The Bowman Blog

Bowman Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T02:03:00.009-05:00

Hey-

Finally have made time to get some pictures uploaded. Sorry for the lack of sharing. We intend to do better in the future, but you've heard that before. : )

Aimee has been awfully crafty lately. She crocheted several scarves as gifts and Elijah bagged this one!!

Elijah spotted this sheepskin in Ikea several weeks ago and it showed up on his Christmas list. He now pretends he's a hunter and/or Native American plus he sleeps with it. Nice.

Anna and Elijah closeup.

Anna and Elijah zoom out.

Sammy Bammy showing off a new Cars shirt.

More Lightning, pardon the storage bin (we are preparing for a move cross town.)

This Kodak moment materialized quickly while Sammy was taking care of other business. Have I mentioned that he goes #2 on the toilet now?

Aimee bought this bracelet kit right under Anna's nose in Hobby Lobby, USA. Anna was shocked.

Rachel and Sammy both opened tons of new play food, pots, pans, tea sets, and dinnerware. Aimee crafted much of the food herself....see cupcake in lower left.

More of Aimee's craftiness, check out my new blanket. She crocheted this with locally bought yarn. She's found a great yarn market here in West Shanghai.

Samuel is growing up so fast. He turned 3 in November.

The homemade (literally) food that was gifted to Rachel.

Aimee and Rachel.

We missed all of you this Christmas!! We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line here on the blog or via Facebook. Hope to post again soon.

Able to post again

2011-10-18T09:34:00.005-04:00

Hey y'all,

A rare trip to HongKong is enabling an update. We use a VPN to work around the China firewall (not including HK) and it's been working poorly. We are going to try a different service for improved results. But find below the pics I could scrape together from my limited supply on the phone and iPad. We are doing well but missing home, as always.

Rachel makes even the mundane look so pretty.

Rachel and Sammy at Lake Michigan, South Haven this summer.

Elijah speeding during vacation earlier this year in southern China. His goggles got plenty of use.

Anna would at least pull the goggles up off the face.

Sammy checking out a large statue at the Radisson hotel in People's Square, Shanghai.

A poor picture of Rachel but one that I had in the phone.

Elijah is currently missing 3 front teeth. A real once-in-a-lifetime experience we keep telling him.

That's Elijah on the left with me. A friend, Andrew, is on the right. And yes, Krispy Kreme is in Shanghai.

Again, hope all is well. We think of you often!!!

Anybody out there?

2011-10-17T11:44:00.001-04:00

Long time, no blog. Really, we just need to find an improved VPN service to work around China's Great Firewall (no blogging allowed here).

A trip to HongKong has reminded me how beautiful effortless surfing is.

Hope to get some pictures up soon. Maybe in the next 48 before I leave Internet Bliss.

Ryan

Rachel is 4!!

2011-06-20T23:03:00.006-04:00

the birthday girl with her birthday breakfast.

Rachel got her very own tea cup for her birthday. She loves to have tea parties with Mom.

Rachel had her first friend birthday party. She was beaming the entire time. We had a tea party, decorated cookies, did an obstacle course balancing sugar on a spoon, and had lots of play time.

We love you big girl, Rachel!

Shanghai Zoo

2011-06-20T22:38:00.005-04:00

We visited the Shanghai Zoo with our friends, the Crandall's a couple of weeks ago. The kids all had a blast.

The first one bites the dust

2011-06-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

Yep, there's now a draft of sorts!! Can you tell he was thrilled????

What's your favorite movie snack food?

2011-06-13T08:57:00.003-04:00

I took A and E with a couple of friends to see KungFu Panda 2 in 3D. Great movie for kids and adults alike! And really cool to see it in China and appreciate Po's home country first hand!!! The 'interesting' food options are further down. But first, a couple of pics of the kiddos.

Each ticket is assigned to a particular seat which is a little different than the "first come first served" in the US. Worked out well considering we were no where close to "first come". Getting food/drink/3D glasses/bathroom break completed before the lights went down was a homerun in my book! (Thanks Emily for your help at concessions!)

Here's the crew. We hit the local McDonald's afterward and the kids got KungFu Panda toys in their happy meals. I personally got 3 toys because I decided to just eat 3 happy meals myself.

Ok, maybe not.

You may need to click on this photo to read what was on the menu at the concession stand. You'll notice some familiar things, ie, "popcorn" and "chocolate" although good luck figuring out what "chocolate" means exactly. But I love the other options - "Roasted Squid Toast Eel Chip" is a must have for any cinematic experience. It gives the 3D that extra "pop"! And who could pass on the "Duck Gizzard and Liver"? Well, me I guess. And for Final Jeopardy, Alex, "What is Collon?" I might field a wild guess but the dry heaves have already started so I'm going to subscribe to the old adage, "Ignorance is Bliss", thank you very much!

What a fun date with the kids even though we didn't play Fear Factor at the theater!

Peace out y'all!!

China Life

2011-06-11T08:59:00.002-04:00

The most popular mode of transportation in Shanghai is the bicycle. And I have yet to see a pick-up truck. I think this contrast explains the following pics. I snapped them both within a couple minutes on a commute home from work.

Difficult to tell from this angle that he's basically got a full on roll cage.

Big, fat luxury SUVs, watch your bumpers!

And then there was this guy ready to joust.

Hope all is well!!! The Bowman's are looking forward to seeing many of you in a few weeks!!

BBQ #1

2011-05-29T05:13:00.005-04:00

We had 33 work colleagues over for a BBQ a week ago. It was certainly the largest group we've ever hosted. The whole family had a lot of fun. We BBQ'd chicken kebabs. Aimee made desserts and a very popular spaghetti dish with bacon (always a winner with bacon). We ordered in a popular, local spicy pork dish. They hammered everything except the massive amounts of rice we prepared. Apparently, they don't fill up on rice if other great food is available. Lessons learned for next time!

Of course any get-together is going to include basketball with the guys. The quality of play is better with this group than in 2007/2008. I've officially become a role player.

They really enjoyed hanging with the kids. Samuel was finishing up his weekly chores as the party started. No slackin' allowed.

Elijah found a new goalkeeper.

We filled our grill along with the neighbors'. The chicken was very popular as Aimee used an asian seasoning.

Unfortunately, the after-dark photos did not turn out real well. Aimee decorated with candle table lights. Our yard includes some ground lights which really helped too. They enjoyed playing card games, listening to music, and chatting.

This is the best group shot we could find. Ryan explained how God orchestrated a return to China. (Translator in the green shirt.)

They surprised kids with a Wii. That has been a big hit this week. And all arguments now get resolved in the boxing game.

We look forward to getting to know these folks better in the future. Some of them have become great friends interested in hanging with us. We certainly share that sentiment!

Happy Memorial Day to all you in the US!!

Defending the Fanny Pack

2011-05-22T03:36:00.004-04:00

I was traveling via subway today and realized why it's so easy to wear a fanny pack in China. I mean, it's very practical when you need to haul paraphernalia associated with 4 children. A diaper, hand sanitizer, tissues (most public restrooms do not have tp), various snacks, rabbit foot (jk), small toys and the like. It's also home to the wallet, phone, keys, maps, and other necessities. But beyond the infinite practicality, there's another reason. How can you feel bad about wearing a fanny pack when there are so many other 'bag violations' for guys. I snapped these photos in about 7 minutes time amongst random people in the subway. Check it out.

The Satchel.

Even if this guy pleads that he was simply holding it for his girlfriend, you NEVER sling it over your shoulder. At minimum, adopt the "football" hold and abandon the strap. But of course, there is no love for securing the pigskin here. Pity.

You might find American guys with a bag like this, but if you're going to sling it over your shoulder, compliment it with a teddy bear sweater.

Minor infraction.

Now, this doesn't look quite so offensive, does it?

Playlist

2011-05-21T12:29:00.002-04:00

I added a gadget playlist and it plays poorly from China. Not to mention some of the tracks are youtube videos recorded by amateurs. Does it stream well in the US? If no, I'm going to delete as I know our blog readers DEMAND excellence and world-class blogging. Haha.

If nothing else, you get to hear what's at the top of our iTunes Playlist.

Over and out.

Bowman Vacation

2011-05-13T19:42:00.009-04:00

Hey y'all, we had a nice respite in Southern China. We returned to the exact same hotel we stayed at twice before (in the firstChina Tour of Duty). In fact, I think we had the same rooms this time as last. See pics for some scoop. Thanks for checking in!!

Always on the cutting edge of practical fashion, kickin' the fanny pack.

Tiered.

"Stay hydrated Elijah."

Sisters.

Rachel stays hydrated

Samuel did well in his ring.

Action shot.

Anna in torpedo position.

Elijah got the camera and snapped photos of every furniture piece, hinge, floor board and lego creation he could find.

Catching shade at the beach.

We spent 1/5 days at the beach. The kids preferred the pools. Mom and Dad liked the sea water because of the cooler temp.

With camoflauge.

We picked up googles for these 2 in Shanghai. I don't think they ever came off their noggans.

Googles galore.

Hope you are doing well! And we have confirmed that we'll be back in the US mid-July to mid-August. Hope to see many of you then!!

Park in Songjiang

2011-05-02T01:27:00.001-04:00

We visited a park with some old gangster friends of ours, the Meyer family. See below for details.

The Matriarchs.

Lots of stone artwork in the various walkways.

We liked this outdoor hallway.

Big door versus Little Rachel

Some of the crew. Fortunately, no one got wet despite lots of water hazards.

They had a dozen or so Bonsai trees, all blooming in various colors. This one looked beautiful until we put Aimee next to it. Then, it seemed a bit dull.

And for the final picture below, (not sure why I can't place the caption below), this was a neat picture frame.

Aimee's Birthday @ Shanghai Botanical Garden

2011-05-01T04:22:00.009-04:00

We partied in the evening but visited the aforementioned SBG in the day. It was as a good a birthday one can get without extended family. We made the most of it but miss you all in the USA!! Here are some highlight pics.

