Great Fun at Christmas

We had a very good first Christmas here in Taiwan. Besides missing our extended family that we usually see during the Christmas season, we really enjoyed our time together as a family. On Christmas day all the kids got up around 7:00am (well, we had to wake Wade up) and we opened all the many presents that "Santa" left and those that were sent to us by family and friends. This picture above was taken right before the kids opened up all the presents. In the afternoon, we just relaxed and the kids played with the new toys that they received.

On the 26th we went on a two night mini-vacation (thanks to Michael Gay's SS class and Keith's dad for the donation!!). We had a blast staying at a really nice hotel with an indoor swimming pool, outside hot tub, and even a game room. The top picture above is a view from our balcony, and Levi took the picture of Keith and Page. On Wednesday, we went to Leo Fu village -- which is a theme park here in Taiwan. The picture below was taken at Leo Fu. The kids had a great time - and so did the adults.

On Thursday, we headed back to Taipei and Page took down all the Christmas decorations that she put up after Thanksgiving. Overall, it was a very nice Christmas. Thanks for thinking of us during this time.

Saturday Night -- Family Night

For the past several months we have declared Saturday nights as our "family fun night". We usually go to the night market near our house or play a board game as a family. However, for the past four Saturdays we have been lighting our advent wreath and having a short devotion to remind ourselves the true meaning of Christmas. Last week we cut out a cross and all in our family wrote some sins they had committed during the week and then we wrote "Jesus" across the cross to symoblize that Jesus was born in order to die for these sins. By the way, some of those sins were complaining, impatience, disobedience toward parents, etc. (I know it is hard for you to believe all of this happens in the Curlee household :)). After our devotion we each open one present. Here is a picture of Hunter and Levi tearing into their present last night. The other picture is the result -- thanks to Nana and Papa.

Precious Blood Christmas Party

Levi's preschool, called Precious Blood Kindergarten, had a Christmas party/program last night. Many people in Taiwan don't celebrate Christmas, but his preschool is Catholic - so they celebrate it. The public schools here don't even have a holiday on Christmas Day! Anyway, Levi's party was a lot of fun. We first had a "potluck" dinner with some interesting food (see picture) and some foods that we were used to -- pizza, rice, fruit, etc. We had the opportunity to meet Levi's best preschool buddy, Jien Wu (see picture). For the program the kids sang one group song in Chinese, Away in a Manger, and Levi knew every word! You can see Levi in the huge group of Chinese kids if you look for the blond! The song was beautiful. Then they sang and danced to some songs in English. Levi did great! At the very end a Chinese Santa came and gave gifts to all the children.

A Visit from Papa!!!

Page's Dad, otherwise known as Papa, stayed with us from Thursday to Saturday. He was on business in China and decided to come see us on the way back home. Despite the terrible weather -- it has been raining constantly for several days -- we had a great visit. Page had a list of "projects" around the house for him to complete, and we went out to eat Mexican on Friday night. He brought us several Christmas presents, and everyone decided to open one present each. Hunter and Levi both received "armor of God" dress-ups. After opening, they quickly put on the outfits and have been playing with them ever since. Although the time was short we feel very blessed to have a special visit with Papa.

Christmas Party at our House

Tonight we hosted a Christmas party at our apartment with another couple in our language school. We cooked several different American foods and shared with our language teachers and Levi's preschool teachers some of our traditions in celebrating Christmas. Page shared -- in Chinese -- how our family each year makes a birthday cake for Jesus and sings happy birthday to Him so we will not forget the reason we celebrate Christmas. Keith also shared in Chinese the story of the candy cane and how it can relate to the Christmas story. The other couple shared some Christmas traditions from their families and read the Christmas story from the Bible. Our spiritual language teacher, Teacher Lu, shared a true story about God's love as compared to human love. She is a wonderful story-teller, and the teachers couldn't take their eyes off of her when she spoke. Everything was wonderful. Milly and Wade helped with the party, and Wade even taught one of the preschool teachers some words in English! We were able to give each teacher a Chinese Bible and a candy cane with the printed candy cane story. Please pray God will use words shared at the party and His printed Word to draw these precious people to Himself and that they will come to know Jesus, the reason we celebrate this special season.

