Green Eggs and No Ham

It is so good to be home. The trip was fantastic, the only thing that would have made it complete would be to have had Libby and Danny with us. I say complete, not better, because really, keeping up with all 3 probably would have been much more work (aka nightmare). We did miss them intensely and hope they can go next year when they are a little older.

The reunion was lots of fun though. Dan and Libby came out of the door shrieking and Jake dashed straight to Dan for a big hug. One of Danny's major concerns was going to visit Grandma Lou and pick up our rabbit. Grandma Lou's house is one of his favorite places on Planet Earth. We headed over last night and he completed his routine: hunt for candy, visit the chickens, kiss each baby bunny, search for candy, beg for more food, eat all the fruit in the house, search for candy, and then leave with bags of candy. Last night we were also treated to a half dozen fresh eggs. Dan helped me crack and scramble them this morning and I have to say, they were a little crunchy.

Let's face it, it will probably be weeks before I clean up and present all my favorite pictures and stories from China. The first 1,000 pictures are loaded on our laptop so I'll have to get those transferred before I can do anything with them. But certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, have been "gently prompting" me to at least get a few up. Here are a few that were still on the memory card. I plan on having full entries on food, toilets, the kids in the program, Jacob mishaps, culture clashes, etc. so this will take time people!

Not to give away some of the food blog but you can't really talk about China without mentioning tea. This particular glass irked me. I apparently ordered this in the Chengdu airport, looks a little different than I was imagining at the time. Anyway, it wasn't bad but if I had to give it an English name it would be "asparagus Spinach Tea."I love all the shots of Jake in the middle of a flock of new friends. The kids were so kind and patient with Jake and it was a blessing to see them interacting. Jake was highly upset at not being able to reach the pedals on the unicycle so he borrowed this scooter from a set of twin boys who lived nearby. The boys were really sweet to bring out the scooter every day knowing Jake was going to monopolize it.Here is Jake at the Beijing airport riding the train out. He was bummed out about leaving China but at least a little excited to be on a train.