Summer Pictures IV

Forgot this fun one-- Jim & I met my sister and her husband Tim in-between Athens and Arlington one evening for dinner. We picked the city in the middle and then googled what restaurants it had; We had 2 to choose from: the Crandall Cotton Gin, or Napolis 3 Italian restaurant. The Napolis 3 was a surprisingly tasty place! If you're ever in the area, check it out! Great food, plenty of laughter... but no wine. Random factoid: Did you know it's a law in Crandall (all of Texas, anybody know?) that you can't serve alcohol within 200 feet of a church?

Summer Pictures III- Grant's Farm

My birthday (36!) happened to be just a few days after we moved in. We decided it was a necessity to put the unpacking on pause and experience our first forage into local culture: Grant's Farm. Ulysses S. Grant, that is. The outing was a short one, with highs and humidity rivaling any August day in Texas, but worth it!

Here's Grant's actual cabin:












Ellie wasn't so sure what she thought of these critters-- they were not meek and mild.













They were downright aggressive!













I know you can't tell by this picture, but this guy was on the move-- clocking speeds up to 1mph!












Grant's Farm is owned by the Anheuser-Busch company, thus the parrot's loyal pose.












K & E recommend the "fun pass" when you go: 2 milk bottles to feed the goats, 1 carousel ride, and a free drink, for $5. A bargain! Great family fun day.

Summer Pictures II- San Antonio & the coast

OK, don't actually have any pictures from San Antonio, I realized. Think I took less pics this summer, because now that we live in the US, it felt like-- it won't be another year or two before I see you all again! Anyhow, another summer highlight was our family weekend at the coast.

In my mind, the fishing trip day is the bare minimum essential of the trip. I'm not a gifted fisher-woman or anything-- there are just so many fun childhood memories that I can't not come along. Me and my bro:



















Tim (my sister's husband) and nephew Ethan



















Beautiful sunrise that morning!













Plenty of girlie dancing performances...














...and little cousin Aubrey gets her groove on too!















Fun at the beach...






































Wish I'd taken a few more-- best part of the beach afternoon was the family project hermit crab wave pool. We all contributed and collected probably 70ish hermit crabs and made a little habitat for them... i.e., imprisoned them for a few hours. Any of you guys get a shot of that?

Missing China

Alas has come the sad day when I looked to the side of my blog and realized, it still says I live in Asia. Having some sad missing Asia moments today, but it's time to change the blog. No more "China time zone" app. No need to put a new one, because you all know what time it is here.

But can I tell you three fun China things I've found--

#1. Lu Lu's Chinese restaurant. Awesome Chinese food rivaling our fav restaurant in Beijing. Fun family night discovery when we drove down to the "China town" here in STL.

#2. Olive Farmer's market, which is really not a farmer's market, but a Chinese food market. I haven't been to it yet, but I'm told it has ALL the ingredients we need for HOT POT...

and # 3. Hot Pot friends! I've met another mom here in the counseling program who has also lived in China, and she and her hubby also LOVE spicy hot pot. It's a date!

Summer Pictures I- Athens & Dallas

Yeah- I finally found the camera cable in a random box. The house is mostly unpacked, but we had a bit of leakage in the basement during a big rain overnight a few nights ago, so we are going to have to completely re-work the office downstairs and all the books. But I think we're doing pretty well-- today marks 3 weeks in our new home!

Pictures of the house to come soon. But for now-- catching up on the summer. Here are the pics from Athens and Dallas:

We spent a lovely evening with GG & Da at a friend's cabin, fishing, enjoying BBQ, and watching the sunset out on the porch. I believe it also was this night that we gave the "go ahead" to our realtor and accepted the seller's contract on our current house.

This little pond was filled with young trout and it was a great try-me fishing experience for the girls.



















I love Ellie's cutie-patootie-look-at-my-fish pose :)































Another highlight from Athens was blueberry picking! Never done it in my life!






































Look at all them-there berries!!














A girl's got to have her new summer shoes.
















The girls spent a lot of time at "Da's store"-- Da (Jim's dad) owns a Feed & Fertilizer store, but as far as the girls are concerned, the most important feature is the goodies in the front. K plans to turn it into a candy factory one day.



