Statisticians have shown that the probability of getting 1 adult and 4 children under the age of 9 to look at a camera simultaneously is 1 in 14,732 (includes the father yelling threats). We did not have time to take that many pics.

The park was extremely well done with millions of flowers and well sculptured bushes and shrubs. Edward Scissorhands manages the sculpting department.

Happy Birthday Mom from the kiddos!

Brothas.

My peeps. (Not the kind sold at Easter.)

Aimee and Rachel dodging a garden mass transit bus.

Really cool bridge. It's impossible to get this shot with no bystanders. I didn't even bother trying. The guy in the foreground was thinking the same thing.

No picking dude.

Goldilocks.

Brothas at it again.

When in doubt, post pictures

2011-04-19T09:04:00.004-04:00

'First Visitor' trophy has been taken

2011-04-01T09:03:00.003-04:00

Friends of Ma and Pa Bowman, the Barnett's, were passing through on their way to Korea this week. We managed to squeeze dinner into their "recover from jetlag" schedule. What a blessing to have some mutual friends to spend some time with. And so encouraging to talk to as well. Thanks John and Bonnie for a wonderful night and we also say a BIG thank you for the box of Cocoa Puffs! And a small plug: you can check out John's ministry website here.

We need to post some pics of last weekend as the kids found a super fun playzone at the mega-mall in downtown Shanghai. More to come.

Oh, and we are also giving out a "2nd visitor" trophy as well.

Japanese Noodles in Shanghai

2011-03-24T09:03:00.002-04:00

Aimee and I really enjoy eating Ajisen Ramen noodles at their restaurants around the city. We found them a few subway stops away tonight. We last ate there with all 4 kids and basically had to feed each of them for lack of their chopstick skills. There was no silverware to be found. Kindof zaps the whole eating-out-for-fun thing. Followed up with a caramel frappacino (sp?) and Aimee was flying high. Oh, and that's the restaurant mascot below. Maybe Shoney's little sister?

orphanage

2011-03-20T21:30:00.004-04:00

Saturday I had the privilege of going to Huge Grace, an independently run orphanage in Shanghai with others from our church. It was such a blessing to be there! It was a large, clean, light, beautiful house where children with special needs are loved, and cared for. It was amazing!!! So different than the picture that I had in my mind before we arrived. I am so thankful that God has provided this home and staff to love these beautiful children. It was a fun morning of loving on and interacting with these kids. When we arrived, it was lunch time so I had the privilege of feeding the little boy in the above picture. At first, I didn't know what to say because we speak different languages but quickly realized that he was a child who loves to laugh so we just made silly noises and laughed together. So fun! I wish I could have taken him home with me! The rest of the morning held coloring, and just observing the children as they did their normal daily life of playing. What a blessing! This was truly a dream come true! I am praying for an opportunity to more regularly volunteer in an orphanage--waiting for God to show me which one and to work out all of the details.

Time to get our school day rolling!

update

2011-03-20T20:42:00.002-04:00

This is Aimee again. I've been wanting to thank everyone for your prayers and encouragement. Last week was much better than the previous but I know that this journey of faith that we are all on has its easy days and its hard days. It has definately helped me to allow myself to grieve and to know that non of us can do what God asks us to do on our own--it is only by His grace and power that is working in and through us.

I love Kari Jobe. God has been using the truths in her songs to teach and encourage me. Three of my favorites are:

Come To Me

Take me upon you. I will give you rest.

Come to me, you broken one.
And I will give you peace, I will give you peace.
Come to me, you broken one.
And I will give you peace, I will give you peace.
I will calm your waters, and I will whisper,
'Peace be still.'
Take me upon you. I will give you peace.

Come to me, you burdened one.
And I will give you joy, I will give you joy.
Come to me, you burdened one.
And I will give you joy, I will give you joy.
You will rise like eagles, and my joy shall
be your strength.
Take me upon you. I will give you joy.

Come to me (x3)
I have been waiting for you here.
He has been waiting for you here.
Come. Come to Him.
Come and find your peace.
Come and find your rest.
Come and find your joy.
He is waiting here for you.
He is waiting here for you with open arms.
To hold you, to embrace your heart, to love you.
He is waiting here (x2)

Remade

Your loves Captivating

Here in Your hands,
You have Remade me

All of my heart I give You now
Laying aside my fears and doubts
You are the life from which I draw my breath

Breaking my heart, You beckon me
Desperate for you I ever pleaI
You are the hope from which I gain my strength
I have been Remade

Softly, Gently
Holding me closely
You are the comfort that I seek

All of my heart I give You now
Laying aside my fears and doubts
You are the life from which I draw my breath
I have been Remade
I have been Remade
Remade
Gloriously, gloriously remade

Breaking my heart, You beckon me
Desperate for you I ever plea
You are the hope from which I gain my strength
I have been Remade
Remade
Remade

Take My Life

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
At the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee
Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only for my King
Always, only for my King

Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withhold
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise
Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my will it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my heart it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne
It shall be Thy royal throne

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
At the impulse of Thy love

I'm sorry that I don't know how to post videos--if you haven't heard these songs, I think they are available on YouTube. Check them out.

Thank you again for your prayers. I so appreciate them and humbly ask that you continue to pray for the adjustment for all of our family. We all have days that are really hard--where we miss family and friends and "normalcy". Could you also pray for God to enable us to hear and understand and remember the Chinese that we are learning? Four out of six of our family members are now studying Chinese. Anna and Elijah began Rosetta Stone last week so now that is a new part of our daily school routine. Anna was not excited to add yet another subject to her "very long" school day but after the first lesson, seems to be enjoying it. Elijah loves it and after every new thing that he learns, he yells out to me "mom!, this is how you say ....!"

Thanks for your love and your prayers! We love you!

Dating in Shanghai

2011-03-17T09:31:00.002-04:00

Aimee and I are officially dating more than we did in Michigan. Thursday night is date night. We have a stable full of great babysitters next door and have them on standard scheduling. Tonight we headed off to a restaurant street a few subway stops away. The street was great with a good mix of western/asian restaurants and even a donut shop. We went for pasta, and of course donuts afterward. They could not compare to "Good Times" donuts on 8th Street in Holland, Michigan though. : (

Thursday nights = less crowds = pleasant

The smile that can even light up a subway station!!!

Go Spartans!!!!

Guilin Park Pictures

2011-03-14T08:41:00.004-04:00

We hit this traditional chinese park on Saturday with the Meyer family. Great spot to hang out with lots of cool architecture, gardens and places for the kids to run and play. The park was built in the 1930's with funding by a gangster named Huang Jinrong. All I can say is that the Wooden Shoe Bandits (Holland Michigan) and Minnesota Rummy (Minneapolis Minnesota) were the only gangs representin' on Saturday. See below for gang bangin' details.

Lots of cool architecture in this park.

Some of the pit bosses from the 2 rival gangs. But fortunately, they had signed a truce this day.

The Chinese warlord that typically runs the Tulip City Bangers but currently on loan to the Wooden Shoe bandits.

One of the multiple hideouts in one of the rock gardens.

A very intimidating picture of the Bandits with a wanna-be that snuck into the background. We threw molotov cocktails soon after this was taken.

We were marking our territory with the photographs. Aimee preferred marking territory in a more primitive way but Sugar Ray (Rachel) explained that was not appropriate.

One other highlight of the weekend was getting McDonald's delivered. We've always seen the delivery bicycles with their little hot boxes mounted on the back but never tried it. It was surprisingly simple to get all the unhealthiness of McDonald's in China.

Step 1: Dial the universal phone number Mcdonalds Shanghai

Step 2: Press 2 for english

Step 3: Place your order with an english speaking teller

Step 4: Receive your food less than 20 minutes later

Step 5: Clog arteries China style

Later!!!!

Napoleon Dynamite

2011-03-13T09:33:00.004-04:00

The weather hit upper 60's here this weekend. My condolescences to all the Michigan people out there. But our warm weather won't stick. It cools off again mid-week.....probably down to the 40-50s. :P

We had a great weekend with friends, including a visit to a great local, Chinese garden/park called Guilin Park. The kids really enjoyed it and we'll try to get photos to upload soon, but tonight, the system is slow or erring out. So, I've just got a few pics.

What does it take to have a whole bunch of the neighbor kids come over for a couple hours? Pop in Napoleon Dynamite. The majority of these guys have the movie memorized. One even did his own rendition of Napoleon's dance performance after Pedro's speech. A lot of fun. Rachel did not see all of the movie for a variety of reasons.

And below, we've got a couple of pictures of our 1st floor, with all the decorations up. Things have settled in pretty well.

We actually bought this painting from the artist in a popular art shopping street. The shops are often run by the artists themselves. We bought this tulip picture from the artist and even had him tweak the colors to better match our Holland home (during our first China go round). But we never hung them for lack of space. So, they've made the return back to China and have a great place to hang out. You must come and see it in person for the full effect though!!!
Here's the living room with lots of seating. It's been fun to be able to host larger groups of people. With the extra space, lit backyard, and the freshly assembled grill, we are ready to start hosting shindigs. Should be fun. We could use as much community/fellowship as we can get in this big city. Having a close knit group of friends makes China life all the better.

More pics from the weekend to be posted soon!!! Thanks for checking in. Also thanks for the prayers and kind words on Aimee's previous post.

Tears

2011-03-08T17:50:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted! I have good intentions and take pictures for the blog and think of what I could write but I never take the time to sit down and actually put any of that effort into writing! Sorry!

We are getting more and more settled and for me that means time to think. I remember around this time last China trip was really hard for me and it is again. Even in saying goodbye, I push the tears and sadness aside, I swallow it down because it is easier for me to hide behind toughness and independence than deal with my emotions. There is the excitement of what is to come and what God is going to do and that is still there, but now I am beginning to deal with the emotions of what comes with living in a different country. I miss people so much. I miss normalcy of life. I miss knowing the language and being able to do and say things by myself. I miss solitude and the beauty of God's creation undisturbed (not that I have ever seen that, but I miss being able to look out and see only trees and grass for miles and not building after building). So in a nutshell I am sad, lonely, and frustrated. :) Hows that for honesty?

