Beautiful Bali!

Late Christmas Day after spending an enjoyable morning opening gifts and feasting on a big breakfast, we headed to Indonesia to spend a week on the Island of Bali. We first flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (5 hour flight) and spent the night in anticipation of a morning flight to Bali. We left the freezing temperatures of Shanghai and headed to the balmy, humid temperatures near the equator.

Only the strong and brave attempted to boogie board the waves of the Indian Ocean. Lucas and Lance were particularly persistent about catching the best waves. Surf's up, Dude!

Part of a one day tour of the island included a stop at a monkey forest. What fun seeing these Macaque Monkeys in action! The forests were so lush especially now during the rainy season. We did tote our umbrellas with us but for the most part the rain didn't interfere with any of our fun.

Bali has some beautiful scenery around the island which includes the view of some active volcanoes. Lance was wishing he could go on a climb of one of them but it is a long, full day and there were just too many fun things to do. Luckily, the volcanoes decided to stay quiet during our visit.

The kids had plenty of pool time in the expansive hotel pools. Wade has become a good swimmer since joining us in March. He had never stepped into a pool before his adoption and now has a confident stroke with rhythmic breathing. He loves the water and managed to spend hours in it over the week.

We took in a show which dramatized the battles between good and evil and how the evil god was not able to be defeated. The island is strongly Hindu and they believe and worship many gods. Spiritually it is a dark place. There are temples everywhere and the people make small food and flower offerings to gods for good luck and protection from evil spirits in their businesses, restaurants, etc. Even our drivers had offerings on the dash of the car for safe travel. How we wished these people could know the true God and be set free from the idol worship and fear they live with everyday.

The day we headed to the surfing beach we stopped at the Uluwatu Temple out on this beautiful rocky cliff. This was the southernmost point of the island accessible by car. There was a two week Hindu festival going on while we were there and throngs of local people headed to the temple with baskets of fruit and food to offer to the gods. Once again we were saddened by the dedication of the people to dead gods who can do nothing for them. We had a chance to attend a small Christian church on Sunday and were filled with hope seeing these people who are there to share the Gospel with the Balinese people. There is hope for Bali - God loves them!

We stopped to view the rice terraces which were being prepared for planting in a couple of weeks. It was a beautiful vista of these terraces built into the side of a mountain. We happened upon an old farmer who made hats out of banana leaves and Wade and Lance bought one from him. The boys also tried carrying his load which was quite heavy. The response from Lance was, "Wow, this guy is buff!"

We stopped for a picture in the monkey forest. Here is an example of the many rock carvings we would see throughout the island representing different gods. Most of them had offerings laid beside them.

We enjoyed some adventure thrills during our week in Bali. The kids enjoyed some time on a jet ski and the four of us below went on our first SCUBA dive. During our honeymoon Rich and I had taken a class in the hotel pool but it freaked me out so I never had any interest since then. At our hotel, they were once again offering free lessons in the pool and Rich and I along with Stacia, Lucas, Lance and Elise all had a try at it. It was fun and I was able to get over my hangups. Rich offered to have us all do a beginner dive but only Lucas and Lance were interested. I was ambivalent but he signed me up and I felt that I couldn't pass up the opportunity even though it was a challenge to my psyche.

Our first dive was a success and we were rewarded with some views of beautiful fish and starfish. They gave us food to feed the fish so we were pretty "up close and personal" with them. My ear is still plugged up!

Thank you God for this wonderful opportunity to visit this beautiful island and enjoy some close family time together!

Christmas Festivities Galore!

Last Friday, Rich invited his employees to our home for a Christmas party. We had a lovely catered dinner with mostly Chinese food. Rich planned several fun games where he was able to give away lots of prizes. "Lucky Draws" are always a part of Chinese parties and celebrations and almost everyone went home with a prize that night. The grand prize was a weekend stay package at a very nice local hotel. The highlight of the evening was when Rich read the Christmas story from the Gospels. Included in the gift he gave each person was a book in Chinese about the Miracle of Christmas. If they didn't know what Christmas was about before, they sure do now!Last Thursday, Stacia and Lucas hosted a Christmas party for 20 of their closest friends from school. They were all in a party mood as semester exams had just ended for the week. The party included LOTS of food contributed by all, a white elephant gift exchange with lots of stealing going on, cookie decorating, ping pong and a Christmas movie. It was a great way to begin the Christmas season before most of the kids took off to their various travel destinations.

Snow in Shanghai???

Yes indeed it snowed today in Shanghai! It flurries once or twice a year, usually without any accumulation but today it stuck around long enough for some fun. Our poor pansies that were planted a short while ago were weighted down with the white stuff. The snow is great for adding to the holiday spirit.

