Happy Birthday Nana!

This is the super-secret project I couldn't tell you about :)

Love you mom!

A Christmas Eve to Remember

 For Christmas Eve, we had our friends the Flenner's and the Newcomb's to dinner.  When we moved to Singapore in 2005, we began the tradition of making Tortellini Soup.  I'm not sure why we chose this, but it stuck. After we got the kids settled...

...and the adults sat down to dinner, 

I remembered I had forgotten the table centerpiece.  I'm not usually one to care about such things, so I was excited I actually planned for this. I ran off to the balcony to get it... I put it out there to keep the flowers fresh, since it's so COLD out there!  I'm still not sure how this happened, but a peice of this broke off in my hands and put a nasty gash in my right middle finger. I instinctively grabbed my finger with my thumb and wondered if perhaps a simple band-aid would do.

Here is the offending bowl.  See it? When I lifted my thumb, I realized this was no band-aid boo-boo. And before any of our guests had taken a single bite!  After sitting in the bathroom for a few minutes and taping my thumb and middle finger together to help the bleeding, we decided we might as well go ahead and eat dinner before heading to the hospital.

Here are my sweet friends Robyn and JJ. Do you know what they and they hubbies did while Jim & I took off for the ER? By the time we returned, the kids were playing happily, and my entire kitchen was spotless.Thanks friends!

We even made it back in time for our Advent candle 'program'!

After our friends left we promised hot cocoa and cookies under the tree.

When Kathryn cut her lip 2 weeks ago, we went to the well-known Western hospital.  It took about 5 hours from start to finish, and we paid $500.  This time we decided to try a nearer Japanese-Chinese hospital.  20 minutes away.  1 hour 15 minutes. $10. No kidding!  So if you have to end up at the ER on Christmas Eve, you should do it when your friends can watch your kids; Go to the Japanese hospital and pay $10.  Make sure you do it early enough in the evening so there is still time for candles and cookies when you get back! My little mishap in the kitchen put this Christmas on the map, but it could have been so much worse!

Merry Christmas!

Sometimes Christmas hymns feel so familiar that I miss the beauty in their lyrics. Soak in these less known phrases from common carols and draw your hearts to worship—rejoice with the saints of history before His throne! 

Paul Gerhardt, 1653

Shall we still dread God’s displeasure, who to save freely gave his most cherished treasure?

Martin Luther, 1524

A little child, thou art our guest, that weary ones in thee may rest; Thou comest in the dark-filled night to make us children of the light

Martin Luther, 1535

This little child of lowly birth shall be the joy of all the earth.

German hymn, @ 1500

This flower whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere.

Isaac Watts, 1719

He comes to make His blessing flow far as the curse is found

Charles Wesley, 1739

God and sinners reconciled

William Dix, 1865

Nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you

Cookies and More

I'm not much of a baker, but my internal meter tells me that Christmas sugar cookies are a must for healthy child development! :)

And here is Auntie Mel's 3rd annual Kid's Cookie Baking Party--thanks Mel!

And here's the first time we've ever tried a ginger bread house!  The girls had SO much fun! (I didn't bake the house. It's from IKEA!)

Compassion is a Person

Late one winter night, the woman stood outside the grocery store with her young child, begging for money.  I cannot tell you the color of her thin coat, or the approximate age of her child, or the look in her eyes.  I cannot tell you because I walked away. With my arms full of groceries for my own family, I didn’t look back.

I had decided I would no longer give anything to people begging at that corner.  After all, they came because they knew that’s where foreigners shop.  I’ve seen the same few people there again and again.  Besides, it made me angry that the mother selfishly kept her child up so late, using her to make her cause more convincing. And my own kids were waiting for me—the night was filled with our own extenuating circumstances.

But as soon as I walked away, I knew. I knew it wasn’t my job to judge her motives or whether she was truly needy.  I knew that I didn’t really need the extra loaf of bread of the top of my bag.  I knew the problem was my heart.

I made a decision that day.  You see, making ‘rules’ about certain locations, or types of people… this just gave me an excuse for closing my heart.  The point is not that I would make a new ‘rule’ to give bread to every beggar.  The point is that I would live every day with an open, merciful heart.

When we read the familiar story about the good Samaritan, we see the response we know we ‘should’ have. We feel guilty.  We remember times we have turned away.  We meant to go back, but there were good reasons… Yet when I re-read this story this morning, I saw something I never had before.  The story is not primarily about how we are supposed to live.  The story presents a Person we are to follow.  Jesus is the Good Samaritan. 

I like words.  I do geeky things like look up words and how and when they are used. The phrase that describes how the Samaritan responded to the wounded man—He “felt compassion.” His open heart proceeded his response to the helpless one—a response of coming, bandaging wounds, and bringing him to the Inn.  This phrase is only used in the gospels, and it is only used to describe God Himself. 

