We mailed our packages out on Tuesday so we could spend our last day in NY with our closest friends and family, doing some classic NY things. First, Aunty Cris and Uncle Darcy joined us for a day in the city. With Ryan and Darcy's Hawaiian shirts, Daniel's Mets hat, and Darcy's large camera, we looked very much like tourists. People kept asking us where we were from, and we kept answering, "Astoria" and watching the look of disbelief flicker across their faces. We started at Joe's Shanghai for soup dumplings; for dessert, Sophie tried to drink a whole coconut, and Darcy had a dubious introduction to bubble tea. After a forty minute search for a public restroom in Chinatown -- the Starbuck's bathroom was out of order, Burger King tried to charge a dollar, and the person in one of the only two McDonald's stalls was either dead or doing an extremely difficult Sudoku puzzle -- we finally made it down to the Staten Island Ferry, where we watched the Manhattan skyline recede into the distance, then loom up again on our return trip. Aunty Tara, Uncle John and the Hicklins joined us for dinner back in Queens at Tierras Colombiana, where both the plates and the gastric consequences are huge. (Ask Darcy how he liked the blood sausage.) Later in the evening everyone from dinner, plus Janelle, Jeanette, and Lucinda, came over for birthday cake with Cristina, some final Wii bowling, and goodbyes.
Since arriving in California, we have been at my mom's house in Anaheim.
Yesterday Grammy (as the kids call her) and her husband, Mark, took us to the Downtown Disney area to brunch with bears and chipmunks at the Storybook Cafe, and Sophie got her face painted. Daniel got the bejeebers scared out of him by the animatronic gorillas at the Rainforest cafe. Afterwards, we stopped by the Orange County Fair for kiddie rides and the strange, smelly world of 4H competitions. Ryan was expecting a West Coast Coney Island, and was rather dazzled by the fair's size, cleanliness, safety, and lack of freaky people. The selection of deep fried food included not only twinkies, oreos, funnel cakes, frog legs and spam, but also White Castles! 
It was a statin-manufacturer's dream.Since we left our two photomasters, Darcy and Janellie, behind in NY, Ryan "had" to go out yesterday and buy a decent camera to take pictures of the kids. (I'm smug about this arrangement only because Ryan now owes me an equally nice anniversary present next month.) Keep an eye out for more photo updates; before we left, Janellie gave us a CD containing over 4 GBs of photos that Ryan has yet to go through.
Tonight we have dinner with friends and some extended family, and tomorrow Ryan plans to visit Iron Kim's church, Trinity Presbyterian, while the kids and I head back to the church I grew up in, Anaheim First Church of the Nazarene. We head to Honolulu on Tuesday the 22nd.
Pray for us, please. Right now Ryan is feeling emotionally drained. He slept for 7 hours last night, got up, ate breakfast, took a short nap, went shopping, had lunch and napped again. We are both exhausted from several weeks of nonstop packing, planning, and emotional ups and downs.
Pray for the kids, too.
Sophie cried herself to sleep the night before we left and kept asking why we had to move. We're filling their time here with activities, and they love being with Grammy, so it's hard to tell how they will handle the transition when we settle into "normal" life in Honolulu. Please pray that we get into a good routine soon in Honolulu and that they find some friends their age right away.Thanks so much for all your prayers and help in moving us and saying goodbye! We love you all.
Love,
Carrie, Ryan, Sophie Joy and Daniel
No comments:
Post a Comment