Shower and Harvest Call

It has been a busy week, especially for David. He had Friendspeak on both Wednesday night and Thursday night. Friday night we decided not to go to the LST Development Council meeting in Fort Worth. Still, David helped to move a new SMU student who doesn't have any friends here. He had to leave work early, get the SUV from me, move the student, and pick me up from my office. We had dinner at home and watched part of the debate before Amy and Kendall came in at around 10:00pm. The traffic had been really bad that they sat on the highway for over an hour.

Emily woke me up at 5:00am Saturday morning. She turned and rolled for over an hour. I could feel her legs and feet sticking up here and there. She was too excited – after all, it was her shower this morning!!! Amy and David made a delicious breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausages, biscuits and gravy, etc. The moment I saw that, I knew I wouldn’t have any room to eat the food in the shower. Amy and I went to the shower at around 10:20am. Many people were already there! Everything was beautiful: pink flowers, pink bear, tasty food, delicious drinks, … many people were impressed by the little candy pacifiers and the booties on the top of the Pitite Fours. I was so happy to see many of our friends, especially the ones that we don’t see very often. I was especially touched by our church friends who came even without an invitations. Those are the ones who almost go to the showers every weekend. I didn’t want them to feel obligated to come and spend money on this shower. So I didn’t send invitations to them. But they still blessed us with their presence and generosity!! One church friend had a car wreck on the way to the shower. I even didn’t get to talk to her. I appreciate everyone who hosted the shower, who came to the shower, and who couldn’t come to the shower because of different commitment. You all are such a precious part of our life. David, I, and Emily are richly blessed by your love and support! I'll post some shower pictures later.

David and I went to the LST Harvest Call dinner at NRH CoC Saturday night. Prestoncrest had two tables there. George asked David and I to sit on their table. We felt like a family re-union each time we went there. We talked to so many people: every LST staff member, the guests that George brought, people who came back from the short-term mission trips, missionaries who happened to be in town, and the Honored Award holder – Dan and Ann Boyer. David also got the Friendspeak banner that we can use for the two international events in October. After the dinner, we were told that Prestoncrest has agreed to be one of the centurion churches! We made home at around 11:20pm, totally exhausted …

Sunday we visited McDermott CoC, thinking that the paint fume might still be strong at Prestoncrest. After lunch, David had his hair-cut. He almost fell asleep several times during the hair-cut. We took a one-hour nap afterwards. Then we went to pick up two new girls from UTD for Friendspeak. They’ve only been to USA for 42 days. But they were so ambitious that they wanted to improve their English, participate in the research projects in SMU, get trained in bilingual translation, … at the same time! Both David and I were substitute workers. We both enjoyed reading with new people. After we dropped off the two UTD students, my reader called that she left her purse in our classroom. We called DG. He was already home. But he turned back right away to get the purse for the student. What a serving heart he has!!

Amy and Kendall left at around 2:30pm. It was a busy weekend for them too! Next time when they come, Emily will be here already!









(The wonderful hostesses and me)

(Openning the gifts)










(Gifts on bed)









(Beautiful flower arrangement)













(Bethany - always ready for pictures)









(Honeydew melons that David planted)











More pictures from the shower can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=qu0dq1t.c63l94ol&x=0&y=-pcubdx&localeid=en_US

Visa and Farm

David and I ran some errands during the weekend. Then we went to a lady's house to buy a Pack N Play. I love buying things from people's house because I'll have chance to interacting with those moms. This time, the mom happened to be an Ukraine lady. When she heard that David went to Ukraine six or seven times, she invited us to sit down and look at her albums. We had a great conversation with her and her husband (who is a German). In the end, when we paid for the Pack N Play, she lowered the price from $35 to $20! We were blessed!

