Home

  I love this Tibetan saying:


"Wherever you have friends, that's your country, and wherever you receive love, that's your home."

We feel that we have several homes as we have lived and loved in several places.  Our family has friends and exchanged love in China.  We had the opportunity to go back home over the past several weeks.

Let me share with you some observations in going back after being gone for four years.  Some photos are edited and some are not as you will see.

1.  Some things change, some things stay the same.

Same: Our kids still LOVE to ride in the front of the train at the airport and pretend they are driving.  

Change:  Guomao, the area we used to live in Beijing, now has about an additional 7 skyscrapers built or in process in just the four years since we have been gone. 

Same:  Ritan Park, "The Temple of the Sun", looks, smells, and sounds just as it did before.  Tai Chi, Dancers, Badmitton, Musicians, Children's Park, volunteer lawn mowers, and huge lily pads all still belong and find a home in this traditional and timeless park.

Change:  Our apartment building, China World Apartments, is currently being totally renovated and the whole premises are blocked off, therefore, we could not go inside. 

2.  There is so much love to give and receive in Asia.

This is a close group of friends we met with regularly while living in Beijing.  We reunited for a dinner of zhouzi and a lot of catching up.  

I met Ada on an airplane ride to Hong Kong when we first lived in Beijing.  She has been a good friend now for many years!

Ada's family invited us into their home to celebrate Chinese New Year and they loved us through food and traditions.

I love this picture of Grace and Ada's Mother

The Wrights are a dear family from Australia.  Jack and their son became fast friends and continue to find that they are very similar in many ways.



Grace and Sara are two peas in a pod!  They met in nursery class together at BCIS (our international school in Beijing), and they stuck together like glue.  

Sara's family lives in Guangzhou, China.  We make every effort to visit them there or in California when they are stateside.  They have visited us in Houston as well.  We are so blessed to have these AMAZING friends!

Daphne and Franco are so generous and have a gift for hospitality.

Will has made quite an impression on Franco.

Miss Holly took care of us in Beijing.  She was our Ayi (Auntie) and who's selfless nature demonstrated love to us day in and day out.  She now has her own baking business and is a teacher's assistant at and international school.   

Our Christian fellowship is like a little piece of Heaven.  People from different countries, cultures, denominations, and languages coming together to worship!  

We met Jenni and the Johnsons our very first Sunday in Beijing.  The Divine gave me the most precious gift, probably one of the most evident demonstrations of His love in my life.

Jack and Noah

 3.  History, Traditions, and Food in Asia are 
     incredibly rich.

Getting ready for sushi in Tokyo at 11:00 at night!

Birds in a cage in Vietnam

Chu'ar or "Meat on a Stick"

Pho Tofu at a roadside pop-up joint.

If they WERE free range, these chickens definitely aren't now.  

And now for the roosters

Housing in Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi

Bun Cha in Hanoi where Anthony Bourdain entertained President Obama

Water Puppet Show in Hanoi

Traditional Instruments and singing

Harvesting Oysters in HaLong Bay, Vietnam

One of the few traditional fishing villages left in HaLong Bay.  They are supported now by the government.

Jellied dessert in Guangzhou

Dim Sum for breakfast.  AMAZING!!

Will loved the pumpkin soup

Cooking Sesame Paste and Oil

Dancers

One of the highlights for me in terms of traditions:  Shadow Puppet show in Guangzhou

Rickshaw anyone?

Village Kitchen

Model of a Tulou, a historical form of village housing

Traditional Hot Pot in Beijing

Modern Hot Pot also in Beijing

Beihei Park Pagoda

Hot towel to relax before dinner at the restaurant

Xiao Wangs, Our favorite local restaurant right by our old apartment

Tai Chi with swords in Ritan Park, Beijing

Crickets?  Scorpions?  

Shigwa Juice:  Watermelon at it's finest

Vietnam Military Museum

4.  Creation bears witness to a Divine Creator and also sparks mystery and questions.

HaLong Bay

My thoughts, feelings, and love for Asia are extensive, deep, complicated, and evolving.  There is so much to value and appreciate about our neighbors across the world.  It is my sincere hope, that these pictures and experiences will broaden your awareness and understanding of our brothers and sisters in distant lands and that maybe you will want to visit or live there too!

I leave this space with one more quote from a Sufi mystic, Al-Ghazali:

"Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made, and for some great end."