Day 24

Woke up this morning and realized we needed some laundry action, so that meant only one thing...hotel, motel, Holiday Inn! (If you didn't get that, do yourself a favor and google Rapper's Delight. You're welcome.)

You know you've been somewhere a long time when you take a vacation from your "vacation". Since we're going to the Holiday Inn we of course make a day of it and hit up the very Western breakfast buffet, complete with pancakes and scrambled eggs. It's especially welcoming because all the staff knows us by now and they LOVE Price. He smiles = they all giggle. I'm waiting for a free meal out of the deal, but I guess it doesn't work that way over here. Once we're done with breakfast, we still have about 2 days to kill before we have to be back at the hospital, so what do you do In Qingdao when you've got all day to kill??? That's right, you walk to Walmart.

On the way we stop at the world's biggest empty shopping mall, a.k.a. the Powerlong Qingdao Super Mall. You can't fully understand it unless you see it with your own eyes, but pretend they built the Galleria and Memorial City and a couple other big malls all on top of one another and put an amusement park with a full-size roller coaster inside it and that will kind of give you an idea. Then also pretend it's 4 stories tall and 90% of the stores are empty. Very weird, very bizarre. But that's how the Chinese roll, built it huge, build it fast, and don't worry about it. Couple that one instance of excess development with the incalculable (here's to you Michael Scott) number of high rise condos that are halfway to completion and on hold, and you have yourself an nice little economic crisis on the horizon. That's China for you.

Price has been doing great. I mean, he was made for this kind of a trip. Price, I need you to go to this new place and sleep in this new bed and meet all these new people and eat this new food and do the same thing over and over again every day, and please don't complain. No problem. The guy is an adapting machine. He'll do whatever we ask him to, whenever we ask him to, just so long as we provide plenty of food and Blues Clues. And through it all he's had the best attitude anyone could expect from a 3 year-old little boy. He just loves life and brings joy to those around him. You're the man, Bro Bro.

Movie update, Holiday Inn version.

We've now spent a decent amount of time at the Holiday Inn and thoroughly enjoyed the free HBO. Here's some thoughts. Remember, don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in their shoes....

Megamind - Awesome.

Despicable Me - Also awesome.

Van Helsing - I'm sorry to say, it was not my first time to watch it in its entirety.

Honey - Watchable, barely.

Glitter - Tried but couldn't make it to the end. Mariah can sing, so that's good.

In the midst of all this mindless movie-watching, I am reading a really deep book on apologetics by William Lane Craig. The fact that I can watch about 3 movies with same brain power it takes to read 1 chapter of his book should tell me something. I wish movie comprehension had been a section on the SAT. Once I finish it, I'm going to read the book on Seal Team Six my friend from the U.K. left me before he went home yesterday. I told him he had to read Unbroken and Lone Survivor.

Snow Bai, our waitress at the Holiday Inn. She loves P and he likes her too.
Our trip to Walmart. P fell asleep on the way home.
Proud of himself for putting the lid on water bottle
Watching Blue's
Splashing in the itty bitty tub
Powerlong Mall...I think they should put one of these in front of Memorial City
Roller coaster and amusement park
The moats and boats. Smells like a Chinese sewer. Ugh.

Blue skies and clues

**News on the home front is that we had quite an exciting last night. We had a security system installed and something happened in the middle of the night that caused the panic alarm to randomly go off. It is not a siren, and instead just a couple of beeps. Thinking it was just the new system acting up, I turned it off, and went back to sleep. About 10 minutes later, police were banging on my door and flashing their lights into my dining room window. I was half asleep and confused as they came in to check the place out, since I could have been under attack. I would have really appreciated that had that been the case. Next thing I know, the firetruck pulls up and they tell me the ambulance is right behind them. Too bad Street wasn't up. The fire truck would have rocked his world. Nathan's sister, who is spending the nights with us, thought one of the firemen was pretty handsome. Maybe we should get some cookies to the fire station as a thank you and see if he's single?

Now to Nathan's update...


I saw my first blue sky today since we got to China. They're not exactly into the clean air movement over here. To my point, I looked at the weather on my phone the other day and the current conditions were "smoke"... never seen that one before. But it's weird because they are very big into conserving electricity, so much so that they turn off most of the lights in the hospital at night. Makes things a little spooky but you get used to it. Another oddity of the Chinese hospital, family members of patients many times will sleep on the floor in the hallways instead of at a hotel. And here's the kicker...they make them pay to sleep on the floor!! Gotta pay the bills somehow, right?

The Chinese New Year celebration continues. I almost don't even notice all the explosions going off any more. These Chinese people love them some fireworks. Best part of the holiday so far for me and Price was the home made dumplings one of the translator's mom and grandmother sent us. Home cooking is the best even in China.

