Our Daily Life: May 2016

First, the majority of the family's birthdays fell into the last several months. Sophia, Kendall, Chloe, Amy, Andy, and Dad. We had lots of time enjoying each others' company. Everybody loved it! For Sophia and Kendall's birthdays, we went to Babe's Chicken. It soon became everyone's new favorite restaurant.We went there again for Chloe's birthday.

For Andy's birthday, he wanted to go to ChuckNCheese. It was the first time for our kids to have birthday party at a place like that. We invited our neighbor friends only. All six neighborhood kids joined us. Andy had a great time!

Seeing Andy played with Grandpa together brought smiles to my face ...

I love the shy smile on his face and the candle halo on his head ...

They were so concentrated while playing games together

Emily won lots of prize by keeping trying a game.

Andy with Chuck N Cheese

For Easter, Amy and David took the kids to McKinney downtown for the egg hunt at First Baptist church. There were seven stations with different Bible stories. The kids loved it!

At home, we had the Seder meal and Passover devotional to retell the story of Passover on Friday. Then we had the Easter lunch at Gayla's house.

Our church had a Mother-Son activity themed pirate ship. We played for a while after FriendSpeak on Sunday.

Emily and I went to a AHG weekend Camping trip. Emily learned a lot about American History and earned three badges during that weekend!

This is Maggie (one of our FriendSpeak readers). She was so excited to get an intern in her last semester. Right after she signed the contract, she got another better offer. She emailed the first employer whether she could break the contract without getting any pay. The first employer shot UTD an email telling them that she worked for him illegally (for two days). So she had to leave the country and possibly lose her degree. We prayed together many times. Finally she decided to go back to China and apply for a new student visa. After lots of difficulties, doubts and prayers, she successfully got a new visa and came back to UTD to finish her degree. She would never thought this would happen when she lost days of sleep and appetite. She said maybe God has purpose for bringing her back! We can't wait to see God's purpose for her to unfold ...

This is Daniel who stayed in FriendSpeak for two years. Recently he decided to give up his job here and go back to China for family reasons. Before he left, he wanted to be baptized and become a Christian. He encountered some discouragement from his Chinese friends. But finally he was baptized and headed back to China joyfully. He prayed to find an American company in Shanghai so he could visit US on his business trips. We just heard from him that he got a job in Shanghai working for a big American Accounting Firm that has an office in Dallas. He will have many opportunities to travel to Dallas in the future! God is good all the time!

Stephanie and Ning came to FriendSpeak last fall. They fell in love with everyone here immediately. Ning volunteered to be the president of the UTD FriendSpeak organization that David started. They have been visiting church with Robert and Gail for a while. Recently Ning surprised Stephanie with a propose at church. It brought tears to everyone.

Emily and Andy both had field trips to the Zoo. I got to go twice in one week. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Both kids enjoyed the field trips very much.

Emily and Andy's school had a culture night. We set up a table for the first time. We got lots of visitors. The food from other cultures were delicious. Emily and Andy tasted a lot of food even we all had dinner before the event. The children all wanted me to write their names in Chinese calligraphy. We were the last table to finish up.

Andy and Emily wanted to set up the tent and camp in the backyard. So they camped out a couple of times. They also went fishing and caught a big fish at the neighborhood pond.

Emily and Andy are very busy with piano. They have recitals (two or three pieces music each), guild audition (10 pieces music from memory), and Texas Music Convention (one performance). So when the teacher asked whether they wanted to participate in the Sonatina Festival, I was surprised to hear them say "Yes"s. I didn't push them to practice at all because they already had lots of things on their plates besides it was on the birthday weekend. Surprisingly Andy won "Superior+" and Emily won "Superior". Emily also got perfect score on her theory test. Andy is too young to participate in a theory test or convention performance. But he is ready. We are so proud of their achievement!

Just the other day, I found these papers in Andy's room. I had asked him to memorize all the books in the Bible and write them down from his memory last summer. This is the Old Testament part of the paper. The second one was from a dinner last winter. Andy suggested us to write down what we were thankful for (all the blessings we had). So he started writing. David pitched in a couple of things.

Emily created an art piece that was shown in the art show at school. Andy drew his version below it. It was cute!

Emily loves loves writing notes. She put a mailbox outside Andy's room so she could put notes in it for Andy. I found this note on the dining table one morning (telling you how much she loves her blanket):

Andy loves loves playing chess. He plays with David and plays with the 4th or 5th graders at school. He also plays with himself if nobody wants to play with him. He's really good at it too. So for his birthday, he got many chess books for him to read during the summer vacation.