As for the pictures, the one of both of us is with Levi's two preschool teachers, Teacher Nancy and Teacher Esther. The one of Keith is with two of his teachers, Teacher Shu and Teacher Wang. The one of Page is with her two teachers, Teacher Xiao and Teacher Lu (who told the story and teaches us spiritual langauge). These ladies are very precious to us - now you can remember them in prayer by name! Thank you for holding the rope for us!

Wade and his Webelos Den

This year, the kid's school began for the first time a cub scout troop. Wade is one of four Webelos that you see pictured. Keith is their den leader!!! For those of you who know Keith, you know he certainly does not fit the typical cub scout leader. However, he does have another father helping him who is more of an outdoorsman type. So far they have had a good time and Keith is especially looking forward to the camp out that they will do in the spring :).

6th Grade Girls Christmas Party

Milly decided to host a 6th grade girls Christmas party on Friday night. All 13 girls from her class came. They played "Dirty Santa", ate a lot of pizza, and then went to the night market to do some shopping and drink Milly's favorite -- pearl milk tea. It was a fun night. As you see from the pictures, Levi also had a good time being in the middle of all the cute girls. We had a house full as you can see by all the shoes outside our door.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Even though there is no official holiday here in Taiwan for Christmas, many stores sell Christmas tress, ornaments, etc. I (Keith) was sitting in Starbucks today studying Chinese, and they were playing English Christmas songs. The weather has even turned much cooler within the past few days to put us in the Christmas mood. The pictures you see are Christmas decorations in our apartment. Our stockings are hanging off of a shelf since we have no mantle (family members - notice Page finally finished Levi's stocking after 5 years!! :)), and we even have a tree donated to us from a journeyman who left in May (thanks, Sarah -- it looks nice). We have a couple of outreach events going on during this Christmas season, and it is our prayer that our friends and teachers who do not know Jesus will come to know the true meaning behind Christmas and accept Him as Savior and Lord in their lives.

Two More with Chicken Pox!!

Wade and Levi woke up today with chicken pox. It has been exactly two weeks since Hunter came down with them. Hunter is now doing much better. Right now, Wade's case seems a little worse. We will keep you updated. Thanks for praying for a quick recovery.

Interesting Field Trip

Yesterday, I (Page) went on an optional Saturday field trip with Levi's preschool. We went on a chartered bus to an organic farm way out in the country. The first activity of the day was building an unusual fire. We piled some special rocks into the shape of an igloo and lit a fire inside it. After the rocks were hot enough, we placed a whole chicken wrapped in a foil bag and several sweet potatoes inside the fire, then covered the entire fire with dirt until a small mountain was formed. Then we were told we had to wait 4-5 hours.

In the meantime, we had a delicious snack of seaweed wrapped like a taco filled with shredded cabbage, cucumbers, bean sprouts, carrots and salad dressing. Next, we had some free time. The kids mostly jumped on the trampolines. We had a Chinese barbeque for lunch and then had a tour of the vegetable-growing greenhouse areas. This was followed by river raft rides. Next we made scarecrows and painted our own corn-husk Chinese farmers' hat. Finally, we came back to where we started and ate our delicious chicken and sweet potatoes followed by Chinese dessert of this gelatin-rice gooey stuff dipped in crushed peanuts.

The day was a full immersion into Chinese langauge and culture. The other parents were very nice and helpful, and some knew some English. Levi and I were the only foreigners on the entire farm. One of Levi's friends really liked me a lot for some reason. He tried to talk with me all day. I couldn't understand a lot of what he said, but I could understand, "I am talking with Levi's mom...I am talking with Levi's mom..." It was lots of fun.