I have begun the journey of learning Chinese. I know that it is going to be a long journey but am trying to remember the encouragement of a friend that every word that I learn is a step forward, it is more than what I knew before. I am so thankful for this perspective but admit that it is still very frustrating that I am not able to talk with people! Yesterday, our helper didn't move the book basket away from the bathtub when she was cleaning the bathtub-- each book is now spread all over my bedroom floor-- each page separated to try to salvage them from being ruined by the water. It would be so easy to ask, next time you clean the bathroom, can you move books out of the way of running water? And yesterday I asked our wonderful neighbor how we go about changing the light bulbs of the house (there are unique IKEA lights in every room and seriously I don't know how to get the old light bulb out without breaking the whole light and breaking my neck in the process because of the high ceilings), she responded that you just call the maintenance guy and have him come over to do that. That sounds easy to do, right? Well my vocabulary of good morning, afternoon, evening, thank you, your welcome, I'm sorry, and that's okay just doesn't get the message across! She is so gracious and honestly will be the one to call when I remind her that I can't but I am tired of having to rely on people to do just the simplest things. I feel so helpless.

I am learning that it is okay to be sad. It is okay to cry. It is okay to be weak--actually best to be weak. 2 Cor 12:10 I just need to keep turning to Jesus to be my strength, to fill me for what I need in that moment. I am clinging to the above verse and Phil 4:13.

On a lighter note, I love our helper. It is such a blessing to have her help with the house. I am able to devote all of me to our school time instead of having my to do list always in the back of my mind. And when the school day is done, the house is clean! She is such a sweet girl and goes out of her way to be helpful. She enjoys the kids and they all like her. Funny story--I have already mentioned that my vocabulary is very small so mostly what I say to our helper is (shi shi) which means thank you. I say it all day long actually--I am so thankful for each thing that she does. Rachel loves to play ayi (pronounced I E) So she grabs a diaper wipe and goes around the house wiping down walls etc smiling, nodding her head saying shi shi, shi shi. And Sammy thinks that her name is shi shi so he follows her around the house, saying shi shi, candy? hoping that she will give him a piece of candy--which I haven't figured out why he associates her with candy, but it is really cute.

I was going to load some pictures but just noticed that Ryan took the camera memory card to work so that will have to be a different day. I hope that it is not weeks from now! Thanks for checking in on us!

Financed Fritos?

2011-03-07T07:54:00.004-05:00

Found my favorite fritos in the local western food grocery store. $7.21 for a small bag. I passed this time but not sure how much longer I can hold off. The box of Cocoa Puffs was over $10 for the box. Ouch.

Better late than Never?

2011-03-03T07:36:00.003-05:00

My apologies for the delay on this blog. I got a fairly good variety pack of the foods that are often offered at work. A preface: my employer is a joint venture meaning my employer (Johnson Controls Inc) has a partnership with a Chinese company. The company provides a subsidized set of meals through the day and night (we are a 3-shift operation). I typically join for breakfast (~4 times/week) and every day for lunch. The price for all employees: white collar, blue collar, operations is the same. 2 RMB for breakfast and 2 RMB (Chinese RenMinBi) for lunch. Given the current exchange rate, each equates to to a whopping 30 cents. I actually look forward to the lunches. The breakfasts are not as appealing. They consist of a hard boiled egg, a bread bun with veggies inside, and a bowl of hot noodle soup. Find below several days' of lunch fare with play-by-play:

You are going to certainly notice a pattern and the white rice comes standard, along with that blue carton which is a yogurt. They stab the yogurt with a straw (no spoons here). Chopsticks on the left edge. For each pic, I'll start top left corner and go clockwise: Each lunch includes a choice of meat. Always 2 or 3 choices with one typically being fish. This day included some chunks of meat and bone. Probably pork and the bones go right into the bowls. They don't do any sorting of bones. Some chunks are just bone. You don't know it until it's in, and if confirmed bone, purge. After making the meat selection, up comes choice #2. It's often a choice that includes tofu, bean curd, or some other mystery non-meat. On this day, it was a noodle type food of which I don't know the material. But it tastes alright. Then the standard bowl of sticky, white rice. Each lunch includes a bowl of soup. No choice here, you just get what they offer. It's always piping hot. It was eggdrop this day. The other choice is 2 of 3 or 4 vegetables. There's always something green available like cabbage, cucumber (I think), bok choi, sprouts.... I chose the sprouts and baked beans this day. These baked beans are not real hot and sauce is not thick. It's typical to use your big bowl of sticky rice as a "plate". You bring the other foods over to it, dump sauces on the rice, and generally just flavor the rice as you see fit. Rarely does one eat the entire rice bowl plain.
Ok, remember top left clockwise: Sliced onions in sauce, have no idea, chicken with all sorts of bones mixed in (I think they just took a big machete to a carcass with no regard for butchering 101), rice, green vegetable, maybe cabbage, egg drop soup again.
Egg drop soup, tofu (ewwww), rice, dry fish (packed with bones and hazardous to one's esophogus, eat with care) and more greens. Must have been a rough day because I only took 4 small bowls including tofu.
Pork/Bone chunks, crispy greens, cabbage I think, rice, sprouts, non-egg drop soup (I don't know the correct names, and I mean english names, for most of this stuff)
Fried pork/bone, cooked celery (everything is always cooked, never raw), light colored cabbage, funky egg drop soup, sprouts, sticky rice
Egg drop soup, cabbage, cauliflower, rice, complete fish with head, fried with orange sauce, more green veggies. So, I could not bring myself to grab one of these fish so I snapped this photo of my friend's tray. Mind you, complete fish show up regularly in a variety of presentations. When they are not fried, they look even more fishy. Fried just has an amazing ability to make anything look more appealing. Anyone getting hungry yet?
Lettuce, Mushrooms and green shoots, KFC-like fried drumstick, rice, seems like more cabbage but these have not all been the same cabbage, more like cabbage 1, 2, 3, 4 or mystery green veggie A, B, C, or D. ?-drop soup. Not sure it was egg that they dropped in this one.
Cauliflower with beans, rice, ? with a carrot, fried fish, cabbage F, soup.

And now you have a week and a half in the life of Ryan at the canteen for work lunch. I do enjoy the lunches and you certainly can't beat the price. My colleagues always remind me that this is hardly quality chinese food but I like it. Maybe my expectations are too low.

The pictures loaded super fast today so maybe you'll see more blogging from the Bowman's. Have a good weekend.

Ok, a quick one

2011-02-15T09:40:00.002-05:00

With some coddling, some pics uploaded. We headed an hour away from home during the 9-day Chinese New Year holiday to a hotel with 2 sets of family friends. Critical ratio was 2:1 (kids to adults). Total numbers were 6 adults and 12 kids. It worked out great and the kids all had a blast. Parents did okay too. ; ) See some of the fun below:

We headed to a park by the sea one day. Kids enjoyed the mini-amusement park and riding the rented bicycle/minivan around the park. I should have grabbed a picture but imagine a Fred Flinstone-mobile with 2 "pedalers" and 2 kid seats in the front. With 3 bikes in action, there some serious Nascar action going on.

11 of the 12 (missing baby Ava) and not sure why the font went to hotlink. You might be able to pick ours out of the lineup as #2, #6, #9 and #10.

Movie night in one of the Bowman rooms.

And some of the swimmers on the way to the pool. Anna and Elijah are becoming quite the little swimmers. Rachel made great strides, er, paddles as well as she swam in her floatie solo-style. Of course, she made sure Mommy or Daddy were always within arm's length.

See ya!!!

Bad blogger.....BAD!

2011-02-15T09:26:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. We are doing well but between the unpacking, work-related travel, and the lunar new year holiday, we've been behind on the blogging. Plus, knowing that there is a good chance photos won't load efficiently dampens one's adventurous spirits.

The weather here has spiked into the 50's a couple of times in the last few weeks but remains cold for the most part. Once we break 60, we'll be doing some more adventure seeking in the city. And with adventure comes pics of grandkids in unique spots in Shanghai. Buckle your seatbelts grandparents!!!!

The house is pretty well settled now so we need to release the new pictoral house tour. It's been fun because we've got the wall space to hang things we never had room for in Michigan. So, a painting we purchase in China the first go round, but never hung in Michigan is now up. Ironically, we should have just left it in China!

On a somber note, for those that have followed the Rogalske blog linked at the right, they are dealing with tough news on Kristi's cancer. Please continue to pray for their family of 5. Our heart breaks for their situation. What an inspiration to see both Brian and Kristi trust in God's plan even though it's difficult to comprehend.

Mayflower truck has exploded

2011-02-01T07:05:00.005-05:00

Hey y'all,

The photo upload has been agonizingly slow and typically errors out after waiting patiently. But it seems to be working ok today with an extra dose of patience and one photo at a time. The big shipment showed up on Saturday. Great news considering we are sticking around the city during Chinese New Year. We have a few things going on but mostly will be chilling. So, not really a better time to bring in like 4,000 boxes of stuff and sort it out. Definitely has been a work in progress. Here are some pics from the delivery day. We'll get some 'finished product' pics up soon....and of course, I will still deliver on the lunch photos. Read on....

We numbered all the rooms in the house and then played commander and chief at the port of entry. Here's Aimee providing direction. There were 8 or 9 guys which made things go pretty quick. The kids really enjoyed seeing toys that hadn't seen since mid-November. Plus, with Mom and Dad distracted with the task at hand, it meant "do whatever you want" time.
The workers helped to unpack the majority of boxes. Which helped us purge most of the cardboard and packing paper but meant we had some major re-shuffling to do. Here's the kitchen. But it's received an extreme makeover from Miss Aimee since. Quite impressive I must say.
And then there was Rachel, enjoying a sweet reunion with old toys. We are doing pretty well. Aimee has been baking bread with the arrival of her 'toys'. Happy New Year!!!!

