Nomads for the summer

The sun disappears towards our home in the east; the days of summer are longer and renewing our strength with each added hour of daylight. Our schedule has eased without the constraints of a rigorous work and school schedule. Family is within minutes and we often visit parks and the library along with lots of doctor’s visits with several crisscross trips across the nation to visit loved ones and fellowships.

Grocery runs now become a place of “It’s my turn, you went last time.” No more loud announcements and masses of people with interesting fishy smells. We actually find the trip to the local grocery store quite relaxing. I walk down the Asian aisle and I am immediately taken back to Chiner.I miss our home in the East. I miss dear friends and wish that facetime dates could be more consistent with sweet sisters back in Asia. I decide to add tofu to the dinner menu because there is just a hankering too strong to forgo. I grab soy sauce and head to get the cherry tomatoes for the pasta trying to grasp that life for our family feels like two completely different worlds.

A collision of our worlds.

My youngest daily request the Chinese dumpling, her favorite food, but in the same breath she begs me to let her in assisting me make a homemade apple pie. After 2 days of prepping for a not so fun procedure, I was craving everything (I believe I actually dreamt about food while under anesthesia) and so the next day after the procedure, I head to the store and purchase all the needed ingredients to meet this request. Apple pie and quality time with my girl seem like the perfect way to get back into normal life.

Our kids sure enjoy some jaozi (dumplings)



and apple pies!

We bake the pie and all seems to be well in our little world. I marvel at the gift of life and the friends and family that we have shared treasured moments with these past few months.  From college friends to best China friends visits, to holding our nephews for the first time, life seems to be passing quickly as we try and savor each moment.

A football scrimmage at my hubs alma mater, rollie-pollies found in abundance, Lewis, Clark and the dog adventures (little G thinks that the dog must be included as he was of utmost importance to the expeditions of the Missouri River). All of this has become a beautiful patchwork of a summer of memories.

The past two summers have been some of our busiest times, a husband with studies, others to take care of and a business to get rolling. My time was spent lugging our lemon-ish design Target beach bag and five kids back and forth from the pool. It was a brisk pace of life and we have needed a slower pace.

We are beginning to take deeper breaths, far away from pollution and bodies are beginning to heal from the wear and tear of city living. School is still in session in our home as we went from homeschooling three to five. After weeks of adjustment for all of us, the lessons being learned and the hearts being poured out in journals, makes it strengthening to all of our souls.

We are seeing again, that one is never away from the battle and to keep our gloves up, as the enemy looks to steal, kill and destroy no matter the continent. We have tasted His goodness and realized that even all the Tex-Mex that these last few months have offered truly can't satisfy a hungry soul. We have learned that someone can cause pain and hardship even with an ocean between us. We are stopping and seeing that our kids really are growing up way too fast and what a gift to see genuine joy spill out in their everyday life with big smiles and the sweetest little giggles. We realize that we appreciate a blue sky in ways we never did before. We are seeing our sin even when lots of big stressors have been taken out of the equation. Really it just makes us realize how much we are in need of His continued deep work in our hearts. We are sensing a love of a Father that envelops all of us as He pursues and pours out His generous love.

This summer is not about seamless days and ease. It is about us holding onto His promises, seeing Him in it all and us taking precious moments to sit with Him and with each other as we beg for mountains of mercy as we sojourn in this land.

The upside down rainbow seems like it fits pretty well for us the little nomads.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who call us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Fort this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, with self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 2 Peter 1:3-7