The boys had to get out and throw snowballs and Wade helped to build his first snowman. It was good packing snow and everyone came in soaked!

Watching the drivers was another interesting experience today as most of them didn't clear off their windows or side view mirrors. It probably didn't matter as they seem to drive without looking most of the time anyway! Luckily the snow did not stick to the roads or Shanghai would have been an absolute disaster. It sure was a beautiful sight though!

December in Shanghai

The neighborhood gardeners were out in full force over the past weekend planting pansies all throughout the compound. This gardener was busy out in front of our house. It was about 70 degrees that day. It is just beautiful as the winter grass seed has come in and the grass is very green. This tree where the flowers are being planted is chock full of ripe pomelos, a local citrus fruit which is like a gigantic grapefruit. Rich, Wade and I enjoyed a lovely walk throughout the garden marveling that it was December. We do at times miss the snow of Michigan especially at Christmas time but the milder temperatures of Shanghai have grown on us. I guess this is the payback for enduring the scorching, humid summers we have here.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas....

By Sunday after we had digested the Thanksgiving feast we cranked up the Christmas music and got out the tree and all the trimmings. What fun to have Wade experience this custom with us. He seemed to join right in without hesitation and with a smile on his face - especially after I got out the antlers and Rudolph nose. With all of the help, the tree was up in no time!

Wade's First Thanksgiving Feast

On Friday evening, November 26th after a day off school for 4 kids, work for Rich and a basketball tournament for Stacia, we all sat down for an intimate Thanksgiving feast. The kids couldn't wait to dive into our traditional family favorites of party mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn mush, green bean casserole, gravy, hot spiced cider, pumpkin pie and of course the turkey (a bargain around here at $100 usd). It was well worth the long hours of cooking and preparation as everyone gorged themselves and gushed with compliments to the cook. As we went around and said what we were thankful for, Wade said that he was thankful to have a family. We are thankful to have him as our son. Of course, we missed our family across the ocean around our table!

Wade had no problem loving this particular American feast, especially the turkey - Two thumbs up!

Update Family Picture

This past summer we had the joy of getting an updated family picture taken with Wade as the newest member. He fits right in with our family in so many ways. He has adjusted well and seems settled and happy. He has taken on some family chores, works very hard in school and he speaks English amazingly well after only 6 months at home. Wade has a new buddy in the neighborhood who goes to school with him. They moved here from Ann Arbor and he and Gavin play so well together. We continue to be amazed at how God is grafting him into our family and are so thankful for his many blessings!

He's Styling It!

Rich is sporting his team as he rides all over Shanghai! We gave him this bike shirt for his recent birthday as well as some new biking gloves. He goes out on most early Sunday mornings with a group of guys from church. The longer, the harder the ride, the better! They have a great time of fellowship and getting in some exercise. They tend to not let the weather deter them either. I am sure it was in the nineties with a high humidity on this day. They will sure appreciate the cooler temps when and IF they ever get here. Go Blue!

First Day of School 2010Here we go again! Another school year begins. It is hard to believe that one of my first blog entries was a first day of school picture 3 years ago. Stacia is a senior and Lucas a junior. There is a lot of talk around here about colleges! Elise begins 6th grade and Lance starts 8th. Wade will continue at Yew Chung where they offer a dual language instruction in Mandarin and English. He is grade 5 this year. He actually started yesterday and the Concordia kids started today. I walked to the bus with them this morning with camera in hand and it seems they have gotten over the embarrasement of mom taking pictures of them on the first day. Lots of moms and dads were putting their little ones on the bus and I thought back to when Stacia started preschool at PCA. My how that seems like yesterday as I stood outside taking pictures in front of the tree in the front yard.

Revved Up

A great outing today for Dad, Lucas and Lance. Our church sponsors outings for the men almost every week in summer, to keep the men connected and out of trouble. Too many wives and kids disappear to their home countries and leave the men here working. So, this morning, they had an outing at the Shanghai F1 track on high speed go-karts. Fortunately for me, my family is still here and we could get out as a threesome together, with about 18 other men.

What a blast! The cars are much quicker than you would think by looking at them, with average lap speeds over 50kph (35mph), even including all the tight corners and hairpin turns. In case you wonder if the boys can drive -- they were great, both faster than me I believe. In fact, Lucas put in the two fastest runs of the day, leaving 18 men to boast about who got second place. :)

With such an amazing group of friends, and such incredible kids, I would say that I am clearly the winner.