Happy Anniversary GG & Da- this pic taken on their #42!



















We also took a day trip to Dallas to meet little baby cousin Andrew!



















Swimming in the pool with Dingo












































More to post tomorrow!

Settling In...

I haven't quit on the blog!

Profound and meditative thoughts have been at an all-time low in our transition, but don't give up on me-- at least I'm about to have access to other people's great thoughts as soon as I start my program!

On the picture front-- But the camera/PC cord hasn't turned up in the unpacking, so I'm stuck on getting summer pictures onto the blog until that is found :(

Bullet point update:

-Girls start school tomorrow! They are so excited. Mommy is too. I think this is going to be a great year for them!

-China shipment to arrive on Wednesday! Yeah for the final influx of unpacking!

-Mommy's school starts next week. According to the girls, all I need is a pink backpack and a cool lunch bag, and I'm ready to go :) Ordered my books online tonight... Factoid: in 10 out of 15 textbooks, Amazon was cheaper than the seminary's bookstore.

-Ellie had an "asthma event" over the weekend-- Not willing to say she has asthma, but we ended up in a pediatric clinic with breathing treatments and came home with a nebulizer for more. Prednisone and the whole bit. She's getting better... unfortunately her family history is stacked against her!

-Yeah for the public library! This place is awesome. Of all the places I missed having in Asia, I'm probably most excited about access to the library. I love finding great children's literature-- Reading books to the girls is one of my favorite things in the world!

OK... more to come when I find the camera cord!

Quick Update...

I have so many pictures to post that I'm sure my mother-in-law has given up on me, but TOMORROW is the road trip to Saint Louis!! Tomorrow night sleeping for the first night in our new house! Three cheers for the the beginning of the end of transition!

On the Road of Transition

Today we became somewhat official home owners-- in Saint Louis, Sandi! :)-- we can't back out, but we haven't closed. I am cautiously excited... writing the largest check of your life has a way of sobering you.

In the midst of our chaotic transition, I've at moments thought of engaged and meaningful posts that have never made it on the blog.

-There's the "I'm losing my mind" post,

-and the "what the *bleep*! have we done?" post,

-and then the "trauma in the shoe store" post...

-finally, not to be outdone, the "my children are surely going to have to see a counselor one day for THIS" post.

But I digress.

The fact remains that we walk, run, hurl ourselves headlong into the unknown with bits of faith, and fear, and anxiety, trust (and as of today, home ownership!) all mixed into one big ball.

We've enjoyed processing the last two days with other families who have also recently moved to the US from overseas. There is enormous comfort in knowing, we aren't the only insane ones out there.

Glorious!

We Have a Contract!

Update on the house--we have a contract! This means that we now enter into the inspection period-- where as the buyer I'm comforted to know-- I have 10 more days to back out for any reason! We should know by Friday if there's anything else majorly wrong with the house, and a final decision, before we are offical home owners. Yikes! (The picture below-- that's the one!)

While Waiting for a Home

This morning we are waiting for a call from our realtor. We are waiting to hear if our housing contract has been accepted by the seller. It feels so austere and removed—we aren’t allowed to speak to sit down with him, shake his hand, or look him in the eye. Everything is mediated. So I don’t know anything about “the seller.” What does he think of our offer? What kind of a person was he, living in this house with his family for 20 years prior to selling it? I don’t know. But it’s agonizing to wait for the phone call.

When you are looking to buy a house, you start talking about what you desire in a home. This is all good and necessary—this kind of fence in the back yard; this kind of cabinets in the kitchen; this kind of flooring; and this size master bedroom; within this school district, etc… You categorize these into

1. I can’t live without this.
2. This would be a nice bonus.
3. There’s no way on earth would could afford that but wouldn’t it be cool if…

But at some point in the discussion you stop and think to yourself— “I wonder how the vegetable man in China would break up these categories? And you begin to do the dance between stating your desires for a home while remembering “this is not my home.”

So this morning, waiting on the realtor, as I was reading the end of Luke 23, I noticed something. Joseph (of Arimathea; the one who asked Pilate for Jesus’ body) was waiting for something too.

He was waiting for the kingdom of God.

And I began to wonder what other people in the New Testament were waiting for. Bigger pots? A nicer hut? Some land on the good side of Jerusalem?

-Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”

-Anna spoke about the child to those who were “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

-Jesus tells a parable about being ready like those “waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”

-Jude reminds us “Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

So while I’m waiting for a call from the realtor, I wonder,

Am I waiting for the hope of my new house?

Or am I waiting for the hope of my new Home?

Could This Be the House?

The housing search has been a roller coaster ride. We took a trip last Sun-Thurs. to look for the house that shouted, "I'm the one"-- and that just hasn't happened. We walked away with 3 good options and waded into the process of making a contract. Offers...counter offers... it needs a new roof...sorry he's out of town for a week...maybe you should increase your cap just a WEE bit...Sorry won't do that...Meanwhile the days are clicking off the calender and we hope to move into a home by August 4th! Anxiety producing, yes! Anyhow, we hope to have a bona fide contract on this house by the end of tomorrow... more news to come!

Anyone know if the leaves on this tree in the fall will turn RED?

July 4th as a New US Resident

Somehow this ended up in my draft box instead...

This is the first July 4th in many years I have celebrated as a resident of the United States. It feels awkward to even write that... like I'm talking about someone else. But, you can see what I mean:

July 4th, 1992: Costa Rica
July 4th, 1994: Estonia
July 4th, 1995: China
July 4th, 1997: China
July 4th, 1998: China
July 4th, 1999: China
July 4th, 2000: China
July 4th, 2001: China
July 4th, 2006: Singapore
July 4th, 2007: Singapore
July 4th, 2008: China

This list is to remind myself that these strange feelings I'm having today-- there's a reason for them. I tell you, it feels entirely different to celebrate your own country's national holiday in another country. It either makes you even MORE patriotic than normal, or it makes you feel like "our" way of viewing the world can be a bit narrow. I've felt both. And today? Well today, I'm just a person seeking to remember who I am in Christ, in the midst of the massive changes in our lives...holding to the foundation & freedom that is true no matter what it says on my passport!

You know what was really special about this July 4th? My dad & I climbed up on the roof of the house I grew up in and talked. We said we were going up there to watch fireworks-- (and my parents do have a great view of downtown San Antonio skyline from the roof-- who knew?)-- but after witnessing Chinese New Year celebrations out my bedroom window the last few years, I have to say that US fireworks just can't compare. (China did invent them, after all.) Back to my point. My dad and I talked. About life. On the roof. Treasured time.

Speaking of roofs, in the next post... I'll update our housing search... maybe we will have an address by then??

Goodbye to China #12

OK, this truly IS the last "goodbye China" post... :(

In all the upheaval of our move, we found a forgotten bag of fireworks, and decided it was the perfect way to spend our last evening in China. So after a AWESOME Chinese food dinner from our favorite restaurant that I already miss, we went out with a bang.

Goodbye to China #11

I'm back after 2 weeks of serious transition-- we left China the day after the last post, and it feels we have been gone already a LONG time! But I wasn't finished with the China goodbyes...

This post is for my dear friend Amy who came to spend the weekend with me 2 weeks before we left. Amy & I have been friends since our sophomore year in college, and the Lord has continued to weave our paths together in more ways than we could have expected. Never in the same city in China, but always taking every opportunity for a weekend rendezvous as only living in China could allow! In the early days before secure email, we passed long letters back and forth whenever anyone was traveling between cities, grateful to spill with a dear friend who was NOT in our own immediate situation. I can't count the number of times we have traveled to see each other. Saying goodbye to her wasn't really saying goodbye, because distance between cities, countries, miles & time zones has never impeded our friendship! I love you sweet friend!

Goodbye to China #10

The girls also had their very own goodbye gathering-- an ice cream party! We swarmed the downstairs xiao mai bu (like a 7-11 without slurpees) as the local store owners gawked at the large gathering of mostly foreigners.
































The big kids enjoyed popsicles (how do you spell that word?) too...












Jim with Eric & BJ














The whole Newcomb family, with grandma Newcomb too





























































K has been especially sad these last few days... She said "Mom, when I have to stay here, I want to leave, but when we have to leave, I'm so sad we can't stay... It guess it would be good if I could learn to be happy where I am."

Ain't that the truth??!