I was recalling this evening that I began 2012 with a challenge to myself. My friends often choose a word for themselves as a theme for their year, and last January I chose a word for myself. I chose the word wisdom. I was feeling like I needed wisdom to help me in my life; manage people and time well, make good decisions, be a better friend, etc. I was floundering a bit, and I could feel it leaking into all areas of my life. A little help from God and an extra dose of wisdom would be just the ticket.
As I look back, I really think I was looking for wisdom in areas of life that are secondary. I'm going to term it "worldly wisdom" because I was seeking answers to problems that had to do with my worldly life, and not much existed beyond that. What God has been accomplishing in my life since then is what I consider to be "spirit wisdom," and I am finding that its principles are much easier to grab ahold of. Worldly wisdom was case by case, which is why I was having trouble getting any of it. Spirit wisdom has been deep and frighteningly simple: trust God; believe Him; when it's bothering you, hand it off to God; let Him take care of you, remember that He loves you. There.
A verse came to me this evening that I've overlooked way too often because I've seen it printed on too many bookmarks and calendars. However, looking beyond the Christian commercialism, this verse really does encapsulate God's intention for us:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
God leads us. If we've agreed to allowing ourselves to be put where He wants us, we will be there, our paths will be straight. I haven't done a word study on what it means to have a straight path, but I think it may have something to do with feeling like God's wisdom is upon you and His will is working through you. Thus, being in His will and having access to his power and wisdom is about trust, about giving your life up, about being less you and more Christ in you.
Hopefully, now that it's taken me 11 months to figure out what kind of wisdom I've been seeking, He will begin to bestow more of it upon me. I really did need it to begin with, I know that for sure.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
These Miracles Are Just the Beginning
It's not been easy, but we are making it--gracefully and grace-filled. I am learning something profound about faith: when I am where God asks me to be, He takes care of things. It's so tempting to complicate that truth and put conditions on it, and yet, it is not complicated and it is not conditional. It just is. And even so, I know that the evidences of God's work are a mere glance into the depth of His plan. Yet they amaze me, so I must write them down.
Michael came home for our new baby's birth. Right on time, with time to spare.
Michael loves his job, and he is learning how vital his role is as a support to missionaries trying to reach an unreached group of people.
Our new little girl, Emma, is here! Her birth was uncomplicated, quiet, and respectful. Considering all we have been through this year, I think she deserves such an entrance into this world.
God gave me a relatively easy labor and delivery. As one person put it to me, the experience was very healing. I think she was right on the money.
We are successfully living with our family; that is not an easy thing to do, but we are doing it with grace, patience, and as much selflessness as we can manage. I'm proud of us.
KIA (our school) has been a real support to Michael, especially in regard to taking care of us around the birth of our baby. They offered to pay for the extra plane ticket it's going to take to get us to China. That's a huge burden lifted from our bank account.
Paperwork is being taken care of; each step of the way that might have been complicated is not.
...And so much else.
Let this be my exercise in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: In everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
We are grateful. We believe God is moving us into a profound place. He is being faithful to us; let us be faithful to Him.
Michael came home for our new baby's birth. Right on time, with time to spare.
Michael loves his job, and he is learning how vital his role is as a support to missionaries trying to reach an unreached group of people.
Our new little girl, Emma, is here! Her birth was uncomplicated, quiet, and respectful. Considering all we have been through this year, I think she deserves such an entrance into this world.
God gave me a relatively easy labor and delivery. As one person put it to me, the experience was very healing. I think she was right on the money.
We are successfully living with our family; that is not an easy thing to do, but we are doing it with grace, patience, and as much selflessness as we can manage. I'm proud of us.
KIA (our school) has been a real support to Michael, especially in regard to taking care of us around the birth of our baby. They offered to pay for the extra plane ticket it's going to take to get us to China. That's a huge burden lifted from our bank account.
Paperwork is being taken care of; each step of the way that might have been complicated is not.
...And so much else.
Let this be my exercise in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: In everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
We are grateful. We believe God is moving us into a profound place. He is being faithful to us; let us be faithful to Him.
Here's Baby Emma! 7 pounds, 11 ounces.
(sorry it's sideways...)
Thursday, October 11, 2012
What to do With This Thing?
Contrary to the quote by Mark Twain that is just above this posting, I often wrestle with what to do with this bit of cyberspace because I don't want to waste my and other people's time writing about "uninteresting" things. I thought traveling to South Korea was an interesting enough platform upon which to start a blog, and then when we returned to the States, I settled right back into, "this just isn't interesting enough for the masses" mentality. Note the lack of posts from 2009 to 2012. It would do well for me to take my own advice. Yet, I do believe that each life is significant, interesting, and wise. We spend such a great amount of time excusing ourselves, our choices, our problems because we think someone else is more ____________ (fill in the blank). What a lie.
