It’s just a game of charades…
Sorry its been a couple days since we posted last. We had a free day this Friday and we headed downtown to stay the night. It was fabulous!!! We feel rejuvinated and ready to tackle this next week. We were able to stay at the “Crowne Plaza” hotel. I love China because most things are so cheap. Tyler was in awe the whole time because the hotel was beautiful, it had a bowling alley in the basement and an amazing pool. I told him to not get used to it because he’d probably never stay in a hotel like this again…unless he’s in China! Our friends, the Smith’s, came down on Friday night to have dinner with us and we bowled and went swimming. Someone from Beike told us that there is this place downtown that had the best tacos. We decided to give it a try. The taxi took us into the heart of the ghetto (or so it seemed). It reminded me of NY or Philedelphia ghettos (yeah goodmans, remember that!) There weren’t any street lights, the roads were tiny and I felt very nervous to be there with my little family at dark. He dumped us out on the street corner and pointed to this little dumpy restaurant and said “there”. What??!! It was crazy. We walked in and went all the way to the back of the restaurant where they had wallpaper up with masking tape on all the seams. Hilarious. They sat us and brought out cups and a pitcher of “water”. We looked at the pitcher and said “no, no, no”. We knew it wasn’t the best idea to drink that. Luckily we saw a picture of a sprite can in the menu so we were able to point to it and order that to drink. Ordering was hilarious. The better you are at charades, the more they’ll understand you. We had a nightmare of a time ordering but our friends just did it like they were veterans. Now we know. The food… well the “delicous tacos” were… different. they looked like delicous American tacos, and to be honest the tortillas were very good. But the tacos were FIRE hot!! I’m not even exagerating. We were eating pure hot/fire peppers. It was unreal. We all took a bite and were dying… even Jason couldn’t finish the taco so I knew I wasn’t being dramatic. We can now say that the hottest tacos we’ve ever had was in China… strange.
Today is Tyler’s birthday. Well, kind of. It’s actually tomorrow, Sunday the 7th. We told him earlier this week that his birthday was on Sunday and he got very upset that it was on Sunday and said, “No, I want my birthday to be Saturday. Sundays are boring.” What do you say to that? I didn’t think it really mattered anyway so for everyone else here, today is the 7th ofJune and its Tyler’s birthday! We’re having cake this evening and we just opened some presents and decorated the “house” with birthday stuff and are trying to make this a fun day for him.
We are continuing to see progress with Bradley. It’s just little things but to us it is little things that can better his life and we are so happy that we are here. He is doing great and everyday we are excited about what else will come. Our 4th IV is on Monday.
I had a really neat experience with tyler and Bradley the other day. We got to the hotel on THursday evening and Jason headed over with the interpreter, Jack, to try and change our flights so we could leave for home a little earlier. As tyler and I were unloading our bags in the hotel room I could tell that something was up. He was very melow and quiet. he sat down on the chair in the room and i just continued to unload stuff. After just a couple minutes he said “Mom, can we say a prayer for Bradley?” I was caught off gaurd and said “Absolutely Ty, come on over on the bed and we’ll all 3 say a prayer together”. He asked me if he could say the prayer. So we folded our arms and Tyler said one of the sweetest prayers I’ve ever heard. he prayed for Bradley’s eyes and he prayed that the stem cells would help Bradley’s body be strong. I was so touched and just cried through the entire thing. It was one of the sweetest moments I’ve had with my boys and i was truly touched by the spirit and knew that Tyler had felt the spirit too. It was amazing. He loves his little brother and wants him to be safe and healthy.
This is just one example of the tender moments that we are experiencing here as a family. Thank you for your continued prayers… we are excited to see you all soon. We love you
7 comments June 6th, 2009