Price threw the biggest tantrum of his life last night. His little brother would have been proud. It was pretty impressive, the nurse even came to our room to see if he was okay. I told her everything was fine, except I had to say it a few times because she couldn't hear me over the screaming. Like I said, pretty impressive. (I'm not sure exactly what set him off, but it had something to do with his Blue's Clues DVD not working. It's a love/hate relationship with Blues Clues, really). So what do you do when your 3 year old is losing their mind and it's close to bedtime??? You get them in their PJ's as fast as humanly possible and get them in bed. Since he was already blowing the roof off the place and it takes 20 minutes for the water to get warm in the bathroom, I decided to skip bath time, but I did go ahead and wash his hands and brush his teeth. Let me tell you how much he loved that. By this point he was almost spent but he was still doing that involuntary sniff jerk motion in between breaths they do when their running out of steam. I stuffed a pacifier in his mouth and turned off all the lights and waited for the end to come. There was some faint moaning for a little while, but he didn't last long. I was actually kind of proud of him for putting on such a show. We said we were hoping he would do at least one new thing as a result of us coming here. Well, not exactly what we were going for, but hey, we'll take it.

Don't worry, Price was back to his usual smiley self this morning. Praise the Lord.

Chinese New Year

It's Chinese New Year's Day. It's like the 4th of July but way colder and with way more fireworks. It's one of 2 days a year anyone in the country is allowed to shoot off fireworks so they take full advantage. It's like a celebratory Shock and Awe. I now have a better understanding of what it sounds like to be in those places you see on CNN with all the explosions going off in the background behind the reporter. .

Price did great on the recovery after his most recent lumbar puncture. That's 3 down 1 to go. Everybody keeps asking if he's doing anything new, you know, like are the stem cells working. It's hard for me to say how much he's changed because the changes are probably subtle, and I've been with him every waking minute these past couple of weeks. But, that being said, his new tricks include crawling in and out of his stroller and, my favorite, he now manages to take his pants off in his bed every night. Now when I say to him. "Price, keep your pants on," I literally mean, keep your pants on.

There's a market here that would make a even the most ardent Shopaholics head spin. It's like the Galleria on steroids. And it's ridiculously cheap. Shopping is not really my thing, and it's definitely not Price's thing, but even we we've been compelled to go in there a couple times and do some damage. There's a secret store under lock and key that sells swords that a guy is supposed to help us get into so I'm looking forward to that. Our Scottish friend got a little carried away in there and ended up with a small armory. William Wallace would be proud.

There's been a lot of down time in China and I'd like to say that I've been reading lots of enlightening books, but that's just not the case. Left to my own devices, I'm much more of a movie guy. I guess I'm just like the rest of America...addicted to moving images and voices from a screen. That being the case, here's a list of my 10 favorites so far....

1. The Warrior. Awesome even for non-UFC posers.

2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Russel Crowe sounds really cool as a British navy captain.

3. Fargo. First time to see it. A little rough but the lady that plays the pregnant sheriff was amazing.

4. Body of Lies. Seen it before a couple of times but I'm a sucker for espionage thrillers. Again, Russell Crowe is 2 legit to quit.

5. Ocean's 11, 12 & 13. All three are very entertaining. I actually like the 3rd one the best.

6. Hanna. Meh.

7. Margin Call. Pretty good but just because I like Paul Bettany and Kevin Spacey.

8. The Rise off the Planet of the Apes. Half decent.

9. Moneyball. My Ipad's video crashed about halfway through, but I was really liking it. I thought Ipads weren't supposed to crash???

10. Puncture. More technical difficulties. I started it and didn't finish it within 24 hours so it got erased off my Ipad. Thanks again, Apple. I really wanted to know the ending but I'm not forking over another $3.99 to find out.

Price's two favorite nurses, Lucy and April

Price or Darth Vader? Stimulating the vocal cords. Ellery liked this one.

Price's buddy Collin

Taking his pants off...again

Nurses and translators hosting the New Years dinner

Learning how to make dumplings

The feast

Update from China

China is now a full-blown guys trip. Price and I are perfect roomates because we both like to eat lots of snacks and watch tons of movies. Fortunately for me, Price can watch the same 6 episodes of Blues Clues 20+ times and still laugh at the same parts every time. May God bless Steve Burns and his green-striped shirt. For those who know Blues Clues, you'll be glad to know Price is a Steve fan all the way,he's not big on Joe. He's a purist. When Steve goes off to college Price loses interest real fast. Outside the room, Price is a crawling machine. There are lots of long hallways in our wing of the hospital and Price goes up and down them non-stop. And of course there's a staircase in the lobby that he climbs and descends as many times as I'll let him. The floor above us is all Chinese patients and their parents so it's kind of an international trip for him. When he gets to the top there's usually a few Chinese moms who cheer for him and try to pick him up but he laughs and shakes his head and puts it in reverse and scoots away from them. He thinks it's hilarious. Needless to say, Price loves all the attention and everybody loves Price. Price has also figured out how to go down the stairs feet first, which is much less hazardous to his forehead.

