Welcome to the Jungle

Message from Brooklyn

2012-02-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for all your donations. Brooklyn will share a grand total when Grandma gets everything added up.

2012-02-09T04:29:00.000-08:00

The ceiling on Saturday

The Orphanage ceiling today!

It looks like hiring the guys to do the ceiling repair was a really good idea. It looks fantastic especially by Indonesian standards. I can hardly wait for Saturday.

Swim-a-thon Update

2012-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn heading to her swim-a-thon. I bet I have a really tired Kindergarten class this afternoon. She was super excited this morning when she woke up and I told her about all the donations coming in. She could not get to the pool fast enough this morning. Kinder kids are swimming at 9:00. Sydney and Kade will be swimming this afternoon. Brooklyn has agreed to share her pledges with them. Thank you so much for all your generous donations. I am humbled by the out pouring of love that these orphans are receiving. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Message from Brooklyn

2012-02-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

If you would like to donate to Brooklyn's swim-a-thon you can send a donation to my Mom and she will make sure it gets to us. They are hoping to buy playground and sports equipment for the kids at the orphanage.

My Mom's address is:

Elaine Eaton

336 Scottland Dr

Camano Island WA 98282-7250

Next Step

2012-02-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

We have already begun work on next Saturday's agenda for the workday at the orphanage. I can hardly wait. We have a good size group coming to help. I am just floored by the support we have received. Here is what we have planned:

Taking out the front yard and replacing it with concrete. Think of it as one giant patio for the kids to play on. It might seem strange to you that we would tear out the yard but in Sumatra yards sometimes create a lot of problems. First they are breeding grounds for all sorts of pests like mosquitoes and great hiding places for snakes. Second, they cost a lot to maintain and can't be played on when they are wet.
On the side of the house we are prepping for a garden. We will be tilling up the dirt and adding fertilizer getting it ready to plant. We are hoping to get the orphanage a few chickens so they can serve two purposes: to provide eggs for the kids and natural fertilizer for the garden.
The kids will be painting the outdoor cement walls to prevent mold re-growth.
Lastly the biggest project will be painting the entire inside of the orphanage except for the ceilings. We have hired someone to come in and fix the ceilings and repaint them. There wasn't anyone on team that felt capable of fixing drywall. We will leave that to the experts.

I want to thank everyone once again for making this possible. I am can hardly wait to show you next week's post work day pictures.

It was a REALLY GOOD day!

2012-02-04T04:24:00.000-08:00

Today was a really good day. I could not have asked any more from the PYP kids. They worked their tails off. They not only sanded the entire house but also scrubbed the kitchen, bathrooms and even the outside walls. The work was hard, hot and tedious. They did not complain or stop working. I can tell you that after spending some time with Generation Z, I now have hope for our future. These kids are not afraid to work. They are multi-taskers and doers. I doubt that house has looked this good in years. I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the house. It is nice. With just a bit of elbow grease it is going to be a real home for these kids.

We have a huge list of things that still need to be done before next week’s painting party. This multi-tasking type A personality is in hog heaven. I can hardly wait to get started making the list. The families at the Chevron camp have really stepped up to help out. Just thinking of their generosity makes me tear up. I think we are going to have a big group there next Saturday. Families are volunteering to adopt rooms and there is even talk of holding an orphanage shower. How cool would that be? Next step for us, God willing, will be helping them set up a sponsorship program.

God has answered our prayers in amazing ways. He is providing for these kids in ways I could not have even imagined. Lives are changing. Hearts are softening. To God be the Glory! Thank you so much to all of you who are involved in this project. I will forever be grateful for all that you have done to help the kids of Insan Permata.

Clean Up Day!

2012-02-03T03:00:00.000-08:00

I can't think of many times in my life where I have been excited to clean a dirty house. I can hardly wait for tomorrow morning. We will be heading into Pekanbaru for our first work day at the new orphanage. We're still a bit short on the rent but are getting closer every day. Tomorrow the PYP kids will be helping get things cleaned up and ready for next week painting party. I will be sure and post pictures tomorrow night of our progress.

The Big Five

2012-01-31T03:03:00.000-08:00

Five things every PYP activity must have:

A porch full of kids
Dessert (Thank You, Justine!) and Sugary Pop
Growing in our faith
Lots of NOISE
MESSY Activity

This weekends PYP had all five and it was a blast. I have to admit this may have been the second messiest activity we have done all year. I think that the pumpkin war still reigns supreme. The human banana split was a definitely a four star for messiness.

The missing school supplies finally made it.

Can I get a "Hallelujah" from the audience? :)

Ready to be packed!

Stuffing Bags

Ice Cream Sunday Relay Race

Lookin' Good Sydney!

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

2012-01-30T01:28:00.000-08:00

Last week we attempted a surprise party for Sydney's 13th Birthday. That's right, Syd is finally a teenager. We normally do not make a huge deal out of Birthdays here as we like to keep them a family affair but you only turn 13 once, right?

Kathi had quietly e-mailed (is there another way?) the PYP kids and told them to come to our house at 7:00 PM. While that was going on Sydney's friend Milena and I were running interference. First Milena had Syd stay longer than normal our the weekly Frisbee game. From there I picked them up and we headed to a friend's house off camp so I could, "get their new phone number."

This was all working so well. When we arrived at our friends house I started talking to my friend Chip and the girls went in to see his three children and their mom, Melanie, while they were watching a kids movie. While I stalled for time with Chip apparently Mel asked Sydney how she liked her surprise party. Milena was standing behind Syd giving Mel the "NO" sign. Too Late! Syd was like, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

We almost made it. Only 15 minutes from flawless execution and bam...up in smoke. It was really no problem at all. Sydney still had a great time with all her friends.

The highlight of the party was geocaching in the dark. My friends Shane and Barry helped me set up a geocaching course around our neighborhood the day before. The kids paired up in teams to find the 12 points using GPS handheld monitors. They had a ball and the best part was the adults were able to stay inside and visit while the kids ran around the neighborhood. One of the beauties of living here is that you can let your kids run around without fear of crazies out to get them, especially in the immediate neighborhood.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

What is in this thing?

Milena tried so hard to help us keep this a secret. Thanks Milena!

Gifts from the family.

Sydney making her own cake! She is quite the baker.

A little tired after running about the 'hood!

Bad Monkeys meet Clarabell

2012-01-28T19:47:00.001-08:00

The other afternoon a troupe of long tail macaque monkeys came through our yard. This is the first time I have ever seen them react so aggressively to our cat. Clarabell being the jungle cat that she is was not about to let the monkeys get the upper hand. It was a crazy scene. There must have been 15 monkeys jumping up on window trying to get to Clarabell. She would hiss and strike at them. They would show their teeth and hit the windows. They just wouldn't give up.

We have seen the monkeys try to get Brooklyn's toys but never to the cats. I wonder if the next time they come through if they will come looking for her? This time I will be sure to grab the video camera.

Pancake War

2012-01-28T00:58:00.001-08:00

Humm... Is that pancake on my floor?

Why "Yes" it is.

Who in my family would make such a mess?

The Guilty Party!

Orphanage Update

2012-01-25T16:47:00.001-08:00

New Orphanage

Orphanage Update:

Thank you so much to those of you heard the call to help Insan Parmata. God is providing for the needs of these kids in big ways. We are just $650 short of our goal of $4000. I know without a shadow of doubt that God will provide the rest of the needed funds. I wish that I could fly each of you hear to spend some time with these kids. They are amazing and they are so excited about getting into the new home. I think the kids can't wait to be able to play outside. Currently they have to play on a small balcony because the yard isn't safe.

If you would like to help you can send a check to:

JICF
P. O. Box 2050
Fairfax, VA 22031-2050

Please mark the check PICF- Insan Permata. The donation is tax deductible so if you would like a receipt just make sure to include your mailing address.

John and a couple men from our church took a look at the new facility the orphanage had picked out. It is going to be perfect for them. There still is some cosmetic work that needs to be done but it is structurally sound and more importantly safe.

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-01-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! We celebrated Chinese New Year Eve with two of our favorite families from school. The food was amazing. John and I were thrilled to learn more about the Chinese culture and Brooklyn LOVED eating the food. A big thanks to Lights for hosting such a wonderful evening.

Scorpions 0 - Clarabell 2

2012-01-23T01:12:00.000-08:00

Clarabell caught her second scorpion last weekend. This time it was in our kitchen by our garbage can. She had been meowing for about half and hour and I had just ignored her thinking she was chasing a little lizard. When she did not give up the meowing I thought she was hungry so I went into the kitchen to get her some food. I stepped right over the biggest scorpion I have ever seen. John had the joy of trying to scoop this guy into our dust pan.

Hoi An

2012-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Hoi An, an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Asian trading port, is an outstanding material manifestation of the fusion of cultures over time in an international maritime commercial centre.

The town is a special example of a traditional trading port in South-East Asia which has been completely and assiduously preserved: it is the only town in Viet Nam that has survived intact in this way. Most of the buildings are in the traditional architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries. They are aligned along narrow lanes of traditional type. They include many religious buildings, such as pagodas, temples, meeting houses, etc., which relate to the development of a port community. The traditional lifestyle, religion, customs and cooking have been preserved and many festivals still take place annually.

I took that description from the UNESCO website. I figured they could explain it better than I. This was about the only truly "cultural" experience we had. That was purely our choice as the beach was so great. That being said this was such an awesome place. The buildings, people, boats, and shops all made it seem like we had stepped back in time.

The Vietnamese people were very polite and not as pushy in selling their wares as I have seen in places like Bali or China. They respected the words "no thanks" pretty well. That made walking up and down these narrow streets very easy. They do not allow motorized vehicles in most areas here so you felt free to take your time and take in the sights. There were so many cool little shops with everything from lanterns to knock off clothing to tailors and amazing art shops. You could even take boat rides and throw some traditional fishing nets as Kade did. All for a price, mind you. Luckily it wasn't too outrageous.

If you were to ever visit Vietnam I highly recommend seeing Hoi An. It was a great day and we actually wished we had a little more time to spend there.

Brooklyn looking ready to hit the rice fields. She wore that hat all day long.

I nice picture of the streets of Hoi An.

You didn't have to worry about cars, carts however...

Traditional boats on the river.

The local ferry.

Fishing the old fashion way.

Kade didn't catch anything but he had fun.

The captain let Kade drive the boat. Syd said it was a little scary.

Hoi An is known for their lanterns. There were some very colorful designs and styles.

A cafe along the street.

Bread of Life

2012-01-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

One of the toughest things for me living abroad is finding food my entire family enjoys. John and Brooklyn are by far the two most adventurous eaters in the Getzinger Family. Brooklyn has been in Hog Heaven since moving back to Asia. She can't get enough of the local cuisine. I on the other hand, not so much. I don't mind trying new things but I am not wanting to seek adventure at every meal.

