We’re sleeping tonight in the eastern-most city of the ancient Silk Road. Opting for four berths in a sleeper train over camels or horses, we completed the 12-hour journey earlier this morning in Xian, China … home of the formerly buried terra cotta warriors. The center of...

I first entered a conflict zone as a journalist in Iraq in 2003. The international invasion had just ended. As my colleagues and I tried to make sense of things, the Jordanian Embassy was attacked … and the United Nations Baghdad headquarters was decimated by a truck bomb. It turned out...

J has a cool app on his phone that will speak Chinese for us. It has helped us out on several occasions, ordering tea, sorting out larger numbers, settling a time when a driver would pick us up. It is not super sophisticated — it is more of a phrasebook than a translator — and has...

The preschoolers at New Day Foster Home decorated felt hearts this week with thick princess stickers and crosses. They were crafting Mother’s Day gifts for the women who care for them in the in-between times — at night, during breakfast and dinner, over weekends, and every other...

Usually when people ask us where we are heading next, the reply is a long and somewhat vague list of countries, sights, plans. But this week in China, our answer is…. um, Korea. And then home. This answer is shockingly short to me. How can it be that there is just one more country? Did...

My Mom has filled many roles over her 71 years. In our family, she has been Wife, Mom, Grandmother (Gigi!), Chef, Dog Trainer, House Painter, Project Manager, Temperature Taker, Party Planner, Exercise Leader, Math Tutor, Chauffeur, Furniture Repairer, Book Keeper, Landscaper, List Creator,...

I seem to have lost clarity on an important parenting principle over the last few years. It came back to me this morning as I helped a preschooler work on a 25-piece puzzle. The principle is this: it’s not about the puzzle. My puzzle partner wasn’t likely going to finish the...

Jiaozi. Unintentionally, we landed at a foster home facility in China at the beginning of a five-day weekend.  Thus, we have enjoyed the slow pace of the national holiday and have savored the opportunity to spend time with the incredible, multinational families of this “instant...

On May 1, 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers played against the Chicago Cubs at home on Ebbets Field. The Dodgers scored three runs in the second inning … and the Cubs were never able to catch up. It was early in the baseball season — a ground-breaking season — as Jackie Robinson...

(Previous versions of this post had an incorrect YouTube link.) We abandoned a respectable sense of propriety yesterday during a five-hour delay stopover at China’s Guangzhou International Airport. Had you been one of the hundreds of innocent civilians on their way to a flight to...

We abandoned a respectable sense of propriety yesterday during a five-hour delay stopover at China’s Guangzhou International Airport. Had you been one of the hundreds of innocent civilians on their way to a flight to somewhere … you would have seen three boys … and their...

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Forever! President Ho Chi Minh’s greatness lives on in our career! These are the phrases printed on giant banners that flank Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi, translated to English with Google Translate. Similar phrases — about the people, the...

We’ve just returned from two-plus Glorious days in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. The area’s name in English is “Descending Dragons,” referring to the near-infinite limestone islands that fill the bay. Various myths explain how the panorama views of those giant humps look...

This will come as no surprise to serious students of the Vietnamese language … but there is a vast subtlety to various words that convey entirely different meanings. Take ba, ba, and ba. Depending on how you pronounce the words, they could mean: three, father, or...

A week from Tuesday, Vietnam marks the anniversary of the day North Vietnamese troops took over Saigon in 1975, a moment that “re-unified” the country. In America’s history classes, the conflict that ended in 1975 is called the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, we’ve learned...

It is Grace to be clear-headed during a rainstorm. I woke up this morning thinking about a mistake I’d made weeks ago – something trivial, regarding an email … and to whom it was and was not sent. Why do I wake up that way? I lingered on that question. I shared it with S during...

April 17, 3:07pm A minty, antiseptic smell has just overtaken the sour cigarette odor in our Vietnamese train car (we splurged for the Soft Seat Air-Con tickets).  The mounted TV serenades us with Vietnamese soft-rock favorites sung by 20-something darlings in sparkly evening gowns in front...

S has a rule in our family: no making fun of moms. So I will not draw your attention to the hand sanitizer strapped to the front of my mom’s fanny pack during a tour of Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Instead, I will mention that I was astonished to learn over dinner recently that my Mom...

We have mastered a talent on this journey of arriving in cities and communities when NO ONE else typically travels to those places. We specialize in off seasons and boarded up restaurants. Our last few days in Bangkok have been the exception. This is the time people come to this city from all...

This is what it looks like to receive world-class medical care from a world-class medical facility in a sprawling Asian metropolis during a two-hour wait for tests on W’s blood. Sweet. A Dr. Phanida waited for W and his two parents today in Room 9 of the pediatric ward at...

I learned this evening that I was painfully afraid of bats as a little boy. The item was one of the stories my mom shared with our table over dinner, about how I used to be scared of walking in the dark because a bat might attack. S chimed in that one of our sons used to be quite fearful of...

On the eve of Grammy’s time with us in Thailand and Cambodia, one of our boys said he was looking forward to “Grammy’s nighttime lullabies”: “She gives great back rubs while she sings us to sleep.” We’re so grateful that Grammy is with us for a few...

  What is the saying about fish and visitors? That they both stink after three days? Somehow Mark and Melinda missed out on that message — try hosting a family of five for nearly three weeks! We had the extreme pleasure and privilege of being welcomed into their Chiang Mai home,...

Happy Birthday, S! She got a lot of love today from a wide range of animals in the animal...