Brigsby Update.

After a poop free 3 days, Josh and I headed out for a few hours and came back to see that the tiny little bunny had absolutely unloaded in his cage, and he was ready to get out and get back to normal life.

It was unbelievable. So, have no fear...Brigsby is back to his normal self again, growing, eating, drinking, and pooping.

...and finding his favorite perch on dad's shoulder (no joke, he climbs up there on his own.)

 

 ...and being too cute

He stands in his food bowl while he eats...what a weirdy.

..and being adventurous.

Brigsby, its not polite to try to steal other people's food...we've talked about his.

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Poor Brigsby.

I would love to tell you about how much I enjoyed my new job working at a Preschool/Kindergarten this afternoon, and talk about how completely adorable the little Chinese toddlers are, but there are far more pressing matters that I need to discuss.

Brigsby has been sick for the last two days...This is not okay with me. His illness has affected me far more than it probably should, but I am overwhelmed with worry. Overwhelmed to where I couldn't sleep last night, and I had an emotional breakdown yesterday and bawled when I was describing to Josh how the little fellow hadn't ate, drank, or pooped all day (apparently that is a bad sign and that makes me nervous).

But today he had baby steps to recovery...still no little poopies yet, but he is eating a little today and drinking more water. Even though that is somewhat of a relief, I can tell you that I have never in my life wanted to see poop as badly as I do right now.

If he isn't better by tomorrow, I think we might have to do some research and find a legit vet here in China...if there is such a thing?! Because frankly, I can't lose him, I would be heartbroken.

Brigsby, I love you little buddy, you bring such joy and warmth to my heart...please poop, I'm begging you.

Poor Brigsby cuddles up to monkey. I'm glad he has a friend about his size.

Sheep

Tonight Josh and I had the opportunity to lead an English study with a group of college students and we dove into the Good News book together. Josh and I had planned to teach Mark, but felt that the Father was leading us more towards Luke...so Luke is where we began. Since we didn't know the status of some of the students it seemed like a good idea to start in Chapter 2 and study the birth of the Son and what that meant for all of mankind.

When we showed up this evening we walked into a group strictly of brothers and sisters which was a blessing because we were able to get this study started with a solid group who is committed to coming, with the prospect of non-sisters and brothers eventually joining in. After talking with a local couple over the past month or so, they informed us that a discussion type study would work best, so a discussion type study was what we did. We went through the story sections at a time and there was a lot of good stuff discussed. Much of it wasn't new to us or to the Chinese, but its always refreshing to re-visit the exact time in history when the hope of man was restored and the everlasting King was born.

As we talked, it was so neat to see how many of the Chinese relate to the text in the same way that we Americans do. Our Father's words really are living and active. They are able to reach people of all cultures even ones as opposite as American and Chinese.

Anyway, as the discussion continued on, there were many key points that were brought to our attention that we all elaborated on, and it was all good stuff...but then a topic came up that kicked me right in the gut. From a passage I had read so many times before, Father's words (living and active) spoke so clearly to everyone, but especially to me.

When you look at the shepherds who dropped everything, left their flocks (which their life revolved around, their sole source of income, of survival) and went to see, worship, and praise the little baby, there is a perfect example set for our lives. Not only did they leave but when they received the gift that was given they didn't rush back to make sure that their flock was safe and still in order, they went out and shared the good news. These men literally left all they had behind for the sake of obedience and joy. Talk about setting the bar...

The truth is that we all have sheep that we have to put aside to share the good news. For these shepherd men, it was literally sheep, their life, that they put aside to go out and tell everyone. For the Chinese their sheep is fear of imprisonment, persecution, or having family disown them...To me, those seem to be rather big sheep and completely justifiable...but no, out of obedience and the pure joy of spreading the Father's love they are supposed to go out and tell people too. This revelation to the group made them all really reconsider how they had been living their life as a child of the Most High. They challenged themselves to set aside their sheep and trust that He would tend to them while they were taking part in His work.

It was a great thing that they were so deep in thought and discussion because I'm fairly certain that I shrunk to about 2 inches tall...What a humbling and embarrassing slap in the face. These people, my brothers and sisters, face real danger with sharing but have such a desire to do it anyway. They have sheep on steroids. Me, I don't even deserve to call my reasons "sheep." My pathetic excuses, with which I convince myself are valid reasons, consist of ridiculous things like: "I just don't want to feel uncomfortable," "I really would just rather try to share through my actions," and my personal best "I don't want to lose or really upset my friend." What the heck kinds of sheep are those?! Those are more like the fleas that dwell on the sheep. How pathetic is that? How pathetic am I?

An angel said in Luke 2:10-11 "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL THE PEOPLE. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior." A gift for all the people at that time and then for all the rest of time. A joyous gift that is meant to be shared. Who else is going to share it but those who have already received it?!