So before leaving for Vietnam I did a little research on places to eat. The idea of eating authentic Vietnamese every meal was a bit much for me. Thanks to TripAdvisor, I found a gem of a restaurant called the Bread of Life. Bread of Life was like no restaurant I have ever been too. What made it so unique is all the servers and cooks are deaf. The restaurant was started by a couple name Bob and Kathleen Huff. The proceeds from the business go back into their deaf ministry. Who wouldn't like supporting a wonderful cause by eating delicious food?

We managed to eat at this restaurant six out of the seven days we were Vietnam. We all became very attached to one of the deaf servers. His name is Bihn. Bihn was our waiter on the first night. He noticed that we were Christian because he saw us praying before dinner. He signed to us that he was a Christian too. My first year teaching I had a deaf student in my class so I can sign some which came in handy. Bihn spent a lot of time chatting with us and teaching us new signs.

I have to admit the last day at the restaurant was tough. We all knew this would probably be the last time we would see one another. I will never forget what Bihn signed to me. He told me not to be sad. He said he would see me again. Next time it would be in heaven. He is absolutely right. This wasn't goodbye it was see you later. What a glorious day that will be; when all of us from every corner of the earth bow down at His feet. Thanks for the perspective, Bihn.

Staff at Bread of Life

Yummy Food

Enjoying dinner with great friends

Bihn

Let's Go Surfin

2012-01-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

Earthquake and Protestors

2012-01-11T06:02:00.001-08:00

I should probably start this post out with we are all fine. I know some of you saw that Sumatra was hit with another quake. John was the only one that even woke up. The rest of slept right through it. Is it crazy that we are used to them now?

The bigger news today was that our camp was locked down. It is possible it could be in the news so I thought I better give you the heads up. For the last couple weeks there has been protesters outside of our camp who were subcontractors for Chevron. They are protesting a contract dispute. Today while we are school the number of protesters grew significantly and they pushed their way through our security gates. As you can imagine this created some concern. I was quite impressed how smoothly and peacefully things were handled. The school was secured and at noon all the kids that lived on camp were sent home. Off camp kids went to teacher homes to play. I think if you asked the kids and teachers at ISR they would all say how much they appreciated the protesters for giving us the afternoon off. We had a great time at our house. We baked cookies and played games. Overall, it was a really fun day.

It is unclear if tomorrow the protesters will be back. I am sure we will have a security briefing in the morning. I think we are all secretly hoping they are back on camp so we can have another day off. I am used to hoping for a snow day but a protest day is a new one for me.

We will post more pictures from Vietnam tomorrow. Thanks for being patient with my lack of consistent posts. I have been working on an online class and I happy to report I finished up this evening.

Surfs Up!

2012-01-10T04:32:00.001-08:00

One of the things that Sydney has always wanted to learn to do is surf. Christmas Break her dream came true. Thanks to "google" we were able to find an Australian certified surf instructor who happened to live in DaNang. He generously agreed to teach the kids to surf.

The weather was cool that morning. Brooklyn and I were pretty happy to cuddle up on the beach chair and watch the lesson from the Beach. The day started with a brief safety lesson. This safety conscious mother thought that was a great way to start. John and our friend Shane, certified lifeguard instructor, headed out in the waves with the kids. Quinton appreciated the extra hands. Quinton has been living in Vietnam for seven years. He was very familiar with our stretch of beach and did a great job keeping the kids safe. They had a fantastic day and even managed to get up on the boards. We could not have asked for a better first experience.

Brooklyn watching the big kids surf.

Sydney getting up on the board for the first time.

Kade sand surfing.

Sydney finding out that Quinton was going to let her borrow a board so she could surf again the next day.

Surf School

It doesn't get much better than this!

Another day in Vietnam

2012-01-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

The kids were so excited to see this flag.

This meant the restrictions on how deep we could venture in the ocean were lifted.

Kade Body Surfing.

The Pool.

Sydney catching a wave.

The Infinity Pool.

Brooklyn cracking up!

Kade and his new short haircut.

Sydney is ready to move to Vietnam. That girl loves the beach!

Day Two and Three Vietnam

2012-01-01T01:07:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Vietnam was so fun. After our trip to China where we were constantly on the move we needed a very relaxed vacation. Vietnam was perfect! The hotel was very nice, the beach was the best beach I have been to; even better than Thailand, and we were basically the only people who wanted to be on the beach everyday.

Here are some pictures from days two and three. Kathi and Wendy went to a local market and saw some interesting things. One night we went to a shopping center and took in an arcade that had bumper cars. That was a fun time. While we were at the arcade we were quite the novelty.

Still to come: food and surfing!

Playing a copied version of Monopoloy.

Shoes anyone?

These dresses could be made ready to fit in less than one day! They were stunning.

Wait a minute aren't these and endangered species? So sad!

The local market.

Um...I think you are missing something like a bumper.
Sydney's bumper car kept needing a push to move. It was definitely a disadvantage when it came to the battle.

Sydney was pretty excited to see this label.

Brooklyn and John enjoying the battle of the bumper cars.

A great restaurant for Western food. The staff was made up of entirely deaf people. They were great people and the food was awesome.

The view from our hotel room.

Vietnam- Day #1

2012-01-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

On Dec. 27th we arrived at the Da Nang airport with our friends Shane and Wendy and their two amazing children Dylan and Gaby. Shane is the PE teacher at our school and Wendy is his beautiful wife. They hail from South Africa and we love spending time with them. After we spent about 45 minutes waiting to have our visas processed by military uniformed men and women we were off in our taxis to the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resort.

This hotel is right on the beach as you can see from the pictures and has several amazing pools. When we checked in we went up to our rooms and noticed that there was a note from management on our desk informing us that the main pool and children's pool were closed for repairs until Jan 2 (We check out on Jan 4th). That was a big problem for us since we booked this hotel specifically for the pool and beach access.

Kathi and I went down and spoke with the manager on duty, Wesley, who was very apologetic. He offered to upgrade our rooms to ocean view as well as give the roll away bed our friends were renting free of charge. He explained that there had been some glass that had broken in the pool and that since they had to drain the pool to clean that up they would use that time to fix some wiring issues.

I cannot say enough about the staff here. Wesley knew we were disappointed in not being able to use the pool so he had his staff work extra hours and had the main pool back up and working on Dec. 29th. He said it was for us and I believe him because we are essentially the only ones using the pool. It is about 74 degrees here. Way to cold for many of the Asian folks staying here to want to get into a pool. Not our families though! Wesley came up big! If you ever plan to holiday in Da Nang, the Crowne Plaza is the place to go!

By the way, the beach is amazing here. In my opinion it is better than the beaches we have been to in Thailand, Hawaii or Bali. The staff keeps the grounds immaculate and the sand is so soft. They truly try and make sure you are taken care of. In fact Brooklyn and Gabi were digging on the beach and when they weren't looking the beachfront staff kept making "x's" in the sand so they would dig for treasure. They are very sweet.

More pictures and stories to come later.

On the edge of the South China Sea looking back at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Da Nang.

Kade getting buried by Sydney and Dylan.

Brooklyn trying to save a crab.

Brooklyn and Gaby playing in the surf.

If you are just south of China and dig all the way down, do you end up in...Cleveland?

One of the reflection pools.

Mr. Crab making his escape.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day was a ton of fun in Sumatra. It started as most Christmas Days start; the kids wanting to get up before the parentsspecially Kade and Brooklyn. Now that Sydney is almost a teenager she thinks she should get to sleep in everyday. Even though the kids didn't get a ton of things for Christmas they each liked what they did get. It was actually nice to have a low key Christmas morning. Kathi made some Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls that were so good and that was our morning.

The crazy part of the day came in the afternoon. We had been asked by our church if we would be willing to host the Christmas Celebration at our home. We were more than happy to do it especially considering how Kathi likes to host parties. With the help of our good friends Shane and his son Dylan and our friend Lindsey, we were able to get all of the furniture moved around as well as the the extra chairs and tables moved in for the potluck dinner.

Our church fluctuates between 30-60 people on any given Sunday. We figured we would be safe to plan on about 50 people knowing that some people had gone home for the holiday break. On Christmas Eve we found out that the orphanage was going to be attending as well. That added another 20 or so folks to the mix. So Kathi and I stayed up late that night and cooked a few extra dishes to make sure we had enough food for the added number.

People began showing up at about 3:45 on Christmas. Now our house has a great layout for entertaining because it is an open floor plan. What we hadn't envisioned was the fact that around 115 people showed up for our little get together. We ran out of paper plates and were on to our own dishes by the end. Our Pastor's wife told us that in years past it was always around 30 people who showed up for the Christmas Day service.

Our house was so packed! It was amazing to see everyone in our home and enjoying themselves. We were able to hear a message from our pastor as well as sing Christmas songs and listen to the orphanage children sing and dance. A man in our church sang a rendition of O' Holy Night, a cappella that was amazing. We ended the service portion of the evening with a candle light singing of Silent Night. I am not sure that the Fire Marshal would be too excited about that one but no harm was done.

After that there was dessert and then a ton, and I mean a ton, of pictures taken in front of our Christmas Tree. The local folks here were so enamored with the size of our tree. It will be a shame we won't be able to put it up next year as our house in Stanwood does not have nearly tall enough ceilings. It's memory however will live on in the 400 or so pictures that were taken in front of it that day.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well and we wish you a Happy New Year filled with blessings.

Sydney and her new straight iron. Thanks for the tip, Kerri!

Sydney loves her UW flip flops.

Brooklyn and her new Baby Alive. Thanks, Santa!

The amount of shoes at the half way point.

Full house! This was just part of the front room. People were everywhere!

The kids from the orphanage singing.
The littlest ones were way too interested in playing with Brooklyn's toys to stop and sing!

The Three Wise Men with King Herod.

Joon singing "Holy Night". He is seriously amazing.

A few of our new friends from Iran and Sri Lanka.

Christmas Eve Day

2011-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:27

I am sure some of you saw my facebook challenge. We need to raise some rent to help these kids get in a new safe home. John and I are looking for six people who are willing to pay $333.00 to cover two months rent for this orphanage. We will match the first six people. This will allow the orphanage to be in a safe building rent free for two years. If you feel the call to help please email me at kathigetzingercas@gmail.com and I will give you the details. We will gladly accept any size of donation and will match it dollar for dollar up to the needed amount.

The pictures below are of the current orphanage. They have been asked to leave the building because the owner would like to sell it. Can you imagine someone wanting to buy it? Obviously, I will not sleep well till they are in a safe home with better conditions.

John and I are hoping to find a church or a non profit that would be willing to adopt this orphanage. If you have any connections please let me know. This is a Christian orphanage and as you can imagine it is not easy for them for many reasons. I wish I could explain to you in words how amazing these kids are. They are extremely talented and smart. They are constantly singing praise song. Being around them reminds me a bit of the VanTrap family in The Sound of Music.

The orphanage can not give them a lot of material things but they are giving them a firm solid Christian foundation. If you have ever wanted to make a difference for Christ in a country he is not readily accepted here is your chance. Please join me in praying for these amazing kids. I hope to introduce you to them over the next few weeks.

Kade with his buddy Joseph.

Everyone helps out with the new baby Samuel.

Bedroom.

Living Area.

Study area and doors to the bedrooms.

The bathroom.

The Stove.

