Happy Birthday Darling!

Our sweetheart is one year old already! We just finished a really fun celebration of her first year, here in the courtyard of our apartment complex with local and foreign friends. It was a super special time- lots of fun with a good game Matt arranged and some yummy cake (honestly, might have been my first ever not-from-a-mix cake and gratefully, it turned out pretty well!) I need to learn to get more pictures though... I think I had 4 times as many shots of Isaiah's first party just because my hands were more free then!

This little girl is sure winning our hearts more and more every day. She loves to shoot kisses (no hands, just the sound from her lips), to get our attention by putting her face right in front of ours to point out what she wants, to ask for more food by opening her mouth as wide as it possibly could be, and she plays pretty fiesty with her brother too! She is all joy and delight for us!

I so look forward to celebrating this day with Marian (and with Isaiah) when we can discuss together their Grandma Lynn and her legacy for them. My mom would have loved sharing her birthday with her darling granddaughter. I really missed having her here with us to celebrate Marian, and I really miss being with my mom to celebrate her.









The relay water game that Matt led for all our little friends was a big hit!
And after the party, we got comfy and relaxed with a few good friends who joined us for dinner at our place. What a great day!

our gold medal opportunity

Most of the city is hanging on these games in one way or another and game tickets are cheap so it seems the best thing to do is to join in with the festivities! We've been able to see several games- handball (turns out to be a decent sport), tennis (we saw American J. Blake beat Federer), and volleyball- and we have a day of track and field in the Birds Nest still ahead (this Friday- Matt will be there with some guys... its too long a day for me!). To wrap things up, we will get to watch the Gold Medal Baseball game and cheer for Ryan Hall in the marathon as he runs just a block away from our apartment.

Here's a few summer pictures for you-

first crush

Isaiah's teachers at school told me that he made a little classmate cry. I was immediately very concerned and then a little bit stumped as both of his sweet teachers started giggling while they told me "We think he likes Guo Guo. He likes hugging her and holding her hand, and sometimes he pushes her. You should ask him if he likes her." Like her or not, our sweet big boy needs to learn how to handle his affection and emotions in such a way that his little friends aren't scared off by him! Still, since we were at preschool (a Mandarin language environment for him), I asked him in Mandarin "ni xihuan Guo Guo ma?" He answered me straight away, in English, "I like Guo Guo. I like to give her hugs."

Looks like we will be working on gentleness for a while.

Pictures forthcoming.... I didn't have my camera on me as the story broke.

Thank you, Lord, for Someone

(I wrote this a few days ago.)
The Olympic Games begin this evening in our city, and for us, a far better, bigger thing begins this morning- right now- in our home. Yesterday a good guy passed a word onto my husband that was spoken to a dear friend of ours, E. “Someone told him, pray for an hour a day and your life will be changed.” We had talked about a plan like this for our days recently- getting up early-real early, but we’ve been horribly sick the first few days of these intentions.... Lord, meet with us now! For far too long we’ve rushed through our “devos” as if we really only have such a slim amount of time to ever spend on the Lord. Forgive us, God. How sad... withholding from ourselves the pleasure of meeting with God and dwelling with him, lingering with him for enough time to make it matter. Meet with us now, Lord, in your mercy. Change us Lord, for your great glory, for our great good.
I can already see that soon this little-more-than-an-hour is going to feel way too short. Come Lord Jesus!

And now today.... I will add:
This is a good, sweet plan for us. Hard, but good... excellent and needful. Some mornings are harder than others to just GET UP, but always this is the most worthwhile time. It has been an enormous blessing for me to have a head start on the day before our kids are up. Having a solid chunk of time instead of a rushed panicky time for devotions, instead of racing to squeeze in a "quiet time" before our early birds start chirping, my heart can start the day with so much more peace than I ever have otherwise. And isn't that who he is for us anyway? "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

fish face and a few new tricks

Marian mastered "fish face" and launched out for her first solo steps last week. We still haven't gotten any good shots of her solo gigs but here's one of her walking with her papa. Isaiah also did great a few days ago, playing for the first time in months on the scooter that we got him for his birthday. He took off like a little pro.

the rest of our vacation

We've been home from the coast for a few weeks now and I'm just finally getting a chance to post a few more shots. Our time away was pretty relaxed so there's really not many stories to tell. It was good time just to play and BE together.... less hurried than regular life allows. We are so grateful.




The thing that looks like a helicopter in the distance is actually a large dragonfly just a bit over Isaiah's head.

summer vacation- the train ride home

What a blessing to be able to stay in a friend's apartment, near the coast, for a few days of play and rest. We greatly enjoyed the time having fun with our sweet kiddos, reading, relaxing, and seeing just a few neat sites.

The coast was kind of a wacky one-- solid green with some sort of algae invasion. They called in the army (the street outside our apartment had approx. 50 troop carrier trucks lined up) and hundreds- maybe thousands? honestly, it was a lot!- of soldiers were working hard down at the shore, shoveling the green away. More photos coming...

One of the highlights for Isaiah was the train ride there and back. On the ride home, he was the entertainment for about three cars full of passengers while he wildly, joyfully ran up and down the aisle along with a little boy who, for those moments, became Isaiah's best friend. Marian couldn't have been happier to see her brother having so much fun!

a prayer to be sung

I've been trying to collect some especially good songs together to form a little hymnal for our home. I love that our son, Isaiah, really enjoys music and I'm glad to play some good kids tunes for him much of the day, but I've declared that when he is "helping " me in the kitchen, "Mama gets to sing mama's music." (We actually do spend a fair bit of time together in the kitchen since he loves to rinse the dishes after I wash or to play with beans or rice in a bowl while I'm cooking.) So my little hymnal should fuel me with some excellent prayers and lessons to sing aloud.

So far I have about 45 songs, most of which I haven't heard sung on Sunday mornings before, but I've chosen them based on the lyrics seeming especially excellent. Today I came across a song "Lord of our Life and God of our Salvation." I am so excited to have such rich words to sing aloud in our home, for my own heart to be hear and for our children. If you're interested, you can see the lyrics and hear the good melody here.

Also, I'm willing to pass on the hymns I've collected if you'd like to use it in your kitchen too! Email me if you want me to send you a copy.