Kids idea of living the ABUNDANT LIFE!!

The kids received a huge blessing this month!! Cereal is very expensive here, therefore we have only been having cereal about one day a week. Most days we have eggs, oatmeal, grits, french toast, pancakes etc. Most of us would think that those are much better sounding than cereal but my children really missed having cereal. Well, one of our family members heard of this huge "sacrifice" the kids were making and sent a special gift to purchase cereal for the kids. So I thought it only fair to let them pick out the cereal. So we went shopping!! As you can see by the picture there choices were very HEALTHY!! I bet you could pick out which ones were MOM'S choice!! Thank you soooo much to Uncle Paul and Aunt Sis for helping the kids feel really special and blessed. It shows how much our Father cares for each one of us!!

Living in Transition

When we arrived back in June we spent about 2 weeks in a guest house while we were looking for our permanent home. While staying there the Krohn's made sure we stayed busy and out in the sun to help our bodies adjust to the 12 hour time difference. We spent a lot of time at parks letting the kids play. As you can tell by the pictures it was very hot and we sweat a lot!! Overall everyone adjusted easily. By the third day everyone was sleeping though the night!! We again just felt blessed and taken care of through every step of this transition.

ARRIVAL IN HONG KONG

We finally arrived!! It was a long flight but in the end it was easier to travel with my kids than I had imagined. When we arrived at HK airport one of the stewardess was so kind to us. He helped us get the kids off the plane and then met us at the baggage claims and visited with the kids while Mike and I were collecting our luggage. We were truly being watched over!!


When we got to the airport the kids got to ride on there very first subway train. You can tell they are exhausted in the photos but you can also see the excitement in there eyes. From this point on everything was new!!

When we came out of luggage claims we were met by 2 of our closest friends, the Sweeney's and the Krohn's!! It felt so nice to be welcomed by people who we know and love!! Our father takes such good care of us!!

OUR FLIGHT

CHERRY CAPITOL AIRPORT

We flew out first thing in the morning on June 23rd. This picture shows the massive amount of luggage that we brought with us. It is no small task to pack up a fam
ily of 7 to move half way around the world. We were aloud (14) 50 pound bags at no extra charge. I was very happy with our ability to fit everything that we brought with us into 16 bags. That included bringing my pots and pans, towels and some dishes!!






Many special friends met us at the airport to see us off!! It brought forth a lot of tears but it meant a lot to us to have the support of our close friends there as we departed for this great adventure!!








This was our kids first time in an airplane. The flight from Cherry Capitol to Chicago was fun and exciting for them. They were all smiles. We hit some weather close to Chicago which made our flight about an hour longer than planned and made it a little bumpy. The kids didn't mind it but I was a little nautious and very happy when we landed in Chicago!

BREAKFAST AT CHICAGO AIRPORT: followed by a 5 hour lay over!!

BACK ON THE PLANE BUT THIS TIME A 16 HOUR FLIGHT!!

The flight went surprisingly well. This was my 3rd time making this trip and I would have to say this flight was the easiest. We played travel games until the kids ate a meal and then they pretty much slept (as you can see) the whole way and we just woke them up to eat!! God is good!!

Finally got my converter card

So I have been waiting to get a converter so I could get my pictures from my camera to my computer. It just came in the mail today so I am going to do some catching up on posts in the next few days so keep checking back so you don't miss anything!! I am going to start with before we left good old Traverse City and then continue until we hit present. I will try to keep my posts exciting. Enjoy!!

We said goodbye to many friends just 2 1/2 short months ago!! We miss everyone very much, but I wanted to share a few special people with all of our friends. These people meant the world to my children and really helped to prepare them for the adventure we are living today!! We knew our children attended an outstanding school that provided an excellent education but I never new until we were leaving just how wonderful all the staff was.






First, this is Mrs Erickson, she was Jezrielle's 5th and 6th grade teacher. She blew us all away when she called and asked if she could come to the house to say good-bye to Jez before we left. Not only did she come over but she came and helped me on our last day of packing our house. She was such a blessing to us!! We love you Mrs Erickson!!















This is Ms. Wolf, she was Zoee's 3rd and 4th grade teacher. There is no other word but AMAZING to describe her. Zoee is still talking to Ms. Wolf at least once a week and cry's sometimes when she can't get ahold of her. Ms. Wolf also made the long track out to Kalkaska to visit Zoee one last time before we left!!










Mrs Craker was all 3 boys 1st and 2nd grade teacher. She is a very talented teacher who I have learned so much from. I have already called on her for tips on teaching 3 boys in the same grade. I don't know how she did a whole class room!! Mrs. Craker also put together a going away party for our family before we left. Our boys were so blessed to spend 2 years in her class!!