The kitchen.

The open well just outside their main living area.

Water Hazard!

2011-12-23T04:06:00.000-08:00

On Friday my friend Shane and I headed out to a really nice golf course here in PKU called Labersa. It is a great course that I had been wanting to play for a long time. It is pretty spendy so I have not done it yet since I can play our course on camp for $3 U.S. pretty much any time I want. However on Fridays Labersa now has a 1/2 price promotion that finally lured me in.

While the course was great, my golf game, less so. On the 12th hole I hit my tee shot into a water hazard, of which this course has many. After I dropped and finished out the hole I saw that my ball had come to rest on a little sand peninsula at the edge of the water. I hustled around to the other side of the hazard so I could walk out and retrieve the ball, after all it was a Titleist! It was just sitting there waiting for me to go and get it. The peninsula looked just like what you would see when the tide recedes on the beach.

I was anxious to get the ball quickly so Shane and I could keep going. I failed to test the consistency of what I was about to walk on and low and behold I sank thigh deep into essentially quicksand. Boy was I surprised! It was quite the shock. I was able to get myself out but was covered in sandy mud. I am sure the shock on my face was pretty funny. My caddy drove me back to building which had a water spicket and I proceeded to rinse myself off. My shoes were completely full of mud and socks were not the color of my skin not the white they should have been. Bless my caddy's heart, she didn't laugh at me even though I was laughing at myself. Luckily the only people to see it where Shane and the caddies. I am sure they had a good laugh back at the caddy shack about the boule who fell in the mud.

Gingerbread Houses 2011

2011-12-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

On our Trip to KL we hit up Ikea for a few things. One of the items was three Gingerbread House kits. Last night we had dinner with two families at our house. The food was provided by our friends Shane and Wendy and was awesome, especially Wendy's homemade ice cream! As you may recall, ice cream here does not melt and doesn't taste quite right so the homemade version is always appreciated.

After dinner each family decorated their gingerbread house. There was some major creativity happening from the kids. They all worked very intently and made the houses look really great. It absolutely made it seem more like Christmas around here. The absence of cold weather and snow tend not to give off the Christmas vibe.

I am not sure if you noticed that I left out the part about the construction of the homes. There is a reason for that. When we opened up the kits the day before everyone came over we saw that each of the kits had broken walls and/or roofs. I am not sure if this happened prior to our buying them or when we hand-carried them home with us, but never the less we needed to do some repair work.

The broken gingerbread would not be something that icing would fix so we needed to find a little stronger bonding agent. Enter: the hot glue gun. Kathi took to the remodeling much like Bob Villa attacks "This Old House" and in no time the pieces were ready to be used for construction; minus the fact that they were no longer edible and they were not as structurally sound as before.

Fast-forward to the day of the dinner and I was tasked with constructing all three houses while Kathi and the kids took in a movie in beautiful downtown PKU. I started with the hot glue gun since it had worked so magically before, not to mention the moisture in the air here makes the icing harder to work with because it doesn't harden as quickly. The problem with the hot glue for construction was that the glue kept drying too fast when you needed to apply large amounts. This meant that I was going to have to make icing for the construction and hope for it to work.

I took to making Royal Icing (as I found out it is called. I love the internet.) It was pretty easy to make which was good. The bad part was that it took a lot of it to make all three houses. It took me 2 and a half hours, and several more reconstructions to get them all together. I thought that it took a long time to do but that it was not too difficult. However when Kathi came home she asked me what happened as she saw me covered in powdered sugar and dried icing all over my shirt and pants. I told her all went well and that all the great bakers get a little messy. I am not sure she bought it.

There was a difference in quality of construction for each one. One was like the little gingerbread man who lived in the gated community, one was constructed like it was in a nice sub-division and then there was the one that looked like it was straight out of the projects. That was to be the Getzinger home. Hope you like the pictures!

We bought local candy to use for decorations. There was one particular type which smelled like stinky feet. No one would eat it after smelling it but Brooklyn. She said it tasted really good. We took her at her word.

Check out Santa coming out of the chimney. Hudson made that out of a gingerbread man. Quite a talented young artist.

Our array of candy decorations.

The weight of the decorations caused the Ghetto Home to collapse.

The finished products.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2011-12-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

I am not sure many of you know this about me, but I LOVE to wrap gifts. I could do it all day everyday for a 100 years. OK, well I might be exaggerating just a bit. But I seriously would quit my job if I could make a career out of it. Secretly, I have always wished to work in the gift wrap department at a major department store. Oh...what fun I could have wrapping gifts all day. Who knows maybe one day I will open my own business purchasing gifts for busy executives.

Wrapping gifts in Sumatra is a lot more difficult than wrapping in the States. I like to think of it as "extreme" wrapping. It is an adventure from start to finish. First you have to hunt down the paper. Since Christmas is not celebrate by 98% of the people in Sumatra it makes finding paper a lot more challenging. When you do find it, its not exactly what we would consider Christmas chic. Think something more in line with a traveling carnival.

I am sure some of you now understand why I drug John all over Malaysia looking for wrapping paper. Poor guy! He never knew what he was getting himself into when he married me and my gift wrapping obsession. Till death do us part, right. ;0}

Evidently no one in Asia uses ribbon because it was MIA. I only saw ribbon at one store and it was definitely not what I was looking for. The term I think best describes it is "bedazzled". Luckily, I saved a good chunk of last year's ribbon. I had exactly enough to get some form of a bow on each of the kids gifts. It's not my best work but under the conditions it was the best I could do.

Once I had all my materials it was time to wrap. Wrapping paper doesn't come in giant Costco size rolls here in Indonesia. The rolls are tiny just about enough to wrap on small size shirt box. I had five rolls of that to cover all our gifts. One of the gifts is round which added an extra challenge to mix.

Remember in Geometry class when you thought yourself "I don't know why we have to learn this stuff. I will never use it again." Well, I was wrong. Mr. Carlson you were right. I did use my geometry skills. This task was made more difficult by the weight of my paper. Think rice paper or working with wet tissue paper. Not the easiest conditions but for a few of us extreme wrappers its what we live for.

The best part was that I do not have a scotch tape dispenser. I only had the roll of tape and the beginning was constantly getting lost. As difficult as it was I enjoyed every second of it. I know that Christmas is not about the wrapping or the gifts but I am sure thankful that God blessed us with coordinating ribbon and heavy weight wrapping paper. :0)

Christmas BREAK

2011-12-19T04:51:00.000-08:00

The official first day of Christmas break started today. Sleeping in this morning was lovely. We had a lazy day just hanging around the house. We did make a quick trip into town looking for cat litter. Who would have guessed it would be so hard to find.

Last Friday John surprised me with a quick trip to Kuala Lumpur. It worked out perfect because Friday was a half day of school so we caught a four O'clock flight to Malaysia. It's about a fifty minute flight so with the time change we were checked into our hotel and out Christmas shopping by 7:00 pm.

John and I have become quite familiar with KL. It is a wonderfully modern city that is easy to navigate around. For me it was a bit of paradise and a big breath of fresh air. I probably more than anyone, get completely stir crazy living in camp. Malaysia has an IKEA and I love walking around looking at familiar items. The Ikea in Seattle is just like the one in Malaysia and I love that.

The best part was that they had live Christmas trees which smelled amazing. John and I probably looked ridiculous standing in the isle smelling the trees. One of the reasons I had wanted to stop at IKEA was to buy wrapping paper but they had already sold out. I did find some at Toys-R-Us. Yep, they even have those in Kuala Lumpur. I wish it had US prices. It is EXPENSIVE!

We topped off our evening out with dinner at Bubba Gumps. All I can say is YUM! Saturday morning John and I got up early and headed out for round 2 to do some grocery shopping. We have a favorite Chinese market that we go to called Ampang Grocery. They carry a lot of imported items. We managed to wipe out our entire shopping list except for one item, tarragon, which they only sold in kilo size. A Kilo of a grassy like substance is not what you want to try and get through customs in Pekanbaru! Overall not to bad.

After an hour flight delay we were headed back to Sumatra. The kids were excited to see all the stuff we brought back with us and we were excited for the mini-vacation.

Visit with Santa

2011-12-14T22:37:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Orphanage Christmas Performance

2011-12-13T02:17:00.000-08:00

Last night John and I went to a Christmas party for the Insan Permata orphanage. This orphanage is very different from the ones we experienced in China. Insan Permata is run by a Christian couple. They have been taking in children for the last ten years. It is run more like a family and less like an institution. The program the kids put on was so much fun. They are a very talented bunch.

Currently they have about 16 children living at the orphanage from age 3 weeks to 15 years old. Remember when I told you about the song "I Refuse?" Well this is the couple that comes to mind for me every time I hear it. They are living it every minute of every day. They live completely by faith. Each day they are dependent on God's provisions and each day God provides. As you can imagine having 16 children under your care can be stressful and the financial demand over-whelming.

We learned that the orphanage has some significant immediate needs. Currently the orphanage is in a home where they are able to stay rent-free. However, the owner of the home has decided he would like to sell it. Obviously, that creates a huge problem for the orphanage. The way rent works in Indonesia is that you have to pay it all up front. That means they will need to raise approximately $4000.00 in the next few months.

If you have an idea or a connection with a non profit or church that might be interested in getting involved PLEASE let me know. I am sure we will be posting more details about our progress in helping them in future blog posts.

Singing by candle light.

Could she be any sweeter?

Check out those tiny dancers. They could not have been older than three!

Monkeys in the Rain

2011-12-13T00:22:00.000-08:00

PYP Kazoozing Christmas

2011-12-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we had our youth group over for a Christmas party. It was so much fun. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. We started out the evening with a white elephant gift exchange. Pekanbaru is the perfect place to purchase "treasures" for an exchange. I have to say one of my favorites was a plastic tweety bird figurine that chirped. It was wonderfully terrible.

After the gift exchange the real festivities started. The kids each drew a number as part of the white elephant exchange. After the exchange the kids were asked to put on a Christmas costume. The costumes were each given a number and they had to wear the costume that matched their number. The kids were great sports about it.

If that wasn’t enough Christmas festivities we topped off the evening Kazoo caroling. Yep, its what you are thinking ... Christmas caroling with Kazoos.

Just as He planned

2011-12-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon was the day that Barry, another teacher here, as well as a member of our church, loaded up a van and drove an hour out to a tiny Christian community to deliver soccer balls, cookies, candy and juice for a Christmas party. It was quite an experience, one I will never forget to be sure. It was also one that really opened my eyes to the persecution that Christians face here.

We traveled to the other side of the city from where we are located and then out into the countryside. The roads become progressively worse in condition and you could tell that this was a very impoverished place. Living in a country like this you see levels of poverty and this was by far the least desirable living conditions I had seen so far. Many of the homes were wood shelters with thatched roofs. As you went along you see that the hillsides are being dug away for the dirt and clay that is being used by these people for making bricks, their lot in life.

