Below: Cherry blossom Central...
Some shots from the bus trip follow:
We'll leave you with that safety word..."Carefully slip & fall down"...
28 March 2010
Field Trip - Pictures
This past Friday we ventured out of the four walls of our school to take the students on the beloved "Field Trip." As our school has only 34 students in Grades 1-5, I was confident that we had the matter entirely in hand. However, apparently March 26th, is a POPULAR date on the primary school calendars of the schools here. We took in two attractions...the local "Sea World" and a park with "Cherry Blossoms in Bloom." In my life I have had no other experience that prepared me for the volume of students packed into both locations. But by virtue of the "sea world's" indoor location...claustrophobics...beware! Hundreds and hundreds of shouting, pushing primary school students that were like swarms of bees surrounded us. It was nearly paralyzing to attempt to keep track of our precious 34 in the midst of the mayhem! Here are some photos of the day...the moments that were serene (or at least not terrifying!)
Above: our local version of "sea world"
Below: Cherry blossom Central...
Some photos of our little flowers...
While I was snapping these shots...so were dozens of other photographers...the kids sort of grow accustomed to it after a while...but it makes them feel uncomfortable when their classmates tease them about "movie stars"...
Every Field Trip has the group of Moms who come along for the day...here's our group of Moms...we so hope to continue to deepen relationships with this group in particular as we have the most exposure to them...
Below is a shot of Mrs.Wu and myself with two of the moms with whom were are extremely close...more and more meaningful conversations are taking place as we continue to build trust...
Below: some of the fellow "field-trippers" from another local school...
Some shots from the bus trip follow:
One final shot that gave us a chuckle when we were inside "sea world"... we always appreciate the clear and concise translations on signs that help us understand what is expected of us...
We'll leave you with that safety word..."Carefully slip & fall down"...
Below: Cherry blossom Central...
Some shots from the bus trip follow:
We'll leave you with that safety word..."Carefully slip & fall down"...
Photos - Thailand Retreat
Thanks to the generous Christmas gift given by Grandparents, we were able to go to a special retreat center in Thailand this year. There are tons of interesting "animal" opportunities near by...and these are a few photos of encounters we had!
Above: This 9 month old baby, growled a low growl as he drank from the itsy-bitsy bottle they'd given us to feed him. It probably was insanity...but, it is the Year of the Tiger...
Daddy really enjoyed the hugs...
26 March 2010
"It will only hurt a little bit...not much pain"
Our dear daughter, herein referred to as "The Bug," age 8, has suffered for the past two months with a wart on the instep of her left foot.
I first became aware of it while we were away on retreat. It was her eighth birthday and I'd taken her out for some special "Mom/Daughter" time and we'd found a place to get a cheap foot massage. (For those of you readers in the West, when I say cheap, I mean about $5 for one hour of foot massage!) Anyway, it was during her birthday foot massage that she told me she had pain in this certain spot of her foot and something that was "growing" on her foot.
When you live cross-culturally, especially with kids I think, I must often suppress the trigger reflex to "freak out" every time the kids are sick. Because you see, I've been to the hospital here...and once you've seen it...you don't want to go back, for anything other than a band-aid. Now, forgive me here and allow me to say that our local hospital is the best in our city and has some very fine doctors and nurses and a generally a nice facility. However, it does not compare to the warm and inviting Doctor's office of our dear Dr. D in WC. There are no hand-stitched quilts on the walls, no private, sparkling exam rooms and certainly no cookies from the local Dutch bakery in the waiting room!
Anyway, I digress.
We always cover any health concern immediately with prayer. We have seen several miracles happen with health and injury occurances in the nearly two years that we've been here. Yet there remain a few times when, for whatever reason, we must face our fears and go to the hospital to see a Doctor.
Six weeks ago we made the first trip to the hospital to see a Doctor (no doctors in a local office, if you want to see a doctor, you go to the hospital) for the Bug's foot ailment. No longer taken aback by strangers walking into our exam room to "just see" what the problem is or walking up three flights of stairs to the blood draw room where you queue up to a large countertop that resembles a tellers' counter at a bank and has 7 phelbotomists waiting, needles in their un-gloved hands. (See earlier medical/exam posts for further description.) We received the dreaded diagnosis of wart, caused by virus and a "freezing" was required after an IV round of antibiotics! (I politely declined the IV drip which would have required us to make the 1 hour car trip back to the hospital three days in a row, and instead took home some oral antibiotics as there was some suspicion that she had a secondary infection.)
