Good-bye Ji Family

Last weekend we had to say a sad good-bye to our friends from China. Ji finished up his year contract doing research at SMU and it was time for them to head home. The year went by so fast and we really enjoyed learning from our new friends. I think they really enjoyed America and especially Texas :)

My mom is so sad. Her sweet children have China left. She thought she could talk them into staying! They said they will for sure come back!! Ying-Le is on the far left. She is here also from China, getting her masters at SMU. She is our new friend that we will get to visit with. Her English is wonderful and she loves Gracie to pieces!!

       Here are all of us together one last time. Kelly, Gracie, and I really enjoyed having Ji stay with us for those 6 weeks last year around this time. He was very sweet and helped out all around the house. It's amazing to me how people all the way across the world can be instant family.  Gracie really developed a sweet friendship with Ying. They played so well together and always had fun. We miss you Ji, May, and Ying-ying. Hurry back!!

Happy Birthday Ying!

Ji's daughter, Ying-ying recently turned 3 so we knew we just had to throw a party for her! Everyone came over on Friday night and we let the girls swim and later Kelly cooked hot dogs. We had cake and presents too!

GG bought the girls matching pj's :)

Gracie, the little stink totally blew out all the candles on accident :) We had a quick redo so Ying could do it herself!! 

Gracie was loving  being able to 'help' her open the presents! They both looked forward to eating the cake too!!

They are such a sweet family! It was so much fun celebrating with them. Happy Birthday Ying Ying!

Meeting Ji's Family

This weekend we got to meet Ji's family. His wife and daughter made the LONG journey to Dallas from China a few weeks ago. They get to stay here in Dallas until Ji finished up his work contract in the fall. GG and Pop had everyone over to their house this past weekend so we could all meet.

               Isn't little Ying-Ying so cute? She's 2 years old and will be 3 this summer.

Gracie and Maxum really liked playing with her and showing her the toys. Ying had a ball playing with everything!

 This is Ji's wife May. She is so pretty and so sweet. I cannot imagine being left at home while my husband went to a different country for 5 months. Then flying across the world with a 2 year old? She is a saint! I don't know how she did it!

Ji, May, and Ying brought sweet presents for everyone. They are just the sweetest people! We love their sweet family and are so glad we have new friends from China!

Life with Ji

Things are busy around here & I wanted to give a quick update. Ji has been living with us since Sunday & things are going great. Sunday night he cooked an authentic Chinese cuisine. My mom took him to an Asian market nearby & he was in heaven. Here he is cooking.





He worked/cooked for 2 hours. He said his wife does most of the cooking but he did a great job!





Here's a sample. Lots of vegetables & rice. They eat mostly pork but meat is not a main dish. Their meat is more got flavor. Very different from here! Pop said "where's the beef????" Ji even got us chopsticks &  Gracie thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking of Gracie...






She is having the best time with him. She LOVES the fact that we take him to the train station every morning before school. (That means I have to sit in the back of the car with her and she eats that up) But she also likes to see the trains.

Ji works very hard all day long at SMU and gets back to our house after dark. He is very good at trains and buses. When Ji finally gets home Gracie is anxious to play games with him. She's taught him Candy land. Don't spill the beans, Don't Break the Ice, puzzles, & more.

We've learned so much from him about China's way of life and he is learning about our way of life. He thinks things are very cheap here and can't get over how many stores and how everything is so easy. WE are very spoiled here in America. What can we say? Ji really likes visiting with Kelly and they have a lot of common even though we are on opposites of the world. We talk a lot about education. He finds American schools very interesting and we want to know how they are all so smart. 70-80% of Chinese go to college. It's amazing.

Ji's wife and daughter (she'll be 3 in June) are going to come over here too while Ji finishes out his year long work contract. He wants to learn more and get things settled before they come. I can't wait to meet them! He said his wife likes to shop and watch drama shows on tv. I said we'd get along great!

On the weekends we'll both be off from work so he have lots to show him around here!