A little refreshment

We made a last minute decision to start off 2012 with a little refreshment. Maria and Bruna graciously agreed to watch our kids so we could fly out to Xi'an and visit some very good friends of ours; the Smith's, the Rice's and Liz. There have been less than a handful of times we have left our kids overnight in the past and most of those have revolved around traveling for our vocation and were not for personal reasons. So this was a real treat for us! (In my next post I will tell a little about our site seeing adventures in Xi'an and put up some of the great pictures I got there. It's a beautiful city!)


Raising kids and making good decisions for your family is difficult in any culture. There are always many options, many opinions, influences of upbringing, family & friends, cultural pressures. Deciding how to structure your home, balance work & family, discipline & educate your kids, create family values & priorities is never easy. Add to that the dynamic of living in a completely different culture, and you sometimes find yourself at a loss of what to do. Some decisions like who plays what roll in the family, are easy for our family, because we do the best we can to structure our family values and priorities around God's words to us. Other decisions like how to educate your child (international school, Chinese school, home school) are pretty difficult. Trying to weigh out all of the options and separate out what is merely a cultural preference and what is truly an issue to be taken seriously can seem daunting and overwhelming.


For those reasons and many more, it was really refreshing to us to be able to sit down with and talk and laugh with people who understand where we are coming from. Some of the things that come up in family life here are just normal, some are confusing, and some are really funny. Having the opportunity to sit down with a couple who share our values because of our mutual relationship with Christ, was priceless. There are many times we wish we had access to the wisdom of older couples who have successfully raised kids abroad, or even successfully raised kids at home. But since we live here in small communities made up mostly of young people, those opportunities are few and far between. So it is a comfort at least to have each other and a common bond to keep us talking and laughing together as we experience family life in a strange place.


It was also great fun for me to be able to spend a few days with Rob that didn't involve our kids. I love our kids dearly, they are sweet, and funny, and fill our life with joy. But, some days I struggle to remember what life was like before them. It seems like a long time ago, and I can't remember what we used to talk about or laugh about, before our lives were wrapped up in these precious imps. So it was a delight to run around the beautiful old city of Xi'an, snapping pictures, and laughing together. I forget sometimes how much I love my husband. He truly is a wonderful treasure and I'm glad for the reminder of how much joy he alone brings to my life.


So we returned from our adventure, refreshed in spirit and excited to see our munchkins. I returned with a fresh vision for being the mother that I want to be but often fail to be. My little stint away gave me a renewed desire to dive into God's word and seek the wisdom He has promised for being the wife and mother He has called me to be. I have been given a wonderful treasure in friends, family, husband, and children. I can't wait to spend another year with them all.


Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2012 at 12:10 PM

    Do you know Dave and Jane P at our school? They raised their children in SE Asia before moving here. I know they're not in your city now that you've moved, but they are open and easy to talk to. I'd be happy to introduce you if you like :)
    Lily

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Identity

Image
This study of John continues to totally captivate my attention. Most recently one of the things that came out of our study was identity. Jesus repeatedly identifies himself in John; I am: the bread of life, the light of the world, the living water, the way, the truth, the life.   So who am I? A wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an auntie, a nurse, a teacher.........and on goes the list. But none of those are really me. Those are relationships that I have, or things that I do, but they aren’t me.   I spend a lot of time talking to young people and their parents who are trying to identify who they are. So often the discussion is based around the building of a college application. My child is an athlete, an artist, a musician, a linguist, a maths genius........ Then there are the national identities, and the passport identities, and the religious identities. My child is an A student, a C student. And from the children: I am an academic s...
Read more

Not forgotten

Image
It’s easy to feel forgotten, overlooked, or abandoned in our heart of hearts. Sometimes small things make us feel that way: not being invited to the party or not being acknowledged for a job well done. Sometimes it is much bigger things: extended illness, infertility, or loosing a job. Beyond this exist even heavier things that we shy away from thinking about: poverty, the loss of a loved one or violence. Whether big or small, intentional or unintentional, inflicted by fellow man or allowed by God, these disappointments leave behind varying levels of deep and painful wounds that are often difficult for anyone else to see.  Our tendency is to guard these wounds carefully and to protect ourselves in any way possible from the pain that they bring. Simultaneously most of us still wish to be noticed and to be known, but our fear of letting down that guard and letting anyone close enough to see our quiet pain or worse touch the pain holds us back. As a result, no one really know...
Read more

The Fount of Every Blessing

My birthday has rolled around again (that happens so quickly these days J ).   Sometimes, I’m surprised by my own age, I’ll wake up some mornings and think I’m still in my 20’s only to jolt myself back to reality that more time has passed then I think.   We use our birthdays and anniversaries to mark the passage of time.   They call us to stop and remember what has happened since the last time we passed this way. And whether the memories are good or bad there is something in us that needs to recall, evaluate, and acknowledge what has transpired.   As I pass my milestone this year I am captivated by the words of a very old hymn penned in 1757 by Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount”.   “Come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace.”   Looking back over my year and even farther past that into the years before, I find that my life is covered with evidences of God’s grace.   They are weaved into every portion of my existence and...
Read more