The first experience of freezing was unusual. After standing in the Dermatology Doctor's area, pressed into her office with about 20 other people who were angling for position to push their sores/moles/warts before her while 19 others spectated...we were, after nearly two hours, taken into the "Laser Room." There was no laser in sight (only an aged desk, two chairs and an wooden stool that looked just like the ones that my neighbors perch upon out in front of their shops eating noodles with wooden chopsticks.)
The Doctor brought in the liquid nitrogen in a thermos that appeared to be circa 1974. The opening at the top was stopped up with a dingy, yellowed gauze plug. She also brought in two "tool kits" that looked like they perhaps were used with the Last Emperor. They had various metal implements in them, lying in disarray like a half-hearted mechanic had just used them. The Doctor, while counseling another 2-3 patients who walked into "our" room, dipped the first implement into the "smoking" opening of the thermos. She withdrew the implement and pressed it to The Bug's foot. She repeated this three times, the Bug's eyes spilling over with tears, until she finally told us to go home and to return in two weeks.
Yesterday was the two week mark. We dutifully returned.
After elbowing our way in front of the other dermatologically challenged, a diagnosis was made that we must go to the "Procedure Room"...for a "knife poking." The Bug was immediately assured that "It will only hurt a little bit...not much pain."
Local anesthetics are not used here. They're seen as wasteful and unnecessary. The Bug was placed on a plastic sheet (the exact same material as is used to cover the billions of restaurant tables Here that, when you place your arms upon it, sticks/melts to your arms.) Underneath the plastic I could see the evidences of other "knife pokings" on a stained sheet. I prayed again for protection and strength.
It did hurt more than a little bit as the Doctor, with four assistants and a few other patients pressed in to view, used some scissors to cut away at the wart on The Bug's foot. She was so, so brave. She was so tough. She remained still while she cried out it pain as I stood by feeling sick to my stomach. Afterward, The Bug quickly composed herself and limped out of the room.
I was once again helpless and totally out of control. I was away from the "best practices" of medicine that I've grown up with in the West, cultural expectations that I'm accustomed to, and it bothered me! Yet I had to face once again the truth that "control " is an illusion, no matter where I live. Though these experiences are painful for me, as a Momma to go through, I should learn from my daughter's example. To resist my urge to panic and run. To instead be like The Bug who remained still trusting me while enduring the pain, waiting for the necessary process to end. After all, my best response is to be still, knowing that my Father is standing by my side.
I first became aware of it while we were away on retreat. It was her eighth birthday and I'd taken her out for some special "Mom/Daughter" time and we'd found a place to get a cheap foot massage. (For those of you readers in the West, when I say cheap, I mean about $5 for one hour of foot massage!) Anyway, it was during her birthday foot massage that she told me she had pain in this certain spot of her foot and something that was "growing" on her foot.
When you live cross-culturally, especially with kids I think, I must often suppress the trigger reflex to "freak out" every time the kids are sick. Because you see, I've been to the hospital here...and once you've seen it...you don't want to go back, for anything other than a band-aid. Now, forgive me here and allow me to say that our local hospital is the best in our city and has some very fine doctors and nurses and a generally a nice facility. However, it does not compare to the warm and inviting Doctor's office of our dear Dr. D in WC. There are no hand-stitched quilts on the walls, no private, sparkling exam rooms and certainly no cookies from the local Dutch bakery in the waiting room!
Anyway, I digress.
We always cover any health concern immediately with prayer. We have seen several miracles happen with health and injury occurances in the nearly two years that we've been here. Yet there remain a few times when, for whatever reason, we must face our fears and go to the hospital to see a Doctor.