This week, I've been busy with preparing the document for my parents to apply for the visa. It's difficult for an American to imagine how much document I and my parents need to prepare for the visa interview. Here is a list of things I need to provide:

FOLDER #1 Letters
① Letter from Inviter to Visa Officer
② Letter from Inviter to Invitee
③ I-134 Form/ I-134

FOLDER #2 Supporting Materials
① Photocopy of Passport
② Photocopy of Visas
③ Photocopy of I-94
④ Photocopy of Travel Document and Employment Authorization Card
⑤ Photocopy of Offer Letter
⑥ Letter of Employment Verification
⑦ Proof of Finances：（a）Certificate of Bank Deposit（b）Photocopies of Bank Statements (c）Photocopies of Paycheck (d）Photocopy of W-2
⑧ Photocopies of Social Security Number, Driver’s License, Faculty/StaffID, and Health Insurance Card/
⑨ Photocopy of Spouse's Passport, Driver’s License, etc.

Here is a list of things that my parents need to provide:

FOLDER #3 Supporting Materials from the parents
①Passports
②DS-156 and DS-157 Forms
③Receipts of Visa Application Fee
④Residence Booklet and I.D. Cards （2）
⑤Proof of Finances （a）Real Estate Certification Titles （b）Certificate of Deposits and Saving Booklets （c）Bank Booklets of Retirement Pension
⑥Certifications of Retirement （2）
⑦Health Insurance Cards (2）
⑧ Marriage Certificate and Birth Certificate
⑨Certification of Employment and Health Insurance Card of other Children

FOLDER #4 Photos:

① Family Photos at different times
② Photos of Inviter’s Family in U.S.
③ Inviter’s Photos (Growing up)
④ Invitee’s other Photos （sightseeing, everyday live, etc.）

It's time consuming to collect all these documents. But thinking that my parents will be able to come here soon, I feel like the preparation is just a flash! I had the agenda in my mind already: that my parents finish the farm work by the middle of October; that they go to Beijing and apply for the visa in the end of October; that they get on the plane and fly here during the first week of November. But when I talked to my brother on the phone this morning, he told me that my parents may not be able to finish the farm work by the end of October. I was disappointed: the plan may fall apart! I'm sure my brother sensed my disappointment. After I finished the call, I immediately felt guilty and sorry for my disappointment. I was selfish to only think about myself. Think about my parents who had to work on the farm even in their 60s: what a physical demand they are facing right now, trying to sell all the grapes, put the left over in the ice unit, then bury all the grape vines under the ground. They are trying to finish all these in one month! Otherwise, the grape vines will be frozen to death and all their work in several decades will diminish! I can feel the worries my parents are facing and I can see the dilemma they are in. The difficulties of the farmers life in China is even beyond my comprehension. How could I push them to be here and add more stress on their shoulder?! I wanted to call them right away to tell them to take their time and I'll be fine even they can't come before Emily arrives. But it's night time in China now; and there's no phone in the farm ... I'll remember to call them tonight!

Here are a few old photos from my parents farm:

Meeting Charlie

This whole week I've been in the training class, from 8:30 to 5:00 everyday. I actually enjoyed the prolonged lab training, very hands-on. Monday night, we finally got to meet little Charlie. David and I brought the vegetable lasagna, salad, and bread to Jeff and Kyri. Kyri looked wonderful given that Charlie is only 10 days old. Charlie was sleeping in the living room. We got to adore her for five minutes. Then she was wakened by us although we tried to talk in barely audible voices. She started to move and get fuzzy. We knew the next thing might be crying. Jeff picked her up - it was time for her feeding. Kyri told us Charlie has been very easy. Sleep and eat. We'd love to see her nursery. But we thought we'd better leave before she cried. So we left their house pretty soon. We went to Babyrus in Lewesville and saw that they still had two rolls of the wall borders left. One of them was opened but absolutely new. The manager gave us 10% off for that. With a $10 coupon and 15% off, we finally bought the whole roll for $8. Then we dropped by BBB and bought some containers to organize the closets. It was a very productive evening.

Granny's church mailed us the CD of her memorial service. David and I listened to it Tuesday night. Hearing it was like watching a movie in my mind - replaying all the love story between Granny and Jesus. It was great to hear Granny's voice too. They played an interview of Granny several years ago. One of Granny's friends said when she saw Granny in the hospital, Granny showed her the V sign. She asked Granny what it meant. Granny told her "That's victory in Jesus!" So they sang the song "Victory in Jesus" in the service. That brought tears in my eyes.

