Lovin' It

We have a new family goal in the Joseph household--a regular attitude of thanksgiving.  We've determined that the secret to joy really is in being able to enjoy Him and the gifts He's given, so we're trying to practice more as a family what that looks like in our daily lives.  Most of the time it's the little things:  the fact that the water turned back on again this morning just in time for me to get a shower in before I had to walk out the door to go to school (one my students should be thankful for, too, especially since I didn't make it to the shower yesterday!), the sky being clear enough for 3 days in a row to see the sun, having enough blankets to bundle up and stay warm in spite of the fact that it is FREEZING in our apartment and we have no heat any longer (turns off around the country on the 15th of March), enjoying a bag of peanut butter M&M's that came in a care package...

But we're also seeing His goodness in so many of the BIG things, too.  Our family is thriving--in spite of so many factors that seem so unstable so much of the time and are so out of our comfort zone.  Right now, my husband is at a McDonalds' studying yet ANOTHER foreign language with his newly-found tutor.  Not that he feels that he has totally mastered Mandarin in less than 4 years, but he longs to speak the heart language of some of the minority people group friends he's made; and they ain't speakin' Mandarin!  I'm amazed at His grace and Kevin's faithfulness to push himself to study with the limited time he has.  My kids are all at a school where they are taught Truth; Noah was able to come home and act out the entire Easter story last week (complete with the explanation of Jesus being wrapped up in toilet paper and stuck into a cage--at least he got most of the story correct!).  I have the opportunity to teach a rebel group of high school sophomores the basics of English literature and composition, and I absolutely love them and the job itself--and this coming from a very content stay-at-home mom!  Our friendships here have deepened to the point that we have true heart connections with our Chinese friends; not just the surface-level stuff, but true mutual-encouragement and refreshment (with the fatigue that of course comes with trying to communicate in a foreign tongue).  We are getting to do what we were "made to do" in our eyes, and we are paradoxically drained and refueled all at the same time by the opportunities and the pace that we're trying to maintain.  The challenge remains to respond to the tension between pushing ourselves to true dependence on Him and yet knowing our boundaries and when we are nearing the danger zone of burn-out.

The past few weeks we've started back up with the parenting study that I had led previously.  I took last semester off, thinking that trying to handle that along with my teaching load might be too much both for me and for the family.  But after a semester to get into the swing of things, Kevin encouraged me to jump back in.  I have one other foreign friend helping me, and this time there are two other Chinese women who we are trying to help train for leadership.  It's been incredible to meet with them separately each week to get feedback; their cultural insight has been invaluable to myself and the other leader in terms of helping us see things that I don't think we ever would have considered before.  I will never cease to be amazed at the vast cultural differences between the Asian and the Western mindsets.  It seems like our study is going remarkably well, no doubt largely due to the fact that the two Chinese women have been so honest and so influential
 in helping us steer the ship! The other photo is us celebrating a good friend's birthday--with a wonderful cake that I bought rather than made due to the fact that I only discovered it was his birthday about 1 hour before he arrived at our house!  Thankful for a nearby bakery that actually has really good cakes.... :)

We only have a 3 and a half day week, then a week-long break for spring break.  We are all so excited to have a little break from the routine, and we have our lists made of things we can't wait to do with Nana (my mom) who is coming in town.  The kids have been thinking of all their favorite things to do and places to go in the hopes of getting some one-on-one dates in with one of their favorite grandparents.  We'll have my mom here for 2 weeks, so we're planning on making the most of it, and hoping the weather allows us to spend as much of it outdoors as possible!

Our first day of spring was March 21--and would you believe we had INCHES of snow that day!  We awakened to find a thick layer on the ground, which didn't last till noon thanks to the sun being out that morning.  But the kids had a ball seeing snow on the first day of spring, and the photo is of them walking across the school grounds to get into the building.

We also had the super-fun blessing of some of our dear friends coming back from the States for a visit.  Our first 2 years here some of our closest friends were the Thorpe family members.  They babysat for our kids and invested in our entire family is such a special way!  We have missed them dearly the past almost-2 years they have been gone, so we were thrilled to have them back in Tianjin this past week to play and re-visit old friends.  It made the timing of life here seem so strange, almost like we are living in a flashback; hard to believe that we're going on 4 years of life as ex-pats.