Easter 2013

This year, my friend asked for help in throwing an Easter Party for her early English learners. I was more than happy to help. As usual, more kids showed up than were invited. Word of a party travels fast! Fortunately, there was plenty of supplies for everyone to decorate and hunt eggs.

 

Aaaaand, they're off to hunt!

 

Thanks to taobao, I was able to order plastic eggs this year. I heard a child's parent telling him not to worry about the fake eggs; just find the real ones. The kids were pleasantly surprised to find out there was candy inside the "fake" eggs. :)

 

 One of the 200 group photos taken on Saturday; everyone had a great time! 

 

 I looked out my bathroom window on Easter morning and saw this gorgeous sunrise.

 

 

My dear husband does not, ahem, love taking pictures. But on major holidays he will put up with my antics and head outside for some family photos. It is a huge act of love on his part.

 

 

We hosted fellowship time for Easter this year. Everyone brought food and we had a big brunch as well as a very worshipful time of remembrance. I absolutely love everything about Easter. I think the Lord knows our souls need a major reminder/refocus each year of the price He paid for us.



 

Another fun memory from the day:

While we had our Easter morning celebration in Asia, my cousin Laura's beloved (also named Kevin) was proposing to her in Dallas. So after our Sunday morning meeting time was over we raced to the computer to see pictures of their engagement. We were all so excited for them! 

 

 

Hope you had a fabulous Easter weekend! He is Risen!!! 

Celebrating 4

We recently celebrated 4 years with Trinity. For both of my girls, age 4 has been the peak of their passion for princesses. So, princess-themed birthday party it was. We had a few friends come over for cake, playtime and a pinata. (Thanks to taobao.com, we can order all kinds of random things online like pinatas!) We also started a new tradition of the birthday girl picking the mealtime menu for the day. Trinity picked Cheerios for breakfast (a real treat around here!), fried rice for lunch and homemade pizza for dinner. Unlike her sister who keeps a running countdown months in advance of her birthday, Trinity seemed pretty laid-back about it even the day before her birthday. But on the morning of her birthday Trinity made sure everyone she saw knew, "I AM FOUR TODAY!"  

 

 

Trinity, at four years old you are our own little resident comedianne and dance performer. You love to make us laugh. You have grown up so much in the last few months. You are now beginning to embrace being a "big girl" and often want to join big sister as she does home school. You are learning every day and lately have shown an interest in writing the letters of the alphabet and in coloring.

You adore your big sister, are still our resident night-owl, have stopped napping almost entirely, give the BIGGEST kisses on our cheeks, and tell me, "Mommy I'm melting!" when you have a runny nose. You ask to wear a dress or skirt every single day. You do not want to be bothered with boring old pants.

You love to enjoy life and laugh. And although an extrovert like your sister, I often find you in your room pretending with toys in your own little preschool world.

People still ask me almost every day where you get your curly hair. Local friends think I curl it.

We thank God for your life. You add so much joy to our family! Happy birthday, little one.

from February, Chinese New Year

 

February 9 was New Year's Eve on the Lunar Calendar. I've mentioned it before so I won't belabor the point, but Chinese New Year is by far the biggest holiday in this country. We found it to be overall much quieter this year (read: less fireworks), but it was still a rip-roaring, loud few weeks. Since our girls aren't big fans of loud fireworks, we personally stick with sparklers. We had a neighbor join us on New Year's Eve as we lit our sparklers. You might be able to see he was carrying around a lighter. Most boys his age and older carry lighters everywhere at New Year time. It's a crazy idea to me! In fact, the other day I saw two 10 year old boys lighting grass outside our apartment building just for fun. I quickly asked them to put the fire out!

 

 

 

The big fireworks begin all over the country as the sun goes down, and at midnight the entire country is lit up in a loud crescendo. I took this photo right outside of our bedroom window around 10 pm.