When He saw the multitudes, Jesus was moved with compassion.

Jesus called forth His disciples and said, “I have compassion on these people.”

So Jesus had compassion on him and touched his eyes.

Jesus, moved with compassion, touched him and said “I am willing, be cleansed.”

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said, “Do not weep.”

When he was a long way off, His Father saw him, had compassion, and ran, fell on his neck and kissed him.

Yes, Jesus does say “Go and do likewise.”  But it is not a guilt-ridden command to follow a law of mercy.  It is a picture of a Person who saw us a long way off; One who goes after those who with sickly bodies and hearts. It is a call to follow a Person.

Stir-Crazy Stuck in the House

With highs below freezing for several days in a row, we mostly stayed in doors last week.  Here was the resurrection of one of our favorite crazy indoor activities.  Gather all soft obejcts in the house and catipult yourself off the couch--Pillow Pile!

December Musings

I've been in a posting slump.  I've been working on a lot of little projects- newsletters, homeschool co-op presentation, Christmas stuff, and a super secret project I can't tell you about yet :)

My husband thinks perhaps my 'readership' has given up on me. But I think you all have been just as busy this season as I have.

He also wants me to tell you that he walked our babysitter home in the cold, for the third time in a row. (It is 20 degrees outside right now.) Thank you, thank you!

I've also had trouble keeping up with our oldest daughter.  Kathryn has ideas that send her into outer spheres of the universe and I struggle to encourage her creativity yet bring her back to Earth. In the last week she's made plans to travel to Kenya to visit our young friends Sharon and Maureen; made tickets to sell for tightrope walking lessons; opened a store to sell bows and arrows, kleenex pictures, and clay beads; and counted her money to trade her sister in a for a puppy that costs about 1000 USD. Thankfully she came up a bit short. However in a moment of generosity, Kathryn (after deciding to keep her sister) and Ellie both gave away their semester's worth of allowance to buy Christmas gift bags for 240 migrant children. Awesome.

Tonight Jim and I tried a new Chinese restaurant that had about the tastiest fish I've ever tasted.  Then we walked to the local mall and bought one more Christmas present for Ellie, since Kathryn informed me this morning that there were 5 presents under the tree for her but only 4 for Ellie. (And a few for both, but those don't count in the tally.)  And we also learned yesterday that if you pull on a string of Chinese Christmas lights, the wires will become disconnected from the circuit board.  But you can easily open the panel and learn cool things about electric circuits, at least the ones that don't involve 220 volts.

I close with a picture from this morning's sunrise.  I know it doesn't really look like much.  But for our norm, this really is a beautiful sight.

Blank No More

It takes me a really long time to decide what should go on our walls.  I'm really comfortable leaving them empty until I find the perfect thing.  You may recall the voting I conducted last winter to choose the outcome of the blank wall above our living room couch.  Yes, that wall had been empty for 1 1/2 years.  And then, there's the space above the kitchen table-- 2 1/2 years. I had a vision for it.  I have these 3 square mirrors with birch wood frames around them I was planning to paint.  I even planned what I would paint, the colors, and how they would hang.  But I never got around to that project.  I came up with something so much better! What do you think?  

  
I love my budding artists! 

Quote for the Day

So much packed in these few sentences...

"Your story has power in your own life, and it has power and meaning to bring to others.  I want your story to stir me, draw me to tears, compel me to ask hard questions. I want to enter your heartache and join you in the hope of redemption.  But your story can't do these things if you can't tell it.  You can't tell your story until you know it.  And you can't truly know it without owning your part in writing it.  And you won't write a really glorious story until your've wrestled with the Author who has written long chapters of your life, many of them not to your liking...If we come to know our story and then give it away, we will discover the deepest meaning in our lives. We will discover the Author who is embedded in our story, and we will know the glory he has designed for each one of us to reveal." --Dan Allender in To Be Told

Glad That's Over

Sometimes I look at my life and think--what we do, the kind of life we live-- it's just not normal! :)  What kind of mom takes her kids to another country for the day? Saturday I took the girls to Korea to renew our visas.  I had been dreading this trip for quite some time.  Since Jim is in the US, his visa will be renewed there. But ours expired yesterday.  Or so I thought. The night before our trip I realized I had miscalculated the 90 days, and it actually expired on Friday.  The worst case scenario I could imagine was that they would cancel my visa and require me to apply for another one in Korea... which would take days.  A fine, a signed confession I can handle.  But an unplanned stay in Seoul with the girls by myself... I was freaking out a bit.