Our First Thanksgiving in Taiwan

We have had a nice week celebrating our first Thanksgiving here in Taiwan. The kids' school had a big feast for the elementary students (see Hunter's picture), and then on Thanksgiving Day we celebrated with several families here in Taipei. The food and fellowship were great!!!

We sure did miss all of our family and friends this Thanksgiving, but we are so thankful to the Lord for providing a very strong support system here in Taiwan. The picture of Levi is an action shot of the wishbone-breaking ceremony - I think Levi lost!

Fun Day at School

Friday was a fun day at school. In the secondary school, each student had to dress up as a super hero. As you can see by the picture, Milly makes a GREAT super woman, thanks to her brothers' dress-up clothes. Of course, Wade is being his normal goofy self in the background. On Friday evening, the elementary school had their Thanksgiving concert. Wade participated, but sad Hunter was still out with the chicken pox. By the way, Hunter is doing much better now and should be able to go back to school on Monday.

Hunter has the Chicken Pox!!!

Well, that is what we think anyway! He was vaccinated as a baby, but he woke up this morning not feeling well and with a lot of red bumps all over his body. We first thought that he had been attacked by a major mosquito last night (mosquitos are pretty bad here), but after looking at the bumps decided to keep him home. Page stayed home today from language and took him to a doctor. The doctor could not say for sure but thinks it is some kind of virus. Later today we found out there were 3 more cases of chicken pox at school. Hunter is doing ok, but a little upset about missing school. He loves school.

Dinner with Teacher Tsai

Pictured above is one of five teachers that teach Page Chinese. She is by far the youngest teacher that either one of us has, but she is a very good teacher and is also very nice. We had her over for dinner recently. We had Italian noodles (spaghetti). After supper we had brownies and Teacher Tsai loved them. She had never had brownies before and even took the left-over brownies home with her. We are looking forward to spending more time with her and having her over more often.

Friday Night at the Night Market

Recently we began a family tradition where each Friday night we go to the night market right down the road from our apartment. As you can see by the picture, many other people go as well. The night market consists of many types of vendors and tons of food! Of course there is a lot of Chinese food, but there is also a burrito man. I am hesitant to tell you what our two younger boys love the best - "chicken butt." The sign actually says this in English. As you can imagine there are many interesting sites to see and smells to sniff. We usually give the kids about NT50 to spend ($1.50 US) and let them have at it. The boys love to play various games while Milly usually purchases pearl milk tea -- a favorite of Page's too. Other favorite night market spots are the lady who sells the beautiful cotton skirts and blouses from Thailand, the crowded school supply store, and the DVD rental place. We have all come to look forward to this Friday night tradition here in Taipei.

Chinese getting better and better!!!

Thank you so much for the many prayers regarding our language. Although we have such a long way to go, we can see improvement and can pretty much get around the town with our Chinese. We continue to work hard on the spiritual language and look forward to the day where we can share the gospel in Chinese. Pictured is Page telling Levi's teacher that he will take a nap at school.

Our Churches and Pumpkin Carving

Our family is part of two different churches. On Sunday mornings we go to the Grace Baptist Church Chinese service so we can be exposed to spiritual language. We are gradually understanding more and more phrases and words. (I must admit, when I can't listen any more I pull out my Chinese flash cards and work on them during the service). During the Chinese service our children are in an Awanas program. They have been working hard on memory verses and earning badges for their vests and sashes. They love it!

Then on Sunday afternoons we are part of a house church composed of mostly missionary families. We meet on Sunday afternoons from 3:00-5:00. We meet all together as a group for singing and prayer then divide into three groups - adults, grade school children, and preschoolers. Keith and I teach the two children's groups about once a month, and today was our Sunday (we thought we were finished with Bible buddies :)) Even though most days still feel like summer here, we talked about autumn and some of the origins of Halloween. Instead of focusing on "jack-o-lanterns", we used the following poem given to us by a friend to share as we carved a very small pumpkin. Pumpkins are hard to find here, and I was blessed to find three small ones in the market behind our apartment for this lesson. I thought you may like to read the poem we read to the children as we carved it.

