"Reset"

If your reading this it's because your interested in my family for which I am deeply grateful for.  This post shares the history of a very difficult decision that we made as a family to take the family back to the states while I remain in China to continue working.

There have been many instances that have made this Chinese experience very difficult for us as a family and for each individual person.  We knew coming into this that it would be difficult and that we would have to be strong and united to survive it.  We anticipated challenges but the challenges have surpassed our preparations so we will do a "reset" and come at this from a different angle.
The first week our primary concern lingered longer than we expected which was to find adequate drinking water and food for the family.  Going to the grocery store in rural China is very difficult.  Most the foods are completely unfamiliar and Kati had appliances written only in Chinese that no one could help us use because Chinese don't use the "western" model stove and oven we had and even when we finally figured out how to turn it on it was so finicky that at least half the time the food would get ruined and burned.  Even getting to and from the store was a challenge.  I had to take a ride of a taxi scooter or a bus.  Because the few familiar items I could find wouldn't last long I had to go often.  Every time I went to the store it took more than 2 hours in travel and shopping time.  Trying to get multiple bags of groceries back to the apartment for enough to feed 6 people was always a difficulty.

This was one of the smaller challenges and I won't take the time to write each and every one because that would take to much time and space.  Suffice it to say that China is not built for an American Family of 4 and serious concerns arose about the families physical and mental health and safety.
In conjunction with that, I have realized that the school I am there to build needs my full attention for it to get past some serious growing pains and while my families concerns consumed me, I could not give to the school what it needed.

The decision is to take the family back to Utah to stay with Kati's parents while I remain in China alone and visit home once a month.  This will be a great challenge for all of us but we fully anticipate a silver lining which provides a new growing opportunity.  We will have to strengthen our relationship with the Lord and learn to rely on the Savior.  We expect to do this the rest of the school year then reevaluate the situation and the end of the year to decide how to proceed.  We all hope I am able to arrange things in a way that our family would be challenged but flourish in China so they can return next summer.