Royal Wedding- April 29, 2011

April 29, 2011- Yes!!!! I did find it streaming online and if you want to laugh go right ahead but I had a wonderful time watching the royal wedding live and I was thrilled that for me in China it was at 6:00pm Friday evening- no 4:00am wake up call to enjoy the festivities! Fun fact, I remember when Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married and my Mom and Aunt Paula stayed up all night watching the wedding... I was sent to bed before it was over along with my cousins.

Team Time...

Linda bought us tickets to the Peony Garden down the road and so we went to walk around and see the beautiful flowers. Before leaving the girls tried their hand at target practice!

New Scrubs-

Thank you Vanessa, I Love them!

Special Friends...

I was so excited to finally meet April and Randy in person when they arrived with this team- thank you Terri for sharing your family with me- next time you HAVE to come!

Sponsor Team Fun

It is always so much fun to get to know the people on these trips, each one comes with a heart for the cause and each one walks away from this experience taking something new home with them...














It was really fun to have both Stephanie and Meghan back on this team as they were both here the first time with a youth team only a few days after I moved into MBHOH and they have been great encourages over the last couple of years since we met.

Just too cute...

I just had to share some more, they were so cute...and don't you just love that our cake looks like one big "peep" chick.

Easter Celebration

The Show Hope Sponsor team arrived and brought lots of fun stuff to have an Easter Celebration and since there is a time difference between here and the States it was still technically Easter for everyone on the team!





The children were delighted as they "searched" for eggs,










There was face painting and of course everyone was delighted to try the egg coloring as soon as we explained it to them- they had never heard of such a thing...

Happy Easter!

April 24, 2010- Easter Sunrise on the Roof of Maria's Big House.


















He is Risen!...He is Risen Indeed!!!

Rewards...

A job well done...





























Calls for a celebration- so we all enjoyed hamburgers on the roof under our new patio cover!

More Mudan Hua...April 21, 2011

A day at the park is always fun, especially if you as the foreigners happen to be one of the main attractions...we had lots and lots of pictures taken, many posing with multiple groups of people we did not know



We also enjoyed the beautiful grounds of the park and the flowers were so very pretty.

Playing "Auntie"

Dr. Steve Martin and his daughter Eleanor came for a visit on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Steve is one of New Hope's doctors and he and his wife Laura live at our unit home in Beijing with their six children. We were delighted to have the two of them join us for a couple days and I of course love that the kids call me "Auntie Mariah."





Eleanor and I made palm tree shaped cookies (Thank you Vanessa for the cookie cutter!) and as we cut them out and decorated them we talked about Palm Sunday and Jesus coming into Jerusalem. What a joy- to share time with this sweet girl...

Missing Daddy...

I stood up from my desk and walked to the window of my office to survey the progress of the construction project on the playground below and to once again check the level of fluid in the ice tea glasses that teetered in their various places on the stacks of lumber. Mike’s dad had come over for the week to help build a deck cover on the roof and one over the play ground sand box to provide some much needed shade in the coming summer months. I suddenly realized that a tear was sliding unbidden down my cheek, I was thinking of all the times I have worked alongside my Daddy on so many projects and standing there at that moment I missed him terribly! I have been incredibly blessed to be raised in a family where we had the opportunity to develop many skills as we worked together. My Grandpa Bywater trained his sons well and over the years of doing so many of those projects I am convinced that my Daddy can do anything, and while he was doing “anything” he loved to have us right by his side, teaching us, talking with us, having an extra set of hands to “hold this” or “hand me that.”

Just as a skilled surgeon has a good team, we children soon learned all the names for the tools whether it was construction or mechanics so that Daddy could ask for what he needed and it was right there. Some of my earliest memories revolve around laying under the car with him looking up into an engine or sanding a piece of wood he had given me to “help him.” As we learned he eventually had to ask less and less, we simply knew what he would need next- he was taking his job of “training us up” very seriously. That training wasn’t just in the nuts and bolts of working hard but in the eternal lessons of teaching us to trust and depend on our Heavenly Father. By his character and his daily life, Daddy demonstrated the love that God has for each of us and through that example he gave me a living picture of my Abba God. In that moment by the window I missed having him close by, I missed the fact that I was not outside helping him, handing him tools, holding boards, hammering nails, or helping to measure and cut. Then in a flash I was crying because I live in a house filled with children who do not know their daddy, they do not have men around to live out the love of God right before their little eyes. These little ones are surrounded by women who have “mommy hearts” to love, care for, and protect them, to tenderly kiss away the hurts and wipe away the tears but they do not have “daddy hands” to scoop them up when they fall, to catch them in the air, to toss them high, and teach them how to hold a wrench or a fishing pole. My heart ached for them, that they are too young at this moment to know what they are missing…they are missing Daddy.

Then my Abba God quietly reminded me, “I AM the Father to the Fatherless.” They are not missing Him, He is their protector their provider and their Daddy God. I simply need to trust Him to provide for them in His way and His time and pray that they will learn to trust Him too. I brushed the tears away grabbed the pitcher of tea and the bag of ice and headed out to refill some big glasses, the men needed fluids and in just a little bit they would be ready for lunch…I had work to do. Daddy always said that men work harder if they are well fed and you keep the Mason jar on the lumber stack filled with something good to drink. Lessons learned well. I love you Daddy!

Beautiful Flowers and Friends

April 18th a couple of my ayis asked me to visit one of the Mudan Hua gardens with them. This one is right down the road from Maria's and I loved meeting their children.