The most pleasant surprise of the trip so far has been the relationships we've been able to form with the medical and other patients. The doctors and nurses and translators have all been awesome, making us feel right at home since we got here. It's a much different experience than you get in the States in that you get to see and talk to the doctors everyday, sometimes even several times a day. They are constantly checking in to see how we're doing and readily available if we need anything. The nurses travel in packs. They usually visit 3 at a time, and they love to sing to Pricey, especially when he smiles and laughs. You can tell all the medical staff really cares about the patients, and that makes us a lot more comfortable about being here. The translators are awesome. Without them we would be hopelessly lost.

There's an older couple here from Canada that we've been tagging along with some. They run a grain farm back in Saskatchewan and sell most of their grain to the Chinese. And they end almost every sentence with "eh?" Very Canadian and really neat people. There was a Scottish couple arguing over how to turn on the Xbox the other night which made for some interesting theater. I'm pretty sure they were speaking English but I have no idea what they were saying.

- Nathan

Jet-lagged thoughts

Today, Street pointed to a plane in the sky and said, "Bro bro."

Ellery ate breakfast this morning by herself at the table and said, "Breakfast is not fun by myself. I need Price here."

Last night, we skypped Nathan and Ellery broke out into tears and said, "This is so hard." I told her it is hard and it is okay to cry, but we have to be strong because the Lord said, "Go."

I am back to the weekly routine, but part of me is still in China (not to mention, my body clock still is too).

I miss the simplicity. I miss the relationships with people that are nothing like me. I miss the lack of technology. It's really all about people, isn't it? Loving people.

I told Nathan maybe we should live in China. He said that I should rethink how to bring our experience to where we live. To our home.

Price had a harder time with his second lumbar puncture. Some fever and vomiting.

He has his third one on Friday. Please pray for his little body.

Other than that, he is all smiles, according to his daddy.

Last day

Today is my last day here in China. I have such mixed emotions. I

really am loving my time in China. (Even the muddy shower water we had last night wasn't that bad - I thought of it as a really luxurious body mask.) It has been somewhat relaxing and in some ways so simple. It's been quality time for the three of us. I especially have enjoyed meeting
the Chinese people here as well as the other families who are on
different yet in some ways similar journeys. We kind of have become a little mixed
family from all over the world. As soon as one family departs, another one is arriving.

I am, however, really ready to see my babies at home. I have missed
them like crazy, but the Lord definitely has supplied me with strength
and the ability to rest in knowing that they are being cared for and
very loved back in Houston. It will break my heart to not walk through the rest of this journey
with Nathan and Price, but I am leaving P in good hands.

Last night we took the translators out to dinner at the Holiday Inn
(it's a 5 star restaurant here in Qingdao). We had some good laughs,
great conversation, and the best food we've eaten since we got here.
They told us that Nathan looks like Tom Cruise and that I look like
the lady from Mr. and Mrs. Smith. That really made us laugh. I think
it's just because we are white.

Price is settling into the routine here, crawling and climbing stairs
constantly, and charming the nurses and doctors with his smile. He
especially loves riding in the taxi without a car seat and the
hospital elevator. We have had some ask us when we might expect to
see the stem cells at work, and the truth is that it varies with each
individual. Evidence of them working can happen instantly, a month
after, 6 months after, and even up to a year. And because Price can't
tell us what he feels or sees, it's harder to gage. We are trusting
the Lord with the outcome.

Nathan is going to send me updates from China for the duration of
their stay that I will post on the blog. I have pictures to post when
I get home as well. Please pray for safe travels for me and for my
boys that I will be leaving behind.

"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you
an example, that you should follow in his steps." 1 Peter 2:21

{excuse the weird formatting...don't know what's up with that}

Big day

Price had his lumbar puncture procedure about 4 hours ago. We were able to walk him back to the operating room and Nathan held him as they administered the anesthesia. I had to leave for that part. I am not a big hospital person as is, and let's just say the OR's in China don't look quite like the ones back home. It was a little scary handing over my boy to nurses and doctors who are speaking in a foreign language and wearing what we would call "shower shoes". At least our translator assured me that I am not the first mom to be a little concerned.

The procedure took about 30 minutes and then they waited for Price to wake up before wheeling him out to us. The nurses loved him and told our translator that they were in love with his beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. They also said that he was smiling and laughing at them when he was waking up. I think to say Price loves the Chinese people, especially women, is an understatement. I think the Lord knew what He was doing when he gave us his sweet physical therapist Irene, who is Taiwanese, 2 years ago. He has definitely gone before us.

Price was groggy when we got back to the room and motioned for his bed. He has now been sleeping soundly for about 3 hours. We have 3 more to go before he can sit up, but so far so good. Thank you for praying. This boy is precious to us.

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Colossians 4:2