Daily Diptych :: few days of bliss

 

Leaving again in a few hours after too few days with our NY cousins, auntie, uncle, and grandparents.

Daily Diptych :: take me out

 

Perhaps their one and only chance at some sort of organized baseball (softball). Only made sweeter by the fact that they both got a hit. And I got to lead the crowd in God Bless America... which was slightly more humiliating than running around the bases completely naked. Yay for family camp softball.

 

Daily Diptych :: good things come in pairs

 

Daily Diptych :: On the Road

 

The Daily Diptych

 

We are finally all together again. The last twenty four hours has been sweet and perfect. We are leaving as a family in the morning for a road trip to see more family and the traveling will continue through the month of July until we return to China. I am anticipating the writing time and energy may be slim, so have decided to try and post a Daily Diptych... or an Every Other Day (or every every every other day) Diptych during our travels. 

Today's is a couple of sweet snapshots from the day: knitting for my niece, and watching her sweet bonnet head crawl around our feet and squeal with her little dolphin-like squeaks.

Over the Top

Delightful dish, Tortellini Salad from Supernatural Everyday which just arrived in the mail!

You would think that the rows or fresh cheeses or endless pasta choices (orzo!) would do it to me. Or the shelves neatly stacked with bed linens in beautiful colors and high thread counts would send me over the top.

Or to stray from the consumer arena, maybe it should be the little bounty of fresh produce we haul in from the garden each day; this week broccoli and asparagus and fresh mulberries with rhubarb, next month heirloom tomatoes, snow peas and sweet peppers. If that wasn’t enough, maybe it should be the thick carpet of grass that stretches an acre plus behind the house and is free of any dog droppings or spots where a taxi driver (or twenty) may have relieved himself.

The blue skies, so so blue. The fresh air. The familiar sound of my own language. A bookstore. Driving. I already mentioned the cheese (feta, everyday. Shaved parmesan for dinner. Goat, tomorrow).

But lo and behold, let me tell you, in all of God’s goodness that he showers on me each day, the greatest to me right now is that I am not filled with regret, or longing to stay in this place, my home away from home. I am delighted to be here. I am relishing the days and the sunshine and my children getting dirty in the backyard with their cousins each day. I am soaking up all the good food. I am refreshed daily by the presence of my gracious and loving family. But I can, and I will, with a full heart, leave this place.

The past several months have been difficult, with goodbyes and the sorrow that comes when you have to leave a place you have rooted into, and that you love. But with the leaving has also been the assurance, perhaps moreso than ever before in our lives, that this is a move God is asking us to make.

That sounds, well, strong to me. I don’t hear God speak. I ask him for direction. I trust that He leads me. I read His Word and believe that it is Truth spoken both to my daily circumstance as well as the big picture of my life and the whole of the world and history. But I don’t know Hear his voice audibly, which makes knowing what he is saying for certain nearly impossible, which is also why much of His leading can be an unnerving thing to follow.

 But we have sensed His leading in the ways that He graciously does so, and in choosing to follow, regardless of the discomfort or sadness or possibility of great upheaval in our lives, we have experienced His peace. He is a strength-giver after all, and in our weakness, he is able most to shine all strong and glorious. I already sense that strength; in the contentment, in the peace, in the fact that though things don’t look exactly promising, I am not afraid of the leaving or of what may come.

So right now we are enjoying all the simple and delightful pleasures around us, and preparing to take a few of those back with us, of course. But more than anything I am taking with me this daily assurance, this inner joy that is given each step of the way.

Among the Fields of Corn

We drove down to the middle of Indiana yesterday. A friend from China was getting married.

We left with plenty of time, packed a picnic lunch, and found a nice little road off the main highway next to some cornfields (There is actually nothing but cornfields. Still, we were happy to have them). We were all dressed pretty nice, at least far nicer than we normally are. We were going to see friends we haven't seen in weeks, since being back in the Sates. It should have been grand. But we got lost on those very same nice little roads off the main highway, next to and surrounded by all those lovely cornfields.

We missed the ceremony.

And the Scout was a bit of a stinker (really, much worse than that), which was less than glamorous and wonderful, but still it was a nice pretty drive through the heartland of America and we got to see our friends and the beautiful, stunning bride at the reception and have cake and a secret family recipe punch that was pretty exciting for everyone under six (and me too to be honest).

And then there was this moment, which hoepfully isn't offensive because in my book, it was pretty priceless.