On Monday, July 27th, we slept in, had pancakes, watched aPrice is Right and chilled. And then we chilled some more. We actually talked to Noah that morning since we hadn't for more than a week due to TMF the previous week.
Justin came over to play Settlers. He told us that he'd been accepted to a university in the States and passed his Visa interview...so our days with Justin are limited. They're checking out the pineapple cakes we got them for watching Porky while we were gone. I worked out while they were playing but started feeling ill that evening. I worried I had overdone it so soon after camp but I think I just caught the sore throat cold Evie had caught from the TMF college leaders...
Terry had to leave for a LKIC staff meeting but Justin stayed and played Goat Lords and HP Clue.
Afterwards, Evie and I walked across the street to the baking store amidst an oncoming storm.
It was pouring ten minutes later. The two juxtaposed pictures made some pretty cool Marco Polo seconds.
Evie made brookies (brownie-cookies) that afternoon with the baking supplies. I gotta say - I'm loving her delving into baking.
She also sent me a bunch of late-to-the-party/blog photos from TMF last week. Hilarious Evie, per usual.
Lydia, Evie, Olivia their leader, and Anna.
Some of the campers and leaders.
Here's all of the middle and high school students along with their college leaders.
Heading to the pool.
The pair of them are so funny.
One night's game and activities.
The girls again.
Anna must've taken this photo at a meal of some kind b/c I'm in it!
Another day, another visit to the pool.
Practicing a play under the covered basketball courts.
Tuesday, July 28th, began with me feeling sick. I felt pretty darn icky with a sore throat. I had planned to go to Costco with Terry, Nanson, and Flora (!) but didn't want to expose them. So I laid around most of the day.
Evie has been low-level stressed out about "what's next" in her life, partly b/c everyone keeps asking her but also b/c it's just that time of life! Her friend Cora, who also loves to write, had introduced her to The Author Conservatory, a college-alternative program. Evie wanted to just go full-bore into it but we made her do some research and then compare it with a proper university Writing program. Here she is signing up for an interview with Author Conservatory.
Terry brought home these beef rolls for lunch. We needed a break from pizza, especially b/c they don't have supreme anymore and only cheese now. They were delicious, but not at all healthy.
Nanson drove right into our garage and we unloaded the goods...
...and rolled them directly into the elevator. It was way more slick than having to roll them through our big courtyard first.
Then right away they all had to go to Nanson's mechanic who had a van for us to look at. It was a Mitsubushi Delica Space Gear. I actually kinda really like these blocky vans. They're fun. But we decided to pass on it. It was from a temple (?) but the front seat was too tall for Terry and his forehead hit the visor.
I set the boys to the task of shredding the three rotisserie Costco chickens when I heard an outburst of laughter. Ezra had pulled off what he thought was a chicken wing only to discover it was the chicken's head. He thought that was hilarious. Evie and I think it's rather gross that they always keep the heads attached.
Terry's test drive of the van made him late for a three hour Cedar Tree English cram school orientation. Evie was pretty exhausted when she came home = forced cat snuggles.
Terry wasn't home hardly long enough to eat before he had to turn around and leave early for EC Talk at Aroma that evening. He had been asked to consider a leadership role so he went early to discuss it. They discovered that they had jumped the gun in asking Terry so nothing will change for now. These nights are the highlight of Terry's week.
Wednesday, July 29th, was our first beach day! Lillian had come up with the idea a couple of weeks ago as a sort of last hurrah to summer but nobody else ended up being able to go but us. We took an Uber down to Che-wei beach by the airport through a literal jungle which was just waiting on the other side of Linkou.
It's not far at all but we had never ventured to do this on our own before b/c 1) we don't have a car, 2) we don't know where to go, and 3) b/c it's stressful to do new things here b/c of the language barrier and the unknown.
Boom baby: Jungle.
Beach!
It actually looks a lot more idyllic than it was in reality. A lot of our pictures look like that, not just these beach ones. The beach was one Lillian had never been too...and one none of us will go back again. I don't know if it was gross b/c it's along the Taiwan Strait and closer to the "Big Country," but there was a lot of trash. There were dead fish. Terry even found some broken glass bottles that we were thankful not to have stepped on!
