Edenisms

Yesterday evening Eden was sitting beside me as I was messing around on the computer.
She was sitting pretty still, thinking to herself I guess, which is very rare.

"Mommy. I don't want these."
Me, in my computer daze didn't really acknowledge her, "Ok. That's fine."
"MOMMY! I don't WANT these!"
I snapped out of it. "Ok. You don't want what?!"
"I don't want THESE!!" And she was holding on to her big toes.
"Ummmm...You don't want your big toes?!"
"Yeah, I don't want my big toes."

These are the thoughts that get her to sit still these days.

Professional 'B' Teamer

After braving this post, we've had lots of people say stuff like this to us:
"You're so brave. I don't think I could live in Asia."
             or
"What you're doing is amazing."
             or
"I'm so proud of what you guys are doing."
                etc.....etc.......etc.........

So I thought I'd go ahead and clear things up for you.

In reality, I'm a professional B teamer.  I was the kid in 8th grade math class that took the opportunity to be paired with the dorky smart kid so that I wouldn't have to work as hard.  I once literally jumped the gun in a 300 meter hurdle race so that I wouldn't actually have to run the race. (between you and me though, who really wants to run that race?!)
That's me, the one that would rather get out of doing the hard stuff.  Me and the-easy-way-out are best friends.

And so when I was in 5th grade or so and my younger sister informed my family one Sunday evening that she felt "called" to move overseas, it was just like me to say, "You're nuts. ugh....Good luck with that."   That was my 'B' teamer showing right on through.

Ironically though, God has a history of calling the disobedient and selfish 'B' teamers to do some hard stuff. And hard stuff for me includes leaving my parents and siblings. Saying goodbye to a "Target" lifestyle and drive thru windows. And embracing a new language, culture, people group, and country.

I wish I could say that I felt a specific call to move overseas. I wish I could say that I saw "China" spelled out in mustard on my cheeseburger several years ago. That would have been so cool.

But for me it's never been about a certain call or a huge answer to a specific prayer. It's always just been more of a "why not?" for me. And for the first time in my life as a professional 'B' teamer, I couldn't come up with any excuses.  I mean, I can come up with excuses, just not any that are good enough to say to God who has commanded us to go to the nations, to help the oppressed, to take care of the orphans.

No, it's not me that's brave.
I'm the one afraid of being gawked at in a different culture.
of fumbling through Chinese.
of Chinese doctors not being able to adequately care for my children.
of unbearably missing my family.
of homeschooling, chinese food, and not being able to buy shoes in my size. (yes, I'm a weirdo.)

I'm the one with these fears.

Fortunately, God does not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. And while every ounce of my 'B' teamness wants to shine through and say, "No thanks God. I'm perfectly content sittin' on the bench for this one,"  He continues to be my strength when I'm weak and help me to say "Yes!" every step of the way.

It's not me that is brave. I'm quite the opposite.
It's not me doing something amazing.
It's not me you should be proud of.    For real.

It's God who is amazing. It's God doing something awesome. And it's God whose grace is sufficient and whose power is made perfect in my 'B' teamer weakness.

Birthday Festivities!

After feeling like I sort of low-balled things for Eden's first birthday, I decided I had to step it up a notch for Salem's first birthday. With Brandon being out of the country and time to kill in the evenings, my creative gene finally kicked in.
Project #1: Birthday Banner


 Armed with scissors and a glue gun, it was really pretty easy. I enrolled Gigi (my grandmother) because she's a Jedi Seamstress to finish it off...and wah-lah...a banner we can use for years to come. My vision is that someday when I'm dead my children will be arguing over who gets to keep it because we'll use it every year. (is that weird? hoping my children argue?) meh, anyway.

Project #2: Dino Cake
I was inspired a few months back when a friend made her daughter a pink dino, saying it was easy peasy and you-tube-tastic. Sure nuff, you can find ANYTHING on there, including a step-by-step on making a dinosaur cake.


I wanted different size dots so I melted chocolate and made my own. That was really the most difficult part. And when your husband is out of town, do you really have anything better to do that to cook with chocolate? :)
















On Salem's actual birthday we had dinner with Gigi who was insistent on presenting him his very first ice cream cone.


His cousin Audrey, who you can tell he totally adores and thinks she's the greatest thing since pureed sweet potatoes, gave him some lessons on the art of licking.


Each cousin equipped with their very own...


Then a few days later we had the actual party. Despite running a low fever all day (which later turned into a 105 degree fever and developed into the Satan-disease Roseola) he really enjoyed it all!




He showed absolutely no hesitation when presented with his very own slice of cake. He gets that from his mommy.


And even had a little cheering section while he shoveled it in.

I think Eden and Judah had the idea that they too were going to be allowed to eat their cake via their hands. Can't you see the excitement on Eden's face as she claps her hands and cheers him on?!

Next came presents. You can tell he's absolutely not spoiled at all by his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.


Then after a water-turned-green-by-all-the-icing bath, he tuckered out on daddy while swinging on the back porch...glad to have his daddy home and a belly full of cake.

*note* as you can tell, I'm having issues with posting pictures. I'm going to have serious words about the new way blogger is posting pictures. if anyone can figure out how to manually manipulate pictures with this new template PLEASE enlighten me.

Happy First Birthday Salem!

Hard to believe it's been a year since this...


Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet Salem!! Little, mischievous, peaceful, adorable Salem.


More to come on his big day, party on Saturday, 1 year photos, 1 year slideshow, etc...
All when his daddy returns and the world is all as it should be again.