This week we had the 32nd week checkup. Everything seems to be normal. Emily's head was at the bottom and she curled up when we listened to her heartbeat. Now the doctor can hear her heartbeat without any gel. David could even hear her heartbeat without any equipment, just by putting his ear to my tummy - that's amazing!

One of the interns I trained last year went to QingDao to do the LST project. I mentioned Nicole Green and Jean Guo. She replied right away that Nicole was one of the people that went to the airport to pick her up - small world!

Hurricane Ike and Mid-Autumn Festival

Friday all my co-workers talked about was Hurricane Ike: the cancelled weekend events; news about the silly bold people at Galveston; etc. As a result, we all went home 15 minutes early. David and I had dinner at home. We decided to run errands in case we were shut in for the weekend. One of the errands was to buy a roll of wall border at Babyrus for Eric to use as a color sample. It was sold out when I went there last week. I was disappointed that it was still out of stock although they told us it should have been in the stock yesterday. The guy who worked there saw the apparent disappointment on our faces. He offered to do a final check of the inventory and the boxes under the office desks. To our surprise, he found four rolls of the left over wall borders including the one that was displaying at the cribs section! He told us that the manager would sell all of them for $8 (the original price for just one roll was $22.99)! At the checkout line, we used a 15% off coupon on top of the $8. We were so pleased with the purchase!

David organized the closets Saturday morning. Now the baby room closet looked great! I started organizing the recipes when David studied Chinese after he finished the closets. The rain was not as bad as we thought. It sounded so soothing and relaxing. We opened the door for the most of the morning to enjoy the rainy day. By five o'clock, we began to cook for the prayer gathering at Nathan and Amy's place. Lori and Billy, Debra and Lance, Dawn and Jerrod all brought something. We had a great time talking and eating. But most of all, we had a wonderful prayer time together till 11:00pm.

We had a few visitors for Sunday class. LeCreshia's brother and his family visited the class. Maggie and Alex came back to the class too! We were all surprised that the auditorium wasn't open as planned. Everyone sat in the fellowship hall and the foyer for the services. Because of the paint fume, I stayed at the nursery at the North end. I had fun watching those babies interacting with each other. We had 39 students for Friendspeak. The noise level in the searcher's class was so high that I had to move to the church office. Andrew and Jaime bought us a box of diapers and a cute ducky! We went out with them for dinner after church since Monday they are leaving for Buffalo and next week they will be in Beijing! Andrew took a picture of David and me. After he sent us the picture, he commented, "It appears that David is an angel in this photo... " I always believe David is my angel. See whether you agree or not from this photo ...

Sunday is also the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar), which is the thanksgiving holiday for Chinese. On that night, the moon appears to be at its roundest and brightest. "When the moon is full, mankind is one" -- In China, the full moon has always represented the gatherings of friends and family. Thus, Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions. Families will go together to scenic spots, parks or backyards for moon appreciation parties, lighting lanterns, and eating mooncakes in the cool night. My sister told me that starting from this year, everyone will have a day off on all the traditional Chinese holidays like this to preserve the Chinese culture. I was glad to hear that. On the way home, David and I stopped at the church parking lot to watch the moon - it was bright and round, absolutely beautiful!!! Later on when I called home, mom told me that they had a perfect night to watch the moon too! For those of you who missed out seeing the moon and eating the mooncakes, here are a few pictures ...

Blessed

This week Emily is well into her routine. She moves and twists every two or three hours. I love watching her moving from one spot to the other. It was funny that one morning David was playing piano while I watched my belly button fluctuating like a fishing bob, suddenly a hill was built up and blocked my view of the belly button. The hill was so prominent that I was sure it was either her bottom or head. David joked, "she was sitting up to listen to the music!"

We bought more things for Emily: 159 classic video tapes collection for kids. Each tape costs less than 70 cents! Neither David nor I watched those movies when we were little. But we heard about all the titles. David said, "Can you imagine all three of us sitting in the couch watching these Disney movies?!"

I'm so grateful that I'm feeling great so far except the swelling feet and legs in the end of the day. I had to alternate between standing and sitting frequently. But that's really not a big deal. I'm also thankful for our friends who sent their early baby gifts. It was such a pleasant surprise to see the packages waiting at the door! And the very first package was from our Friendspeak readers!

