Hey everybody! Time to wrestle the reins back from Susanne, who has been a blogging champ lately. There was a lull in the action today – just a day for some of the paperwork to be processed at the American consulate here.
This morning Susanne and I were both feeling discouraged. We knew that we were in store for some rocky times when we decided to make this jump, but we also thought we would have a honeymoon period of sorts, at least while we were in China. There have been so many encouraging things the past week (one week! Wow!), but plenty of frustrations as well.
Thanks for your prayers – today was probably our best day yet with Nathaniel. As Susanne reported, we are making a habit of calling him “Nathaniel Weifeng” now. Kind of a mouthful, but he’s getting it.
After a heart to heart and some praying, Susanne stayed behind in the hotel with Nathaniel, waiting on an administrative phone call. The other three boys, Mom and Dad, and I walked to a local park.
They do parks right in China – beautifully landscaped, bridges, lakes, peeing children…
Yes folks, peeing children. Totally legit in China. To the point where a child being potty trained will walk around in tush-eating shark attack survivor pants – no cloth over the derrier.
The park was Africa hot – the highlight was eagle-eyed Joshua finding 3 mini frogs. This is on top of the frog he found yesterday. Said frog was a covert guest of our 5 star hotel last night, evidently. Josh made sure he was doing OK – found a baggy and put a touch of water in it, made sure there was a little passageway for air at the top. Frog #1 was set free on the way to the park. When we asked Josh what the frog did after getting his freedom back, he reported – “He looked at me.” This made me laugh out loud. Frogs 2 through 4 are in their little Joshua-created ecosystem in a mini water bottle as we speak.
The real blessing of the day was the time Susanne and Nathaniel had back in the room while we were gone. The looked at pictures and watched a bunch of home movie snippets on the computer. Nathaniel laughed and laughed at goofy videos of the boys dancing to the Cars soundtrack at home. It reminded us of how he hasn’t really seen the real Hardings yet. Just the slightly stressed, crammed in, too long in a foreign country Hardings.
This afternoon we caved in and did a bunch of souvenir shopping. Up to this point we had largely avoided this. The boys all got “chops.” I used to think this referred to chopsticks, but instead it is the name for a personalized stamp, carved with your name or anything else you might like. The stamp itself is made of jade, with an animal carved into the top. These things are to China tourism what the hermit crab is to Ocean City. OBLIGATORY.
Susanne bought herself a silk dress, tailored and all for less than $30. I scratched my itch for buying knockoff name brand stuff, too. You all can play “guess the knock off” when you see me. For all of you “Way of the Master” trained peeps out there, yes, I guess that
makes me a thief. There I said it. Finally, what trip to China would be complete without the purchase of cheap plastic swords? Not this one.
This evening, many of the families in our travel group commandeered the area in front of the elevators on the seventh floor for a talent show and pizza party. A sweet night of real Christian fellowship. All the kids got up there and did silly things, and everybody ate it up and applauded while we ate overpriced Papa John’s. ($20ish per pizza) Color me biased, but little Kit was a big hit with his dancing exhibition. The kid can shake his booty, and he doesn’t care who knows it. Joshua pulled out his secret talent of competitive arm-tooting, much to the delight of the ladies in the crowd. Zachary boldly offered up his Kyle Boller imitation / schtick. Poor Kyle…people taking pot shots at you in the off season from half a world away. We couldn’t convince Nathaniel to get up there, although the stinker did sing “Happy Birthday to you” in ENGLISH (!!!!) to me at bedtime tonight. Don’t know if he memorized it
from hearing it tonight at the talent show or if it’s taught in school along the lines of Frere Jacque or whatever the heck that French song is. Kudos to Candace Keck (who reminds us so 
much of Brenda Castlebury, it kills us) for this awesome idea.
It has been such a blessing to be in the company of these families. You could not have asked for a more genuinely Christian group of people. I get choked up when we are together as a group to see the love of Christ so tangibly displayed in their lives.
That’s all for now. Thanks to everybody who has been checking up on us. We still need your prayers! Satan would like nothing better than to attack our family and somehow interfere as we, in Joshua’s words, introduce Nathaniel to the “one true God.” For the longest time we were not able to read your comments, but now we can, and it’s a joy to see them.
