re-entry woes

Here's our contact information while we're in the USA:

 806-437-6033

 9544 A Quay Road L Nara Visa, NM 88430 

 And this is your open invitation to contact us anytime. It's nice to be in America. But it's also hard. Aside from the health challenges that brought us home, we also hadn't been in America for 15 months and that creates some reverse culture shock for us. Part of that culture stress is lack of motivation. Lack of motivation to do anything. (or maybe that's just the exhaustion). But especially lack of motivation to pick up the phone and re-initiate all the relationships that have been at a distance while we're in China. We love our friends. We do. We aren't that busy. We have plenty of time to chat, we just struggle with the motivation needed to make the call, write the email, send the note, etc. We're not trying to make excuses. We will get in touch with you. Just give us some time. Or surprise us and make it easy by calling us. We'd love it!

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trials of many kinds

I write this post with the intention to be to update the many who have asked about what is going on in our lives recently. I don't intend to complain or to make you feel sorry for us, just to give you an honest glimpse into the past few months of our lives.
We spent most of the month in February in Beijing getting treatment (two separate procedures) for James' kidney stone(s).
Not long after we returned home to our city, our God's trike was stolen. It was not only one of our favorite possessions, but a necessary means of transportation for us.
Our current visa requires us to leave the country every 90 days. In March, we did just that. Those trips are exhausting for us as it means long travel days with the girls and hauling them through immigration lines.
We continue to meet with a SLP a few times a month to help Catherine's speech delay but have recently been encouraged to seek a deeper level of care for her to determine if their may be something other than just a speech delay going on. Our city doesn't provide the luxury of a developmental pediatrician or therapists so this means we have to plan to get to another location to seek treatment for her. Catherine is very high energy, ALL THE TIME. She often doesn't sleep through the night and our pediatrician friend here recommended taking away her afternoon nap until the nighttime issues are resolved. It has helped some, but also means we don't always get to sleep through the night and mom's afternoon solace is now non-existent.
I continue to have migraines which seem to be more frequent and more severe. We talked with a doctor in Beijing in February who suggested an MRI to rule out big things first. We decided to wait to do that until we were back in our city because of the cost difference, but we recently found out I can't do it because of the surgical screw in my foot!
In May, we mourned the passing of James grandfather from afar and it was hard to be away from our family during that time.
All of these things compound when you're living everyday in a culture, language, and system that just isn't home, no matter how long we're here.
We'd love to be on a more permanent visa that doesn't require 90 day exits, but can't do so until our company registration is complete, and that has been in process for at least six months or so.

And that was the list when we sent out our last newsletter which prompted many of you to write us to ask for more details.

James recently addressed a group of folks here using the story of Paul and Silas rejoicing in prison after suffering a beating. We've also been trying to cling to (And live out!) the passage in James 1, "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

We are tired, but we are so thankful for the work He is doing in us during this season and for all the ways we have seen Him provide (financially, with local friends to help us, with local friends to cry with us and encourage us, and for all the prayers and support we receive from home).
We have a habit of recounting the things we are thankful for each day before we go to sleep. Even in the midst of the trials above, we were never lacking in reasons to be thankful. He is so good us. Each and every day.

But, our trials continue. James had been having minor back pain for some time, but last week it was time once again for a trip out of country. We had to do it then or risk overstaying our visa, but it was  a rough trip since Ann was getting for teeth and having cold-like symptoms during the trip. We made record time across the border and so decided to come straight home instead of staying another night. We made it home late one evening and since we still had out rental car another day decided to drive around our city and look at potential new homes (apartments) for us the next day. We cut the home tours short when James back pain worsened. It didn't get better and we took him for an MRI which confirmed he had three herniated disks in his back. He's been on his back for about six days now except for meals and a few walks around our complex each day.

The day before yesterday, while we were talking one of those walks, Catherine fell into one of the large rocks that surround the fountain in our complex. We sent a photo of the injury to an American friend here who is a pediatrician and she thought it would require stitches so off I went to the hospital with Catherine in tow.

Did you know almost everything in China (at least still in our city) stops after lunch until about 2:30 so everyone can take a nap? (The injury happened right before lunch) It's nice in theory, until you need something done in that time period, like, say, get stitches in your daughter's face. The first (the biggest hospital in our province) said they could do it, but not until after the nap time unless we wanted them to use adult size equipment (needles, thread, etc). They recommended we go to a hospital known for their plastic surgery department to get the best care and the least likelihood of leaving a scar.

