Settling

My apologies for the virtual blackout on the blog.

We've enjoyed two holiday periods, the last one fantastically long with one week off school!

Tomorrow we're back at "normal life." School starts bright and early...we leave home by 7:10 am. We school for five days and cram some sightseeing and extra-curricular living in on Saturdays with Sundays primarily focused on meeting with family members at the big International fellowship some 50 minutes to 1.5 hour away.

But tonight we're facing some new realities. We've just savored 10 days of visit from one of the family matriarchs...Gramma Juice was here...and she has, most sadly, left the building. She's somewhere over the Pacific now and should be home at The Old Place in 12 more hours or so.

That parting was hard...we have been looking forward to her visit since we left The Old Place, over two months ago...now, we're aware that we don't know when we'll have her with us again.

A few days ago another difficult transition for us...The Dutch Girl left us after 8 weeks of living in our home. Dad said it right when he commented about how amazing it was that she had lived with us for 8 weeks and we still had not discovered any annoying habits. She's gone to the Philippines and then to Thailand...we're hoping to see her again in December. She's been our right arm with the kids and all the adjustments of living here...and now she's gone, too.

So, the "guest" bedroom is empty for the first time since we arrived at The New Place. Feels a little like flying the plane for the first time...

It was close today. We traveled to the "Pet Market." The Pet market is several city blocks of every type of animal, plant and pet supply item you can imagine. Want a ferret? How about a turtle? A Mina bird? How many types of exotic fish can you imagine...and all so cheap! We lighted upon a darling litter of Cocker Spaniels...it was so close...but we pulled up and got out of there just in time.

We've spent the last week off school traveling all over this little city of ours (10 million souls.) We've seen lots of beautiful lakes and green parks, inhaled volumes of city smog and of course...found new places to shop for things so unbelievable I could hard tell you about them all. Grandma heartily enjoyed the roving about...yet she is still recovering from that nasty knee surgery...so, I'm afraid we really tested the limits of her rehab.

Today I actually saw a "Chinese Fire Drill"...in the middle of a busy street...the man from the rear of the vehicle got out, walked around and changed positions with the driver...

I enjoyed the irony.

This week while shopping at the market I spent some time strolling through the meat section. There are huge cases (like a Costco or another supermarket) filled with meat. But NOT meat that is already portioned, placed on a Styrofoam tray and shrink-wrapped...no, just piles of cut up meat. Stroll through...pick your meat-type, shuffle a few pieces about with your bare hands...then make a selection and carry it over to the meat scale where they'll put it in a bag for you.

While strolling through the meat market I slipped and nearly fell...looking down revealed that there were drops of blood on the floor...brilliant red against the shiny white tile...

no, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Then, I was startled to feel some water splash against my sandaled foot. My eyes fell upon a fish in a plastic bag that had been thrown down on the ground to stun it into inaction so that it could be properly weighed and sent home with the consumer. As I stood there and considered the unusual experience in the supermarket, the scale operator picked up the aforementioned fish in the bag and with a more violent action cast it down onto the floor again at my feet.

The fish lay still...perhaps resigned to it's fate?

On another note...we ate eel for dinner tonight.

We're settling. We're aware that this is for real...that we live here now and that we'll only visit our beloved "Old Place" for awhile. The children are remarkably well adjusted to all the changes. They ride 3 city buses one way to get to our Sunday meeting...all of it does not faze them. But, a couple of them asked to go back to The Old Place with Gramma today...how we miss it there.

But, we love it here too. Really, we love it here and it must be something beyond us that aids us in our times of culture fatigue and stress. We love the people and we are so settled in the knowledge that this is where we're to be right now...it's funny how all the daily irritants of living in a new place that is so far removed from our old "normal" seem to dissolve in the light of our sense of belonging here.

We're stepping into more opportunities to serve and share here...we need your thoughts as this next week holds some new challenges and opportunities.

We miss you and miss "home"...but we wouldn't miss for the world what He has in store for us here.

Promise...no more long delays in posting...stay with us...