Here’s a short video compilation of what has been going on in Elise’s life since our last post…

Nothing about this past year has gone according to plan. In November last year, while on a trip to Thailand to switch visas, we discovered Kristen had kidney cancer. After having a successful operation and a quick recovery States-side, we landed back in China this past February. A couple of months later, we flew back to Thailand for Kristen’s 6 month cancer screen (see the blog post titled “operation redeem” for her update). However, due to reasons beyond our control, we ended up having to stay/live in Thailand for 4 months. Through all of this transition, Elise was a rockstar, and our time in Thailand ended up being a real blessing for us.

Growing up in Houston, I know what it’s like to live in a place that is humid and has a ton of mosquitos… however, after surviving the rainy season in Thailand, I’ve decided Houston is rather dry and the mosquitos there are really not that bad. Jungle life is a whole different beast. We saw snakes, spiders that were as big as my hand, mosquitos that attack like nothing we have ever experienced before, and a billion other types of birds and insects. But then on the flip side, we had bananas, dragon fruit, mango, jackfruit, and several other types of fruit growing in our yard and neighborhood. It was an incredible experience and we are so thankful for the opportunity to learn about and live in another country.

One of the sweet blessings was this house we were able to sublet for 2.5 months. It had enough space to host family and friends who came to visit us, a huge yard for Elise to play in, and was in a great location that gave us easy access to the mountains and city.

We’re thankful for family visiting us and all the meaningful new memories that we made…

Since life and travel now consist of things we can do with a 2 year old, here’s a summery in pictures of what Elise’s summer looked like:

And even when it was raining, we still played outside…

But one of the coolest things we did (with both Kristen’s family and mine) was visit an elephant sanctuary. This particular sanctuary rescued elephants that had been mistreated in the past. This place (Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary) was rated number #1, and for good reason. From the moment you arrive you are feeding, touching, and learning about Asian elephants. And the staff was amazing too. Oh, and they also give you some pretty sweet clothes to wear so that you don’t get your own dirty.

It was a tough call determining who had the most fun… I don’t think Kristen or my mom wanted to leave.

It was unbelievable and far exceeded any expectations we had. So if you are ever in Northern Thailand, this is a must on the bucket list!!!

Fast forward to today… it was a great experience, but we couldn’t be happier to be back in our “China home,” as Elise calls it 🙂

Okay, so I apologize that my last post was back in May. However, in my defense, we ended up staying in Thailand and just arrived back in China 3 weeks ago. The transition is going well and we are happy to be back home. We’ve been able to connect with our friends and have even made some new ones… i.e. the guy who just opened a guitar shop behind our apartment complex.

Okay, so I realize this is going to take a lot more time than I actually have, but it will still be a lot of fun to pursue.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I plan to recap our last 4 months in Thailand… which will naturally feature mostly Elise and a few elephants.

As you all know, last November, we took a trip to Thailand in order to switch visas, get medical check ups, and spend a few days hanging out in Bangkok for some much needed R&R. Little did we know that we would discover that Kristen had kidney cancer… so there went the R&R.

Well just last week marked 6 months since her surgery, so we took another trip to Bangkok for her cancer screen, Elise’s 15 month vaccinations (she is a little behind), and to hopefully enjoy a few days in Bangkok (like we originally planned). We called this trip… operation redeem!

After the results of the chest X-ray and MRI came back negative, we were all really excited to get this party started. Operation redeem is a GO!

Stops included the aquarium (I think I read that it is the largest aquarium in all of SE Asia… but don’t quote me on that). I can confirm that this aquarium was pretty awesome… at least Kristen and I thought so. Elise, not so much.

Even if the aquarium wasn’t a big hit with Elise, we got back on track by getting outside and visiting some parks (complete with sand pits and monitor lizards).

Then, we hit a gold mine with this gem… a coffee shop/rabbit farm. Why didn’t we think of this concept?! Elise loved playing with them and feeding them (for about an hour). Then she was bored and wanted to know what else we had planned.

At this point, we didn’t have much planned besides just relaxing and hanging out at the pool.

Nailed it!!! So we spent the majority of our time here. Elise loves the water and never wanted to leave.

So much so, that when we were forced to stay inside and “color” because of a rainstorm, she wasn’t too happy. At least Kristen got into it 🙂

We will be back in another 6 months to celebrate Kristen being 12 months cancer free!

As many of you know, I don’t shave often. Not because I’m lazy or trying to be hipster and grow a beard, but because I literally can’t grow facial hair. Currently, I shave about once a week and that’s only because having 7 hairs poking out of your chin is not that attractive.

But one day as I was walking in the neighborhood across from our place, I saw an old-school barbershop. When I think of a barbershop, I immediately think of the barbershop scene from the movie Coming to America. I envisioned myself talking with the guys about who the greatest boxer (or kung fu fighter?) who ever lived was. So I made it my mission to let my chin hair grow for a couple of weeks and then visit this place for a shave.