Misery Loves Company

2011-01-25T07:44:00.003-05:00

Chinese people are great. They are very proud of their heritage and extremely hospitable. When you combine the two, you end up eating out at some really cool restaurants. When I visited Chongqing (about 2 hours west of Shanghai by plane), the local engineers explained that this was the home of Sichuan food (spicy). I knew I was in for a treat. And that was true for 80% of the meal. Read on.

Clockwise from top left: (1)Rabbit with very hot peppers (Xin Yi explained as I grabbed one of the green-colored peppers, "Don't eat that!!!" After we were finished, I did try one and paid the price for several minutes.) Delicious was the rabbit though. (2) Green vegetable of some sort. Neutral flavor but good for killing off the burn from the green-colored pepper. (3) Kong Pao Chicken - Kong Pao Chicken originated here. It was quite different than the Americanized version. Very good.

My camera phone does not have the greatest picture quality so this picture of some fish soup does not really represent the colors present. Those are bright red peppers floating on the surface. The waitress skimmed those off before we started dishing out the fish. It was also very good. There were a couple of other dishes that I did not photograph including a pile of angus beef chunks with onion. I'm looking forward to visiting to Chongqing again except for this next item.
And then there was the proverbial "terd in the punchbowl". I can count on one hand the number of times when I had to turn down food that was put in front of me while living in China. And that's pretty good for a foreigner. And I did actually take 2 "bites" of this before I grossed myself out. I guess this goose foot is also very famous in this part of the country. Eating goose foot is one thing. But when I noticed the goose foot had it's webbed feet fully intact, I gagged. And when I saw my new friends, maowing down on the webs themselves, I nearly re-introduced my kong pao chicken to the dinner party.

And thus the title of this post. I really can't get the foot out of mind. A flock of them were chasing in my dreams last night. Ugh. Sweet dreams blog readers. Come again soon!!!

(Maybe I should start a stomach scale for the blog:

G - Good to read

PG - Pretty Good to read

R - Read at your own risk)

Shanghai Dumplings

2011-01-22T06:38:00.002-05:00

We always enjoyed getting Shanghai dumplings for weekend breakfasts. We've found a good spot down the street for buying them. Xiao Long Bao is the family favorite. Read more about the steamed xiao long bao here. The other favorite from this restaurant is the fried Guo Tie. Learn more about the fried goodness here.

Here are some pics of R and E while we waited on our fresh made order.

Enjoy your weekend.

Another flashback

2011-01-21T05:04:00.003-05:00

Due to some travel and a minor cellphone issue, I'm slightly behind on my food article. I've got 3 days' pictures down including some decent looking fish. Need a couple more pics and will be ready to invite you to dinner.

In the meantime, a flashback to an earlier post from 2007....some of you old-timers may remember the toilet blog. What better way to get prepared for the lunch food?

Check the link here.

so thankful!

2011-01-19T18:41:00.002-05:00

This week I (Aimee) have felt TERRIBLE--worse than I have felt in a long time. Starting Saturday, my head felt like it was going to explode, and my body ached, my back hurt... As I felt like crud, I saw so many things around me to be thankful for.

1)for my awesome husband who as soon as he came home, sent me to bed and took over everything for the rest of the night.

2)for my kids and their sweet get better pictures and hugs

3)for our friends next door who have had the kids over a ton just to give me time to rest

4)for doctors and medicine. I don't like going to the dr and tried to get over this on my own and yesterday gave up and went to get some help. I came home with 7 different medicines to help treat the different symptoms and they are helping! I can tell when the wear off, but am so thankful for the relief that they bring! I have a sinus infection so the antibiotic should help to get rid of that, and the flu which I am getting near the end of how long the dr said it should last. Thankfully, the rest of the family got the flu shot, so hopefully they will not get it! (It was on my long list of to dos before we left and it never happened :(

5)I have to be honest, I am so thankful for movies--they has helped us get through this week

Company Lunch Show and Tell coming soon

2011-01-17T09:29:00.003-05:00

Yes, when I saw the fish head up for grabs in the lunch line, I knew that a blog post capturing a week of entrails, I mean, entrees was much needed.

In all serious, I really enjoy the lunches at work. So much so, that both the chinese and expats are shocked (expats) and delighted (chinese) at my ability to down the chinese morsels. I have strategic avoidances, like aforementioned fish head, but do eat the majority of offerings. And they always include a choice of meats so I get my protein (don't worry Mom).

So, come and visit early next week for a pictoral "play-by-play" of lunch at work. My big decision is whether to "take one for the team" and pick outside my strategy for your viewing pleasure. Time will tell.

House Pictures

2011-01-11T23:08:00.014-05:00

It is honestly very humbling for me to put pictures of our house on the blog because of its size, especially in a place where people have so little. I keep having to remind myself that God really put this house in our lap and to be content and joyful that He is so gracious and generous even though we are so unworthy. So, that being said, welcome to the picture tour of our house.

This is the main room on the first floor.

Then as you work your way back, you come to the kitchen

(I'm still waiting for the dish fairy to come and put my clean dishes away :))
the laundry room (the working machine is on the left--the machine in the middle is the washer/dryer unit that came with the house that we still cannot get to dry clothes after many visits from the repair man.)

so, welcome to our dry room! I am so thankful that we have this extra room because my couple of days of hanging clothes out in 30-40 degree weather was NOT fun!

Now, to the second floor we go! Thank you cute little stair model!

Sammy has been found multiple times scaling this ledge. Now when he goes by it, he says, "no, no".

The master bedroom:

there is even an office in the master bedroom. So far, it just collects all of the junk.

Elijah's bedroom
the jack-and-jill bath

Rachel and Sammy's room (with Sammy's big boy bed for when he learns to stay in bed)

Now for the third floor
there is that cute stair model again! On the third floor is our school room. The kids are on the sofa that we snuggle on when we read

and now are showing where they do seat work

Anna's bedroom (and the to be guest room if anyone wants to come visit!)

Lots of pictures! thanks for taking the time to look! Most of the shelves are empty as we still are waiting for our shipment. I will post pics again when we have put away everything--especially of the "home" items.

Rachel and Sammy

2011-01-11T22:59:00.003-05:00

Rachel and Sammy are beginning to have a lot of fun playing together. Anna and Elijah take off as soon as they are excused from school to play with friends next door so Rachel and Sammy are home to play just the 2 of them.

They love to play baby where they are my babies and I put them to bed. (Bed is the only place where they are allowed to suck their fingers. See the joy in their eyes?)
Here they are playing babies where they are the parents and are feeding their babies. :)

Aquarium-2011

2011-01-11T19:54:00.007-05:00

On Sunday, we visited one of our favorite places from last time--the aquarium. Each time I go, I am stuck by how amazing our Creator is. It is so fun to see how unique each creature is that He made to live in the water.

Anna at the entrance to the Africa exhibit.
Elijah and some really big fish!
Sammy's reaction to my "say cheese!"
Rachel and Daddy
Rachel and Mommy surrounded by fish

lesson learned

2011-01-11T19:45:00.002-05:00

Reserve walking to the grocery store for trips where there are only a couple of items to buy.

Above is the load that Aimee carried/pulled back from the grocery store a couple of nights ago. As I was purchasing everything, I began to think of how I was going to carry it all back, so actually put things off of my cart, but obviously, I did not put off enough. The "short" walk to the store was not so short as my arms felt like they were going to fall off. Two days later, my arms still hurt. :) The lesson has been learned. I won't do that again! It was a great work out though! :)

And the answers are:

2011-01-06T17:23:00.002-05:00

(1) They were cookies but looked nothing like the can including appearance and actual ingredients. Some of the cookies were strawberry raisin. Others were regular raisin and a third looked like cherries.

(2) Shower gel. Aimee figured it was something else the first time she used it. Ryan just thought it was a little stickier than other varieties and used it every so often. Sure enough, after Aimee sniffed out a problem, Ryan was able to magically create suds out of his hands in the sink.

(3) Yogurt. Perhaps Ryan could have known when he purchased that it was not milk as the picture on the front, when you look close, shows it 'flowing' more like yogurt.

Thanks to our contestants on their guesses. The products have been relocated to new homes that better match their intended usage. (Who wants the strawberry raisin cookies?)

Let's Play Guess the Product

2011-01-05T06:55:00.005-05:00

Ok,

Now for a little slice of Bowman life. Imagine going into the grocery store, looking for very specific items that you need. Sounds easy enough to make your purchases, right? Now pretend that you can't read any of the labels. Yeah, pretend they are CHINESE!

We got a surprise on the products pictured below. We thought we were getting (1) soft and delicious chocolate chip cookies (2) hand lotion and (3) milk.

Make your best guess as to the real contents. Then tune in tomorrow for the answers on what we actually (1) got to eat (2) rubbed all over our hands…Ryan did multiple times and (3)poured in hot chocolate.

Good Luck. Feel free to comment your best or funniest guesses.

Over and out. And special thanks to our product models.

(1)

(2)

(3)

getting around

2011-01-02T20:19:00.008-05:00

Hey all! Here are some pictures first--I can't figure out how to move them around so some are out of order but here we go!

The first set is when our friend Joab and his older 2 kids showed us around some of their favorite spots and how to get around on the subway. It was COLD--not Michigan cold, but Shanghai cold feels cold when you are out in it. When Ryan told me it was going to be mid 40s so to dress warmly, I was thinking MI temps so didn't go all out but after walking around a while, I realized that mid 40's with wind is still cold.

Elijah is always such a happy trooper. So thankful for that!
All of the kids enjoyed riding on the horse statues.
Elijah and friend Asa, with Joab spotting
Anna and Miriam
Sweet Sammy

This next picture is out of order--but is when we went as a family to the store down the street. It is nice to be able to shop without needing the driver to bring me there. It makes me feel a lot more free. The store is like a big Meijer, with anything we might need just a short walk away.

