Chinese New Year 2017

It's Chinese New Year at our house and across the globe!  For us that means good friends, Chinese food, chopsticks, portraits in traditional silks and thanking the Lord of the nations for His promises for us ALL. 

We joined with some local adoption friends for a trip into Seattle for the Lunar New Year parade and festivities. I jokingly told the boys "the first part of the parade will be us finding parking"...but then we arrived to empty streets and widely available parking. What the...?  Turns out the celebration was scheduled for tomorrow. Oops! Some window shopping and lunch with friends was a great alternative. 

And...for the record...because this needs to be documented somewhere...I ate my ENTIRE lunch WITH CHOPSTICKS, including rice, without hurting myself or anyone else!  

It's a Chinese New Year miracle!

Some pretty handsome China-boys!

Being silly waiting for lunch

Isaac wasn't too excited about taking pictures in his silks today (oh that pout!), but he warmed up quickly. I can't get enough of my boy with the double-almond eyes 💗🐼💗

My favorite part of the day was Isaac's CNY gift...his first real Bible, inscribed with Psalms 86:9: All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name! 

The Epiphany

Getting to share a bit over at Village21:

Today, January 6, many Christians around the world will celebrate the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. It is the traditional remembrance of when the Three Wisemen would arrive from afar with gifts to the newborn King. They sought Him. They found Him. They honored Him. 

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts, we traverse far
Field and fountain
Moor and mountain
Following yonder star

But on this day, I find myself thinking again of the faith of Mary...and then of Joseph. You see, when the angel appeared to Mary her heart only knew ONE thing: “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38). But I suspect her brain knew the following: Joseph is required to dump me, my family will disown me, we'll have no where to life, I won't be able to work, how will I support my child, there is no way to make this work, what will we do!?  SHE SAID YES IN FAITH ANYWAY. 

Joseph, was the same. He knew not of the precious life & emotional burden that his sweetheart was already carrying. When the angel asked Joseph to be the Savior of the world's forever daddy his heart & actions responded in faith (Matthew 1:24)...but I can guarantee his earthly eyes saw the practical path of destruction in front of them: His career would be over. There would be no inheriting his own father's business. There would be no working in his hometown. They would have to start new--where? how? with what provisions? HE SAID YES IN FAITH ANYWAY. I can imagine his panic that cold winter night as he struggled to keep his wife and newborn adopted son warm in a dank, filthy barn in Bethlehem. 

There was no way for either Mary or Joseph to know as they started down their adoption road (history's first embryo adoption??) that IF they said yes...WHEN they said yes, God had prepared their finances in full...above and beyond anything they could have imagined. 

Enter the Three Kings.

With gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Enough financial provision to last beyond a lifetime.

Now there is no mention in the scripture of the precise amounts of gold, frankincense and myrrh which composed the gift from the Wisemen but these were extremely wealthy kings, so it is reasonable to assume that they did not cheapen the event. They would have been very generous given the circumstances for sure. 

I'm not sure of the historical economic values, but solid frankincense in today's economy would be more than $25 per pound, myrrh would be more than $50 per pound and today's gold is nearly $1,200 per ounce. Add in some serious exchange values and the Joseph-son family would now never have to worry about finances, in fact I believe there was enough to cover Mary well into her 'retirement' with the Apostle John after Jesus's death & resurrection. 

Mary never could have known.

Joseph never could have known.

BUT THEY SAID YES ANYWAY.

That is an epiphany. 

Happy Dutch New Year 2017

We continued honoring the Dutch tradition of making oliebollen (literally = oil balls, aka Dutch donuts) on New Year's Day, honoring my mother's heritage and the few memories she has of her homeland.   While getting ready for our Dutch-day, I stumbled upon this delightful piece of cultural history:

"Historically speaking they are said to have been first eaten by Germanic tribes in the Netherlands between December 26 and January 6. During this time, the Germanic goddess Perchta would fly through the sky with a tribe of evil spirits. Apparently to appease these nasty spirits oliebollen were offered. The myth goes on to tell of how Perchta would try to slice open the bellies of anyone she came across but – luckily – her sword would simply slide off the bellies of all those who had eaten the tasty balls of oil!"

Clearly, the Dutch are prepared for just about anything!

This Chinese boy sure loves his Dutch gramma!

12 parts oil, 1 part ball

Isaac's part of the assembly line

How does one get powdered sugar on your backside while cooking??

This makes me smile...Isaac got a kids digital camera (that looks like mine) for Christmas and he has been photo-documenting just about everything in the house (Wonder where he has seen that?!)  He was sure to make sure he got photos of our day!

Here are the photos from his camera:

Thankful for a fresh day in a fresh year. Thankful for little boys and grammas that are best buds. Thankful for traditions. Thankful no Germanic goddess will be visiting our home (today or ever). Excited for what 2017 has in store for us!