It was so incredibly hot and humid that after walking along the beach to find a place that was "less" trashy we all made a beeline for the water. We kind of just skipped over all the trash stuck in the surf, but as the tide went down it became more evident. I went back out and grabbed my phone after a while to capture our fun.
Their brother couldn't come so the boys were stuck with just girls...which suited Evie just fine.
Yay for beach time!
Anna took a family photo for me too.
Anna
Lydia
These girls have so much fun together.
Super duper mega thankful for this family.
A view of the structure where we parked.
The water was crazy warm. Warmer than Florida on the gulf. It honestly felt like bathwater. So after maybe an hour of playing everyone came back to shore to make sand castles. That's Terry's favorite thing to do at the beach.
B/c the tide was going out there was just a lot of water sitting on top of the sand. So when they started digging the water just poured into any holes. They started making canals b/c the water continually flowed.
I liked the pattern of water and sand left behind.
Ezra always digs like a dog.
Samuel got so dirty. I guess they all did. But it was funny b/c you could see his leg hairs coming out of the sand caked onto his legs. 😆
Yep, love those delicate patterns.
They were all hard at work creating some kind of masterpiece.
I, however, sat contentedly under an umbrella in Samuel's puddle. A beach chair would've been preferable but it was cooler than not being in the water and it limited my sunburn exposure.
I did go and visit Lillian on the sand a little. She didn't want to swim. It was too hot for me not to!
They had to leave a little early to return their rental car.
Yep, Evie also got very sandy.
Evie made this heart.
Lydia made this sea monster, though sadly it's face fell off. It was very fearsome looking.
Anna made this beached whale or fish.
Terry next to a canal.
"Eeeeee"
Samuel was in his puddle and just kept scooping out sand to make it deeper and deeper.
Ezra made a new canal and Lillian and I marveled at how water makes those interesting lines like a pattern or washboard.
At about 4pm we decided to leave. Just then a black guy walked over to admire our canal city and Terry talked to him for about ten minutes. He was a Muslim from Africa and working at a shipping company here. Terry shared the gospel a bit with him and they exchanged contacts. Then we walked to the bathrooms. From there we waited at the foot washing station for an Uber to come and pick us up. But the time went from 16 minutes to 19 to 21 and upwards. No one wanted to come down so far to pick us up. But we were stuck so we just kept waiting, staring into space and sweating, wishing we could just go home.
There people milling around coming and going but this older gentleman went by with his phone in his hand and we recognized it speaking English. We heard something like, "...handsome men and beautiful ladies...do you need a taxi." We were like, "Wait what? Is he trying to talk to us?" It was so strange b/c the man was not looking at us. He was standing with his back to us, staring off in the opposite direction, as his phone spoke in English; a siren inviting us to his car. Terry got up talked to him, "Taxi?...Linkou?...$500 NT?" and then they used Google Translate to determine work out a few details. Terry looked at me, I shrugged, and we decided to do it.
We were driving home a different way than we came so I got a little concerned that we were going to be human trafficked! I started texting Lillian and shared my location with her. Terry took this photo as our potentially last photo...mostly as a joke. But I was a bit nervous. But we kept checking the map as we went and he was taking us the right direction.
And he did take us all the way back to our apartment! I was relieved and maybe a little sheepish. You know how when you doubt God and then you regret it? It was like that. The guy ended up being our angel taxi driver sent from God to take care of us, and not something to be afraid of. I'm thankful, but all the same, still maybe not the best choice.
That evening I was confused why Noah was leaving the house at like 5am his time. He and his roommate went to a Bible study together (Cavetime)! How cool is that?
Thursday, July 30th, was another recovery day. I didn't feel as bad as Tuesday but the beach had worn me out...and Ezra as well, though he swears he didn't actually nap that afternoon. Terry and Nanson went to look at another car (it didn't work out) and the woman he talked to is potentially interested in some English training centered around helping foreigners purchase cars. So we'll see. Then we went to En Cafe to visit Rex and his mom Theresa. It had been so long that Theresa said just the night before she was wondering when she'd see Terry again! They all talked cars and Rex gave Terry some good advice about cars. He also helped us buy indoor baseball tickets so we can go with Noah on August 14th! People here are so kind!
