Heifer International

Each year at HKIS, the school participates in a Read to Feed program where the kids do some fundraising and they receive pledges from people for every book they read. This year as part of the presentation of the money raised by the school, Tyson's class presented a play illustrating the premise behind the charity group, Heifer International. He was one of the narrators of the play and he had a great deal of fun being involved in it.

The "To Shek Cup"

I'm feeling a little bad that I forgot to post this (it is from March) but at the end of the regular Hong Kong Little League season, all the boys have the option to play in a tournament - The To Shek Cup (To Shek is the name of the field where all the games are played - pronounced like "toe") where they mix up the players from all the different teams that choose to participate and make several mixed teams. They get the opportunity to play with the Chinese and Japanese players that they have been playing against all season. Trey decided to participate in it this year and had great fun. His team ended up winning the gold medal.

Kyra's Bangkok Swim Meet

A small group from the Hong Kong Island Stingrays Swim Club competed in a swim meet in Bangkok, Thailand in March. It was Kyra's last international swim meet outside of Hong Kong.

Big News in the Sandness Family

When we first told the kids that we had big news, I jokingly said "We have some big news...we're going to have another baby." Not sure what I was expecting, except that I was trying to lighten the soon-to-be-heavy mood...but they all got excited! So, I quickly had to come out with the truth...The Sandness family is relocating to California this summer.

Craig has been offered a position based out of Irvine, California, with his current company. Although I wouldn't say all the kids were jumping up and down happy about it, I think it will be okay. Another move will be hard, as now we have made so many new friends here in Hong Kong, but one thing that has been reinforced in my mind here over and over is that it is truly a small world. As soon as we were able to tell people here that we were moving to California, we soon discovered that several people we know here in Hong Kong came from California, have a home in California, are moving back to California this summer as well, etc. It's kind of like how our first week here in Hong Kong I ran into a woman that came from Edina, Minnesota. What are the chances? Actually, pretty good here in Hong Kong. It is truly a pool of people from around the world.

I am excited about the move. Nervous about meeting new people and hopefully making new friends, again, but as I have told our kids several times...our home is where our family is and we are truly blessed in so many ways, but especially to have each other no matter where we go. And God is with us no matter where we are in the world. I hold on to that and want our kids to know that as well. I know our kids will adjust fine, and make even more friends, but between now and August we will be filled with ups and downs of emotions.

It will be hard to be leaving our friends here in Hong Kong, so the kids and I are sticking with the plans that we already had in place to spend at least part of the summer in Minnesota and Wisconsin (so that not all our plans are changing). We will be heading to California at the end of July to start getting acclimated to our new home and community. We hope to see all you Minnesotans this summer. I am trying to be very intentional about the kids spending time with their Minnesota friends that they still miss so much!!

The adventure continues for the Sandnesses...

Hong Kong Flower Show

Keely's preschool class recently did a field trip to the flower show and thought I'd share some photos of the amazing flower creations.