subway and lots of great food and shopping.

The first thing everyone wanted to do was eat. The one thing that didn't turn out too well going to Guanzhou and taking the train was the eating. We ordered some noodles, that had some weird stuff in them, and I had to have dumplings because there wasn't enough noodles. Mike could hardly stand to be near me for 24 hours because the garlic was SO strong! Anyway, one thing the children love about Hong Kong, is they have lots of "American" restaurants. We immediately went to California Pizza Kitchen. Yummy!!! And then, we went to Escape to Witch Mountain at the movie theater. The children were so thrilled to be able to go to a movie theater!

On Wednesday, we went to Lantao Island. There is a HUGE Budda there. You can ride a cable-car up to the top and see it, and then we chose to walk down the 2 and 1/2 hour trail. I should say, Mike and I decided we would. The girls were not happy about that. But it was beautiful, very "rain-forest" type terrain. We finally made our way down to the village and found the subway. It was great. I took the girls to the Ladies Night Market that night. One thing I have learned is that hills are really hard on my hip. Going down-hill really works the stabilizing - muscles. I was very achy after that day.

Thursday we rode the crazy double decker bus to Stanley Market. We did some shopping, and eating (of course) and enjoyed the ocean. Later, we rode the out-door escalator up the mountain on Hong Kong island. It is very long, and then we walked over and through the zoological gardens. I think the children were about to kill us after all of that walking, but were pleasantly surprised to see all of the monkeys and other animals they had there. It was in such a beautiful park. That evening, Mike and I went back to Soho to an Italian restaraunt we found a different time we came. It was really good, and nice to have one evening out together.




Friday, was temple day. It was so great to go to the temple. It's amazing how much you miss going when it isn't possible. It really feels like coming home. That afternoon, we went to Hong Kong Island and rode the OLD cable cars across the island. It was so interesting to see the older parts of Hong Kong. They set up their streets (at least in the old part) the same way they do here in China, with whole streets of the same things. For example, the electronic street, or the car part street. There was one whole block that sold dried fish, and it smelled so strongly of fish everywhere. I didn't think it would be so nice to live in one of the thousands of aparments that were living above the dried fish street. That evening we went to the movie Monsters verses Aliens. The children had a blast. I think that was one of the highlights of their trip! It was fun for them to see it in 3-D as well.

We had a really wonderful trip together. Life is back to it's busy self. The girls are ready for the big school soccer tournament this week. Nicole turns 15 next week, a fact that she will not let us forget. She has a menu plan that will keep me cooking and baking all day :-) Next weekend Rachel and Nicole will travel to Shanghai for a short youth conference, which will be fun. My Mom and Dad come on the 5th! We are so excited to see them. Our driver, Jiang is coming back to work tomorrow. We have missed him dreadfully, not knowing how much we should have appreciated him all along. We've had some difficult experiences with some of the substitute drivers we have had. The one that is driving for us now is good in every way, except he is as slow as a turtle. For those who have visited us, they know that we are used to Jiang, who thinks the Transit is a sports-car! He is returning to work after almost 5 months after breaking his leg. This last weekend the girls and I instituted a weekly "girls night out". We are pretty excited about this, and the girls have lots of ideas on how to spend these weekend evenings, most of which include some sort of massage or manicure :-)

Here are some photos from the day we went to Lantau:



The girls weren't too thrilled we walked down, but it was beautiful! And, they won't admit it, but we had a great time...


We took the special "Crystal" cable-car, so we could see out the bottom!



Here is the big budda



Fun at Stanley Beach. It wasn't quite warm enough for swimming, but we enjoyed the rocks and the view.





Here are some of the girls' favorite shots:







Here we are at TGIF...yummy!

April 4, Mike's 40th Birthday

Michael just turned 40!!! We are so relieved he made it. Don't worry, Honey, you don't look a day over 39. I bet his mother wondered if he would make it to this ripe old age, with all of the stories we've heard about his childhood. Anyway, we had a great "birthday" weekend, roasting him as much as possible. His Mom sent a bunch of great "Over the hill" birthday stuff. I sent some of it to work on Friday with some cookies to share. I thought it only right for his co-workers to share in the mourning. That night we went out to dinner with some friends. It was lots of fun. I have some nice photos, of that, but I'm having a hard time getting the photos off of my memory card. I will have to add them later if I can fix it. All of my photos from today are from the girls' camera.

At the dinner, our friends Julie and Warren gave Mike a lovely aging kit, and they even gave him some special black hair color, so that his hair can be permanently black like all of the older Chinese people. They gave him several funny things, including some reading glasses that he actually wears now as normal glasses. They were meant to be a joke! I took the blow-up portable toilet that Mike's family sent. We had lots of fun making fun of him.