Just to illustrate what these people struggle is like they must make 10,000 bricks a day, six days a week. All for $3 US a day. Oh, and if they take a break for water or a snack, it comes out of their pay for that day. This particular group of people is a "tribe" that is discriminated against and considered of a lower class. Tack onto that the fact that they are Christian and that is quite a few obstacles they have to deal with. In fact if they were Muslim things would be much easier for them in many regards. Their level of acceptance would be much higher within the larger community.

In fact one of the places you can see the persecution the most is in the picture of the brick structure below. Most things in Indonesia are run with local, neighborhood governments. The church asked for and received permission from the local government to build the brick church which they started and actually finished putting up right next to the shack they use now for their church services. When they were finishing up the building the local government, nervous that this new building could lead to people being converted to Christianity from the predominate religion here, changed their mind and now said that in order for the church to use the new building they needed to have 50 families (with the proper paperwork stating they were Christians) in the community fill out paperwork stating they were part of this church. Well there are only 30 families attending this church now and it will be next to impossible for 20 new families to move into this impoverished area who are Christians in the near future. Now as we have seen prior, nothing is impossible with God so we will pray that either more families come or that the local government softens its stance.

When we got to the to the church Barry and I thought we going to be hanging out at a Christmas party but it was much more than that. About that time we saw 130 or so folks crammed inside this church, which was literally a shack, we were handed a paper with an order of service for a Christmas Program, in Bahasa of course:). I turned to our pastor's wife who had shown us the way and helped organize all of this and said, "I didn't know there was going to be a service?" She apologized for leaving out that little detail. No worries, other than the fact that all of these kids and people were in their best outfits for this special occasion and Barry and I were in Shorts, T-shirts, and hats.

We were all given preferential seating at the front of the Church where we started off our service with Hark the Herald Angels Sing (In Bahasa). Luckily for us the program had the words on it so we could sing along in the proper language. Next was scripture readings, and more songs. Then each of the grade levels from 1st-5th grade came up and had a little speaking part. Later they came up and told the Christmas story complete with Baby Jesus, Mary and the three Wise Men(although to ensure there everyone got a part I counted four Wise Men).

After that Barry and I were brought up to be part of lighting the advent candles. This was a very big honor for us. As you can see in the picture farther down the page, they have no Christmas tree, but instead the best they could do was a wood structure that looks somewhat like a tree with candles on it. When we were standing up there lighting the candles and singing “Silent Night” I got chills. It was a very moving experience for me. Being there celebrating the birth of Christ with these people who clearly are passionate about Him was pretty humbling. Being a Christian in my world is a piece of cake compared to what these people have to endure. Yet here we all were rejoicing in our Savior. I am not sure if “pretty special” is an accurate description.

There was then a sermon and a final song. After that…soccer balls!

Once the service was over Barry and I brought in the bags of soccer balls. You should have seen the smiles and huge eyes on these kid’s faces. They were so excited. As Kathi wrote in the prior post these kids normally get things they need on Christmas from our church, pencils, crayons, notebooks. Things they enjoy but not something with a wow factor. Soccer Balls here in Indonesia, in this community, is a WOW factor. As we handed them out the smiles were priceless. Some of them kept turning them over and over as if they couldn’t believe what they were holding was real. Boys and girls alike were slack jawed at the balls. After the balls were handed out came cookies and then candy and juice.

Once that was over they actually gave us a gift. They handed us a box with water, and some food. The food was handed to all people there. If God had not provided those soccer balls this would have been the only gift they received for Christmas. Can you imagine your Christmas present being water and some rice wrapped in a banana leaf? Kind of puts things in perspective, huh?

We want to thank all of you who were praying about this and we hope you like seeing the pictures. I would also like to thank our Pastor’s wife for taking us there and setting up the logistics. Thanks to Barry for going with me, Wendy for storing our cookies, Shane for helping with the soccer balls, Mrs. M. for helping the PYP kids bake our cookies, the PYP kids for putting all the balls and bags together and our secret Santa who donated money to get those balls. Merry Christmas!

The kids holding up their soccer balls.

One of the storage buildings for the bricks and apparently a rooster's paradise.

Bricks waiting to go to market.

The earth they are taking to build the bricks. The landscape is pretty desolate after this. Think strip mining.

The houses are just like this only with scrap wood for walls.

The Christmas tree/advent candle.

The front of the Church.

Getting ready for the service.

Standing room only.

These kids were so cute reading poems they had written.

Grade three students sharing Bible verses.

Middle school students speaking.

The four wise men?

The lighting of the Advent candles.

The candle light service.

The little boxes with red contained the water and rice.

Some happy kids!

The church staff.

This is the building they cannot use until they get 50 families registered as church goers. The white shack on the right is the building they are in now.

One of the homes.

Some homemade chicken coops.

How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas Party

2011-12-09T04:49:00.000-08:00

The annual Christmas Play at ISR was this Friday evening. As you can guess from the title of the post it was an adaptation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." First off I want to say that the set and decorations were amazing! One of the mother's put literally hundreds of hours into the organizing of the decorations as well as designing each of the 40+ costumes. I was truly impressed. It was awesome! As you can see by the pictures it was a dinner theatre. The main course? Roast Beast; what else?

Sydney was a narrator, and Kade and Brooklyn were Whovillians. All three of the kids played their parts very well. It is amazing to see the growth in the kids as far as being on stage. They really excel at being on stage compared to when we first came. We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Brooklyn next to the blown up Play Bill.

Grinch Cupcakes.

Kade and his classmates.

Brooklyn with her Kindergarten crew.

By the way, everything here is hand made since there are no holiday stores.

One of the sets for the show.

After the show the real Grinch came out to take pictures with the kids.

Sydney playing with our Pastor's Daughter.

Brooklyn and Kade in their costumes before the show. Sydney had to go straight to hair and makeup after school so we didn't get a picture of her by herself.

I refuse

2011-12-06T23:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just want to close my eyes

And act like everyone's alright

When I know they're not

This world needs God

But it's easier to stand and watch

I could say a prayer and just move on

Like nothing's wrong

But I refuse

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care

I don't want to say another empty prayer

Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else

To do what God has called me to do myself

Oh, I could choose

Not to move but I refuse

I can hear the least of these

Crying out so desperately

And I know we are the hands and feet

Of You, oh God

So, if You say move

It's time for me to follow through

And do what I was made to do

Show them who You are

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care

I don't want to say another empty prayer

Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else

To do what God has called me to do myself

Oh, I could choose

Not to move but I refuse

To stand and watch the weary and lost

Cry out for help

I refuse to turn my back

And try and act like all is well

I refuse to stay unchanged

To wait another day, to die to myself

I refuse to make one more excuse

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care

I don't want to say another empty prayer

Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else

To do what God has called me to do myself

Oh, I could choose

Not to move but I refuse

I refuse

I refuse"

Song by Josh Wilson

This song has spoken so much to me lately. It puts it all in perspective for me.

Friday Visitor

2011-12-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

This little guy was caught outside my Kindergarten classroom. Dedi, our school driver/super hero, caught it in a plastic tote because he was worried my kids might see it and think it was nice because it was small. Love that guy!! I hope it doesn't have any brothers or sisters. We placed it in a large red plastic tub and then called Pest Control to come and take him or her away. This was right after school and so our music teacher went and got a recorder and played some to see if it was a cobra who could be "charmed." No such luck. He just made a barking/hissing sound at us and occasionally reared up to show us his hood. Gotta love the jungle!

PYP Christmas Party Prep

2011-12-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

The balls arrived on Friday afternoon right on time for youth group. It worked out perfect thanks to some Divine intervention. The balls were a wild selection. They were obviously samples but in the long run a blessing because it will make it so much easier for the kids to identify their balls.

The youth group was a huge help. The boys helped John pump up all the balls. It was a big job. Each of the balls came with a plastic mesh type bag that had to be unwrapped then carefully put on each ball. The challenge was that the bags kept tangling. It was not an easy job.

The girls started baking snicker doodles. We made three double batches. That is a lot of snicker doodles. I lost track at 72. Thank goodness my good friend Justine was there to help. I still have about four-dozen cookies left to bake. My house smells amazing but it is torture having hot snicker doodles come out of your oven and not being able to eat them. We did taste a few for quality control purposes.

The kids drank hot cocoa and ate way too much sugar. Joanie, one of the Moms sent the best popcorn. It was way better than caramel corn. I am going to have to get the recipe. It was yummy goodness! She also sent cookies, which I never tried because I kept eating the popcorn. I am sure they were amazing too. While the kids were dipping cookies in hot chocolate they stuffed 150 bags with candy.

We did let the kids have some fun! They played a game where they had to melt ice as quickly as possible using only their body. Brr! Next week I’ll finish the last of the preparation for the party. On Saturday, John and a few of the other men from our church will deliver the balls and food to the party. I hope they can snap a few quick pictures. Unfortunately, it isn’t safe for the kids to go. Having so many expats would draw way too much attention. Safety is one of those things we always think about.

I am really proud of the kids for working so hard on this party. I can’t wait to hear how it goes. Thank you so much for all your prayers.

Baking Snicker Doodles! Yummy!

Taking all the plastic bags off the balls

Our crazy mix of balls

Which way do these bags go?

Stuffing Candy Bags

Brooklyn helping out.

FYI...I did not pick out her outfit!

Ready to be delivered!

Pekanbaru Youth Project Elves!

Christmas Miracle Update

2011-11-29T04:24:00.000-08:00

One of the things I have learned living in Indonesian is that getting upset when things don’t go exactly as I plan is a big fat waste of time. I have to say that living in Pekanbaru has definitely increased my ability to go with the flow. No matter how crazy or backwards things appear to me I have learned to just go with it. It is a survival skill here. It is funny how God often uses these moments to teach me lessons about His provisions and His plan.

Well, today we were told the shipment has been delayed yet again. This time for a shipyard strike. I feel terrible for the Davis family that continues to wait for their stuff. We still feel very blessed they let us put stuff in their container and at some point it has to arrive, right?

Well, that leaves us in a pickle doesn’t it? The Christmas gifts for all the kids are in that container. It is hard for me understand why God would go to such extreme measures to delay this shipment. I have to admit we had a little chat via prayer today. It sounded something like this:

ME: Umm, God! Can you explain this one to me? I don’t understand why you would not want these kids to get their gifts? We have been praying for this for a long time. A lot of people have been praying about this. I have everything ready to go.

God’s Response: Did you ever think this was not the gift I wanted these kids to get? I have something better in mind. Something they will love. “Soccer Balls!”

Me: But God they need school supplies not soccer balls. Where am I going to get a 125 soccer balls? I only have eight days.

God: Why should My children only get things they need? They need to feel My love. You give them the supplies and I will give them soccer balls.

Me: I get it Lord, but where and how?

God: I will show you.

So within an hour my assistant Ida had helped me track down a wholesaler who would sell me soccer balls at a discounted price. He was even willing to help me with a deal to cut the shipping charges.

Kids in Indonesia are crazy for soccer. They play it everywhere. The beauty of soccer is you only need a ball. I have seen kids use pieces of garbage or wood to make the goals. Having their own ball would be something these kids would never think possible.