Over the holiday, our friend asked us to visit her in her village. She is home from working in a factory in Shenzhen. The girls were excited about another trip to our friend's house. The mountains are not fun to drive in, but they are beautiful. We had to stop to catch our breath from the bumpy road take a minute and enjoy the view.



When we arrived,Trinity stopped to enjoy the appetizers (walnuts) the family set out.



The family cooked a feast for us. We ate outside with pine needles serving as a tablecloth. This is a very common way to eat in Y villages.



I love this picture of my friend's mother and grandmother. They were excited to have their picture made and asked me to send them a copy.



Cutie pie



Trinity was on a quest to see every animal in the village. She chased chicks, found all the cattle, and even found the donkey this family has owned for at least 15 years.



Our friend's dad is the assistant village leader and gave us a tour of their village's Y. minority culture center.



"Hello, goats!"

As we walked from one part of the village to another, we took a short cut with some small paths. Our friends laughed at how clumsy we were at trying to navigate the small path. They were pros and could probably cross up and down these roads with their eyes closed.



Sweet family in the village

The New Year holiday is over and tomorrow is the first day back at school for most students. Around these parts, March 4 is the beginning of the new school semester. So there you have it, our celebrations from the new Year of the Snake.

The long break

I might as well start from today. Too much has happened in the last six months to share it all, but here's to recording a little bit of it on the old, dusty blog. We had a fabulous time in America. Fabulous, I tell you. We did nearly everything we wanted to do as a family. We didn't get to SEE everyone we wanted to see, but we loved catching up with family and with as many friends as we could. My kids now know all their cousins and refer to them frequently. We made dear new friends at our home base in Arlington (hello home school buddies!) We joined the library, went on 124 visits to the park, ate too much food, and had a white Christmas in Texas. Kevin and I even went on a cruise together, for crying out loud. What's not to love about that?

But for this season, our home is in Asia. And it was good to get back. Truthfully, there have been some serious struggles in our last 7 weeks since getting home. But the Father hasn't released us from this country. I am thankful that is very clear. In the last seven weeks Kevin has traveled on several trips, we visited a friend in her village, we took a family trip to another province, the entire country celebrated the Lunar New Year, Grace and I went to a home school conference, Kevin got a 3rd degree burn on his hand (ouch!), and we've taken turns getting sick. This past week was the first "normal" week we've had in a while. It was glorious!

In all the transition, my girls have rolled with the punches like pros. Grace and Trinity are such a daily joy to Kevin and me. I am in a stage of motherhood where I enjoy my kids like I never have before. Perhaps the fact that everyone sleeps through the night and goes to the potty on their own helps a little, too. Trinity turns four years old this week and I keep lamenting the fact that I no longer have a "baby" in the house. I do a little fake cry for her and tell her I'm so sad she's not a baby, to which she laughs and looks very proud to be a big girl.

So now that I've shaken off the dust, I plan to blog a little more. It helps me process what's going on in our lives. Thanks for checking in.

to the farm

Last week we made a long overdue trip to my grandpa's farm in central Missouri. I say long-overdue because I haven't been there since I graduated from high school 17 years ago. Of course, we've visited with Grandpa in other places. But it was time to take Kevin and the girls to see where my dad grew up and where I made lots of memories as a kid. Mom and Dad met us in St. Louis, and after speaking to some dear friends at a church we rented a car and hit the road. The girls couldn't wait to get there!

Once we arrived, it didn't take long for my dad to get in one of Grandpa's tractors and give the girls a ride. Kevin also drove the tractor for a while. I love this picture of my sweet 87 year-old grandpa waving to the girls.

My Aunt Betty also visited and made this contraption to pick pears. Grace really got into the pear-picking and after working she declared, "I knew it was hard work being a farmer but I didn't know it was THAT hard!"

My Uncle Jerry and cousin Lucus arranged for the girls to get acquainted with some piglets. This litter was just a few days old.

Trinity told us before we went to the farm that she "wanted to hold a baby pig and a baby cow." We told her the calf was too big, but she got to hold that piglet after all.