R

Backyard Camping

Since Wednesday was the Dragon Boat Holiday and Wade didn't have school the next day, the boys had the idea of getting out the tent and sleeping outside. Wade had been asking to do this a number of times and now he was finally going to get his chance.They brought Lance's computer out there and watched a movie and had popcorn. It was fun until about the 30th mosquito bite and then they gave up and went to sleep in the family room with their sleeping bags. Unfortunately, too many bugs had gotten into the tent and Wade and Lance didn't want to share their space!

Wade and Lance get along so well and act like typical brothers rough housing, teasing and giggling. Lance is such a great big brother to Wade and is teaching him so many things. Wade has been wanting to learn how to skate board like Lance so yesterday Lance took him out and starting teaching him some tricks. Wade was actually able to do a trick. That was after Lance had taught Wade how to make crepes for breakfast that morning. We are thankful for their great relationship which takes place mainly in Chinese since Lance is so good at speaking to Wade in his mother tongue. Wade gets to practice English with the rest of us!

Sixteen years ago...

Sixteen years ago, on June 16th, 1994, I gave birth to my first son. What a blessing and joy it was then but even more so now! Lucas has become such a fine young man and a delight to have as a son. I helped him start his day with breakfast in bed including french toast, bacon, melon and juice. The flower I cut for him was full of bugs! The rest of the day was pretty low key since all of his friends have gone back to the States for their summer visits. I did prepare one of his favorites for dinner (Burgundy beef over noodles) and then we went out for Cold Stone ice cream after dinner. Since Stacia is in India this week, he wanted to wait for her to return to celebrate with a dinner out at Peter's Tex Mex. What a sweet brother!

On the last day of school last week (half day), Lucas and his friend Ben celebrated their birthdays with some friends after school by going out to lunch and then heading to a bowling alley to play pool (?). They had a nice time before heading out to the next party which was a going away party for a friend moving back to the States. Now its on to enjoying summer break!

Family Creativity

We have had some fun around here this year, watching Lance build up his electronic creativity this year. His school has required a number of projects, and others he has just "run with it". Here is a full size movie poster he made for one class, posing with two of his buddies...fortunately, they never actually made the movie!

He also made several "Public Service Announcements", where they learn about putting a positive message out for people using video, with unique camera angles, sound effects, music, etc. He has done several awesome ones, getting outstanding marks for use of media to get his point across. The one that is about procrastination won a second place award at the Shanghai Film Festival!

I think when I was in 7th grade, we were still dipping film paper in these strange chemicals, and it took about 5 minutes to make one photo! Neat to see how new technology can be used -- for the better.

This is our first time uploading video to this blog, you will have to tell us if it works or not.

"Small" Group Picnic

Our precious small group gathered for an end of the (school) year picnic to celebrate a wonderful year of studying the Book of John together. We also have three of our eleven families who are repatriating back to the States and we wanted to have a memorable send off. Forty-four of us gathered for a delicious summer feast and we enjoyed perfect weather in the mid 70s. We have a wonderful picnic pavillion in our neighborhood with a small soccer field, basketball court and skate park. There was plenty of activity going on with bball, soccer, baseball, frisbee, badminton and more. Everyone worked up a good appetite.

Life 4 Him Small Group

We ended our evening with prayer for our dear friends the Thompson's (Austin, TX), the Hyde family (Rochester, MI) and the Kleimeyer's (Jupiter, FL). We love you all and you will be greatly missed!

Another teenager in the house!

Happy 13th Birthday Lance!Lance and his buddy Jack joined in to celebrate their birthdays together again this year. Ten of their friends joined in for a party at a local sports complex for two hours of fun.
The Chinese have a thing about Disney characters and cartoons in general. They put up this lovely sign for the guests of honor to wish Jaky and Lancie a Happy Birthday - how appropriate!

Lance was wowed by the skateboard deck that two of his friends got for him and had signed by a couple of famous skateboarding dudes. The question is, will Lance actually have the nerve to use this board? They get pretty beat up in a hurry once you start doing your tricks on them.

They had two hours of basketball and ping pong fun. It was a nice group of kids. They enjoyed a nutricious meal of pizza (the sauce was ketchup-yuk!), french fries and pop. It was all topped off with Creme de Mente cake, one of Lance's favorites.

Look out Allen house, there are now 3 teenagers in residence with two more closing in!

Jump for Joy!

We are now the owners of a trampoline. We stayed home during the most recent holiday and made a deal with the kids that since we didn't take a vacation, we could get something that everyone could enjoy. The overwhelming response turned out to be a trampoline. The kids worked very hard with Rich putting it together. It was quite a project and they all had a great sense of accomplishment when it was finished.

Wade is trying it out and he can't control the smiles on his face. It suits him just right since he spends half his day jumping around the house anyway. After everyone finished putting up the sides and the net, they spent the rest of the day jumping. They must have jumped for hours on end. The weather was beautiful for trying it out.