We got to hospital number two (it's actually number 253. That's its name, the number 253 hospital) and find out they too are closed until 2:30. We wait for them to open. Wait to see a doctor. Wait to see another doctor. Wait to get blood drawn for required blood tests. Wait for results. Now it's time for the real show: the time where I get to lay on top of my screaming, squirming, daughter while the doctors sews her skin back together. You can probably imagine that I was questioning our decision to move here, feeling like her current pain was our fault, and wishing to be almost any other place in the world.

But we are here. And we are trying to consider it joy. And there are good things happening that we can't write about on a platform like this just yet. And we are learning how to be thankful.

We also know we aren't the only ones dealing with trials these days. In fact, our struggles pale in comparison to some of the things are friends are dealing with.

If you have a moment, take the time to read the stories of some of our friends and offer a prayer for them. And consider giving to their causes:

a friend walking a long, hard road with rare cancer

friends who lost a newborn

lin

Soap Models

Well, our girls finally had their first gig as models here in China. We knew this was a likely possibility to be asked since even before some of our adult friends were asked to pose for certain advertisements and western kids are even more desirable for ads than adults!
These ads were for a good friend's company which is making all-natural soap from local ingredients being produced locally. Our payment was that we got some good shots of the girls and some professional family photos taken for free.

Here's a link to one of the finished ads, now circulating on Chinese social media, and some of our favorite shots below.

Catherine putting all her ducks sheep in a row.

The photo shoot was during Ann's morning nap time which she takes some days an doesn't other days. This day she clearly wanted and needed a nap. You can't tell from this picture but you can from all the out takes.

Here's mom's hand and I'm saying, "Don't eat it, Ann!"

Dear Customs Officers

We recently received a package from a dear friend. The package was full of small individual packets of salad dressing. I asked for them to use on our field trips this summer. Most supermarkets here only have thousand island and the biggest stores also carry a couple of kinds of Japanese salad dressing. I was really looking forward to the treat of American flavors.
Anyway, the box was big and had a large quantity of these dressings, which meant it was stopped by customs. We got an email from them saying we could have the package when we submitted our business license and import license. What? We didn't have either of those things, nor were we planning on selling the dressing. It took two local friends helping us to get our salad dressing released from customs prison. Turns out, the letter of the law says you can send no more than 10 of any one item. Clearly, we had more than ten packets in there. And we don't have an import license. So, our next requirement was that we had to submit a letter explaining that they are for personal use and beg for the release of our salad dressing.
I felt inconvenienced and bothered that we were having to call and write letters and go to so much trouble just to get some salad dressing that a loving friend had already paid full shipment price for.
Our local friend wrote the letter to China customs on our behalf to save us the time it would take us to compose such a letter in Chinese.

Here's google translate's version of that letter in English:

Dear hard-working Chinese customs officers :
Our whole family for your work extra burden apologize !
We very much enjoy living and working here . However , the eating habits, our family is very special to miss some American food seasoning . Difficult for us to buy these spices from China . So we had to let our relatives and friends in the United States to our mailing these spices. For ease of use , our friends have specially selected individually wrapped , and small size, light weight mailed to us .
We have not asked in detail about the conditioning requirements for customs inspection of China , it is our fault.
We just would like to affirm that all of these spices is to us a man consumed spices . Our families are more like the small package mailed spices , everyone will use several meal , so all of these spices that we will soon be finished .
After this experience we know that the relevant provisions of China Customs , and later we will strictly comply with these requirements .
Thank you !

Aside from the humor of the letter, I just have to say, it's nice to have friends. Even on my best day it is doubtful that I could have humbled myself to the point of saying sorry for causing a burden to the customs officials when I felt like the situation was reversed or admitted fault in the situation.

Anyway, we're enjoying our salad dressing now. And we're thankful for the friend who sent it and the friends who helped us get it to our door step. 

Field Trip #2 Review

The second field trip we hosted was to pick strawberries (and cucumbers, and tomatoes, and other things).
Here's the recap in photos:

Family Fun Day

On Tuesday we took a much-needed half day off from our normalcy to have a family fun day. We chose to spend the morning at a local amusement park, which is inside one of the large city parks. 

