Bit of Americana

After living outside of the United States for two years now and experiencing the downside of being an American living in another country (we aren't exactly the most popular people on the planet at the time in case you didn't know) it has been so refreshing to be able to bask a bit in actually being proud to be an American (think of that!) instead of feeling like you have to be on the defense or embarrassed about it. It's been awhile since we've put our hands over our hearts and sang The Star Spangled Banner, as we did a few nights ago at an outdoor concert, and felt that sense of pride when we see the flag flying. On the 4th of July, Old Glory comes out in all it's glory, grills get turned up high, fireworks go off, as we celebrate the birthday of our country, our very blessed, though far from perfect, country.
One of our family's traditions on the 4th is to attend a pancake breakfast at a 400-acre Christian ranch for underprivileged children just down the road from where I grew up. It's a beautiful location, and it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking around the grounds and the girls got to ride in the wagon pulled by that great American, "John Deere."

I snapped this picture while standing in line for our pancakes. They have the best smoked sausage links every year, and this is why!
This is a little petting farm on the ranch and it was fun to watch the girls pet the mule, goats, sheep and duck.

As I was sitting on the lawn next to this tree, I saw this boy dressed in his Revolutionary War outfit and he very cordially agreed to my taking his photo - how American is this??!!! I love it.
Here's an 18-year-old soldier boy by the name of Ray Dougan, fresh off the farm in Missouri where he grew up, who also ended up being my dad, in his WWII Army uniform. My sisters and I gave my dad a surprise birthday party for his 82nd, as shown in the picture below, but he told me that this is how he still sees himself. He was very handsome then, and we all think he still is!
Happy Birthday to a great American dad, grandfather and great-grandfather, who also has been a wonderful husband, farmer and railroad engineer! And don't forget, American soldier. . .

Back in the USA!

We made it safely to my bustling metropolis of a hometown, Rives Junction, Michigan, this past Tuesday afternoon and to my beloved Suburban waiting patiently for my return. I not only grew up on a farm, but in the heart of the automotive industry, and I have really missed driving our vehicles, especially my truck!

Our trip out allowed us to meet up with Karen and Doug and their beautiful daughter, Becky, when we made a stopover in Los Angeles. They took us to a lovely restaurant in Marina Del Ray and it was so nice to see a bit of this area and spend time with them.
It has been very relaxing sitting out on my dad's patio and having this for a view. . . to make it perfect, of course, all that is needed is a few cows and horses.
Zoe asked how long cars last as we were taking a little spin in our convertible. When I told her we planned on keeping this vehicle, she let out a very happy cheer!
Sitting with my sister on their deck and enjoying family time again.

Night out

I love this picture above that was taken by Jon when we were out with he and Retta to celebrate our 21st anniversary this past weekend. With the lights of the city illuminating the low clouds, it gives it this luminous almost surreal look, like it's not real but a movie set. It has been raining heavily every day for several days so it was nice to have a break to enjoy the lights of the city.

I feel like we reached a significant milestone this anniversary, as we were 21 when we married and we have been married 21 years - wow, how time flies. . . starting in Denver, Colorado (7 years); Raleigh, North Carolina (2 years); Orlando, Florida (8 years); Ridgefield, Connecticut (2 years)- and now Hong Kong, China!
That's the handprints of Jackie Chan we are actually touching!!!
This is the last time the four of us will have time together out like this here in HK, as Jon, Retta, Jack, Jonah and Maddie Rae will be heading back to Lexington, KY, in a couple of weeks for good! Soooooo sad. . . but very happy that they are starting this exciting and new chapter of their lives. We've got some great memories, though, and look forward to the opportunity of fun family reunions in the future in the States!!!!

View from Our Window - Plus

Two months ago we moved into a flat two buildings away from where we were living. Unfortunately we lost our wonderful view of the park below us and the Marina beyond that. The picture above was taken looking to the left out our living area window. We were never able to see the skyline of Hong Kong from our old flat, so this is something we can enjoy.

