Answered prayers and transitions

I have been thinking about this post and trying to compose it in my head for more than a month now.  It is complicated and may end up being a two-part post.  I can sum it up as: God will provide.

When we went to the U.S. this summer, our future in China was a little uncertain. We knew we were headed into the last year of our initial commitment with Clear Creek, and we were not sure what would happen after the 5 years were up.  We knew we were willing and wanted to continue in China for a while longer.  We are not finished here yet.  We were not sure what Clear Creek would want. 

We came back to China, knowing that we would stay in China at least another 2 years but not in the same place.  We had several options and all had good points.  We really were not sure where to go.  So we started praying. 

We have been praying that God will lead us where he wants us to be and where we can do work for Him.  Every time we took prayer requests, Liam would ask that we pray for guidance.

One of our options was to move to and work in Binjiang.  This is a district in Hangzhou.  It is still in Hangzhou, but it is about an hour (40 minutes on a good day) from where we live now.  We started spending more time with the group in Bj.  There is a need for some workers there and plenty of “work” that we can do.  We felt that maybe this was the place for us, but we wanted to make sure it was not just what we want, but what God wants.

Then Jon was reunited with Chuck.  He is a brother that Jon has worked with in the past, but he hasn’t seen him in quite a while.  It turns out that he moved to Binjiang!

There were a few simple coincidences like this that made us feel good about moving to Bj.  But Jon would have to find a job.  We started praying specifically for a job and still for guidance.

There are a few universities in Bj, but not that many.  We looked around some and even looked on-line at a few.  I think Jon may have even sent an e-mail or two out.  We even looked at a new elementary school in that area.  Then Heather (from the US) introduced us to Roger. 

Roger is Chinese, but he lived in the US for about 15-20 years.  He is starting an education company based here in HZ.  Actually it is a branch of an American company, and HZ will be the hub for all of Asia.  Roger said he needed someone to help with curriculum development.  That is perfect for Jon! 

Long story, shorter, Jon now has a new job (in addition to teaching at the University). This semester he is only part-time but next year he will work more full-time.  He helps with developing the curriculum and he also is in charge of hiring other foreigners to come and teach.  This could be great because it could be a way to get more workers here!  We are very excited about this. 

So, now we know where we will be next year, and we have a job.  Next, we needed to find an apartment.  We started praying for an apartment.  We looked at several.  The first one we looked at, was really too small for our family.  The second one we looked at, was nearly perfect, but it was really too expensive.  We kept looking and saw some that might work.  Then we received word that the price on the one that was too expensive was reduced by 1500 Yuan!  We signed the lease about 2 weeks ago!

We will move into the new apartment at the end of April.  Our lease for this apartment expires at the beginning of May. 

This is a time of transition for our family.  It is not always going to be easy.  We have to move all of our stuff.  Pack it up and then unpack it and organize it.  Jon will continue to work at the University which means some long commutes for him 3 days a week during May and June.  Since we are moving about an hour away, our ayi (household helper) will not be able to continue to work for us. We will need to figure out how to get around and where markets and shops are.  We hope that the kids will be able to find some friends and playmates.

We feel that we were lead to this place and we know that God will do wonderful things in Binjing.

Please pray for us especially during this transition.  Pray for the group we know we will be working with and pray for God to lead us to more work and people to share with.  

Snow 2013

This has been a very cold winter.  It snowed three times (maybe 4 times)!  Ok, the last time it snowed, it it did not stick.  The other times we had plenty of snow to play in.

This is the small pond near our apartment during the snow in January.

The kids made a little snow man.

We were all walking to the store, and Eryn saw a large icicle on the sidewalk.  She wanted to pick it up, but I made her wait until we were on the way back.  She was really fascinated with the icicle.  Soon after I let her pick it up, she dropped it and it broke into several pieces.  She used two pieces to make the bill on this "snow duck".

snow on some New Year's decorations

 Snow in the city is not always beautiful.  These bushes are covered in frozen slush from the road, gross!

Tonight is supposed to be cold again, and then rainy tomorrow. Tomorrow night there is the possibility of some ice, but for the most part, the bitterness of Chinese winter is over!
We will all be very happy to have some warmer weather.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Thanksgiving

As is our tradition, we celebrated Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  This holiday is not celebrated here and many of us must work on Thanksgiving.  We had a huge crowd with lots of food.  If my count is correct, we had 28 people  (including kids).  I can not think of any traditional Thanksgiving food that we were missing.

This picture was taken after the turkey and chicken had already been picked over.  Also do you see the little girls hiding under the table.  They found a cozy spot to eat their dinner.

Good food and good company!

Sometimes the holidays can be hard and we miss our families and American traditions.  But on good days like this we wish you were here instead of us being there!  We are very thankful for our many, many blessings.

12 years old!

On November 9th, 2000, I met one of my favorite people in the whole world.  Now, twelve years later, that tiny 7 lb. 13 oz chubby cheeked baby is almost as tall as me!  

She had a good birthday.  She had her friend Bliss spend the night, and they stayed up until the wee hours of the morning.  

She requested a plain cake with chocolate icing.  The cake looked great, but I do think it was lacking something in the taste department.  It was made from scratch.  However, Hallie loved it and I guess that was the most important thing.

She is growing into a lovely young lady and she makes us very proud.  Happy Birthday Hallie!

Voting

As you know, this November the United States had a presidential election.  Four years ago right after we did not get a chance to vote.  We thought that we would not be able to get all the paperwork finished in time for us to vote in that election.  This time, we made sure that it happened.  We wanted to vote in the Primary, but that did not happen (we got some wrong information, and missed a deadline).

