China and other news

As most of you know we recently returned from a week long trip to China. Gabe was invited, along with some other businessmen, to give ethics lectures at several universities in China. He spoke on medical ethics. When Gabe was first asked to go, he agreed only to do so if he could bring the whole family. We really didn't think they would want children along but to our surprise they welcomed us all.

I spent weeks preparing and packing us up. However, nothing can really prepare you for a 13 hour flight with a 2 year old and a 5 month old. Praise God and thanks to all those who were praying for us, the flights were not bad at all. Their ears bothered them but not too bad. Gabe and I managed to get a few hours of sleep and the girls a few hours more. And we had a few meltdowns from the girls but they didn't last long.

It's hard to sum up all that we experienced in that week but I think we both walked away feeling blessed and encouraged. God opened some doors for us for future work in China as well as allowed us to get a glimpse of what He is doing among his people there. Evelyn had a blast. We spent part of the time staying with friends which was encouraging for us and hopefully for them. : ) Our friends had 2 kids the same ages as Evelyn and Maeve and Evelyn loved having someone to play with.

The flight back was again long (no way getting around that) but we made it through and were very happy to be home. Below are a few photos. I may post more later.

Family photo outside of a very Western mall.
(Much better than any malls we have around here.)

Maeve enjoying some lunch of dumplings and sweet potato

Countryside view on the train ride

Evelyn checking out the other apartments

On a more difficult note, while we were in China we got news that my dad has been diagnosed with acute myloid (sp) leukemia and has growing melanoma. He as had several cancers in the past so this was not a surprise but it was shocking when they told us he had about 2 weeks to live. If the treatment he is taking works then he could have several more months. He is to go home from the hospital today, Monday. He will continue treatments but as an out-patient. We are enjoying as much time with him as we can. Processing all of this has been hard but praise God that our hope lies with him. My father will either be healed here on earth or have a new body in heaven.

A few new pictures

This year we dressed Evelyn up as a pumpkin and Maeve as a chili pepper. Once Evelyn figured out that you got candy each time you went to a new house she had a blast. It didn't take long for her to want to carry her own bag for fear of loosing all the candy she had acquired. Her favorite piece, the sucker. We were all sticky by the end of the night.

We told her to smile and say cheese. It looks like she is praying...maybe for lots of candy.

Last year we went to the fire station and I couldn't keep her out of the fire truck. This year just standing in front of the fire truck evoked tears and crying.

Maeve and Evelyn sharing a sweet moment. They were laughing at each other.

Customer Service

I recently had such a wonderful experience with a store here in town that I just had to share. About 4 months ago I purchased a Born, leather bag from Browns Shoe's here in town. As some of you may know I have been carrying it around as a diaper bag. Last week I picked up the bag and to my surprise the leather around the handle was torn. I was shocked and sad. The bag was not cheap and I expected better quality from Born. I contacted Born, thinking "It's been 4 months I'm sure there is nothing that Brown's can do for me." I spoke with a very nice lady at Born who said they have stopped making bags and to contact the store I purchased it from to see if they could help me. So I took it into Browns, they took a look at it and said they would see if it could be fixed. They also said if it couldn't be fixed they would either give me another bag (they didn't have any more bags like mine) or give me store credit.

Well yesterday they called to say the bag was ready. I picked it up and it looked as good as new. The store clerk said that if I was satisfied then they would cover the cost of having it fixed. (They use a guy here in town who repairs shoes)

How often do you have a store that takes care of a defect in another company's product? Way to go Brown's!

I Love My Husband

For no reason at all he bought me something that I mentioned I wanted for Christmas and gave it to me a few days ago. He had a sweet card to go with it and he even had it wrapped in a stylish bag.

He does many other things to show his love for me some being changing the dirty diapers and cleaning up after dinner. Oh how I get tired of changing diapers.

Pumpkin Patch and Other Adventures

The past week has been busy around the Neal household. It began last Wednesday with Gabe and I driving to Houston to the U2 concert. The 3 hour drive in traffic was long but we were excited about seeing U2. The 20 minute walk from a parking lot wasn't bad. It could have been further and we were almost there. Getting to the gate and realizing we only had 1 ticket for 2 people was heart sinking. Conversation as follows:

Gabe: Ok, I've got my ticket, do you have yours?
Stacy: (Shocked) I gave you both tickets. Are you joking with me?
Gabe: You only gave me 1 ticket.
Stacy: (panicked) No, I gave you both tickets when we got out of the car.

We start emptying our pockets, hoping to magically find the ticket but no such luck.

Stacy: (upset, all most in tears and trying not to curse at myself for loosing a U2 ticket that my brother-in-law gave me) We'll have to go back to the car. Maybe it's in my purse.

In an almost sprint we got back to the car in record time and greatly relieved and excited to find the other ticket still in my purse.

Oddly enough after being almost an hour late to the opening band we were still able to get floor spots about 50 ft away from the outer stage. We had a great view of U2!

Stacy's lesson learned: Gabe should always ask if I gave him both tickets.
Gabe's lesson learned: Stacy should always give me both tickets.

Well Maeve is protesting with tears and crying that it is time to eat so I'll cut this short.

Other happenings: on Thursday we had a house guest move in. An intern with the Navigators on campus. On Friday my parents came in for the weekend. On Saturday we had a garage sale and made way more than I expected. On Sunday we drove to Austin for a team meeting for our up coming trip to East Asia.

Pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

Evelyn blessing Maeve or casting a spell on her with the piece of straw she found at the Pumpkin Patch.

Maeve staring off into the distant wishing she were somewhere else.

Evelyn likes to pick objects up, put it next to her ear, and pretend she is talking on the phone. She couldn't pick up the pumpkin so she leaned over and started talking.

Evelyn with shampoo in her hair, on her hands, on her clothes, on my couch. She was having a good time rubbing shampoo on the sofa.

New photos of Maeve

I finally was able to take some more photos of Maeve. I just don't have the free time like I did with Evelyn. Below are some from my impromptu photo shoot. I even got a few of her laughing.

Maeve about the same age and pose as the picture of Evelyn below.

Funny Face

Showing some leg

No more pictures!

Zoo Pictures

I thought there were more pictures of us at the zoo but I guess we took more video. Here are a few good ones.

We had a wonderful weekend with Gabe's parents who drove down to see the girls and celebrate Evie's birthday. Evelyn had a blast playing with the their two dogs and loved the attention from GiGi and Poppy.

Evelyn brushing the goats.

So Maeve is laughing and smiling now, she just stops when I pull out the camera. I captured a little smile here.

Evelyn and GiGi walking the dogs.