I have been a Christian for a long time. I know without a doubt that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and it is only by His grace that I am saved. But sometimes, God feels far away and so big that I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Today, I can honestly say that I had a close up in your face encounter that reminded me of His love for all of us. Not the love of some untouchable being, but that of a father. One who cared if his children received soccer balls or school supplies. I know to some of you this sounds crazy. So if I have offended you I am sorry but this touched me so deeply I had to share it with you.

Trimming the Tree

2011-11-26T23:25:00.000-08:00

Is there anything more frustrating than getting ready to put up the Christmas tree and realizing that all your lights don't work? When you live in the middle of Sumatra it is enough to drive this type A personality a bit postal. I actually managed to keep it together but over the last three weeks John and I have taken them off and on four times. That is no easy task when you have a 12 foot tree and no ladder. Thank goodness for my Mom! She came to the rescue and sent us four strands of precious lights from the States. Thanks Mom for saving the day! Today we finished up putting the ornaments on and its starting to feel more like Christmas. I can hardly wait to come back from church tonight and sit by the tree and enjoy some hot Chocolate.

Christmas Miracle Update:

We received an update from the shipping company. The Davis shipment is Indonesia. It's about four hours away going through customs. PLEASE pray that God would continue working his Christmas Miracle. We have twelve days until the Christmas Party. Upik, our sewing lady, finished up the bags and we will string them this week. Cookie baking is our next step. It should be a lot of fun baking 600 cookies for the party with our youth group. The kids have been great about helping out.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sydney's Sign

2011-11-20T04:25:00.000-08:00

Last May, Sydney did some modeling for a local salon and spa. We haven't seen any of the pictures in print till today. It was fun spotting Sydney on the way home from church. Sorry about the terrible quality of the photo. I was seriously dodging motorcycles and cars to get just these two. I promise, I will get better quality pictures soon.

Sydney's Fieldtrip

2011-11-17T03:08:00.000-08:00

This year the middle school went to Yogyakarta for a five day trip. Yogyakarta or simply Yogya, is in the province of Central Java. It is considered the most famous part of Java and is, in fact, its cultural center. There are a lot of religious influences in Yogya including Buddhist, Hindu, and other indigenous beliefs, which resulted in the construction of the impressive temples of Borobudur, Prambanan and the Dieng temple complex. It's located at the foot of the active Merapi volcano and stretches to the Indian Ocean.

Sydney had a blast. The kids did more than just visit temples. They picked tea, visited an orphanage, went for a buggy ride, went for a bike ride to a temple, and made some arts and crafts. The highlight of the trip for Sydney was going to Starbucks and hanging out with her friends. Of course all the cultural stuff was cool too.

Sydney and her roomate Aubrey. They had a great time.

Sydney's little buddy at the orphanage.

Sydney and Ella making pencil people.

Visiting Borobudor temple.

Borobudor is the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia. It was built in the 9th century. For almost a thousand years it was covered under thick layers of volcanic ash. From a far Borobudur Temple looks like a huge but ordinary stone construction. But as you get closer you can see that it consists of hundreds of statues and sculptures, representing Buddhist teachings mixed with images of Javanese life from a thousand years ago.

Sydney playing spoons with her friends.

Another ancient site they visited in the area.

Shopping

2011-11-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

Last night we had to make a quick run to Pekanbaru to pick up some fabric. I have my sewing Ibu (woman) coming this weekend to finish up the fabric gift bags for the Christmas kids. Saturday afternoon our youth group is coming to help me put the 200 drawstrings in the bags. Please continue to pray that the gifts would make it our camp before the 10th.

While we were shopping in Pekanbaru I snapped a couple quick photos of some of the ice cream toppings and donuts that are available at the mall. I bet you will not see these at Krispy Cream or Cold Stone.

Brooklyn waiting patiently for her frozen yogurt. Strawberries are her topping of choice. Right after I snapped this shot the lights went out in the mall. In the US that would cause total panic but not here in Indonesia. People patiently wait for the lights to come back on. It is crazy how normal it is for them.

Corn flakes are not only an ice cream topping but also a pizza topping.

Lychee Jelly??

I love the descriptions. They crack me up.

It's OK to be addicted. Umm...not so much!

You never know what phrase you might find on a shirt in Indonesia.

Meet the Tooth Fairy

2011-11-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well it took Brooklyn a while to loose her first tooth but it finally happened. It has been loose for quite a while now. After some prodding from Kathi, Sydney and I, she allowed all of us to work on it a little until finally it came out. She was pretty freaked out at first but then began running around to all of the mirrors in the house checking out the new hole in her smile. She now can hardly get herself to sleep as she waits for the Tooth Fairy to visit and to show her friends in the morning. Ah, to be six years old again.

Soccer

2011-11-13T04:20:00.000-08:00

Kade participated in soccer again this year. The season ending game was this weekend. I was impressed with how much his dribbling skills have improved this year. He really enjoyed playing.

Kade and his fellow "Everton Toffees" of the English Premier League played "The Reds" from Liverpool. They played to a draw which in my mind is pointless. Only in soccer and hockey.

The older "kids" played a game with the middle schoolers. I felt like I was sweating to the oldies. Living near the equator is HOT! This one too ended in a tie. Exciting, no?

Trip to the Nursery

2011-11-11T02:06:00.001-08:00

One of the many great thing about living in the jungle is that we are lucky to have help at our home. We have a gardener who handles not only the outside of our house but also the washes the floors and cleans the porch. I know all of you in the States are rolling your eyes. Yes, we know we have it good.

Our gardener, Zani, who has been with us for the last three years is the sweetest old man. Last month we had to ask him to retire because he was struggling with the physical labor involved with being a gardener. We saw the terrible toil it was taking on his body and knew it was time to let him go. That did not make it easy though. John and I both felt terrible but we knew his best interest was at heart.

Well, we were lucky enough to find an experienced gardener named Chi Chi. He is amazing and our yard already looks a hundred times better. Yesterday, John and I ventured out to Pekanbaru in search of some new plants and flowers. Our driver took us to three local nurseries. We had a great time picking out new things for the yard. I thought you might enjoy a little glimpse into what we saw.

The first nursery we stopped at was just about five minutes out of camp.

Picture from the window of the Avanza. (The teachers co-oped car)

Many of the trees here flower. The colors are almost always bright and beautiful.

I find the trunks of trees in Indonesia so interesting.

Many of them are twisted like this one. I am sure it serves some kind of a purpose.

Typical House/Store on the way to Pekanbaru.

I love all the different textures and colors.

Poor John was getting ate by mosquitoes.

I can't believe neither of us thought about bug spray before we left the house. We so should know better.

We would have loved to have bought this tree. I have no idea how we would have got it home.

Typical Restaurant.

Beware of the Guard Chicken.

Do you want some of this?

We bought this flowering tree. It was beautiful.

I have never seen a plant this color. It's actually bright pink and evidently the wild pigs love it.

We bought two of them for $5.00.

We are going to try potting it and see if they will leave it alone.

A light traffic day heading into town. It's normally way crazier.

Nursery # 2.

The Indonesian Les Schwab. These tire shops are everywhere.

They have been working on the roads since we moved here three years ago.

In another three years they might be done.

A creative use for broken tile.

Another store kind of like the Indonesian Kwik-i-Mart.

Gasoline - I am guessing not EPA approved.

Pumpkin Wars

2011-11-09T01:55:00.000-08:00

The seasons here in Sumatra are hot and less rain and hot and lots of rain. That makes it tough for us to know just what season it is back home. Kathi's favorite time of year is the Fall and so she really wanted our PYP Youth Group to do something Fall related.

Her Idea? Pumpkin Chuckin' (Thanks Ashley L.)! We had a friend of ours here go out and find 30 or so pumpkins, which by the way don't really look like the kind of pumpkins we are used too. Green is the new orange as you can see in the pictures below.

We waited until it was nice and dark and then sent each kid out with a pumpkin, after giving them the rules of course:
1) You must open the pumpkin yourself without a knife or tool of any kind.
2) You can only throw the guts of the Pumpkin, not the rind.
3) You can only use what you can pull out of the pumpkin with your hands.

We had three rounds of battle and the kids had a ball! They used the sidewalk as the blunt instrument for which to slam their pumpkin. They then took the guts and hurled them at one another. An orange storm ensued.

There were seeds, guts and rinds everywhere. The kids were covered from head to toe with pumpkin insides. The insides were definitely orange because the kids were covered in it. In fact most of the parents commented that their cars now smell like pumpkin. If that doesn't scream Fall I don't know what does.

It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed watching the kids have it out with one another. We can't wait until our next get together. Kathi always has a fun idea for the kids.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!

Finding this many pumpkins in Pekanbaru is not a easy task. Thank Ibu Joyce!

I am not sure if Sydney won or lost this battle?

Take cover!

Ready...Set...Throw!

War Relics.

Enjoying a little post battle refreshments.

Telling War Stories.

Yeah, but you should have seen the other guy.

Announcement

2011-11-09T01:41:00.000-08:00

I could not figure out another way to tell everyone at one time. So here goes: tomorrow night at the school board meeting it will be official. The Getzinger family is headed back to Washington State at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. We have LOVED our time in Indonesia but it is time for us to go home. This experience has opened our eyes to a whole new world. We have made so many wonderful friends who we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

Kathi's Shopping List

2011-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things that was very important to me this trip was picking up a few items that I thought would be important to Brooklyn in the future. We knew that when we adopted a child of a different ethnicity that we would need to find intentional ways to tie her culture into our daily lives and big events. Here is what I picked up:

Marriage Jewelry Box

We actually found this beauty in Pekanbaru at a little Chinese store under a set of escalators in a mall. John, with his eagle eyes, spotted it in the middle of a bunch of random knickknacks.

Ancient Chinese Coin

("Something Old" for her wedding one day)

Our Chinese friend Ann helped us find an authentic coin from the Qing dynasty which began in 1636 and ended in 1912. I think that would qualify it as something old.

Silk

Every Chinese girl needs first quality silk. We actually purchased two kinds of silk: the traditional red and gold silk, and a beautiful white. On the white pattern, if you look closely, has a dragon in it. Since we have always called Brooklyn our "Chinese Dragon" it seemed quite appropriate.

It is not pictured here because I couldn't get it to show up on camera.

Porcelain Bride and Groom made in Foshan

This was the tough one. I almost purchased one on our first trip but didn't and ever since I have kicked myself for not picking one up. During the first trip the porcelain was pretty easy to find. Well, due to the difficulty of shipping them they have become quite rare. We searched high and low for one. I must have been in at least forty different shops looking for one.

Our last day in China I had pretty much given up finding one. It wasn't until we arrived at the airport and were checking in our luggage that I spotted a little gift shop. I told John that I just had to check one last time. To my utter disbelief what did I see sitting on the shelves but Foshan Porcelain.

It was not exactly the one that I saw in 2007 but it was close. I made a quick purchase and carefully carried it back to check in. You should have seen John's face when he spotted me carrying it back. Absolutely Priceless! His first question of course was how much it cost? My reply, “don’t ask, something’s are better left unsaid. " It wasn't really that bad but we definitely had the airport mark up. However, in my book it is well worth every penny of it. I love checking off things on my list.

