June 24- So what do you do when the team is delayed ta the airport for many hours, there are no restaurants in the terminal and everyone is hungry- you call and order delivery McDonald's! This will guarantee that you will be boarded incredibly fast and that the remaining staff will find themselves in a laughable version of
June 23, 2011- The sky this evening over the building made it hard to decide where the building ended and the heavens began! What a wonderful and yet so uncommon sight for us- I really do miss BLUE sky!
You would never know that the little one Rhea is holding just underwent some lets just say not very fun stuff- The next thing you know Rhea had scooped him up and had him giggling in her arms- I love that our little ones feel safe, loved and able to laugh even when we often have to do the "hard" stuff to get them better.
Our Family of Friends at Show Hope bought new scrubs as a gift for all of the nurses and we were so excited to try them out! What a fun treat to have matching scrubs... Thank you Show Hope- for once again providing not just for the needs but for the special touches!
June 17,
Evidence of some long hours in the airport terminal waiting for delayed flights to finally take me home...ask me sometime about the hotel, one bed, the airline booking double rooms so that all passengers have room mates, and wake up calls in the middle of the night to say the plane might be coming soon...
Thursday was Kate's first day of Summer Break so to celebrate we went to have our toes painted- she got "Teal the cows come home" while I stuck with the slightly more subtle "Bay Bridge at Sunset"
I had some special times with friends while in BJ this week...I got great pictures with Karen and Gigi who were on their way to the "Hail and Farewell" and I had the privilege of staying home for pizza and movie, along with Lego play with Kate and Caleb!
So after some good weeks/months of study I made my way to the "Happy Traffic Office" and emerged a couple hours later, stresses relieved, and having passed the China Driver's Test. A test with some 1000 questions of which the computer selects 100 and requests that you answer them in 45 Minutes...I know first question from you all, "Is it in Chinese?" No, it is in English however there are some very unique translations along with very interesting questions- I am in the medical field and never in my life have I heard of "Cushioned Limb Folding." But I know when to use it in case of need during my next road trip because I answered that one correctly on my driver's test.
If one baby face is cute, well how much cuter it is when doubled- at least this set of twins made it appear so! I absolutely adored Kyleigh and Kaylynn all 3.2kg of them both!
As the bus made the journey along the roads through the farm land on its way to and from Zhengzhou I loved watching the fields of wheat as they passed, it was time for harvesting the early wheat and the laborers were out in the fields...
Some with tractors but most with hand tools cutting and binding the wheat, as we neared one of the villages this church suddenly popped up in the midst of the fields...then on all the streets surrounding the unit the villagers were out cutting away the stalks, beating the wheat and casting away the chaff. It reminded me of the summer weeks I spent in the farm villages in the Ukraine (Yes, that is where the first photo was taken). But even more than that- whenever I see fields of wheat ready for harvest I of course think of Luke 10:2-3...
It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never ex
plain
What I hear when you don’t say a thing
The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Old mr. webster could never define
What’s being said between your heart and mine
The smile on your face lets me know that you
need me
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
One of the ayi's family owned the peach orchard behind the unit so one afternoon she took me to pick some of the fruit that was starting to ripen. So much fun-
We went to lunch at a nearby restaurant one afternoon and I just had to get a photo of the great indoors and the servers on skates!
This week I had the opportunity to care for the little ones in our Zhengzhou Unit. It was lots of fun to be further out in the farm lands- I loved the area around the unit and of course getting to know lots more babies is always the best part of the job!
June 12, 2011
Dear Ones,
So today I was suddenly struck by the thought of work, you know that thing that we all do, most of us every day. Work is one of those things that motivate us to get out of bed in the morning, and keeps us moving forward until we once again fall into bed at night. I was thinking about this as I carried one kettle full of water after the other across the roof from the water faucet to my flower pots giving my little plants a drink. On one of these trips I suddenly thought of Rebecca- a young woman, who knew how to work but more than that she also had a heart to serve. I was considering how many trips I had to make across the roof from the water faucet and the thought of her willing question to Abraham’s servant, to draw water for a bunch of thirsty camels that had just finished a long journey suddenly seemed to me an incredible offer. This was a young woman who knew the price of what she was offering to do and yet she asked without hesitation- “Do you want me to draw water for your camels?” Sometimes work, chores, the mundane tasks of life, can seem to stretch before us endlessly to the horizon. This thought continued to play through my mind as I walked about this big house today, the women in the kitchen cooking massive amounts of food to make sure our family is well fed. The laundry room with its very ending stream of onesies, burp cloths, spit up on blankets and every other form of baby clothing you might imagine needing for 
140 children. My mom used to refer to the laundry as “Mount Never Rest,” and I do believe she was right. I guess it might be like watering camels after a desert journey, “Will it ever stop” and yet all this will pass away, the reward at the end will be so worth the WORK here and now. No, everyone may not see the watered camels, the food being prepared, the laundry being done, the floors that are mopped, or the dishes that are washed, but in working we have the opportunity to shine as we seek to serve not only those around us but to serve with our whole hearts the King of Kings. He alone knows exactly how many buckets of water it will take, and how many onesies will be washed, He has numbered them each one and is waiting for me to simply say, “Yes, I will work for You.”
With love,
Mariah