On Saturday, I spent 10 US dollars, and got some English muffins. I had to swallow really hard with that purchase! I made him Eggs Benedict, which he enjoyed so much he wanted them again for lunch. I sent him to a really nice place for a massage that afternoon, so that we could decorate the house with all of the rest of the decorations his Mom sent. The kids had a great time with that! Both his family and my family sent a cd with everyone wishing him a happy birthday, and lots of them making fun of him. It was great! He loved it. The kids and I joined in and taped a "meeting" about what we would do when he passed away, because he was surely to go any time now that he is forty! It was funny, with the girls fighting over who got his Ipod and his National Geographic Magazines...all million of them. Then they talked about his obituary, and practiced a song (and they were terrible! We just are. That wasn't an act) Anyway, it was all really fun. We acted like it was "accidentally" on the cd, and that he wasn't supposed to see it. The kids did really well and didn't even laugh during our production. For a while, he thought it was real and asked, " Did you know it was being filmed?" The highlight was the dvd Diane sent of Mike's photos growing up. We all really enjoyed looking at all of them, and Mike loved it. We had a great evening.

Mike is such a great husband and father. Everyone who knows him can't help but love him. We are so blessed to have him. I love you Mike! Here are a few photos of your great day...

Diane sent some silly string, and the boys loved getting Mike with that!!!



And here he is, testing out his porta-potty. I think he almost popped it!


Coli is trying on the special glasses grandma sent along with several other "gag gifts".


Rachel's gift was his favorite birthday cake! Home-made chocolate.



Yes, he looks pretty scared. I think he's nervous he can't blow out all of those candles. And we didn't even really have 40 on that cake...


Here is a special Chinese Candle that my friend Melissa found for me. Wow, it was something special!

Full of Gratitude

I believe I have written before about the charity that I have been so blessed to work with. We are a very small charity, around 10 women, who work together to raise money to provide heart surgeries for children whose families don't have the miens, or to orphan children in the Jiangsu area.

This is how the group got started over 6 years ago after a couple of Expat women found a baby on the side of a road, in her own words:

"As incredible as this seems, the heartbreaking fact is that in China it is not uncommon practice to place unwanted children in the hands of fate. This little baby boy was only eight days old. Who would care for him and allow him to grow up? Once housed at the orphanage in Nanjing , medical examinations showed his heart was not functioning properly. Born ‘not perfect' made him an outcast in society.

We remember how he fought for his life, until his heart gave up two months later. But his short life had a deeper meaning, because of him we wanted to make a difference.

During the more frequent visits to the orphanage the caretakers told us that there were ten more kids like him suffering from heart malfunctions living in the same orphanage. Heart conditions are not visible and if they hadn't told us we would have never found out. There is quite a lot of medical help for orphans with visible medical conditions, however there is no support for orphans with heart problems. Even though the People's Republic of China has constantly improved support and healthcare for abandoned children over the past few years, these children awaited medical treatment that went beyond the orphanage's budget."-Hopeful Hearts web page

These ladies started Hopeful Hearts to help these ten orphan children. They worked hard to raise money for these ten children, and continued on, to help more children as the need arose. I have been able to work with this wonderful group for almost 3 years. Now, we help orphan children, but have been focusing on poor farmer families who have children with heart conditions. We want to help families stay together, as it is so much better for a child to have a Mother and Father who love them. Some of these farmers make less than 100.00 US per year, which is unbelievably poor even for Chinese standards. A heart surgery averages 3-5,000.00 US. Just this last week we celebrated the 100th surgery! This was such a huge event for us. This has been a wonderful year so far, but we have had many applications, and have had to turn away children. With the economic situation, it is becoming more difficult to raise money.

Yesterday, we had our Spring Hopeful Hearts luncheon. A local 5 star hotel, The Sofitel, works so well with us to put on a very nice buffet luncheon for the Expat women in Nanjing. We had a fashion show, put on by some of the expat women, directed by us Hopeful Hearts women. The ladies really love watching it. We make a little over half of an average surgery from the sale of the tickets, which is wonderful, but it is difficult to raise money. So, we told these ladies here in Nanjing about a couple of cases, about how these parents love their children just as much as you or I do. And then we asked them to give more if they could. To give up an afternoon of shopping, or a dinner at a western restaurant. And if they did this, then maybe we could raise enough to save a life from this luncheon. Do you know what these wonderful ladies did? They passed around our donation box and filled it... to just over the cost of a surgery! I am so overwhelmed and happy to be a part of that wonderful day, and a wonderful group of women.

If there are any children in the hospital, I try to go with Claudia to visit them. Today, we went to see three children who are in the hospital, and took these photos. They are beautiful. One boy is actually a young adult. Our policy is that we will still help someone who is over 18, if they have a congenital heart disease (they were born with it). It is a miracle Li Ping is still living at this age, having these complications for so long. He is from the Sichuan area. His mother has raised him alone, never having enough money to pay for his surgery. They heard about Hopeful Hearts when Amity (our "mother" charity group) was down helping with the earthquake disaster. Li-ping didn't even have the money to travel to Nanjing for his surgery. He was not able to have the surgery in his area because the expertise wasn't available. We found a hospital that could help cover the cost of his travel to Nanjing. Li Ping is a very polite young man and wanted a photo with Claudia and I. He now has a hope for the future!



