Oh, the gifts

Bear with me, this is just a bit of a reflective post. It seems like a good time of year to reflect a bit...

We opened lots of gifts on Christmas. It was wonderful. I am not one to skimp on gifts, and neither are our moms and friends, so we had this really fun Christmas!! And we had a couple of somewhat frenzied weeks that goes along with Christmas (moreso than we normally experience here)--trying to get presents finished and delivered to our friends around town. {We are actually still getting pumpkin bread baked and cds burned with Christmas music to deliver this week. It's easier to do that here because nobody really knows much about Christmas or really even care too much...}

But even with all the frenzy and fatigue that happened the couple of weeks before Christmas, I found myself just reflecting on the gifts that we've received the past year or so. About 4 days before we went back to the states, we had a Thanksgiving party. And we had all sorts of friends come that have been friends since we first got here. And some that we'd met within the last year. And about two days before that party, I had gotten the phone number of a friend that I met our first summer. So we got to invite her and her two friends to the party.

And we got to hear all about how the Father had touched her life and opened her eyes through the earthquake (and post earthquake) to receive His life. And her two best friends had their eyes opened. The first believers in one area of this state that is still one of our favorite places we've ever been to. What a gift.

And another friend: our friend Jake. He believed the summer before when a volunteer came through. We were working at the hostel for two months and had friends visit. And in the week that they were here, they met Jake (his English was already good AND he wanted more English practice). And they talked to Jake about eternity. But the amazing, totally God-sized thing about Jake is that when our volunteer friend talked to Jake and his mom, they were totally ready. Jake's grandmother believed. And her whole family ridiculed her and treated her with disdain for believing. But sometime before she died, she told her family, "someday a foreign believer is going to come through here and you will believe when you hear his story". And our friend got to be that person. And we get to be friends with Jake. What a gift.

While we were in the states, we got an email about our friend Laura. She was one of the first people we met when we moved here. And she has this tender heart that is drawn to the elderly and to children, and her elderly friends introduced her to us and Luke, and she started to spend lots of time at our house. And she was MOVED by the stories that we tell that go from creation all the way through Jesus. She was just wrapped up in every story we ever told. And we were told that she believed. So we spent time with her and talked about important things with her. However, she was the only one of her friends who was on the path to believing, and she pulled back. Because she was told, you are part of OUR people. You must believe the TBdhsm that everyone we love so much believes...

But, while we were in the states, we got an email from a friend over here that lives in another city. And our friend Laura had believed while she spent a year in Thailand (with the elderly couple that initially introduced Laura to us), and she was so excited to invest her life into the people that we love so much. What a gift.

And there's so many more. We need relationships here. So when we returned from the states and so many of our friends had moved away (people don't live here too long--plus, our friends are very nomadic in their culture...), we were discouraged. So we asked for new friends. And I felt a tug in my spirit that I needed to go dancing once a week with our friends. And that first week, I met several ladies from our area that are still becoming friends. What a gift.

And we feel so thankful for the gifts, but we also need help and wisdom and strength in moving forward. In being faithful with the gifts and blessings we have already received...

Our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Our little Christmas tree is definitely not perfect, and when we first pulled it out of the box this year, for whatever reason, looking at the gaps between the branches evoked some thoughts: should I buy a new Christmas tree? Should it be from IKEA or the wholesale market (where we bought this one)? Could I fill in the gaps with our tinsel? How can we make this silly looking tree look better?...

And the more I decorated, the more I felt this swelling in my heart about the tree. I mean the tree is really insignificant in the bigger scheme of things. And Luke was putting up lots of ornaments and having me put string through lots of the ones that don't have hooks. And he started making snowflakes that he was hanging on the tree. And I started thinking, 'I LIKE that the tree isn't perfect.' I don't want another one. And as the ornaments got put on the tree (mostly on the bottom--just like I did when I was a kid) and the tree looked even more and more imperfect, the more I liked it.