Tom came over for dinner Tuesday night. His mom was in the hospital. He just had a long day. So David invited him to our house. Besides Tom, we saw another guest who was not invited: it was a big gray cat of our neighbors. See what he was doing:












Andrew and Jamie came over for dinner Thursday night. They are missionary couple in China. Starting next month, they will begin to work with Gary and Danita. We really enjoyed the evening with them. By the way, David and I made the fried Okra. It was delicious! Andrew especially liked it. Jamie were more interested in the baby books about teaching babies languages. Below is a picture of us. David, George, Andrew and Jamie are going to meet with LST on Friday talking about the future plans. Gary sent out a link to some pictures of the adopted children at the Paralympics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jacksongardan/ParalympicWeekend908#











This week's the Bible verses are from Phillipians. David was trying to learn how to pray from Paul by studying his prayers for others. "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

God Be with You Till We Meet Again

I learned from David that I could take the bereavement leave instead of the vacation leave for Granny's funeral service. Amy and Kendall arrived at around 1:00pm. David and I had the 30th week checkup in the morning before we all headed up to Tulsa. We were glad that the baby is doing great. The doctor looked at my bruised toe nail and told us it might get off my toe any time.

We got to Tulsa at around 6:00pm. Chloe did great - another 8-hour trip for a 6 month old in one week! Dad's friend brought us some food. They were delicious, especially the fried Okcra - I'll have to make it some day soon!

Early Friday morning, we saw the message that Kyri's Charlie was born! She was in peaceful sleep with Jeff and Kyri. David was glad that we have an excuse to see them since we signed up for bringing the food for them. We can't wait to meet little Charlie!

Granny's funeral was in Muskogee. We got there at around 9:40am. It was a small service for family and friends. Granny's church is going to have another service on Tuesday. David and I got to see many of his relatives whom we don't see very often. After the pastor finished his speech, David stood up and shared his memories about Granny: her serving heart; her love for people and food; her interest in many things; etc. Granny's birthday picture took all of us from tears to laughters - it was a picture of Granny with a tiarra and pink lei and a big smile. I'm sure many many people will miss Granny badly! David found out from Granny's notes that her favorite song was "In The Garden". But the song of "God Be with You Till We Meet Again" played in my mind again and again. Below are a picture of David and Granny and a picture of a garden that I imagine Granny was in.

Dad's church friends prepared lunch for us. It was a wonderful meal. We enjoyed visiting with them too. For the afternoon, we just spent time with families. We found many old photos from Granny's apartment. I really enjoyed looking through those family pictures and the notes in Granny's Bible.


It was a cool day Saturday. We headed back after breakfast. Amy and Kendall had another three hours to drive. Wished there was an express transportation that can take them back to Austin in minutes! David and I met with Leslie for dinner. He was always energetic. It was nice to know that he decided to support Darren's ministry in Colorado.

It was the first Sunday that David and I went back to our old building. Unfortunately the paint fume was still too strong for me. So I stayed outside with one of our elder's wife. David was coordinating the communion. Four of us took the communion outside the door.

We met with Fred, Fang and their two boys for lunch after church. Fred bought David a very nice weather radio. He really didn't have to spend that money since he has two boys to raise. Cody and Evan had great time with David looking at the fish in the fishtank. By the time we were ready to leave, Even told his parents, "I want to go with Mr. David!" Fang said, "But Mom and Dad and Cody are not going with Mr. David. Is that OK?" Evan nodded his head. He came with us to the car. Finally David took him to his parents. That reminded me of my childhood when I wished my aunt or uncle would take me to their houses for sometime. Grass is always greener on the other side for kids! At the Chinese supermarket, we saw a Friendspeak reader. Later we knew that he just got a job offer from Chase bank! David and I had a short nap before we picked up three girls from UTD. Two of them just came to American 20 days ago. Friendspeak was full again. I got to meet David's friend Aksana from Russia. It was great to see Peggy, Maggie and Alex. Below is a picture of us with three new Friendspeak readers.

David and I often thought about how Dad is doing. We pray that he will have an easy adjustment.