Six weeks ago we made the first trip to the hospital to see a Doctor (no doctors in a local office, if you want to see a doctor, you go to the hospital) for the Bug's foot ailment. No longer taken aback by strangers walking into our exam room to "just see" what the problem is or walking up three flights of stairs to the blood draw room where you queue up to a large countertop that resembles a tellers' counter at a bank and has 7 phelbotomists waiting, needles in their un-gloved hands. (See earlier medical/exam posts for further description.) We received the dreaded diagnosis of wart, caused by virus and a "freezing" was required after an IV round of antibiotics! (I politely declined the IV drip which would have required us to make the 1 hour car trip back to the hospital three days in a row, and instead took home some oral antibiotics as there was some suspicion that she had a secondary infection.)
The first experience of freezing was unusual. After standing in the Dermatology Doctor's area, pressed into her office with about 20 other people who were angling for position to push their sores/moles/warts before her while 19 others spectated...we were, after nearly two hours, taken into the "Laser Room." There was no laser in sight (only an aged desk, two chairs and an wooden stool that looked just like the ones that my neighbors perch upon out in front of their shops eating noodles with wooden chopsticks.)
The Doctor brought in the liquid nitrogen in a thermos that appeared to be circa 1974. The opening at the top was stopped up with a dingy, yellowed gauze plug. She also brought in two "tool kits" that looked like they perhaps were used with the Last Emperor. They had various metal implements in them, lying in disarray like a half-hearted mechanic had just used them. The Doctor, while counseling another 2-3 patients who walked into "our" room, dipped the first implement into the "smoking" opening of the thermos. She withdrew the implement and pressed it to The Bug's foot. She repeated this three times, the Bug's eyes spilling over with tears, until she finally told us to go home and to return in two weeks.
Yesterday was the two week mark. We dutifully returned.
After elbowing our way in front of the other dermatologically challenged, a diagnosis was made that we must go to the "Procedure Room"...for a "knife poking." The Bug was immediately assured that "It will only hurt a little bit...not much pain."
Local anesthetics are not used here. They're seen as wasteful and unnecessary. The Bug was placed on a plastic sheet (the exact same material as is used to cover the billions of restaurant tables Here that, when you place your arms upon it, sticks/melts to your arms.) Underneath the plastic I could see the evidences of other "knife pokings" on a stained sheet. I prayed again for protection and strength.
It did hurt more than a little bit as the Doctor, with four assistants and a few other patients pressed in to view, used some scissors to cut away at the wart on The Bug's foot. She was so, so brave. She was so tough. She remained still while she cried out it pain as I stood by feeling sick to my stomach. Afterward, The Bug quickly composed herself and limped out of the room.
I was once again helpless and totally out of control. I was away from the "best practices" of medicine that I've grown up with in the West, cultural expectations that I'm accustomed to, and it bothered me! Yet I had to face once again the truth that "control " is an illusion, no matter where I live. Though these experiences are painful for me, as a Momma to go through, I should learn from my daughter's example. To resist my urge to panic and run. To instead be like The Bug who remained still trusting me while enduring the pain, waiting for the necessary process to end. After all, my best response is to be still, knowing that my Father is standing by my side.
18 March 2010
Alien Abduction!
Frankly it's the only reason I can offer for why this Blog has been so neglected.
Something cataclysmic happened in mid-January...the kids got sick, we got tired of the cold, pressure at the school became intense and we began to operate on a survival mode. Then Spring Festival finally arrived and we left for retreat on February 2nd. We returned on February 20th and had to be at the school the next day.
Now it's the end of Week 4 of this Term and finally I am ready to address this Blog and my readers (if any of you remain!)
We began sensing some change was in the wind for us back in early October. However, with being at the school, as a family 45 hours a week...there's just not much time to go hunting around or journaling for hours to "discover" the source of the change. As you know from this blog that we were blow away with a sudden (I simply cannot say this more eloquently than this) insistence, an intense and urgent burden to open our hearts again to adoption. Since the end of October we've been engaged is the rigorous sport of "paperchasing" for an International adoption! While I may not have an outward appearance of a world class athlete...I think I can say that in the sport of paperchasing...I've got game. (Sincere appreciation must also be duly noted and homage is due to our dear Nettie back There who has functioned like our "midwife" for this adoption, running down papers, scanning, overnighting packages, getting documents authenticated...we simply couldn't have been where we are at this moment without her love and support!)
