wake up little sunshine

I remember thinking years ago that if a sappy mom could have a few favorite posts of her kids, this is one .  Certainly, I don't have favorite kids.... but posts? Yeah.  Those pics of Vivi's sweaty head, back when she had blue eyes and her big brother delighting in her new-for-that-afternoon awakeness, all with him again.  Favorite sweetness for this mama.

And now this...  same sweet silly girl and the morning wake-up this time.

All this love and sugar and sunshine.

Couldn't love this girl more...

  

And then the obligatory Good Morning Headstand.  Just because she's fun like that.  

Summer Adventures {the boys' bike trip}

In May, Matt and I began thinking over what fun we could plan for this summer.  For me, this weighed in kinda heavy with the voices of two wise women who had spoken with a bit of friendly-motherly love to me while we were in the states a few months ago:  "You really need to find a way, a place, to rest your souls there... and enjoy China."

I know well that I run the risk of sounding super complainy and totally unspiritual, but I'll just shoot straight with you:  China is very hard for me to enjoy a lot of times, and I don't know if I've ever felt refreshed, rested after any "time off" here.   We're here for the people but sometimes we get worn out and need a little pause to the action, the translation, the continual adjusting of perspectives. We enjoy sitting across a table for good conversation and knowing and sharing hearts with friends here.  But we don't enjoy being a public spectacle simply for being foreign, my heart sinks for every pile of trash, and my nose scrunches and my skin crawls anytime anyone (especially us girlies) in the family has to use a public bathroom.

But our kids are getting bigger and this seemed like a summer worthy of adventure.  Little did we know our dear friends who are especially drawn to a mountain minority group would plan a bike trip to be among those people... in this spectacular scenery.

the ancient mountain fort of Tashkorgan

Sadly, the biking was too heavy duty and the "ride in the van alongside the cyclers" option was of no interest to our girls, especially Marian, who was confident she'd be car sick the entire week.  

It felt really unfun and totally undesirable to go separate ways for a boys week of adventure a short flight to the south and a girls week a day's train-ride east... but that's what we did. 

The beauty on the bike is one of my best friends here... love this lady and love her love (His love) for the precious Tajik people.

Studly boys.... Isaiah is so grateful to have such a tight group of young men to be with in our city.  

And these two.... I get teary even thinking what to write about my husband.  He's too great a gift to me- generous with encouragement and affection and he serves us so kindly.  And this John Timothy?  What a joy....  he's super committed to his buddy Noah J (who just broke his leg rollerblading!  So glad he made it through the bike trip before he got couch duty for the rest of the summer!)

God's promise.  My treasures.

Our kids' former Chinese tutor, friend to many of the friends on this trip, went along for this journey too.  And I think it was while everyone was gathered for devotions one evening that she came running in, announcing "彩虹, 彩虹!!!"  My boys didn't even know the whole story, but I heard from others: she had decided after earlier rains she'd love to see a rainbow and she prayed for exactly that.  And when it came- doubly so, in radiant brilliance- she just about came undone and spilled over with the joy of this evidence of God's promise... and answer to prayer!

I can't hold off any longer to tell you how blown-away grateful I am for the friend who shared his talent with us in these photos.  Josh, of www.farwestchina.com, is over-the-top in his collection and quality of talents.  Matt really loved connecting with him on this trip and I am crazy thankful to get to appreciate and keep in our family record all the beauty he so fantastically captured of their time.  

Josh has a drone... and our John is pretty starry-eyed over that flyer, just like I am over these photos!

The photo above and below are from another friend who I think snapped these on an iPhone!  The bikers were so excited to "stumble upon" a game of ___  (I forgot the local name but they call it "goat" in English, which is not a very accurate translation- just descriptive of the game.)  These two teams of horsemen are all after the goat carcass, and whoever gets it to their team's goal first wins.   

the Central Asian version of polo (upping the tough-guy-ness, minus the country club)

The first and last day of the trip they were in the biggest city in these parts.... the cultural capital of the people group we love.  Such a great place, such great people!!