But I have been thinking hard about how I want to use this platform, and I am not going to tie it to the interesting! I'm setting myself free of that burden. I may very well use it to do what many people do with their blogs: stream their consciousnesses. :-) Lucky you, readers. However, the feedback I often get from my friends is that they enjoy my writing; it hooks them. As a teacher, I know this is a good start to writing--hook your audience! So, if I have done that, hang in there. Perhaps we can learn from each other.
But I have been thinking hard about how I want to use this platform, and I am not going to tie it to the interesting! I'm setting myself free of that burden. I may very well use it to do what many people do with their blogs: stream their consciousnesses. :-) Lucky you, readers. However, the feedback I often get from my friends is that they enjoy my writing; it hooks them. As a teacher, I know this is a good start to writing--hook your audience! So, if I have done that, hang in there. Perhaps we can learn from each other.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Just Leave a Message for Me
I should probably offer an apology or an explanation of some sort to those of you who have valiantly tried to hold a conversation with our daughter over the phone lately. You see, she thinks she owns exclusive rights to the phone. If I am talking on the phone with someone, she gets immediately jealous (as do all children, even my infant niece), begs to know who I am talking to, and then insists on saying hi if it's someone she knows. After we've negotiated an appropriate time for me to hand the phone over, she grabs it, darts to the furthest corner of the room, and becomes something she is usually not: silent. Then that poor person is left trying to make kind, yet desperate conversation with the air:
"Hi Evie!"
Heavy breathing accompanied by a grin.
Me: "Okay, if you want the phone you have to say something."
Smallest whisper: "Hi..."
"Are you having fun today?"
"..."
"Are you playing with your mommy?"
"..."
Me: "If you're not going to talk, then it's my turn with the phone again."
"AHHHHHH! No!! I have it! Wahhhh!"
Anyway, you get it.
Or you may get the opposite conversation in which she is telling you about everything she sees, remembers, is thinking about, has ever thought about. During these conversations, I feel it is my duty to assist the poor person who is making such a grand effort to interpret her speech, but I'll have you know that when I actually get close enough to make a comment, Evie runs away, as far away as possible. It's hard for me to help you, but I try.
So here are a few things you can talk to her about that might help you:
"Hi Evie!"
Heavy breathing accompanied by a grin.
Me: "Okay, if you want the phone you have to say something."
Smallest whisper: "Hi..."
"Are you having fun today?"
"..."
"Are you playing with your mommy?"
"..."
Me: "If you're not going to talk, then it's my turn with the phone again."
"AHHHHHH! No!! I have it! Wahhhh!"
Anyway, you get it.
Or you may get the opposite conversation in which she is telling you about everything she sees, remembers, is thinking about, has ever thought about. During these conversations, I feel it is my duty to assist the poor person who is making such a grand effort to interpret her speech, but I'll have you know that when I actually get close enough to make a comment, Evie runs away, as far away as possible. It's hard for me to help you, but I try.
So here are a few things you can talk to her about that might help you:
- balloons
- flowers, particularly roses
- colors: her favorite is pink, hands down
- her new baby doll (not the real baby we are having; we're working on that)
- her grandparents' puppies, Mollie and Katie
- the chickens (kickens) or the duck
- any reference to the Froggy books
- make a joke to her and say, "just kidding!" She lives for that.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
New Perspective and Things to Be Excited About
We completed Phase I of this new adventure: moving out of our house in Chico. And just in the nick of time! The day we arrived in the Pacific NW, the heat was reaching a "brain-numbing" (as the local weatherman put it) 105 degrees. Yuck and double-yuck. We were enjoying sunny and 73. My soul knows that that's the way it should be.
Our daughter Evie has been in toddler heaven, as her grandparents up here have on their large property the following: two black and white, sweet-tempered puppies, five chickens, one duck who needs to be chased as often as possible, and a huge garden for getting dirty in. She has slept hard and played hard.
Michael has new information about his 5th grade class awaiting him, and the more we learn, the more excited we become, which is helping our feeling of momentum when it comes to all this change. He has 20 students (such a great number for a class!). The class schedule is very nice, if not a little too jam-packed, which may make it hard to feel like the teacher gets to accomplish anything throughout the day. The thing that I think is the coolest is that his class has a Mandarin lesson each day (Michael doesn't have to teach that part). I wish I had had a foreign language class every day in elementary school! The school is going to take good care of us. They are providing us with a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment a mere 10 minute's walk from school, and they will be there at midnight to pick Michael up from the airport on Friday when he arrives. They'll also give him some food in his cupboards and take him around that weekend to orient him. What a difference from our Korean experience! We arrived late in the evening in Korea to an empty apartment that had no toilet paper (and no idea how to go get some!) and no food. We also had no idea that nothing opens before 10:00 a.m., so we had to wait, starving, until then to hunt something down, and our jet lag had awakened us at 4:00 a.m. It's a good feeling to know that Michael will be arriving in China to people who are expecting him and are also prepared for him. I can feel good about that.
