God's Hands and Feet for China's Orphans: Fun China memories

First of all... after writing my letter to the boys' friends yesterday, I've decided not to send it. I feel better just writing it, and reading it to the boys. In the end, it doesn't matter what other people think or say. What matters is that we are following God's plan for our family, and we are in it together. I've told the kids just to tell them that they aren't going to talk about this anymore, and then just change the subject and not try to "defend". We'll see how that goes!

Jonnie and I have been thinking and laughing about a few things that happened on our trip. I decided to share :)

~We were picked up at the airport by a driver, arranged by Shepherd's Field. I guess this guy actually works for them because we saw him a few times throughout the week. Anyway, he picked us up at the airport in a van and we headed down the highway, away from downtown Beijing. There were several vans pulled off the side of the road, and Jonathan even asked me at one point, why. I told him I had no idea. As we drove along... A MAIN HIGHWAY.... OUR driver suddenly pulled his van off the side of the road too, and gets out. Jonathan and I just looked at each other...? The guy walked around to the back of the van..... and takes a leak. On the highway... Lol. Jonathan and I again just looked at each other and started laughing. Welcome to China, Jonathan!! LOL. After we stopped laughing, Jonathan says "I guess that explains all of the other cars pulled off the side of the road too!" :)

~The night that we arrived at Shepherd's Field, one of the girls ordered us dinner from a small Chinese restaurant right down the road. We got broccoli, rice (of course), and a breaded chicken with sweet and sour sauce. Pretty much the same as what you would get here in the US. It was really, really good! The next night there wasn't anyone around to order for us, and we were feeling adventurous :) We decided to walk to the restaurant, with a cheater menu in hand that had their menu written in Chinese, next to English. (On a side note, Shepherd's Field's little dog Stevie went along with us to the restaurant. Loved her!). When we got to the restaurant, the one lady came right over to us. I pointed to what I thought may be the chicken that we had the night before. She laughed and just said, "No". I looked at her and she laughed again. Ok... so I looked again at the menu and pointed to another chicken item I though we may like. She again laughs and says, "No". Jonathan at this point is looking at me, laughing too. I was pretty confused, but no one speaks English to tell us why they don't have any of these things. I start looking again, and she walks over to their freezer, pulls out a plastic bag that appears to have chicken in it and says, "Yes?". "Sure" I say, "yes". She laughs and hands it to the other lady who takes it to the kitchen. We wait, and soon they come back with our meal. We pay and head back to our room. When we pull out our chicken, it is a whole chicken!! Cut up, but all of the pieces are there, including the head. Plus it was cold. We were pretty grossed out! Stevie got that chicken, we ate Easy Mac that we brought from home :)

~After a few days of Chinese food, we decided to have a driver take us to a Pizza Hut that we had seen while on an outing to Wal Mart ;-) Again, we were feeling adventurous! So we walk in, and the lady that met us at the door, and our waitress, obvious know enough English to sit us down and take our order. Most likely not much more than that. I keep reassuring Jonathan, everything will be ok :) We get our menu and there are pictures, and everything that is in Chinese has English right next to it. I figured this will be a piece of cake!! Jonathan of course wanted a pepperoni and sausage pizza. I didn't see that on the menu anywhere, but I did find a delux pizza, and the first 2 toppings listed were pepperoni and sausage. Easy enough. The waitress comes over and I point to the first to toppings, one at a time. She says, "ok" and writes it down. Jonathan looks at me, and I again reassure him it will be fine....

Not too long after we order, our pizza comes out... with everything on it. EVERYTHING. I look at the waitress and say, "NO, no, no.", and push it away. She looks at me concerned. I say, "Pepperoni and Sausage" and she just stares at me like she doesn't understand English! ;-). 2 more times I say, "Pepperoni, sausage" a little slower. Then she says, "Ahhhhh! , One moment!" She walks away, and comes back with........ Parmesan and sauces. You could tell she was all proud that she finally understood! Lol. Jonathan by this time is laughing, but still insisting that he IS NOT GOING TO EAT THIS! Because of him, I continue to try to get her to understand. I ask for the Menu (about 3 times before she gets it). I open to the page that I ordered from. I again point to the pepperoni, then sausage...one at a time. She looks at me very seriously and says, "It's in there!" and points to the pizza. Then she says, "It's ok? Yes?" I look at Jonnie, then her, and say "Yes, thank you" :) We ate the delux pizza... ;-)