Paw Paw

This is too good not to post! Emma Grace loves the pictures on our refrigerator. She is always pointing at them and I tell her who is who. She is especially attracted to the picture of Andy when he was a little boy. My friend Laura gave me the idea of printing some pictures and having them laminated so EG can hold them and look at them. (which also means she will eat them, slobber on them, kiss them, and throw them-but since they are laminated, that's no problem!) Anyway, yesterday I gave her several laminated pictures to look at-they include ones of our families as well as her grandparents' pets! I hope this will help her to know you guys when we come home! She convinced me yesterday that it will! For a while I had this picture of my parents sitting on our table beside our couch. I recently moved it because "little hands" kept grabbing it and I was afraid the frame would break. I got the same picture laminated for her to hold. As soon as she saw it, she started pointing to the coffee table where that same picture sat for months. She is so smart! She knew she had seen that picture before and she even knew where she had seen it! I am convinced she will know your faces when she sees you in person because she's been paying attention to the photos in our home and the ones she can now play with. My favorite moment was when Andy was telling her who was who in this picture. He said, "and this is Paw Paw." She immediately said "Paw Paw" and has been saying it ever since! LOVE IT! Paw Paw, I can't wait to see you and evidently Emma Grace is pretty excited about you too! love you!

PS-in this picture I am wearing my favorite maternity shirt-8 months pregnant with EG. Today I put it on again-I'm back in maternity clothes in a little over a year! Here we go again! Woohoo!

Flower Market: My mom's paradise

Yesterday we had the chance to visit some friends who live even farther outside of the city than we do. (but not for long) They recently moved to a small town about 30 minutes from our house, which puts them about an hour outside the city. Here's the thing-they are outside the city now, but in about a year, the city will be moving to them! Our city is relocating to this area-literally. As the population in our city got bigger and bigger, the government landed on a DRASTIC plan to handle the overload-MOVE!!! It kinda reminds me of LOST where their island keeps relocating-at least we know where our city is moving to. Basically the government bought land from farmers about an hour outside the city and has begun to rebuild itself out there. There are government buildings, apartment complexes, and plans for parks, shopping centers, and even a light rail that will go from the "old city" to the "new city." Our friends have their own car, which is rare among foreigners here, so we did lots of riding around and looking at the progress. The most astonishing part is by far the "University City" Imagine Duke, State, Carolina and a handful of smaller colleges all relocating to the same place. The universities are all back to back and when completed will house almost the entire college student population of our province in a few square miles. INSANITY!!! But it was neat to see-I can't imagine Raleigh deciding to relocate to Rocky Mount, can you???

One of the other neat things we did was visit the "hua hui"-A GIANT FLOWER MARKET. This place is my mom's dream come true. When you enter, there is about a half mile stretch of stores filled with every kind of plant and flower imaginable-all at very reasonable prices. There are stores that carry only pots for potting plants, stores that carry only soil and ones that carry everything in between in the way of gardening. My recent dream for the next place we live in China is to have a patio or a big roof top balcony. The second part of my dream is for my mom to come over and go with me to this flower market and help me plant a garden on said patio. Who knows if those two things will happen, but one thing I love about God is that he often gives us those little gifts that aren't essential to our well being, but show his love and personal care of us! So who knows!!!!

At the end of the road of stores is a GIANT warehouse type place where hundreds of sellers come in daily (at about 3 am) to sell their fresh cut flowers to vendors from all over the province. We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and almost all the flowers were gone. I imagine this place is quite a sight at 3 am! The flowers that are sold in our small town and in the city are definitely from this market, only they are more expensive than what you pay for them wholesale. For example, these roses cost 1 kuai a dozen-about 15 cents. In the city, you can pay anywhere between 4 and 10 kuai per dozen. Still a good deal compared to America though!

There were so many interesting kinds of flowers that we can't get in our small town and I was determined to buy some. However, when it was all said and done, I ended up with carnations. I actually don't really like carnations and I can get them daily in our town. BUT, this really cute grandma came up to me and wanted me to buy her flowers and I just couldn't resist. Who can resist a cute granny working hard for her money? NOT ME!!!

Mixed with the carnations are a couple other kinds of flowers-she sold me the whole thing for 5 kuai. I think I should have tried to bargain more, but oh well. That granny had been there since 3 am and I bought her last bunch of flowers! I think she deserves the 5 kaui! I hope to convince Andy to take me back there on a date. They have classes to teach you how to arrange flowers and I think it would be fun to go sometime and learn the Chinese art of flower arranging!

Amazing Trip

This is a LONG post with LOTS of pictures! I hope you enjoy!