Out of love, I want to challenge you all... Find your sheep (gigantic or microscopic, valid or downright embarrassing), gather them up, and then toss them aside. Nothing is worth the eternal life of another person. He will take care of all the sheep you leave behind while you are tending to His.

"Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end."  -Psalm 119: 111-112

Brigsby.

Funny how before you celebrate your 1 year anniversary, it is not uncommon to celebrate anniversaries in months. I wonder if that just stops after you hit that year mark, or will we continue to say happy one year and 5 month anniversary dear...hmm. I guess my question is when does that stop? At what year will we stop tracking the months? I know my parents don't celebrate happy 29 years and 3 months anniversary.

Anyway, my point is, even though its not uncommon, I find it strange that its normal to celebrate each month as if we've reached a significant milestone. Not that I'm complaining. If Josh and I didn't go along with the common standard to celebrate the months we've been married for however long its common to celebrate months together, Brigsby would not have happened.

5 Days ago Josh and I celebrated our 9 month anniversary. Crazy business that we are already to month 9...my how time flies when you are having fun being married to the most wonderful man in the world (ok so maybe I'm bias)...

To celebrate we headed out to dinner at Jazzy Pizza, which was nice then we came home to snuggle up and watch more episodes of our "Big Bang Theory" marathon.(hilarious show by the way)

What a perfect date...but although all of that was nice and I have a wonderful time dating my husband, the BEST Part of it all was the gift he gave me earlier in the day...

Maybe it was dangerous of him to offer "whatever you want," but nonetheless, Brigsby is now a part of our family, and I'm in love. (and even though Josh plays it cool, he loves "wabbit" too, I can see it.)

So with no further ado meet Brigsby, the newest member of the Vance household...

Isn't he perfect?!

Happy Anniversary to me!!!

He thinks he owns the place...such a couch hog. :)

See, he loves the bunny too....

Father-bunny bonding time...watching the news together.






Brigsby...a wonderful gift that just keeps on giving. Thank you Joshua Buddy...I love you, Happy 9 Month Anniversary!

50% Beautiful Day

Another Chinese Holiday = Another day for adventure!! 

This Chinese holiday was their "Independence Day", not really sure what type of dependency they were freed from, but they celebrate how the nation made the swap to Communism. What a great reason to celebrate! WOO HOO Communism! 

This holiday, Josh and I were invited to join on someone else's adventure. There was talk of visiting the countryside, hiking up a mountain and then ending with a visit to the beach!!! Sounded fabulous so we grabbed the camera, brought our suits, packed a lunch and hit the road... Fu Xing did not disappoint. 

 

The scenery was beautiful, we were out from underneath the smog covered sky, and the air was fresh (thats hard to come by here)! We hiked a trail that consisted of mud and moss which became the detriment to our reputation...I fell straight on my butt at least 6 or 7 times, not at all gracefully, and came out covered in mud and who knows what else. I was proud of Josh though, he, being normally the more unbalanced of the two of us, ( I mean short muscled babe, I know you were born with it) only fell twice. I'm going to blame it on the Chacos. Thanks to us, China now believes that Americans are big lugs that can't stay on their feet. haha

But like I said earlier...the scenery was beautiful!

We hiked for around an hour and ended up on the top of Da Mu Shin (I thought it was funny that when you say the mountain's name it sounds like da moose shin, and da means big so it sounds like its named big moose shin. hehe). So there we were on the top of the big moose shin and it was soooo windy! We are talking seriously windy...to the point where I had a genuine concern that some of the littler Chinese would be blown right off the mountain top. I was half jokingly and half seriously telling them to hold on tight, too bad none of them understood me...well at least I could say that I tried.

A few ladies hiked in wedges or heels...what the heck?

We walked around the top for about an hour and I couldn't help but feel a little like I was Julie Andrews, and I absolutely couldn't help belting out the Chorus of "The Hills are Alive." Don't worry, I know all of the other hikers enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure any dog within earshot loved it so much they had to join in. It was great fun.

How gorgeous is that?!?! Oh and the view is pretty good too. :)

At the top we also enjoyed more beautiful scenery, a picnic lunch, games, and occasionaly the aroma of massive cow poop collection piles. Apparently, the locals collect the poop, put it on the mountain top (can't blame them for wanting it far away) and eventually use it as fertilizer...Josh and I figured it would only be polite to help out with the cause. 

 

However, I couldn't help but feel that once again we only damaged America's Image...we got some pretty strange looks. 

 Once we finished lunch and spent some quality time spreading the "Good News" with some of our new friends, we headed back down the mountain and were off to the beach. Big moose shin was a success and now we were on to hit the waves, I was excited!!! Unfortunately, the beach was not as satisfying...