We've been blessed by having team mates here since September. This has had a true settling effect on all of us as we feel far less isolated! We've had regular Sunday meetings in our home, great teaching, and the joys of stretching alongside others who are being pulled and pressed too.
By the time we left for retreat in February however, I felt like ground hamburger. Last year when we savored the rest at the retreat center in Northern Thailand, it felt like the sweetest blessing. This year...it felt like we just made it to the ER before we bled out! We were physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. (Perhaps this is another reason that we've been so "quiet" and not on the blog?)
The first week of retreat we were at training in Hong Kong with our organization. The second and third weeks of retreat we holed up in Northern Thailand with about 15 other families just like ours. Kids from the West who live and serve all over Asia and their parents who come to this little retreat center to decompress. We had the added joy of being able to have some family with us as my parents flew all the way to Thailand to hang with us.
With the Grandparents on the scene Daddy and I enjoyed some great freedom to meditate and pray...taking MUCH needed time to be quiet and to seek answers and direction. For the last 2.5 years we've been about "getting Here" and trying to live...now that we're Here and our lives are more predictable (in a crazy, out of the world cross-cultural way)...we needed to take some stock and listen to gain some guidance about this feeling of "change."
After the two weeks we met for a "summit." (AKA, a lunch date with just the two of us!) And we talked about what was on our heart and what we'd been "hearing" over our two week retreat. We came away with some things written down on a piece of paper, about which we felt very peaceful and still motivated to pursue. Those items were:
1) To attempt to renegotiate our contracts with the school to allow us time, each afternoon, to meet with a private tutor and study Chinese. We believe that we're to be here for a greater time still and we simply MUST address our language deficiencies to be able to connect more and more with our neighbors.
2) To take our first steps of faith toward a "refuge home" for older orphans. We'd had some fantastic meetings with some locals who have some great networks of people involved in this issue here in our area. We've received nothing but encouragement from countless, unrelated sources...so, we're tentatively taking our first steps toward this project.
3) A re-commitment in our marriage regarding our primary calling...to orphans...through adoption, firstly, and to the idea of the refuge home, secondarily. (This particular issue has brought us hours and hours of prayer and discussion, searching out the Word daily and finding confirmations over and over again. It is in this realm that we see continue to experience the most profound and dynamic leading of the HS each day...)
We came back Here to some fabulous news on a few fronts. The first being that a local couple, who had sought us out for counsel several times over the last year and a half brought home their very own newly adopted daughter from a neighboring province! This was AMAZING! Adoption in simply not a part of the collective consciousness of the culture here. It's seen as scary, strange and sometimes shameful. We have had three families, local to us here, who have let us know that their hearts are drawn toward adoption. The first night we were home from Thailand, the new parents brought their baby girl to our apartment to tell us that "without the words you have spoken to us and by watching your family each day we would not have had the courage to adopt." This is perhaps one of the greatest highlights of our time Here so far!
Secondly, a local family that we've been lifting up for all the time we've been here has made a major "decision." The father of the family, who is the parent of one of the girls in our school, recently decided to join the Family! What an enormous joy that has been! The little girl just several months ago, while walking home from school with The Bug told The Bug "there is no God, why do you you talk like there is?" To which The Bug answered..."Oh yes there is a God, I know Him!"
We are pressed in on all sides...yet our joy is profound...we still need your covering, so desperately!
There are more wonderful things on the verge of breaking out...but we'll keep you in suspense on those fronts for just a little while longer.
Pressing on!
Something cataclysmic happened in mid-January...the kids got sick, we got tired of the cold, pressure at the school became intense and we began to operate on a survival mode. Then Spring Festival finally arrived and we left for retreat on February 2nd. We returned on February 20th and had to be at the school the next day.
Now it's the end of Week 4 of this Term and finally I am ready to address this Blog and my readers (if any of you remain!)