We just got back from Xiao Li's house and we had a GREAT time! I have so much to tell you about and I thought I'd let the pictures do most of the talking....

We arrived at Xiao Li's village after about 6 hours of travel-the last 20 minutes was on foot. Her village is tucked in a valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains. It's cloudy in this picture so it's hard to appreciate the breath taking views!

Her village contains about 30 houses and is totally surrounded by farm land. They don't buy food really-they just eat what they grow. It's corn season now and it was everywhere! Corn grows great on these terraced hills. They also had lots of green beans and potatoes.

Here we are walking. We brought rain boots with us because the roads are extremely muddy. It's rainy season, as you know, and the animals walk on the same road as the people-that makes for quite a mess!
Most of villages have 20-30 houses and are a mile or two from each other.

Here we are at the entrance to Xiao Li's grandmother's home. She has been a believer for 30 years! She goes up into the mountains to fast and pray every Friday and has not missed a Friday in all those 30 years! WOW!!!!! Lord, make us faithful lovers and followers of you like this precious woman! Many people in their minority group are Christians and the small church is located just beside her home.
All the homes are built like this: There is a courtyard in the middle and one side houses the animals and the other the people!
When we arrived, Emma Grace was sooo happy to see her A Yi (aunt in Chinese!) We also really enjoyed spending time with her parents. Her mom is my hero. She makes all her own clothes, down to weaving the material that she makes them with. She made a great pair of shoes for Emma Grace. She wears this everyday. These clothes are traditional Ei people clothes. Xiao Li told me that Ei people can tell how old someone is by the style and "fadedness" of their hat. One thing we enjoyed was seeing all the animals. They have cows, pigs, dogs, chickens, and a cat. Each day Xiao Li's dad takes the cows out (they live at their house) to eat. This takes about 2 hours and he does it twice a day. Andy and I accompanied him our first morning there. Man, people in the country have patience! He spends four hours everyday just watching his cows-come rain or shine-and has been for the past 50 years! Their pig is sooo close to having her little piglets.
Andy is an animal lover. Here he is holding the cat.Emma Grace loved the cows. She says "booo" when you ask her what a cow says.We did ALOT of eating while we were there. We had some amazing green beans, corn, several meats, mushrooms and lots of rice. Here is their kitchen. They cook over a fire for the most part but the government recently installed gas in their home in an effort to conserve firewood. Times are a changing-but around here, it's slowly changing! They still do most of their cooking over the fire. They killed a chicken for us. A Xin has just finished boiling it and is taking it out of the pot to chop.Xiao Li cooking the most amazing corn I've ever tasted.Here we are preparing the corn.

There are no cars in these parts...

One of the fun things we did while there was go on a hunt for mushrooms. They are in season right now. The rain provides the moisture they need and the sun the warmth. These two combined make for the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow. Here we are heading out....

On the way we saw a woman harvesting potatoes....We are heading towards those mountains-the perfect spot for mushrooms!
Along they way we saw some really beautiful animals. Emma Grace saw more animals on this trip than she has in her entire one year of life!

Ok, so mushrooms are pretty amazing. Did you know that they grow really rapidly and decay really fast. During mushroom season you can go to the same spot everyday and there will be new mushrooms every morning! This is a great way to earn a little extra money. Xiao Li's mom goes out most mornings and walks for about an hour to reach the mountains. Once there she spends her time down on her knees looking under brush for these little guys. She sells them at a nearby market. Andy managed to find the most expensive mushroom of all-but it was a little small so we figure he would get about 5 cents for this one! But still, way to go Andy! It was kinda like hunting for Easter eggs. Pretty fun. I managed to find a few and got really excited. Then Xiao Li told me that all but one of the ones I found were not edible. Oh well! I am still an apprentice at this whole mushroom hunting thing. In total, Andy and I managed to find about 4 mushrooms that were edible. Xiao Li on the other hand loaded up. Here she is cutting some mushrooms her mom gathered to be dried and used later...

Emma Grace and a farm bath...We went to visit the neighbors and it was like Halloween. They just kept loading her pockets and my hands with candy. She didn't eat lunch that day because she filled up on cookies at their house. Check out her stash...

She's lookig at me like "mom, don't even think about taking my cookie from me!" I just love this picture of Xiao Li, A Xin and Emma Grace. They love her so much and are such a blessing to our family. While we were there, we spent lots of time talking about life-we come from two totally different worlds but it is so neat how God has allowed our paths to cross. They are such a tremendous blessing to our family and their friendship and help are some of the most obvious ways God uses the Chinese to bless our socks off! We love these guys.
One of the things we talked about was how people from "two different worlds" can be great friends and learn from each other. This bond is made so much stronger by the common faith we have in Christ. Knowing that God is working in people's lives in this village "worlds" away from my home in America makes me love God all the more. He is amazing-He's the God of all nations and I look forward to the day when we see people from each tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping him in their own unique way!

