en route.

[noah is on the move. felt like this picture captures what most of our christmas days were like. noah didn't seem to get the memo that we could sleep late during the holidays.]

a really great family came to visit us for a few days, while on their way to pick up their two girls from this side of the world. while they were here, the mom/wife said one of the wisest things about christmas. i had previously been [and maybe still am] a little "thrown off" by being away from home during special times. i felt like i had a light bulb conversation. i still hear the words spoken to me from last week...

"it's okay that we aren't "home with our families". mary and joseph were en route during that very time of jesus' birth. they left things and travelled... [then speaking on contentment] and we won't be 100% content here or there. that's what keeps us longing for heaven."

it was a light bulb conversation. and it wasn't until today that it started flashing up above my head... when reminded that perhaps it is on this side, for me, where i long for heaven most.

he's alive.

there is a mass of people that have little knowledge of the very reason for our being.

that's a huge part of why we moved. in fact, that is why we moved.

to a place that's on the opposite side of the globe than where we were born.

to a country whose language couldn't be more different.

to a people whose kids are diaper-less and instead wear split pants.

any time in scripture where i see the word "strangers", i literally feel it.

it would seem pretty rare to move to a foreign place to have someone of the other culture remind me of who jesus is. right?

i've heard the stories. ones that move me and make me cry. ones where believers' lives have been totally changed by seeing His Power move through the people that they had come to witness to.

and now, on this day. i've had my very own.

as i was talking with a chinese woman who helps me clean our apartment, she started teaching me new words. this isn't unusual. what was unusual was that she was over by our little, tiny nativity set sharing these words. after many, many SLOW speaking chinese words, i finally understood what she was dying to tell me.

"Jesus died, but he's not dead.

He rose. He lives. He sees me. I know Him, but I can't see Him.

He's not dead. He died, but He's not dead."

and that's what i came here to learn.

my g0d's not dead. he's surely alive.

the tree is up

and we've got some pictures thanks to self timer.

[noah only pulled the tree down twice within the first 24 hours it was up. pretty good, right?]

war eagle, hey.

i'm not quite sure why, but the first few pictures i tried to "fix" the massive spot of water on his shirt. then i thought, okay really? how about i stretch myself. how about becoming carefree about what people think of my son's habitual water spitting outing. and everything else for that matter. but one thing at a time, people.

let's be honest. there's a fun fact about being over seas...

nobody, other than the americans, care much about football.

win or lose, it doesn't really matter to a whole lot of people.

that's the awesome[ness] in still sporting around an auburn bandana. nobody cares.

it's just fun and orange.

at least in noah's eyes it is.

war eagle.

quite the duo

aren't they?

scott didn't know i was trying to film him.

and he didn't even care once he saw that i was.

wishing i knew how to make the video shorter,

but i'm thinking that just getting a video on here is doing pretty good.

so you'll just have to see noah getting excited to see his best little friend.

singing forever

i'm learning from my mei mei [little sister].

this girl has some words.

good, life giving words.

you know, there's definitely some perks to living overseas. you get to hear things from people the closest to you that you wouldn't normally hear. just purely out of our circumstances. we talk less. often that means more.

when the words come out of their mouths and into my ears, they immediately get stored in my treasure box inside my heart.

perfect example.

i opened my inbox on monday afternoon and found this at the end of an email from sarah:

"... i love you and today when i was driving i pictured us singing songs to Him. it was really beautiful. i got kinda sad because i was like, G0D! when is that ever going to be real. you know what He said?..

y'all will get to sing to me together forever one day."

i get to pull this out of my treasure box in heaven. and it'll be real.

meet MAX

This is our teacher, two days out of the week.

We have a lot of fun with him. He's very animated and passionate. He also shames us a little when we get an answer wrong. But we love him.

He told us he had a surprise for our class today. I thought it was going to be something sweet. [I think that's a little of what China does to you... makes you daydream about chocolate.] But no, it was Chinese tongue twisters.

So here he is... MAX.

amen and amen.

i woke up to this awesome truth a friend wrote me this morning. she's one who knows what it's like to be in a different country than her family. she knows that ache in the distance.

she also knows the beauty in it.

"being separated from family is something that you never get used to, but you learn to live with it. that is one thing about being overseas that people don't really understand. they think that we're okay with being separated and that the Lord just made us differently.

but we know that's not really the case.

it's okay for it to be hard, for it to not feel so much like home. and that's really the bottom line.

the beauty of global living and a global perspective is that you understand first-hand that this world is not our home. the moment that He marked us with a seal of ownership is the moment that we became at odds with the world.

called to be in it, but not of it.

our home is with Him. and i always take comfort in that fact. in my heart i am at home with Him. and i go there any time i need that homey goodness to surround me. may sound childish, but hey we're called to child-like faith right?"

in my jiao shi

so there's this white board that sits in the front of our classroom.

i kid you not... by the end of class, i could read the first character all the way to the last one.

i am seriously impressed. the mind is quite a wonder.

of course [as he is sitting here singing "in my white tee, in my white tee, in my jiao shi"], scott now reads paragraphs of this. but then again, who is surprised.

1 year olds

who else can't get enough of this?

a loss and a win.

Scott left today for a few days out of town, or

I should say city. Big, big loss for us.

But we received a box of goodies. Which means lots of great things. But the main one for me is that this box will be lasting entertainment for the rest of the day for this little munchkin.

His timing is good. Today I experienced it

in the smallest detail on a Sunday afternoon.

warms the heart

Those are the sweet and specific words from my Mimi when she saw these videos [below].