This morning Susanne and I were both feeling discouraged. We knew that we were in store for some rocky times when we decided to make this jump, but we also thought we would have a honeymoon period of sorts, at least while we were in China. There have been so many encouraging things the past week (one week! Wow!), but plenty of frustrations as well.
Thanks for your prayers – today was probably our best day yet with Nathaniel. As Susanne reported, we are making a habit of calling him “Nathaniel Weifeng” now. Kind of a mouthful, but he’s getting it.
After a heart to heart and some praying, Susanne stayed behind in the hotel with Nathaniel, waiting on an administrative phone call. The other three boys, Mom and Dad, and I walked to a local park.
They do parks right in China – beautifully landscaped, bridges, lakes, peeing children…
Yes folks, peeing children. Totally legit in China. To the point where a child being potty trained will walk around in tush-eating shark attack survivor pants – no cloth over the derrier.
The park was Africa hot – the highlight was eagle-eyed Joshua finding 3 mini frogs. This is on top of the frog he found yesterday. Said frog was a covert guest of our 5 star hotel last night, evidently. Josh made sure he was doing OK – found a baggy and put a touch of water in it, made sure there was a little passageway for air at the top. Frog #1 was set free on the way to the park. When we asked Josh what the frog did after getting his freedom back, he reported – “He looked at me.” This made me laugh out loud. Frogs 2 through 4 are in their little Joshua-created ecosystem in a mini water bottle as we speak.
The real blessing of the day was the time Susanne and Nathaniel had back in the room while we were gone. The looked at pictures and watched a bunch of home movie snippets on the computer. Nathaniel laughed and laughed at goofy videos of the boys dancing to the Cars soundtrack at home. It reminded us of how he hasn’t really seen the real Hardings yet. Just the slightly stressed, crammed in, too long in a foreign country Hardings.
This afternoon we caved in and did a bunch of souvenir shopping. Up to this point we had largely avoided this. The boys all got “chops.” I used to think this referred to chopsticks, but instead it is the name for a personalized stamp, carved with your name or anything else you might like. The stamp itself is made of jade, with an animal carved into the top. These things are to China tourism what the hermit crab is to Ocean City. OBLIGATORY.
Susanne bought herself a silk dress, tailored and all for less than $30. I scratched my itch for buying knockoff name brand stuff, too. You all can play “guess the knock off” when you see me. For all of you “Way of the Master” trained peeps out there, yes, I guess that
makes me a thief. There I said it. Finally, what trip to China would be complete without the purchase of cheap plastic swords? Not this one.This evening, many of the families in our travel group commandeered the area in front of the elevators on the seventh floor for a talent show and pizza party. A sweet night of real Christian fellowship. All the kids got up there and did silly things, and everybody ate it up and applauded while we ate overpriced Papa John’s. ($20ish per pizza) Color me biased, but little Kit was a big hit with his dancing exhibition. The kid can shake his booty, and he doesn’t care who knows it. Joshua pulled out his secret talent of competitive arm-tooting, much to the delight of the ladies in the crowd. Zachary boldly offered up his Kyle Boller imitation / schtick. Poor Kyle…people taking pot shots at you in the off season from half a world away. We couldn’t convince Nathaniel to get up there, although the stinker did sing “Happy Birthday to you” in ENGLISH (!!!!) to me at bedtime tonight. Don’t know if he memorized it
from hearing it tonight at the talent show or if it’s taught in school along the lines of Frere Jacque or whatever the heck that French song is. Kudos to Candace Keck (who reminds us so 
much of Brenda Castlebury, it kills us) for this awesome idea.It has been such a blessing to be in the company of these families. You could not have asked for a more genuinely Christian group of people. I get choked up when we are together as a group to see the love of Christ so tangibly displayed in their lives.
That’s all for now. Thanks to everybody who has been checking up on us. We still need your prayers! Satan would like nothing better than to attack our family and somehow interfere as we, in Joshua’s words, introduce Nathaniel to the “one true God.” For the longest time we were not able to read your comments, but now we can, and it’s a joy to see them.
-Chris
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