Beijing China to Lehi Utah

The beginning of February we had the opportunity to host 2 girls from Bejiing, China who were 8 and 11 years old.  They arrived on Saturday, February 9th and left Friday, February 15th.  This was out of my control comfort zone but I really wanted to push our family out of this "certain" comfort zone and experience new and different things and this was one of those great opportunities.  I assumed the girls would know good English but was shocked when they seemed to know very little.  We arrived at the kids' school and held up our sign of their names, Fan Yu and Zhang, waiting to have them find us as the flood of Chinese students filled the gym.  We enjoyed a night of performances, delicious Chinese food and some "light" interaction!  Surprisingly our kids communicated better with them.  Sometimes I would say stuff and they would look at me with a blank stare but when the kids said something they understood.

Fan Yu and Zhang's Sunday schedule was filled with Utah sites - Temple Square, Olympic Park and the Park City outlets but we did enjoy trying to communicate with them later on in the evening with the help of a translating app on the iPad!  The kids were loving all the gifts they gave to us which was very generous and kind of them.

We were also able to take them to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point and ice cream which they thought was really cool.  One night they wanted us to take them to buy American made stuff to take back home for their family.  Little did I know this is very difficult to find and I am shocked how much stuff is not made here.  They were disappointed not finding anything!  I will be better prepared next time.  The kids one night had a nerf gun war which could have gone on and on if it wasn't way past everyone's school bedtime.  Both girls loved helping Ty make his valentine's for his class - each of them taking turns stapling and stuffing candy.  Both girls had lots of fun playing in our backyard in the snow - sledding down our stairs, digging in the snow with spoons and having snowball fights.

When the time came to take them back our kids were devastated and crying and I was even a little emotional.  We got attached to them in the short amount of time they were here.  We got contact information but still have yet to hear from them.  Chad and I knew that we would never see them again but Ty and Isabelle had a hard time realizing this.  They considered them their friends and looked forward to each morning so they could see them.  Vivi even had their names down and wanted to find them or know when they would be coming back home.

Learning about these girls lives back in China helped us gain a greater appreciation for what we have.  Zhang who is 8 is an only child who lives in a high rise apartment building with her parents and grandparents.  She was very smart and spoke the best English of the two.  Fan Yu who was 11 has one sibling but does not live with her family she lives at her school full time.  One of the teachers is like her mother.  She couldn't really tell us a whole lot about what her parents did for work other than they prefer her to live at the school.  Even though these girls have never heard about the gospel or don't even know who Jesus Christ is I felt a little hope for them as we all kneeled in family prayer together each night.  We are so grateful for the little time we spent with them and only wish the very best to each of these sweet, fun girls!

This experience has me hoping for another exchange student opportunity, foster kids or adoption.  We will see what the future holds!