great is Thy faithfulness

a few weeks ago, a friend asked me how i was doing. really how i was doing. i smiled at a contented thought.

great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
there is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
as Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

great is Thy faithfulness!
great is Thy faithfulness!
morning by morning new mercies i see.
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

summer and winter and springtime and harvest
sun, moon and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

great is Thy faithfulness!
great is Thy faithfulness!
morning by morning new mercies i see.
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

great is Thy faithfulness!
great is Thy faithfulness!
morning by morning new mercies i see.
all i have needed Thy hand hath provided
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

you know when there are seasons of your life when you feel like you actually could have written some of these hymns?

in the last 26 months, we have:

• packed & unpacked 19 times & slept in 19 different beds (3 countries, 8 cities)
• sean had pnemonia
• i had a sinus infection & dibilitating vertigo for three months
• i lost the hearing in my right ear
• my sister got married
• quin & declan came into our lives
• sean was bitten 12 times by a brown reclouse spider
• camden swallowed a hearing aid battery that exploded in his large intestine, miraculously (instead of his stomach)
• camden dislocated his elbow twice
• camden dislocated his thumb numerous times
• camden chicken pox
• we experienced one of the worst typhoon season in taiwan for 20 yrs.
• we've weathered the learning curve of the adoption, legal & immigration system in taiwan
• we've weathered visa "situations" in taiwan
• we've being unemployed for 14 months
• we've relocated to castle rock/denver
• we've experienced amazing graciousness and provision as we've lived with family and friends in their basements & spare bedrooms for 6 months
• we've moved into our own fortress, our own apartment
• we hosted11 sets of guests in the first 3 months of our new home

these phrases have defined the last two years of our lives: God has never, never left us; His mercies are new every morning; His provision and faithfulness have been proven over and over.

how am i doing? today, i am good. in the last couple of years, i feel like i have lived several lifetimes. the last couple months, there have not been any new developments in our home. there still is no work. the ramifications of this weighs more than we can bear alone. yet there is a sense of renewal in our home that doesn't have a bulleted event to add to the list above. there is a renewed joy, sense of peace, the desire to re-evaluate ideals and dreams, strength to raise these children into noble warriors. where does my help come from? i look to the mountains, it can only come from the Lord. He's offered to carry my heavy load.

my little bao bei

last night as i was "nuggling" in with the boys to read scripture, and give a round of kisses, i asked camden, "do you know what a treasure you are?" to which he replied, "no mama, i am not your treasure, i am your bao bei!!" true true camden, you are not a treasure like any other found, you are my little chinese treasure, my bao bei.

we have a new rule in our house

rules in our house are not new.

in fact, we add to them everyday. but not like you may think. rules in our house are about things that make life for someone in the family function a little better. there might be one person who has more "rules" than others. but, there are others who contribute. ;)

tonight, a new rule was added - my rule. i'm not sure why tonight it stood out, but tonight i made a declaration. "no eating of sour cream dollups." if i add sour cream to a little boy's plate, i want it dispursed somewhat equally. i want it to be enjoyed throughout the dish. really, is that so unreasonable? if one of these sweet boys eats their sour cream alone - without adding it to the meal, it's just so wrong! like eating it out of the bowl in the fridge.

why is it when someone else repeats your rule, and an almost 4 yr. old & a very soon to be 3 yr. old laugh at you - it really drives home how rediculous the outburst is/was? we had a good laugh over that one.

i guess if you can admit to yourself that it's really irrelevant, but you want to take a stand - well, in our house, you get a rule.

jumpstarting our blog, again

as you know, our lives have been a lot of chaos in the last 2+ years. thankfully, today, and for the most part, our lives are much calmer - and i am excited about the calm before whatever the next storm is. excited that our lives have routine for today. thankful beyond expression that we are healthy. and i am motivated to update my boys (lack of) baby books. so, part of this year, at least for this part of the season, my desire & intention is to be regular here with stories of the boys & yes, even pictures. and since i am confident that their baby books will always be lacking, this is my attempt at journaling and getting it down for them. the stories aren't going to change the world, or inspire anyone, this is just a place to get it down somewhere & keep the grandparents grinning from ear to ear. to remind me of the sweetness in all the moments that make up our days.

so here's to everydayness!

these pic of them on the couch may look like a mess in my living room, but in reality, it's the fort that gets built in my living room about 17 times daily. i say fort, but the title really is irrelevant. they make forts out of the cushions, houses, volcanoes, use them to protect mommy from tigers, steps, chitty chitty bang bang, etc. and as you can see, the fort is always fortified with shooters! cushions on the couch in proper order, with matching fabric, and zippers in the back - that's for company. :)

i wanted to capture our bedtime routine in a picture. what was i thinking??? it's never possible to get all three of them to look at the camera at the same time, while the picture is being taken - but putting them in their pajamas & on the bed & having them smile for the camera . . . well, sweet boys . . . but, truth be told, this really is what it's like trying to get them to go to bed. they're jumping on the bed, rolling each other over sushi roll style in the comforter, grabbing for blankets - their specific blankets - and their specific stuffed animals. if it wasn't so funny, and darn cute!

biscuits & gravy

i thought i would share something with you that would get you to smile, and give you a little of the mental gymnastics that are such a normal part of just getting dinner on the table every day.

so, yesterday had been a long, hard day with the boys. and, on top of it, we have been out of groceries in the house since last thursday - and, i am just now getting to the place where we have our "systems" in place. many more things are becoming routine & predictable - so, i can be a little more prepared. weekends start on friday morning & last until monday morning for us. it's not a cultural thing - except that it is our families' culture. that's when sean is able to shut his brain off from serious overload of job transition, living in a new culture, struggling through language barriers & all of the unexpected things that are a part of all of that. it's when he is able to relax - and i get my honey & the boys get their daddy! during the week, we are all kind of in survival mode. not really, it's just the mechanics are so different. sean heads out the door around 8 or 9am to go to work, but then doesn't get home until 7-11pm depending on the "unexpected factor. so, with that, i have been trying to figure out what those 3 1/2 days look like - the parts that are predictable & how to make our days something that we all enjoy & sean has a haven to come home to after such a long, hard day.