Terry and Samuel played basketball that evening before dinner and came home "completely disheveled" (inside joke). They were completely soaked in sweat - no part of their shirts was dry anymore. Meanwhile Noah gave Luna a haircut.
The poor naked and cold rat dog! She's going to live with my parents while Noah visits us August 2-15.
Friday, July 31st, Terry went back to En Cafe to collect the tickets from Rex. I'm really praying for God to bless their business and bring Rex to Christ. Terry also worked on a newsletter and his first "Taiwan Tales with Terry video" describing our surprise taxi drive home from the beach.
That morning we talked to Noah to help him make final decisions about what to bring us and how to pack it into his three tubs. Then Evie's friend Moriah came over. She's the sweetest. Her folks are missionaries in Taipei and Evie met her through Morrison.
They played games for like four hours. Evie made a cheesecake especially to share with her.
After Moriah left Justin came over. They played another round of Settlers. It's gonna be sad to not see him anymore!
Saturday, August 1st, was Noah's July 31st and he was making final preparations...like saying goodbye to Trouncer. Man we miss him.
We talked through Noah's final choices of things to bring us...
...and how to pack them in his three tubs. And then he went to bed while we continued with our day. When he got up it would be our evening and time for him to go to the airport!
After talking at length with Noah, Terry and I visited En Cafe for a little date. Rex and Theresa were giving us vacation ideas for places to visit when Noah's here.
Porky when we got home. I went downstairs and did leg day but ran out of energy and had to keep resting between sets - it was either the cold or the coffee, or both.
Terry however went back out. He had been continually looking at cars and found this 2004 Toyota Previa minivan through Facebook Marketplace. Rex had been chatting with the seller on Terry's behalf too! That's him in the back of the van.
Nanson had been helping him too. The seller was so kind as to drive it the half hour from Taoyuan for Terry to see. He didn't want to go down on the price but will cover and help with several of the other things that have to be done (taxes, registration, and insurance). I mean, come on, how crazy is that?! God's provision is all over this. Thank you Lord!
The kids all played pool downstairs and discovered a fun fact - you can ask for the air conditioner to be turned on. It's always so hot down there that I think they'd been avoiding playing.
That evening we watched Hot Rod on VidAngel (takes out all the cussing and anything inappropriate you don't want to see - we even invested in a crowdfunding project too and so should you!).
By the time the boys were heading to bed, Noah was heading to the airport! It's bizarre b/c the memory of us in that same place and him outside the gates watching us leave is so fresh and fuzzy at the same time in my memory...
...Oof that was tough to rewatch. That was the hardest part of all - turning our backs on Noah and family.
After the boys went to bed, Evie had her interview with the Author Conservatory. She did great and they thought she'd be a good candidate for their school. So we shall see what she decides in the next fews months.
Noah sent us this photo from his first plane as we were going to bed.
On Sunday, August 2nd, we woke up to a couple more photos from Noah! I think this one is from San Francisco...
...which reminded me of when were there just 6.5 months ago! But wow it was a lot scarier then. It felt like stepping off a cliff into darkness.
And then he boarded his big 13ish hour flight across the Pacific to arrive in Taiwan at 6:45pm.
It was so fun to see all of these Noah travel notifications on my phone this morning.
Evie was out with friends and the rest of us just chilled (with our special cat) for the afternoon.
I wrote the blog and Terry edited it.
Before we knew it, it was time to go get Noah!
We rode to the train station and took it just three stops to the airport where we rushed unnecessarily. Noah was slightly delayed due to talking to baggage claim about his delayed luggage. Terry was also in the app trying to work the problem. Noah's tubs had missed his first plane but Noah got the worker to deliver them to our place.
We thought Noah was still working it out when Terry looked up and saw Noah looking for us!We all rushed him and crushed him in a hug.
Evie was adorably beaming while just staring at him. Her expression is the definition of this emoji 😍
Heading back on the train.
It went surprisingly fast with Noah along this time!
This is just outside our train station. We had to walk since he still had a rolling carry-on. It was hot but we had NOAH!
Porky ran away as soon as Noah came in but he is warming up. Such a cowardly cat. And that's all for this week! I wouldn't be surprised if I get behind on the blog while he's here...