We also got to see where my grandma is buried. It was so strange to visit the farm without Grandma there. The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the farm was that Grandma's vegetable garden was gone.

We looked at lots of old pictures and heard Grandpa share stories about family.

Central Missouri is beautiful.

There's a large Pennsylvania Dutch community in this area. They are precious people and have been wonderful neighbors to my grandparents over the years. We visited my grandpa's next-farm- neighbor one afternoon. They have a dairy and even showed us a calf just 2 days old, but no, Trinity didn't hold it.

Pristine farm home

Note the buggy parked in the garage along with the tractor set on steel wheels rather than rubber, since rubber-tired vehicles aren't allowed in their community. But this family would be considered progressive in that they own a tractor.

Our trip to Missouri was a fast one but we made many memories. As we left, Grandpa grinned and told me not to wait so long to come back the next time. :)

the America chapter

 

 

A few weeks ago I heard our ex-pat lifestyle described as "living in chapters." And it's true. When I think about my adult life, I tend to think of it in segments: life before moving to China, our first few years in China, our first time back in the US, our second term in China, on and on. So for now, I'm calling this our second American chapter. We've had so many wonderful experiences with family and friends since we arrived back June 30 that it's difficult to condense it into one little blog post, but I've got to get a few pictures up before I forget everything.

 

The day after we arrived, whilst my in-laws graciously babysat my jet-lagged children, Kevin and I got to witness my cousin Michele's baptism. My parents and aunt were there, and my cousin Laura even got to baptize her sister. This was an amazing night of worship filled with encouraging testimonies to the power of the gospel. 

 

 

 

 

Later that week we caught up with friends right before they moved back to Europe. Kevin and Daniel go waaaay back, as in back to high school days, college roommate days and best-men-in-each-other's-weddings days.  

Our kids had a blast together, too! We took them to Legoland in Dallas and played for hours.

It was truly "blast from the past" week as we also caught up with dear friends from sem..ary days. It's so hard for me to believe Haley is 10 years old already. It seems like the other day we were waiting outside her hospital room to hear her first little cries.

Thanks for coming to see us, Hoffmans!

After a detour to Virginia and some great meetings, (where we happened to see Air Force One land while waiting at the airport!), we headed to Boerne, TX for a big Gerlt family get-together.

We stayed at a beautiful ranch, rode mules, scared away the deer, watched deer early in the mornings, played and played, went to Sea World and had an all-around great time. I loved watching the cousins interact and play together.

The whole crew: Chad and Erin's baby arriving in November will be my parents' grand baby #10.

A few days later we headed to Nana and Pappaw's house in Lindale. (Kevin's parents also kept our girls for a night so we could celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary with a trip to the Melting Pot and a hotel stay in Dallas!) Nana has a beautiful yard and the girls enjoyed "helping" her take care of it. Here they are picking tomatoes.

Cousin Ariel was visiting from El Paso, which was a huge bonus. We love cousin time.

The OCD in me is upset my pictures won't load correctly right now. But this picture is too cute not to post. Here are the girls with Pappaw and Ariel at the Tyler children's science museum.

 

A few days later we headed to West Texas where we saw my dad's new office at city hall (he is now Councilman Gerlt!) and caught up with the Lewis family.

 

These kids played so well together!  

 

And I got some Kristen time. I am so thankful for friendships that always pick up right where we left off.

We got to see my almost 90 year old grandmother and gather 4 generations together in one picture.

It warmed my heart to see how much Grace loved visiting with Gram.

And as we got reacquainted with one great-grandmother, we said goodbye to another. Kevin's grandmother finished the race and went to be with Jesus this month. As sad as it is to lose a family member, we were grateful to be able to attend her funeral. Kevin and I have lost 3 grandparents while overseas and this is the first grandparent's funeral we were able to attend. All of Grandma George's 6 grand kids shared stories and letters with memories from her life. I know she would have loved it. 

 

 

Chapters. Seasons. We are soaking in every minute of this one.