Easter weekend

We are packing furiously this week but had a great Easter weekend with friends. "Resurrection holiday" as it's translated here is almost completely unheard of in our city. What a natural time to talk about the Hope that we have! We were blessed to have some friends come visit for the weekend. My girls were in heaven having so many friends to play with! Miss H. is so good with Trinity! She is often looking for ways to serve and is a great helper. And here's the crew right before the hunt. Please note the classy use of plastic bags. I had neither the time nor the foresight to scrounge up Easter baskets this year. Fortunately the kids didn't care at all! Found one!! Sunday morning I started taking pictures and these two cuties felt the need to hold up their favorite toys for the photo. Trinity watched and followed suit. Had to post this one cause I love it... Sunday morning Rob did a great job of leading us in worship and involving the kids, too. Here's a re-enactment of the resurrection! Kevin is the stone and the boys are watching guard over the tomb. The stone was rolled away!! Truly, He has risen! Hope your Easter weekend was fantastic!

just along for the ride

• Life is marching on quickly these days, and I need to get a few things written down before I forget it all. And I want to lift up some thanksgiving because He is certainly due it. There are times in life (at least it's been my experience) when nearly everything seems a struggle and there are lots of question marks. And then there are times when He makes the path so straight it's almost scary. He is GOOD in both situations. And He can get glory in either scenario. For some reason, God has chosen to make the path really straight thus far for our move to CX. He has been so gracious in this to remind us over and over that this is the path He has planned for our family right now.

• I headed to CX earlier this month with no plans to return until I found an apartment. After a day and a half straight of looking at apartments, I had two housing options suitable for our family. One option was a bigger apartment but in a location we did not like (ie not easy to meet people, buy groceries, etc), and the other was a smaller but still great apartment in a location with a wonderful community feel. (This has been our biggest request.) The only hold-up was that the landlord had told the previous tenant not to even put a nail in the wall. She had fixed up the place and wanted it to stay as-is. And while I like the color orange, it's not my favorite choice on a wall. So, loving the apartment (minus the decor), its location, its view, its proximity to getting around town, etc etc, I called the landlord telling her I was interested in moving in but could I paint and change some things such as adding some kitchen cabinets? After checking with her husband, she gave me a big YES. But, the catch was she was in BJ at the time, a 40 hour train ride away. She said she would come back to CX a full day earlier than planned to sign a contract on the 12th. So, zip bam boom while she made that long 40 hour train ride home I got busy ordering and reserving things for our new home, making sure not to pay for anything until I had signed the contract! And, after having dealt with many landlords in this country, I can honestly say it was the easiest contract negotiation process ever. PTL, especially since my husband is usually the main one who handles this kind of matter. Tough business negotiator, I am not! The previous tenant's contract was a 4 page, lengthy document full of restrictions. At my meeting, the landlord didn't even bring a copy of any kind of contract, since she had just gotten off the train! But my friend who helped me out that week (and who was a God-send) offered up her half-page standard contract. The landlord loved it, we signed it, I paid rent, and the landlord toted every decoration out of the apartment I didn't want. The painters started as soon as we ended our meeting. I had to keep my mouth from gaping open simply dumbfounded because I couldn't believe how easy the entire process was. Thank you, Jesus.

• I ended up being gone for 6 days while my man held down the fort at home. He's such a great daddy and I can tell the girls bonded with him even more. I missed them so much and was ready to get home! Of course I have to give a big shout-out and thanks to our friends the O fam, K and J for helping out, too! We have some amazing friends.

• In addition to the move, we've also had to renew our visas to live here. Last month we went to GZ to renew Grace's passport, since hers will expire on her 5th birthday in June. No new passport=no new visa. A few weeks ago the consulate wrote us that Grace's new passport was being held with 50 others in customs at the capital, apparently because the package was overweight. They told us her passport could be delayed in customs up to a month, which would be past our due date to renew visas. We were sweating it, but while I was in CX we got an e-mail that Grace's passport came. So 3 days ago while Kevin was working through lots of red tape here in the visa process, I went back to GZ to get Grace's passport. We got it all turned in with one day to spare. Whew! We are hoping they grant us the full one-year visa.

• Tonight we started packing. Now it seems for real. We don't have a move date yet but hope to be in CX by mid-May. Pictures to come...

CX city

I leave out on Friday night in search of housing, and tonight I wanted to post a few pictures of our new city. From the looks of the buildings, you'd think this was a large city. But by this country's standards, 200,000 people or so is not big at all! Still, it seems huge compared to where we live now. Hmmm, do you think our apartment is out there somewhere? I pray so! The most beautiful part of town is the minority/cultural area. The locals say the architecture is not authentic, since it is a mixture of Y minority architecture and architecture from the Qing Dynasty, but I appreciated the beauty just the same. When we move I'll show you more pics of this area. I absolutely loved it.

We had some tasty local Y-minority food, which apparently IS authentic. Those fried potatoes were amazing and most everything is spicy, spicy. This was our first time to eat tree moss. I thought we had discovered most everything there was to eat in this country but apparently not! I loved how they put fresh pine needles on the table before we ate. I'd never seen that before either. Does it act as a food catch-all or is there some other reason? I forgot to ask and must investigate this further.

Almost every night a group of dancers gathers around this big fire to get-down, local style. Fire is an important part of Y culture. (Forgive the poor picture quality!) Come on over and I'm sure we'll bring you here!!