BFF visit: Lip Sync War and More

[note: I am finally finishing the series post on our best friends, the Lathams, visiting 'small town' China from 'big city' China]

Just Chillin' was most of the fun we had.

These two bonked heads on the trampoline.

Our lip sync battle was one for the books. I am not permitted to post pics of the adults...too embarrassing and all. Just know we all got in character and to our shame remembered way too many rap songs from the 80s.

These girls did two duets. One to 'A Million Dreams' (The Greatest Showman) and another to "I'm a gummy bear"

And oldie but funny, the whip/nae nae (how do you even spell that?).

"This is Me" by Sophia. (Another 'Greatest Showman' hit)

"U Can't Touch This" Abraham really stole the show with his rendition. He rocked it.
(had to use a screen shot of the video)

Moana soundtrack's: "Shiny"

Oops, snuck one in. (Apparently I have no shame). Melissa and I, singing the finale (where we got everyone up dancing) to a Justin Timberlake song (I think, at least I look like I know the lyrics).

I laughed so hard this night my belly ached. And I LOVED how great the kids did, they were so comfortable around each other they didn't care and gave it their all. 

The last morning of The Latham Family Visit we left the kids at home (with our helper) watching a Star Wars and we took John and Melissa to the minority market. It happened to be market day (every 5 days people come from villages a little farther away and sell their wares). I hadn't been in a while, and this time was really special. We ran into people we knew,  including the mom of David's language tutor, he had lived in her house for a few months our 2nd summer in China. 

David is discussing the difference in chopsticks.

We stopped for snacks! 

That afternoon David took everyone but Sophia (not feeling well) and me to hike up to the Pagoda. We drove up and met them for (more) snacks. 

What a view, and what fun. All these kids love the same Chinese snacks--spicy ramen noodles!

The last picture.

Our time with this family was soul-soothing. Priceless. We are so thankful for the sacrifice of time and money it took for them to come. We praise God for bringing us such great friends that truly come alongside us, carry burdens when needed, encourage us to carry them when we should, and remind us of truth constantly. Most importantly--they make us laugh hard!

BFF Visit Day 2 and 3

Love this lady! She is my huge encourager! We took them to our helper's village (our fave village around), they LOVED it. When taking them to the airport and asking for highlights of their week more than one kid said 'the village'!


I love the friendship of these two also, always spurring on in truth (and laughter mostly)!


Gorgeous views and great food, what is not to love?

 All loved to help cook.

Yes we crammed 12 people in our van everywhere we went!

We went back to the hot springs with the wave pool. But because it was just after a huge event and mid-week they were not expecting anyone and had not refilled with hot water. There was no 'hot' about it. But when the waves started the kids ran right in.

Snack break to warm in the sun.

And then to ward off pneumonia a soak in the warmer pool.

Noodles for dinner and a snack new to me: a cold flat rice pancake (very thin) filled with cold noodle, soybean sprouts, nuts, and spices and more, sounds gross for sure. I fell in love with it and got it the next day in the market.

As we are taking them around our town and showing our life here we (the adults) talk about everything under the sun, not too much lightness to it either. There was no time for that. We were taking every opportunity to go deep to our  hearts. Which was why this week held very little sleep for us all and worth every waking moment!

BFF visit Day 2: Sophia's Race Day JAN 1

New Year's Day 2019!

The coaches of the soccer and basketball teams signed everyone up for the New Year's Day Race in town. Sophia has been running every morning before school with the team.

We LOVED that our friends were here for this.

The event's opening show had some interesting break dancing moves as well as some fitness instructors doing a dance.
Our friends had asked us earlier if living in a small town, did we know people as we went out and about? Yes, pretty much, though we still hear the word 'foreigner' said almost every day. And sure enough every where we took them we ran into people we knew. A lot of this has to do with being a part of the local school system, but we also ran into others from villages too.

Pre-race we ran into one of David's best local friends whose son was running in the race.

Gabrielle and Amelya find a spot to watch the race.

Gearing up with classmates, they were told to run in their school uniform.

one of Sophia's best friends.


There were about 200 girl competitors. And they changed the course from previous years. It used to be flat and windy. This year it was a gradual incline to steep uphill for the first 1.5 km (pick up a card to prevent cheating) and then turn around and speed down the hill.

Here she is kicking it in toward the finish. She came in 34th and did awesome!

Coming in at the finish. At some parts of the finish their was a bottleneck and they had to tell people to slow down. What? No way! Finish strong!

We loved this event on the first day of the year with some of our favorite people. We were so proud of Sophia!

The view of the pagoda from the race site.


Her school gave her water, chocolate and 10 yuan for participating ($1.50)

BFFs Come For a Visit, Day 1

We've known the L family for 15 years now. They moved across the pond with us, to a huge city in the NE of this country. We've been doing life together (from afar) for all of these years! 

We overlapped in Bangkok for Isabella's birth and the birth of their third child. We used to know we would see each other every year, then it was almost two years. Finally, we pinned them down with lots of guilt and shame to come visit us out in the 'boonies' and experience 'real' China. (all a joke of course.)

M and I talk (audio text) daily.

They arrived the evening of Dec 30th. Six months to the day of when we last saw them (on our way to the USA we stopped in to see them).
We stayed up way too late that night with the kids too all excited about the week ahead.