We began sensing some change was in the wind for us back in early October. However, with being at the school, as a family 45 hours a week...there's just not much time to go hunting around or journaling for hours to "discover" the source of the change. As you know from this blog that we were blow away with a sudden (I simply cannot say this more eloquently than this) insistence, an intense and urgent burden to open our hearts again to adoption. Since the end of October we've been engaged is the rigorous sport of "paperchasing" for an International adoption! While I may not have an outward appearance of a world class athlete...I think I can say that in the sport of paperchasing...I've got game. (Sincere appreciation must also be duly noted and homage is due to our dear Nettie back There who has functioned like our "midwife" for this adoption, running down papers, scanning, overnighting packages, getting documents authenticated...we simply couldn't have been where we are at this moment without her love and support!)
We've been blessed by having team mates here since September. This has had a true settling effect on all of us as we feel far less isolated! We've had regular Sunday meetings in our home, great teaching, and the joys of stretching alongside others who are being pulled and pressed too.
By the time we left for retreat in February however, I felt like ground hamburger. Last year when we savored the rest at the retreat center in Northern Thailand, it felt like the sweetest blessing. This year...it felt like we just made it to the ER before we bled out! We were physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. (Perhaps this is another reason that we've been so "quiet" and not on the blog?)
The first week of retreat we were at training in Hong Kong with our organization. The second and third weeks of retreat we holed up in Northern Thailand with about 15 other families just like ours. Kids from the West who live and serve all over Asia and their parents who come to this little retreat center to decompress. We had the added joy of being able to have some family with us as my parents flew all the way to Thailand to hang with us.
With the Grandparents on the scene Daddy and I enjoyed some great freedom to meditate and pray...taking MUCH needed time to be quiet and to seek answers and direction. For the last 2.5 years we've been about "getting Here" and trying to live...now that we're Here and our lives are more predictable (in a crazy, out of the world cross-cultural way)...we needed to take some stock and listen to gain some guidance about this feeling of "change."
After the two weeks we met for a "summit." (AKA, a lunch date with just the two of us!) And we talked about what was on our heart and what we'd been "hearing" over our two week retreat. We came away with some things written down on a piece of paper, about which we felt very peaceful and still motivated to pursue. Those items were:
1) To attempt to renegotiate our contracts with the school to allow us time, each afternoon, to meet with a private tutor and study Chinese. We believe that we're to be here for a greater time still and we simply MUST address our language deficiencies to be able to connect more and more with our neighbors.
2) To take our first steps of faith toward a "refuge home" for older orphans. We'd had some fantastic meetings with some locals who have some great networks of people involved in this issue here in our area. We've received nothing but encouragement from countless, unrelated sources...so, we're tentatively taking our first steps toward this project.
3) A re-commitment in our marriage regarding our primary calling...to orphans...through adoption, firstly, and to the idea of the refuge home, secondarily. (This particular issue has brought us hours and hours of prayer and discussion, searching out the Word daily and finding confirmations over and over again. It is in this realm that we see continue to experience the most profound and dynamic leading of the HS each day...)
We came back Here to some fabulous news on a few fronts. The first being that a local couple, who had sought us out for counsel several times over the last year and a half brought home their very own newly adopted daughter from a neighboring province! This was AMAZING! Adoption in simply not a part of the collective consciousness of the culture here. It's seen as scary, strange and sometimes shameful. We have had three families, local to us here, who have let us know that their hearts are drawn toward adoption. The first night we were home from Thailand, the new parents brought their baby girl to our apartment to tell us that "without the words you have spoken to us and by watching your family each day we would not have had the courage to adopt." This is perhaps one of the greatest highlights of our time Here so far!
Secondly, a local family that we've been lifting up for all the time we've been here has made a major "decision." The father of the family, who is the parent of one of the girls in our school, recently decided to join the Family! What an enormous joy that has been! The little girl just several months ago, while walking home from school with The Bug told The Bug "there is no God, why do you you talk like there is?" To which The Bug answered..."Oh yes there is a God, I know Him!"
We are pressed in on all sides...yet our joy is profound...we still need your covering, so desperately!
There are more wonderful things on the verge of breaking out...but we'll keep you in suspense on those fronts for just a little while longer.
Pressing on!
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