That beach was CROWDED, and when I say crowded I mean CHINA CROWDED! Not only was it crowded but every male on the beach young and old wore shorty shorts (spandex shorty shorts) which was not pleasant. There was also trash covering the sand and even some was washing up in the water. Like when Josh and I were walking along and a dirty diaper washed up right in front of us...gross. 

Josh and I in front of the Chinese Lighthouse. It was strange looking.

 

MMM...dirty diaper wash up.

It didn't take us long to decide that that it was a good thing we got our Hepatitis shots before we came, and that there was no way we were voluntarily getting in the water. Well, at least Big Moose Shin was beautiful... not a bad day!

Technology hates me.

So I know I promised days ago that I would get you caught up....Don't think I lied and haven't been trying!!

I have many things to tell and many things ready to post so I can show  you but the silly slow internet here in China will not allow pictures the last few days, and these stories won't be good without pictures. So I will continue to try my best...but technology hates me....and I think I hate technology back.

I miss you and I love you all! :) Thanks for checking in on us all the time...you are GREAT!!!

Bus 87

Yesterday we had the day off...Happy Mid Autumn Festival day everyone! After many discussions this is the best explanation we've been given...apparently its half way through fall here (could have fooled me with the 95 degree weather) and its a full moon, so why not celebrate?! They take the day off and eat lots of "moon cakes." Josh and I tried some...there were a few that weren't bad that had some kind of fruity filling but some of the others were pure terrible. I think one we had was filled with Taro, which is like purple potato like stuff. Gag.

So anyway, we had the day off and we had big plans. We woke up earlier than normal, cleaned up the place, and headed off to Forrest Park. Forrest Park is a huge National Park outside of Fuzhou that is filled with beautiful mountains you can hike, rivers with clean water, and a pretty waterfall...Yep, we had big plans. Our big plans included hiking that mountain, swimming in that river, playing in the waterfall, and having a picnic. Yay for days off!!!

Just as we were told, we took bus 87 to the end of the route which takes a little over an hour, unfortunately we went the wrong way on bus 87 so we visited the wrong end of the bus route which tacked on another 30 minutes to the ride... but no big deal, it was our day off...So we laughed it off and rode an hour and 15 minutes to the other end of the bus route.



 

As the bus rolled to a stop....we looked around....no Forrest Park. Wrong bus. Fail. A little more disappointed but still laughing it off, we stepped off the bus to go on a grand adventure. We walked a little ways to see what we could stumble over and ended up at a large entryway and it looked nice....if only we read Chinese...

So we ventured on a little further and found a huge map. A map of the other side of that archway...still in Chinese, but we sure can read pictures.

We accidentally found the zoo!!! What a wonderful find! Whats even better is that it cost Josh and I a total of about $9.00 USD. YEEEHAW!!!

So we started out hiking up the mountain (because the zoo was staggered up the side of the mountain it turned into a hiking trip too...perfect!)

It didn't take us long to discover that this zoo would not pass American health or safety standards. The first exhibit we saw was the kangaroos they were contained with about a 2 1/2 foot wall....ummm can't they jump?! Then we turned around to see an ostrich staring us in the face from just feet away, also a very short wall....ummmm aren't ostriches dangerous?! To top it off when we got to the hippo exhibit, the tank was leaking the hippo's nasty looking blackish green water, no joke, his container had a leak...how on earth is that safe?!?! People could pose for pictures while hugging the sea lion, they used animals' living space as trash cans, and each animal lived on a concrete slab with a hut for shade. (So much for having a "natural habitat")

We were pretty tickled at the monkey exhibit though. After ducking under construction equipment (why close it off to public when under construction?? let em' in!) We looked down into the pit to see one monkey drinking from an empty water bottle and another dragging a welding mask around with his mouth.

Although Josh and I had fun walking around and seeing the animals we decided two things: 1. That we would stay away from the lion area and 2. That when an animal hears that they are being shipped to a Chinese zoo in the zoo animal raffle they cry out in agony..."NOOOOOO....dang it!"

But seriously...you could see it in their eyes, the animals looked like they were either losing their minds or they were desperate to escape...see for yourself...

See what I mean? But at least the Chinese are graduating from eating any animal to putting them in cages and admiring them...thats improvement! I'll give credit where credit is due.

So after walking up and down the mountain and seeing just about the whole zoo we were exhausted and decided to head on back home, especially since it was over 100 degrees and humid beyond belief. However, when we got down to the road which would take you back to the beginning, we found that it was closed for construction. Sure, you close the roads for construction...When Josh and I tried to slip past the sign, the security guard yelled something in Chinese at us and pointed up the mountain. Dang. So we turned around and hiked that sucker again...When we finally arrived back at the entrance shaking, sweaty, really smelly, and tired beyond all reason...

We hopped back on bus 87 because we at least knew it would take us home.