Getting ready to go in the morning: This girl loves to wear coats. She's seen in this picture wearing her sister's coat plus her own jacket.

Her first ponytail.

At the park you can pay to dress up in traditional Chinese costumes and pose with these various animals.

If you look closely in her left hand, you'll see "baby dinosaur." He goes EVERYWHERE with us these days. He enjoys doing all the things Catherine likes to do, including the red slide.

Ann climbed up the stairs, went down the yellow slide, ran to the stairs, and repeated. and repeated. and repeated. And would not be convinced that there was anything else to do at the playground other than the yellow slide.

We did finally convince her that the carousel also existed and could be fun.

Sister fun!

We enjoyed going on a weekday morning so that the park wasn't crowded.

Catherine picked a dandelion flower and carried it around with her until she met this little guy, then she gave it to him.

The ferris wheel. We have never been brave enough.

She enjoyed most of the day from here.

Granddad Leroy Judd

James’ grandfather peacefully slipped into eternity yesterday. Our hearts are conflicted with the deep grief we feel for no longer having the company of such a great man and the joy we feel knowing Granddad is seeing Jesus as none of us ever have.

Although I have only had the privilege of knowing Granddad Leroy for about 6 years, I think men like him need to be celebrated. And, we won’t get to be home to grieve and celebrate with our extended family, so I offer this blog post as a compilation of what I want to say, as well as what other family members have already said.

Here is a picture of the first time I met James’ Grandfather. James and I weren't engaged yet but I remember his grandfather's advice to James was, "If you pet her, she'll be nice to you." He had a reputation (rightly so) for being a tough cowboy who worked cattle and rode horseback into his 80's , but I met him shortly before his 90th birthday and he had already softened quite a bit from his earlier days of being tough and rugged. He was kind and gentle toward me, my children, and everyone I saw him come in contact with. Delton, James' father, told us that in his last days in the hospital that the nurses said it was a pleasure to take care of Leroy and that he wasn't a hardened, grumpy old man like they often see.

In the picture above and below he's next to his second wife, Barbara. They have been married for 21 years, both marrying after their spouses passed away.

He was married to his first wife, Oleen for more than 50 years. I never got to meet her, but I love their story. She had TB and her father thought she was too unhealthy to get married. Leroy asked her father for permission to marry her, but he said no because he thought she was too unhealthy. Leroy and Oleen heard the announcement on the radio about Pearl Harbor and knew war was on the horizon. So they did what any two young kids in love would have done....they eloped. The first town they stopped in refused to grant the marriage license because he knew Oleen's father and didn't want him to be angry. So, in the second town they were granted the license and began their 50 years together. I heard that she had second thoughts about the marriage and thought she had married a lazy man because he didn't leave the house for several days after they were married. Then one day he announced, "Well, I don't think your dad is coming back to take you away, so I guess I'll get to work." They spent only 11 months together when he was called to duty. They didn't see each other again for 31 months. However, while he was away serving in WWII, God was healing her of TB. A woman who was told she'd never have children had 4. And those four had 10, and those 10 had 32!

 I'm thankful he was able to make the trip to participate in our wedding!

The section of the Judd Family who carry his name. I am SOOOO blessed to be one of them!

Here is Grandad with Catherine.

Four generations :)

And here he is with Ann. Elizabeth Ann, named Elizabeth after his wife's mother.

I love this one where he's smiling at her. But he wasn't just kind and gentle to our children, he was also welcoming and kind to the homestay students who lived with us. I remember once we took some students with us to visit him about the same time James and I were reading the book The Worst Hard Time. He shared with us and our students a few stories about leaving through the Dust Bowl. He said he and his brother would tie a rope around each of them so that when the dust got too bad to see they could still find each other. I've also heard stories about him hunting game and selling pelts to make ends meet during the Great Depression.

Here's a picture of James' last conversation with Granddad. It was so thoughtful of his family to include him. Here is what James wrote shortly after that conversation.