I think I was making some unconscious parallels between the tree and my own life. I think there's a pressure (maybe more over here?) to believe in Jesus and then be perfect. Or at least seem to be. And I struggle with that. Johnny struggles with it. And yet we have been shown over the past 5 years how IMperfect we are. Still. We know the Lord more and have moved down the road, but we still NEED him more than ever. And as we've been shown how imperfect we are (it's been humiliating at times, folks), the Lord has also been quick to touch us and love us. And maybe it's my rebellious nature to a degree, but I kind of want to revel in imperfection this Christmas season. Our imperfect tree and our imperfect house (we have highlighter yellow kitchen cabinets, for example) and sometimes the imperfect way that we interact with each other and with our friends. But for whatever reason, my heart is so warmed by the idea that it's a beautiful thing--this imperfection and the way the Lord just jumped right down in the middle of it all 2010 years ago--approximately...

We have been busy--I try to dance with our local friends once a week. We try to have friends for dinner to connect with others who hang with us on Sunday. We have game nights for our friends to meet our team, and we've been having a blast planning parties for birthdays and showers and such. And it's amazing--we have some of the beginnings of deeper relationships than we have had the entire time we have been here. All in the middle of all that activity (and me staying home most nights to work on projects and cooking and such)...

It's this wonderful thing. Luke 1-2 tell of all these awesome ways that people who had been waiting for years and years got to see and hear about the fulfillment of the promise. And they were all filled with wonder. It's really amazing. We feel like we've been waiting for the fulfillment of the promise that's given in Revelation about our closest friends believing. Because they are a people that don't believe. And it is so inspiring and hope-giving to read again the story where the God of the Universe whispered and shouted all at once: I haven't forgotten my promises. And I am with you. And I will be with you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful. We have kept a "Give Thanks" jar since the middle of November (I wasn't together enough to have it before then), and ever since it's been on our dinner table, we write something we are each thankful for and put them in the jar. And the things we are thankful for range from elephants to juice to just the way our sweet children love and trust the Father. We really are thankful for so much! I was just thinking that I'm thankful for our whisk that truly makes my life just that much easier...And we have been so very very thankful for our family and friends. We have such amazing families back in the states, but we also have a surrogate family here that we are so thankful for as well.

So, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope your hearts and spirits are as full as we have felt as we've thought about thankfulness!

Rock Sea...

We keep finding cool places in the province where we live. The latest adventure took us to the Rock Sea really near our closest local friend's home. It was truly so fun--acres of rocks to climb on, a cave to explore, and there's so much that we didn't even do or see. There are places to actually rock climb (like the kind Johnny is really good at) and places to go caving. A bit too extreme for even a 5 year old, but someday...

And we didn't even have time to explore the bamboo forest that's right next door. So we're definitely going to have to go back!!

So here are pictures of our friend and his home and some contraption that cleans rice:

They may have had the most simple home we've ever visited. But they are surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery...

Our little munchkin wouldn't leave Jordan's side...I think he said Jordan's name about 300 times a day

And here are some pictures of the rock sea.....I took close-ups because it was getting dark and we thought we could go back the next day (but it was raining). But I think the rocks in the background still make a fun backdrop...

And that was our trip. We have pictures in this enormous cave we explored, but they aren't very good. It was really dark...Imagine that...

Here is my favorite picture we've taken in ages!!

Love from all of us!

Come one, come all to the greatest show on earth!

Note: I kept waiting for some other pictures our friend took, but we still don't have them so I'm going to go ahead and post this post...

This weekend (Oct. 30) celebrated the bringing of year number 5 for Mr. L! And we did it up big and had so much fun!! REally, since we can't just buy anything like what we wanted to do for his birthday--a circus/carnival theme, we had to spend our nights making stuff. So we did, and we invited 9 families to join us (all with boys Luke's age--we wanted to invite the girls too, but just couldn't...) in all the chaos of the circus!

We had cupcakes and a unicycling juggler and caramel apples, cotton candy, popcorn, peanuts--everything you'd find at the carnival! And lots and lots of games--Johnny even made a Plinko! (Besides the ring toss, can toss, bobbing for apples, etc). Some of the kids were even dressed up as clowns when they arrived!! We rented out a room and played for hours in the room! It was really fun and hopefully an especially memorable birthday party for our party animal...Mr. L.

