2 Years of "Wedded Bliss" :o)

June 25th, the mark of another year gone by being married to Tad Wychopen. This year he went all out and took me to Taiwan for our anniversary!!!! ;o) It has been a great two years. The Lord has taught us much and continues to grow us closer. We were able to go see a few sights and go out for a nice dinner. We had a good evening together. . .

A gift from a lady, Selina, in the church. Included was a cake, zong zi (corn dumblings), green bean soup (VERY sweet!), and a drawing form her daughter.:o)


Heart Cake . . .


Another gift from another lady, Jean, in the church. This is a ticket to go to the Tuntex tower (85th floor - viewing deck)


We went to IKEA and did a little shopping/ looking around


Ate dinner at Outback Steak House and had a very nice view of the Love River


We took a short walk down by Love River






Happy Anniversary my love!!

Attending the Boat Races

Sorry it's been awhile since the last post! Tad has been very busy with studying and preparing his sermons, so I haven't been able to get on the computer. Here are the last few pictures I will share of the Dragon Boat Festival. Not only did we "celebrate" the holiday, but we were able to attend it. This was our first time to actually get behind the wheel of a vehicle and drive around. It was also the first time we went anywhere without the the Hanna's being with us, so it was a 'big' night!! :o)

On our way to Love River to see the boat races ...
Tad was pretty nervous to drive (b/c the driving here is CRAZY and INSANE), but he did a really good job!!


Dance and music by the aborigines ...


There were a number of different performers and booths with nicknack's you could buy.


Dragon Statue on the Love River


Mountain Rangers doing a horse performance ...


The Boat Races ...


Boats lit up at night ...


Monk asking for money ...


After walking along the river and watching the boat races we decided to walk around a bit. Here is one of the sidewalks we went down - there are SO many scooters here!!


We went up on a walkway going over the street and took a picture of the beautiful fountains. Oh, and there was our dinner in the back ground - good ole McDonald's! :o)


Me with a rock that says "I love Kaohsiung"


The buildings all lit up at night ...

Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival

Tuesday, June 19th, was the start of Dragon Boat Festival, one of Taiwan's holidays. The legend behind it is the following:
Qu Yuan served as minister to the Zhou Emperor. A wise and articulate man, he was loved by the common people. He did much to fight against the rampant corruption that plagued the court-- thereby earning the envy and fear of other officials. Therefore, when he urged the emperor to avoid conflict with the Qin Kingdom, the officials pressured the Emperor to have him removed from service. In exile, he traveled, taught and wrote for several years. Hearing that the Zhou had been defeated by the Qin, he fell into despair and threw himself into the Milou River.
As he was so loved by the people, fishermen rushed out in long boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing zong zi into the water to feed braver fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.
Grace, a lady in the church, stopped by on Tuesday and brought us zong zi. It is 'sticky' rice, with a filling, wrapped in corn leaves. The fillings can be egg, beans, dates, fruits, sweet potato, walnuts, mushrooms, meat, or a combination of them. They are generally steamed. Yum, yum! :o)

Tad with his lunch and drink

Hannah with her lunch and the newspaper about the Dragon Boat Festival

Tad opening his zong zi

Hannah and zong zi

Zong zi up close . . . complete with egg, peanuts, mushrooms, and pork

Pearl milk tea . . . 'pearl' up close

Tad with pearls in his mouth (some people just never grow up!) :o)

Pearls that were left after drinking all the milk tea. We couldn't believe how many pearls were in there!!!!

The Day of Equinox

Equinox: refers to the two times each year when the sun crosses the celestial equator resulting in day and night being of equal length.
Well, we experienced that today thanks to a lady in the church. June 19th is the first day of summer and the start of the Dragon Boat Festival. We were able to balance an egg and cause it to stand on end. Not only did we get it to stand on both ends, but we also did it on a slightly slanted sidewalk! It was fun!! :o)

Being brave . . .

Ok, so I decided to be brave and go get a hair cut today . . .
I, of course, cannot yet speak Chinese and the lady at the salon cannot speak English. I already knew that because I went with Mrs. Hanna last week when she had her hair done. Mrs. Hanna introduced us at that time. So, due to the language barrier, I brought a couple pictures along with me. She didn't seem to like my pictures so she showed me one of her hair books. I tried to pick one close and also kept pointing back to the original picture I had brought. Well, it wasn't what I was expecting, but this is what I got. Yikes!

The picture I brought of the haircut I was hoping to receive . . .


The haircut I received . . .

Our Trip to Taiwan

Well, to start off, it's has been SO neat to see how the Lord has worked on our behalf and so graciously provided for us. The month of May was dedicated to traveling around and presenting our ministry opportunity for this coming year. God is SO good. We had great travels and great blessings. We were able to visit two churches in Illinois when we went to attend my Grandma's 90th birthday party. Tad and I were also able to spend some quality time with my family. We then had the opportunity to present at my parent's church in Michigan and then we headed to Texas, where we had the chance to go to three churches while we visited with Tad's family.
June 5th was our departure to Taiwan. Our first leg of the flight was for 8:15pm from Chicago O'Hare Airport to San Fransisco. That 4 hour flight went well. We sat next to a man from Hawaii and Tad had an opportunity to spiritually challenge him. We then arrived in San Fransisco and it was there that the reality of leaving finally hit me. Although we were still in the States, we were definitely the minority - we scarcely saw another Caucasian American! We then boarded a HUGE 747 (double-decker) plane. We just so happened to be in the dead middle of the middle (the inner two seats in the four middle seats). Bummer! We did have a good opportunity to talk with the man next to Tad. He was born and raised in Kaohsiung and this was his first time to return in 20 years. That flight was VERY long - 13 hours! Boy was it nice to land again! We arrived in Taipei, Taiwan at 5:30am. There we were able to walk around for a while, write a couple emails announcing our safe arrival, exchange some money, grab a snack, and freshen up a bit. We then board our next and final flight that brought us to our year's destination of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Throughout these blogs I hope to share our 'new life' in Taiwan and the opportunities that the Lord brings our way. We continue to thank and praise Him for what He's doing in us and, Lord willing, through us.

Taipei Airport

Our First Purchase :o)

Kaohsiung

Ok, Ok, We need to update our Blog.

Now that we are on the other side of the globe, we have had an issue with the blogger settings. Everything shows up in Mandarin Characters. Not Good since we are just now learning the language. I think we may have solved the problem, so now Hannah will be able to keep you all updated. Ok, Hannah wants me to stop typing so she can talk. I never get to have any fun. :(
So much has happened since last checking or doing anything with the blog (obviously). Since then we have been told about helping in a ministry, we've moved from our home of two years up at NBBC in WI, and have, as mentioned above, accepted the ministry opportunity and are now here in Taiwan. We've been able to take a number of pictures since being here and are excited to share those with you all. Now, unfortunately, i must go home and fix dinner for my husband. :o)