The Pumpkin Prayer

Dear God,

As I carve my pumpkin help me say this prayer:

Open my mind so I can learn about You;

(cut the top of the pumpkin)

Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do.

(clean out the inside)

Open my eyes so Your love I will see;

(cut the eyes out in heart shapes)

I'm so sorry for turning up my nose to all you've given me.

(cut a nose in the shape of a cross)

Open my ears so Your word I will hear.

(cut the ears shaped like the Bible - a rectangle is fine)

Open my mouth so I can tell others You're near

(cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)

Let Your light shine in all I say and do! Amen

(place a candle inside and light it)

Milly's friends

Milly decided to inivite any 6th grade girl interested in coming to our house after school to eat, talk, and pray over needs of the school and community. Each Wednesday around 4 to 5 girls walk to our house and meet in Milly's room. We are excited that Milly initiated this and are thankful for the new friends that the Lord has brought her way. Pictured is the latest group that came over to our house. Of course, one of their favorite things to do is eat.

Saying Goodbye -- Again!!

We had a wonderful two weeks with Keith's dad and stepmom. We ate a lot as you can see from the picture. The weather was great the whole two weeks -- which is pretty unusual. Sunday night we had to say our goodbyes and there were a few tears , but we were all glad to be able to see each other again.
Monday Jim and Kay left for the airport at 5:00 AM and we all started back to our normal routine -- kids in school and the adults back in language school.
Now we are waiting for Gommy and Gompy and Nana and Papa to come see us.

A Fun Week!!!

We have had a great week with Pa and Kaykee. The kids were out of school all week and we all had a blast showing them the many sites in Taipei. Pa and Kaykee even were here to experience the aftershocks of an earthquake. However, they were asleep so we had to tell them about it the next day. Tomorrow (Monday) the kids are back in school so the adults will be able to spend some time together next week. Pictured is Milly showing Pa around our neighborhood.

Pa and Kaykee are Here!!!

Keith's dad and stepmom are here in Taipei. We picked them up at the airport on Sunday night and have enjoyed spending a couple of days showing them around Taipei. The kids have this week off of school for fall break. Yesterday, we ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant for Pa's birthday and for dessert ate shaved ice with fruit on it -- Taiwanese ice cream. Today, we went to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world) and went to the mall beside Taipei 101. We have had a great time and look forward to spending the next couple of weeks with them. We will keep you updated.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

On Friday, we experienced our first Moon Festival celebration. This holiday is characterized by family get-togethers, moon-gazing, barbeques, moon cakes, and jubilant festivities. We were invited to go to the apartment building of one of our Chinese friends to barbeque. We grilled out sausages, hotdogs (we think), whole small fish, bamboo, vegetables, and pork. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing how the Moon Festival was celebrated. The weather was great, and we could see the full moon perfectly as it rose over the mountain. Page's favorite part was when her friend, Jessica, suggested she share the cake she brought with all the neighbors. They walked from table to table offering a piece of cake. Most all the people accepted, and several asked for the recipe. Page was a little embarrassed because it was only a Duncan Hines box mix sent from America! When asked what kind of cake it was, she just said "yellow birthday cake." She says next time she will make something from scratch...