We even watched all (but one) of the presidential debates.  We voted by absentee ballot and Jake carried our  ballots back and mailed them into our county.

This is a picture of Jon filling out his ballot.

If you look very closely, you can see the book that Jon is using as a desk is "Put me in the Zoo".
We are grateful that we had the privilege to be able to vote, even when we are so far away.

Instant Apple cider!

I am so excited! I made up a recipe.  I am not completely sure how I came up with this idea.  I think I may have actually dreamed it or at least thought about it as I was falling asleep the other night.

Hallie LOVES hot apple cider.  She was really excited when I said I was going to make it for our Halloween party.  I usually make it with apple juice, other ingredients and spices in the crock pot.  I guess I could share that "recipe" sometime but I am really excited that I figured out a way to make some instant cider.  Now we can enjoy it one cup at a time without having to make a huge pot.

I did some searching on the Internet and found a couple of recipes, but they all called for instant tea.  I didn't want spice tea.  I played around a little and came up with this recipe.

The good thing about this recipe is that I can find the ingredients here in China (except maybe some of the spices).

The bad thing is I am not sure if you can find all the ingredients in the US.  But if you live in the US, you can find instant cider packets.

The main ingredient is apple instant drink mix.  I used the Nestle brand because it is a little cheaper, but the Tang brand would work well too.  I am not sure if you can find anything like this in the US.

I also used some Orange Tang (Nestle brand) and Lemon Tang.  You could use some lemonade or leave out the lemon stuff.  

 Mix together 1 1/2 cups of apple Tang (or Nestle) drink mix

!/2 Cup of Orange Tang (or other brand) drink mix

and 1/4 Cup of lemonade Tang

Add

1 to 1/12 tsp of cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves and

1/4 tsp. allspice

I also added a pinch of ground ginger

Mix well

 Store in an air tight container

To make a cup of cider, use 4 teaspoons of mix and add boiled water to a mug.

enjoy!

Let me know what you think.




Instant Hot cider:

11/2 (1.5) Cups of Apple Tang
1/2 Cup of Orange Tang
1/4 C. lemon Tang
1-11/2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
pinch of ground ginger

Mix well and store in air tight container

To make the cider, use 4 teaspoons of mix and add hot water.

Hardin Halloween

 Halloween is one of those holidays that China does not always seem to "get".  It is catching on, but slowly.  Jon has to work late on Wednesday (he gets home at 6) so we just planned to go to Pizza Hut. It has sort of been our tradition.  The kids dressed up in their costume and se headed out.  We started to take the bus, but it was super crowded, so we took a taxi. Even without walking the whole we, we were seen by many people and the kids did get more attention.  They loved it though, because it was on their terms.  Eryn even went out of her way to wish some security guards a Happy Halloween.

Liam was there, but he was sitting next to me and it was harder to get a good picture of him.

The next day we had a "mini" party at our house after Trick-or-treating with Margaret and some neighbors.

  Eryn is not unhappy here, she is just playing the part of an evil witch.

Liam was a skeleton (I made the leg bones with tape)

here, you can see his face.

Thanks to Shelly for bringing the hat and green face paint!  I am happy to report that she is no longer green, but her eyebrows are still a little darker.

She is the Wicked witch of the East--before the house fell on her and she lost her shoes to Dorothy.

Our front door.

Three witches riding together

The whole group that trick-or-treated.

Brownies, cupcakes,  apple cider, and good company

Happy Halloween!

Searching and Calling

A couple of weeks ago we had a visitor at church.  His name was Danny and he looked Chinese, but he was from Malaysia.  Danny is backpacking across China and Asia.  He is a member of Couchsurfing.com.  This is organization where you sign up and can stay with people for free (often sleeping on the couch).   Danny was here in Hangzhou on a short stay and was staying with James and his family.  James works for the government.  While spending time with his host, Danny asked James if he thought there was more to life...and they started talking.  James is searching.  In the past James had met Shelly (Xiao Li) on the train  and they had also talked about God.  James told Danny that he knew a Christian and Shelly got him hooked up with our group.
Danny mentioned James, his host, during the pray request that Sunday.  Then just as service was over, James showed up.  We all went to eat lunch together.  James has a son about Liam's age.

We invited James and his family to movie night that week, and they came! Liam and Kevin had a good time together.  Then the family also came to church the next Sunday.

James story is not finished.  I believe that God is calling him.  I think it is amazing to see how He is using others to get James to where he can learn more about Him.  Please pray for James and all of those who are in his story.

spice organization

 This past week was a holiday week in China.  Jon did not have classes all week, and we did not have to go to our other job at the Elementary school.  We decided not to travel anywhere, because almost all of China also had the week off too and many of them are traveling.  We spent some quiet time together as a family and got some projects done around the house.

One thing I wanted to do was to organize my spice cabinet.

Before:

This is a mixture of things I have bought in China and things I brought or had sent to me from home.

I wanted to use some spice risers but have not seen anything like that in China.  Jon told me that he could make me something.  This is what he came up with:

These are two boxes that held some tea that we were given as a gift.  They are super sturdy boxes.  Jon connected them together with some scrap wood and screws. 

We also added another rise out of some scrap Styrofoam.

I covered the foam and box with some contact paper.  I decided to just leave some of the box in its original state for contrast and so that we can open the boxes if we ever want to hide anything.  Like piles of cash or something.

This contraption went into my cupboard and all I had to do was organize the spices and other bottles.

 I added labels to each of the spice bottles so I can quickly see what each jar is.

 Ta da! It looks much better, and hopefully I won't have to pull everything out the next time I need some nutmeg.

Can you tell that we don't believe in running out of peanut butter? Yep there are 4 jars of peanut butter!