Chinese Art

One of the things John and I have really enjoyed while being in Asia is collecting art that reminds us of the places we have been. We have never been into collecting original pieces but being in Asia has allowed us to acquire a few pieces and stay within our budget. We found four pieces that we just loved. Two oil paintings we purchased from a vendor at the antique market, one watercolor and a photograph were purchased in a shop next to the White Swan on Shamin Island.

Chinese Dress

I am not exactly sure what I was thinking when I gave Brooklyn the go ahead to pick out her own dress. I am considering it a momentary lapse in fashion judgement. It was no surprise when she picked out the pinkest dress I have ever seen. It's not only bright pink but also accented with light pink. Sydney tried gallantly to try and talk her into some of the beautiful slightly less gaudy ones but to no avail.

We came home with the PINK one.

North Face Coats

This wasn't actually on my list but we got a smoking good deal on them. You never know when you might be caught in a snowstorm in Sumatra. No, I bought bigger ones for when we return to Washington, or if they have another summer like the last one maybe we can use them in May.

Jade Dragon

In 2007 we purchased a Jade Dragon for Kade. Our cat knocked it off his dresser trying to get herself a Beta fish dinner. We found a nice replacement at the antique market.

Disneyland Hong Kong Christmas Ornament

We had a heck of a time finding these. In fact, we actually never did find real ornaments but settled on some key chains and cell phone decorations. Evidently HK Disneyland doesn't put out ornaments till after Halloween.

Well, that pretty much sums up my shopping list. We did come home with a few unexpected items: A Starbucks mug for John, two wood swords for our young Samaria, a book of coin replicas for Kade, and a key chain for Sydney, as well as a few other things for family and friends.

Official Disclaimer: Many of the items I purchased are for Brooklyn's wedding. We have a few boys picked out for her. Remember in our current location arranged marriages are quite common. However, if the she chooses not marry than she will receive her items when she is older.

Hanging with our Favorite Mouse

2011-11-05T03:27:00.000-07:00

Oh Baby! After our time hanging out and waiting for the park to open we were ready for Mickey. Just outside the entrance there is this great fountain of Mickey riding the blowhole of a whale on a surfboard. There is a picture of it below. It was pretty cool.

After getting through the gate we had no real plan other than to try and get to everything possible and take as many pictures with characters as possible. Here are a few of the highlights.

• The Jungle Cruise at HKD seemed the same when you got on but without the corny jokes. Asian humor is a little different than Western humor mostly in the sense here is Asia if it isn't physical humor it isn't funny.

• Its a Small World is like the gift that keeps on giving. Just like the one back home the song gets stuck in your head and you wish you had worn earmuffs.
Aside: One thing that I have learned about Asia while I have lived here is the idea that directions whether given orally or on signs are merely suggestions. If you have every been on a flight in Asia you know that the "fasten seat belt sign" means nothing. As soon as the plane touches the runway you hear a chorus of seat belts unbuckling and people trying to grab bags out of the overhead compartment. The Disney connection to this is when the woman in our boat in Small World stands up while going through the ride taking pictures and rocking the boat each time.

• While we were having lunch outside one of the restaurants we noticed that "Merlin" from The Sorcerer and the Stone was performing close by. Kade and Syd went to go check it out while the rest of us finished up lunch.

Merlin was having people from the audience try and pull the sword out of the stone. No one could do it. Then Merlin looked to the crowd and pulled Kade out there with him and had him try. At first Kade had no luck. Merlin gave Kade some of advice and some magic words to say and sent him back for one more try. All the while the crowd was looking on and wondering if Kade was the "chosen one." After Kade spoke the magic words he was able to pull the sword from the stone.

This feat did not go unappreciated. The crowd gave him a great ovation and he was crowned King of all the land by Merlin. Kade had a ball! He loved it and really liked the idea of him being a King. In fact he was ordering his subject, ur, sisters around the rest of the day.

• At around 4 PM there was a parade. Kade and Brooklyn were both pulled from the crowd to be a part of it. They were able to dance with the performers from the Toy Story themed parade.

• Brooklyn was able to spend some time with Snow White and Aurora. The lines are not nearly as long as we are used to so you really have a chance to interact with the characters. That is something you can spend a lot of time waiting for in other parks.

• Later in the day we met up with our friends from Rumbai. They went with Brooklyn to see the princesses and we all rode some of the rides together. We ended the day watching the fireworks again and just enjoying the fact that we were able to have this opportunity.

This is a really cool fountain.

The front gate to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Mickey's smile is made out of pumpkins for Halloween.

To Infinity and Beyond.

This place would spray water out at random times. It was a great place to cool off.

Easy there Stitch!

Anyone home?

It really is a Small World.

Another picture Mom?

Merlin giving Kade instructions.

"Repeat after me."

Kade the conqueror.

King Kade.

Brooklyn and Snow White.

Aurora posing with Brooklyn.

The Parade.

Brooklyn getting to perform in the parade.

Our last shot at Hong Kong Disneyland.

The toiletries at the Disneyland Hotel.

HK Disneyland Hotel

2011-11-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning came to us early as we were booked to have Breakfast with Mickey and Friends. By a stroke of luck we arrived at Disneyland the same time as another family from camp who have two daughters. Both of who are Brooklyn’s buddies. We had not told Brooklyn or her friends that we would be there at the same time and so it was a big surprise when we went down to breakfast and sat down with them to enjoy some quality time with Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy.

If you have ever been to a character meal at Disneyland you know that the young kids just love seeing the characters up close. Getting pictures and hugs pretty much stops the meal in its tracks when they get to your table. The girls had a blast and it was so cute to see.

After breakfast we headed to the back of the hotel to try out their shrubbery maze as well as take in the view of the South China Sea and the ferry dock just beyond the maze. We had to kill some time because the park does not open until 10:30. Like I said before, Disney-Light. We got some great pictures around the hotel which was expertly maintained.

The shrub maze. That killed some time!

The entrance to the Character Breakfast.

Ah, the things that entertain kiddos.

Just goofing around.

Mickey all dressed up for Halloween.

Hey Mickey, where's Pluto?

You are never too old for a picture with Mickey!

The shore of the South China Sea.

Not a bad view.

Watch your step.

The ferry dock made us think of Washington.

Kade climbing rocks. This may have been his favorite part of the morning.

What do we have here?

If you can't tell, that is Moo Shoo from Disney's "Mulan" film.

Christmas Miracle

2011-11-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am sure you are wondering what in the world these two things have in common? Well, for the Getzinger family a whole lot. This summer John and I were lucky enough to be able to put items into the shipment of a new teaching family here at ISR. Well, we expected it to arrive in September but it has been delayed at least ten times. Here is where the need for a miracle comes in.

Inside of that shipment is Christmas gifts for 200 needy kids. And it's not like I can just run to Target and pick up replacement gifts. The shipment is scheduled to arrive in Singapore on November 15th. That gives it four weeks to get through customs in both Singapore and Indonesia. Sounds like plenty of time but with the corruption in Indonesia it is very possible that it could be held up. It is not uncommon for companies and government agencies to ask for a "donation," or just to take their own sweet time doing things. Our school has a no tolerance policy when it comes to giving "donations" for shipment delivery.

The teacher family will be leaving for Christmas break on December 15th and if the shipment arrives after that date they will not deliver it because they have to be present during the delivery. So please pray that God would allow the shipment to arrive in record speed. We need a "Christmas Miracle". Thanks for praying for us.

The Happiest Place in Southeast Asia

2011-11-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

The subway train to Hong Kong Disneyland.

I am so excited!

Hang on, Kade.

Boy it doesn't get any better than that sign right there! After our train ride and subsequent subway journey we ended up at "The Happiest Place in Southeast Asia!" If you didn't already know this, the Getzingers are HUGE Disney Junkies. Disneyland is truly our favorite place in the world so we were very excited to get the opportunity to take in Hong Kong Disney.

When you get to the station that takes you to Disneyland the train has Mickey shaped windows which give the train a really distinctive look. When the kids saw the train that just about sent them over the edge with excitement.

The orphanage visit was so amazing but ultimately it took a lot out of all of us. We were going to spend a short day and a half at HKD to try and relax and have a different kind of enjoyment. This was just what we needed. Disney brings out the kid in all of us and we were ready to play.

When you get off the train you head up an escalator and there is the entrance to the park. If only we weren't carrying our suitcases. Off to the transfer bus we went; to check in at the Disneyland Hotel. After that process we finally headed to the park about 4:30.

Now one thing we had been told about Hong Kong Disneyland is to think of it as Disney-Light. It is not nearly as large as the original and it can pretty much be covered in a full day or day and a half, especially since it doesn't have an adjoining park like California Adventure. Being that it is Disney-Light, from Sunday-Wednesday the park opens at 10:30 and closes at 7:30. Since we spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the park that meant we only had three hours for our first day.

We wanted to waste no time so we went right in and got started. After a quick trip down Main Street U.S.A., as it is named, we headed straight for the only roller coaster ride at the park, Space Mountain.

Aside: That is a pretty funny statement seeing as how we were in H.K. but that is what the main street is called just like the original Disneyland. I often wondered if people in Asia come to HKD and go back home thinking, "Is the US really full of shops that sell trinkets at ridiculous prices along with food that you need to sell a kidney to afford?" Ah, yes, yes it is.

The best thing about HKD is the short lines and much smaller crowds. Our wait to get onto Space Mountain was 5 minutes. That was sweet! The ride was quite fast with lots of turns but no real drops like the original. It was still a lot of fun and all of us loved it.

After that we wandered around and took in two cool shows. The first was a 3-D movie called "Mickey's Philharmagic" which was full of surprises like water spraying at you and the smell of food wafting through the air at the appropriate junctures of the show. The 3-D effects were amazing. The next show was "The Lion King, Live" This one was a half hour live action version of the Lion King reminiscent of Lion King the Musical. Great costumes, fire performers and great singing and dancing. Very impressive!

After that we milled around taking in various rides and waited for the 7:30 fireworks show above Snow White's Castle. The display was ohh and ahh worthy. A great way to end our time there the first night.

After we filed out of the park we climbed back on the bus and took the 5 minute ride to the hotel. Since it was so early we decided we should use the pool. We got ready, headed downstairs and out to the pool. The kids were the only ones in the pool. It was great. There were a lot of people staying at the hotel but no one was using the outdoor pool. We had it all to ourselves.

After that we headed upstairs to shower up and hit the hay. It had been a full day and we were ready for some sleep. We needed our rest because we were spending the entire day at the park tomorrow!

The whole park was dressed up for Halloween.

The kids quite excited at the entrance to Space Mountain.

Tea anyone?

Not quite the Great Pumpkin.

One of Sydney's dance recitals had her playing a dancing mop. This is her reprising the role.

It is the 5 year Anniversary of Hong Kong Disneyland. Snow White's Castle all dressed up.

Getting ready for Mickey's PhilharMagic.

Pool time, Baby!

