Is it safe to say that we all remember the rhyming, catchy classic: “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?… ______ stole the cookie from the cookie jar..”…An assertion to which the accused cookie-thief would candidly reply, “Who me? Couldn’t be!”…and the accusations would continue…? Well as little miss Ezri is into more and more things–as she is walking around nearly everywhere now–she seemingly replies to me, “Who me? Couldn’t be!” to many an item I find. Take, for example, the toilet paper. It is a well-known fact that the bathroom and mom and dad’s bedroom doors are to be closed at all daytime hours, or Ezri will un-sheepishly find her way in to these specific spots, where she can find all sorts of mischief. Just a few mornings ago, I found her wound up in toilet paper…a favorite past time, which leaves mommy using less-than-folded t.p. for well over one usage thereafter! And, any paper or plastic items that are specifically appealing because they are clearly ‘real’ and non-toyish such as those in the pictures above; she was caught–red-handed–with this camera manual and the accompanying Ziploc freezer bag.
The girl sure knows how to have fun, though. She is silly, sassy, cute, smart, sweet, hilarious, giving, and what a people-person! My, she is amazing. I praise God for her each time that he impresses upon me just how special and unique she is!
That’s our Ezri.
So, just to be quite honest, these past couple of weeks have us sort of bummed out. I mean to say, we are all a bit over-stressed, home-sick, and asking ourselves, “Why on earth are we here again?” question. So, that’s been us in a nutshell. God is using this time as teaching opportunity, though..that’s for sure. He is teaching us what it means to live more meagerly….how to give one another grace and mercy–repeatedly…patience…and complete reliance upon him. So, this is all good.
On the subject of Thanksgiving, we did not really celebrate. We were thankful, but had a normal dinner of pork chops, tossed salad and baked potatoes—not the suculent meal of turkey and dressing that I’m sure most of our readers out there enjoyed. That’s okay, really. And, although Jason did not even realize it was Thanksgiving day until I mentioned it in the afternoon, I did miss celebrating. Just over the past couple of years, it seems that Thanksgiving has become very special to me–a time of sharing stories and family activities and tradition together…of just being together and catching up…and of praising God and thanking him (perhaps more intentionally than at other times) for all he’s blessed us with. I missed that fellowship.
Other upcoming events: family visits. Melanie’s parents will be visiting just 3 short days from now and will stay for 3 weeks; Jason’s mom and cousin will follow them (with a two week break in between visits) and stay for 2 weeks! This is all very exciting, and, although we will be a bit squeezed in our 619 sq.ft. flat, it will be fantastic to be will family! We hope that their time here will bring blessing to all involved; we know Ezri will love some extra people to play with and to love on her a bit. She gets a bit bored with old mum and dad!
Well, that is all for now….just wanted to keep the blog somewhat updated…even if we haven’t the most thrilling stories to share, this is what is going on with us. Please keep Jason’s studies in your prayers. He has a lot to do as the semester comes to a close. Specifically, pray for a management research paper he is working on…and for 4 consumer psychology assignments…and a second research paper for sociology. Also, your continued prayers for our son, Javi, would be fabulous. We have no new news on him; just keep praying for his health and development…physically and emotionally…and for the adoption process to be smooth…and for the transition into our family.
We love you guys, and thank you so much for journeying with us! To our great friends…much loved family members…and the occasional innocent bystander who stumbles upon our blog perhaps by accident—-all are welcome!
–Melanie, for the Cases
Filed under: Tantalizing Travel
Here are the previously-promised, and I know, long-awaited clips of our day trip to Macau. Hope you enjoy.
We just received this month’s update on our son, Javi (prounounced Ha–vee, for those wh0 are wondering). He turned 12 weeks old on Monday, November 12. He is now 7 lbs. 6 oz., which is fabulous–he seems to be steadily gaining weight now. And, the health report noted that he is well now–as he’d recently been hospitalized–and that he is eating and sleeping good as well.
As you can see here, he has many expressions! From left to right, they include: 1) The ‘almost smiling’ look, 2) The ‘beautiful brown eyes’ stare, 3) The ‘grimace’, and, last but not least, 4) The ’sweet little old man’ pose. At only 12 weeks, it really seems he is becoming quite a little person!
Thanks for sharing in this tremendous joy with us! Please continue to pray specifically for Javi’s health and development–that he will remain well and continue to eat good and grow..and develop normally and healthy both physically and emotionally. Pray that our God will provide all his needs and continue preparing him to be part of our family and preparing the three of us to be his family.
