The month started out with hosting our first Young Life event...a nerf gun war/cookout/club for about 30 kids plus leaders. It was a blast. Granted it was heavy on the guy side, only about 5 girls braved the competitive nerf gun war...but in the end, it was Emma who found the flag and brought it back to her team in the final game.
The following week was Grace's Soccer Championships. Her team was undefeated going into the final four. They played Chinese International School, which they played last year in the semis and won. Although Grace's team dominated, they could not find the back of the net...enough. They ended up losing 3-2, with a shot differential of about 15-4. They were very disappointed, but pulled it together for the 3rd place game, in which they were playing a team they had already beat earlier in the year. This game wasn't even close, and I'm afraid both teams knew what the outcome was going to be before the whistle even blew. We are very proud of Grace, who had a great season and was just named most valuable attacking player.
One thing that did take away the sting of losing is leaving on an international school missions trip two days later. Grace left that Sunday very early for Indonesia with 35 other students and 6 teachers. I could tell you second hand about her trip, but she blogged about it so here is the link... http://graacce23.weebly.com/my-blog/my-www-experience
The day after Grace left, Andy took off for a two week business trip, starting in Japan and following in the US. Its hard to believe, but this was Andy's first business trip back to the US since we moved to Hong Kong, not counting the work that he has done while on vacation. This was actually ideal timing since Christmas was right around the corner...so Andy did a little extra on his trip, which was very helpful:)
The elementary school held their field day that following Friday. My kids enjoy this day and all three of them made the finals...with Miss Abigail getting third place in her race. I volunteered for her group, but I always love seeing the other two having a good time showing their athletic side:)
While Andy was away, I played a little tennis...Our club's annual championships occur in November, so I played with my friend, Jackie. She plays in division 4, but just started this year. We played in the open division, which is division four or lower. Three other teams ranging from non-league players, to another team from division 4 were on our schedule. We started out very slow against our most inexperienced opponent (and good friends) We were very behind, but were able to scratch ourselves back to overtime, before winning. We played better the second match, winning by a decent margin. By the time we got to the third match, we knew that we would be playing this last team twice. They were also undefeated, and they were our strongest opponent. We started off strong, getting a good lead, before they came back to tie it up. Then it was back and forth before we pulled away. To be honest, I didn't think there was any way we were beating that team twice...and I'm still not sure how we did. But the important thing was that Jackie and I felt good about our play...and we laughed A LOT!!! but playing from 11am to 5pm is exhausting!!!
Finally, as we got back into the routine of two parents in the house:) we prepared for our first Thanksgiving in HK as a family. Hitting these moments always make us remember what we have done in the past...this was no exception. Now that we are in our third year, memories of our first two Thanksgivings certainly came to mind. Our first Thanksgiving was unique. Abby, Sarah and I had been in HK for about 8 weeks. Andy took the older three kids to the Philippines on a missions trip. I stayed home and had nachos with Abby. They weren't even that good since Abby was only 4yrs old and didn't have the palate that she has now. The following day, Friday, Marina came to us!! That was a bit surreal. I'll never forget opening the door to this sweet woman who we had been skyping with since August. She had one suitcase and a small bag, and she was ready to get going.
Last year, we were all in the Philippines for missions...serving alongside a few ICS teachers and friends that we brought along. These friends are another expat family with the same company who happen to live around the corner from us. They came over this year and we had an amazing meal of a typical American Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, what kept going in my head was that I hadn't had this meal in three years, which caused a significant amount of overeating...but, it was delicious and we had a great time with our friends...and it definitely beat nachos on the floor by myself (and two sweet little girls)
