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.