What a great trip! On a final note: I did survive the week without a shower but not Pepsi. (BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT!) Xiao Li lugged 6 bottles of Pepsi and Coke to her house and kept pulling them out for us every time we turned around! The Chinese people are so giving. We were sitting down for a rest after our mushroom excursion and out she comes with snacks and Pepsi! I have to admit I was pretty thrilled but I am telling you-I could've survived without it. Well, that has not been proven but I really think I could!


On our way back to our city, we stopped overnight in a nearby city for the torch festival. All these people are minority people and are doing a traditional dance. This festival was way more commercial and Chinese (versus minority) than we thought it would be. We were expecting a bonfire and a bunch of old people dancing around it. This festival had lots of minority flavor to it, but also added in were loud music, flashing lights and 20 of the 2008 Olympics mascots running around. What are those things anyway? China really is a collision of the old and the new.




All in all, a wonderful trip with wonderful friends! We were so blessed to spend this time in "another world" with people who serve the same God as we do!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev 7:9-12)

Off the blog for a few days

Andy and I are currently packing our things to get ready for our trip tomorrow morning! (Read: Andy is packing and I am blogging) We are excited for break from normal life and for the chance to meet Xiao Li's family and learn more about the chinese culture. We won't be able to update the blog of course-but we'll take lots of picutres along the way. Here's the plan as we know it:



Tomorrow we will head out at 7:30 am for the bus stop where we will take a 2 hour bus trip to Lu Quan. From there we will take another bus for about 3 hours to Xiao Li's village. We will probably be walking the last 30 mins of the trip. At her house we plan to hang out, hike a mountian, pick mushrooms and eat some of her momma's yummy cooking! I can't wait for that part! On Saturday we will return to Lu Quan by ourselves and stay the night. This is where the big Torch Festival celebration will take place. We've got tickets to go to some sort of celebration-we think it will include dancing, singing, and some sort of fire-not sure what to expect. Then on Sunday we will head back home! Should be fun. We are trying to pack in one back pack-which is a challenge considering Emma Grace can fill one by herself! She is doing better eating veggies these days but we are not sure what she will eat while we are there, so we are taking a good bit of food for her.





EG and I were out and about yesterday and I snapped a few pictures of our trip to the market. Here's a man selling jiu cai (prononced like "geo tie" with a lisp) on his bike. It's kinda like a green onion, but not really-not sure how to explain it but they usually stir fry it will other veggies or meat. yummy. Like the man on the bicycle, these guys don't have a stall at the market. They just walk MILES to get to town and plop their baskets down outside the market for the day. Because it's tough to go the market with Emma Grace in tow, I often send Xiao Li. But when we do go, this sweet girl sells us veggies at a great price! Yesterday I bought 2 eggplant, lettuce, an onion and a carrot all for 50 cents! Garlic, ginger, and eggsHere's a view of the market-I am the only person without black hair in this whole place!!!
And finally, the news you've all been waiting for....hehe. ok not really-the only people that have been wating for this news are Andy and I! We WON!! FINALLY! Let me explain. You might remember that we get 9 cartons of milk delivered to our house every week. We are serious about milk in the this family. Our milk grandma has asked us more than once, "do you really drink all that milk?"

Anyway, the company that makes our milk has been sponsporing a contest for about the past 2-3 months. Upon opening the milk, you will see one of two statements. Either, thanks but you lost or YEAH! you won x! The prizes range from 3 kaui off your next milk to a laptop computer. Now we really don't care what we win, we just wanted to win. I mean, as many cartons as we have bought over the past 3 months, it is close to statistically impossible that we not win at least once. But for the past 3 months, everyday we open the carton the same message: Sorry EA and Andy, but your luck stinks! It really did stink. Since the game has been going, Xaio Li has bought a total of 3 cartons of milk and won TWICE! What is wrong with us?

Just yesterday Andy asked me if we were looking in the wrong spot for the message. But finally, our faithful milk consumption paid off! We won a whopping 3 kaui off our next carton of milk. We were really excited! I ran upstairs to tell Andy. When the milk lady came today she was just as excited. She grabbed the carton and took off running, smiling and laughing all the way, to catch the Xue Lan Milk van driver and tell them to credit us 3 kaui off our next milk! As you can tell, there's not much going on around these parts so we get excited about the little things in life!

The winning box....see the little message written above the arrow.

Hope you have a great few days. We'll see you on the blog after our adventures!