Breakfast is the kids favorite meal time so I thought I would take pictures of them enjoying their favorites.

Anna loves toast with Nutella.
Elijah loves chocolate cereal.
Rachel loves hard boiled eggs
Sammy loves it all.

This next pic is when we were walking home from the store.

The kids are doing great as we go around town, figuring out where things are and how to do life here.

I am really going to try to be better about blogging this time around. It is totally not me--but it is a great way to keep people posted with what is happening around here and to see pics of the kids so I will try. I am not funny or good with words like Ryan so bear with me.

This time of adjusting has been SO much better for me than last time. There are many factors that contribute to that--knowing what to expect, having friends already here that we look forward to seeing and even live next too, good weather (it has not rained once since we have been here where last time it rained everyday so the kids and I were stuck inside all of the time), and this time Ryan's work has been so gracious in allowing him to get his family and life settled before having to dig in totally to work. It has been so helpful to have him here to watch the kids while I go out looking for groceries or household items. I get no attention when I am out by myself but when kids are in tow, it is a whole different story.

There is still much to explore and figure out but we are tackling it one day at a time. There is a very limited menu still of what we are eating because we are waiting for all of the spices and herbs to come on the boat shipment, but I am slowly figuring what I can make with only basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.

Thanks for checking in on us. We love and miss you all so much!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T03:28:00.006-05:00

Ok,

Got some pics to load. There's lots to report on but it's going to take a few days to unpack some of it. This is a start though, right?

We actually got our air shipment delivered on Christmas Day. But we postponed the Christmas festivities a couple of days so we could unpack and wrap the gifts we had purchased in the US. Here is 8-year old Anna that has been a huge help with our settling in. She's been super at assisting with Samuel especially.
Have you seen the new Karate Kid movie? Well, we have our own version. Yep, Elijah got into a fisticuffs with a local Chinese kid eager to protect his territory. Elijah has a black eye to show for it. He's currently training with a local car mechanic who moonlights as a dojo master. The kung fu tournament is next weekend and we'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. (Ok, so maybe the black eye came via a trampoline collision with the kids next door.)
Rachel is the only one that thought it was funny that Dad claimed her gift as his own.
Samuel's first Christmas was a hit as long as the snacks kept coming. He really had no interest in subsequent gift unwrapping until he had completely drained his unopened snacks and candy. This look says to me, "Hey, you can pick up that camera after you've refilled my bowl Dad.
Dear friends, the Crandalls (our neighbors) and the Meyers (see link to the right), got our house all ready to move in including a Christmas tree. This sure beat the paper tree we used in our first Shanghai Christmas in 2006. We adorned it with a 'bubble wrap wreath' designed and manufactured by Emily Meyer. Since stockings are on the slow boat to China, literally, we got creative with some alternative stuffer holders. Seems that new underwear would have been especially appropriate this Christmas for Anna and Elijah.

I'm thrilled that pictures have now loaded. Check in later for some more updates. We are missing home big time but getting settled fast.

Surfacing...

2011-01-01T03:23:00.003-05:00

Hey. Sorry for the lack of communication. We have had a very difficult time getting online with a VPN that allows blogger and Facebook. Facebook is still real sketchy and blogger is not yet successfully uploading photos. We won't give up.

Every one is good here at Villa 11 in Shanghai Garden on Lian Hua Lu at Hu Min Lu in Puxi, Shanghai. In some aspects of getting situated, it seems we take 2 steps back before making 1 step forward. But we are getting there.

Email us or comment here if you'd like our new US phone number. It will be a local call for many in Michigan.

The Shanghai Bowman's

Flashback

2010-12-15T16:58:00.003-05:00

We applied many lessons learned for this transition. Revisiting old blog entries flagged a major improvement......I've got at least 3 new deodorants in tow plus the plane shipment will be delivered much sooner.

Historic details found here

Construction Zone

2010-12-15T16:22:00.002-05:00

Yikes, it's been a while since we blogged. And though you may disagree, we feel like we are coming back into some "blog-worthy" material as we return to Shanghai. Life with 4 kids in the USA is less newsworthy than the same life amongst 21 million Chinese people. Our return to Shanghai is different this go round as we are living outside the "bubble" of other expatriates.

The travel plans have slipped one day due to some issues with the airline so we fly tomorrow.

May pictures

2010-05-28T08:23:00.014-04:00

A fun evening at a park.

The kids have been loving the hot weather and playing in the pool.

Joy with her new baby girl, Leia. She is so precious!

All 6 of us together!

A morning of school

Rachel loves being a big sister

A special family dinner outing.

It's amazing what happens when the baby toys come out!

Our four precious treasures!

Update

2010-05-04T22:49:00.010-04:00

I have been neglecting the blog... what is new? :) Here are some updated pics going back in time. I am too lazy/tired to put them into the correct order.

the first ride in the burley.

Rachel loves to pull Samuel around in the wagon but got in for the picture.

Monday morning, Anna and Elijah had gymnastics... getting everyone ready and out the door wasn't too bad.

The Hazards surprised us to welcome Samuel and Ryan and I home. We love you guys!

Friday, the night before we flew out, was my birthday and Ryan, my amazing husband, planned a surprise bday/welcome Samuel party with my best friends from China. What an amazing birthday gift to be able to see such beloved friends again before heading home. Again, I am terrible with taking pictures so never think of it until people are leaving so we missed the Wongs and other great picture opportunites. Thank you, Ryan!!!!! This picture is of my dear friend Flo and her family. We stayed with them during our Shanghai days.

My dear friend, Lisa, and her family.

My dear friends Emily and Rebecca. I miss you all already!

Elise and Samuel.

The last night that our adopting group was together, we had a pizza party in the hall so here are a couple of pictures of that. They also surprised me with a cake--thank you again! We really were blessed with a great travel group. It was so fun to become friends with the other families.

We went on a river cruise with our travel group. It was beautiful.

Ryan and Samuel feeding the fish cereal.

The flight went well. Neither Ryan nor I want to be in a plane for a while again but we are home! It was WONDERFUL to see Anna, Elijah, and Rachel again, and amazing to see how quickly they bonded with Samuel.

Since being back, the first couple of days we had to really work with Samuel for him to not sleep during the day but at night and he is doing so well. Last night, he slept 11 hours without waking once and is doing fine just taking one nap during the day. Anna and Samuel have bonded immediately. Elijah loves playing with Samuel and they are continuing to bond. Rachel is struggling a bit. She loves to hold "baby Sam'l" who doesn't seem to like being held by someone not much bigger than him. I think this relationship will take the most time. She really likes him and wants to play with him but struggles when Mommy holds or help Samuel and can't hold her at the same time. As we have been out and about a lot and Samuel cannot walk, this has been quite often. I hope that tomorrow we can be home a bit more so that I can focus on spending time with each of the kids.

It has been busy, but it has been wonderful! I am so thankful for God's goodness poured out on us! Thanks for checking in on us!

2010-04-26T08:25:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, April 25, we had the full day to explore. We took a taxi to Shamian Island, which seems to be the famous "adoption island". Most adopting families stay at the White Swan hotel, located on the island during their required stay in Guangzhou. Because of the trade show that is in full swing, our group was not able to stay at this amazing hotel as all of the rooms were already full. Instead, we are across the river at the Riverside Hotel. Anyway, it is obvious that the White Swan is known as the adoption hotel because of all of the surrounding shops tailoring their wares to adoptive parents. It is a beautiful island with many fun and interesting buildings, trees, stores, and parks.

There are very interesting sculptures all around the island. This one is my favorite. I didn't do a very good job of getting the dog into the picture. Most of the sculptures are just as random as this one--another favorite is a little boy and a little girl punching each other...????

This is inside the White Swan hotel. It is amazing! After we had toured the island for a while we decided to go to a shop that had been recommended to us. We had a card for the shop which is supposed to help the taxi driver find the location, but our driver didn't know the streets so drove us in the right direction and then dropped us off. I was very impressed at Ryan's ability to read the Chinese street signs and after 15-20 minutes of walking, we actually found the store that we were looking for. The next couple of pictures were taken during our walk.

Today, we went with our group to a shopping street for the morning, back for a quick nap and then off to the Island again for dinner. Before we ate, we stopped into the White Swan for the traditional "red sofa" picture taking. I guess that it is tradition for the children and families to have their pictures taken on the red sofa at the White Swan so here we are!

This is our Samuel and his friend Samuel. They were from the same orphanage so we call them brothers.

Nine out of ten of the newly adopted babies.

Samuel was having fun pounding on the cushions.

This is our entire travel group. We are blessed to have a great group.

Ryan is currently outside playing basketball with the kids playing under the hotel (pictured in the last post) He and 2 other adoptive dads played last night and they were able to get a couple more guys roped into playing tonight. It would be fun to be there to watch them, but the days have been so full that Samuel is only catching naps here and there so is very tired. Tomorrow morning our China reps go to the consulates to deliver all of our paperwork... we are getting closer! It still seems like it is forever before we are able to come home. We are SO ready! We really miss our kids in MI. Counting down the days until May 1!!!!!!!

Anna, Elijah, and Rachel, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Guangzhou

2010-04-24T07:40:00.006-04:00

We arrived into the city of Guangzhou yesterday. It is here that the final preparations are made for Samuel to go to the US, culminating late in the week with his VISA approval from the US Consulate. All China adoptions go through Guangzhou.

This morning, he had a medical exam from the local Chinese medical clinic which included 5 immunizations, aka, shots. He survived to live and ga ga about it. He is currently playing with his favorite toy, an orange bowl purchased at the grocery mart (intended for food), on our hotel room floor. The bowl is multi-faceted in that it can really be played with in an infinite number of ways, many of them demonstrated by Samuel. It works as a collector of objects, drum, and also freakish sort of frisbee. For no extra charge, it also works in the bathtub. Oh, and this just in, he's now turned it upside down and is sliding it to and fro on the carpet, it's officially a toy vacuum cleaner too....oh, and now it's back to collecting toys.