The entrance looks a little outdated… but don’t let it fool you, the inside is much worse.

To start off, the barber placed a warm towel on my face while he whipped up the shaving concoction (bar soap and water?). After 5 minutes of the towel, the “shaving cream” was applied to my face…

Then the shave began…

At this point, there wasn’t much of a conversation and I was just hoping he didn’t slip. The whole process took about 30 minutes (including shaving my forehead, nose, and the back of my neck), cost me $2.38, and I’ve now made a new friend. Totally worth it and I’ll be returning next month!

 

As you all know, in my past life, I was a personal trainer and managed a fitness facility back in Texas. I loved my work and never really considered it a “job”. The gym was amazing and the relationships I had there made it one of the most enriching times in my life.

It is one of the things I miss most while living in China. However, recently I have been blessed to find a local gym where I’m hoping to build relationships and get back at least some of the gym community feeling I had in Austin.

I found this gem of a gym 😉 down a back alley, behind a buddhist temple…

You would never know there was a gym there, but after talking with a few locals, my friend and I were finally able to find it.

As you enter there’s a great motivational picture to the right, and our lockers to the left… I guess change outside?

The gym is small but it has all the equipment you need to get a proper workout. It does have a Rocky IV type vibe doesn’t it?

The “trainers” desk looks a little different from the desk I had back in Texas, and the “trainer” does seem to live a slightly different lifestyle.

It may not be the WOT where I worked previously, but at least I can get a workout in while practicing my Chinese 🙂

新年快乐 (Xīn Nián Kuài Lè)! Happy New Year!!!

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is by far the most important holiday of the year. According to wikipedia, this holiday involves the largest annual mass human migration in the world. And honestly, we would have to agree. During the few evenings I went out to some of the touristy places in our city, I can’t begin to tell you how many people there were.

This holiday is based on the lunar calendar and the festivities run from the evening before the first day of the new year, and end with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the new year. Traditionally, it is a time for gathering with family and honoring ancestors as well as household deities. Much of the traditions are focused on the household and are thought to bring good luck and prosperity. Houses are cleaned, sacrifices are made to their ancestors or gods, and lucky messages are posted outside their doors and are left up for the entire year.

Other well-known traditions include eating dumplings, getting new haircuts and new clothes, giving money in red paper envelopes, and setting off lots and lots of fireworks. However, with the recent push to clean up the air quality, fireworks were banned in most large cities, including Xi’an. At least we got to experience it in the city we used to live in. Below is a short clip from this year, recorded by a friend from that city… This lasts all night…

And then there is the famous Chinese zodiac and its repeating 12-year cycle. I’m still somewhat confused, but I’ll do my best to explain it briefly. Each year has its own animal and each cycle begins with the year of the rat (that’s Kristen and me) and ends with a the year of the pig. There’s an old folktale involving an emperor that explains the order. I’m not completely sure of all the details but basically the emperor asks the animals to race across a river to determine their order. There is a lot of drama, like when the rat betrays his best friend, the cat, by drowning him in the river (which also explains why rats and cats are now mortal enemies and why there isn’t a year of the cat). The dragon knows he’s way more awesome than all the other animals, so he messes around saving villages and literally making it rain before strolling in for 5th place. It’s a pretty fun story.

Now each animal has a set of character traits and compatibility rankings with other animals… similar to the western zodiac. However, to make things more interesting, each 12 year cycle is associated with one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. That’s sixty years of fire monkeys and metal rats. 2018 is the year of the earth dog. If this is your year then you are expected to wear something red (everyday of the year) to ward off bad luck and it’s also recommended to not get married… because that is bad luck as well. That’s pretty easy to understand right? 😉

For us, the holiday was a great time to relax as a family, catch up with friends, and to just enjoy the sights. Excluding the dragons, doesn’t this look like Christmas? …

If you are willing to brave the cold and the billions of people traveling, it really is an amazing time to visit China.

I’ll leave you with a few Elise (born in the year of the monkey) photos taken recently…

It’s been 1 week since we arrived back home in China and I think we are finally over jet lag. As much as we loved being in Texas with family, it has really been nice being back. It may sound crazy or cheesy, but we really do love it here and we feel that this is where we are supposed to be.

Since being back, we’ve been able to see a few friends and spend some time at our local park across the street. Everyone is preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year (starts tonight!), so the atmosphere is fun and festive… Elise loves it!!!

Below are a few pictures that capture this past week…

We’ve spent a lot of time at the park, blowing bubbles, sliding down “slides”, and watching Elise make friends…

We also celebrated Valentine’s day with heart-shaped pancakes and a little sesame street…

It’s good to be back. This also means I will be blogging more often, so be on the lookout for the next one… I’m thinking I’ll talk a bit about Chinese New Year – history, traditions, etc.

