Temple of Heaven

Here are some pictures from last weekend's visit to the Temple of Heaven, a popular site here in Beijing...

What to Say

I find it hard to put into words what I've been feeling lately. It's been difficult to switch back to life here and pick up where I left off, in a place where no one has really been affected by the sadness that is so close to my heart.

I'm not really in a position to write on here what I'd like to about the situation, but this other site pretty much sums up what my thoughts have been lately. I encourage you to read it.

Jiaozi

On Friday night, one of our Chinese friends invited us to her aunt's house to make jiaozi (dumplings). We eat these all the time, but I had never gotten to make them before. It was great to learn how, although most of the work was done for us in advance. Our job was just to put the filling in the shells and pinch them shut.

That's our friend and her mom. Yes they're wearing the same shirt. :-)

Boiling the jiaozi.

After we ate enough jiaozi to make ourselves sick, we played Monopoly: Beijing Edition.

This little guy was pretty excited about playing Monopoly.

A Touch of Winter

Tuesday morning, I awoke at 4:51--thanks to jet lag. I looked out the window and saw that we'd been graced with a thin blanket of white snow, the first Beijing has seen all year long. When it got light out, I decided to go outside and take some shots of the surrounding area before the snow got dirty/melted. There really wasn't that much to speak of, but it was nice to have a clean coating of white on everything for at least a little while. 

Have a look:

I've never been so thankful that I could go home in my entire life. Now that I'm back in China, I especially realize the privilege it was to be home at such a difficult and trying time for my family. It was not a "fun" trip, but it was such a blessing to be there with them and not halfway around the world. I learned so much in those two weeks from the people around me, especially Joel and Jess, as they portrayed such a wonderful example of what it means to follow even in the hardest of times.

Adjusting back to life here in China has been quite difficult, as my heart still grieves for Joel and Jess, and for the loss of sweet little Cora. Knowing where she is provides us with incredible hope, but it still hurts to have her gone. It's just hard. Really hard.