My two lists

(The following lists come from the mundane part of my life. I am, of course, thankful for my salvation, family, friends, etc. and miss family, friends, Pville, etc.)

I've been working on being content. Some of you know how challenging it was preparing and packing to move this far. Well, as we've settled in I've discovered how we really have everything we need here--and so much more! So my struggle to be content is certainly not because of my situation. It is because of my restless heart. God has given me eternal life, an awesome family... so many wonderful blessings! The following list is just a reminder to myself of how much God has blessed me even in "little" ways.

Things I’m Thankful For:

• That I like our furniture
• Our western toilet
• Our friendly, helpful doorman
• A dishwasher (used, but in good condition)
• The mountains on the horizon (“I will lift up my eyes to the hills…”)
• Enough clothes that it doesn’t matter when it takes them 48 hours to dry hanging in my bedroom on a cold, rainy day
• The vehicle that is available to us part-time (haven’t had to take the kids on the bus yet)
• Internet in our home
• Contact with friends and family (email, skype, etc)
• Coke is available here
• We were able to have a Christmas tree for Christmas, with lights and everything
• Our microwave (seems basic, but remember, not everyone in the world has one!)
• Our excellent, friendly, patient, language tutor who the kids love too
• Our English-speaking pharmacist and pediatrician
• Our hot-water heater (a few cold showers when we first arrived made me really thankful!)
• Salmon – when Mike broils it it’s the most wonderful thing… visit and he’ll make you some!
• Rug no-slip liner (for those of us who don’t like the floor to move beneath our feet)
• Our house church—Christian fellowship and encouraging friends
• The doner shop on the corner (think of doner as the local version of a sub)
• Electric blankets
• Awesome, cheap tomatoes and oranges available all winter
  

Things I miss:

• Listerine
• Canned pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce
• Cheap parmesan cheese
• The library
• The smell of clothes fresh out of the dryer
• Forests
• Panera Bread, Ruby T’s, Pizza Hut, Olive Garden
• Wednesday night choir
• Piano
• My Kitchen Aid mixer (although I don’t miss this as much as I thought I would)
• Red Box
• Congregational singing

Anna (aka NaNa)

My little baby is one! Ok, I know that’s old news since her birthday was Christmas Eve. But it continues to amaze me how fast she is growing, and I thought some readers may be interested in an update on life at Anna’s level. She is almost walking. She’ll stand on her own for a few seconds, and her favorite place to be is cruising the cabinets or furniture on standing on the sofa next to mommy. She also likes to find mommy, wrap her arms around mommy’s knees, and look up and say “bup, bup,” lifting one leg as if to climb up. She has been working overtime on getting teeth, I think she about to go from four to eight. The by-product is enough drool to soak several layers of clothing daily.

Her favorite foods are… just about anything. She doesn’t like potatoes or green beans. She eats anything by grabbing a handful and stuffing it in her face. She likes juice, milk and water—she’s weaned now too. Most of her words are food words, juice, cookie, more, some. She also says a sound that means “down” and “da da,” “shoes,” and “night night.” She points to things she wants, and I think she knows who “Matthew” is.

Anna prefers not to hold still. She goes everywhere, in spite of cold tile floors. Although she won’t crawl off the carpet if she’s not dressed, you better get that diaper on quick, cause she’s on her way! She loves people, strangers too. She doesn’t mind her carseat, but only likes her stroller if it’s moving and there are interesting things to watch. She likes to stand on things and “dance,” bouncing up and down. She’s something like 25^th percentile height and weight. She chases Matthew around, and makes him laugh, and he makes her laugh. She especially likes to open drawers and cupboards and find new things to play with. She likes to open the cabinet, find the cookie container, and bring it to me saying “cookie, cookie.” (Of course, her pronunciation is terrible, but you get the idea.)

She’s almost down to one nap… occasionally sleep catches up with her before naptime…

Silly and Stupid things we did in our first two months here

Sometimes being here in a whole new environment is a wonderful adventure. Sometimes is challenges us to trust God more. And sometimes it just drives us to realize how…human…we are. I wrote this list one night as I was in a good mood, laughing at the stuff we’ve done. These are mostly just things that we should have known better...but for some reason when everything around you is new and different, basic stuff can be complicated. (Names have been omitted to protect Mike's reputation).

• Told the door man “I cooked my wife”
• Told the furniture store clerk “My house is not a sofa”
• Boiled our toothbrushes until they warped and the bristles fell out
• Regularly shorted out our apts, electric and taking too long to realize that we shouldn’t be running that many things (not really that many by our standards)
• Ended up with a very high electric bill (twice what it ever was in the States, three times what we expected here) because we heated multiple rooms and left the door open (door between rooms, not door to outside
• Ordered the same wrong thing at Burger King—twice in a row
• Fried our water purifier by plugging it in to 220 outlet (in Mike’s defense, the directions said you could)
• Chewed non-chewable ibuprofen
• Ate lahmacun (a local food) with a fork and knife instead of rolling it up and eating with hands
• Washed our clothes in cold water, no spin cycle, so that after hanging out to dry forever, they were as stiff as boards (couldn’t read the washing machine labels)
• Shorted out our electricy, and then sat in the cold and dark assuming the electric in general was out (one later walked down the lit hallway, used the elevator, and made it to the street before realizing one should come back and flip the breaker)
• Failed to drain the washmachine into the bathtub, and therefore soaking the whole bathroom (we’ve done this several times)
• Left a DVD in the player we returned to the store
• Burnt tea, filled kitchen with funky smelling smoke
• Let the carrots boil over, thereby extinguishing the gas burner (catching it before the kitchen was too full of gas…)
• Poured hot grease down the sink, immediately realizing it would solidify the instant it hit the cold pipes
• Rigged a humidifier for the kids by dipping towels in almost boiling water and hanging them in front of the electric heater fan.
• Thrown away ground beef—twice—before adjusting to the reality that shelf-life here is a lot shorter

Leave a silly/stupid thing you’ve done in the comments!

For Those Hard to Reach Places

For the sacrifice holiday we just couldn't bring ourselves to sacrifice a lamb, so we decided to sacrifice our toothbrushes instead. Well, not exactly. Fearing another bout with amoebas (which thankfully never materialized), Becky thought it wise to boil our toothbrushes.

10 Steps from O.C.

12/15/2007
So here I am, sitting on my comfy sofa, watching the Christmas tree lights slowly fade in and out, and thinking about what all this is about. I have a beautiful house. It is coming together beautifully, with some planning and a lot of providence. God has blessed us here so much. This is the first time I’ve had brand-new furniture. It almost seems too nice.

But then, what’s the point? Why did I come a gazillion miles to make a cozy home here? I know the answer to that question. But what is the reality?

I worked most of the day today. I did laundry, cleaned, changed diapers, fixed meals, cooked a chicken and veggies and made them into pot-pie… I taught Matthew the nativity story, and I gave the kids baths. I checked my email and planned Mike’s Christmas present. All that is maintenance—maintaining my life, my family. I devote so much energy to these things. Do these curtains match? Find that recipe… Fold the clothes and pile them in neat little piles—again.

Finally at the end of the day I sit down to work on my real goal—the first step in the greater goal—language. I looked at the sentence, used the dictionary, conjugated the verb. “Your bag is by the bed.” Wow. I sit there and do another sentence. A page later I’m still not fluent. Really, sitting down to work on language is like standing on the Ocean City boardwalk and deciding to walk to California. Ten steps later you stop and wonder, have I gotten anywhere? Well, yes…and no. But there’s no other option than to take another step. I may never need to say, “your bag is by the bed,” but right now that sentence is my task.