On Dec 31st, we took them around our neighborhood and town and then some of us stayed back (Isabella was under the weather) while most went to a village spring with supposed wave pool to see if this would be something we could do while they were here.

They went on a short hike and overlook.

 They got snacks that they had never tried but loved!

The kids meshed SO well and played games, jumped on the trampoline, had nerf wars, and just talked.



These two chicadees were hilarious and fun. They have similar personalities, #4, total cuteness, and feisty.

 We introduced them to our fave places, flavors they can't get in their city.

The wave pool seemed promising so we decided we would try it on another day.

 around the hood

 sweetness

It was New Year's Eve, but with Sophia having a 3KM race in the morning we tried to get the kids in bed by just after nine. Before that, however, we had smores over our fire pit and set off some amazing big booming fireworks! Two other foreign families joined us and we had a great celebration!

Dec Highlight: Surprise Intruder

I love being in the kitchen at Christmas. Though we didn't slow down too much in home school, It is my time to bake and bake and enjoy the non-rush of getting food on the table and making fun sweets and breads to give away.

The morning of our larger foreign Christmas gathering (which means 3 families instead of 2), I was preparing. My contribution was BBQ wings (I bring this every year and the kids love it), Challah bread, and chocolate éclair cake (confession: I accidentally bought low fat graham crackers in the States, blech. No one would eat them. I also accidentally bought sugar free vanilla pudding in Thailand. I threw all this in this dessert and it turned out fine!).

While in the kitchen all morning I kept hearing noises in the air vent above our gas stove. I mentioned it to David and others and at first no one heard anything. The joke was on 'momma going mad' in the kitchen. Our helper then arrived to help me for just a few hours.

By then everyone knew there was a rat in the vent. It was loud, probably hungry and sounded large. I was so disgusted and just did not want him to fall into anything I had going on on the stove. David, my rodent fighting hero, tried to get the apt office to help. They shrugged him off. (last time the guard came with his taser). David ran out and bought the sticky traps. If you have never worked with these things be thankful. Some chemical genius invented the stickiest substance known to man. David undid the top part of our vent that touches the ceiling and rigged the sticky trap at the top so that the rat could climb up and get stuck on it.

It sounded like it was getting closer to being stuck down in the actual vent part, not the pipe. I had no real hopes that he would climb upwards to his demise. He sounded pathetic but I had no compassion. He was about to ruin my Christmas party cooking.

To add to its troubles my helper says that on Friday while cooking she heard a noise in there. This guy has been in there 3 days now. Ugh and gross.

We go about our business. I am in my room getting ready, David is outside with the dog when our helper calls out in her minority language: 'older brother! Older brother!' (David), 'it’s a bird, it’s a bird!' Now, I did study minority language a little after studying Chinese. And I don't remember a ton. But when she kept saying that word, the picture of the bird on the page when I studied kept coming to my mind. I knew she wasn't saying rat, and I was almost certain she was saying bird. I couldn't go out there, but they switched to Chinese. And the poor bird (now that it is not a rat we can use the pitying language) was quite stuck.

I did not see any of this but David took him outside, after much trial (because you can't touch the trap or you will have no skin) got him un-stuck . He then stumbled/fell over into the mulchy leafy part of our front yard. It was then that David realized this was someone's carrier pigeon. The office did come to help and put the pitiful bird in a box. We were quite sure it would not fly again. But who knows. All we know is that it was in our vent for about 3 days, fell down from the roof, must have been starving, and was very big to be in our vent.

You can't make this stuff up. What an eventful Christmas Party Prep we had.

I detail this all here to help us remember the 'dove' that came to our house at Christmas….

and here it is with grass and leaves stuck all over his back. 

Dec Highlight: Christmas Festivities

Once again we got into our Advent Festivities, trying to be more intentional with 'Beholding the Lord, Enjoying good gifts, and Serving in His name'. 

One of our 'enjoy' days involved a picnic to the lake (where we certainly beheld HIS beauty in creation). BLT sandwiches and soda too, it was super-special time to relax, rest and be together as family.

Christmas Festivities always involve PUZZLES (a personal favorite)
I tried not to do all the kids' new puzzles for them.

On Christmas Morning we finished up our Advent study, completed our Advent read aloud and worshiped together as a family with song as well. Then they got to open their stockings...
filled with shin guards, soccer bags, candy, a soda, blankets, and more...these little gifts give big smiles. Even Frodo had a stocking this year!


Mid-December we participated in a "Nativity Play"

What an adorable shepherdess


They were short some folks so we stepped up as Joseph and Mary.

 An Angel is hovering....


The whole crew!

Sporting their new sports gear we teamed up with the S family for our annual soccer and kickball game.

It was warm, but we had a blast.

Christmas evening our friends from the village came over and I served them up some truly American traditional holiday fare. They didn't love the Green Bean Casserole or the Sweet Potato Casserole, but got seconds (and thirds) of the ham and Challah Bread!

I told David that I didn't feel like I took many pics this season....and overall, with no blogging, I didn't capture as much..."but I lived it" I told him. And there's the balance and the rub, and what Father is continually teaching me...about presence. His Presence. My presence with kids, with relationships, being all there of wherever I am.

Hoping your Holidays were reminders of HIS Presence.