Shakespearean Festival!

I have wanted to go for many years and finally this year they had a play I absolutely could not say no to. Sense and Sensibility. It was so well done. I'm so glad we went. Check out this video about it. The pin board on pinterest has a few stills from the play. It was so good and so well done that even Daniel enjoyed it. They stayed true to the story, did a very good job and presenting the characters true to form and even kept it light-hearted with the appropriate amount of emotion where it was called for. I look forward to going to the festival in years to come. I hope to see some of these same actors in other places as well.

We also so Twelfth Night. It was pretty funny. Some of the same actors from Sense and Sensibility were in it and it was fun to watch their talents in such different roles.

On Saturday we wandered around downtown Cedar City and then drove up to Cedar Breaks. We had a very pleasant weekend.

Being Home

As of writing this, Daniel and I have been home from Xiamen for 9 days. People keep asking us how it feels.

Well. I'm home. That's about all there is to say. It was a little surreal the first two days being back in our own house, but with only a bed and our suitcases. But Daniel and I both went back to work Monday morning and we've gotten back into the swing of things pretty easily.

The hard parts for me are when I think about Xiamen and realize I have no idea if and/or when I'll ever get to go back. I'm missing my friends there and I'm seriously craving some of the food. We ate lots of international stuff there. I went to a couple of grocery stores this week and scoured the international sections for spices and seasonings to resemble some of my favorite foods there. I'll let you know how they turn out.

I even went to the Oriental Market in Riverdale Road to see what they have. The dumplings were disappointing. They should have been marketed as pot-stickers, and not dumplings. My favorite dumplings from China were what is called shui jiao. Boiled dumplings of, most often, pork and Chinese leeks. Yummy. I like to eat mine dipped in black vinegar. Don't boil pot-stickers. They don't taste very good.

I bought 6 different yellow curries to find which is closest to the Malaysian Yellow curry I ate there. I loved the Chicken Malai Tikka at the Indian restaurant. And the cheese kebabs? Oh my. I'm sure I'll never find things like those again. It's like a deep fried cheese churro. Yummy.

The other big adjustment is the prices. We forgot how expensive some stuff in America really is. I find I was quite disconnected from the US dollar. I'm learning to grocery shop all over again.

But it feels good and right to be home. We are getting our house settled in. In the coming weeks we hope to be able to get our adoption profile back up and going.

Some people have also asked if Daniel is working for the same company. Yes. We went to China for the same company he has worked for for over 10 years. It was a single project. Now that we are home, Daniel will continue to travel fior longer, more frequet periods of time until the project is done. Then he will travel less just keep things current. He is still working for Lifetime and is happy there.

Any other questions?

Thanks for all the welcome home's we've had. We are happy to be back!

Sorry about the quiet blog

My computer fried while I was home in Utah and I had to get a new one. I can't seem to get my VPN to work on my new one yet, so I'm posting from my tablet. I'll post again when I get this whole issue worked out. Stupid Chinese firewall.

Good news: our move home date has been changed. We will be leaving Xiamen on November 16 to spend four days in Hong Kong and then we come home to Utah on November 20. I'm happy about this. I'm ready to move home. But there will be things that I will miss about China.

Ready or not, my next chapter starts soon.

A picture from Temple Square

After my sister's graduation we went to the Garden for dinner. These are a couple of pictures I took as the sun set.

 There's something so majestically beautiful about the Salt Lake Temple. It was good for my soul to see it on Thursday night.

My visit home

Daniel and I got to come home on April 19. This is the first trip home that had gone as scheduled. I didn't have to move it, it was scheduled for work.

The first night home we had steak and baked potatoes. So American. Yummy. We spent the week that Daniel was home doing things with friends, we spent one Sunday with each family. But my favorite part of my trip home thus far, besides seeing friends and family, has been the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I have been so tired of cities, crowds, dirty air that smells, too many people, grr, grr, grr. So a couple hours in a park that wasn't crowded (by Asian standards) seeing my favorite flowers and breathing fresh mountain air was the best thing for me. We had a good time and saw some interesting flowers.

I recommend you go. I think after I have kids I will get a one year membership to the gardens. We'll see.

 I love these striped tulips.

 These were the oddest variety of tulip there. I will have to investigate them and put some in my own garden some day.