Can you tell that our lives center around Samuel? That is the name of this game that we are playing over here in China. We sure miss all of our family and friends, but often remind ourselves that this is important bonding time for this little guy that we won't be able to re-create anywhere else.

Samuel did make 2 huge strides in the last 48 hours. After the gotcha, he really only got upset during bathtime and whenever we dropped him into a high chair. He overcame his fear of the bathtub (perhaps it was the orange bowl?) a couple days ago. And, this morning, he actually sat and ate from a high chair. It was good timing as the novelty of feeding him from Aimee's lap at every meal was wearing slightly.

Here are some pictures from the last few days with some commentary.

Can you find Samuel buried in the balls? If not, don't drive.
2 chinese-looking guys. (Note: this was not deliberate on my part.)

He's developed some understanding of boundaries and often uses this maneuver to see who's watching.

This is a special picture. Yisha (left) and Rita were our leaders in Zhengzhou, stepping our group through the process. They were super helpful and became great friends by the end of our trip. Rita was amazed that we already had 4 kids.

We slapped the red, white, and blue on him early. He wears it well.

This is a portion of our adoption gang at a local Chinese restaurant in Zhengzhou. None of the wait staff spoke English so we did a lot of pointing and charades. What did we eat? I have no idea. Only 7 of us puked that night. Kidding.

This was a sign found posted above a conference room at Wal-mart. I'm posting it in honor of some great colleagues of mine that are covering for me during my long absence. Thanks to Kelly, Jen, Wayne, Pete, Holly and Ken for making this trip possible! I did take my groceries into this room but somehow came out of it paying twice the price marked.

Samuel looking out of Zhengzhou hotel room window. For faithful blog followers of old, this pic might remind you of an Elijah pic I posted from our Shanghai days.

Zhengzhou had a nice park within walking distance of our hotel. Here is Aimee with a couple of adopting friends, Nicole and Heather.

Samuel likes to suck 2 of his fingers. The crazy thing is that he actually reverses them and sucks them opposite of natural. It works for him and I'm not messing with it.

Basketball courts are very hard to come by but I liked this shot of hoops mounted below a hotel. Dozens of guys were playing in the dark. I'd like to join them sometime this week. We'll see.

We stopped in a 'hole in the wall' restaurant across from the hotel. The food was great (a noodle dish and an egg/tomato on rice dish). We paid a whopping $2 for the whole meal. A great deal and Samuel made a friend as well.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Anna, Elijah, and Rachel, we love you and will see you soon at Papa and Gramma's house!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOO

More pictures

2010-04-22T02:15:00.003-04:00

We are officially Samuel's parents! This is the adoption license that we need to begin working on the next stages to get everything finalized and us back home. Slowly but surely, it is happening. :)
Eating breakfast at the hotel.
sleeping with the monkey that Anna gave him and the blanket that Elijah picked out. He loves them both!

this is right after waking up from nap...playing with the tiger balloon that Daddy picked up on the way back from Walmart.

Today we went to a history museum. Samuel and Daddy are enjoying all of the pottery artifacts. It was actually very interesting for me as Anna and I have been studying ancient civilizations and we were able to see some of the things that we had learned about.

Samuel loves to play--even when in the tummy pack. He throws himself back and Ryan gets his neck--Samuel LOVES it!

Thanks for checking in on us. Everything is going so well. We see God's hand of blessing and provision over and over again as we continue to bond together. I, through out every day, see evidence of how God has hand picked Samuel to join our family. He is a perfect addition. We are so blessed!

Gotcha Video

2010-04-20T17:57:00.002-04:00

This is our first moment of seeing and holding Samuel. It was so amazing and beautiful, words cannot even begin to describe. All ten families were in the same room, waiting for our children. The children came at different times (depending on the orphanage that they came from) and all reacted differently. It was very chaotic, but amazingly beautiful.

We "Gotcha" Samuel!!!!

2010-04-19T09:05:00.007-04:00

Today was “Gotcha” day in adoption lingo. God answered all the prayers regarding transition anxiety. Samuel was stone-cold somber until about minute 20 when we got him into a play area and he found the bouncy balls. He really loosened up a ton at that point and was a joy to interact with. He snacked on the baby snacks we brought and also enjoyed carrying around a toy giraffe and frog brought along from Michigan. Aimee found early that he is very ticklish and has been pushing those buttons regularly much to his gleeful satisfaction.

He showed up in the Pooh fleece suit we sent in his gift box around Christmas. The orphanage staff also brought along the disposable camera and photo album we included in that gift box. It was great to see that the staff was able to put those to good use. We hope the camera helps complete some of the 1.5 years that we missed out on.

He is well-nourished, aka, round and a good crawler. He likes to pull himself up on furniture but is not walking. We’re looking forward to the correction of his club foot to try to get him in a better position to walk. He’s become more audible as the day progressed…..seems to be a type of Chinese baby talk. Simple syllables but nothing real extensive.

For lunch, he polished off a banana and noodles. At dinner, we took him to a local Chinese noodle house where he ate much Congee (rice porridge) and some pork & chive dumplings. I visited the local Wal-mart (yes, Wal-mart, but no greeters here) and got him a ball of his own along with some other baby-related items.

The pictures below are a progression of sorts, top to bottom. As you can tell, Dad did a lot of the picture-taking today. A lot more updates to come in the next few days so check back again soon. We love you and are excited to introduce this little guy to you soon. Oh, and he is a little tank and may be the middle linebacker of the family.

This is the face he wore for the first 20 minutes. At minute 19, I wondered if he was a robot. Nothing I did could even make him blink.

At minute 11, I challenged him to a game of stare-down. I was no match. Actually, it was tough to even get some eye contact in the first 20 minutes. That was just his way of dealing with his anxiety.

At about minute 15, we busted out a couple of animal toys. He took the giraffe and frog but was alarmed by the tiger. I figured he may have a fear of meat-eaters but he loosened up later....so Elijah's dinosaurs should not keep him up at night.

He cracked his first smile when the ball showed up.

Getting kissed whether you like it or not!!! Actually, I now know he loves the attention.

The smiles multipled as the play time continued.

This pic is a little out of place as it's taken back at the hotel. He likes to hang on to his giraffe especially. He also has taken a liking to the stuffed monkey that Anna picked out for him.

We are looking forward to tomorrow. We've got some more paperwork to complete but will have a full day to figure out some more of his habits, including "potty training". See ya!!

Firewall averted

2010-04-18T07:53:00.009-04:00

Ok,

Game on. We've got a work around in place and the blogging can begin (Thank you Scott Liptak). We arrived today in Zhengzhou and met the other 9 families that will all travel TOGETHER to a local goverment office for the pickup of our respective children, tomorrow. They are all adopting special needs kids which is cool. These people have a heart and passion for kids with physical and mental needs. It's been great getting to know them.

We did a pretty poor job of getting lots of pictures of Shanghai friends so some have been left out. Over the past 2 days, we caught up with our best friends in Shanghai - the Bowmakers, Liptaks, Wongs, Meyers, Lisa Ward, and JCI Colleagues. See below for some of the pics.

Visiting Yu Garden and preparing to eat famous Shanghai dumplings - the Xiao Long Bao. We were hanging with Florence this trip.
Miriam and Asa are Joab/Emily Meyer's kids and good friends of Anna/Elijah. They were a real treat to see again and have grown up a lot. Not sure which impression Asa is doing here, perhaps just "5 year old kid".
Joab and Emily Meyer

Alexander and Elise Bowmaker - friends of Anna/Elijah. Shanghai's 'Pearl Tower' is in the background.

Nathan and Florence Bowmaker, with Chairman Mao Zedong enshrined on your left

Aimee and Emily/Miriam Meyer - in front of the original HSBC building on the Bund
Tim and Theresa Wong - the Wong's referred us to the Colorado-based adoption agency that we are using to adopt Samuel.

Bummed that we don't have pictures of Lisa and the Liptaks. I think we'll need to visit Shanghai again soon!

Tomorrow is the big day! We hope to be able to post pictures and even video of our little boy. Thanks for checking in on us.

Safe Arrival

2010-04-15T10:01:00.001-04:00

Hey,

This whole blog thing could get dicey as China's "Great Firewall" has blocked my access both to blogspot.com and even Facebook. Ugh. That was an occasional problem during our life here before but I had a workaround (a VPN) that cost me just a couple bucks a month. So, I'm not sure how much you're going to be able to see here. (A friend made this post for me.)

We have arrived safely. The adoption proceedings appear to be totally unaffected by the recent earthquake in NW China. Our orphanage destination is near Zhengzhou.

All in all, things have gone well though I'm frustrated with my renewed "acquantaince" of the firewall.

Ryan

Operation Samuel: Mission Itinerary

2010-04-11T15:40:00.003-04:00

Wednesday 4/14, Noon Depart Grand Rapids Airport, Delta Flight 7258

12:59 Arrive Detroit.

3:40p Depart Detroit for Shanghai, Delta Flight 19

Thursday 6:30p Arrive Shanghai (Remember, these are now China times, 12hrs advance of EST)

Friday Shanghai visit

Saturday Shanghai visit

Sunday 4/18, 11:20a Depart for Zhengzhou, China Southern CZ 3592

Monday "Gotcha" Day - Pick up Samuel

Tuesday through Thursday Hang out with Samuel in his home province. Might visit his orphanage.

Friday 4/23 6:20p Depart for Guangzhou, 2 hour flight, China Southern CZ 3619

Saturday through Friday Finalize the adoption, tour, shop, eat, see sights.

