One Year Today

[tsap seui]

Around 8pm this evening marks one year for the dynamic duo in America. We walked off the 777 into Dulles airport, did the customs and immigration thing and walked out to meet Screaming Eagle, his wife, step daughter and his son there by the luggage carosel. Darn nice of him to come meet us. We talked almost an hour with them and I called my sister who lives close by and she, her son, and my daughter came over to pick us up.

 

Hard to believe a year has passed. So many good things have happened to us in these short 365 days. Life has been very good to us and we are thankful each and every day for teh blessings we have been given. Amazing ot see so much suddenly fall into place.

 

We had a tough fight to overturn the insanity in Guangzhou and simply look at it as it was just not the right time for us to be together in America as someone with a plan for us had a little more work with events that would make our lives so much less stressful once we did get to America.

 

Our love affair still has it's original intensity and drive. and ol' Fengqi has sure made things easy for us with his adapting to life and school in America like he has. Jeez, it could have been some kinda rough if he had folded up in school with his english handicap.

 

Today also marks just about the exact day that I first sent an introductory e-mail to a woman in China....it turns out I never talked to Wenyan by e-mail....LOL Not one single word. It was an agency in her home town of Fushun and they were juggling girls around ot meet me. Wenyan never walked in to that agency until maybe 10 days before my plane landed in Beijing 6 weeks later on September 30th, and we actually met each other after my 13 1/2 hour filght from DC and her 10 hour train ride and almost 12 hour wait in the airport.

 

We both realize how unorthodox our meeting really was and laugh at how most American men would never have gone to China with 10 photos of 3 different women (what the agency had sent me) and she with not even seeing a photo of me or speaking to me by e-mail...oh they gave her one photo out of the 20 or so I sent. It really got lost in the translation of the copy machine and hardly even looked anything at all like me. I'm surprised the agency even bothered to give it to her it was that messed up.

 

No, our meeting was planned by the man up above....and he sure had a great sense of humor when he put us two, who also love to laugh and have a good sense of adventure together. Without that sense of adventure and a feeling that this was going to work out, we each would never have gone to Beijing in the first place. Talk about throwing caution ot the wind....LOL...we both looked caution squarely in the face, punched his lights out, and then threw him out the dang window.

 

I hardly would advise anyone to do like we did, but it has by far been the greatest thing Wenyan and I ever did in our lives. While it could have easily turned out SO WRONG it instead turned out SO RIGHT for us. Truly blessed and well looked out for...then again, all we did was take the chance and board the train and the plane.

 

We have been so happy with joy today. Three of the ladies from the small writers group I've been going to for 4 or more years invited Wenyan out to luch a few days ago. They knew nothing about what today meant for us. One of those ladies was my ex-wife of all people. We were friends a long time and stayed friends after the divorce. She has taken to Wenyan like a sister they neither one ever had. They went to a resturant and Wenyan says they laughed trough-out the whole meal.

 

I went and poured some concrete on a sidewalk I'm repairing, came home and picked up Winnie and we went to a hearing with the 3 county commissioners for Bedford County. Yeah, it's a small town but Wenyan got a great lesson in how America works. We appealed the real estate taxes for Wenyan's investment property and today hearing was before those guys to get them lowered. We had to get 2 new appraisals for the two parcels on the property, along with comps from surrounding propertys that had sold recently and we presented them as evidence for our case.

 

The commissioners all three thanked us for the evidence and said it would make their job much easier. They lit up and sat forward when I explained how today was Wenyan's first lesson on how America works. Welcomed her to America and congradulated her on her first year. Said they would let us know their decision in about 2 weeks.

 

Pretty cool to see Wenyan pick up on the ins and outs of how a business in the real estate field works. She's a quick study and buddy she has plenty of to the point questions. I look at this investment property as her safety valve should something happen to me. Been working feverishly to get the propertys all renovated before years end so's we can relax next year and the years to come. Again, we have been blessed with being able to buy a business that darn near brings in each year what we paid for it. Heck, it could pay for itself in four more years if we chose, and this is in a bad economy.

 

Candle has been a great place to be through-out the excitement of learning and studying for that first interview, then though the trials of waiting over 4 years to go at it again and finally reach success. September 30th will be our 6 year anniversary of the day we met in 2006. Candle has been a family to me and a great help and support through some tough times. So happy to have survived and be able to report on the continued happy joyful times.

 

Thanks to you all....or, yawl, as we speak in the hollar.

 

tsap seui

[Highlander 08 09 10 11 12]

Congrats on your wife's first year here in the USA. Glad things are going great for you younguns up there.

 

My wife has been here 12 1/2 months now, doing great, really likes Virginia. My wife and I first met on the computer

 

in April 08, and have talked about everyday since, except for the day after Thanksgiving, when I would not take her

 

shopping, tooooooooo many crazys out there on that day. The next day, she seen on the news all the shoppers

 

fighting at the stores, so she then understood what I meant.

 

Anyway, yawl have a good week,,,,,,,,,Bob,,,,,,

[dan1984]

:romeojuliet: wish you guys many more years of happiness in the future!

