Update on our foster boy.

The little boy who has been with us since Weds. night is doing really well. His skin is starting to look much better, though he hates taking his medicine. He is now starting to trust us a little more. Usually when we picked him up he kept his arms wide open and now he is starting to hold onto us. When we first put him in his crib he just laid down, now when we put him down he starts crying and wants to be picked up. All of these things are really great signs. Please continue to pray for him (Zachary).







Rick

Our New Foster Child

This has been an exciting week for our family.

Two people (from a company we are working with) and I [Rick] left at six in the morning on Tuesday to fly to Gui Lin, in Hunan Province. The flight was a hour and forty-five minutes long. When we arrived in Guilin we had to find a long distance bus to get to the small village where we were heading. First off - a fifty minute taxi drive to get to the bus station. We got there at ten o'clock just to find out the next bus did not arrive until

Sightseeing 

1:30 pm.

Our sightseeing boat

So, we did a little sightseeing, had some lunch, and then boarded the bus. The bus ride was FOUR AND A HALF HOURS driving on some really poor roads and in rain. Eventually, we made it to the village and we were met by the lady who runs the orphanage. She took us to the orphanage to see the little boy.

Our long distance bus

Now I will explain about him. He has HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). His body is covered in a major rash and on one of his feet his toenails are all white (fungus). His body is so fragile and so, so skinny. We spent a little time with him and then they brought us to the hotel. To my surprise, it was a very nice hotel (granted it looked like the only hotel around). This small village has about 260,000 people. You may say that isn't small, but, in China, that is very small.

Signing the papers to bring him back to Xi'an

Next we had dinner with the President of the orphanage, the Vice President, the treasurer, and the lady who picked us up. They put on a nice spread for us, though I did not eat everything, as some of the items were  intestines, little fried fish with all the bones and some kind of meat that was crunchy with every bite.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to have a good rest. We were going to meet the officials at 7:30 to eat breakfast and, at eight, start all of the paperwork to bring the little boy back to Xi'an. One of the Chinese ladies I was with thought they wanted to get everything done asap just so we would not change our minds. (There was no way that would happen.) We finished up all the paperwork and headed back to the orphanage to pick him up.

The village we were in

When I held him it was so sad. He was burning up and had no energy to hold his own self up. They had told us he has never had any food to eat and only drinks a little milk powder. He was so good on our journey! First we had the four and a half hour ride back to the airport. Thankfully the government officials provided a ride for us in a very nice car, so no bus. Then, onto the plane.

His first night here (back in Xi'an) he did okay, although he did wake up a couple of times crying. Today he drank milk and ate a little oatmeal. He was checked out by a doctor who said his rash was some sort of fungus and they put him on antibiotics. His ears are also in bad shape with an infection of some kind. Friday he will be going to the hospital that has the authority to put him on the medication for HIV. In China all of his meds.  will be free. He is going to have a long journey, but I know that God is on his side and He is using us to love and provide a home for him. Please lift this little guy up for quick healing.

The officials

Rice paddies

The family mobile

The outside of the orphanage 

~Rick

Prunus Avium Accumulation

Or cherry picking. Whichever you like.

I am here to discuss the eighteenth of May, a date of nine days ago, and a Saturday.

WHY do I want to talk about the eighteenth, you ask?

Patience, patience...

Last weekend a friend gave us a car to, you know, drive. That's what you do with a car. We received the car Friday, but it rained hard that day so no one felt up to driving about. Saturday held better hopes of being a good day to go. And we were not disappointed. :) Following behind the friends who had given us the car, (months prior, after many attempts at the test, Baba had earned his Chinese driver's license, so he drove), we set off to to go accumulate prunus avium... to go cherry picking. Mmmmhm.


(NOTE FROM RICK: A child car seat in China is a mom's arms wrapped around their children. A good car seat in America is around is around $150 here in China for a good car seat it cost around $450. I have not driven a manual transmission for about 10 years, but he did really well.)

But first, we filled up on cake and popcorn. :D

AND we had lunch.

And a most delicious lunch it was. There were noodles, more noodles, tofu, bean curd (I think that's what it's called), fatty meat, potatoes, more noodles... A most satisfying meal, one you would especially want to have before you go cherry picking.

The cherry orchards were muddy and long and big. The best cherries were up at the top of the tree, where none of us could reach but that was jolly well with me. The pretty bright red ones were near the bottom. :D Granted, these probably weren't completely ripe, but they would be eventually.

