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| Christmas dinner |
"Oh, Ashley! Come in! Baier has just had his penis cut off!" These are the words directed at me 2 weeks ago when I knocked at the door of one of our new friends' home hoping her son could come over and play for a bit. Noah and I both did a double-take, regained our composure, and were ushered into the living room filled with women eating, visiting, and bustling around the room. Noah's eyes were huge as he looked at me and repeated over and over, "Mom, I don't want to go; Mom, I don't want to go; Mom, please don't make me go!" I tried to reassure him that it was okay, knowing myself that Baier had not actually had his penis cut off, but had just been circumcised (and this was my friend's way of communicating it--obviously a non-native English speaker). The scene before us was such an experience! The women were all dressed up (and I was mortified that I had on jeans and a sporty zip-up hoodie), heads covered, looking very elegant and proper. In spite of my inappropriate attire, the women moved around the coffee table and gave me a seat of honor, those who could speak Chinese engaging me in polite conversation. Noah went in to visit Baier, who was in pain after his procedure (what 6 year old getting circumcised in a Chinese hospital wouldn't be hurting?!), but was thrilled to have a friend stop by. I found out that the men (mainly family members and close friends) had had their party that morning and now it was the ladies' turn. All this hubub was for Baier--to celebrate this right of passage that is part of the Muslim culture for young men to go through. We stayed for some time, visiting and eating (Noah getting his pockets--all of them, and he was wearing cargo pants!--stuffed with candy). Noah asked on our walk back home if Baier had really gotten his penis cut off.
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| Fam tradition--hiding the stockings! |
Two nights before Christmas we had a terrifying thing happen--an earthquake in the middle of the night that almost shook us out of bed! Kevin jumped up and we both ran to the kids' doors, getting ready to grab them and do I don't know what. When you're on the 8th floor of a 14-story building, what do you do in an earthquake? There is no safe place to hide, no place to run and escape. We were in an earthquake one other time about 5 years ago in Indonesia and I still count it as the most frightening experience of my life. It is the most helpless feeling to see things falling and breaking around you, to feel the ground shaking and moving beneath you, and to feel like there is NOTHING you can do. So we prayed--a lot! We had just watched the movie "War Room" that night before bed with the kids, so maybe I was spurred on by Priscilla's boldness in making out-loud, bold, specific requests, but I followed right along in her footsteps and cried out for help. We were relieved when the shaking subsided and nothing in the house was even broken. The kids had slept through it all! Kevin and I, on the other hand, were rattled enough that we had no chance of sleeping any time soon. We spent the next few hours awake, but managed to get lots of Christmas preparation done in that time!
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| Christmas morning |
Our Christmas celebrating was sweet overall. We drove across town to join friends on Christmas Eve, singing together and enjoying fun holiday baking that everyone contributed to make a feast. Christmas day itself felt a bit "weird," in the kids' words. We read the Christmas story and opened gifts in the morning, talked on skype with family, then had the rest of the day to lay low, build Legos and spend time as a family. I did make some of our favorite dishes and we had our good Chinese friend, who also works for Kevin's company, over to join us for dinner. We went really light on gifts this year, and it's been neat to see how the kids weren't disappointed with what little they received, but really seem to be delighting more in more in giving to others (they had all saved up their money to buy gifts for the other family members). Living out here, where it really is hard to find material things to get excited about, I think really is making all of have the "less is more" mentality; we're increasingly more satisfied with fewer physical things. But I should probably be careful not to misrepresent us here--the things that we did get were VERY much appreciated! I can't get over how little boys can spend so many endless hours building Lego creations....
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| Trapper outdoors! |
One of their favorite gifts had to be the harness and leash we gave Trapper in his stocking. The kids were so surprised, but have been dying to take him outside, as they're convinced he desperately wants to see the outside world. So Trapper made is brave entrance into the real world, complete with his first sled ride down the hill and (cautiously) walking through the snow drifts. He didn't last long, as it was really cold and he started shivering, but seemed to enjoy the experience and satisfied the kids' longing to let him be "free"--at least for a few minutes while he enjoyed the outdoors!
