August 11, 200

We have safely returned from our trip to Qing Dao and we are still in love with the ocean! It was beautiful and minus the fact that both of the little ones have colds now, all went well, okay, and minus the fact that my new cell phone from my birthday is now is someone else’s possession! =( Oh well…I still have my husband and my two little ones =)!

While we were in Qing Dao, we went swimming everyday, went to a Naval/Aviation museum, went on a speed boat ride, went sailing…with William as our captian =), and soaked in all the beautiful scenery! While our little princess loves to float in the ocean water, our little man, on the contrary, does not appreciate the pull of the waves, so he did not enjoy the water as much as the rest of us did. But perhaps in the years to come. And about their colds, they are on the mend, I hope, just draining tons and tons from their little noses =).

Because of the vacation season, we were not able to get train tickets to Qing Dao, so instead, we settled for a ten hour bus ride in a “sleeping bus,” as Josiah calls it. The buses don’t have seats in them, but rather, narrow beds for long journeys. Even with two little ones, all went well and I must say that both Josiah and Amelia are amazingly versatile and adapt easily to things. We were able to get train tickets home, after William pleaded with them when they told him there were no more tickets. Here in China, you can only purchase train tickets from the place you are departing from, so when we arrived at 6 AM Saturday after the bus ride, we headed to the train station and we were in line by 8 AM, just after the train ticket office had opened. But by the time it was our turn in line, at about 8:20 or so, all the tickets to Beijing were gone! Amazing, huh? Well, with a corrupt government, things that are run by the government, such as the train, are also corrupt, so somehow, somewhere, someone cuts deals with who knows who to get big chunks of the tickets, so foreigners like William have to plead and ask what is he supposed to do with two children and needing to get back to Beijing for work. The plead worked and they were able to miraculously come up with two tickets! Oh for some honesty! Speaking of honesty, I’ll let William tell you about his police incident in Qing Dao. No, he didn’t get in trouble, but he was able to turn someone in for fake money, so he got to ride in a police car and go to the police station, which his little boy thinks is the coolest thing!

Well, the time has come for us to run to get some groceries and get ourselves ready for when Daddy will be back home. Please pray for strength and energy for William. We had a busy vacation, returned home Wednesday evening around 11:30 PM, William headed off at 7AM Thursday to teach a three day English course for Beijing Health Inspection something or another, we all returned home late on Thursday evening after visiting a family from our group that had their baby boy while we were in Qing Dao, he woke up this morning and headed out again at 7 to teach all day and is now visiting another member from our group that was hit by a car while riding his bike on Wednesday and then he will get home late again and get back up and teach from 8 until 11:30 Saturday morning, come home prepare for Sunday and then we have dinner plans with another family on Saturday evening, ch on Sunday and he teaches again on Monday. He is tired and ready just to rest. But what an amazing trooper and he doesn’t complain at all…he is wonderful!