so anyway, with our week last week (out of town trip with all three boys, court hearing, meeting both declan & quin's birthmothers & all three boys had colds) - i didn't get to the grocery store before thursday & thus, here it is wednesday & i am trying to get food in the house for the rest of the week & actually remember to prepare for next week. :) sometimes i get into the game & start to figure out how to win. today is one of them. :)

so, last night, we were down to flour, sugar, olive oil, and . . . ummmmm broccoli. even in the states, that's a challenge. and i had already made pancakes twice. so i thought - ahha! i'll make biscuits & gravy! yeah!!!! but, you need milk & butter to make biscuits & gravy, right? well, not when you have baby formula in the house & olive oil.

so here was the adaptation i used for the recipes: (keep in mind that i don't have measuring spoons or cups of any sort - english or chinese - and to top that off, taiwan uses the metric system & by brain naturally functions on the english system - so, anything that i rig that is an approximation of a measurement can only be found in metric & i am converting to english)

biscuits
2 c. flour - had that, that was easy
1 T. baking powder (which later i figured out that i was using baking soda, no wonder things have had that funny taste - gotta love not being able to read in chinese!)
1/4 t. salt (no prob. just a couple of pinches for measurements)
1/3 c. shortening - ummmmm, can you use the exact amount in olive oil & the biscuits taste right? the answer - YES! in fact, they are very, very moist - just not flaky.
1 c. milk - yeah, i really did - i used canned baby formula with the appropriate amount of water. :)

bake at 425 for 15 min. translation 220 degrees in celcius. not a problem until i remembered that i don't have a cooking sheet - cause to the chinese baking is an wonderful novelty! and, thus, i don't have a baking sheet in my kitchen. so, now what, ummmmmm - ahha! the lid of my stir fry pan was attached with a screw, so i took the handle off & dropped the biscuits on an oiled "baking sheet". only problem there is that the lid was curved in, and so the biscuits slid to the center. they baked just fine, they were just close together & i tore them apart. they were perfectly golden & tasted wonderful, with the exception of that funny "baking powder" that we get here at the rt-mart.

on to the gravy
2 c. milk (yes, again)
2T butter (yes, you can make white gravy with olive oil)
2T flour
salt
pepper (i only had szechuan pepper, which tends to be a little sweet, but we really like it)

the chinese don't really bake - ever. so, any recipes are more approximations to your families' tastes - so again, i was BAKING not COOKING, and doing it all WITHOUT measuring cups or spoons.

surprisingly, sean was like "honey, these are good! they're a little sweet (thanks to declan's milk, shhhh). and now that we've figured out the baking soda vs. powder thing. let's do this again." and honestly, i haven't heard that about any new concoctions i have made since we've been here! mind you, sean loves my cooking. but, there is so little here that is familiar & all of the adaptations that i have to make to put it on the table - let's just say, i feel like a 12 year old in the kitchen - all the time! so, yeahhhhhh!!!!! for biscuits & gravy. not overly chinese, healthy or nutritious, but we were able to make something that we all liked & filled our bellies. see why i'm not ready to leave - i wanna get this whole family meal thing down, so that everyone is like, "ahhh, i love going to the thomson's for dinner!" vain, i know.

such a huge part of this cultural adapting is learning how to accept that you feel stupid 99% of the time & because you feel stupid, you are intimidated & insecure 100% of the time. especially since we are in a chinese culture - we don't recognize anything on a street sign, or on a food label. if we were in a spanish speaking culture, or another romance language, we would be able to make educated guesses on things. it's a really good lesson in what it's like to be illiterate. and - not be able to tell someone what you are looking for, even if you can't read. sean and i are learning how to do the dance, and it's time to leave. i want to drag my heals & do it right for a while. i am finally figuring out the grocery store/getting food into the house system, only to go back to the states, and figure out how to do it there with three kids in & out of car seats & grocery carts that don't have three buckles. adapting again. part of me loves the "challenge" itch - the other part of me is utterly exhausted!

i don't know if sean really understands the gift he gave me today!

the house was sooooo trashed from everything we packed into the weekend. so, sean took the older boys this morning while i cleaned house. wow! amazing what a difference that made!!!!!!

they came home & had found 2 new parks, ate things that i'm sure momma wouldn't feed them & had so much dirt under their fingernails (not to mention that they smelled like wet puppies)! they had a blast!!! AND, my house was clean! i know it's just my fantasy to have left the house in a disaster & walk in the door & everything is in it's place, spotless & sparkling. that's not ever going to happen . . . but, sean gave me a wonderful, amazing gift this morning - and it comes pretty darn close to being that magical! actually better, cause they got time with their daddy.

(use your imagination . . . the house NEVER looks like this when any combination of any of us are up & going - the boys in this house need to start carrying their weight! :)

everyday life

I have been stuck since my last post. I have written and rewritten. There are so many important things that have happened, a lot of them really hard things, since we have arrived in Taipei. What I don't want to do is misrepresent what we know God to be doing in our (Sean and I's) hearts and lives. The events themselves have been overwhelming, and spiritually tremendous. It has been much more about our character, than about the hardships. We know that it is incredibly important to write about this time, especially for our boys. And we will. But right now is not the right time.

So, instead of writing about the last almost four months of our lives, I just wanted to update everyone on some pictures and the "every day-ness" of our new home away from home - Xindian City, Taiwan.