Long awaited return...

On May 26th we will again step foot on our "homeland". Yes, the four of us are all Americans, but there's a lot of Asian in us as well. We sometimes joke that Mark and I actually more culturally Asian than Emma and Elsie since we lived there longer. It's a place that's near and dear to all of us and we will be able to spend six weeks there this summer.

Six weeks is a long time. Time enough for us to remember all that we loved and to remember all those things that we didn't love. Hopefully enough time to embrace old friends and make some new ones. And time enough to give the staff and students we are bringing along a taste of what it's like to live and minister in East Asia. Among people that are so different and yet so similar to us.

Please be in prayer for us this summer.
Pray for:

Mark and I to juggle our emotions as we return and then say goodbye, our children who are both very needy at times, and our ministry with our 14 other teammates. Pray we are able to know how the Lord wants us to balance our time between these three major areas.

Elsie. She likes routine and structure. Pray that we are able to provide a little structure for her and that she'll be flexible when we can't. She struggles at meal times. She likes to play and throws food everywhere. Pray that we'll find some local food she likes and that maybe she'll be willing to eat while in a noisy restaurant. She still puts everything in her mouth. Pray that she'll be safe and healthy. And finally, we've recently seen some more seizures. (I'll write a separate post about this soon.) Pray that by God's grace she'll be seizure free this summer.

Emma. For the most part I think she's going to love it. She's so excited, mostly to eat noodles, which she might do daily. Pray for her little heart. She might experience some emotions and have questions related to her adoption and local people will likely ask a lot of questions.

Pray the Lord will meet all of us with His grace and love and abundant provision.

It’s spring.  Spring means birthday season in this household! And Easter is in the middle of the birthdays, which is a great chance for a photo shoot.

Elsie just turned five. She is still as active as ever. Here are a few of the ways she’s growing.

Physically—she’s running all over the place. She takes four to five large two footed jumps when you ask her to, and sometimes without prompting just for fun. She loves to be chased. She has seemingly boundless energy. And she’s “graduated” from outpatient physical therapy. Her PT says it’s not necessary at this point. The jury is still out as to whether or not I can keep up!

Emotionally/socially—she is delightful and charms almost everyone she meets. She’ll ask strangers for a “huggie,” though I think most of them don’t know what she’s asking. She is watching other children more and more and loves to chase them and to be chased. She doesn’t always know how to say hello and get someone’s attention. Most often she does so by hitting, or scratching…yikes!

Spiritually—Elsie will grab my little pinky, usually at meal times and say “inging” asking me to pray. She also loves to sing “hau-oo,” hallelujah.

Cognitively—we are thrilled at how much she’s learned this year. She is paying attention more and more and therefore learning the function of toys and using them appropriately. I recently sat down to update her spoken words and sign language list, and I filled two pages. She tries to communicate with me more often than not. She knows what she wants and is able to tell me. She learns new signs in ten minutes or less, and her spoken words are increasing too.

Elsie, we are so proud of you and love you so dearly. You bring so much fun and laughter into our home. You have such a sweet smile and we are ever grateful God grafted you into our family.

Emma is about to turn six! Even though at times she can act like she’s fifteen with her exasperated roll of the eyes, she’s still our sweet little lady. She too has grown and changed so much this year.

Physically—she reminds us that she’s still bigger than Elsie, though honestly not by much. She’s excited to learn to ride her bike without training wheels this spring/summer.

Emotionally/socially—Emma is almost as extroverted as her mother. She wants friends but hasn’t had many opportunities while being homeschooled this year. Her “bible study” (Awana) and class at church are the highlights of her week. She is extremely articulate and doesn’t filter much of what she says. We’re trying to teach her to wait and say some things only to us and not out loud in front of strangers. She is our drama queen and expresses emotion with gusto.

Spiritually—she loves reading her Bibles. Almost every day she can be found for long stretches of time reading stories of God’s love and faithfulness through the ages. She asks spiritual questions, “how can Jesus come in my heart? Is there like a door?”And she loves to sing songs about Jesus.

Cognitively—she loves to read! I’m not entirely sure how it happened so effortlessly. She asked me to read to her for months on end and I did as much as I could. And I taught her some sight words and how to sound out words. Then once she started reading a little, she began to read more and more and more. Now she reads first to second grade books with inflection. She pulls classic novels off our shelves and reads what she can. She doesn’t love to write, nor to do math, but we’re still working on those. As long as reading is involved, she’s willing to “do school” for multiple hours in a day.

Emma, we love you dearly and we’re so proud of you! You make us beam and make us laugh and we are so grateful for your expressions of love and affection.

Happy birthdays, my sweet little girls!  Mommy loves you like crazy cakes!