Eden's Awesome Hair

Eden was born with a full head of hair, and it has continue to just grow and grow.  We are having a lot of fun having an infant that has hair that can already be put into pigtails!! :)

My mom, Eden's grandma, calls Eden's hair "firework hair" because of the way it stands up and then just goes which ever way it wants to.

 


Actually, the Taiwanese call pigtails "fireworks."  And, after seeing Eden's "pigtails" it totally makes sense!!  She was only nine weeks old when I first attempted to put pigtails into her hair:

It didn't take long before people started making comparisons of Eden to certain cartoon characters.  Some said she looked like Agnes from Despicable Me, while others said she favored Boo from Monster's Inc.  And, in her natural state, I thought her hair looked a lot like many of my male college students, who are attempting to be like Goku from Dragon Ball.

Regardless of who she might or might not resemble, we love her wild, crazy and very unpredictable hair, and we are having a blast trying to tame it every so often when the mood strikes us.

My First Mother's Day Reflections

This time a year ago, Lawrance and I had just completed an application to adopt here in Taiwan.  We were just taking the first steps of a long journey.  Perhaps that made Mother's Day a little easier on me last year.  I wasn't a mother yet, but  I did know that someday, even if years away, I'd be a mom.

Oh, but our merciful Heavenly Father, had different plans for us!  So true is the verse that says "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps" (Proverbs 16:9, ESV).  In fact, going back and checking my charts, the day I ovulated was the same day we mailed in our application.  I have no doubt that we were obeying the Lord by filling out that application and submitting it.  And, I have hope that adoption is still a future option for us. But those are posts for another day.

It was right after Mother's Day last year that we found out we were expecting!  I've been thinking all week about how much has changed in a year.  To think that this time a year ago our sweet little Eden was "tiny ball consisting of several hundred cells that were multiplying madly" (babycenter) and today she's a 13lb bundle of joy who loves sucking on her fingers and playing with her toes.  It is simply mind blowing how much she has grown in the last year.

We are blessed beyond measure.

Each Mother's Day for the past five years was progressively more difficult.  It was so hard to sit there in church while little kids passed out carnations to all the mothers.  It was hard to feel the physical ache of my empty arms and the emotional ache of a deep longing left unfilled.

So, I am grateful to be able to celebrate Mother's Day this year.  Not because I want to be recognized for the sacrifices I've made or because of the quality of mothering I'm doing, but simply because I am able to and because the Lord has blessed us with a little one, entrusted us with her to help her grow and develop, to train her in the way she should go.  This Mother's Day and all that follow, I don't want it to be about me; it never is nor should it be about me.  It will always be for me a day to rejoice in the blessing of being able to be a mom.

Sure there have been sacrifices and adjustments, but the joy of being Eden's mommy far surpasses any of the discomforts of pregnancy, the hard work of labor, and the exhaustion of taking care of a newborn.

Eden Joi is Here!!

After 24 hours of "false labor" followed by 25 hours of unmedicated, natural labor, Eden Joi arrived by c-section on Feb 3 (41w3d).  Due to cultural differences in medical practices, my recovery has been a very slow one. Both of us are doing well, but last week was one of the longest weeks of my life.  

We've seen God's hand of mercy over and over again, both during labor, the surgery, and in the week we spent in the hospital. Too many to name them all right now, but we sing the Lord's praises for His kindness to us.

Eden Joi, our little miracle
Feb. 3, 2013 born at 6:31am
4220 grams / 9lbs 5oz
50.5 cm / 19.9 in

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Did you miss us?  I haven't blogged regularly for probably two years now.  There are two reasons.  One, I felt like I had blogged just about everything I could have about life in Taiwan. I felt like there wasn't much more to say about life here that I hadn't already said.  And, two, infertility was a personal struggle that I didn't feel comfortable blogging about in public.

[Interesting how--at least to me--being single was an ok thing to struggle with on my public blog, but not infertility.  Perhaps one reason is that when I first started blogging I was anonymous--I didn't know my readers and they didn't know me.  But the longer I blogged, the more I met readers and more IRL people started reading it.  So, it no longer felt like I was talking into an empty hole.]

Well, in May of this year, after nearly four years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, Lawrance and I filed for adoption.  And, we are expecting a little girl in January of 2013.  However, this little girl will be from my womb!!  We found out a week or two after we turned in our application that I was pregnant!!  ;)  God has been gracious with us.  We are excited that he has chosen to bless us in this way at this time.

Here's how we announced to family and friends when we first found out.

I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant.  I'm going to attempt to revive the blog, and quite honestly it's focus will change . . . and that's ok with me since it is supposed to be our family's blog.

the everyday stuff

Cultural differences come in all shapes and sizes.  And, one of my favorite cultural differences is keys (I've blogged about them before).  They are so different here.  My first apartment had a "treasure chest" key that I thought was awesome, now our new apartment has a "retractable key" that also has a "treasure chest" key  feel to it and it's super long.  The round gray disk attached to the key allows me to enter our apartment complex's main door, our building's door within the complex  and access the elevator.  Without that gray disk, the elevator will not budge.