This is our pedominant view out the window looking straight-on. We have put a large plant in the center of our window seat, so we at least look through some green at the other buildings.
The day before I was to visit Retta in the hospital with Maddie Rae, who was having her second surgery to repair her pallet, Retta asked if I thought I could find someone needing to get rid of a stroller because she had met a lady who was here in China from the States volunteering at a foster home in Beijing and had brought a baby down who needed surgery and could use a stroller. Thankfully, I was able to locate one very quickly just by letting the preschool next to the church know about the need. Within five minutes, the call came through they had one for us. When I brought it in, Annette, the lady in the picture above, was so thrilled. She is a pediatric intensive care nurse in Nashville and had donated five weeks of time to the foster home in Beijing. She had been in the hospital with this sweet little boy for a week!! She was on her own and both Retta and I could not imagine the patience and perserverance needed to take care of these children going through various needed medical treatments. When I asked if she would like a Subway sandwich (thank you, Lorne!) she did not hesitate to accept the offer, because she had been eating the hospital food and was desperate for a change. I asked her if they had a contact in Hong Kong and was so surprised when she told me they did not, so I told her that if they ever have a need, whether it be for a necessity, such as the stroller, or just a cup of coffee from Starbuck's, because most of the time they take the babies to this hospital, which is Seventh Day Adventist and there is not a drop of caffeine to be had there, to please let me know. The link to the foster home she volunteered her time at is: http://www.hopefosterhome.com/. Check it out and I think you will be impressed with the incredible ministry they have there. I certainly hope we will be able to meet some of their needs here in Hong Kong in the future.
After our return from Huazhou, through the Huazhou Parents Yahoo group, I contacted a mom from the LA area, who I knew was coming to China soon to adopt her baby, who was also from the Huazhou Orphanage. The extra-special surprise was that Karen and her husband (who did not come to China, but stayed back with their two teenage children) attend a large Evangelical Free church. She was excited because they really wanted to find a place to worship while they were in Hong Kong. The morning after they arrived, they came to Discovery Bay to church and then we were able to spend some extra time at lunch afterwards. Karen, sitting next to Retta, was accompanied on her adoption journey by her mom, sitting next to Nadine, and her friend Destiney, sitting next to Retta. Destiney, who lives in Germany with her husband, who is an army chaplain, and their children, was also able to participate in our worship service through her beautiful voice. We enjoyed sharing our trip to Huazhou through our pictures and we are hoping to be able to work together through our two churches to raise the funds necessary for the playroom and playground.
Our church assisted in sponsoring a scavenger hunt for middle-school-aged kids and older a couple weeks ago here in Discovery Bay. The first prize donated was a helicopter ride over Hong Kong and neighboring islands - of course Lantau, our island, being one of them. The owner of the helicopter thought it would be a good idea if a few people could take the trip before the kids took it, so Brad, along with Jon, Retta's husband, and our youth coordinator at church and her husband, went on the "maiden" voyage, so to speak. Since Ellen found out what the first prize was, she talked non-stop about how she wanted to win so she could ride in the helicopter. She went to work on putting her "dream team" together, as the teams consisted of four people. It must have worked, because Ellen's team was one that came in first place and so on the 14th she will be taking the trip around Hong Kong. We'll dedicate a whole blog posting to that trip - I only wish I could tag along too. P.S. - do you see the black cow behind the helicopter? They landed near a private beach on Lantau where they spotted the local wildlife.

results of the pottery sale fundraiser

The picture above was sent to me today by our guide, Raymond, who received it from the directors of the Huazhou Orphanage showing one of the tv's and dvd's in use we purchased while there a short while ago. We were so pleased to be able to purchase a few much-needed items for them.

Below I have included some pictures from the sale we had - I seem to have overlooked the results in the last couple of postings and my sister was asking what the results were, so I wanted to include that, as without the generous gifting of this beautiful porcelain, there would not have been a sale, nor would there have been the needed funds to purchase these items, nor provide cleft lip/pallet surgeries for two babies, nor fit a room out at the Anhui Cleft Healing Home!! We raised nearly 50,000 Hong Kong Dollars, which amounts to about $6,250 U.S. Dollars!!
These are the 70 boxes of hand-painted porcelain that we had packed a few days prior. Of course, we were concerned with how we were going to actually transport all of these boxes to Discovery Bay from Kowloon, but God had a hand in that as well and provided a generous donation from a man in the church who co-owns a moving truck. I don't think we could have fit these in a taxi and it would have cost quite a bit to rent a van, which would cut into our profits. We weren't a little nervous about how many people would come and how many boxes we would be repacking once it was over!
The porcelain-packin' crew. Everyone worked hard to clean, price, sell and pack up peoples' purchases. You might wonder, "where are all these lovely ladies from?" Well, I will tell you that: Sweden, Singapore, Canada, Dubai, South Africa, USA and Britain! We're the United Nations, I guess.
We had soooooo much to sell, the floors were covered, tables covered, every even surface, with porcelain!
Ahhh, success, happy people carrying heavy bags of porcelain out the door. People were very generous and I heard many times that they didn't really "need" it, but since it was going for a good cause, why not!?