Train to Hong Kong

2011-11-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we were up at the crack of dawn for the next leg of our journey. The plan for the day looked something like this (Green Folder) :):

· Wake up call 6:00am

· Breakfast at the hotel @ 7:00am

· Check out 7:30am

· Driver picks us up @ 8:00am and we drive from Foshan to the Guangzhou Train Station

· Catch the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong at 10:30

· Arrive in Hong Kong around noon

· Catch another train from Hong Kong to the Disneyland Hotel

· Check in and head for the Park

Things went surprisingly easy. Thanks to some great tips from our friends the Smiths who spent the last two years teaching in China. The train station was gigantic. Our guide Ann had instructed the driver to make sure that we got to the right terminal. It wasn’t actually that difficult because all the signs were in both English and Chinese. We arrived early enough to grab a quick drink from Starbucks. If you are ever in Asia the Mango Passion Fruit iced drink is delicious.

The train was really nice and we found a great way to travel. We had purchased first class tickets and let me tell you it was well worth the extra money. The seats were comfortable and the view from the train made the two-hour ride fly by.

We arrived in Hong Kong and grabbed a quick bite to eat. The best thing about the Hong Kong train system is that the Starbucks serves my favorite winter drink, the CHAI TEA LATTE. In three years in South East Asia we have never found a Starbucks that serves them. I was beyond excited and enjoyed every last sip.

The train system in Hong Kong is so well planned out. Both John and I were surprised how easy it was to navigate. It is organized and clean which are two things we’re not used to seeing anymore. I think the most complicated thing the whole day was checking into the hotel. The subway took us all the way to Disneyland. Not having to deal with a Taxi was so nice.

By 4:30, we were ready to hit the park. I will post more on that tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

October 24th

2011-10-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

The big day had finally arrived. We were heading back to Brooklyn’s orphanage for the first time since we had adopted her four years ago. The orphanage is housed in a different building than before as they are waiting on a new building to be built. The staff is still the same except that the director has retired and has been replaced by a new one.

We were met by our driver and our friend Ann at our hotel and then made the short 30-minute drive to the orphanage. After a little confusion on our driver’s part in regards to finding the entrance we were there.

While I will try to convey what happened and how it felt to be there as this all happened, I am sure I will not do it justice. It was truly a special event in our family’s history. Hopefully the pictures that accompany this post will give you a better idea of what went on.

We pulled up and all piled out of the minivan. Brooklyn’s special Nanny from when she was in the orphanage was there as was the old director, the new director and about four other support women from the orphanage. They were all standing at the top of the stairs waiting for us. We all walked up and immediately Brooklyn was greeted with hugs and hellos.

First up was her Nanny who was near tears at seeing her. We have over the years sent pictures of Brooklyn back to the orphanage so that they know how she is doing and know how thankful we are to them for the care they gave her. We have not known if they have every received any of the pictures. Her Nanny began pulling out all of the pictures we had sent from her purse. She had gotten them laminated and keeps them at her home. She wanted Brooklyn to know that she keeps them. She was talking to Brooklyn in Cantonese. Brooklyn had no idea what she was saying but she was listening intently and you could tell that even after all this time the two had a connection. As the day wore on you could see that connection grow even stronger.

After all of the hugs and hellos we grabbed the diapers we had purchased the day before and brought them inside. They then took us into a room where they gave us bottled water. I am guessing they thought we were hot. I am not sure that they understood that coming from Indonesia the 80 degree weather they were having was like heaven for us.

While Kathi and I were talking with the director through Ann, Brooklyn was still hanging out with her Nanny. Kade and Sydney had gone out into the courtyard where several children were playing. The children came right up to them and Kade and Sydney played with them and walked around to all of them to say hello.

I was so happy to see Kade and Syd respond the way they did. Brooklyn’s orphanage is a special needs orphanage which has many kids with Down Syndrome as well as Cerebral Palsy and other syndromes and disabilities. Some people have a hard time accepting people like that. I cannot tell you how proud I am of all three of the kids. Without our prompting they were in there playing with the kids, talking to them (some of the older kids knew some English phrases) and just making those kids feel loved, if even for a short time. Sometimes we as parents often see the things we would like to work on with our kids in regards to behavior and believe me I have some things I want to see my kids get better at, but at that moment I was really just so proud of them.

Next they took us all up to the baby room. This room has the kids under three. There were about 10 kids there today. Several of them were out for medical checkups at the hospital. There are about 150 kids in this orphanage and the ages range from a few weeks old to over 18. Many of the children are considered unadoptable by the Chinese government due to their disabilities.

The baby room was definitely my favorite. I tried to hold as many of them as I could. They were all so sweet. All of them were starved for attention. There are just too many of them to all get the one on one attention that they need. I wish I could have taken a bunch of them home and given them the love they deserve. Unfortunately that was not an option so I had to settle for trying to hold as many as I could. It was a pretty emotional experience seeing all of the need that these little ones have and not being able to help. Again all three of the kids played with and talked to the little ones here as well.

While I was holding babies, Kathi was taken around to other areas of the building and was able to see many of the other rooms that kids lived in. It was hard to see all of the kids that don’t and won’t have a family to call their own. We are saddened by this, but we are so thankful for those people who care for these little ones.

After this we all came back to the court yard where there were only a few kids left out playing. There were however some characters there. There was an eight year old boy that Sydney really took to. She was ready to take him home right then and there. He was so sweet. Then there was a girl about 12 who had Down Syndrome. She was hilarious. We were taking copious amounts of pictures and so when she would see the camera ready to shoot she would fly into the picture with a sparkling smile and a peace sign. She even knew some English and was great at parroting what we said in English back to us. She was awesome.

There was also a 15 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy who was talking to Kade. He wanted Kade to know he was smart so badly. He wanted Kade to ask him questions so he could show him he was smart. It seems to us that this culture doesn’t understand that people with CP do not necessarily have any issues mentally. This kid was very smart and he is a kiddo that could have been adopted by the right family but now that he is over 14, he can’t be adopted. He is a great young man and sadly he will be institutionalized for the rest of his life.

I digress. After we said goodbye to these kids in the courtyard we took a bunch of pictures with the staff there. Brooklyn was still hanging out with her Nanny and they seemed to be playing a game that she recognized from before we got her. We were then off to take the about 7 of the women to lunch at a traditional Cantonese restaurant. Count Ann and the driver into the mix and all 14 of us headed out to eat.

This was an interesting experience. First off we allowed them to order for the group. It was a typical family style Chinese meal that you would have back in the States. The large round table with the lazy susan in the middle and family style servings were all pretty standard.

Brooklyn and her Nanny sat side by side the whole meal with her nanny talking Brooklyn’s ear off in Cantonese. Brooklyn did great sitting and listening to her even though she only knows a little Mandarin from her Chinese class she takes. She can no longer speak Cantonese and while she recognizes sounds she doesn't understand the language. It was almost like they could communicate even though they didn’t speak the same language. It was really pretty amazing.

When we sat down each person had a set of dishes in front of them wrapped in plastic. We all unwrapped the dishes as they were serving hot tea and we needed our cups for this. We have never seen this before but instead of drinking the tea they begin to wash the dishes and chopsticks with the hot tea. I asked what is going on to Ann and she says that they are just cleaning the dishes before we eat. “But wait weren’t they just wrapped in plastic because they were clean?” Apparently this is what you do and when in China…so I went about washing my dishes. I got a big laugh from all of them when I started washing my plate. I asked what was wrong and they said that you don’t wash your plate because that is for garbage. Of course it is! You then dump out your tea and they poor you a new cup for you to drink. We are always learning new things for sure!

Next came the food. It started with an eggplant dish that was pretty tasty but a little slimy in texture. Then came the pigeon. Yeah I said it, pigeon. Complete with the neck and head attached and cooked up for you. Again I was really proud of the kids. We told them before we went that when we went out to lunch they had to eat what was put in front of them. To their credit they took small amounts of most things and ate it with a smile on their face. I had some of the pigeon and it was actually really pretty good. I stuck with a leg and not the beak though.

As we sat there more and more food came out. Several vegetable dishes, a beef dish, and then a gigantic catfish all made their way to the table. I know it was a catfish because it was brought to the table completely intact and staring out at me. I stay away from fish if I don’t know where they come from and looking at the pollution in the Pearl River I decided to take a pass on that. A little later they brought out white rice for all of the Getzingers except Brooklyn, who had wanted fried noodles. You might think that white rice is no big deal but the Chinese know how to make some mean rice. It was not Uncle Ben’s for sure. It was far and away the best rice I have ever had. In fact all of the food I tasted was very good.

Brooklyn meanwhile was in hog heaven. Brooklyn can out eat me on a normal day. I do not know where she puts it as she has no fat on her body, but that girl has competitive eating in her future. You can tell that she was eating comfort food as she ate, and ate, and ate some more. She must have had 4 large helpings of noodles and that was after a lot of other food before that. At one point she sat back in her chair and said, “I need a break,” as she patted her tummy. Not a minute later she was back at it, chopsticks shoveling more food into her mouth. Even the staff was impressed by her eating exploits.

Finally we were all sitting around knowing that our time was coming to an end. We asked if they wanted to know anything about Brooklyn and they said they wanted to know how she does in school. We told them that she is a great reader and that she is extremely intelligent. Her Nanny said that they always knew she was smart. They said that if we left her with them for a month she would be able to speak Cantonese again. The old director told us that she wants Brooklyn to be a doctor. We told her that we think she might be an attorney because of her intensity and stubbornness. The director told us again, “She needs to be a doctor!” Okay then.

After lunch was over we all headed down to the cars to go our separate ways. Brooklyn’s Nanny told us that seeing Brooklyn now makes all the hard work she puts in with the kids worth it. That was great for us to hear. After that she started to cry and we gave hugs all around got into the minivan and headed back to the hotel.

It truly was an experience that none of us will ever forget. Brooklyn was definitely worn out by the end, more emotionally than physically. While it was an awesome experience it was a lot for her little mind to process through. She needed to be close to Kathi the rest of the day. She went to bed early but when we asked her what her favorite thing was she said it was seeing her Nanny.

We feel so blessed to be able to make this trip. We have been through a lot of issues in order to even be able to make the trip. This was actually the third time we tried to make the trip and I think for Brooklyn’s sake it was better that she was a little bit older. God obviously knew what was best and allowed us to go in His perfect timing. We hope you enjoy seeing the pictures we can show you.

Next time: Hong Kong Disneyland!

Gifts that we brought for the Nannies.

The homes close to Brooklyn's orphanage.

Picking up oranges for the kids

Brooklyn's Nanny brought her gifts.

It's good to be back together.

Family Photo.

This young man is one smart cookie.

Court yard of the orphanage.

This girl was quite the trickster.

Sydney and her new friends.

The orphanage staff.

Syd is ready to bring this guy home.

Lunch time!

Now our dishes are clean.

How do these chopsticks work anyway?

It is tough when the food looks back at you.

Not sure what type soup this was but it was really good.

Pigeon anyone. I hear the beak is excellent.

The white bars were good. The other ones...eh.

If Brooklyn ever has to have a last meal, this is it!

Noodles to go.

Brooklyn and our friend Ann.