This week’s main adventure–including this week’s main difficulties, disappointments and dilemmas–occured just yesterday. The three of us set out for Macau yesterday morning around 10:30 am. [What and Where is Macau?-->Macau is another island located about 35 miles west of Hong Kong across the Pear River delta. It is just over one hour by ferry from HK. Macua, like Hong Kong, is a Special Administrative Region of China. Settled by the Portuguese in 1557, Macau was assessed as vital in the European-Orient trade route. It became, then a Portuguese colony, much like Hong Kong was a British colony, and in 1999, Macau was given autonomy as a Special Admin. Region of China.] So, our reason for going on this little trip was not for mere joy, although it was nice to see some place new, but rather in order to activate our new HK visas (as Ezri and I originally entered on 90 day tourist visas, and acquired new visas, but had to leave the country and re-enter HK in order to activate those new visas). We got to the ferry ticketing office, and found that the earliest available ferry would be 1:30pm (and at the time, it was 11:00am)….so, we bought the tickets, a bit disappointed about the wait. We went on over to the boarding area and waited in standby–and we got on! We were among the last 4 people they let on the 12:00pm ferry; the doors literally closed right behind us! The ferry ride was fine–about 1 hr 15 minutes in length. Upon arrival we found our way through the maze of customs and immigration, and finally, were out into the world of a whole new country…..you could literally feel the difference. Hong Kong has this tremendously fast-pace about it that you just sense, and this place seemed a bit less intense. We found our way out to the bus station and to a bus that would take us to the historic town centre of Largo de Senado (Senado Square). First observation: Saturdays in Macau are nuts!!! There were people everywhere…tourists, locals…people, people, people. But the square was really nice and the Portuguese architecture was fabulous–a nice change from the super-modernity of Hong Kong (which is also characteristic of many parts of Macau). We ate lunch at a Portuguese restaurant that was a bit overpriced and disappointing, but the atmosphere was fabulous–outdoor, shaded patio seating in a quite spot. After lunch, we made our way through the maze of streets to St. Paul’s Cathedral ruins–it’s ‘ruins’ now, as the facade of the building is all that remains. But, it is quite a staggering sight as you begin your way up this hill amongst the crowds and noises, and you see this massive Cathedral frame, quietly seated on a hill. 
It was surreal to say the least. There was some sort of festival going on, so we enjoyed sighting stilt-walkers dressed in bright colors and people in costumes as we made our ascent to St. Paul’s. We continued on up to the Fortaleza do Monte. This is an old fort sight, complete with steel cannons–with amazing views of the city. 
We enjoyed walking around up there for quite some time, and just sitting, enjoying the green grass and park benches…flowers and trees…oh, and Ezri’s press-conference! When we were leaving the fort, Jason took Ezri while I went to the restroom. I come out of the restroom to find Jason and Ezri sitting on a bench with about 7-10 people all around them–cameras and cell phones in hand–taking pictures and oohing and ahhing over Ezri! She was eating it up. I grabbed our camera, and tried to catch just a few seconds of this Ezri-craze–hopefully I got a bit of something and we will post it asap–it should definitely make you smile 
Post-paparazzi, we began to make our way back down to the square to catch a bus back to the ferry. We caught a bus that we thought was going our way. Sat down and enjoyed the ride. We arrived at the port and went right along with the crowd of hurried people–”departures”–that’s where we went. Anyway, after an hour of waiting through customs and getting our passports stamped to stand in another line, we came to the immigration officer who hands me an extra paper to fill out to apply for a visa. I was so confused…so I am trying to explain to him in English that I need to get back to Hong Kong–all the while, he is telling me I need to “go back to Macua and apply for visa there”….I nearly began to cry as we were nearing the departure time marked on our ferry tickets back to HK….”how do I apply for a visa?”, I asked, “Do I need a visa for Macau?”….He explained that I did not need a visa for Macau…but that I did not have a visa in my passport….Confusion was now at a whole new level until he said again, “You have no Chinese visa. You must go to Macau and apply for visa there.”——–Ding Ding Ding—You are about to cross borders into the real CHINA!!! No wonder the lines had been staggeringly longer than we’d expected…no wonder people were taking loads of goods with them back to CHINA from Macau! That’s correct–> we were at completely the wrong port, and had actually successfully passed through one line of immigration–”leaving Macau”– and were at the Chinese ’barrier gate’ leading into Guongdong Province, China! We back-tracked and found an officer who took us back through where we had to “re-enter” Macau and then found a police officer who said we were far away from the place we needed to be. “Far…take taxi…too far…taxi”, he said. So, we found a taxi, and showed the driver our ferry tickets. We arrived at the correct port–considerably more familiar–and found our way to the ticketing office–showed them our tickets (showing that we’d missed our scheduled ferry) and they said to proceed to another desk to ask them about it. Amazingly, as a staggering line was beside us in standby, the attendant shook his head and let us on through customs to board the 7:30 ferry!!! We got through customs, walked through the many corridors, and onto the boat–at last, we sat down to enjoy the ride. The waves were quite choppy on our way home, and several passengers took advantage of the “vomit bags” (as they were appropriately labeled). Ezri enjoyed talking to and playing with a nice lady from Korea who sat next to us. — Arriving back in Hong Kong, we accomplished our initial mission of activating our new visas when we passed back through immigration in HK. Oddly, an attendant checked Ezri’s temperature with a temporal thermometer as we passed through customs..hmmm, dunno why?? —doesn’t matter, b/c she didn’t have fever anyway. All in all, it was the most exhausting day we’ve had in a while. It was quite the adventure, though, and if God’s plan is for us to depend on Him and bring him glory in our weakness–i.e. His strength–by all means, to God be the glory! (We’ll be posting some “Macau video clips”, so keep a look out).