And Evie and I will try to stay busy, have fun, and be rested. I think we can do that. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately...
Our daughter Evie has been in toddler heaven, as her grandparents up here have on their large property the following: two black and white, sweet-tempered puppies, five chickens, one duck who needs to be chased as often as possible, and a huge garden for getting dirty in. She has slept hard and played hard.
Michael has new information about his 5th grade class awaiting him, and the more we learn, the more excited we become, which is helping our feeling of momentum when it comes to all this change. He has 20 students (such a great number for a class!). The class schedule is very nice, if not a little too jam-packed, which may make it hard to feel like the teacher gets to accomplish anything throughout the day. The thing that I think is the coolest is that his class has a Mandarin lesson each day (Michael doesn't have to teach that part). I wish I had had a foreign language class every day in elementary school! The school is going to take good care of us. They are providing us with a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment a mere 10 minute's walk from school, and they will be there at midnight to pick Michael up from the airport on Friday when he arrives. They'll also give him some food in his cupboards and take him around that weekend to orient him. What a difference from our Korean experience! We arrived late in the evening in Korea to an empty apartment that had no toilet paper (and no idea how to go get some!) and no food. We also had no idea that nothing opens before 10:00 a.m., so we had to wait, starving, until then to hunt something down, and our jet lag had awakened us at 4:00 a.m. It's a good feeling to know that Michael will be arriving in China to people who are expecting him and are also prepared for him. I can feel good about that.
And Evie and I will try to stay busy, have fun, and be rested. I think we can do that. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately...
We got to go sailing with our friend. I didn't do any of the work; I just enjoyed the water and scenery. :-)
Feels good to be out of the heat!
Family day at Klessick Farms! Taking a horse-drawn wagon ride.
Having the time of her life!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Only Constant is Change?
Our lives have been in a state of upheaval this year, and to save some cyber space, I'll give the highlights:
-February: Lost my job--definitely wasn't expecting that. My income was the primary one. I still shake my head at this one, but I am learning to move on…
-March: Got a positive pregnancy test; that all happened before the job loss. Since COBRA was too expensive and my deductible was $6000, we opted to hope for Medi-Cal benefits or just pay cash. And people, check this out: when you pay cash to a hospital, they are often willing to give you a big discount. Just ask questions. Michael looks for a full time job.
-April: Michael really getting serious about finding full time work. We traveled to Tillamook, OR to interview for a State Parks job. Didn't work out. I began doing some tutoring to make money and help my self-esteem.
-May: Applied for a job at our church. We were hoping this one would work out because it would help us stay in Chico. Michael interviewed for it at the end of May.
-June: Waiting, waiting, waiting on the church job. Exploring options for Michael to go back to teaching, but not a lot of districts actually hire people with out-of-state credentials. Evie turned 2!! Sweet thing, we love her. End of June: did not get church job; they hired someone from out of town. Still shaking my head at this one… Job search goes into Desperate Mode. Did you know that your unemployment insurance can run out before your claim does? How about right before you have your baby? Oh, and a gopher ate all my tomato plants. Just sucked them down through a hole in the ground. And our beautiful shade tree died. I told God that if He didn't work something out soon (like by the end of the week), I'd go ape on someone. I think I cried the whole month of June.
June. Sucked.
July: June 26--applied for SF school district (they hire people credentialed out of state, what a concept), also applied for teaching jobs in Durham and to an international school organization.
June 27--International school replied and invited Michael to proceed in interview process
June 28--International school replied very positively to second half of online application
June 29--International school called us, saying they were very excited about Michael and our family. The only hitch? It's in China.
June 30--International school calls again: Did we know they offer complete health insurance for the whole family? That they'll pick up my OB care and delivery? Did we know that the school employed a lot of young families with kids? That our kids (and us) could learn Mandarin? Did we know they'll probably pay for the employees to get a Master's Degree? That I could come on staff with them too, even part time? By the way, this slid in at that end-of-the-week deadline I gave God...
July 3--Interview scheduled with school director.
July 4--Michael had a great interview. It's for 5th grade; what he always wanted. They really want him. When does that happen in teaching these days?
July 5--Job offer in Kunming, China. We start thinking--Hey, what would need to happen for this to be realistic? Sell business, sell car, pack up, move Eryn and Evie to Washington until baby comes.