Friday 4/30 9:30a Depart Guangzhou for Shanghai, CZ 3613

Saturday 5/1 10:00a Depart Shanghai for USA, Delta 18

12:10p Arrive Detroit Airport (back to US time)

3:30p Depart Detroit, Delta 3907

4:15p Arrive Grand Rapids

We won't have a phone for sure, so email will be the best communication tool, or feel free to post comments here on the blog/facebook. The hotels we are staying in have good internet connectivity allegedly.

That's all for now.

Christmas

2010-01-11T22:18:00.007-05:00

Rachel and Mommy made star gingerbread cookies

Elijah LOVES dinosaurs!

Fun in the snow!

Anna as an angel in the Kids Praise Christmas program.

We had a great time making Christmas cookies together.

Highlight pictures from Liberia

2010-01-11T21:49:00.007-05:00

Some of the children from the school in Paynesville.

This is the trip to Dorzon...

the hill that we had to climb

pushing the vans up those monster hills

celebrating that both vans are up!

the greeting that we were blessed with in Dorzon.

I love the people that are part of our Liberian church! I am so thankful for the time that I was able to spend with them.

It was amazing to meet the people of the community too.

This is the team and Pastor Moses, Jeremiah, and Prince after one morning of baptisms.

The November Post. :)

2009-11-20T08:15:00.007-05:00

The fall started with apple picking with some friends. It was a beautiful day!

Then small group went apple picking and through a corn maze--what a fun day!!! We love our small group!

Because the summer was so cool and we never had a chance to camp outside in the backyard, we set up the tent in the basement and had a couple days to play camp.

We have had some beautiful fall days so we went exploring Mt. Pigsah. When we were at the top, it was quite cold because of the wind--but absolutely beautiful.

A random cute shot of Rachel playing under Elijah's bed.

Halloween fun.

Thanks for checking in on us... also... I will be uploading pictures of my amazing trip to Liberia--I hope to get a CD this weekend of all of the members pictures put together. Thank you for all of your many prayers. It was AWESOME!!!! I will tell some stories when there are pictures to put with them.

2009-09-24T16:55:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures from the summer, mostly taken by Anna and Elijah. :)

Kids are sure gifts from heaven!

Riding bikes has ended.

2009-08-03T21:42:00.005-04:00

Yep, the kids are pretty beat after several months of riding those bikes. Here are some more recent pictures from 2009.

Mud bathing in our backyard.
In their pajamas. We

keep things formal. Strawberry picking. Anna picked a ripe Rachel.

A little devious looking. Gets it from Mommy. (She has all of you fooled!!)

I don't think there is a booger on there. She has not figured that one out yet.

Riding Bikes

2009-05-04T07:47:00.003-04:00

Our friend from China, Alexander Bowmaker, gave Elijah his bike last year. Elijah is loving it this spring! He wants to ride it all day long! Anna is excited to be able to ride her bike again too.

A sweet Easter Sunday picture

Birthday fun

2009-05-04T07:22:00.003-04:00

2 of my sisters, Joy and Kate, and Joy's boys Jacob, Austin, Peter, and Patrick drove from Williamston to surprise me for my birthday! It was so fun to hang out for a couple of hours!!! Thank you guys for my surprise birthday party! What a special memory--being in the basement, doing laundry, and having my thoughts go from, someone is in the house--are we being robbed? to SURPRISE!!!!!

The kids had a blast playing together! Jacob came to school to pick Anna up with me! What a fun surprise for her too! When Ryan got home from work, we had a party and then had to rush off to Anna's school program.

Anna and her school for the spring program, King of the Jungle. It was so cute and really well done.

Worship Him

2009-04-22T22:00:00.001-04:00

We picked up Hillsong's "Saviour King" on iTunes a few weeks back. Seems like half of the songs have already cycled through our favorites. This one continues to stick with me though.

Sad data reported from China

2009-04-18T08:54:00.004-04:00

"Sixteen million girls are missing in China. And now we know what happened to them: They were aborted because they weren't boys."

That's from this article, about the vast gender imbalance in China due to their "one child policy" and a preference among those in Chinese society for a son as opposed to a daughter. That combination has made for some tragic outcomes, including abortion and the abandonment of girls that end up filling orphanages.

And it's one of these girls that we intend to adopt! We are going to submit our formal dossier in the next few weeks. Pray for God to speed up the waiting process. We want to meet our daughter!!

Rocking the monkey bars

2009-04-12T21:06:00.004-04:00

Anna and I did some pretty amazing work on the monkey bars today. Take a look. You can't deny what you see on video.

Another mass update

2009-04-11T15:22:00.003-04:00

Anna without her 2 front teeth.

The Critter Barn a couple of weeks ago. We love this place. The kids were able to hold the cats, bunnies, ducks... and this time even run with the new baby goats. It was so cute to watch! Rachel did not want anything to do with the curious and playful kids but Anna and Elijah loved it.

We enjoy any opportunity to enjoy the nice spring weather. This is at Hemlock Crossing on a beautiful day.

Our fearless leader.

Rachel's first haircut. I fought it for a long time but finally had to give up--she needed it!

Love and blessings to you! Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

Elijah's February Birthday

2009-04-11T15:10:00.003-04:00

Here are the long awaited Elijah bday pictures. I can't believe that he is 4 years old!!!! We love you, Elijah!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2009-04-10T13:31:00.004-04:00

Aimee and I rented a documentary of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer last night. Coincidentally, yesterday was the 64th anniversary of his hanging by the Nazi's for plotting in the assassination of Hitler. I look forward to meeting him one day. What a tremendous witness for Christ amongst one of the worst storms ever known.

A quote from him that I found on John Piper's blog today:

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. (The Cost of Discipleship, 99) "

I find the challenge convicting on this Good Friday. Remembering the God-Man, Jesus, that perfectly avoided every attachment of this world and yet, still died a criminal's death. Amazing Grace, isn't it?

Toti avem nevoie

2009-04-07T22:32:00.001-04:00

A Harvest church in Romania. I bet you can recognize the tune. Encouraging...

With authority.

2009-04-04T23:20:00.001-04:00

Engaging culture

2009-03-28T14:17:00.005-04:00

Thought-provoking debate, hosted by Nightline, about the existence of Satan. Inevitably, the discussion drifted across multiple topics including the resurrection, salvation, and the return of Christ. Cool stuff.

Follow the link for one of the segments:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7174065

Mexico.

2009-03-26T20:38:00.003-04:00

Quick and easy. Here is a handful of pictures of our trip to Mexico, celebrating 10 years of marriage. Had a great time despite some abnormally cool weather.

Biking in Shanghai

2009-03-17T22:16:00.002-04:00

My biking friend, Evart, posted a great video of a recent bike ride in Shanghai. I saw a lot of unique scenery when riding in Shanghai, including sights similar to those in the video. Lots of memories. Thanks Evart for posting it.

"Oh My Word"

2009-03-17T21:29:00.006-04:00

Yes,

I fully predicted the words that would come out of your mouth when you looked upon the Bowman Blog today. Call me gifted. I think that's why my kindergarten teacher called me "special". She knew.

We just haven't updated because we've been flat out staying out of trouble. You know, the whole China thing completely scrambled our lives. Reading our blog was like reading the headlines of your national newspaper...."Trains collide in Scranton" "Ryan is running of deodorant" "Sully lands in the Hudson" "Anna successfully pee'd in a chinese toilet" and the headlines go on.

There is one update...our adoption continues to progress. Aimee is the leader of this process for our family so if you want specifics, talk to her. If you ask me, you're going to get something like, "Uh, yeah, we are going to submit our 'dossey hey' this year. And then we'll probably wait about 12 to 48 months, give or take, before we can pick her up."

In reality, I just tend to take it one month at a time. If I get too worked up about timelines, the months will start to feel like weeks. I don’t need that.

For the adoption, the Chinese government wants to see our family with others. Here are pics that have been taken with that in mind, though not all of these will make the final cut. Some of you look too deranged. If you have the time and a camera, snap photos with us soon. Photoshop also works too.

And Happy Birthday Ryan Krauss.

My sister Megan, her husband Derek, and son Evan

Our friends Ryan, Missy, and Joshua.

My grandparents.

The Bowman clan.

Aimee's sisters Joy and Heather.

Aimee's parents.

Aimee's sister Heather and husband Dave.

The Underwear Girl

2009-01-13T22:14:00.003-05:00

I finally thought to get the camera to get proof of Rachel's love for underwear as a hat or necklace. She doesn't care if they are clean or dirty, race cars or flowers--anything works for her. Thankfully, this pair is clean.

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-01-13T21:57:00.002-05:00

This weekend, we were blessed to be able to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. We had a blast. It has been a very busy year so it was fun to get away and enjoy some down time together.

The kids are listening to the bed time story in the lobby.

Christmas

2009-01-13T20:54:00.004-05:00

The kids and I had a lot of fun doing holiday baking together. Elijah had fun crashing his peanut butter cars in a big pile up.

The Kids Praise Christmas concert was so beautifully done. Anna had fun getting her makeup done and then singing her heart out. Notice the bright lips in the picture with Nana and Papa. :)

Rachel now sits on the bar stools with "the big kids". She LOVES it!

Iceman Cometh 2008

2008-12-05T18:20:00.003-05:00

I raced 27 miles through the woods of Northern Michigan with about 2,500 others (though we did not all start at once) in early November. Here’s a picture approaching the finish line. Can’t wait until 2009.

I've been busy posting tonight!

2008-11-21T23:10:00.002-05:00

For those of you who still check the blog, I really am sorry that I am so bad at posting new posts. I have tried to catch you up a bit with what we have been up to and have added lots of new pictures. I hope that you enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

2008-11-21T22:40:00.002-05:00

This whole week Holland has been beautiful. Snow started falling Sunday night, and it has pretty much snowed everyday since then. I hope that it stays, but I know that it will not. Everyday Anna and Elijah have gone outside to romp in the snow or is it to eat the snow... Rachel does not like snow... she is scared of it falling on her face--it is pretty heavy, and of the boots that are necessary to go play in the snow. She starts crying and fighting the boots when she sees them come out. Needless to say, Rachel only joined the "fun" the first day--the rest of the days she has been inside with me, taking care of her baby. Notice all of the leaves on the snow. Because of the warm weather, our trees in the back did not drop their leaves until after the snow fell--nice.

