Here are pictures from our snow day…enjoy!
It has been so long since I have posted photos. ..well, really anything for that matter!
As you will see below, we had a very busy holiday season. Master’s Academy Project Day, Christmas singing at various locations, baking goodies, gifts, and our annual Christmas Day outreach….no wonder I am just getting back into the swing of things! This year we added a new tradition of a special family day on New Year’s Eve…which this time was a first go at ice skating and a trip to see ‘Bedtime Stories’.
We hope your year has gotten off to a great start. We are excited as God has truly shown Himself faithful..our business sold nothing since Vietnam and things were getting a little scary, but the new year has started off steady and with a renewed interest in seeking His righteousness in our finances.
We are heading to Dallas the first week of February, and are truly excited since we haven’t been there since Mother’s Day…so you Dallas friends and family..watch out! we are headed your way!
Enjoy the pictures!
Sorry it has been SO long since I’ve written. Since our return from Vietnam my plate has been piled full, and my brain even fuller. The holidays are quickly approaching, maybe with the break from school responsibilities I’ll write more…or not…seeing as I always have this ‘dream list’ of non-school things to accomplish and never quite finish them… you know, things like organizing, cleaning, scrapbooking, researching curriculum for next year, and not to mention hanging with friends.
Vietnam still weighs heavy on my heart. The societal differences, struggles, and such..but those don’t weigh on my mind as much as my daughter Thuy. It is incredible how God has put our hearts together. But just because God put is together doesn’t necessarily equal easy. I realized that she is where she needs to be, and to pluck her out of her home would be entirely selfish and traumatic. Our decision to support her and encourage her in higher education later will give us time to get to know her better as we all prepare. Our cultural differences are hard to understand on both ends, and the language barrier makes it more difficult to truly communicate our feelings and intentions and maintain her trust in the midst of learning through mistakes, like using google translate, which evidently doesn’t work so well after all. We have her enrolled with an English tutor, and Deerhunter is taking Vietnamese lessons, so slowly but surely it will improve. We communicate at least 3 times a week lately, in her new english phrases, and Deerhunter’s choppy Vietnamese.
School has gone pretty well this first semester. M, our oldest, is maturing (9), and his attitude towards school work has improved. H, 6, is reading anything she sees and catching on quickly in math. J,4, is just along for the ride, but making strides in writing letters and his scribbles are turning into pictures. We have enjoyed recently doing more handcrafts then usual, and next week we will be baking. The kids are truly enjoying the Modern Period, learning all about various presidents and events. We have had awesome field trips, Ivy Green (Helen Keller’s home), The Alabama Theater, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, the Southern Museum of Flight, and we are planning a trip to the home of Space Camp in Huntsville.
This week is the one year anniversary of when we moved into the new house. It is feeling more and more like home. There is still quite a bit of decorating I’d like to do, and it is coming slowly. Business has slowed since our trip, so some things aren’t as ‘finished’ as I would have liked by now. That said, I am grateful for where we are and how, despite the troubles in the economy, we have so far been able to pay the bills. We still have the old house, which although making the payments is getting more and more difficult, we have been able to help some family members in tough times by allowing them to stay there.
I have been spending way too much time on Facebook lately, which seems to give me more of a sense of interaction than this blog, which I enjoy, but the whole idea of developing ideas and truly expressing more complex ideas is really still a blog kinda thing. I have caught up with tons of folks- friends from Texas, from high school, church youth group, and even elementary school. It is intereesting to see where we’ve all ended up and where life has taken us.
I hope the holidays find you and yours all well, and that you are able to take a step back and appreciate not only this year, but God’s work in your life in the lives of your loved ones.
Hope to show you great pictures of our holiday chaos and fun..until then…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I’m saving some for when we share about our Thuy, but other than that, these are it!
So I’ve spent all this time and cyberspace analyzing the food, culture, and reporting on what ministry took place in my presence. I have neglected to mention what part I had to offer, what God had equipped me for in this strange new place. A place where I couldn’t communicate. A place where I had almost no clue of the social cues and body language. A big part of my task was to get to know Thuy the best of my ability and to love on her. Other than that, I only had one other thing to offer- my smile. I brought it everywhere I went- the stinky market, the crazy-busy streets, the grass huts, the boat coasting down the river.
As people stopped in their tracks, stared, and even whispered to others around them, (okay, some did not whisper…some hollered and laughed others pointed or dragged their kids to me), all I had to offer was my smile. That’s what Jesus would have done, right? I knew it was better than me being remembered as ‘the angry or glum rather large yellow- haired woman who walked through the stinky meat market today’.
With hard financial times for many, and an election that doesn’t seem to be offering anything fantastic, how has your ‘ministry of the smile’ been lately?
mindy