I don’t know if one ever gets familiar enough with death to know what to say to a man who will shortly leave this life. I told him I loved him, I respected him. I mostly didn’t know what to say.
What I wished I would have told him was this. “I’m going to miss you, Granddad, but I’m excited for you. When you see Jesus face to face it is going to be so wonderful. You are going to get to see Him as none of us ever has. You’ll get to know Him as He really is. You’ll get to truly enter into His rest. Your body will be made new. Your faith will continue to live through your family. We are so thankful for everything you did for us. For the example you set. For the way you loved Grandma O, loved us. For the way you loved my father and mother. For the way you loved us grandkids. For the way you loved my brother, sister, and I. For the way you loved my wife. For all the time we spent together on the ranch. For the honest way you lived your life. Other than my father, I don’t know if there is any other man I respect as much as you.
Thank you for letting to see your life of faithfulness. Thank you for all your prayers and your influence over me.
There are still so many things I wish I could learn from you. Lessons about loving, and being a father, and a grandfather. Lessons about walking with God. Lessons about growing old. I'll miss your wisdom and your counsel.
May Jesus hold you in His embrace and welcome you into His eternal kingdom. I’m going to miss you, and I love you.”

From Mettie:


I'm pretty sure somewhere in heaven today, Granddad is back on a horse, using indecipherable hand signals, and telling the angels to "Get Tough!" as they gather the cattle on a thousand hills. I am heartbroken to never see his crooked smile again, to never sing "Hey, Good Looking" to him when I walk in the room, to never have him reach for my hand one more time, but I'm thankful he's with his Lord and Savior and I'm grateful that God loaned him to us for almost a century.
May my life be a remembrance of the way he lived his and may I have even half of his faith. Goodbye for now, good lookin' . . .
Mettie

from Stephanie:

Grieving today, but not without hope. Early this morning, my granddad, Leroy Judd, slipped quietly into God's presence after nearly a century on earth. A quiet but influential leader in his community, a man of faith and integrity, faithful love for his family, and a legacy of four children, 10 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren who all love Jesus. Granddad was a rugged Texas rancher and cowboy whose "Get tough!" and "Hold steady" admonitions have served us all well and infused resilience into our character. I honor my granddad today, and say "thank you" for living your life in such a way that many could follow...and would want to. Thankful, too, that the line between time and eternity is paper thin. You are now in God's presence among a cloud of witnesses, and I will see you again soon.
With all my love and inexpressible gratitude...

from Leslie:

"I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died." ~ I Thess. 4:13-14
Today, my Granddad slipped quietly into eternity. I'm so very thankful to have had this man as a grandfather. He was a tough,Texas cowboy with a heart that longed to serve God. He was an inspiration to every one of his children and grandchildren. So, today, we do not sorrow as those without a hope! He will be greatly missed on this earth, but we know we will see him again soon!

from Ashlea:

It is interesting to me how many times within our families (Mark and mine combined and individually), we celebrate a birthday (life) and a loss (death) on the same day. Today, I celebrate my little nephew Nicola's 1st birthday! What a precious baby boy he is!!! Early this morning, we also received news of Mark's dear Granddad (nearly 96 years old) passing away peacefully in his sleep. He left a sweet legacy with his family.
This always makes me think of "A time for everything" in Ecclesiastes... "A time to live and a time to die." Our lives are in God's hands, and they are loving Hands. For Mark's Granddad we mourn our loss by his death on earth, but we know he is alive in Christ... more alive than he has ever been before. So, perhaps today we are celebrating life two times. Nicola celebrating his 1st year of life on earth, and Granddad Leroy celebrating his 1st day of eternity in heaven.

from Sherri:

Early this morning my Granddad Judd peacefully went to be with his Savior, Jesus Christ. We already miss him, but we also know nothing could be better than heaven for him. I'm so grateful for the Godly life he lived. A strong, hard-working cowboy who did what it took to provide for his family even in lean times. He weathered the seasons of Texas panhandle and of life with dignity and firm trust in God. A quiet-spoken but influential leader in both his family and community. Faithful husband of 50 years to my Grandma Oleen and another 21+ years to Grandma Barbara. Godly Daddy to his 4 kids. Loving (and a bit ornery) Granddad to his 10 grandkids and 32 great grandkids. I'm so blessed to have had him in my life for so many years. So many great memories shared and lessons caught by watching him simply live everyday life with God. I am grateful for his legacy and love..and now for the hope of being with him for eternity. See you in heaven soon, Granddad.