PS Here's a picture of our cupcakes. I don't have any other pictures of the food tables/decor, but here is the one picture I took!!

the most wonderful time of the year...

The most wonderful time of the year IS Christmas, if you ask me, but now that it's cold and almost Luke's birthday and Thanksgiving and everything, I keep thinking that we have entered my favorite two months of the whole year!!! Johnny has stayed up a couple of nights to watch a football game, I have transitioned into warm drink heaven, and it's just generally a wonderful time of year. If we could travel to the mountains and see pretty changing leaves, it would be PERFECT!!

And in case you think we have to miss out on ALL of the fun fall festivities that happen in the states (well, we do miss a lot), there is one thing we have not missed---crafts and Halloween dress up!! Yesterday Luke got to miss school because of a craft day--he got to make 3 paper crafts (that turned out so very cute, in my opinion), got to decorate cookies, AND trick or treat for candy!! He was in heaven, since he loves to make stuff so much (and eat candy so much)!!

Here is our little dinosaur (after decorating cookies, I might add, in case you can see the white icing on his belly)...

And I have been up to my eyeballs in homemade circus party stuff. Here's a picture of the invitation (inspired by invitations from Hobby Lobby--we can't get stuff like that here, too much) :

And the practice caramel apples. We can't buy caramels here, but I found a recipe for homemade caramel apples on one of Luke's Mickey Mouse DVDs. Really easy--I can't believe we haven't made them before!!

Love from us, Shannon

what we've been doing lately

It's been a while since we posted anything, but we have been busy in the meantime.

Johnny finished some bunk beds for the boys. And as of today, we may have to move Jace into the bottom bunk--he climbed out of his crib and bumped his head on the floor. So it's pretty good he has a little home to move into.

the tent is finished now (we don't have a recent photo) and there is a leaf banner hanging up between bunks, just to accent that it's supposed to be a fun tree house bunk bed...

We have been about town in our bikes and bike trailers. So fun, and it makes it easy for me to get around a really big city. I went downtown one day and bought an 11 pound block of cheese (it is so much cheaper that way), and then felt pretty good about myself riding 15-20 miles on the bike with the boys. We call it the "swagger wagon--Asia style". Another such outing: the track at the university where Jace got to play soccer for a while. He was so happy. And there's Luke up in the tree!

We, as always, have also been eating lots of hot pot/stick pot. Some pictures of the boiling pot of spice as well as the sticks that have fish and lotus root. Just some fun things that we don't see in the west too much...

hot pot from our favorite restaurant. It's still in the solid state before it's boiled...yummy!

fish on a stick--anyone? Luke LOVES this!!!

lotus root

We have all been planning and working on projects for Luke's birthday party next Saturday. He wanted a circus party, so that's what he's getting--a circus/carnival. The party IS his birthday present for the most part!! Tonight, actually, Johnny is working on a PLINKO board for the party. Pretty awesome. I kinda want to play carnival games every day right now...

And, in case you're wondering, we're going to have the party in the morning, and then we'll have our bi-monthly game night and use the carnival games as the games for game night. So we'll have young and old, locals and whiteys all playing carnival games in one room. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!!

Also today, Luke's preschool had a program for moms and dads to go crazy taking pictures of their kids at. It was a bit of a cultural experience, since there was no order to the parents and their picture taking. Johnny got a few snippets of video, but I feel that there is no way to capture the experience if you're not feeling the pushes firsthand. But here's a couple of pictures that try to capture the experience. Sorry for the grainy-ness of the pictures--it's been really hazy here the past two days.

This is only one of four sides of parents literally crowding around to see/photograph their child

Can you find Luke? He's the one with yellow hair...

Doing their morning exercises (dances)

So, coming up, we plan to travel south (actually not one of our official areas, but...) to visit one of Johnny's best friends--we really hope to just connect with him there so that we can know his mom and family and friends and the place where he lives. It's not like we're going to be toughing it too much, though, it seems. There is rock climbing and caving and bamboo forests and lots of other stuff to explore down there. The weekend may go really fast!!

And, of course, there will be pictures from next week's circus shindig coming!