Often times I walk in and out of our apartment, to and from class, back and forth on the playground just going through the motions. The motions of what the day holds. What I write down in my cute calendar. Or even what I think will take up the most time so that I can finally call it a day so Scott and I can eat something chocolate and watch some kind of funny episode of something wonderful on our laptop.

Then Mimi sends me a text. [I feel like you need me to pause. Yes Mimi is my grandmother. Yes she texts. It's amazing. We use "Textfree". I love it over here.] Saying her heart is warmed by seeing these people love Noah.

And then He goes even further to warm mine...

Today at lunch I had someone speak a blessing over me. Saying that by the very sight of our "young" family being here, this person's parents finally saw the picture of Him loving East Asia. That He would send young families to share their lives with them. With their children. People of a different language, a different nation.

On my walk back to our apartment, I strolled Noah with purpose. I smiled and waved and spoke with radiant light beaming out of me.

He gave them understanding.

He gave me a warm heart.

clingy

on this guy.

[the typical noah face with scott]

[his face that lights up when scott walks in the room. i'm guessing scott is showing off his self proclaimed synchronized swimmer legs. you read it right.]

[noah intruding on scott's study time. what'd you say? his MBA or his chinese?

exactly.

overachievers make us normal people feel, well, that's exactly it. normal.

in a deep breath thank goodness i'm not an overchiever kind of way.]

while mom's away,

& dad's at play.

apparently this is what Scott and Noah do when it's my turn to go to chinese class.

totally normal.

whose plan is it anyway?

It's a good thing... how He chooses to spring forth joy and draw in people.

[pictures taken on a campus]

Thankful that Noah's little smiling dimples are part of His plan.

Babies seem to be the hardest part about being here.

Yet the most rewarding.

If it were up to me, I'd have my babies in Auburn, AL and live right down the street from my family and thirty minutes from Scott's. The kids, all having dimples of course, would grow up riding tractors and playing on playgrounds that were sanitary. I'd never worry about grandmothers trying to pull my kids' diapers off because they'd rather them wear "split pants". We'd go through Chick Fil A drive thru's and have red mouths from eating way too many slushies at ball parks.

I would never plan on moving to a far away place. That would be super unfair to my kids' lives. Right? All that stuff they'd miss out on?

But what if what they would miss out on is right here on the other side of the world. What if the injustice done to their lives would be for us to stay put in Auburn, AL.

Swarms of people surround our kids over here. They are magnets. I believe it's not just by chance, but that He's doing something. And I'm convinced that it's good.

It is exactly what makes the overwhelming and crying moments [where in my head I may even be saying I want my Momma!] worth it. That we're building in to something much greater than what my little pea brain can fathom.

small spaces

i've been capturing noah's love for small spaces with my phone.

[his little cubby in our kitchen]

[side table in our living room/kitchen. i love how east asia does the combo deal.]

[on our neighborhood, if you could call it that, playground]

and also his love for loud noises. just like scott.

day in the life

We got out for dinner last night.

It was fun. Not so much because it was Amsterdam Cafe and high chairs were there.

But because we went on our three little scooters. Scootin' around as the only Americans in sight, with two babies and a puppy.

I giggle a lot and I cry a lot. Because I think, is this my life?

Honey, I'm home.

Some men come home from work in suits. [Papa]

Some come in with concrete on their boots. [dad]

Some walk in the door with a fun little briefcase. [Mr. Tom]

Others skip in with a helmet, a backpack, and

shelved milk for their 1 year old.

Hello new normal.

playtime

it looks a little different for each of us, as you could imagine.

for me: banana bread. that's when i felt at home in this apartment.

[my little malorie orme apron. just needed to type her new name.]

for scott: building a coffee table made of chinese stools.

for noah: crawling around on the playground with some little friends.

don't freak out Babs and Gigi [and Mimi], i rinsed him off immediately.

goodbyes & settling

we shared some goodbyes about a week ago.

scott's family too.

we got on the plane.

landed. where people swarmed noah.

got to our apartment super late in the night.

then woke up to stroll around what seems to be a park that we live in. it's amazing.

got a little something to scoot around on.

travelled here and there in these little taxi [ish] 3 wheelers.

[SO hot here. yesterday it was 108. um. you read it right.]

we've just been settling in and talking to our families on the other side of the world. trying to describe what it's like here. hardest thing to do. because we love it. and it's difficult.

i'm not sure if that will ever change. and that's the hard part to swallow.

i just started today reading the J Storybook. the kid's version. today i read this sentence and realized why i was being prompted to begin reading it for myself:

"And they were lovely because he loved them."

[the song of creation, from the first 2 chapters of gen]

this place and these people are lovely because he loves them.

i have access to viewing this culture through the lense of a child.

and that's exactly what i intend to do.

miles apart & a small connection

we may never understand them.

dad's in alabama. noah's in colorado.

last week i looked over and noah was hugging the football. weird? sure.

but then that same last week i looked down at my phone to see a picture text of dad hugging his tractor. weirder? sure.

[i thought about not posting this potentially embarrassing picture, but i thought for a second... a man who hugs his tractor probably won't be checking the latest blog posts.]

they're just two peas in a pod.

BOYS. we may never understand them.

well, some of them.

peculiarities

just to name a few lately.

licking the concrete to watch it change colors.

preferring to eat with chopsticks

and forming some serious opinions [or what my Papa calls them: "protests"].

it's about a week 'til he turns ONE.

life for us is full and busy.

shoes, baths, & books.