Home in Hangzhou, Praise the Lord!

        For far too long life has been far too busy to post, so I have some fast catching up to do.  Let's  hit the highlights.  First a wonderful one.......

        December second commenced with an excited group at Brandon and Wendy's house awaiting the advent of the newest member of the family.   We didn't have long to wait.  At a few minutes after one a.m., I observed that we had reached the exciting part, and within minutes I was cutting the cord and then gathering up Ezekiel Abram Asbury in his blanket.  Dad and Mom did great throughout.  Even Elisha came in to welcome the adorable newcomer, and bask in the quiet joy of the moment.

        Four days later I had a birthday surprise, the worst ever!  We were getting set to go out for a celebration supper, when I heard some spine-chilling sounds, seeming far away.  I investigated and looking out the back door I saw a horrifying scene: the motionless figure of my father protruding from a fallen trash can.  He had gone out to collect trash to burn, and leaned on the empty trashcan, which flipped, encasing his head and shoulders.  He thought he could get up by gripping a chair, but couldn't budge.  I phoned for help, and Bro Kale and Cameron Neely were there in a couple of minutes, and the ambulance five minutes later.  Dad's pain was rated ten on a scale of ten, as they transported him to the hospital where he was found to have badly broken legs.  Medicated, he became so confused he could not make sense, but still had some pain.  However by the next morning things had improved.  The next day he lost the use of his left arm: a cat scan showed that he had likely not had a stroke, but this delayed reaction from his fall.

It could have been unbearable to leave him, but the Lord especially undertook and not only gave peace, but gave definite improvement.  Katie, Angie, Annie, and I sang to him, and prayed and shared the verse I had been given for him:   "Make me  to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."  He quoted  "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, for he trusteth in thee." 

        Annelisa and I set out for Seattle in the Suburban, with the song Bro. Rod sang the night before ringing in our ears, "He Will See You Through".  The sun set as we crossed the mighty Columbia, and the last light faded from the sky as we reached Snoqualmie Pass.  On top of Old Snoqie, all covered with fog, I lost the surroundings, drove too slow to blog.  Mist and fog accompanied us as far as Seattle where rush hour traffic and a mishap slowed us up, and then we finished our day's journey in some confusion, but safe and sound.  After prayer meeting, we rested at Aaron's until five a.m. when we arose to start our next lap of the journey.  From San Fransisco we flew up over the top of the world on a turbulent trip that took us to Beijing and at long last to our waiting menfolk in Shanghai.  How glad we were to see them again and spend the night in the airport hotel, "Ease Hotel", which featured  a mirror ceiling and clear glass doors on shower AND bathroom!  It was indeed a lovely room, but we were glad to get on the handy Maglev train and zoom almost 300 miles an hour to the subway to connect to another subway to connect to the bullet train which went about 110 miles an hour to Hangzhou.  A long wait for a taxi, and then we were in the wild traffic careening toward our humble apartment home.