Eden Welcomes 2013

The beginning of the year has already seen lots of work and play at Eden. We started the year off by replacing the sink in the girls’ kitchen and installing a water heater so they can wash dishes in hot water! They were very excited about that improvement, since we had a couple weeks of pretty chilly weather when everybody wore layers of warm clothing.

The New Year’s holiday from school began in mid-January, and shortly after, Dale put the girls to work again! We had to do a little remodel on the bathroom in their house, so we all got our work gloves on, rolled up our sleeves, and made a big mess while we tore down two walls. The girls loved taking turns with the sledgehammer, smashing away at the walls. A few of the girls are so small, I thought the sledgehammer would take them with it. They are all hard workers and seem to really enjoy working on projects together.

Our third project, just before Chinese New Year, was repainting the kitchen to get it looking spiffy for the holiday. They scraped the old paint off and stirred the new paint, but the real fun, for which they eagerly awaited, was getting to use the paint rollers and brushes. By the time they were finished, they had nearly as much paint on themselves as on the walls, and it wasn’t accidental! They kindly decorated each other’s clothing with handprints. The kitchen turned out some shade of salmon, as opposed to the previous pale blue.

After all our work, we were ready to enjoy the holiday. Auntie Yang made a terrific Chinese feast, which we ate for several days. Dale got the girls set up with television at their house so they could watch the New Year’s programs in their own language. They were also thrilled to welcome their seven friends living in Shenzhen, who stayed with us for a week. During that time, we made a trip to the Guangzhou zoo. There were far more people than animals, but we wove in and out of the crowds to get good views of all the exotic creatures. We’re winding down the holidays now, and the girls will start school again quite soon.