We are so glad our boys could have such a great experience, with their dad and their dearest friends, seeing the richness and depth of beauty in this precious people.  May you plant deep in them, Father, a compassion and perseverance like your Son when he came so far to reach us.  And please stoke into flame in their hearts affection for you and ambition to serve the least reached and the most needy.  

And.. here's a video of their trip that Josh also put together.

The Girls' Adventure...

With our boys heading off for a week of cycling, we jumped on a (new) speed train headed for a city with a few girls we know who speak English.  Our girls have been hurting for more fellowship lately...  there are two girls in our town that they dearly love but sometimes two feels terribly few.  We went on a girl hunt, of sorts, and found several great girls for our girls to make some fun memories with.  

This is "Kanbula Forest".... except that there's no forest to it.  Still, it was beautiful.

So fun that they each had a friend come along for this day!  Marian (our most extroverted) told me "This whole trip got a lot better when Aria came along!"  And Vivi was pretty delighted to get to play with the ever-so-silly Keeva E..  And a treat for me too... Ryan (Keeva's daddy) drove and I got to talk long with his adorable wife who I just love, who gave birth just two weeks after our forest drive to the bundle she was carrying...  Welcome sweet Abel! 

winding through Kanbula

The Yellow River with it's rugged beauty cliffs in the distance...

and the mud pit - "quicksand" - they made with all their sloshy jumping!

After two days in town with friends, the girls and I headed out to the mountains for two nights, just the three of us.  They were brave but I think that all of us felt pretty lonely.  Still, it was a really sweet place we got to stay.  (Tibetan prayer flags kinda covered this area.)

They indulged me in a little posey posing... but my photo skills at this time, and still, have not yet appeared!  Where are you Manual Mode Magic abilities?  I'm taking a cheap online class and I'm really trying but I'm having such a hard time getting photos crisply focused!  Still... these girls are pretty cute even with a little fuzz, right?   And if you noticed Vivi's pajamas... she didn't take them off for three days.  Somehow warm clothes for our little girl never made it into the luggage, but pajamas worked.  Perfectly acceptable outer wear....  (and I'm not joking in the least!)

I know this might just sound ridiculous, but it's so very true.  Our normal, outside lives are pretty surrounded with plastic and trash.  This mountain retreat place felt so good to be able to fill up my eyes with natural materials- wood, brick, stone, even thatched roofs- and even with moss growing delicately.  This was one of my favorite things from our time there.  

Here's our little mountain town...  What a name, eh!?

Hello Mr. Yak!

more poor photography... but still sweet girlies.  

When this camel stood up, the girls faces went instantly from "how cool is this!?" to "too high, too wobbly, too scary... get us down!"

We loved our little room.  The girls called it our mountain cottage.

this patio was my favorite

Leaving this mountain town was when we stumbled into one of my favorite moments of our week.  We waited half an hour on the side of the road for the first of two buses we'd need to take toward the city.  When it finally came, I gathered luggage and let the girls hop on ahead of me.  Just as I stepped up to climb in, I heard the whole bus of about 40 people gasp and chuckle with delight.  I'm guessing there were at least a few Tibetan herdsmen on board who hadn't seen any little blondies before.  The whole bus seemed lit up with smiles as we squished our way to the back to find seats... where the girls put their feet up on bundles of mountain herbs and veggies being taken to market.

heading to the pool...

And for our last night away... (actually, our last-last night we slept on the train riding home, but our last stationary night away)...  we stayed in a downright fancy hotel.  It's plain crazy how sparkly this place was, and that we stayed there for the price of La Quinta by the Orlando airport... well, that's crazy too.  Such a treat to get to go swimming and eat a stupendous western breakfast!  And even better than the cushyness of all this, was that somehow our room came with four tickets to breakfast.  I pretty-pleased and the girls smiled big and they said we could invite two young ladies to join us as our "fourth ticket".  Such a gift to get these sweet sisters with us for the morning!

I hope so much that when our girls look back on the memories of this week they'll remember that the three of us can tough our way through hard things, we can trust God together and for each other, we can be content with instant noodles and we can be content with bacon and french toast, and we can step out- even lonely- and see the Father who is always with us, do great things in and through even us.   

Oh, girls, Love Him with all that you are.  There is none more worthy, more glorious, than our Savior!