Multicultural lunch outing

I, Page, have been blessed by having a 4th grader at Bethany (that would be Wade). I found out the end of last year that the mothers of this grade periodically have lunch together! I told one mother I had met in the spring to please include me for the next gathering. Well, last Friday was the first get-together for this school year. The group decided to let Dennis' mom take us to a Russian resturant since they are from Russia (his dad is a scientist at the university here). It was a wonderful lunch! She had made a Russian salad for us all as an appetizer, and then we had some soup and one of four choices of entrees. I chose the meatballs which were delicious! I learned that most Russian dishes use beets in some form, and they often use sour cream. While we were having lunch, we realized the moms present represented six different countries: Taiwan (of course), Korea, Australia, Russia, India, and America (that was me!). Most of the moms spoke Chinese as well as English, plus the language of their own country. I could tell the mom from Korea knew about as much Chinese as I do - not much! I didn't talk a lot, but really enjoyed listening to the ladies talk and joke with each other. Right now I'm just "Wade's mom", but I look forward to building deeper relationships with them. Ladies all over the world are alike - we love to get together and laugh, talk about our kids, and just enjoy each other! We decided we will have lunch once a quarter together, and the next time we will go to an Indian resturant and let the two Indian moms show us the ropes! Next time I will bring my camera!

Chinese Homework

Hunter, Wade, and Milly take Chinese classes three times each week through their school. They are all doing well in learning correct pronunciation and tones. This week Mr. Dave -- their Chinese teacher -- gave each student the assignment to interview a Chinese person who can speak only Chinese. Hunter and Wade interviewed Mr. Chen, while Milly interviewed Mrs. Tall. (See picture). The kids did not always understand all the answers they received back, but the Chinese people that were interviewed understood what they were saying. It seems kids can get tones much easier than adults. In fact, today Levi was counting in Chinese to 20 and said each tone exactly correct. By the way, the tones are much easier for Page than Keith. This will not surprise many of you that know us well.

Construction everywhere!!!!

Everywhere you turn here in Taipei, you see construction going on. In fact, right outside our apartment a new apartment building is going up. It is not unusual for our road to be blocked for an entire day because of this construction. This picture was taken from our balcony. I don't know if you can tell but a forklift is holding a car up in the air as they do work because apparently it was in the way!!! (You can click on the picture to enlarge.) We are looking forward to the day that this apartment building is finished.

Levi going to preschool

This is Levi in his preschool outfit. The preschools here are called "kindergartens." Levi's preschool is called "Precious Blood Kindergarten," so the Chinese characters on his shirt say "precious blood." Today he had a field trip, so he had to wear his uniform. The backpack is part of the uniform. Every day, I follow him down the narrow alley beside our apartment to take him to school. He looks so cute, I had to take a picture from behind to show you what I see! He really likes his school now. He even has a Chinese friend named Jien-Yu. He is growing up!!

Go Pack!!!

Those of you who know me (Keith) well know that I am a huge NC State fan. I was really concerned about keeping up with the Pack 10,000 miles away but have found that it is really better to keep up with them this way. Most of the time I know the results before I listen to the radio broadcast or video over the internet. Wade and I both told Page we like it better this way. The losses don't hurt as much and we don't have to watch or listen to them if we don't want to. Also, I was very calm last night as I watched a replay of the State-BC game. What a come back!!! The weekend turned out even better when I found out that McCurry's Clemson Tigers whipped up on the Tar Heels.

Saturday night dinner

We had one of our Chinese friends over for pizza on Saturday night. She is a real neat lady who speaks very good English but is not a Christian. We have had a couple of opportunities to share with her in the past. As we were eating, Hunter spoke up and said, "Mom and Dad, when are you going to share Jesus?" Nothing like a child reminding you of your purpose in life. Well, we eventually had the opportunity to practice some of our spiritual language on our friend and she helped us with our tones and pronunciation. She also seemed very interested in the content so we shared the gospel with her -- of course a lot of this had to be done in English. She did not accept yet, but asked some great questions. Please join us in prayer that God will continue to reveal Himself to her. Thank you.

Mice in the House!