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| Noah and his new best buddy |
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| swimming party! |
We were given money for Christmas to spend on the kids, and one of the things they agreed would be fun to do was invite their 8 friends (2 other families, each with 4 kids also) to go swimming at the hotel pool that is nearby, but too expensive to go to very often. So this past Monday I took the 12 kids to enjoy 4 hours at the pool. They had an absolute blast! They were in constant motion the whole time (which resulted in everyone sleeping in the next morning until somewhere between 8:45 and 9:15 am! It was beautiful!!). My favorite part was Noah making yet another new best friend. (Where does he get this personality from?!) He chose the largest man I've ever seen to be his buddy. I looked up to see Noah being launched across the pool by this man (who of course didn't speak any English). Noah kept going back for more, and the man thought it was hilarious and continued to roughhouse with Noah and the other boys.
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| I know--I'm terrible at selfies... |
I had a great moment doing homeschooling with Noah this week that again reminded me of what a TCK he is (Third Culture Kid). We were going through this curriculum called First Language Lessons that was covering proper nouns and dates. I followed the teacher's script, asking Noah in what year he was born. He answered without hesitating, "The cow." I stopped, shocked, trying to figure out what he meant. Then it dawned on me, he was answering correctly--only using the Chinese Zodiak calendar! He was born in 2009--the year of the ox. And not only did he know his "birth year," but he knew all the rest of the family's too! (I looked them up to see if he was right!)
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| chicken on the loose |
Karis and I went with our Chinese teacher to search for a local style tea set. I've of course had my own teapot and set since we've been in China, but the local friends we have here use a totally different style. You actually drink out of a bowl rather than a small cup like is typical of Chinese tea sets. So we're having enough local guests over these days (yea! huge praise!!!) that I'm getting tired of borrowing a tea set each time. Our Chinese teacher told me she knew where to go to shop for one, so Karis and I took the afternoon to go with her. It was quite an adventure, but we walked away with a beautiful set that should help me speak love to our guests. And Karis met some chickens on the way home (she never misses an opportunity!). These guys were selling chickens that were hanging out outside their store in boxes. They looked huge, just from their heads poking out, and to prove how big and healthy they were, the guy grabs one and practically throws it toward us! I squealed and let him know that the chicken was running away as the bird started strutting around the parking lot, looking for something to peck. He assured me that it wouldn't run far, and just laughed at how amused we were at the large fowl. Oh, the things we just never experienced in Dallas during a day of shopping...
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| chicken in his home! |
We had some of our closest friends over for New Year's Eve--a fun couple with a one year old daughter. They asked a great reflection question over dinner--our biggest highlight of 2015. I'm a little sad to say that it was a bit of a struggle for Kevin and me to answer! We certainly feel that while this year has been a good one, and one for which we're really thankful, it's also really been marked with a lot of significant challenges for us. But by dessert we were able to have a longer list of some of the best moments and were able to narrow it down to a few highlights. The biggest one I've been reflecting on is seeing the kids (Karis and Eli in particular) growing in their faith. It's been really amazing to see them take ownership of what they believe, asking questions and really having a heart for others and for sharing with those around them. We go to Thailand for Chinese New Year and plan on having the two of them baptized there in the hotel pool with a group of friends present. They've been preparing for this for months now, going through material in preparation, and it's fun to see their excitement over it. And while I'm bragging on them a bit, I should add in that Eli has become my main fix-it man. He spent over half an hour on the floor (as you can see in this pic) with his hand up the backside of the toilet just to get the seat affixed properly for me! It's pretty amazing how willing and adept he is at fixing things around the house! Ahh...counting the blessings of 2015 and hoping that your reflections, too, hold much thankfulness in the faithful provision we experience!
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| Eli being my big helper |