And I love you too.  Love you so.  Thank you for this special week with you, my treasure girls.  

~ your mama

stateside gifts....

Warning... this is just for the family record.  Waaaaay to long for non-family to read!

A few pics from Conway Little League Fall Ball.  (The mama here is only a few months behind on posting pics!!)  This little hole in the dugout was the perfect spot for John to send out his requests for snacks and drinks and for his sisters to indulge him.) 

He had a great coach and team of good boys to play with...  we're so grateful for this opportunity!

And the participation trophy!  He hardly put it down for a few days.  (Matt barely made it through one of those days with out at least a few snarky comments about how everybody gets a trophy these days... but still, he loves his boys!) 

My big guy....(on the right, pitching! forgive the poor photo please?)  My camera was broken for most of their season and right when I got a new one, this guys last game was at night when it was pitch black.   Good thing he played much better than his mama did for photos!

Fall Ball was a big one... but there have been dozens more incredible gifts for our boys.  They both progressed well in schooling (John finally coming towards more confident reading on his own), and they made just a few good friends at their little school.   AWANAS @ KPCO was a gift-  John got the Sparky and several awards and Isaiah was Nov Clubber of the Month.  They both loved the games and got more of God's Word in their hearts.  They even got to enjoy Kennedy Space Center with precious AWANAS friends...

And the Howdies were here (friends from China that "just happened" to be in Orlando the same season as us!?).  Some fun times at the lake and swimming and lego-ing with those guys!  And there was that time that the kids and I were enjoying some grass therapy at our little campground front yard (along with a some cheddar popcorn) and we watched, just sat there with front row seats, for a little plane to fly across the lake and take flight- straight off the water.  

The boys learned to do a bit of hard work cleaning up at our old rental house.   And there was swimming for homeschool recess while we stayed with our dear friends, the "Shacks".  Crazy amazing blessings!  Isaiah got up on water-skis.  There was a Gatorland outing gifted to them with yet more and super precious China friends.  There were splash pad and library visits- where our big guy got hooked on the Redwall (by Brian Jacques) series.   We ate ice cream and these two alone ate at least two dozen bags too many of tortilla chips.  The kids got to pick out a live Christmas tree for the first time :).

And... we got to spend the week before Christmas at the beach.  First, wonderful time for that!!!  Not only did dear friends gift us with 5 days to spend at their *beautiful* condo at New Smyrna Beach, but Bart and Judy worked it into their schedule to join us for the last two days, once we saw that the condo had space for 8!  Such a blessed time!

Then there's the grandparents. What a gift to get time with them in January as Dale and Mary have bounced between two central FL brothers' homes and stopped at our little cabin by the lake in between.   The kids had an overnight with their grandparents at Uncle Tony's place by his church on the beach.... and they got wristbands so they could ride limitlessly at the church carnival.  They came home starry-eyed (and Matt and I enjoyed two super fun double dates~ with the Johnsons and the Dys~ and got the bulk of our crazy load of packing done while they were gone too!)  There was a bit of overthetop-ness in lego indulgence from these Grands at one point, and that outing was crowned with a heap of Chick-fil-A goodness too.  Speaking of the beloved fast-food, that has sure become a solidly established favorite too!  

Matt and I wanted to treat his parents to something- since we're so regularly on the receiving end with those two!- and we thrilled to get all eight of us into Medieval Times with a discount for a super fun, memorable, enjoyable night.  

Before Christmas we moved from our friends' lovely home to a darling little cabin in a campground by the lake where Matt and I were married.  It's beautiful.  John came alive fishing for tadpoles, and little fish and shrimp, by just plunging cups or buckets in the water.   Sweetest cheer to hear Isaiah boast in John's fishing skills and perseverance.  Our campground living provided fooseball, canoes and a kayak, and more picnics on the grass for talking time together... (I hope they loved this as much as I did!)  and the cabin's in a good place for us to get to see more of the legend, Jonathan McK, who our boys love....  the trio proved to be tough in the Ninja Zone class they got to enjoy three times for free!    