Thankfully that's not the kind of faith God asked of me yesterday.  Albiet a long and exhausting day, the most traumatic event was the loss of Kathryn's new purple Barbie tumbler.  He even provided another mom I know who was making the same trip by herself with her kids too!  For the 6 hours in the Seoul airport between flights, the kids were fairly self-entertaining. Thank you Lord for your care for us!

My favorite quote from our trip:

Kathryn, angrily: "Mom, these crayons should be labeled undurable, undisciplined, and uncooperative!"

Reflections on a Red Leaf

Two weeks ago, I went with my friend Robyn to the Fragrant Hills, aka Red Leaf Mountain.  This is the 3rd fall I've made this trip.  During our first fall here, we went as a family with Jim, and we were too early. Still green as the summer by mid-October. Last year, we make the trek with my friend Agnes and her boys, and it was too late. Yellow leaves, yes, but the red ones were gone.  This was going to be the perfect year.  I paid careful attention and asked several locals when was the right time.  Our trip was planned for November 4th. Unfortunately, the BBC reports that on November 1st, scientists shot 186 doses of silver iodine into the atmosphere and caused the earliest snow in our city's history. That morning after, I stared out the window and did not notice the lovely blanket of white.  I only noticed that my favorite yellow Ginko tree out our apartment window had dropped all its leaves in one day. As I feared, all the beautiful red deciduous trees at the Fragrant Hills could not withstand the blast.

Here's our attempt in 2007:

And again in 2008:

And from 2009:

Me & my friend Robyn

Silly girlies...

I love the 3 tiered look!

Why, you ask, do I care about the red leaves? Ah, there's a great story here. One of my lifetime's best. Forgive me if you've heard this 10 times and permit me to tell it again.

It was the fall of my first year in China.  The honeymoon phase quickly subsided as I settled into the realities of the COLD winter ahead.  At a deeper level, I was struggling with those things I had long known in my head that seemed suddenly distant from my experience.  God says He loves me, but can I really trust that? Yes, I know He loves me in a general, 'all the children of the world' sort of way, but me, individually, personally? I pondered this profound question one day as I walked home from Chinese class along my favorite tree-lined road. The only road where fall foliage blanketed the path, I drank in the beauty--tangy-orange, chocolate-brown and golden-yellow leaves, prominently sprinkling the roadway.

All of a sudden, I realized what was missing from this scene.  That's right.  No red leaves. I scanned elusively behind, around, and far, looking for the missing color.  Then I had this strange thought:  "If God really loved me, He would give me a red leaf."  And so began the schitzophrenic conversation in my head. "I don't need a red leaf to be certain of His love!"... "But He can do anything He wants, and certainly He could bring me a red leaf."... "Lord, do you think maybe you could?... "This is ridiculous!", I reasoned, though kept my eyes peeled all the way home for a surprise gift.  By the time I made it back to my dorm room, no red leaves had floated into my hand, and I forgot about the incident.

The next day, I had an appointment to meet a new friend.  Though we'd met a couple of times before, relational progress was dreadfully slow as my paltry Chinese couldn't break the barrier.  When I arrived at her dorm, she wanted to visit outside... in the rain.  We sat huddled under an umbrella, hacking our way through a painful conversation. Shivering in the chill with a poor attitude, I wondered how long I should feel obligated to talk before I could leave. Just as I began giving off my non-verbal exit clues, my friend said,

"Oh wait!  I have something for you. I have a friend who goes to a university in the north. Her city has a famous mountain known for its beautiful red leaves.  You probably haven't noticed, but there are no red leaves here in this whole city. Not one. We're too far south.  But she just returned from a trip to that mountain, and sent me two leaves.  As soon as I got them, I thought-- "That's strange.  I don't know why she sent me two of them.  Obviously, this one is meant for my friend Tracie."

With a broad smile, she held the leaf out to me.  Teary-eyed, I tried to explain to her in broken Chinese what she had just done.  Did she know what this meant?  Did she know how beautiful this simple gift was to me, 100x better than if I had 'coincidentally' found a leaf on the road the day before? Did she know how God put the leaf in the mail to her before the thought even entered my head? Did she know how God used her to orchestrate a hand-delivered, personal expression of His love to me?

As for this year's trip, there was a bright side. (And yes, we DO now live in that city where the red leaf came from!)  I had a wonderful time taking my friend Robyn who had never been. We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and the kids enjoying frolicing in the snow. Next year, you ask?  Could we possibly plan better, waiting for the perfect combination of weather, season, and lack of government interference? Maybe. But I won't hold my breath.  I imagine-- planted around my house in heaven are hundreds of red maple trees.

