Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Vacation

This was our walk to breakfast & dinner each day...beautiful indoor pool to the right, buffet on the left and outdoor pool and mountain straight ahead!

We just returned from an awesome, wonderful, relaxing, peaceful, fun, and much needed get-away!  Did I say how great it was???  It's been over 6 months since we've been able to go on a trip due to my health so needless to say, I could NOT wait to get out of dodge! We were picked up on Tuesday morning and driven about 2 1/2 hours south to a brand new resort tucked away next to some beautiful mountains.
a local making a thatched boat
the finished project!
Us in the finished project and proof that it floats!
On our boat ride we see the man working in the middle of this river, but he's on his cell phone!  Maybe you just had to be there, but this just cracked me up!
entering a cave...
in the cave...way cool!
 

our view each morning...beautiful setting!  Mountains, swimming pool and yummy buffet.
I love all the old gates and doors that are everywhere in this country!  Love these 3 peeps, too.
Small (?) road block


We all went on an incredible trekk through a couple of the neighboring villages.

Our next house?  Seriously, so humbling...these ARE many people's homes.

A lovely local having a stare down with Audrey An!
Rest stop!





enjoying the scenery, enjoying each other

family portrait...that rock was a pretty good tripod.

trekking into village #2
tranquility...
I just absolutely love the old architectural details we see here!
simple...

The following video is of me accompanying a monk.  Pardon my poor sightreading skills, but if you watch to the end he has quite a beautiful voice.  What a very neat experience!

{Well, this video refuses to load properly for some reason.  I am sure it's operator error!}

 I ADORE this lady's smile! Now, I freaked out her granddaughter with my big, black, honkin' camera though!


another happy boy...all these villagers were SO friendly!
beautiful children (this was before I made the little one cry!)
Audrey An was swarmed by these ladies.  They kept touching her hair (unusual...because it's always Abigail's hair that gets touched) and kept trying to convince me of AA's country of origin was not China.  
This gentleman had quite the personality!  He was trying to get the girls to put their arms around each other like they were long, lost friends.  We all had such fun interacting with these lovely people!


I can't tell you how happy I was this morning!  I felt my heart was about to bust out of my chest.  David couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  I can't describe the feeling of interacting with people (who you can only communicate through body language and smiles), exploring God's beautiful world (so simple and less complicated), and being welcomed by strangers into their village.  Ahhhhh, wonderful day! 

They are ALL precious in His sight!  What a privilege to get to be outside my box (which I don't like being in a box...have you figured that out yet!?!? LOL!)



I can't get my videos to load tonight for some reason...check back later and you'll see some pretty cool footage (I think!).




Look who just turned SEVEN!

Sassy birthday girl!
birthday breakfast

AA had about 4 wardrobe changes before breakfast.  She couldn't decide what to wear for her special day so she wore her two new dresses TOGETHER!  What's a girls to do!?!?  Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  Your smiles and laughter brighten our world!!!




Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Celebrations


The girls and I had a wonderful Christmas Eve together while David was flying back from the states.   I anxiously awaited his return late that night while the girls anticipated waking up Christmas morning to
Santa Daddy! 
Abigail was asked to read a portion of the Christmas story during the candlelight service.  She did a great job and is becoming such a confident young lady!
my two sweets
We had such fun putting a few surprises together for David for Christmas Day.  We made his mom's cheese strata (Ab's is grating the cheese and AA is "decrusting" the bread) and his grandmother's famous chocolate pie.  Two recipes that the our family loves and brings back sweet memories for David.
 Santa daddy and Mrs. Clause unpacked his sleigh (literally!) at about midnight Christmas Eve.  Bless his heart, he'd been on his sleigh for 24 hours...at least he had some cookies and milk to tide
him over a few hours.
 What did Santa bring???  FOOD!  These are just a few things we can't get here 
OR it's super expensive to get here.
Uh, oh...now ALL four us will have a camera addiction!!
 Christmas morning!
 Daddy's girl!
Abigail had her eye on this "owl pillow" for months.  She was slightly excited to get it! 
(and so was AA excited for her!)
Yippee...the camera I wanted!!!!
The girls gave each other ear "bugs" (as Audrey An calls them!).  Yes, you wouldn't think you'd neat much winter gear here, BUT it does get chilly on the motorbike!
Mini me : )
Look who else got something with an owl on it!
I made the famous chocolate pie as a surprise for my Santa Daddy...with a little help form Abigail. I must say...it turned out pretty good!
Might need to click to enlarge this picture, but it's one of my favorites of the day.  AA gave her daddy Tabasco (it's kinda the joke here, but he and all his co-workers carry bottles of this in their flight cases each day!).  Her note says, "I love you daddy.  Lev, AA"
Aren't they cute!!
Then...I surprised Audrey An with a skype date with her foster family!
I LOVE technology when it's cool stuff like this!!!  What a blessing to have contact with them....truly.  AA had really been missing them lately so I emailed her foster sister and asked if we could "talk" on either Christmas or the next day (AA's birthday).  We use a program that translates "real time"...totally cool!  We find out a little bit more about her life before "us" each time we talk.  It was a great Christmas present!
We "had Christmas" via skype with my family...almost felt like we were there!  I stress ALMOST.



We ended our wonderful day with reading the Christmas story and each of us sharing what our gift to
J esus was this year.  I have to say, Audrey An has a sensitive heart and was probably the most thoughtful of us all.  I just wonder what really goes on her little mind of hers!?!?  

We did celebrate Audrey An's birthday today...#SEVEN...wow.  I'm too tired to post those right now, and we're leaving town for a much needed and anticipated family get away.

Quick medical update:  I went to see "Dr. Wise" this morning.  He tweeked my oh-so-yummy (ahem!) tasting special "brew" and increased my steroid.  I've now been on the traditional chinese medicine for three weeks now.  I did really good the first two weeks, but I noticed a distinct difference this past week (meaning...felt weaker and rash has gotten worse again).  I'm contributing it to the decrease in steroid.  Not that I'm the doctor, but I do know my body.  I've been dropping it a little faster than before, and once I hit my dosage 1 1/2 weeks ago I started feeling this way.  SO...he's bumped it back up again.  It's not a significant increase, but hopefully enough to get the rash and weakness under control again.

SOOOOO excited about our little trip. I MUST get sleep now!  Nite nite!!