[Mick]

Congrats on yer one year anniversary of the arrival in America of yer lovin' family, Cuzin' Tsap. As I have said a thousand times, if anyone ever deserved the happiness you have shared over this year, it is you my friend. After all the hurdles placed in your path by the powers that be, the four and a half year wait, and the reems of paperwork you filled out, it was truly a blessing to step off that plane at Dulles. And the fact that Screamin Eagle had the kindness and honor in his heart to welcome you home was a priceless gift.

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about the adventures of Wenyan, Fengqi, and you as the new family traversed those first twelve months. It is also a testament to your foresight and love that you have taken steps to provide for your family's future by purchasing and renovating those apartments. And as you have said, the permanent disability granted by the VA was more icing on the cake.

 

Tsap, I hope and pray that this next 12 months will be as blessed as the first year. Each day we are blessed, I think, with both challenges and opportunities. You have the intelligence and the sensitivity to discern the silver lining in even the darkest moments, so I am assured that you will continue to find ways to make your life and that of your family a positive and rewarding journey. Keep us posted as things unfold over the coming months. Look forward to hear about your travels.

[Urkidding]

YUPPPPP! Life is like a box of Chinese wymen! You never know what you're gonna get but in your case... you did'nt pik the one with the nuts in it!

 

Congrats Chop Suie and carry on the adventures

 

psssttt... I have a hanging wiker chair fer sale if ur interested in it...circa 1970's model

[knloregon]

Tsap, I hate the term: "blessing in disguise" which often translates somthin' like getting used to pain----for some later reward---if any.

 

But in your case, it almost seems appropriate. Even as Uncle Sam was screwing you in the US --- it gave you time to build powerfully strong relationships in China, and the time (lost) to the process, while it can't be regained, translates to some extent, to a stronger relationship in America, (IMHO) .....

[Doug]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[tsap seui]

Thanks for your words guys. Candle is such a great fellowship for the guys and gals who come and go on their journeys. I once thought I'd bow out too once the war was over, but this place has become a home of sorts, a place to visit with friends, see how they are doing, offer encouragement or prayers when needed or share in happiness. It's great to talk of old times in old haunts like Georgetown with Mick and Kim, to see photos of Bob and Carl's works in progress as they make their dreams come to fruition....personally Bob, I'd leave the body off the 38 coupe and just drive it around town and on the property like it is....how cool it is.....literally and figuritly lol and to help each other with the seemingly never ending challenges of immigration and AOS....stuff

 

Lil' rabbit and I just hung in there with each other, as any of you would have done with your girlfriends/wives, and saw the immigration war with the feds through to it's happy and blessed conclusion. I laugh and say, all we ever needed was for the US government to stop interfering with our bona fide relationship and all would be okay. They have and we are very okay now.

 

I agree whole heartedly Kim, and so does Wenyan, that time given us turned out to be a blessing in disguise...for our developing a strong bond with each other (you either stick together in times like those, or you split, and if'n you stick together you find the stress, pain, even anger only builds a bond and a foundation which grew out of practically nothing (we didn't even know what each other looked like and had never talked to each other when we met in the Beijing airport, her with her handwritten piece of paper with the two words "Fei" and "Rawknee" written in pink marker, and me wearin' my floopy Aussie hat, shorts, and flowered shirt as our only ways of identification), then went through a virtual war of paperwork with US feds, and on into today's bliss and happy life here in America.

 

Time worked it's wonder for us. Hard to see it as you go through it and live each day apart save for the many trips which all ended in tears and heart wrenching sadness at parting once again. But, you just have faith that it'll work out, hold hands, and stand your ground. It's all you have sometimes, a wing, a hope, and a prayer. Now, we get the fun part. Really, I should say the funny part as this lil' house in the mountains ROCKS WITH LAUGHTER. Wenyan was always hilarious (we didn't need a common language for me to quickly see that from day one) and ol' Fengqi has transformed from Mr. Serious into quite a funny kid with a great sense of dry humor....being around his mother and I he either had to start laughing or go crazy from our antics.

 

One last thing....it rumbles around in my lower bowels sometimes.....if would have been nice if the Bozos in Guangzhou would have at least hinted at what was wrong with our initial application, that the USCIS quickly said was nothing at all and reaffirmed in 3 days. We'll never know (big military state secret that it must be)...lol Unknowing to the Bozos in Guangzhou, they were simply a tool used by a higher power to give two people T I M E for everything to fall into it's place for their happiness....or as my ol' daddy used to say...."Buck Wheat, the good Lord, he works in some strange ways sometimes, it ain't nothing you really have to understand, jes have the faith."

 

Thanks to each of yawl. Good to be amongst friends, I hope to return your friendship.

 

tsap seui

[tsap seui]

I just got a call from our realtor, the Bedford County commissioners that we had a hearing in front of on Wednesday approved our appeal to lower the taxes on Wenyan's businness property. The valuation goes from $230,000 down to $115,000 for tax purposes. Pretty neat for Wenyan to get a first hand look at how our system works in America...from personal dispute, to gathering evidence to support your appeal and on to a hearing with the proper officials, down to a decision. Luckily favorable, this time.

 

She kept asking me when we were taking the officials out to eat, sing some kari-okie, and slip them some money under the table. I think she just wanted to go sing some kari-okie. Or Kari-jokie as it is when I sing.

 

Anyhow, it'll save over 2 grand in taxes next year.

 

tsap seui