"What a great story," you say. "So nice He would do that for you but He'd never do something like that for me."  Did you think that?  Let me confess that my heart lives in those cynical places on many days.  For every glorious red leaf moment, there are many more of none. Many days of unspectacular, ordinary faith. Or others days of stormy hold-on-for-dear-life flickering faith. Press on! His more miraculous work in us is learning to see by faith what we cannot see with our eyes. May He grow our hearts to unswervingly trust His unfathomably deep love for us in Christ, more lavish and grand than I felt the day I first held that simple red leaf.

Pajama Saturday

That's right.  It's pajama Saturday for the girls and me.  Does anyone else do that?  Stay in your pj's all day? 


Whew!  I finally got those pictures posted.  Don't know why I couldn't figure it out.  I've only got the ones from Fragrant Hills (We call it Red Leaf mountain) left to post. For those of you waiting with great anticipation, the expected '09 fanciful red leaf trip...may have to wait till heaven for that. More on that when I get those pictures up:)


I haven't posted much lately.  Jim's travels, house guests, sickness, internet problems, etc... 

Jim left today for a trip to the US.  All the Wallace girls were particually emotional about his departure today... I guess we love daddy:)  He'll return the day before Thanksgiving. 

I've just finished-- in my journal reading project--the fall of my 2nd year in China.  This has been the "enter Jim" journal.  We've had some good laughs at night as I've read to him from the depths of my heart in 1997. At least there has come a time that we could laugh about it!  

More on that to come...

Let it Snow!

It has snowed 3 times since November 1st-- that's 2 more times than the entire winter last year!  Government induced snow, I hear.  I don't mind--it clears out the air. First snow of the season deserves a few pics...

That one's headed towards mommy!

K's castle

Pumpkin Fun!

That's one cute Kitty!


JJ's Idea: The Pumpkin Palooza :)


 Good Lookin Kiddos!
 

Fun Carvin'... Never found any large, orange pumpkins in Asia this fall.  Small and orange, or big and green.

Fun Trip to the Zoo

Before all the snows hit!

Feeding the goats... How close can I get and still be far? 


K felt a little more natural

Bamboo makes a healthy snack


Sister Love...



















Someone just my size! 

Love My New Robe, Nana!

How Long, O Blogger?

Scattered thoughts today.  I have, for the last 5 days, been attempting to post pictures from several events... Ellie's new robe (thanks Nana!); our HR "Pumpkin Palooza"; Family Fun Halloween Party; The dramatic and unexpected snow on November 1st (that my friend just read, was in fact a "staged snow"...

(Scientists 'cause' Beijing snow (November 2, 2009, BBC News) 

Chinese meteorologists say they brought about Beijing's earliest snowfall in a decade,  after seeding rain clouds with silver iodide to ease a drought. The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said. But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting road, rail and air travel...) 

...So glad I reinforced to the girls-- "Don't eat the snow!" ...returning to my failed photo list...

...our homeschool co-op field trip, and our trip to the Red Leaf forest.  We've gotten out a lot in the last few weeks, because the long indoor season is approaching.  

But I've got a beef with Blogger.  They changed something about the way you post pictures, that technological peons like me cannot navigate.  I can download them, but once they are in the body of the post, I can't move them around.  How long, O Blogger, will you mess with my posts without reprieve? Piling login upon wasted login to a weary mom's plate? 

None of this anxiety, mind you, has to do with my husband's absence this week. 

So, this week I've been reading Habakkuk. He really is surprisingly out there. 
 

"How long, O Lord, will I call for help and you will not hear? 

I cry "violence" and you do not save?" ... 

--and a whole bunch of other comments like these

Have you ever had this kind of conversation with God?  So I'm conducting a survey.  OK, not a survey, but I'd love your comments. Do you REALLY feel free to say these things to God? Not just under your breath or from afar, but right up to His face, and trust Him to receive you, meet you, and love you at that place in your journey? 

I'm giving up posting the pictures for now.  But not on Habakkuk. In an ancient, cross-cultural, cross-generational sort of way, he feels like a wise old friend.

Embracing Lament

...However, the grave danger is this: in denying the opportunity for an embrace of lament, we miss a Christ-formed life of pain-sharing, compassion, incarnation, and Gospel-healing. We miss the opportunity, in other words, to become more like Jesus.

Quote from a beautiful, stirring article by Chuck Degroat: click here

Lovin the Leaves

This last Saturday we took a family trip to a nearby park. The weather was perfect! We spent 15 minutes in a bouncy house, but I was mostly looking forward to walking the tree path beyond the lake. The maples had turned yellow, and the Sumac (my friend BJ informed me what these are called) bushes were red! I get pretty excited about changing leaves! :)






























































These are my 4 favorite pics below:

























































Love my girls!