{Hopes and Wishes - From the mind of Jeff}

Ashley and I went to church last Sunday. It takes an hour to get there, and meets over a BMW showroom. It was nice to meet new people and get to talk to them. Everyone was asking me what I was doing in china and when I told them that I was “being a loving and supportive husband”  they looked at me funny, and as one lady said “that’s different.”  She even let me know that there is a web site and a group of stay at home Dads who get together and hang out. I just want to make it to our city and start to meet people there. For now though I walk the city while Ashley is busy and find new things every day.

The hotel is just down the road from a large city park. The park walkway is paved with stone blocks, and every day or so I walk by and see people painting on the stones with a big brush.  I keep wandering what it was they were doing, as later in the day the writing is always gone, but never wanted to offend any one by just walking up to them and getting in their way so I just keep walking. But on Saturday, there was a big event going on. There was this group dancing and playing there drums.  And then as I walked into the park there was a lot of people watching this old man paint the stones.  It turns out its just water they write on the stones as signs of hope and love and peace, wishes for joy in their life and what they’re hoping for. It was cool, I asked this old man if I could take his photo and he said yes. This is only after standing there for about 4mins, then having the crowd see me and flip out; I don’t think they had ever seen someone as big as me. I must have taken 15-20 photos with people, if I say so I think after the first three people just thought I was a celeb, that’s why they wanted my photo.

A new group of teachers from Ashley’s program just got here this week and I got to help some of them out by taking them to stores to get things they needed, and show them around.  It feels good to be helpful now and then.

Stay tuned as the Chinese New Year is coming up, and I’m sure there will be photos and more posts to read. I will do my best to show you all what joys and Ashley and I get to experience together.
-Jeff