Patience......no, FAITH

This past week as Boyd and I were cooking, the handle broke off of one of our measuring cups.  It was a measuring cup that we had brought from the US.  I realized it was one of my grandma's measuring cups, and then I thought to myself, who ever thought that my grandma's measuring cups would end up in China.  They went from my grandma's kitchen in Mapleton, to my mom's kitchen in Orem, and now my kitchen in China.

I thought the lesson I was learning the past few weeks was that of patience, but I now realize it's been the lesson of faith in my Savior.  (I guess that's really the lesson of this whole experience though.)  My faith has been tested as we traveled over 8 hours by bus, 1 hour by subway and some time by taxi,and even more time on foot during the period of 2 days to be able to get to and from district conference.  My faith has been tested as a protest marched through the streets of our compound during the middle of the night.  My faith has been tested as my child was required to a read a book for school that I would have never let her read if it wouldn't have been required for school.  My faith has been tested as my families faith has been challenged.

Our district conference was in Shanghai.  Our branch provided transportation by bus.  It was a little over 4 hours each direction.  Once we got to the "church building" (conference center with a couple of rooms set aside for our church), our kids were going to have to sit and wait for us for 5 hours during the priesthood session and the adult session, or we could try to get to the hotel and let them wait there.  We decided to head for the hotel.  We had one hour before the priesthood session, at which Boyd was speaking.  We went as quickly as we could to the subway station.  We were all loaded down like pack horses.  We had our suitcases, blankets for the children, the diaper bag, stroller (Which we had to lift up and down numerous sets of stairs with Declan in it.), all of our food for the next day, and numerous other odds and ends.  We were dripping with sweat by the time we reached the subway.  Once we got off the subway we made a mad dash for the motel.  With sweat dripping down our faces, backs, etc. (You get the picture.) we entered the motel.  It had taken us over an hour to get to the motel.  Boyd was late for his meeting.  He emailed them, got the process started of checking us in, and caught a cab back to church.  I finished the check in process.  This is not quick in China.  They have to scan every one's passports at least once if not twice, print off millions of papers for you to sign (which I can't read), and stamp every paper a couple of times each.  By the time we were done checking in, the boys were running around the lobby screaming one minute and crying the next because so and so and done such and such.  I quickly hauled my "little angels" to our rooms.  I got all of the children settled in the largest room and went to catch a taxi for me to get to the adult session.  Boyd had written the name of "the church building" on a card from the motel for me so that I could tell the taxi driver where to go.  I tried to tell the driver, but he didn't know what I was saying.  What a surprise, my Chinese is so good....not.  I called Boyd and he told the driver where to go.  The driver dropped me off on the opposite side of the conference center from the church.  I walked around the large building and finally found Boyd.  I had a hard time concentrating on the conference as a worried about my children in a motel that was a bit sketchy.  The kids decided to go to KFC while Boyd and I were in our meeting.  I was praying for them the whole time.  When our meeting was over, we went and met up with the kids.  They were safe and sound.  We had fun going to dinner and shopping at the street markets.  When we got back to the motel, we were lucky enough to find about 20 call girl business cards that had been pushed through the door into each of our rooms.  I quickly told the boys to close their eyes and collected all the cards and placed them in the garbage can.  The next morning, we decided we were not going to go through the hour and a half ordeal of walking and the subway.  So, we got 2 taxis.  I rode in one with half of the kids, and Boyd rode in the other with the other half.  It was a crazy time, and I haven't written about all of our happenings, only the most crazy.

Two weeks ago, there was a day here in China that was an anniversary of something that happened during WWII with Japan.  (Not much info.  Sorry.  I don't even understand the whole story.)  Anyway, because of this event China has some extremely negative feelings toward Japan and the US.  Also, China and Japan's fight over some island did not help the issue.  There were protest all through out Nanjing on this day.  We were lucky enough to have our compound as one of the target areas.  At 11:30 p.m., I was woken up by people yelling in the street by my house.  I think they were yelling something about Japanese and Americans go home.  It was scary.  I woke up Boyd and had him go through the house and make sure all of the doors and windows were locked.  (There were other issues that had occurred in our compound in the days before the protest.  So, we knew something might happen.)  The next morning we found out that a sign had been put up in front of our compound telling Americans and Japanese to go home.  Also, a Japanese car had been vandalized.  Our compound, school, and the Ford company (The majority of the expats in our compound work for Ford.) warned us to stay in our homes and let us know that there was extra security at the school for the day.  These warnings came out after we had already sent the kids to school.  Luckily, Boyd had taken the boys to school with our driver.  The girls were away at school trip week.  So, I was a little nervous about their safety, and we didn't let them know what was going on at home because we didn't want to worry them.  I used our driver the next few days to get the kids to and from school (normally a 5-10 min. walk).  Everything is good now, but it was a scary couple of days.

We've also had lots of great experiences.  I'm finding that I can obtain the majority of what I need to make Western food at a good price if I'm willing to make it from scratch.  That means no fridge biscuits, bottled salsa and sauces, canned beans and vegetables.  I go to the fresh market and make everything from scratch.  (Spaghetti, Chili, Pickles, etc.)  We can even buy freshly made noodles at the market.  You can buy a chicken and have it butchered right before your very eyes.  (Something we have not done.)  I even had someone tell me that it's almost the season for fresh dog meat in the market. (Another thing we aren't going to try.)

We've been able to do a little sight seeing.  It's finally starting to cool off enough that sightseeing is enjoyable.  Boyd is taking the next couple of days off, and we are going to get to see some of the sights in Nanjing.  We are really looking forward to a little break in our routine and some well needed family time.

Here's to building my faith!

Alauna