Happy Thanksgiving!

The day before we head back to Iowa, we had a Thanksgiving meal with all the staff at PHF (Chinese and US staff). We were in charge of making the turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, and corn. This was a bit of a challenge that required the use of ours and two different neighbors' ovens. Not to mention, it was not all that easy to find all the ingredients we needed to make all these dishes. But, it all turned out great and with the mix of Chinese and American food, the Thanksgiving meal was complete.

Despite the vastly different cultures, it was really neat that we were all able to come together and share this wonderful meal. While it was much different than any Thanksgiving meal we have been to in the past, we are thankful that we were able to minister to the Chinese staff in this way.

See pictures below of our Chinese/American Thanksgiving Meal.

And of course, we couldn't post a blog without a few pictures of the kids at PHF. So, below are a couple pictures of some of the orphans. The first picture is Desiray with Alyson, Cadence, and Cameron and the second picture is John with Elena and Bea. Please continue to pray for Joseph, Israel, Parker and Adrian as they are in the hospital right now getting testing and evaluations done to see if they can get their heart surgeries this week or early next week.

I also included a cute picture of Alyson and Austin helping our ayi (nanny) make some dumplings. (our favorite Chinese dish) Her name is Liu Ayi and Alyson and Austin just love her (we all love her)!

We leave tomorrow (November 23rd) at 5:00 p.m. (3:00 a.m.US time) to fly to the US. Since we are going back in time we arrive in Des Moines at 8:00 p.m on the 23rd. If only the flight were really that short. :) We have a 13 hour flight from Beijing to Chicago and then one hour from Chicago to Des Moines. Please pray for safe and smooth travel as well as a refreshing time in the US with Family and Friends.

Hope to see many of you SOON!

Blessings,

John, Desiray

Alyson and Austin