A Series of Fortunate Events

I opened my e-mail after church this morning and I found a series of e-mails and pictures from Tammy. I have tried my best to assemble them in a blog. This picture is out of order - it goes into the first section - I accidentally deleted it and you can't put it where you want it to go.

Enjoy this newsy post. Tam says she appreciates the comments, so thanks to those of you who have been posting.

W.

These rides are at a park, walking distance to the hotel. Mei will hold my hand, but still will not hold David's. B is starting to get worn out by her hanging on him all the time. His patience has been great. All the group says so how wonderful and patient he has been. In fact, we say he is the big brother to all the kids here. As usual, all the kids love David and B. There are several families who brought with other kids, so there are many to entertain, which they both have had lots of practice with. As always, I am so proud of them both. We are going to go swimming now.

I will send more later. we went to a zoo today so we have some good ones from that outing. More to come... T.

Wendy's note: They set little stones in the concrete in pretty patterns, and you walk on them in your bare feet - instant massage.

Here are some of the park. Hi Saige! We think this was Mei's first piggy back ride because she was very unsure and uneasy on the ride, and he hasn't been able to get her back on again. We haven't seen anyone doing piggy back or shoulders here. Even at the zoo today, when you would put them up to see the animals. It is so hot here - like 106, and Elsie our leader says this isn't even as hot as it gets. She was wearing jeans today and barely sweating. We are all wiping our face with a napkin and scrambling for shade and going swimming to cure the heat. Although the pool is really warm, it still is about the only thing you can do outside without nearly passing out.

bye bye love mom, T and auntie tam.

Today we went to the zoo. It was surprisingly lush, right in the middle of a busy city. I know what you are saying. We have a zoo in our city, too, but this city is packed with people and cars, so much more than Chicago, but it is kind of like Central Park - the surprise is that is in the middle of New York. Anyway, it is comical how we have 17' gates everywhere there is an animal, here it's about 4 1/2. The cages where sadly small but it was still fun. I am a fan of zoos, so I enjoyed it. We even saw a giant panda, which was the highlight. We were really 3 feet from the cage. We kept thinking that these are where those "animals gone wild " videos happen as we saw kids next to a 10 foot snake waiting to take a picture with it. Or bears that you could walk right up to the gate and people were throwing them snacks. I was waiting for the bear to stick his paw out to take the snack himself.

It was terribly hot but we were happy to have something to do. We are going nuts! So much so that when we did swim, most of the group came out to play. It began to rain, then pour, then downpour, but none of us left the pool. We were just that sick of the room. The rain did make the pool cooler, so that was nice. Another time passer has been room games, which include bed jumping, jumping in to a pile of 12 pillows, and an exciting hacky sack/balloon ball game.

I got a massage tonight, no worries Carolyn, they have nothing on you, It was relaxing and the 2nd hour, yes - 2nd, was a foot massage. Oh yeah, I could get used to that. There are 3 different massage places here. David has tried them all. I have only done one since I hate people touching my hips, but I was in pain, so I needed to give in. I want do one other one. Everyone says they have a way of finding your pain and work it out, with hand, ellbow or a knee.

I think we had a breakthrough today at the pool. Mei began to recognize other people. By that I mean, she only notices what B does, everyone else just passes by. Today we noticed she was listening to a Chinese family talking (don't know about what ), and after that she played ball with Ella's Aunt Marianne and shared a ball with another girl from our group. When we came back to the room she began to talk some. B is teaching her English words, sadly they are lines from Grease and "Do You Know the Boogaloo?" and "What's That You Say?" from camp. Yes, I don't think ESL is in his future, since her first english word was "Sandy?"

Another good thing today was that after our bed jumping this morning, she walked around to each of us, even Dave, to give us all 5. B has been doing that when she does something good, so that was really exciting. David is really struggling that she will not give him any attention. There aren't very many kids that he cannot win over. Say a prayer for that situation, if you will.

We are sickeningly stir crazy in here. To think of all the country that is out there, but we can't get out of this city. We are really looking forward to Wed. when we go on to Hong Kong. Our days are winding down, but not fast enouph. We can only trust God that he has had this situation under control from the beginning and will continue to be in control of our days.

6 more days to go!!!!

Good Night!

These are pictures of our desperate fun - swimming in the rain and room games.

I hope these pictures get through I have been working on them for 2 1/2 hours (no worries I have nothing else better to do) love you all the way to china and back , Mom & T.

This is big brother B. This little guy reminds us so much of Gray. He is 7, so we are getting an idea of what G will be like. FYI he is the 4th child too, hum.

This one, well naturally, is in honor of Brooke. We saw them feed 2 huge hippos today. It was crazy - their mouths are enormous. We have pics of that, too. We were excited that the hippos were one of the things we saw. Also, the elephants for Kira they had 3. I hope these pictures get through (they did - WML) I have been working on them for 2 1/2 hours (no worries I have nothing else better to do)

Love you all the way to China and back , Mom & T.

We found this huge donut at our bakery today, B will be going back, I am sure.

We got several comments on the kids' shirts today, and we were more than happy to explain where they came from! CPBC represent!