yesterday's not today.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.

psalm 16:5,6

My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength 

of my heart and my portion forever.

psalm 76:26

[my not so artsy husband took this picture and liked it. good for him.]

Even though my yesterday was yucky, it doesn't mean my today will be.

He reminded me of that in the exact verses that were set out for me to read this morning. I love when He does that. And He knows that I do.

the only explanation

Someone asked a question to me and some friends on Sunday.

"Is there anything in your life that makes sense only because of the Resurrection?"

I just smiled [an under my breath kind of smile where nobody really sees it... because it's really just between me and Him anyway.]

"Yes!" i thought. "This only makes sense because of You!"

I'm grateful that this question makes me smile. I want to come back to this question when I can't see when driving my scooter to class. When I can't take my hands off the handles long enough to open my helmet's shield-thing so I can reach my eyes to wipe off tears. Crying because I can't remember why this is worth living in a foreign place.

I love moments [and God is good to make these moments frequent in my thought life] where He reminds me that the only explanation is because of this resurrection life, outside of that it doesn't make sense.

march

Mom showed me a pretty funny picture the other day [above]. She took it while we were walking around our apartment complex and ran into our friends. Mom mentioned this picture being a perfect image to sum up her time here [as far as Noah's interactions and our reactions].

We also made a couple of trips to the hospital during her last week here.

One was a surprise and one was planned.

[apparently noah has me making this face a lot lately. well, this one and another one.

which happens to be too scary to put on our blog. sometimes scott tells me it's like fire blowing out of my ears. great.]

Noah had a misstep and hit the back of his head, resulting in 3 stitches. He finally got them out yesterday. A little ashamed to say I made Scott and two of our guy friends go instead of me. I just can't take seeing all that yucky stuff again.

The other was a trip to see the little baby at 17 weeks. Mom got brave and decided to give it another go. I felt like we needed to redeem her first-time-chinese-hospital experience, probably traumatic since she had to be in the room holding her grandson down so that he could get stitches. Way to go, Noah.

This is beautifully captured. How do I feel when I am asked questions and have to have my heart beat measured by putting on some weird wrist thing and then holding it to my chest? twice?

Embarrassed and confused.

Which 9 out of 10 times calls for this: Group Intervention.

[which usually makes my head itch. does that happen to anybody else?]

[i realize this seems silly because you can't really see the baby, but his/her head is on the left. haven't found out the gender yet. hoping the doctor and nurse will be really sweet and tell us next time.]

I can already see Mom laughing that I put a solo picture of her on here.

For some reason, it just felt right.

I was excited that our appointment was the day before she had to leave.

She came with us, heard a heartbeat, and saw the baby move.

It was a perfect way to end her time here.

Happy and hopeful.

7:15 - 8:15

I'm convinced that all of these pictures were taken right

after Noah woke up [at the familiar 7 AM] and ate his oatmeal.

I recently heard a wise woman say that children are not our [mom's and dad's] burden to carry. I have to say I haven't quite wrapped my mind around what that means, but when I heard it I knew it was good news. Because Noah and this little baby to come is the Lord's.

Mine and Scott's to teach and care for, but His to carry.

As I was riding my scooter back home from class today [still not normal], a word

popped into my mind.

delight.

These days seem a little rough to me. Mom just made the comment "there's a reason young people have babies". It's true. Physically demanding.

But today I saw a word in my mind and it was delight.

It went like this...

delight in noah.

delight in this place.

delight in My glory.

wanting His Spirit to churn and produce this delight because I can't.

Our normal.

After I got a call from Anne Marie this afternoon, Mom and Noah and I threw some shoes on

and headed to our "downtown",

if you will.

[Mom bending down to get a picture, so of course Noah had to do the same]

Trying to rally Noah. The only thing that works

is pretending that we see Albus [his favorite dog]

or Maddox [his favorite friend].

I am grateful for space for the boys to run and play. It's a little place called Sunny Block and it's 5 minutes away from our apartment.

It's random. And it's East Asia.

Airplanes, swings, and random flower beds.

[i hated every second of riding these things. i wanted mine to stay on the ground and forgot to ask how to do that very thing before it took off. no seatbelt. only a metal bar on the side with my hand glued to it.]

What do we do while they play with flowers and walk in straight lines?

We talk.

It's small things and big things, but they're special.

And i don't care if she has her jacket tied around her waist.

And she doesn't care if my hand is awkwardly touching the nasty pole.

Week 1

We've watched this little guy.

And he's tested us a lot.

Which leads to the explanation of Mom bringing this book along with her.

Ironically, she read it while I was his same age.

Watched Curious George over and over again.

Of course, the stuffed animal has to sit beside us every morning that this goes on.

Waited on a bus that took us to sandwiches for our tummies and butter for our fridge.

[We waited an hour and it took an hour to our grocery store

with import foods and a Subway nearby.]

I've loved this first week with Mom here and it's flown by.

I've seen this city, my son, and my marriage in a new way.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to shift my view.

And I like my view being shifted.

Because my old ways are getting... well, old.

First Sight in 7 Months

About 40 hours after she left the States, she arrived! They had to reroute unexpectedly, which resulted in a night in Beijing.

But here she is.

Her first day in East Asia.

This morning will be quite the experience, as she will be joining me in my Chinese class.