中秋節

Sunday is the Chinese Moon Festival or Mid Autumn Festival

It is one of the most important traditions and one of the most significant festivals

in asian countries

In Chinese culture it is a time of reunion.

Gathering together.

Traveling, sometimes great distances, to be home.

With family.

For fellowship and food.

We were in China in 2004 for the Mid Autumn festival.

It was truly wonderful to see the preparations and so many people
moving across the cities and the country to be home.

For many who leave home and work far distances away from family,
this time of reunion is very significant and very sweet.

Here are the symbols for reunion of family - the symbols say a lot!

Lanterns are lit and fireworks echo all night long.  Mooncakes are everywhere!
This was a beautiful mooncake stand in our hotel in Changsha.
All those gold boxes are filled with mooncakes!

During our wait for David, we marked the festival time by sending
 a box of mooncakes to his foster family in Wuhan

and pajamas and socks to the orphanage for the children to have for the upcoming

winter months.

David was then two years old and the report back from his foster mother was,

Wu Yue He like cake....very rich so only eat small bite!"

Believe me....I only ate a small bite, too.  

They are beautiful, but the fillings are quite unusual...

like red bean curd, lotus seed curd, whole aged egg yolks or salted duck eggs.

Much more beautiful than our traditional Christmas fruitcake,
but equally dense and not deserving, really, of the name "cake"

This year was a special celebration for our family.
David's friend Joshua, also from Wuhan City, was adopted by a family in Dallas.
We followed their journey and they followed ours.  We've kept in touch.

When we moved to Texas, Joshua's mommy introduced me via email and facebook to
 another family they had traveled with on another adoption trip to China who lived in Houston...
and another family from Florida that has just moved to Houston from Florida.

Melissa, Carie and I reached out to each other this past summer.

Our three families met at PF Changs tonight.

I love the bond between strangers that is in Christ Jesus.

I love the bond that adoption from China brings, too.
We had a really nice time!

Three beautiful girls!

and a little early birthday celebration to add to the evening's festivities

My kids thought it was funny we were meeting strangers for dinner.

But we all became fast friends and rejoice that God drew us together to celebrate

the beauty of those folded into our families from China.

It is a glimpse of the global church responding to the biblical mandate to care for the orphan.
What a really beautiful thing!

It is so important for our chinese daughters and sons to enjoy and embrace their culture...

and the festivals are a fun and easy way to do this for our family.

Our childrens' story - their life story
 includes being Chinese and we celebrate that!

And it was a joy to celebrate with new friends this evening!

Thankful for the gift of these two beautiful children,
a love for their homeland and its rich history and traditions
and new friends in Texas!

Dog Days of Summer

Hip Hip Hooray for three day weekends!

Oh the Dog days of summer.....

dog days

 

noun

1.

the sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during theperiod that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time asthe sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11.

2.

a period marked by lethargy, inactivity, or indolence.

We enjoyed our extra day of being together.

And with our air conditioning being fixed after two days of no air upstairs,

we're all happy campers!

It was a hot one....but we took to the pool and that made for a lot of fun

and some relief from the hot, hot and humid Houston weather!

We even hooked up the slip and slide one last time!

Even Zoe can't help herself...she loves to swim!

Peter got home from football practice and cooled off, too!

You should have heard the squeels!!!

Back to school for everyone tomorrow.

And back to work...my first day "in the office".

Ian is grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and we're fixin'

to enjoy a true summer feast tonight.

We love summer together days.

but we're looking forward to fall, too.

And cooler temperatures!

Happy Labor Day, y'all!

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!

We are taking our first Texas field trip and driving to San Antonio for the fourth

but tonight we celebrated at the Woodlands Pavillion.

It was a great way to kick off our long holiday weekend together!

The Houston Symphony Orchestra performed a Star Spangled Salute

and we took a picnic dinner and spread out our blankets on the green grass.

The kids got tons of free patriotic souvenirs..

flags, glow sticks, hats, stickers, pinwheels.  Everyone was feeling festive!

We even got to chat with Betsy Ross and Uncle Sam!

We ran into friends from church and it was fun to sit with them.
The kids had a great time!

Even the big kids joined in on the patriotic celebration!

Lady Liberty was a real model....we approached and were terribly surprised to see her move!

The music was amazing....a real tribute to America as well as our servicemen and women.





Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Psalm 33:12

Celebrating Covenant Marriage

Happy Anniversary to my beloved husband!

Twenty two years ago today, we joined our hearts and souls in covenant marriage.

Before our closest friends, our family and our God,

we gave ourselves one to the other.

It was, quite simply, the best day EVER!

How thankful I am for God's blessing upon our covenant with Him.

May He be exalted and glorified as we live out our covenant vows with our

eyes fixed upon Jesus, the great covenant keeper who will never

break covenant with His bride, the church.

I so look forward to all that God has in store for us and our family.

Happy Father's Day

Watching my husband be a father to our children makes me love him

more and more and more!

Ian is so purposeful in

teaching, training and discipling

our children.

He cares for each one of us in special ways.

He takes care of and provides for us in countless ways every day.

I am so grateful for Ian.

He is a man of honor and integrity and wisdom.

He is a godly man who seeks the Lord and His righteousness

and leads his family in the truth and knowledge of the Lord.

After church today, we had a quick lunch together and then

we sent the boys golfing. 

They had a great time together.

When they returned we had dinner mostly ready and enjoyed some pool time.

Friend Lauren is with us for part of this coming week....

it is going to be Camp Achterkirch!!!

We enjoyed grilled chicken, corn on the cob, watermelon and

Ina Garten's plum and raspberry crisp with

vanilla bean ice cream.

Summer fare is the best!

We lingered long enough at the table to go around and finish the sentence,

"I love my dad because..."

Let's just say, that was a sweet and memorable exercise.  And quite funny, too!

Nobody was too excited for a photo after swimming and right before bed,

but I couldn't let the day pass without getting a picture

of Baba with his children!

Happy Father's Day, love.

Projects, Parties and Programs...Oh My!

The month of May is always full.

Full of wonderful end of the school year activities and festivities.

Last week, the kids each participated in their respective 

Awards Chapel.

Meredith was honored as 

Student of the Year

from the departments of History and Bible.

This award is given to the student with the highest overall rankings

in two combined departments.

Peter was awarded the eighth grade

Joshua Award

The eighth grade faculty votes for the student who best exemplifies

Christian character and the school's primary pillars of

academic excellence, biblical principles and cultural impact

We're so thankful that God planted our children at CCS
That He always makes a way, financially, for them to be in Christian education
That He has put faithful men and women in their lives
to educate them, nurture them and disciple them
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thankful, too, that in our first year in this new place,
we have seen our kids blossom and excel.
That is grace upon grace!

Next week is finals week....
But before the grueling study week that lies ahead, we can enjoy

BLUE AND WHITE SCRIMMAGE NIGHT


Peter will take his place (on the sidelines as a rising freshman)
with the varsity football team for our spring training
football scrimmage.

It is a great tradition and the whole family is going.

Football in May - yeah....we're in Texas now, remember ?!!?!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I am sure missing my mother today

and wishing we could spend the day together.

Living far away from one another is especially difficult 

on days like today.  

Cherishing wonderful fond memories, however,

and giving thanks for the remarkable woman I call Mother.

She has no doubt shaped me and encouraged me

through so many stages of life.
I treasure every memory.

She was and is the kind of mother I aspire to be!

Today, I was blessed to spend the day with my family.

Church was lovely - the girls sang in the kidz choir!

We had lunch an Anthonai - my favorite Thai restaurant.

And then, us girls enjoyed manicures and pedicures.

The evening was spend playing outdoors -

watching the boys swim and play baseball.

What an awesome day!
I am truly blessed.

Blessed!

How blessed I was to join Claire at school

for a Mother's Day Tea today!

They served us tea and lemonade and delicious cookies . . .

and the table decor was precious, too!

They recited memory work for us,

presented us with a portfolio of writing - all about their moms,

and we watched a precious video.

Very sweet to be with Claire, her friends, and all the second grade moms!

Friends are Like Jewels

Charlotte had some girlfriends over this afternoon

to help celebrate her birthday.

They played in the backyard.

They enjoyed a picnic lunch.

And we all indulged in a chocolate fountain with every imaginable 

sweet and savory treat for dipping!

Then the girls got busy jeweling monogram letters - 

they turned out so cute!

Everyone did theirs a bit differently and each one was so fun to see.

The monogram applique t-shirts were our party favor 

Each time I'm with this group of girls

I am so thankful!

This truly is the sweetest group of friends!

Precious friends. . .well, they are like jewels!