July 5, afternoon--someone knocks on our door and asks if we'd be interested in selling our Honda CRV. There was no for sale sign. We live in a culdesac. WTH?
Somewhere in here, I sleeping again...
July 9--Offer and discussion with someone about buying our business. For the amount we wanted for it. I think we're going to China.
July 11--Our neighbor wants to buy our Honda Civic. We're still talking, but I think it's going to happen. We like the CRV a lot anyway.
List? Check. Check. Check.
Bottom line: for a reason we don't understand, God seems to be ushering us out of Chico and giving us a very clear opportunity in Kunming, China. We have decided to go with Him on this one, despite the fact that it seems crazy… and awesome at the same time. We're incredibly sad and also getting amazingly excited.
Pray for us. We have to move. We have to say goodbye: to our friends. to our families. to each other for a couple of months, since Michael has to go get school started in China and we decided to have our baby in the States. We have to have a baby in November…I don't even know what that's going to look like… Anyone have any ideas for boy/girl names that mean "God's timing is perfect"? or something like that?--names that aren't weird… We have to stay sane. For Evie. For us.
Deep breath. Here we go.
-February: Lost my job--definitely wasn't expecting that. My income was the primary one. I still shake my head at this one, but I am learning to move on…
-March: Got a positive pregnancy test; that all happened before the job loss. Since COBRA was too expensive and my deductible was $6000, we opted to hope for Medi-Cal benefits or just pay cash. And people, check this out: when you pay cash to a hospital, they are often willing to give you a big discount. Just ask questions. Michael looks for a full time job.
-April: Michael really getting serious about finding full time work. We traveled to Tillamook, OR to interview for a State Parks job. Didn't work out. I began doing some tutoring to make money and help my self-esteem.
-May: Applied for a job at our church. We were hoping this one would work out because it would help us stay in Chico. Michael interviewed for it at the end of May.
-June: Waiting, waiting, waiting on the church job. Exploring options for Michael to go back to teaching, but not a lot of districts actually hire people with out-of-state credentials. Evie turned 2!! Sweet thing, we love her. End of June: did not get church job; they hired someone from out of town. Still shaking my head at this one… Job search goes into Desperate Mode. Did you know that your unemployment insurance can run out before your claim does? How about right before you have your baby? Oh, and a gopher ate all my tomato plants. Just sucked them down through a hole in the ground. And our beautiful shade tree died. I told God that if He didn't work something out soon (like by the end of the week), I'd go ape on someone. I think I cried the whole month of June.
June. Sucked.
July: June 26--applied for SF school district (they hire people credentialed out of state, what a concept), also applied for teaching jobs in Durham and to an international school organization.
June 27--International school replied and invited Michael to proceed in interview process
June 28--International school replied very positively to second half of online application
June 29--International school called us, saying they were very excited about Michael and our family. The only hitch? It's in China.
June 30--International school calls again: Did we know they offer complete health insurance for the whole family? That they'll pick up my OB care and delivery? Did we know that the school employed a lot of young families with kids? That our kids (and us) could learn Mandarin? Did we know they'll probably pay for the employees to get a Master's Degree? That I could come on staff with them too, even part time? By the way, this slid in at that end-of-the-week deadline I gave God...
July 3--Interview scheduled with school director.
July 4--Michael had a great interview. It's for 5th grade; what he always wanted. They really want him. When does that happen in teaching these days?
July 5--Job offer in Kunming, China. We start thinking--Hey, what would need to happen for this to be realistic? Sell business, sell car, pack up, move Eryn and Evie to Washington until baby comes.
July 5, afternoon--someone knocks on our door and asks if we'd be interested in selling our Honda CRV. There was no for sale sign. We live in a culdesac. WTH?
Somewhere in here, I sleeping again...
July 9--Offer and discussion with someone about buying our business. For the amount we wanted for it. I think we're going to China.
July 11--Our neighbor wants to buy our Honda Civic. We're still talking, but I think it's going to happen. We like the CRV a lot anyway.
List? Check. Check. Check.
Bottom line: for a reason we don't understand, God seems to be ushering us out of Chico and giving us a very clear opportunity in Kunming, China. We have decided to go with Him on this one, despite the fact that it seems crazy… and awesome at the same time. We're incredibly sad and also getting amazingly excited.
Pray for us. We have to move. We have to say goodbye: to our friends. to our families. to each other for a couple of months, since Michael has to go get school started in China and we decided to have our baby in the States. We have to have a baby in November…I don't even know what that's going to look like… Anyone have any ideas for boy/girl names that mean "God's timing is perfect"? or something like that?--names that aren't weird… We have to stay sane. For Evie. For us.
Deep breath. Here we go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)