One tooth lighter

Luke lost his first tooth.  It makes him seem so old!  I think with every milestone--first steps, first day of school, first lost tooth--it gets more and more bittersweet.  Bittersweet because he's just that much closer to being independent and grown.  Because it's good for him to be independent and grown, and yet there are some days that I just want to soak it all up for longer!

So here's my old 6 1/2 year old.  He's kind and generous and so encouraging with every one of his words.  If I was 6, I would want to be his friend!

Heart Surgery

We have met and spent time with a couple different families whose children have the same ailment as our friend's sister.  A hole in their heart.  The first one we met over 5 years ago went in for surgery, and he didn't make it.

And we met another family 3 weeks ago with a daughter who also didn't make it.

But our friend, Grace, made it through the surgery and is out of the ICU and being a demanding 2 year old with her mom today.  Like 2 year olds should be.  Pouty and laughing and having fun with their moms and sisters all in a day's time.

We still have her older sister staying with us, but we feel so thankful that this outcome for sweet little Grace has been good.  Her mom keeps telling us, "thank the Lord."

We feel just the same.

our other children

We get lots of questions about how adoption is going.  It's not, it seems.  We have pursued Ethiopia, and we received our first referral, we lost him in an African hospital, and then the country's adoptions have slowed by almost 90%, according to some people.

We have heard nothing since the country almost stopped processing papers.

And it's okay some days.  It stinks some days.

We heard when we first started adopting to be open to whatever the Lord has for us.  That we may start down one road and be turned by Him to another road.  We don't really know His ultimate plan for what our family will look like, but we are open to be turned to another road.  And we are open to stay straight on the path we've started down.  We trust Him.

Waiting is never fun or easy.  But if it's from Dad, it's always GOOD.

I learned from a good friend that the most important thing is to not always be looking down the road, but to just enjoy our family now, as it is right now.  I feel thankful for the two boys the Father has already given us, and I don't want to miss a moment of their life.  And, we hope, in time, Dad will add to our family.

Little Rainbow

For the past few months, the Father has been challenging me to be available.  Interruptible.  Basically, to be more like Jesus and the apostles.

Then, 3 weeks ago, when we were going for a prayerwalk and Johnny said he thought we should go pray around a big, famous hospital in town, I thought, great, we can do that--what a great idea. There are so many of the people we love that come to town to go to that hospital!  So we walked and prayed and had such a good time.

Little did we know....

Two days later we got a phone call that there was a little family who had come to town for their little baby to have heart surgery and the mom and little daughter had to stay in the hospital.  Did we know anyone who could care for the older daughter while mom and sister (Grace) were in the hospital?  And we knew the Father was saying to be available.  So we prayed and felt like, yes, we could take care of a little six-year-old.  We had an extra room.  We have toys.  We have time.

So, we've had another 6 year old living with us.  For 3 weeks, almost.  And it's been the most wonderful and overwhelming and challenging thing we've experienced in a long time.  Boy, do we feel tired at the end of the day, and we've had challenging moments that have driven us to our knees.  It's amazing how much selfishness was in my heart.  And how much more is still in there.  Man.

I think so many of my cries to know Him better have been answered just in the past few months of being stretched and challenged.  Most recently, by having another child in my house.  One that is awake from 7 AM to 11 PM and wants help from me constantly.  I have been desperate for Him in a way that is fresh and new.  I feel thankful that He is still involved in my life.  He still offers relationship to me.  He still wants me to grow and be purified.  He still blesses with unexpected gifts.

So, it's been an exciting road this month.  And a good one.  I feel so thankful for our little Rainbow staying here.

Our New Year

We didn't have a traditional Chinese New Year. It didn't include jiaozi or hot pot. We didn't endure 5-6 hours of fireworks exploding in the city. We celebrated new year in the mountains.

On the day before new year, we spent the day high up on a mountain. And we watched some special ceremonies which scared my children so much that we had to leave and go down to make a fire.

We stayed with our friend, where the boys were extremely fascinated with the stove in the middle of the room. It's really fun to put in dried corn cobs to stoke the fire!

We played on a "beach" of sorts by the river.

And the boys got their first ride on a local tractor. Or a carry-the-trash-machine as it's literally translated...

Truthfully, it is always a bit of a culture stretch for us--it's quite different from America. It's even different from our city. And we don't stay long enough to get through culture shock. But you've never experienced hospitality like the people offer in the mountains. And there is just something special about it all...

it takes a village...

I heard a while back that the city we live in has about 4,000 foreigners. From all over. So we have import stores, western restaurants, toy stores, a dozen Starbucks. We don't suffer a lot here. I actually wouldn't be surprised if there are actually more than 4,000 "lao wai."

We feel blessed by our little village. In our apartment complex, there are two boys the same age as Luke. And a girl and boy pretty close to the same age as Jace. We have families to play with and folks to do dinner with any time.

We get to go to fun Christmas parties like one that is called a BRIC party where we each make a new recipe (to us) and take it for a dinner party. Someone gets to make the appetizer, someone makes the main dish, someone makes dessert, sides, etc...Our friend thought it up--she's pretty creative. And it's fun.

We get to host parties that are a mixture of our local friends and foreign friends like tonight. We'll eat hot pot for supper and then do traditional Christmas stuff with our friends at our house. Cookie decorating, Christmas story telling, singing, etc.

We look at each other and think how thankful we are for the community we have here. How thankful we are for our ex-pat friends. But just how thankful we also are for our local friends. It's a gift.

Hark!

I'm loving the words to the song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" this year.

I love that it says: "Peace on earth and mercy mild,

God and sinner reconciled...

Joyful, all ye nations rise,

join the triumph of the skies

...Christ is born in Bethlehem..."

There's a kind of tension that I feel when I'm reading the OT. Sinful people had to wait a LONG time for the Savior to arrive, to be revealed. But it's not just them. It is still a tension for me--that waiting word. Waiting for Him to show us what our niche is here in this city with the people He's asked us to live among. Waiting for those adoption papers to go through and children to be matched to our family. Waiting for Him to speak to our friends. Because apart from Him being all over everything we do, what we do isn't worth much.....

But I think that is the thing I love about celebrating Jesus' birth: the waiting was over. Anna and Simeon were able to see the Savior they'd prayed about for decades. The Father didn't forget them. Us.

The boys helped me decorate the tree the other day.

And presents from America arrived the same day.

So they're having to see those presents every day--to wait to open them.

Waiting has been a theme in our family's life the past several weeks. It's good. It's hard. It's good. It's good to trust in a Father that knows and acts in perfect time to a people that really need Him. And to seek His face in the waiting time--to see again a beautiful God in the face of an innocent babe from 2000 years ago.

PS the third picture is just a picture of one of the lower branches of the tree--the ones that Jace can reach. There are a lot of ornaments on that branch :).