Chicago

2008-11-21T21:55:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, Ryan and I went to Chicago to visit my sister Heather and brother-in-law Dave. We had a wonderful time touring the city with the experts. They live and work/study downtown so we were able to tour the city in true Chicagoan :) style. Along with seeing a lot of the normal sights, they took us to a really fun Greek restaurant and then to Comedy Sports, an improv comedy club that was hilarious. Thanks Heather and Dave for a great weekend! (Thank you also for the awesome car you sold us!--God provided just in time. Ryan has been riding his bike to work and the day after we returned from getting the car, we had quite a bit of snow on the ground. God is awesome, isn't He?)

Iceman Cometh

2008-11-21T21:53:00.007-05:00

My 2 heroes--Ryan and our brother-in-law, Ryan successfully raced in the Iceman Cometh, a 27 mile mountain bike race from Kalkaska, MI to Traverse City, MI. Although they both said it was awful, they are both eager to sign up again for next years race... I told you they were my heroes.

The morning after the race, we woke up to...

It was so amazingly beautiful! What a gift from God to be up north for my first MI snow in a while! Everyone had so much fun in the snow even without snow pants and winter boots. Thank goodness for hot cocoa!

I think these next pictures are really funny. Can you tell that Rachel LOVES baby Patrick? I felt so bad for him--he could not get away from her the whole weekend. The one picture where her hands are off of him took many tries to take.

Those of you who have babies that we will be seeing over the holidays--all I can say is, watch out for the baby magnet!

Ferocious Tigers Meet Sweet Dutch Dancers

2008-11-21T21:40:00.007-05:00

This year we went trick or treating with our great friends, the Hazards. Elijah does not enjoy the holiday other than really being able to be a tiger. He was talking about his costume all day and couldn't wait to get the paint on until I was putting it on, and then couldn't wait for me to be done. Last year and this, he did not want to be part of the trick or treating--honestly, I don't blame him--going up to strangers' homes that have huge spiders on their doors and are dressed up like scary people does not sound too fun. He didn't even care that he didn't get the candy--poor guy! The other kids loved trick or treating and then they all had a blast playing together after we got back to the house. Fortunately (for me) we left the face paint at the Hazard's house so Elijah has had to be a tiger without the orange face.

Loving the Fall

2008-11-21T21:18:00.002-05:00

We have enjoyed all of the traditional fall activities in Michigan... picking apples, a hay ride, raking and jumping in leaves, hiking in the woods, and carving pumpkins. It really has been a perfect fall.

Some New Pictures

2008-09-18T12:46:00.007-04:00

Friends

2008-09-18T12:46:00.006-04:00

Anna was able to have her good friend Abbi over to spend the night. They had such a fun time playing with paper dolls, dancing,... just doing girl stuff. Poor Elijah, who is a great sport, was pulled into some of it. He was the prince and did exactly as the girls told him--danced the right way and gave them each flowers after being instructed of what color and how many to give each. What a fun night!

Over Labor Day we were able to see our good friends, Ryan and Missy, and meet their adorable son, Joshua Ryan. It had been WAY too long since we had seen them last. It was so good to catch up, snuggle their little guy, play games, and just enjoy each other's company again. WE LOVE YOU RYAN, MISSY, AND JOSHUA RYAN!

Need some funny?

2008-08-27T22:03:00.002-04:00

From Noel's sight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBghD0XBN5M

When I blog, I REALLY blog!

2008-08-17T20:51:00.014-04:00

I really try to blog... I take pictures all of the time thinking "these would be really great pictures for the blog".... I just never actually get around to putting them on the blog. That is kind of an important part of the blogging process, right? So this is the blog of all blogs where I have looked for all of the pictures that I have wanted to post over the summer and have put them all in one! This is the scrapbook of our summer (more or less)

Anna learning to ride without training wheels!!!! Go Anna

More pictures of our time at the cabin with Gramma and Papa from the other camera.

Picking strawberries early this summer.

Megan and sweet baby Evan came to visit us for a day... Isn't he CUTE????

Playing at Lake MI.

Kate joined us for the Ottawa County Fair. Elijah was very concerned with my driving skills. He asked why I was crashing into everyone. :)

Blueberry picking is a whole family affair.

Anna took ballet lessons this summer. She loved coming home and teaching Elijah what she learned. He had some of his own cool skills to show too.

Anna after an evening with the street performers of Holland.
Rachel is walking. For weeks she has been walking with fingers but in the past couple of days has been taking steps by herself. It won't be long.

More pictures from when we went to the cabin over the 4th.

4-Wheelin', Fishin', and Fun

2008-08-17T19:33:00.005-04:00

We had a great visit with Papa and Gramma Bowman up at the cabin a couple weeks back. The highlight for the kids (and Ryan) was riding the quads. Everyone got to do some serious off-roading. I wish we had gotten some video of Aimee whipping through the woods at break neck speed but I was afraid of loosening my white knuckle grip on the bar ends. There was also a lot of fishing including "the one that got away".

Here are a few pictures.

Chew on this.

2008-07-18T23:00:00.006-04:00

A few things going on here y'all. Got rid of some of the links that no longer met the single criteria here - must post at least once every 10 weeks or be named Ryan Bowman. I also added a couple of new links, Desiring God and The Resurgence. Check 'em out if you got time.

On to some pictures from recent activities in Michigan.

We spent the week of the 4th up north at the cabin. Rachel likes riding in the Burley because Elijah can't get away from her menacing ways. It's especially nice when he's got the sucker that you want.
Anna rode the new bike appendage that is a single wheel attached to my seatpost. I zigzag'd down each road as I compensated for Anna leaning out sideways to look past my backside.
Rachel Grace
Only the small ones can pull off the European speedo. Adult males just get ridiculed.
Momma and Anna after plotting a new scheme to overthrow the boys in the family.

Catch you later.

Horrible.

2008-07-16T21:26:00.004-04:00

Yes, that is exactly what we are when it comes to frequent blogging.....with a capital H. But while we get our act together, here's a cute video via http://www.noelheikkinen.com/

Ryan versus Spiderman

2008-06-27T17:54:00.003-04:00

A chinese friend made this for me over in Shanghai. I was never able to upload it until now. So, ask yourself first. In a match between me and Spidey, who wins? Click play to find out.

6 + 1

2008-06-25T18:08:00.005-04:00

Whoa. So, Rachel Grace turned one on June 16. Anna turned 6 on Saturday, June 21. Unbelievable how fast those came around. Here are some pictures from the festivities.

Joy and the boys made the trip from Williamston. Clockwise, from bottom left. This is Austin, Peter, and Larry Bird.
Austin and Elijah are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.
I didn't know whether this was a hug or sleeper hold until Anna passed out a couple seconds after this picture was taken.
Joy took a shot at pinning the tail on the donkey. Aimee had set up lots of fun games to play. Heather, background, also got a turn.
Up next were sack, er, pillow case races. That's Heather's husband Dave.

Rachel got a new oven/stove and kitchen set.

The 2 sisters partying down.

Check y'all later!!!

Katie got hitched.

2008-06-25T17:42:00.004-04:00

What's up party people? Sorry we haven't been blogging much. Things have been a little busy finding our place back in West Michigan. Things are going pretty well overall. Katie is Aimee's youngest sibling and got hitched on June 14.

Family shot at the reception. It was an outdoor reception at Aimee's folks farm. It was a beautiful day and setting.
Anna and her cuz, Jacob participated in the ceremony. There were no flower petals thrown around. Anna provided moral support and added cuteness. Jacob bore the rings. Austin also helped out (not pictured).
Lance and Katie helped me out by looking my way rather than at the professional photographer in this instance. Thanks.
Aimee was a bridesmaid. I held Rachel during the service and worked security detail.

Uh, ever have one of those days where you intended to take thousands of pics and only took a couple dozen. That would be my situation on Katie's wedding day. Actually, the professional photographer threatened me.

The Bowman Blog

Bowman Christmas 2011

Able to post again

Anybody out there?

Rachel is 4!!

Shanghai Zoo

The first one bites the dust

What's your favorite movie snack food?

China Life

BBQ #1

Defending the Fanny Pack

Playlist

Bowman Vacation

Park in Songjiang

Aimee's Birthday @ Shanghai Botanical Garden

When in doubt, post pictures

'First Visitor' trophy has been taken

Japanese Noodles in Shanghai

orphanage

update

Dating in Shanghai

Guilin Park Pictures

Napoleon Dynamite

Tears

Financed Fritos?

Better late than Never?

Ok, a quick one

Bad blogger.....BAD!

Mayflower truck has exploded

Misery Loves Company

Shanghai Dumplings

Another flashback

so thankful!

Company Lunch Show and Tell coming soon

House Pictures

Rachel and Sammy

Aquarium-2011

lesson learned

And the answers are:

Let's Play Guess the Product

getting around

Christmas 2010

Surfacing...

Flashback

Construction Zone

May pictures

Update

Guangzhou

More pictures

More video from Gotcha Day

Gotcha Video

We "Gotcha" Samuel!!!!

Firewall averted

Safe Arrival

Operation Samuel: Mission Itinerary

Christmas

Highlight pictures from Liberia

The November Post. :)

Riding bikes has ended.

Riding Bikes

Birthday fun

Worship Him

Sad data reported from China

Rocking the monkey bars

Another mass update

Elijah's February Birthday

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Toti avem nevoie

With authority.

Engaging culture

Mexico.

Biking in Shanghai

"Oh My Word"

The Underwear Girl

Great Wolf Lodge

Christmas

Iceman Cometh 2008

I've been busy posting tonight!

Winter Wonderland

Chicago