Shanghai has been our home for seven years. We love this city and it will always have a place in our hearts. The first two weeks of June were full of goodbyes!
The Maya is my most favorite restaurant. We ate there one last time with the Christensens and Millers.
Lauren has been our Ayi for three years. She came Monday-Friday for three hours each morning. She is kind and quiet and one of the hardest workers I have ever met. We love her!
We hired Chunlian August 2016. She came after school every Monday - Friday for two hours to help with Mia. Chunlian would do one hour of physical therapy with Mia. She would play with her, take her to the park, and give her a bath. When I was at musical rehearsals and the week John and I were in Italy she worked many over time hours and never complained. She loves Mia. When they said goodbye she had tears in her eyes.
Kevin has been our driver for four years. I’ll miss him the most. He is quiet and was always on time. He loved our kids and was so helpful with Mia. He appreciated that we gave him Sundays off and that we didn’t stay out late at night.
The Young Women had a surprise going away party for Eliza at the Christensen house. Josie Coleman had a surprise going away party for James (I wasn’t there so no pictures).
Tessa’s class had so many kids moving after the school year so they had a special goodbye party. Each student wrote something nice about each other and they shared what they wrote out loud. I was there for some of it and it was really sweet.
Mia’s best friend at school was an Australian boy named Aiden Martin. He was double her size and acted as her protector. His mother also liked Mia and they invited her over for several playdates. On Mia’s last day of school Aidan gave her a jade necklace. Mia kept saying, “This is so special!"
Heidi Miller arranged for a farewell lunch for me with some of the ladies in our branch. They gave me a beautiful blue Polish pottery dish that they had mailed and delivered to our house in MI.
Kim Blattman, Cheryl Parkinson, Heidi Miller, Linsee Christensen and Elizabeth Eggett
I will miss my Zumba classes in Shanghai so much. I taught six classes a week - with the same schedule, in the same room for seven years. It was such a good gig while it lasted! They gave me a farewell party after class.
I will miss Elizabeth’s yoga class and my good friends there. We had a goodbye lunch after the last class before summer since four of us were moving.
Our last few days in Shanghai we stayed in a hotel.
Bekah Christensen and Mallory Miller came over one afternoon to swim with Eliza.
James, Michael Gordon and Luke Miller
Our last Sunday in Shanghai John was released as the Branch President and I was released as the nursery leader. Our branch friends will be our friends forever. I got teary watching these boys bless the sacrament together for the last time.
While in the hotel we went out to dinner with Steve and Tami Dyer. Steve is our district president and just switched jobs to work at Ford — where he was John’s boss for a month. Also in the picture are the Haydens that were in town visiting for a week — they used to be in the branch but have since moved to CA.
Our last night in Shanghai was John’s work going away party at Fat Burger. The kids and I were invited. This is the only picture I took — and unfortunately it doesn’t capture the magnitude of this party. John has done amazing things and is well loved by his co-workers. Several of his co-workers gave speeches about John. They showed a slide show with pictures of John’s time working in Shanghai and they gave him many gifts.
