very interesting article

if you're wondering about some of the struggles being faced in china today, you will want to read this article. it's from today's new york times. click here to read it.

i can't comment now, but we have seen the struggles expresses in this article in interactions with students both here and in china.

this is one of the things we are lifting up as we study there.

our house: an update on the sale

the sale of the house moves forward. our realtor called yesterday and the property inspection is now scheduled for monday. after this, things should be finalized within a couple of weeks. then we should be able to chose a close date for the sale.

as things progress we'll keep the blog up to date.

thanks for your pr@yers.

Our new boy!

Tammy's younger sister gave birth to Nehemiah Earl last week on Saturday. Baby and mom are doing great. We really enjoyed visiting them today and getting to know the new boy in the family! As you can see Ruthie was LOVING Nehemiah. What three year old girl wouldn't love a live doll! Sam also is great with little ones. He picked out a blanket to give the new baby and then proceeded to "teach" him how to suck on the tag. (Sam still loves his blanket and tag at bedtime! But you didn't hear that from me! :))

I forgot how little babies start out. And I forget how big Ruthie is. Actually she is huge, but I guess there should be a difference between a one week old and an almost three year old. She will always be my baby.

just because they are cute!

Sale Pending

So....that is our big news. Two weeks after the sign was in the yard we have had an offer that we accepted! The sale is in process pending the house inspection within the next ten days. The realtor sat at our table this morning drinking coffee as we signed a million papers. He said that he couldn't believe that the house sold this quick at such a good price. "you better keep rubbing the rabbit foot or whatever it is you guys do." We laughed knowing that the sale of the house really was due to a higher power, not a rabbit foot! It is such a great confirmation that we are supposed to move to China. Thanks to everyone who lifted up the sale of the house.

So....the next phase has begun. We are now going to be packing the house up and packing up the trunks we are shipping to China. We have orientation the first week of June so our goal is to have everything cleared out of the house then. Can anyone say whirlwind?! It will be crazy, so keep us in your thoughts. Here is the plan...

May - pack, pack, pack
June - orientation (WI), Bethlehem Camp (FL)
July - Florida, Michigan, leave for China the last week.

It will be here before we know it! China here we come!

the weather in xining

for those of you interested in what the weather is like where we'll be in china, you might find this site interesting.

http://english.wunderground.com/global/stations/52866.html?bannertypeclick=infoboxtr

this will give you the temperature, the forcast, the elevation and other details.

enjoy.

the journey home: from blountstown to atlanta

today we started the journey home. we left my parent's house in blountstown this morning and headed to atlanta. we've had a full afternoon and evening visiting with friends and attending the sunday evening service at norcross umc. it's been busy but great!

we had the chance to hang out with one of tammy's good friends from asbury that she hadn't seen in years. they live here in atlanta and it just happens to be a short distance from the church. (which, for those of you familiar with traffic in atlanta, is a very good thing.) and as i write we're waiting to meet with one of my old friends from asbury. he and his wife work at a church not far from where we're staying. it's been almost a year since we've last seen them and we're looking forward to it.

we had a blast at church tonight. it was the kids musical and it was really good. our kids loved it. ruthie kept trying to sing along and mimic the hand motions the kids were doing with the song. it was histerical. it was good to see the missions pastor and they even announced that we were there - including annoucing our move.

so tomorrow really early, we'll leave for home. ruthie can't wait. we just found out that tammy's sister michelle had her baby and roo is convinced that uncle matt and aunt michelle need her help taking care of him. :-)

More Florida Fun

Catching frogs, riding the four wheeler, visiting a local playground have all been the Florida fun of the day. (Oh we did speak tonight and have a lunch meeting in there, but who is counting?!)

snow sand

After a swing through Flordia like this, there is one statement that gets me frustrated more than any other..."how was your vacation?" IT IS NOT A VACATION! Speaking 5 times in 10 days and countless meetings is not what i usually would choose in order to achieve rest and relaxation.

But this time...I must say our time in Florida has been more vacation than we ever could have imagined. The community that we spoke for on Sunday provided housing for us starting on Saturday until Monday. We had no idea we were walking into an amazing beach front condo! It was amazing and such a blessing to our family. Have I used the word "AMAZING" yet? Well it was! We were able to make great memories, rest by the ocean, and really feel like we had been on vacation! The kids had a blast. Ruthie called the beach "snow sand" and she couldn't get enough of it. Sam was busy trying to catch sandpipers and collecting shells. I couldn't believe how long they would chase the waves up and down. Hours of fun is all I have to say!

Hope you enjoy the pics from our time there. Thanks again Woodlawn UMC. You blessed us beyond measure!