These were some of my favorite tulips.

 Daniel and Ben (the other couple we went with) were feeling silly and they were mocking the people who were taking pictures of their (mostly not-cute) kids and took this picture. Gay.

 My favorite color combination.

Daniel was being a sport. He had a picture like this taken at our wedding that was taken like one from high school - that is my favorite.

 Tulips are such happy flowers.

It was a great day enjoying clean air, sunshine, snow capped mountain views, my husband and some friends. It did me good.

A really hard post for me.

The two weeks preceding Feb. 28 were very hard for me here in Xiamen. My dad had started to decline quite quickly by the day and we were waiting for the moment to make the call for me to go home. We decided that when his weight reached a certain point, it was time. Well he reached it. On a Sunday morning I talked with my mom and decided it was time for me to go home. I left early on Feb. 28 and landed in Utah in time to spend part of my afternoon with my dad.


My three weeks home were the hardest three weeks of my life, but contained some of the most tender memories I have with my family.

At that same time we decided that my dad's family should come to town then if they wanted some quality time with my dad. We did not know what the prognosis was at the time. The way things were going we knew it would be quick. But we didn't know how quick. So late on the night of the 28th my sister went and picked up my dad's mom, older sister, and younger brother. The next day I got them and we went to my parents house. At that point my dad had lost a ton of weight and he was rather confused about a lot of things. It was really hard on his older sister. To make this harder my dad was the same age his oldest sister was when she passed away in 2007. My poor aunt G has now lost the sibling on either side of her.

Then on Wednesday we went got my dad's baby sister from the airport and went to lunch. We spent tons of time together on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then my dad's brother left Saturday morning, his baby sister on Sunday, and his mom and older sister on the next Wed. Here are few pictures from my dad's last week.

Despite the confusion that accompanied his illness he remained the happy guy he has always been. He laughed most of that last week. And caused us to laugh plenty also. He continued to be so giving to my mom. He always smiled at her, hugged and only did what she said, not the rest of us.

 Laughing with his brother.

 Smiling for the camera.

 Showing his strong muscles.

 The remaining Araves. My grandpa died in 1989 after 14 years of a slowly progressing illness and My dad's oldest sister died in 2007 after complications from pulmonary hypertension.

 On Friday night we had a party and invited all his cousins who live in Hooper. He lived with them while he went to college and remained close to them through the years. My dad still had the most hair. Left to right: D, R, and brother K.

The group at the table.

My cousin, who lives in Evanston, son on my dad's oldest sister, even came in to town for a couple of days. He's just the happiest guy EVER!

He always got a smile out of my dad. 

 He was continuously smiling.

His best friend J. J came regularly with Wendy's Frosty's, A&W Rootbeer floats, and Roxberry juices. Most of the calories my dad consumed were from him. Thanks J for all your help. 

Looking of G's shoulder. They were always good buddies.

Some of the Araves.

My grandma, my dad, and his oldest sister. This was before the left. It was taken Tuesday night, they left Wednesday morning, and my dad passed away on Thursday night.

When they left on Tuesday night, he was doing pretty well. He was eating, his weight loss stopped, and he seemed very present with us. 

He woke on Wednesday and we knew things had changed. We believe something happened in the night.

The last 36 hours of my dad's life were hard to watch, but filled with tender mercies that brought us together more as a family that I could have imagined. My testimony grew, was strengthened, my respect for my siblings and my parents grew, as did my relationship with each of them. 

The Plan of Happiness is truly a plan of Happiness. We felt the presence of angels attending us as well as the prayers of many, known and unknown.

I know my dad is here with us still, watching out for us, cheering us on, and probably offering advice! I miss him terribly, but I know the Savior's Love is comforting me and my family and bearing us up. I now have another guardian angel on my team. 

The night of his funeral my sister and I went to the Symphony, one the best places for us, and a fried said to me, "Do you think your dad is picking your children?" To that I say, yes. He is. He's probably meeting those choice spirit who are going to join our family. He's picking children just like me, because isn't that the "curse" of every parent? Well dad, if you are doing the picking, and you choose spirits who will be children like me, I am very grateful! I think I was pretty good kid, as you told me. 

I love you dad and miss you.