–Mel, for the Cases
Let’s see….my new favorite things are: 1) walking a few steps here and there… 2) my nose, which I recently found on my face–and my middle finger which fits perfectly in there!… 3) squealing (how fun to hear ones own voice at very high volume, often times in small spaces like crammed elevators or subway cars!)… and 4) tomatoes…aren’t tomatoes just tasty?!
Anyway, I (Ezri) just wanted to give you a small update on my small self. Today I am an entire eleven months old! That’s right, it is only one short month away from the big first birthday! I’m doing well…enjoying going to nursery class at church where the same lady keeps me each week, and calls me “her favorite girl”…each week we color a picture that is sent home with me. I get to play with other kids and such, and that’s swell. Also, mommy and I go to a playgroup (in Central–downtown location) on Tuesdays where I usually play only with boys, but they’re fun too. Come to think of it, I rarely play with many girls…hmmm… Anyhow, we also go to a Bible study for moms on Thursdays, where mommy does “mommy stuff” (learning how to shepherd my young heart) while I hang out with all the other kids (and, of course a few adult teachers), doing “kid stuff”. On mornings when we are not venturing out, we go downstairs to our clubhouse indoor play room. It’s pretty fun stuff, with Little Tike’s houses and tree-house…a couple of riding toys and a wee jungle gym. Mostly, I like all of the grandmas and moms that like to play with me…..also, the kids are fun–namely Ronnie, Selena and Rosanna—fun times learning how to share, slide down a slide, climb and finding that peoples’ shoes and the trash can are apparently not okay to play with…oops!
Well, that is all from me at the moment. Thanks for reading. Enjoy!
Filed under: Daily Life Blurbs
I’m finished with my school work for this week (at least everything that is a “must” do) so I thought I’d get on here and give an update for the week. Ezri is walking, she’s started taking 1-6 steps at a time a few days ago so we’re making it official. She’s also found her nose and she’s figured out her finger fits in there, we’re going to start calling her booger. I have one month of classes left, thank God. I’ve stayed up to 4 o’clock at least 2 times this week finishing assignments. Being that Ezri goes to bed around 7:30pm, the best time for me to get work done on the computer is after that time, unfortunately this whole learning how to do research and write academically is slow going so it’s late nights for me the next month.
I’ve been looking for a barber or hair salon that will trim my beard and after asking at 4 different places I’ve just about given up. I go in, they ask if I want haircut I say yes, then ask if they can trim beard, by motioning, then they look at me like I’m crazy and say only haircut, only haircut, then I usually give an angry look or try to explain to them how to use the clippers to trim it, or respond that my beard is hair, but it only leads to more frustration. They have a saying here that goes something to the effect, “Small scene, small resolution, big scene, big resolution” I take that to mean you have to start acting crazy sometimes to get your point across. Which is hard to refrain from. I think I am now officially the hairiest man in Hong Kong.
Oh I forgot to mention, I got a new computer! The best thing about it is that school is going to reimburse most of the cost, it’s great. Melanie & I had a lunch date with two other couples Sunday. These were women she’s been able to meet by going to certain playgroups throughout the area. One couple was from New York, the other HK. All in all, it was really nice to get together with some folks and talk about parenthood, the speed of life in HK, travels and enjoy some great food. SOHO district is the place to be in HK, how did it take me 3 months to find it? Well we’ll be posting some more pics within the week. We went up to Sai Kung last week, it’s a bay town about 20 minutes north of us with some good restaurants and pubs. They actually have live seafood outside the restaurants in tanks that you can pick to eat from, weird, I only want to see my food fried, boneless and on my plate, but it seems like a bunch of people like it. Melanie’s parents arrive in less than 3 weeks and we’re starting to get excited!
