Sunshine After the Rain

We finally have blue skies...across the street at our neighbors pool

We have been having a great time these last couple weeks, enjoying our beautiful surroundings and enjoying our beautiful friends.  Yes, even if you finished my last blog thinking that I am in the depths of despair and I have no friends, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I did want to be honest in my feelings of the difficulty with relationships that most expats have when relocating.  But, the Lord has given all of us some wonderful friends and lasting relationships that we will always carry with us...wherever we are living.

I have found a fun group of women to explore Hong Kong.  We have taken all kind of "field trips" from the Brass Factory to Stanley to the streets of Central to our favorite...Shenzhen (China!) We have enjoyed each other's company while checking out parts of this amazing place that we wouldn't normally go...especially alone:) Last week may have been my favorite find yet...a great Mexican restaurant!!!! Hong Kong is known for its wonderful cuisine...and I would attest to that, its spectacular. But Mexican, good Mexican, has been challenging to find.

 The escalator in Soho    Taken by Diotay Baker

El Caramba...yumm!!!!

This past weekend was a weekend full of friends for my kids. Emma had one of her closest friends over for a long day that went well into the evening.  Josh had his closest friend (another Josh) spend the night and stay most of the next day. And Grace was able to celebrate her upcoming 13th birthday with some friends. I took her and five of her friends to her favorite Italian restaurant, Amoroni's, where they ate good food and enjoyed each other's company.  They were lots of fun.  Then we traveled back to our house where they watched a movie, opened gifts and went to bed at a pretty reasonable time.

Its so fun to see how far my children have come in making their own friendships and finding that they don't care where they are from or what they look like. I hope they will always have this perspective, realizing that it's about a person's inside, not their outside:)

The "selfie"

Andy took the boys on a three hour hike

On a side note, after what seemed like a very LONG rainy season of about three straight weeks of rain, this past week has been beautiful...and HOT!!!  We have had gorgeous blue skies(until today), but temps have been in the 90's, with 90% humidity.  We went several days with a heat advisory, but we all wanted to be outside since it was finally clear...so there was lots of time in the pool...and one CRAZY run during mid-morning that will never be done again (I've learned my lesson:)

Leslie and I after our almost 12km run/walk in a heat advisory

Put on their swimsuits and rain coats to go to the store in the POURING rain