We are proud to announce four new members to the Curlee family. We now have four rodents of some kind. We are pretty sure they are either gerbils or mice. Each is a different color so we can tell them apart. Their names are as follows: Milly's is a light grey one called Divida. Wade's is the smallest, a brown colored girl named Theresa. Hunter's is a different shade of brown named Max. Levi's has a black stripe and is named Jack. Max and Jack share a cage since Hunter and Levi share a room. The pet store owner told us we can bring them back if they fight each other too much. So far they have had a few squirmishes but are not too much trouble. The kids used their own allowance money to buy them and have to change the shaving in the cages every Saturday. We'll let you know how this new adventure unfolds!!! Stay tuned!

Learning Chinese!!

We have reached the 6 month mark in our language learning. We continue to have some good days as well as some frustrating days. Thanks for your continued prayers. This week we finally started learning some spiritual lanugage. We have "graduated" to Lu Laushr, a wonderful teacher who demands correct tones and pronunciation. We have enjoyed learning everyday language, and will continue to do so, but learning some spiritual language excites us!! It seems to give us a purpose. After all, we are here to share the good news about Jesus to those who do not know Him. This week we learned that when a Chinese person hears that someone is a sinner they think of a criminal. They do not view "good" people as sinners. Therefore, we have been working on ways that we can explain that all people are sinners. For our homework this week we both had to think of 4 different examples of sin in our own lives that we can share in Chinese! This way we can explain that although we are not criminals, in God's eyes we have committed sins. We will eventually follow this up with sharing that Jesus died for those sins and the only way a person can have a right relationship with God is through Jesus Christ, who was crucified and was raised from the dead to conquer that sin. It is pretty cool to be able to learn how to say that in Chinese!!

CARS

We went to a movie last night! We have the normal, expensive movie theatres here, but we always go to the "cheap" theatre so we have to wait a while for the movies to get there. We have been waiting for the Disney movie, CARS, to come there - it finally did! It was a great movie especially for us North Carolinians where Nascar racing is so big. And especially for this gal from a small southern town called Dillon, SC! We would recommend it for all of you to see if you haven't yet! All of the Curlee kids loved it, too!

I thought I'd tell you how this theatre works. They have one big screen and they usually show three movies. They rotate the movie times. For example, they may have one at 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00 and 9:00. They alternate the movies - so one would show at 11 and 5, one at 1 and 7 and one at 3 and 9. The great thing is that you can buy one ticket and sit there in the theatre all day and watch all of the movies one right after the other if you want to! People just walk in and out. The other cool thing is that they don't sell any refreshments. That way you can bring whatever you want to snack on into the theatre. It is really a great deal.

By the way, most all the movies in the theatres here are in English with Chinese subtitles. Don't ask me why.

Hunter -- A Baseball Star

Hunter enjoyed his first baseball practice and game today. He is on the Giants and was so excited to get his hat and t-shirt. Here they play baseball in the fall, soccer in the winter, and basketball in the spring. He had a good day at the plate going 3 - 3 and also had no errors. He will have games every Saturday through the end of October. Wade and Levi also enjoyed their time as they played tackle football on the astroturf field.

Taking Out the Garbage

Since Page and I have been married, I have always taken out the garbage. It is one of those unspoken rules we have in our house. Well, here in Taiwan, taking out the garbage is a much different experience than back in N.C. At 9:20pm each night I must walk out to the corner of two streets and wait for three trucks to come. One truck is for regular trash, one is for recycleables, and I have not yet figured out what the third truck is for. The regular garbage truck has a loud speaker that plays a song so all the neighbors can hear when it arrives. I don't really know the purpose of the music - if I heard the music and had forgotten to take the trash out, I wouldn't be able to get it out there in time anyway! Sometimes the trucks are a little late, so this time has given me a chance to practice my Chinese. I have even developed a few friendships. One of the those friends is Ricky. Ricky is a 20 year college student who is trying to learn English. Therefore, when I speak with Ricky I talk in Chinese and he speaks back to me English. Last week, I asked Ricky to go out to lunch. So on Saturday we went to Subway (I got to pick where we were going since I offered to pay). We had a great time, and the Lord even prompted me to share the gospel with him. He was very interested and said he believed everything that I told him. However, he indicated that he could not accept Jesus because his parents are Buddhists, and they would not allow this. He does want to continue to talk about Jesus and study the Bible. My prayer is that Ricky will see his need for Christ and accept Him. Please join me in prayer for Ricky. In the meantime, I am thankful for this daily "chore" that has become a unique opportunity to meet some people who live around us!

