Sometimes I see the glass half empty, or wondered if there is even a glass at all. I can wake up and think, I should have gone to bed earlier. Or after a workout, I wish I had pushed through one more set of push ups. Or sighed when the boys tackled each other on the trampolines, kicked each other in the head and knocked skulls … AGAIN.
But others days I am grateful when the rain holds off until I am done with my long run. Or rejoice when I only needed a hat to get Calista to the bus instead of a jacket, hat and mittens. Or been grateful only half the container of blueberries spilled and rolled under the fridge.
Sometimes I get complements about how honest I am and I hope they mean about the good, easy stuff to share, not just the freak out moments that happen regularly around here.
Sigh. I am afraid I can be a Debbie Downer.
So here is a list of all the good things I have enjoyed of late:
A friend (who is from Singapore and speaks Chinese in her home) and I have had a dream of a Chinese play date… Well she posted an ad at UMD for this and voila! We meet a women who:
1. Is a psychologist.
2. Is a developmental psychologist, including CHILDHOOD development
3. Seems to like kids!
4. Has done this sort of thing before: including her own kids, other Chinese kids, English-speaking only kids and adopted from China kids
5. Lived in ZhuZhou City for 5 years, which is XS’ birth city. Now I want you all to imagine the country, the IMMENSE country of China. Meeting someone from the same province is …. Providential, much less from the same CITY! We think God was in this…
Dress up with our friends.
Any good weekend includes ice cream!
I pray this is not a sign of attitudes in the future!
We got to have our new pastor and family over for dinner tonight. We also had two other families making for a full house. It was a stellar night, including 8 adults and our 9 kids. But the highlight was before the dinner. I am known for spazzing, yelling (although in my sleepy stupor that was just edited from “yellowing…”) and various other nasty things.
Tonight I kid you not, we had a dance party (all 5 of us) about an hour before folks showed up. I was able to get the kitchen cleaned up (I know, before the party!?) plus had an extra :30 before they all arrived! We did some school prep, lunch box prep and even sat down a bit before they arrived. Miracle.
We welcomed our new pastor and family today at church. No potluck is complete without faces of the new pastor to pass around!
We also received a new kite from our Chinese friends. Here is a quick video:
And Frozen still reigns around here. We love to crank it up:
All in all, I am so grateful for the ways life shifts from “I don’t know if I can do this without therapy, some medication and lots of potato chips” to “Lord lead me deeper than I have ever been before…do it, whatever it is. I am ready.”