Our entire time in the states was bookmarked by two fantastic weeks with the Bismarck Ks....  the first week was for Dale and Mary's 40th anniversary (how fantastically awesome of them to celebrate their anniversary by inviting all of us to join them for a week!?) and the last week we gathered for cousin Lee and beautiful Aubrey's wedding, which was fantastically located in Central Florida!    Here's the amazing grands, and our kids with their treasured cousins....

Initially I was going to write a whole post about the boys and one for the girls... but alas, this one is already too long and there'd be too many repeats so I'll just make the girls a PS on this post and pray for grace to cover me in years to come when they see how I've treated them.  I'm sorry dear loves.   It's time to just get this darn thing posted!

Girlies...   You were pure JOY to witness this fall...  Marian, you tasted your first (at least the first that you really noticed and remembered) rice krispie bars in August when Grandma Marian brought them to Blackduck and you got her to teach you all her skill that very afternoon.   Then we arrived back in Orlando about 13 hours before your first day of school, where you were really nervous, didn't know anyone, hadn't ever been to a school or school in America or ... lots of stuff was brand new and you were nervousexcitedscared.  The second Monday (second day of school at their homeschool-type school) you brought rice krispie bars to share and I'm pretty sure the entire school felt like you were their friend by the end of day two.  When we left in Feb you gave photo frames to three girls:  your BFF at church, at school and at Awana.  I love this about you.  

Vivian, you grew so much!  Truly, I think you gained the most height this season.  And you blossomed with more of your own sparky delightful personality.  When I asked you what one special thing you wanted to do, you were sure it was ballet.  So we signed you up and bought the tutu and the shoes at Once Upon a Child.  And then you saw Marian's first day at gymnastics and you were tearfully positive that you Really wanted to do gymnastics.  But you finished the month and one recital (that you stayed backstage for the entirety of!) somewhat valiantly before you started in gymnastics as well.... and you did wonderfully!  Both you girls were promoted after just a few lessons when instructors saw your skill and hard work.  That made your mama so proud!

Vivi, you also loved school and counted all of your classmates as your friends.  (I think there were only about 8 students in your class?)  And I love that you are bold and brave to enjoy the little men around you- unafraid even when teased by your siblings for connecting with the little brothers of their friends or enjoying the little guys in your class.  Way to go dear.  This blessing is richly yours, for a girl who is growing up so loved by so many- brothers and sister, mom and dad, grandparents....  I'm praying for all the future friendships and for the future spouses of each of you treasured kids!

trickle treat

So there were just a tiny bit excited for their first time to Trick or Treat!  But, good thing we went over what they were supposed to say and do to get the goods, because Marian was entirely ready to smile big and hold out her bag saying "Trickle Treat!"

The dear friends we are living with (yep, you should be thinking of insane generosity and uber kindness to invite our crew into their home for 3.5 months!!)  not only loaned me their camera when mine was broken, but also let Marian dress up in this Dorothy costume.  May decided she would rather be her favorite American girl, Samantha, but whoever she was, she was cute and she was ec-sta-tic to be dressed up and hauling home c a n d y like never before.  

John didn't want to get dressed up and he didn't want his photo taken....

(The pink socks were for Oct- Breast Cancer Awareness.)

Isaiah wasn't interested in dressing up as anything, until I suggested he just wear his little league uniform and he thought was a good plan.  (Pictures of little league coming soon- I just got a new camera this weekend!!).  Vivi had a ballet recital- that she was in tears behind the stage for, to nervous to get on stage with her class- but at least he adorable tutu made a good costume too!  Our friends loaned her the hat that crowned this little miss into one spectacularly sweet "princess fairy ballerina".  

And John....  he didn't want to dress up.  He stayed in his school clothes even when I suggested that he might not get any candy if he didn't get dressed up.   He held his ground... until he saw how fun it was to knock on doors, with mom and dad just a few steps behind him, and fill up on sweets.  I handed him the bag I brought along for him and told him "just tell them that you dressed up as John." And Matt corrected me.  "No- just say 'I work at Target.'" John's costume got the most joy at every house we went to that night.   

We got to walk the neighborhood with some very dear friends...  little Miss Natalie was a stunning butterfly.  And her cool mama snapped this on her phone when my camera battery was dead.  #sothankful!