Keith turns 40!!!!

• It is certainly hard to believe that I am married to an "old" man now. Keith had a good day on Friday celebrating his big day. He woke and checked the computer to find almost 30 emails wishing him a happy birthday. Then in the afternoon he opened all the cards that I have been collecting over the last week or so and a few packages. His favorite was a U-lock for a bicycle that Milly had purchased for him. His bicycle with the usual chain lock was stolen last week! He bought a new bike today with his birthday money, and we hope it won't be stolen with his handy U-lock on it now! He bought a very plain one with no gears, no fancy things or flashy paint. Maybe nobody will want it! :)
  
  In the evening, Milly watched the three boys as we went to our favorite Chinese restaraunt - - The "Green Table Cloth". We don't know the real name, but all the foreigners call it this because the tables have green table cloths. Next week we are going to have a "party" at Outback Steak House! We invited several of the other missionaries here, some teachers from Bethany, and some of our house church members - I will let you know how it goes. Going to Outback is a special treat - we have only been there a few times: once Milly and I went with some other girls for a girls' night out, and the other time Papa was here!
  
  Anyway, I just wanted to thank all of you for remembering Keith's special day and to let you know he is the same great guy even though he is so old now. You made his day!!!

Dentist Appointment

Milly cracked a tooth yesterday at school during lunch. We have not been to the dentist here yet, so I (Page) called the number of the Pediatric Dentist referred by some friends here. The receptionist did not speak any English, so I fumbled my way through the conversation and THOUGHT she said to bring her "tomorrow at 7:00 p.m."

Today, before I rode my bike to go get the kids from school, I decided to make sure I could find the dentist's office and make sure I understood right about our appointment time. Levi and I (he rides on the back of my bike) found the office with no problem - which is an accomplishment in itself since I didn't have directions. I just happened to know the street and followed the signs to the correct alley and building. I was most thrilled that I was correct about the appointment time! In the 7:00 p.m. slot on the appointment calendar were three Chinese characters that mean "foreigner". I told the dentist that was me! I was so happy I not only made an appointment using my Chinese, I also recognized the characters written in the book.

Milly and I rode bikes to her appointment tonight. The dentist was very kind, and he actually spoke English pretty well! The cracked tooth was the last baby tooth in her whole mouth! He numbed her gums and pulled it easily. My total bill was $150NT, which is about $5.00! Though most things here are very expensive, medical care is excellent and cheap! What a blessing!

First Day of School

Monday, August 14, was the first day of school for all the Curlee kids. Milly is now in 6th grade - yes, middle school! She has a locker and changes classes for the first time. She is especially pleased that she sits next to her friend, Cynthia, in almost all her classes (see photo).

Wade is in the 4th grade. His teacher is very structured which is good! He is enjoying himself so far. His favorite thing is playing basketball on the playground before and after school with a group of 5th graders! By the way, we could not get a good picture of him in class.

Hunter was the most excited about school. He is in the 1st grade. His teacher is very sweet. After the first day, she said Hunter would have to learn to raise his hand before talking, but she was glad to have such an enthusiastic student in class. He has enjoyed reuniting with all his buddies from his time in kindergarten last spring.

We were a little nervous about Levi going back to Chinese preschool. We have been very blessed - there is a family here for six months to study language, and they have a boy Levi's age who goes to preschool with him! Now Levi is not the only foreigner in the school. He really seems to like going, and he likes his new teacher.

Thank you for all your prayers about their first day!!