Casi Cielo=Almost Heaven

We have some friends from Ferndale who are visiting here in Wuhan, before they go to adopt their son in another city here in China! Very exciting for them. They were very generous to bring some supplies from home we had asked for--various necessities we can't get here, including pepperjack cheese and Easter candy! (Cadbury mini eggs.) It was so fun to open all of the treats--it was like Christmas! I had thought at some point to ask Peter (my brother, who works at Starbucks) to send me some coffee, too. But I never did. And I was boohooing this week because I was almost out of coffee and I didn't want to trek across town on a school night to go buy some! Imagine, then, my surprise and elation when I opened the package and saw coffee, not one bag but two, of my very favorite! Oh! I had to break open the Casi Cielo first, and I'm drinking it as I write this morning. To top it off, when I poured it into my cup, some crema swirled into the shape of a heart. Now if that wasn't cute, I don't know what is. I really do love you too, delicious cup of coffee! And THANKS and much love to our family. Wow, what a treat!

So it's been two months......

Yes, it's blogging time! A little over two months since the last blog drop. Neither Steph nor I are avid blog types, so when there is a lapse in blogging it's hard for us to get in the blog mood. However, I'm dusting off the blogged brain, and hopefully making up for lost time with the amount of times I've written blog, blogging, or blogged in this paragraph. Let's get caught up to speed!

Our first semester at the school ended on January 13, and with it's completion began our Chinese New Year Holiday. On the 17th we flew to Bangkok, spent one night there, met a friend at the airport, and then drove South about three and a half hours to a place called Dolphin Bay. The other two families that live near us and work at the school with us also went to Dolphin Bay, and so we got to spend twenty or so days with our teammates in beautiful Thailand! It was such perfect timing as November and December were two very busy months at the school. Rest, recuperation, and relaxation met us in the forms of a warm ocean, great Thai food, and sunshine. Below are a few pictures from our time there.

Some of our teammates ready for scooting!

Some cool cliffs by the water.

"I think we have a flat." "Great! now what?"
(Look around in helplessness) "Hey there's a
mechanic!" (walk across road) Score!

Action shot on the scooter!

Yes, we rode an elephant!

After the well needed rest we arrived back in Wuhan on February 5th, ready to plunge into our busy lives in China and at the school. However, the first week back was a tough one for a number of reasons. On our last day in Thailand we were having fun flipping our kayaks in the ocean and on one flip my wedding ring slipped off my finger probably never to be seen again. Then a few days after we got back the hard drive in our computer completely died and due to us not doing what all computer users should do (which includes you, if you are reading this), which was back up our hard drive information, we lost a lot of pictures, some music that I had been working on, and other things. We tried recovering the data here in Wuhan but it didn't work out. We hope that something can be done to recover the data in the States, but we'll just have to wait and see. The hardest part of the first week back (and still is hard now) was Steph's grandpa passing away. Being far away from family and friends is hard, but at a sad time like this it makes it harder. We wish we could have been with her family during such a tough time. It was a hard first couple of weeks at school, especially for Steph, but she got to take some time off and talk with family back at home.

Some more big news is that we are staying in Wuhan and at the school for a second year! This is maybe surprising to you, as it was to us at first as well. Before we arrived here in August we thought it would be a one year stay, however, the Ultimate Decider has us doing otherwise. It is exciting, to know we will have another year after this one. A year that we can go into with all the learning we have done through mistakes and experiences we have had this year. Crazy! We will be back in Whatcom County for all of July and half of August before we come back for year two.

Other tidbits of news:
1. we celebrated my birthday and two of our teammates' birthdays all in the same week. Fun!
2. we went to a large pet market and I bought a baby turtle. His name is Fin and is pretty cool.
3. though it's still really cold, we feel like it might be warming up. Crossing our fingers.
4. one of the other families that is part of our community is a few weeks away from bringing home two adopted boys. We are looking forward to welcoming them into our community!
5.  We will do our best to blog more!