The quest for something familiar...

Our Chinese house guest (Fan) is wonderful.  He is very sweet and polite.  He keeps offering to carry things for me and I actually threatened to not return him to College after the new year.  We love having him here and it has been wonderful to hear the boys asking so many questions.  Hubby and I have always felt like the mark of a great communicator is someone that asks questions.  We hope this is a great opportunity for our kids to learn from someone with a different background than them.  And...in a small way, it would seem that it is paving the way for their new sister.  Today, D-Dog said, "Mom, my new sister is Chinese like Fan."  "Yes."  I said.  "She will grow up and be a Chinese mommy." he said.  So cute to see him put things together. 
We decided to strike out toward the city today and look for an International store where we could buy some familiar food items for Fan.  We left here with map in hand and made our first stop...where else...McDonald's.  I admitted to Fan that I had a diet coke obsession.  While we were driving there, I asked Fan if he liked McDonald's.  "We don't really have so many McDonald's in China.  We have KFC everywhere."  "Oh Fan...have you ever had a cheeseburger from McDonald's?"  He replied that he had not.  So, I felt like it was my American duty to buy Fan his first Cheeseburger in the US.  He thought it was "ok".  LOL.  He tried a french fry and said they were very weird for him.  And he hates pickles.  I showed him how we just pick off and toss what we don't want...great, huh?  We had a really funny exchange while we were going through drive-thru.  Fan has only been here since October.  And apparently, he had no idea that drive-thru was possible.  As we approached, he pointed to the "order box" and asked, "What is that machine?"  I explained to him that I asked for my food there...and drove up to pay...and drove up to pick up the food.  "You don't have drive-thru in China?"  "NO."  He was mystified and asked why we do it like that.  "Well, Fan...we are Americans.  We like our food fast and we don't want to have to walk to get it."  So...ummmm...I guess that's why so many of us are fat and lazy.  YIKES.  I've gone through drive-thru my entire life and I've NEVER thought of it like that.  Talk about convicting.  Am I like that in all areas of my life?  I want things, but I don't want to work or wait for them.  Have I become spiritually lazy as a result?  I have so much praying to do about that.  I don't want to be a drive-thru Christian!!!!!  That just sounds sad.
So, the end of the story, is that we did, in fact, make it to the International store.  I ended up going ALL the way over to 270 on Gravois to get to another food store and didn't realize that Gravois is the same length as the State of California.  So, by the time we made it to 270,  Fan revealed to me that he gets carsick very easily and was, in fact, feeling ill.  We rushed home, with the help of my brother who led me back a much faster way.  I love you, Jeff!!!  And Fan went up to take a rest (no doubt praying that he can kindly find a way to refuse any other field trip offers from me).  :)