October 24th

2011-10-31T09:27:00.001-07:00

Day 3 - Exploring Foshan

2011-10-31T00:49:00.000-07:00

The Shunde Qinghui Park

After breakfast we loaded up the minivan and headed to Foshan. Foshan is a city about an hour drive from Guangzhou. It is famous for it’s porcelain figurines and is a nice small city by China standards. About 2 million people live inside the city limits. On the ride to Foshan you go through a nice agricultural area although the skyline of skyscrapers all around is never out of view.

According to our folder for today (thanks Kathi) we were to drop off our bags at our new hotel and then head out to see a Chinese garden, hit Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and have dinner at a highly recommended Italian restaurant called Casa Mia which is apparently run by an expat American family.

We were able to check into a nice Sheraton in Foshan. We were very excited as we were going to be spending two nights in this hotel which meant we didn’t have to be all packed up and ready to go to the next hotel that night. This hotel was great and by all standards really well appointed. However after the one we just came from it was still a little bit of a letdown.

After checking in we headed to a Chinese garden/park that was extremely beautiful. It had Koi ponds, waterfalls that you could walk under, many buildings that were replicas one from ancient dynasties as well as amazing flora that was just beautiful. I went in thinking it was just going to be something to kill some time but I really enjoyed it.

Next up was a trip to Wal-Mart to buy some diapers for the orphanage. Apparently Wal-Mart is pretty common now in China. We chose to go to one that was close to a restaurant that was recommended by trip advisor. Little did we know that it was about an hour to that area of Foshan. If we would have known we would have chosen differently but the call of good food won out.

Wal-mart was interesting. It was on the second floor in a mall like building. It was full of people like an American Wal-Mart. You want to talk about some funny looks. Be a white family with a Chinese girl who speaks English and you get some interesting stares and side conversations! You definitely get a mix of reactions. Some people are very polite and smile at you when you are walking around. Others frown and you can tell they do not approve of our family make-up. Overall though, it was a very good experience.

After this we were to go to dinner at Casa Mia. It was supposed to be very close to where we were. Well our driver could not find it even though Kathi had printed out directions in Mandarin. He called our friend Ann and she had no luck helping him either. We decided to go to Starbucks first and get a coffee mug with the name of Foshan on it to commemorate the trip. While there I talked to a US expat to see if he knew of this restaurant. He said he had heard of it and knew it was close but couldn’t figure out just where. That meant we were left with…Pizza Hut. Not what we were wanting but it was better than the Pizza Hut we have in PKU.

After a dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax a little. I took Kade and Sydney down to the pool to do a little swimming. The pool here was more of a lap pool and this hotel was not set up as well for kids. It seemed much more business oriented. Anyway we got in the pool and started swimming. After about 5 minutes a hotel worker comes out to us and says we should have on swimming caps. I was a little confused so asked him to repeat himself. He said it again and I was like, “Really?” I told him we didn’t have any. I asked if they had any at the hotel to borrow. He said he would look. He came back and told us he did not have any. I asked if they had any to buy. He said yes and I told him we would buy them. He left only to come back and tell me they were out of ones to buy. He then left and came back a fourth time with two that he said we could borrow. Syd and I put them on leaving Kade cap free. Mine was black and Syd said I looked like I belonged in a rap video. He was finally satisfied that we could continue swimming. He came back a fifth time and brought us one more. I recognized this one as one that another swimmer who had just left the pool was wearing. Nice! Kade got that one. He was actually very into it. I didn’t tell him it came from a guy that just left.

After that we headed up to bed. We had an early morning wake up call so we could eat a good breakfast and then head out to the orphanage for the big day!

That is a big pot.

Not quite as nice as the previous hotel but not bad.

The Pearl River view from our hotel.

More pictures at the park.

Just going for a walk.

Just let me put my toe in Dad.

This was a live action performance by two senior citizens. It is of a tea ceremony.

At the park you could get dressed up in traditional Chinese garb and get some pictures taken. For a fee of course.

The Circle of Life.

A full day done. Time for some sleep!

Foshan

2011-10-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

Love Changes Everything!

2011-10-30T02:58:00.000-07:00

These first two pictures are ones we received before we went to go get Brooklyn.

This picture is from the month right before we went and got her. That is her in the middle.

Here she is playing with one of the orphans there now. It was sweet to see her spend time with them.

Above is our first trip to the orphanage in 2007. This is when we met her special nanny. This woman took a special interest in Brooklyn and they were quite bonded.

As you can see from this picture they both still love spending time together. They were never more than a few yards from each other all day.

Our Gotcha Day. You can see she was already a handful.

Back for our visit now. She is still a handful but will at least stand still for a picture.

The reason we call her our little Dragon. The first weeks were a lot of this.

Brooklyn now. A little different pose this time around. She can still have her Dragon moments though!

Day 2 - Chateau Star River, Guangzhou

2011-10-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

After our trip to Shamin Island we then headed back to our second hotel of the trip. The hotel was called the Chateau Star River. This was not the hotel that we originally booked. We original booked the White Swan Hotel using Expedia. Apparently Expedia was accepting reservations for the W.S. even though they were under renovation.

We booked the W.S. in May and were happy to get an opportunity to stay there again. In June we received an e-mail from Expedia saying that the W.S. was not available so they were having to change our reservation for that evening. They told us that it would be a comparable hotel to the W.S. Boy, were they wrong!

The Chateau Star River was on the banks of the Pearl River just like the W.S. is but the similarities stopped there. The C.S.R. was a fairly new hotel, which boasts a starting rate of $450 per night and goes up from there. We had two rooms booked because in Asia the most you can have in a room is 3 people. Thankfully for us we got the W.S. rate which was about 25% of the C.S.R. starting rate.

Our rooms were spectacular! First off Kathi and my room had an “emperor size” bed. This bed was like two queen beds put together. Literally our entire family of 5 could have slept on this bed comfortably, and we are not small people. The kids rooms had two oversized queen beds for them. The room itself was gigantic with vaulted ceilings and posh décor. A 50 inch LCD was a bigger than normal TV for the likes of the Getzingers as was the free wireless Internet and the fact that the minibar was complementary as well. The kids were in heaven!

Another amenity was the oversized tub complete with a television built into the mirror wrapped around the tub. You could only see the TV when it was turned on. Otherwise it was part of the mirror. The waterproof remote control was the only way you could turn it on.

Did I mention the fitness facilities? Well there was a separate building which held that area. Inside this huge building two full size indoor tennis courts. When you head down stairs there are about 14 different rooms for different activities including several for billiards, massage, ping pong, ballroom dancing, a weight room that was massive, as well as some things I didn’t know how to play.

You then go into the locker rooms, which are equally as plush as the guest rooms. Lockers with personalized combinations, a fridge with cold water, a fridge with cold towels to wash your face. This is crazy but true: When you walk into the building you are met by someone with a walkie-talkie. They call down to the locker room and have people stock the locker they are going to give you with size appropriate gear such as flip flops, slippers, and a robe. This person then escorts you downstairs to the locker room area and shows you to your lockers. It was crazy.

Right before you head out to the pool you have to shower off. The water comes out of the walls and automatically adjusts to your height. How it knows how tall we all are I am not sure. Then you step out and see this massive pool. It is literally twice as big as an Olympic size pool. It is the biggest pool I have ever seen. That is only the indoor pool. Head outside and you see the outdoor pool that is also huge like a typical resort pool. Very cool! They were very secretive about the recreation area though. No pictures could be taken of this place. It was kind of weird.

One of the things you notice when you are in China is that people follow you around. We were the only ones in the pool and there were 3 people there watching us. They were sweet and were very helpful but you always are being watched, especially at hotels.

DINNER TIME: The hotel is pretty new and not next to any restaurants save their own. We thought we would go down to their restaurant and have some dinner. Little did we know dinner was $50 per person. $250 for dinner didn’t seem to fit into the budget so we decided to do something else. This was before we went to the pool so we decided that I would find some food and bring it back to the hotel while Kathi and the kids went swimming.

I started talking with the Concierge who spoke limited English. Since we had already had our fill of McDonalds I asked it there were any western style restaurants around. After he checked on his computer he said no. I then knew I had seen Pizza Huts around and asked it they would deliver. He called Pizza Hut and apparently they did not deliver to where we were.

That meant that I was going to have to venture out and find some food. I asked the Concierge if he could get me a taxi to take me to, you guessed it, McDonalds, yuck. Here is where it gets tricky. After the guy tried to call a taxi company they apparently were not interested in coming out to the hotel to take a guy to Mickey D’s.

So here is what my guy decides is the best way to get me to feed my family: We are going to have our shuttle take you to our sister hotel across the river, about a 15 minute drive. I will then have the bell boy there to get you a taxi that will take you back across the river to McDonalds. Make sure you let him know that you want him to wait while you get the food. Then have him bring you back here.

Really? That is your plan? Couldn’t the shuttle drive me to get the food? Apparently not. So what should have taken 15 minutes took over an hour. However after living in Asia for so long I have come to realize that my solution to a problem isn’t always everyone else’s solution. In fact all I could do when I climbed up into the shuttle was laugh. You have to be flexible when you are in a foreign country and not let things rattle you. I have learned this the hard way but our whole family has finally come accept this as normal. So in the end we all had our 3^rd McDonalds meal in 2 days.

Back to the Hotel:

After we got back to the room the beds had been turned down and amazing chocolates were left for us. A great way to head off to dream land which we all did rather quickly.

After a good but too short night of sleep, (having to pack up to leave each night is a big pain in the rear!) we headed down for the buffet breakfast that was included in our stay. The buffet was an amazing spread. The food was from all over the world, including bacon, which we don’t get in Indonesia. Brooklyn had loads of Chinese Noodles and a type yogurt that she would eat at breakfast when we got her in ’07. She loved it then and still seemed to love it now. My favorite dish was the ahi sushi. Sydney and Kathi loved the omelets with real ham not chicken ham that we have grown to accept in Indonesia. Kade was a happy camper with lots of bacon and toast.

After breakfast we headed out to Foshan. Brooklyn’s hometown and the home to her orphanage. We hit the orphanage the next day but still had some exploring to do in Foshan before that. I’ll get to that in our next post. Thanks for checking in with us!

The gigantic bed.

A square toilet? Very modern.

Like all of China there is construction everywhere.

Since the hotel was non-smoking you could use the ashtrays for other purposes.

The indoor tennis courts.

Kade trying sushi. He wasn't a big fan.

Chinese Noodles. Brooklyn thought she was in heaven.

Nothing like drinking your yogurt.

The restaurant seating area.

Just a peek at the outdoor pool. Those doors lead to the super secret pool and recreation area.

Just half of the buffet line up.

The front entrance to the recreation area.

As long as room service delivers to the bathroom there is no reason to leave this place! What's on the TV?

The lobby of the hotel.

A better shot of the outdoor pool.

The lounge.

The entrance to the hotel.

You would see these all over. We have taken to calling them Tuk-Trucks as they look like a work version of a tuk-tuk which you could use a taxi. I have decided that I really need one of these back home for yard work!