Chicago Update

Check this series of pics out from the Shanghai Airport before we left for the US - A QUICK LEARNER SHE IS!!!






Family with the Godparents (Pam's Sister Tina & Brian's brother Mike)

Angelina with Grandma & Grandpa White




Angelina & Cousin Katelyn

Well, I am at O'Hare and thought I would get a post in before I head back to China this morning at 10:30.

This last weekend was wonderful, it was great having both Pam and my families together for Angelina's baptism. We had her baptized at the Lemont First United Methodist church by the absolutely wonderful Pastor Anne. I am now a member of 3 Methodist churches - Washington, Iowa; Portland, Oregon and Lemont, Il......hmmmm kind of an indication I don't like to stay in the same place too long.

Angelina was pretty squirmy during the service and she never has been able to sit too long, but she did not fuss a bit. Right after she was baptized, the Pastor took Pam and her down front and told the congregation that Angelina likes to sing. Then Angelina began to sing her A,B,C's into the microphone, it was fantastic and she did it with fearless courage looking out at everyone! We have it on video tape and if I can ever figure out how to put video on this blog I will post it - any video buff's out there?

I am off in about 1 hour and want to post some photos so enough on the writing for now. Pam and Angelina will stay in Chicago for 2 more weeks, then we move to Dalian at the end of August.

Brian

We Made it to the US

Wow, just being away for 6 months and it is culture shock coming back here! Couple things I don't miss - the daytime news, watching tv and driving. The only news we see in china is via internet, the only tv we watch is what we download on itunes and well there is no driving allowed for us. We arrived in Chicago yesterday afternoon about an hour late from our original schedule and 13.5 hours after taking off from Shanghai. Angelina slept nearly the entire flight, Pamela about 8 hours and me about 6. Glad to be here and saw some of Pamela's family last night. My parents and brother fly in tomorrow from Phoenix and we will have Angelina baptized on Sunday, July 29th - which just happens to be my 37th b-day. I don't feel 37, only real indicator is everytime I think about the past and do the math on the number of years since.....for instance 1988 does'nt seem like "nearly 20 years ago."

I have been travelling every week since the first of June back and forth from Shanghai to Dalian, but with one trip to Intel in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in mid-June. Pamela, Angelian and I were all sick of me being gone so last week I took them with me to Dalian and they were able to spend some quality time during the day at the beach and in the evenings we were all together. Above are some of the photos from that trip, the beach is about 5 min from where our home will be in Dalian. We move to Dalian on August 30th so this was a good opportunity for the family to spend some time in the area and get a sense for the differences from Shanghai. Our new home is coming along and the concrete is finished, but nothing has commenced on the interior finishes. I did get a chance to walk through and get a good feel for the space - which we could not do when we made our selection back in May. Need to get up and going so enough for now.