"God be with you till we meet again; by his counsels guide, uphold you; with his sheep securely fold you. God be with you till we meet again.

God be with you till we meet again; when life's perils thick confound you, put his arms unfailing round you. God be with you till we meet again.

God be with you till we meet again; keep love's banner floating over you; smite death's threatning wave before you. God be with you till we meet again.

Till we meet, till we meet, till we meet at Jesus' feet; Till we meet, till we meet, God be with you till we meet again."

Update

Granny's funeral is Friday. Amy and Kendall are going to drive over tomorrow (Thursday) around noon. Then we will head over to Tulsa together. David still doesn't feel well. He took half day off again today just to gather his energy for the trip tomorrow.

This isn't the best week. But there are some bright spots that make us excited. One UTD girl sent emails to us that she heard about Friendspeak from her friend who came to Friendspeak the first time last week. She wanted to come this Sunday. She said she is not a Christian yet. But she studied Bible when she was in China and she wanted to continue to study it. She ordered the Bible online after she came to America. But she hasn't received it. Another UTD Ph.D student wanted to come to church with us this Sunday. She was introduced by our former Friendspeak reader who moved away. I also got an email from Andy that he wanted to bring his two friends to Friendspeak tonight... We just can't be moodless with so many seeking hearts!

David and I are going to meet with George Miller, Mark and Sherylee Woodward (the founder of Let's Start Talking) for dinner to talk about the possibility of Prestoncrest becoming one of the Centurion Churches. I think Prestoncrest has the potential to become one. We'll see.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Last Thursday night, we had the accountability group meeting. It was a wonderful time to catch up with the girls, especially that was the last meeting before Kyri's Charlie is born. September 4th, another princess will say "hello" to the world! David read with Mike at home. When I got home, I noticed that he already cleaned the house and wiped the kitchen floor. What a husband!

Friday, Amy and Kendall drove over during the lunch time. David and I got off work at 3:00pm. Then we headed off to Tulsa. It was a treat for us to ride with Chloe all the way. She was such a good girl. The only activitites that she did during the four-hour ride were: laughing, sleeping, eating, touching, and biting her toys. She got excited everytime she saw Presley. It was so cute to watch her reaching out her arms to Presley and waiting Presley to pick her up! We arrived Tulsa at around 8:30pm. Dad came home from the hospital at around 9. Granny didn't do well.

Saturday morning we all went to the hospital to see Granny. She was more sick than we thought. David didn't feel well either. We rested after coming back from the hospital.

Sunday we decided to see Granny in the morning. To our surprise, the doctor took off the life support. Granny could breathe on her own! We all had our hope up that she's going to get over this and come home for Thanksgiving! Since Granny was doing better, we left after lunch. David had his early birthday before we came back to Dallas.

Monday is the Labor Day. David still didn't feel 100 percent well. We mainly rested and messed around in the house. Dad said Granny was moved out of the ICU and she was doing better.

Today is David's birthday! Happy Birthday Sweetheart! Dad, Amy, Robert C., etc. called him to say Happy Birthday. David went to work for half a day. But he still didn't feel well. So he came back home to rest. Hope he will feel better soon! This year, I didn't do anything special for my sweetheart. Nothing I do can really express my feelings to him. To me, he is a spiritual leader who reads Bible everyday and discusses what he learned with me during the meal; he is a loving husband who uses himself as the body pillow when we stayed at Dad's house without a body pillow and rubs my feet all the time; he is my best friend who gets up to guide me to the restroom in the darkness and takes me back to bed after I come out; he is a loving father who talks to Emily and plays piano for her all the time before we meet her; he reads the baby books whenever he has time and studies Chinese diligiently; he is an enthusiastic cheerleader who always advocates and supports my decisions; he is a cheerful giver who always gives his time, encouragement, and material things to others ... I am the luckiest wife in the world! I can't imagine where I would be without him. He is making difference each day in my world!

We got word this morning that Granny passed away sometime between 11:00pm last night and early this morning. The funeral details are pending. As David said, "Granny went fast. But she lived a long and good life!" It's such a pity that Emily doesn't have a chance to see her. But I'm sure Emily will hear about her great Granny's stories constantly.