"Standing Out"

Have you ever felt like you were sticking out like a sore thumb? I think of certain times in my life when this was true. Once many years ago in Zambia, I was quite sick and was waiting for a procedure in   a hospital. I was lying, naked, on a gurney with one small sheet over me. The gurney was lined up in a hallway along with about 7 or 8 other gurneys, all full of other people in the same situation as I was. The problem was that I was the only white person in sight. It seemed like every nurse, doctor, visitor, relative that came down the hallway stopped and talked or stopped and stared at me. I was quite an anomaly. It would have helped if I had had clothes on, but only slightly. I find myself in a somewhat similar situation now. I am rather used to being the only Caucasian around. In Taian, a town of 4 million where we lived for 4 months, 2 years ago, there were only about 300 expatriates. Our picture was taken pretty much every day, sometimes by request, and sometimes surr...

Toilet Seats.....Again

Any of you that have followed the blog for a while know that we had a long string of toilet seat mishaps in Taian when we first moved to China. I posted on FB (March 14, 2017) then and repeated it to the blog on March 16, 2018. (Look it up for a laugh.) Well, I am going to quote an exchange from WeChat, Asian social media, I just had with a friend newly moved to Taian. Friend: Funny story as we speak...We asked to have some plumbing problems looked at as well as a new toilet seat. The one we have disintegrated, literally. We have the manager and a plumber here, and the manager is worried about leaving us with no toilet seat. Having a challenging time. Convincing him it is OK to take the broken one is a challenge. Me: Too funny. During our 4 months in Taian we broke our toilet seat 3 times. Truth. What is it with Taian and toilet seats? I think back in my blog somewhere I reprint our toilet seat woes. Strange. Friend: It was cracked when we first arrived and then Chris slipped on ...

New Post

I have not posted much lately. Part of the reason is that our connectivity has been spotty. This Is not uncommon when there are big congresses, etc. happening here. I don’t completely understand the reasons for this, but I know that it happens. It is hard to express what it feels like when I cannot connect as normal. For many (most) of us overseas social media, email, news, etc. is such a lifeline. We often feel very far from home and so much of the internet helps with that. Being cut off from it feels like prison or a drought or something. I do remind myself of all those years where I would wait and wait for snail mail letters. At one point in Zambia, it took 3 weeks for a letter to arrive. Now I can talk to my children a couple times a day on fb messenger. I am so so thankful, but it feels even worse when it is taken away from you.   It seems to be straightening out, though. I have also not posted because I have so little encouragement to report about my hip. I keep thinkin...

What Did You Do Today?

So what did my day include? I got up at 6. I had time so that I could have slept much later and it would have been fine, but I am still jet lagging a wee bit and one of the last pieces to go is early morning rising. I had devotions from John 2. When Mary told the servants to do “whatever Jesus tells you,” what did she expect to happen? How did she possibly think Jesus was going to solve the lack of wine? Had he provided food from thin air in their family home before? But the Scriptures specifically says this was his first miracle. The point for me was not to solve the problem for God, but to simply give it to Him and see what he does with it. I needed that word in regard to my hip right now. I did my hip stretching exercises. I can do phase 2 fairly easily, but it hurts to stand on the bad leg to stretch the good leg. Is that suppose to be the case? I thought it was when I stretch the bad leg that I should feel pain? I had finished checking the essays from classes yesterday, ...

Six Weeks Post Surgery

Went to the doctor today for my 6 weeks check up post surgery. Always an adventure, but a dr. friend who assumes responsibility for many of us foreigners took me and thus easy access to specialists, etc. I speak my limited Chinese to her and she uses a translation device to answer me. It took about 45 minutes and that includes waiting for the xrays to be processed. It took more time to drive to the hospital than to actually be in the hospital. Although I could not understand the discussion about my hip (I will try to get a translation of the video my dr. friend took of the specialist waxing eloquent about my xray), the final opinion is that I am doing fine. They were astounded at how well I was walking around, and how much I am doing. They said I should be mostly in bed for 3 months. However, this is not what I was given to understand in the US and have been pretty discouraged about my continued pain and dependency on a walker, crutch, and cane. I can walk without pain with my wa...

We're Back....

A fine trip back to China. I had wanted to pray towards upgrade to business class so we could lie down, but never had the faith to do that. But didn’t need business class. The plane from Detroit to Amsterdam was only about ¼ full and we each had rows of four seats to stretch out in. Wonderful and we slept most of the way. Not so from Amsterdam to China, but we were not very tired after sleeping through 12 hours in Amsterdam in a lovely handicapped lounge. Wheelchair is definitely the way to go. Well cared for. We arrived in China at 10 a.m. and by 10:45 were through customs and in a taxi. Wheelchairs put you to the head of every line. Arrived home to a very cold apartment. It is well below freezing outside and we had turned the heater off for our 5 weeks at home. Slow to warm up. Soooo we got on our bikes and went for pizza with team mates. That is the best news: I can ride the bike with no problem! I was very worried my new hip would not do well with the biking motion, but no pain. ...