Ding Fu-Kang is the son of a couple who are both deaf and dumb. They farm, and struggle to make ends meet. They have come up with as much as they can to pay for their son's surgery, but can't cover the cost. Hopeful Hearts will help them cover the rest of the cost


Li Ruichen's parents are farmers in a small village. He is the cutest little boy with really pinch-able cheeks!


I am so grateful to be a part of this. These children have changed my life. I am also so grateful for Heavenly Father, who listens when a couple of women in Nanjing, China pray for help to raise the funds for these sweet little children, and listen when we pray to steady the surgeons hands. Sometimes help has come through some of you. Thank you.

This is why I was able to move to China

Since I married this man (Michael, in case you didn't know), I have been in boot camp for going the craziest, most unconventional route. I should have seen it coming, as we drove to the temple on the morning of our wedding through the back roads (to be fair, it was horribly icy) form Bountiful to Salt Lake. Mike has spent the last 18 years stretching my way of thinking. Taking the "scenic road". This was demonstrated when we went to Zion's National Park about three months after our marriage. We drove up a side road, and the car was backed into 8 inches of sand, making for a very interesting trip, and a new transmission for the car we borrowed from Tricia. Mike has always been one to help us look for the adventurous way. I could go on and on with stories to show this. While at times this can be uncomfortable, and, well, crazy, it's developed a love for adventure in me that I never knew I had. Thank you, sweetheart, for all of the fun.

So, here is a perfect example the type of experiences that prepared me for China. Mike has wanted to walk on the ancient city wall for a long time. I know of a place to get on the wall, but you can't walk very far. I was ready to prove this to Mike. Well...As you can see, this didn't stop us. We just needed to get creative. Turns out we had a very good walk on the wall, although we figured out that we were in a military area! Luckily, they are mostly home for Chinese New Year. Phew! I'm getting used to that stomach in your throat feeling. I was pretty sure my Chinese isn't good enough to get us out of this one. Luckily, nobody saw us, we had a great walk, and well, another adventure. I love you Mike!


Most people would say, there's a wall, I guess this is the end of our road...

Huangshan

We have always wanted to go to Yellow Mountain. But we have never found a good weekend to go. It's an over-night train away, or a 4 hour drive. Well, this last week, we decided it was now or never. We have the car for the week while the driver is off for Chinese New Year. We looked up everything we could on the Internet in the way of maps, and decided to go for it. I reserved a hostel online, and we just hoped we could find it. We weren't able to find anything in English, but we did find a map that showed a road that would take us to Huangshan (yellow mountain), the 205. We had a great day!!! We just followed this road, which was the slow road, it turned out. It twisted and turned in every direction and we went through a whole bunch of little towns. Some of the things we had to watch out for: cows, three-wheeled trucks, people doing fireworks, people walking across the highway, people selling sugar cane, TERRIBLE drivers, huge pots in the road. It was exciting. We listened to our music, we read the book Holes, and we enjoyed the scenery. It did take us 7 1/2 hours to get there, though. By the time we arrived, Nicole was NOT feeling well. She climbed straight into bed, and was throwing-up. Poor thing. Our heater didn't work, so the first 2 hours that was a little miserable, but they moved us, and it was nice after that. Luckily, the town had one KFC in it that we could walk to. Nicole ended up sleeping in our bed with us. Mike, me, and then Coli. I was snug as a bug :-)

Nicole woke up feeling at least well enough not to want to stay behind. We ate really cold eggs at 6:15 and then rode the bus to the mountain. It was beautiful, and totally worth it. I think we all had a good time, and ended up doing 10k in stairs. It was a good work-out! We planned on doing 7k more down the mountain, but between Nicole, and my hip, we decided to ride the cable-car down. Eli was a trooper! I bought these lovely medals that we saw some of the kids wearing and gave the children awards on the way home. Rachel got the guide and helper award-she was always helping with Eli, and asking different guides to tell us where we were on the map. Nicole got the trooper award, for not feeling good at all. Caitlin got the sneaky photographer award, she took some great shots. Jay got the off the beaten trail, and when can we watch a movie award. Eli was the trail blazer, always up front and a really good hiker! We had a great time. The girls took some awesome photos with their Christmas cameras. It was a great adventure. Here are some photos of our trip:

One of our many "potty breaks".



You may not take the following items with you while hiking Yellow Mountain:

First they congratulate you on the growth of your child, then they charge you more. How polite is that!








You could pay to have men carry you up the mountain. Each section is 100rmb, and there are 6 sections. Crazy!!! I have to tell you that there were parts I would have been scared to death having someone carry me! Let alone, well, just the thought of having people carry me!


There are a couple of hotels on the top of Yellow Mountain. Men carry everything up the mountain that the hotel needs. Believe me, it's hard enough to just get yourself up there!


We were a little worried about this chilly little bum! It was REALLY cold up there on the mountain!