I have provided some pictures to help me better explain the day.

 For one, note that sky. Look at the clouds. Is that not beautiful? Is that not clearly perfect to you? And up in that tree that no one can reach are cherries, you might be able to see them better if you enlarge the picture. Ripe cherries. It's like they're laughing and saying among themselves, "They can't get us, the short humans can't get us! Hooray!"





Now here are reachable cherries. See how red they are? Aren't they prettier when they're red? Whoever took this picture, I like the patch of sky seen at the back. It's like one of those adventure stories where the hero/heroine have trekked through the wild, dangerous forest for weeks and finally see civilization through the trees.... only, not as dramatic. :/

This is a berry that Emma found. Two merged together into one. If you turn it ninety degrees, you could make a mini snowman. :)

 Who can go a post without mentioning Matthew just once? (I can't, although Baba can)
He would settle to happily pick berries for about two minutes, then they would lose his interest and he would resort to running up and down all the cherry fields while some tagged behind him. Eventually, he would return to the cherries, but only for two minutes, before going off again...
This is one of those cherry-picking-for-two-minutes moments.

And after a fine day's work we set off to pay for the cherries by the kilo. I'm not sure how much that would be because I still have not mastered the metric system.
(Did you know only three counties don't use the metric system? America, of course, Liberia, and Myanmar.)


Emma has some videos of the cherry-picking experience, but they take ages to load, so they'll come in another post.
Maybe.

~Abby

P.S. I meant to post this much earlier, but I decided not to... for some reason...

Taking a bike ride while the rain stopped.

Jenna and I decided to take a bike ride this afternoon while the rain stopped. The ride was fun but it got quite hot fast (90 degrees) and tomorrow is supposed to be 96,°. Matthew came with us, as usual, and he was good for about 10 minutes. As you can see in these pictures, he could not stay awake; I guess it is quite tiring, sitting in the back just looking around.

 Then, after we got home, Matthew took off his pants and started to work at his work bench - what a guy!

Rainy Day!

Yesterday was a complete wash out, it rained all day. Matthew and I had to get out and play in the puddles; all us kids love to do that. Granted, I am 49 years old, but I am still a big kid at heart.

Abby also came out to join us as she was quite bored. We are supposed to have rain for the next few days, so we might be playing in a lot more puddles.

Posted by Rick

Basketball Ministry

I have started to play basketball with some new guys at night instead of in the morning, as I have been. These men range from 18 to 65 years old. It's quite funny playing basketball here in China.

As you may know, about 87% of the men in China smoke. So last night, during the game, I was waiting for my turn to play and someone yelled out, "Ricka!" (Chinese people love to add "a" to the end of words.) I looked over to see who called me and he was offering me a smoke. I said "no thanks" and  then I looked down the bench. Nine out of the ten guys were smoking while they were waiting to get in the game.

I have no idea how they run around after smoking, but they do. The guy in the grey shirt (in the picture) is about as tall as I am (6'2) and the guy with the goggles is about four inches taller and wider then me. During the game, I ran into him and it felt like I hit a wall.

So, for everyone out there that think Chinese people are short, that is not true.

I play each week waiting for the opportunity to share the good news about Jesus with them. One of the men from this basketball team has invited me out to dinner, so we'll see how that goes. Please be lifting me up - I really need God's wisdom as it is a sensitive subject to talk about, and especially hard as a few of these men are PSB (police).

~Rick

Mac & Cheese

In America, this is what you eat when you're low on cash.
In China, this is an imported luxury.
It's the little things we take for granted when we go shopping in America.
Small purchases.
Boxes of pasta and powdered cheese that we once threw into the carriage without a second thought.
It's the little things in life that make us happy. But you never really notice how many small things in life do that until stop having them.
Though mac and cheese is not the most healthy meal (although Kraft's is MADE WITH REAL CHEESE, so it has some calcium benefits), it's a pleasant reminder of home.

~Rick
~additions by Abby

Going grocery shopping!

Going grocery shopping here in China is a lot different then back in America. We can't just hop into our automobile to go to the store. We don't have a trunk to put the groceries in either. Let's put it this way, I use my bike and Matthew's bike seat as my trunk. I must have broken 30 spokes by now just by carrying milk and water. I am very thankful that I at least have a bike, because it is a real pain trying to get on a bus with our bags and the buses are usually packed with people.As you can see in these pictures Matthew even helped out holding one of the bags.


Rick