Coming soon to an America Near You

I'm not exactly sure what that title means, but if you haven't heard we will be returning to the motherland in less than two months! We initially committed to two years in China, but had the option of staying longer. This was a HARD decision. There were just so many things to consider...

God is really blessing the things that we are doing here - does that mean we should stay? We are really passionate about some of the opportunities we'll have in America - should we go home? The work here will never be done - so maybe we should stay? We miss our community of family and friends - should we go home? In America we can have a house and a car and Hickory Park and Mt. Dew - hmm, we should definitely go home. Shoot, now I have to think about right and wrong motives too? After many conversations, some tears (which I'm blaming on pregnancy) and much deliberation (seriously, we deliberated our buts off) we decided the right thing for our family is to come home. We still have lots to do in these next months and want to finish well here, but we are also looking forward to things to come.

Mike has accepted a job with at Cornerstone in Ames where he will be reaching out to international students at Iowa State as well as convincing American students to come overseas. We feel like our time in China has given us lots of life experiences that will help us in this new role. We know what it's like to be in a place the doesn't make any sense to you. We know what it's like to feel lost and stupid and confused and frustrated. But we also know what it's like to feel loved and thankful when someone takes the time to show you the ropes and share their life with you. We have been shown so much hospitality here and I hope that we will be able to do the same for international students at Iowa State.

To close this post, here a few pics of our lil' Cyclone.

Easton's vs. Summer

Summer in China is full of 100 degree weather, "special" smells, and lots of sunbrellas, but for us summer means volunteer teams. Which means summer is coming in 5 days! Yikes! This summer 46 people are coming in six teams to our city to work with university students. We have a team of high schoolers from our home town and a mixed ages team from Virgina, and the rest are students from Ames and Iowa City. The most effective people to reach college students are college students so we are really excited to see what the Father will do through them this summer. Most of the teams will be on the ground for 1-2 months. Each team will have a campus or two to focus on. They will live near campus, eat at the cafeteria, and meet friends with the hope of sharing their lives and some Good News.

Mike and I were both positively influenced by workers on the field in the past. We love hosting students and we consider it a big part of our decision to move overseas, but it's a lot of work. Finding hotels and rooms to meet in, making schedules, partnering with locals and casting vision to all those people on top of maintaining the groups that have already been started AND having a three month old kiddo is a recipe for one insane summer. We are up for the challenge, but we do ask that you keep us in mind as you are talking to the father.

Oh and I forgot to mention that we are moving back to America at the end of July (more on that later). For us that means that we'll also be trying to pack and debrief ourselves from our time abroad. And for the on going work it means that there are some very new student groups that only have a few more months left to learn to function on their own.

Here we are with the teams from last summer.
This year we'll have twice as many - I hope our couch can handle it!

Easton's in the East(er)

Apparently I'm getting a little post happy, I'll keep this one short. We spent Easter with our Suzhou family, and it was awesome for two reasons. Reason one: Because He is Risen. Reason Two: Potluck. About four times a year we get together with co-workers and have a good old fashion potluck. It doesn't get much better than feasting on home made American dishes. Can I just say that I think potlucks are a lost art? Seriously, you only have to make one thing, but you get to eat like twenty things. It's brilliant. Following dinner was an all ages Easter egg hunt.

Unfortunately Team Easton only found two eggs, one of which was stolen from someone else, then re-hidden to be re-found by it's rightful owner. Leaving us with a grand total of one. Maybe next year Nora will be able to find her own eggs.

This picture makes Nora looks like a puppet

Easton's vs. Suzhou

I always think it's sorta weird to live in a place that your family has never seen, so we were really excited to have Jane and Marie come stay with us. Suzhou is a bit of a tourist destination so there are lots of sights to see and things do, but mostly we were excited to show them some of our daily routine. Some of our favorite things were taking them to the supermarket, introducing them to some of the students, eating and hanging out at home playing with Nora.

Fruit at the supermarket.
Don't be fooled, these particular fruits look a lot better than they taste.

Suzhou is famous for it's gardens.
Nora decided to stop and smell the roses at Tiger Hill, except they were tulips.

Suzhou is known as "the Venice of the East"
These boat rides are one of my favorite things to do here.

At the silk factory we learned everything I ever wanted to know about making silk. (which isn't really that impressive because I have never pondered it.) The white silkworm cocoons are placed in water and then this machine unravels them and winds them into strands of silk which is then woven into cloth. Yep, now you know.

When in China...
Em and Jane going to the mall to get some Subway and Burger King.
This was fun, but I'll appreciate the drive through in America.

Grandma Jane and Aunt Marie

Grandma Jane and Auntie Marie came for a visit!!!

First Chinese food in Beijing.
Chopsticks - 1
Jetlag Jane - 0

Aunt Marie at the Forbidden City

Chillin' on the Great Wall with a Panda

Hanging out with Aunt Marie on a wonder of the world. No Big Deal.

Mini Van Excitement

To most of you this may look like just your average mini van, and you would be right, but to us this picture represented a day of independence and freedom! We have traveled to many a Chinese city, but a couple weeks ago we took our first road trip in a year and a half and it was awesome! The seven of us piled in a friends borrowed mini van and away we went. The drive was only about an hour and a half but in true road trip fashion we brought along plenty of snacks and music, and stopped at a rest stop along the way. Usually traveling includes lots of taxis, trains, pushing through crowds, bad smells etc. but this was amazing! I felt like a teenager riding in a car without adults for the first time.

What was our destination? Changzhou Dinosaur Park. Complete with rides, museums with mostly real dinosaur bones, and gardens. I would say this picture does it justice.

After the park we ate some Korean BBQ with friends. Nora is only two months older than their kiddo, but I had already forgotten how little and floppy she used to be.

Run Away! I mean retreat.

This weekend groups from two campuses met together for a retreat. Not everyone could make it, but we ended up with about twenty students that made the trip across town to study the Good Book and play.

Fun Fact: When students want to hang out the word they use translates to "play" so I often get messages asking if I want to play. Like.

I would say that close to half of the students that came weren't believers and most that were, are less than 6 months old. When your audience knows so little about the Good Book it's difficult to decide what is the most important things to teach so we themed it around the greatest commandment. Love the Father and love people. One of our co-workers was kind enough to do the teaching in Chinese which was really great. Although we have been studying for a year and a half we still aren't proficient enough to do lead groups like this, so we are thankful when the students are able to hear the Father's word in their own language.

The retreat was a slumber party at the apartment of our volunteers.
Here we are doing some morning calisthenics. I don't know why we did this.

Nora has been out going to groups almost every night this week plus this crazy retreat. She is a champion of babies. Here we are eating lunch on the bus.

After the sessions we headed out to play at the park by the lake.

It was a beautiful Saturday and there were tons of people out playing and flying kites. It's fairly common for Nora to draw crowds of strangers. Sometimes we stop and talk to someone on the street and five minutes later there are fifteen people standing around. Last week someone tried to feed her a strawberry. Seriously, people she's not a pet monkey.

Gotta watch out for pick pocketers. It's always the ones you least expect.

This one's just cause she's a cutie face.

Teaching football to a group of college students that have no basic understanding of the game. Harder than you would think.

Typical Chinese grandma.
China is such an interesting mix of the past and the modern.

Oh look, here's another cutie face.