Then there is Mrs. Bruce. The kids loved seeing her face every morning before school. They were very sad to here she was leaving TBCS. They all wanted her to be there when they return from Hong Kong. She was always there for them. The one thing that I could never do for them was to pull there loose teeth. Mrs. Bruce always came through for them. I don't know what I am going to do about that here in Hong Kong!! :)






Finally, we have thier principal Mr. Harding. We will always remember his key phrase that I heard every afternoon when I was picking the kids up from school, "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good". Mr. Harding followed in suit with all the teaching staff and offered to help us with moving. We didn't need to take him up on the offer but it was sure nice to see all of these people come through for us when we were in need!!

Monkey Bars

So the kids favorite thing to do at the park is play on the monkey bars. When we arrived Zoee and Kyle could already make it across. David and Dru of course wanted to be like there older siblings and don't do anything but practice getting across. It started out with them just being able to hang from the monkey bars and every time they tried to move the fell. Here is Dru's monkey bar journey...David is making progress and we will post his journey at a later date.









FIRST STEP: Hang on for dear Life












Then Dru continued to practice everyday!!








SECOND STEP: Concentrate very hard and be careful to not bite your tongue off!! LOL












Then one day after a month of practicing everyday and many blisters later you will acheive success:

Twisted rice noodles gone bad!!

This was one of our first American meals. You would think those would be the easiest and would turn out the best since I have been cooking American my whole life, right? Well I cooked the noodles with a timer, and then like any good cook tasted the noodles to make sure they were done and I decided they were still a little to hard so cooked for one more minute. Then I drained the water and rinsed. At this point I noticed that the noodles were all breaking apart. Then I preceded to add all of the ingredients for goulash. By the time everything was stirred together this picture shows what the result was. The flavor was excellent but the appearance was bad, very, very bad!! Mike had us all laughing so hard we could hardly eat. The kids were all yelling at daddy telling him to stop, he was grossing them out. Several times they said they couldn't eat anymore because there stomach's were upset from daddy's comments. I'm sure you can imagine what he was saying!! Things like are you trying to be like a bird and regurgitate your food for your babies, LOL!! It definitely made for a fun evening!!

We said goodbyes to our good friends the Krohn's. It was very sad to say goodbye. The kids are going to miss them more than anyone else I think. It was very nice having them as neighbors. The kids were spoiled being able to run down and have friends to play with. They will adjust and we are looking forward to Vacation Bible School starting this Sunday.

We went to the community pool last week. I was expecting it to be just a little pool. We walked in and the kids said "mommy it is like a small Michigan's Adventure". There were 6 water slides and likde 4 or 5 pools. It was a ton of fun!! The only thing I would change is that the water is like bath water so it is not as refreshing as you would like.

The past few days it has rained all day. So we are feeling pretty cooped up right now and are anxious for the rain to stop so we can get out and explore Tai Po a little.

More fun stories:

The Easy Button:
I was at the train station with Bethany talking with my hand resting on the hand rail when a man walked up and tapped my hand. He said with a strong chinese acent: "Very dangerous". I looked down and realized the escalator had stopped and my hand was resting on a big red button that said emergency stop. Bethany and I quickly got on the train and had a good laugh!!

Cockroaches:
We have had our first visitors to our home. They were big and ugly and we KILLED them!! We have had 3 cockroaches so far. Thankfully Mike was home each time and was able to take care of them for me. The first one was fun though. As Mike was hunting it down it came running out of the cupboard and looked as though it was coming straight for me. I squealed and went running out of the kitchen to the dining area where the kids were eating breakfast. When I overreacted it made them all scream and go running upstairs to safety because we were all sure that it was going to eat daddy and then come have us for desert!! LOL

Flamingos:
We went to the park after church and got to see flamingos. They are not the typical pink ones that we have seen before they are a very pale pink almost white. Jezrielle says that they have an annoying sound and are ugly.

Ocean:
We went to the ocean for the 4th of July. It was a fun time. We had a picnic at the beach. The kids got to go swimming for the first time in the ocean. A helicopter came to airvac someone to a bigger hospital, and Dru, David and Kyle used a squatter for the first time!! It was quite the adventure!!

Garbage Pickers:
The kids were walking through the village and a local started giving them things out of their garbage! They were so excited and came home to show us all of there new toys!! We quickly told them that we are not garbage pickers and not to go throuh peoples garbage again.

This is a picture of our living/dining room. The door in the back goes to our kitchen. This is a picture from Mikes cell phone so the quality is bad but it at least gives an idea of our home.

This is the rear veiw from our roof top. It is basically the same all the way around but I will post more soon.