The "partial" end result of our labor was standing in the appliance store with the directors of the orphanage and our guide Raymond and asking them what they needed. It was fun to raise the money, but of course it was even more fun shopping and spending it!!!! We sent the other half of our procees to Love Without Boundaries to provide the surgeries and room completion.

A harsh reality

I wanted to post a few more pictures of the Huazhou orphanage and say a bit more about our time we spent there. Before coming to this orphanage, I had been to Hefei (Ellen's orphanage) and Shaogaun, (Maddie Rae's orphanage) so I think my expectation was that it would be similar to these; however, it was really nothing like them, except for the actual buildings themselves. Hefei and Shaogaun have been the beneficaries of some wonderful foundations out there dedicated to helping China's orphans. They come in and build out beautifully furnished playrooms and playgrounds, train nannies, create foster families, etc. I have incluced a picture from Hefei in here so you can compare the two rooms.

The playroom in Huazhou, stark, just a couple of ride-on type toys - we brought several toys that we are unwrapping here.

These precious angels were laying on boards that were painted and the paint was chipping. Not a good combination for a little one like this. I am working to find out the dimensions of the cribs and finding appropriate padding, as the babies don't wear diapers so it needs to be something that wipes up easily and is sanitary and a bit of a cushion too.
These little girls - yes, girls - were initially very leary of us, as they should be. There's no playground outside, so they stay inside, I would imagine, the majority of the time.
There were two nannies for this baby room, with about 25 babies, and the adjacent playroom of about seven toddlers.

Trip to Huazhou

We had an incredible trip back to the place of Zoe's birth this past weekend. It took eight hours on a train to get there, but thankfully we were not alone in our unique journey, as we were once again accompanied by our good friends, the Christensen family, who joined us this time last year on our return to Hefei, the place of Ellen's birth.

Zoe was born in Huazhou, Guangdong, a town near the North Vietnam border. We chose to take the train after having found out if we flew it would take virtually the same amount of time due to there not being direct flights near where we needed to go. So, always up for an adventure, some of us more than others, we chose the train. Mmmm, could write a few blog entires on that experience . . .

The pictures are in no particular order, and if you want to get a fuller view of them, just double-click!
Yes, that is actually blue sky and clouds, not Photoshopped in either! I took this on the Star Ferry ride over to Kowloon to the train station.
The view looking out from the orphanage balcony.
Lorne and his camera fans.
Okay, here's the story behind this one: The train stopped on the way to Maoming to let another train pass. That's a good thing. However, when I looked outside the window, I thought, "Oh my word, that's a snake he has!" He went and washed it off in this big mud puddle and then put it in a bag and attached it to the back of his belt (you can see two bags he has attached to his belt) and took off on his bike. Guess we knew what he was having for dinner. I just wanted the train to start before snakeman tried to auction his yummy morcel to someone on the train. Yikes!!!!
Zoe and Hannah standing at Zoe's "finding spot"

You see people transporting some incredible loads in China! Lorne said the bamboo went about 3 feet beyond what he was able to capture with his camera.
Our beautiful smiley girl, Ellen.
The beginning of our train journey to Maoming. The look on the train assistant's face looking at Nadine poking her head out the door is funny. Crazy Gweilo people, she is probably thinking.
The area where Zoe was born was once part of the Vietnam Kingdom, according to our guide, Raymond, and he said that it looks very much like Vietnam today.
Just hangin' out (literally) on the train back to Guangzhou.

Here we are standing at Zoe's "finding spot," located on a busy street across from the Real Estate Bureau of Huazhou. That is Hannah and Noah Christensen and also Raymond, our dear friend, who was our guide for Ellen as well as Zoe.
The three directors of the orphanage treated us to a sumptuous lunch. They indicated to Brad that as the head of the family, he got the "honor" of eating the chicken's head. I had to laugh to myself because he "chickened" out and let Raymond show him how it was done, but they let him vamp for the camera here, after which Brad gladly handed the head over to Raymond.

It was so great to see smiles on the faces of these little ones enjoying the little toys that we brought.