February 2009

Although I don’t choose to celebrate or acknowledge Valentines Day myself, I would like to send a little love out to all of my readers on behalf of the billions of Chinese folk who ADORE this holiday and celebrate in the colorful, glittery, passionate, over-the-top way that only Chinese know how to celebrate (anything). And while I think it’s silly to pay 5 times too much for flowers just because a marketing company once dreamed up a way to stimulate the economy by tugging on our heart strings, here is a blue rose from all my peeps in Qingdao. (Sans glitter, and frills, and ribbons, and pearls, and teddy bears that accompany ACTUAL blue roses in Qingdao).

Love ya, mean it!

A friend of mine sent me this, and I think it is really funny…(much truth is said in jest)…

Heavenly Father,        

Look down on us your humble obedient expat wives, who are doomed to travel this earth following our loved ones through their working lives to lands unknown.

We beseech you, oh Lord, to see that our plane is not hijacked or doesn’t crash, our luggage is not lost or pillaged, and our overweight baggage goes unnoticed.

Give us this day, divine guidance in our selection of houses, maids and drivers. We pray that the telephone works, the roof does not leak, the power cuts are few and the rats and cockroaches even fewer.

Lord, please lead us to good, inexpensive restaurants where wine is included in the meal and the food does not cause dysentery. 

Have mercy upon us Lord, if it be the latter, and make us fleet of foot to make it to the loo in time, and strong of knee in case we have to squat. Also give us the wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand.

Make the natives love us Lord, for who we are and not what we can contribute to their worldly goods.

Grant us the strength to smile at our maids, even though our most treasured dress resembles a rag, or they take bleach to clean our well admired silk rug. Give us divine patience when we explain for the hundredth time the way we want things done. And Lord, if we ever lose our patience and thump them, have mercy on us for our flesh is weak.

Dear God, protect us from so-called “bargains” we don’t need and can’t afford. Lead us not into temptation for we know not what we do.

Almighty Father, keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and comparing them to us and save them from making fools of themselves in nightclubs. Above all, please do NOT forgive their trespasses for they know exactly what they do.

And when our expat years are over Lord, grant us the favor of finding someone who will look at our photographs and listen to our stories, so our lives as expat wives will not have been in vain.

Amen.

**For the record, I LOVE being an expat wife and traveling the world. Still haven’t gotten used to asian-style “squatty” toilets, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world! **

Warning: If you don’t want to see the gnarly pic of Bo’s staples, be careful how fast you scroll down. I am putting it at the very end of this long post so that you can refrain from looking if you choose. I had to add it on for my dad, though. He loves that kind of stuff…

Well, we are finally back home. FINALLY!! Oh, how I missed Qingdao… beautiful, clean, small Qingdao (okay, there are 4 million people here, but when you compare it to 11 million in Beijing, you start to feel small). It was a long, tiring couple of weeks, but everything went really well with the surgery and now we can try to resume life as usual. Or as close to usual as possible when one of you lacks the use of an extremity.

I can sum up our time in Beijing by saying it was stressful, confusing, frustrating, and exhausting. But that is not all. It was also fun, comfortable, joyous, and a total blessing. And since I have so much to tell you about, I think I’ll start with the fun, joyous, blessing part…

In Beijing, we stayed with the AMAZING Harvey family. They were friends of friends of friends, and welcomed us (perfect strangers) into their home when they heard about our situation. They have a guest room and bathroom in their home that is always ready in case someone needs it. It was so wonderful to have a comfortable, private space to rest as we navigated through so much unfamiliar territory. And I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to have the support and pryers of a like-minded couple during it all. They were what made this roller coaster tolerable. Bo and I agree that in our whole lives, we are not sure if we have ever truly experienced selfless hospitality like we did through the Harveys in Beijing. We showed up at their home and they made us feel like family. Words can’t explain, but He provided what we needed through this family and we are thankful.

Next, I have to mention the Tapleys, our fabulous Australian friends who also happen to be our neighbors. They were the ones who hooked us up with the family in Beijing, advised us about the good hospitals, and were just constantly on-call for anything we needed back in QD while we were away. Tash even had my whole house cleaned for me when I got home last night. Bless her. This family has helped us in so many ways over the past few months, but they were life-savers once again this time and we are so thankful.

Lastly, Bo had his surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) in Beijing. He had excellent care, skilled surgeons and medical staff, a flat panel TV, and a comfy bed. Again, thankful.

Confession: over the last 2 weeks, Bo and I looked at each other a few times and said, “this is the worst thing we have ever been through,” but when I look back at all the blessings and how His hand was totally in control, I can’t help but feel good about everything. It actually makes the stressful, confusing, frustrating, and  exhausting part of the story seem rather unimportant. Maybe I’ll save that part of the story for another post.

For now. pictures…

A broken bone and still Settlin.’ The Harveys are big Catan fans, which was SO great because you might remember that Catan night was high on our to-do list during “the holiday that wasn’t.”

Waiting for surgery, playin’ UNO. Don’t you love the hospital jammies they gave him?

I was bored while I waited for Bo to come back, so I just went outside to snap pics around the hospital.

There aren’t as many as there used to be, but I’m pretty sure Beijing still has the largest bicycle population in the world.

This store was next to the hospital. If you are familiar with my obsession with changing my hair, then you may find the humor in the product sold at my “namesake”…wigs!!

Mom, thought you might want to see the Chinese characters for “library.”

After surgery. They had CNN…we haven’t watched American news in months… woah, depressing.

And here is Bo getting out of jail after 4 days in the hospital. The nurses were SO CUTE!! They all wore little nurse dresses and matching pink cardigans. And the hats completely made the outfit. Loved it!

And finally… the gore.. Bo’s incision… I made the photo really small to try to cut down on the gross factor…

Yuck! For a woman, a scar like this would be devastating. But funny enough, I think Bo is a little proud. The staples come out in 2 weeks. More details later…