The two cards in this photo are also apart of my daily life now.  The bottom one is an subway card--we add money to it, and then zap it when entering and leaving the subway stations, and the cost of the fare for the ride is taken off our card's value.  The top one is a magnetic pre-paid card that I can use to buy train tickets with without having to use coins at a ticket vending machine (pictured below).  If you use one of these pre-paid cards, just remember to always take it from the machine when you leave--sadly, I can give this piece of advice from personal experience to the contrary. :(

room with a view (part 2)

After showing you what I can see from our home, I thought I'd show you what I can see from one of the rooms where I have class twice a week.  We meet in the 9th floor of the "E building. Buildings here in Taiwan are often "lettered."

Tall building to the far right is Dorm #6, while the other building, considerable shorter, on the far left is another dorm. The "track and field" is between these two dorms.  The "street" down the middle of the photo is one of the main walkways through the campus.


In this photo you can see the N building (short), the T building (tall), and the school's gym/auditorium.  My office and some of the language labs I teach in are in the N building.  I also have class twice a week over in the T building.


And, here is part of the soccer field, one of the campus buildings, and the city beyond the campus.

room with a view

In 2007, I shared the views from my windows:

• Thru My Windows (Part 1)
• Thru My Windows (Part 2)
• Thru My Windows (Part 3)
• Thru My Windows (Part 4)
• Thru My Windows (Part 5)

And, I thought I'd do it again from our new apartment--we now live on the 10th floor, so the view is pretty good from up here.

First of all we have an entry way (which I totally LOVE--a place to store things and to take off our shoes before entering our home).



From this entry way we can this:


and this:



Our bedroom has the worst view of all.  We can see this:


and this from our bedroom windows:



Our master bathroom's shower actually has a better view that our bedroom:


And, perhaps our study and guest room have the best views of all.  We can see the park right in front of us:



We can also see a department store within walking distance:

And, we can also see down the street in the other direction too: 

shine

A friend of ours introduced us to Micheal Thompson and Oneway.  We love the two beautiful worship CDs we got on itunes--Shine and a Brand New Day--that clearly worship the God of all nations.

Here is the title song from Shine; it's based on Psalm 67.  Enjoy!!

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 

The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

-Psalm 67

reflections on coming and going

Lawrance and I recently took a young couple to Meinong for a last outing before they left to go back to Canada.  They were here for a year, and now they have returned to North America to pursue seminary and to follow the Lord where He will lead them next.

Later today, I'm meeting with young lady from the UK whose been here for three years for our last heart-to-heart before she leaves Taiwan to prepare for what God has in store for her next.

Meanwhile, we've also recently had other new young couples and single ladies arrive in the last few months, each planning on coming and serving for about a year.

Seeing these guys and gals come and go causes me to reflect, and it stirs up mixed emotions.  So, here are some of the things I'm thinking and feeling these days.

One, I'm old.  Let's just be blunt about it.  I used to be the 19 or 20 year old adventuring in Taiwan and trying to make sense of this foreign place, struggling with the language and trying exotic foods.  The place is longer foreign, language no longer quite the struggle, and the foods no longer exotic.  (This photo of me in the Hakka outfit was taken in 1997 at the exact same place as the above photo of Lawrance and our friend.)

I'm no longer the newcomer.  There will always be missionaries who've lived her longer than I have, so I still feel like I'm new here.  But, I guess after nine years, I'm not really that new, huh?  Which then makes me question why haven't I learned MORE Chinese?  Why haven't I shared the gospel MORE?  Why haven't I paid off MORE of my school loans?  Why haven't I [fill in the blank] MORE?

I'm not sure I could leave Taiwan and not know if I'd ever be back. Ok, so part of this tie to Taiwan is obviously the fact that I now have family here and this is my husband's homeland, but it is more than that.  I've spent my entire adult life living and working in Taiwan.  Quite frankly, I don't know how to be a "grown up" in America.  I would be willing to live in America for a few years to either pursue further education or allow Lawrance to pursue further education (and give our possible future children the chance to be close to family), but I'm not sure I'd be able to pack my bags and say farewell ilha formosa.  Of course, if my Lord asked me to, I would, but it would be emotional.

I love Taiwan.  I love living here, teaching here, serving here.  But, I am reminded that, even here, I sojourn.

This world is not my home.   No matter where I reside physically, may the Father graciously allow and enable me to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called me out of darkness into His marvelous light" because there was a time when I had "had not received mercy, but now I have received mercy" (1 Peter 2).

catching up: september

This week we're sharing some of our facebook statuses from the past few months to help "catch up" on what's been going on in our lives this past year.  

This post covers September.  In September, the Texas wildfires hit close to home, and I twisted my ankle during the first week of school.  Plus, we celebrated Gilby's 5th year with me and Teacher's Day.

catching up: july and august

This week we're sharing some of our facebook statuses from the past few months to help "catch up" on what's been going on in our lives this past year.  This post covers July and August.  We enjoyed spending all of July in Texas with family, and August was full of changes--packing, moving, and Law starting seminary. 

catching up: may and june

For the next few days, we're sharing some of our facebook statuses from the past few months to help "catch up" on what's been going in our lives.  Next up is May and June, which included a lot of the normal "end of the year" goodbyes and ended with some life-changing news (no, no not expecting--Lawrance got accepted to seminary), and we headed to America.