And for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

As many of you already know, we have had a very strange last 3 weeks. It all started with a planned visa run to Thailand where we were finally going to be able to switch visas. While waiting for the visas to be processed, we scheduled Elise’s vaccinations and physicals for us (the healthcare in Thailand is top notch and cheap). During Kristen’s health check, on Wednesday, November 8th, the doctors found a mass (3″) on her left kidney. They immediately referred her to a specialist, who ordered a CT scan for the following day.

Kristen then met with a doctor on Friday morning (the 10th). She was told that the kidney needed to be removed asap and that the mass was most likely cancerous. We immediately contacted family and doctor-friends back home who were able to help us in making the decision to fly back to Texas for the surgery/treatment. We arrived in Houston that Sunday (the 12th).

Monday (the 13th), because of a family connection, we were able to meet with a urologist/surgeon at MD Anderson. He confirmed everything Thailand had said and scheduled Kristen for a radical nephrectomy (removal of the entire kidney) on Thursday, November 16th. I’ve intentionally posted the dates so that you all could see how unbelievably fast things happened. In 8 days, we went from being in Thailand waiting for our new visas, to Kristen having one less kidney in Houston, TX.

Pictured below is Kristen pre and post surgery. Also pictured is her kidney (cut in half, with the left side being healthy kidney and the right side the tumor).

Check out our caring bridge site for more information on Kristen and her recovery. At the time of this post, we’re still waiting on the pathology report to come out, which will tell us what the tumor was (benign or cancerous), and where it went (hopefully completely contained in the kidney).

We are and continue to be amazed at God’s grace and provision, all the answers to prayer, and the peace we’ve had through all of this.

Because you can receive updates about how Kristen is doing on the site mentioned above, I thought it would be best for the rest of this blog post to show you what Elise has been up too these last 3 weeks.

The circumstances for this trip are strange, but it has been a huge blessing for Elise and the grandparents!

Hanging out with cousins…

Feeding the birds in Grandpa Joe’s backyard and feeding the ducks at Lady Bird lake with Mom and Dedi (Dee-Dye)(Kristen’s mom).

Exploring new places using her great-granddad’s magnifying glass!

Also fitting in time to work on her “game” and learning to play the pedal steel with Poppy!

 

At this point, we know we’ll be in Texas through Christmas, and are thinking we’ll return to China sometime in January. We’re appreciating every minute we have here!

We celebrated a few “firsts” with our family over the last month. My parents came to visit us and, not only was this their first time to China, it was my mom’s first trip overseas! Plus we got to celebrate Elise’s 1st birthday with them.

So between the foods they ate, the squatty potties they used, and the crowds they encountered, their list of “firsts” was quite extensive.

Sorry, no pictures of my parents using the squatty potty, but below is a picture of my Dad considering a bite of 皮蛋 (pronounced “pee dan”). He couldn’t go through with it.

If you are thinking that it looks like an egg, then you are correct. The difference is that this egg’s “white” part is a gelatinous black, the yoke is black and it smells rotten. The English name is “1,000 year egg” if that gives you any idea. Kristen and I have tried it before, but only once. It is the one and only food I cannot stomach here in China (that I’ve tried thus far anyway). I hear it’s an acquired taste 😉

The majority of their time was spent with Elise and seeing the local sites.

Actually, I take that back… most of the time was spent waiting for my mom to finish taking pictures with the locals. They where fascinated with her fair skin and hair… and as a compliment they would say, “She’s so white!”.  No lie, everywhere we went, we would be stopped and pictures would be taken. For some reason, people were not as enamored with my Dad.

But don’t feel too sorry for my Dad, he did make a best friend. It started with me asking this man to drive my parents around for an hour in his 三轮 (pronounced “san lwen”) to give them a better idea of where we live. I was kind of nervous sending them off with this guy because they know as much Mandarin as this guy knows English… none. But  when we met them at the predetermined spot, I found my Dad dancing and singing with the guy. I wish I would have taken a picture but I was in shock and didn’t think about it. That hour ended up being one of their favorite things they did here. Here is a picture of my bargaining with the guy and them driving away. Notice the tilt of the 三轮… let’s just say the weight wasn’t distributed evenly.

The highlight of their time here (and our time as well) was that they were able to join us in celebrating Elise’s first birthday.

We had a “panda & pink lemonade” themed party for her out in the courtyard of our building complex. I’m pretty sure that was a first for our neighbors and building management, because we got lots of curious stares… but also some people who dropped in, ate cake, and even brought gifts!

Elise fell in love with the piñata so we couldn’t bring ourselves to smash it. Plus they don’t do piñatas in China, so inexplicably smashing a panda might have caused issues.

Here is Elise eating her cupcake (the pictures are arranged from initial excitement, to digging in, to I’ve over-consumed and regret my decision).

I know I’ve said it before (I even titled a post “Time Flies”) but seriously, time really does fly by. We still can’t believe Elise is 1!!!

At the end of my parents trip, I think we all felt like this guy…

But we had so much fun!

I’ll end with a video compilation featuring Elise…