This Great Work

We're not entirely sure how we got this little gig, but it was a fun one! I got the We-Chat contact of a Chinese person who was associated with a themed hotel that featured Chinese history.  I planned on using it down the road for an educational field trip.  But the person was quite persistent that we come soon.  So I told him we'd come September 16th.  Then he asked if we could come for the Mid-Autumn festival the weekend earlier.  I suggested Friday the 9th (so we could be home for church).  But he insisted on the 10th for the actual festival.  We got permission to check out a half hour late so we could do our church meetings from the hotel. (although, they didn't know that's why we needed a later time!)  We arrived at the hotel after lunch on the 10th and were greeted by several people.  After we were checked in, the girls and I had to pick out traditional clothing to wear (Tom got out of it...) and they took us up to our rooms.  The beds were only 1 meter wide, so w

From a very young age, Greta's favorite animal has been the giant panda. Collections of pandas have filled her room....stuffed animals, jewelry, notebooks, bags, shoes, decorations, books....if it has a panda on it, we probably own it.  One of her consolations about moving to China has been to see pandas in real life.  (The bucket list is to hold a panda, but that is closed up tight right now....)   There are pandas in the Changzhou zoo.  We were waiting for a pay check and the weather to cool down a bit before going.  The time finally came.  It was ear-to-ear grinning all around. In addition to pandas, here are a few other tidbits about our zoo day: As we have learned, *everything* is different in China, the zoo was not an exception.  They have double (or more..) the amount of animals in the enclosures that we would have in the US. The visitors get to feed the animals if they buy the food from the zoo.  This creates a condition that many of the animals are active and at the front

 Half way around the world a day and a half later than actual time we got to see BYU get a great win.   AND, got to see Chandler several times on ESPN.  Pretty fun times for us!

Our shipment has been a complicated math problem. While complicated, it might simply be expressed simply as  s=d I'll define the variables:  s=shipment    d=drama Every few days a new point on the graph is added.  On again.  Off again.  Up a little.  Down a lot. Up a lot, down a little.  The plots on the graph definitely reflect a roller coaster ride rather than a smooth glide on a serene pond.   Here are just the highlights of the plotted points. 🎢Point A:  While still at home:  review the long list of prohibited items to be taken into China.  Unpack many things we had wanted to take.  (mostly food items and seeds for herbs, tomatoes etc.)  Re-itemize every single item that goes into the boxes (tedious!!). 📈Point B:  Fly to Dallas and only after obtaining permission to fly into China do we summon the movers to pick up our boxes. ⊶Point C:  Make arrangements for the shippers to meet Chandler at home for the pick up. ⊶Point D:  Receive a message in the wee hours of the morning fro