Lots of entries...

So where have we been?!!!  Man it's been busy, and alot has happened in the last few weeks.  Lots of good things, lots of new experiences, lots of emotions, lots of things to write about and not much time to do it!  =)  Still getting the house organized, still learning our way around, and of course, still taking the first few steps of the thousand-mile journey toward friendships,understanding culture, and doing the work that we came here to do.

If you've ever moved, then you know the feeling of being in a place where you don't yet have a place, being somewhere but not yet belonging, living in a house that's not yet home, seeing people who are friendly but aren't yet friends. I keep reminding myself that this is the hardest it will get here--that after a while, we will walk out into a neighborhood that's familiar, talk to people we know, go to places where we fit in, and come back to an apartment that has become our home. After a while, we'll know and love this place, these people, as much as the ones we left behind, and hopefully they'll know and love us too.

So speaking of the ones we left behind, I wanted you to see some pictures from the last few days before we moved--special times and special people whom we will never forget.

Susanna's last day of preschool...

Dinner with friends... She wanted me to teacher her how to make hamburgers and cookies before we left!

Making dumplings...

Caleb's last few days of preschool...

Saying goodbye to his class and teachers...
It always means so much to you when other people really love and care for your child.  What a wonderful blessing they have been in his life!

Having dinner with the kids' babysitter and her family--people who really meant alot to us over the course of the last year and a half or so.

Saying goodbye to our house helper, who worked for us since our first few weeks here.  We'd gotten pretty close in the last several months. Hard to leave her behind!  We asked if she would move with us, but she said her chances of finding a hubby are better in the big city, so she stayed.  We already miss her!

 
 Saying goodbye to various other friends, like David's blind family friend (right)...










Our neighbors who loved us even before we could talk! (left)...















Another family friend, Grant, with whom we've eaten together countless times here at our favorite convenient local place...

The bound-feet lady who gathers recyclable trash in the building we lived in recently...















 More of the kids' friends...

And of course saying goodbye to familiar places...  our apartment complex...

and the place we stayed in for the last month until we moved.

Lots and lots of precious people and special times--so many blog entries all in one, entries that He made on the pages of our lives long ago.  Makes me excited to think of the entries that are written for our lives here in our new city, and the lives of those around us!