Meet Our Chinese Friends!

Honestly, we are sad to say that we don't have many Chinese friends. We have found it difficult to meet new friends, not knowing Chinese and meeting few Chinese people who speak English in Dongying.

 But we are so very thankful to have a few new families and friends in our lives! They are making our last few months in Dongying much more enjoyable and feel more like home. 

We will truly miss them when we move to Qingdao. 

There are also several people we see every day. Friendly faces, who we have grown to love and appreciate, but who don't speak any English. 

There are so many who wave and say hello to us, every single day, or owners of shops we go to faithfully that we see and feel blessed by. Maybe we can get some pictures of these people to share with you some time. 

But for now, meet our Chinese friends. :)

Jack, Mary and Mike. l

Jack and Mary are husband and wife and have a little baby. :)

Mike, is just their friend but they are super close, like family.  Zachary meets with Mike every Saturday. Mike really looks up to Zachary. He is so cute. He is always smiling. He has a huge smile and the cutest dimples. :) He is only 12 but when talking to him, I often feel, he is at least 16. We always tell him he has a baby face but an old man mind. We have also become quite close with Mike's mother and father. We hope to post pictures of them too soon.

This picture is from dinner one night. We went to a famous sea food restaurant in Dongying. The restaurant had an aquarium with sea turtles and sharks in it. Isn't it illegal to have pet sea turtles? I guess not in China!

Shally and her mother.

Shally has become such a close friend. I feel so lucky to have met her. Shally is preparing to go to University in the States next year. She is one smart girl. :) We meet together at least 3 times a week.
Her mother has been our Chinese mama. She always takes care of us. She brings us dumplings and soup when we are sick! And comes over, even to my protest, to take me to the doctor. She is so caring and loving towards us.

This picture is from Easter. We all went out to the square to fly kites!

This is Xin. She was one of the med students who so lovingly comforted me during my hospital festivities. 

Jordan. Kevin. Windmill and Drew.

These are 4 more of the medical students who helped us.
There's one more guy, who is Xin's boyfriend, but sadly he was out of town the day we took this picture.
These 6 will make the best doctors one day. They are so full of joy and hope.

These pictures are from a few weekends ago. We took them to Pizza Hut in return for all their help and to celebrate the completion of their mid-terms!

It was most of their first time to ever taste pizza! Windmill said he had only seen people on movies eat it! Haha. It was a treat for all of us!