Busy days

These last weeks have been busy with much activity. I suppose that is wonderful. Mostly it is. But I am weary of being here and there and everywhere. It has been good to have much going on in our lives with hubby starting work. And his work schedule was very heavy at first so it was good for us to be busy. We have been able to work out a new schedule and we think it will be a good one. He will rarely if ever be gone 2 nights at a time. And will be home every 4th day or so. Seems like a great compromise for everyone!

Of course, now that I sit to write to you of our adventures I can't remember many of them. Weekly and biweekly homeschool group meet ups. This is has forced me to figure out the transportation system here. The other day I went to a neighboring island to go to a girls group for dd, and for my boys to meet some new friends. It is on the next island over. Sounds simple enough. Well, my two options are either ferry into Central on Hong Kong island, and catch another ferry back to Discovery Bay, or take a small ferry to Mui Wo and then another smaller ferry to DBay (as the locals would call Discovery Bay). Well, the first option would take just over an hour if I catch fast ferry's, but cost me over $50Hk per person. The second option would only cost just over $20 HK per person, but the ferries run a lot less frequent. So I went with the second option because I am all into saving my pennies. What an adventure. The trip there went perfectly smooth, other than a mad dash to the bank machine in Mui Wo as I left my children at the second ferry as proof that I would indeed return so they wouldn't leave without us.
But then there was the return trip...........
3 HOURS long

yes I said it

3HOURS!!!!!!!!

That was painful. So yes I saved money. But lost a whole lot of sanity along the way. And to top it all off, we ended up eating McDonalds for super YUCK!!! McDonalds is everywhere here.

However, we had a delightful day. Feshya connected made some wonderful connections at the girls club, and the boys made some great friends that they are very excited to be with again.




And on one last note today, I must share an important news flash.

We were going to check out the new house the other day. As we came up we saw they had painted it. It was a wonderful red. Then we rounded the corner only to see......
hold your breathe......
a little longer......
are you ready.....
you might wanna sit down because I sure wish I could have,
the other 3 sides of the house were
PINK!!!
yup, imagine my surprise.
Now if I lived in a country of colorful houses I would not have been surprised.
But that, here, was a bit of a shocker.
Especially given that pink is most certainly not on any of my even remotely might like list of colors.

So we talked to Alman, and he was told the reason for that particular choice of color,
well, simply put,
They had run out of red.

Pictures to come!

New Adjustments

Been a while. I was going to say life has been busy but that isn't exactly true, so I won't. Hubby started work last week and so we are in the throws of new adjustment. The current roster includes a lot of overnight shifts at the school. We are in the 'we will see how this works for our family' stage. This is a normal schedule for all the staff who works at the school, and so we are going to try it out. There is room for some 'creative' scheduling depending on how our family does. The first day he left the kids cried. The second time I cried. Two nights and three days seems like a long time. Yet, on the other hand, I think it will go quickly. We look out our window to the school lights and say prayers for daddy and the students at night, that helps make if feel not so far away. Here are a few shots of Daddy leaving the first morning.

i love his morning commute
We have been busy exploring and meeting new friends. A small photo journey awaits you.


homeschooler group (8 families) came to 'our island' for the day


the boys went on a hike by our house

as we walked into town one day, this ship was docked at the sampan pier. someone told us it had just sailed from Australia. That is a ferry in the background that we ride to Hong Kong City Center.

me emerging from an old pirate cave on 'our island'

our trip to Macau for our visa run. We were taken on an amazing day to celebrate!

I have just met a local women and will be joining her for fellowship this weekend. She has lived on the island for many years and speaks fluent Cantonese. She knows many families and has a few in mind that we may be able to connect with. She also is a part of some local fellowship here on the island and that is very exciting news for us!!!! One of the big questions that is currently in my mind is how life works itself out here on the island for us. I can not remember if I blogged about this already, so forgive me if I am repeating myself. The kids continue to desire friendships that are closer here for them. Language is of course a huge obstacle to developing many local relationships, so my heart jumped when I met this new friend who could put us in touch with local english speaking families. Trust me, I would rather be speaking Cantonese, but until then, we still need relationships, so English will do just fine!

In the mean time, I am very excited to announce that I have found a local cafe that sells good coffee!!! The only place I had found was McDonald's. Even if their coffee was good (which it definitely was NOT by the way), there just seemed something very very wrong with going there for coffee. Sooo, knowing there is somewhere here that I can go for a nice coffee and a yummy dessert truly makes this feel like home!! Photo to come!

Thoughts on our Visa

Yes, it had finally happened. We got word yesterday morning that our visa's have gone through...officially....!!! Of course we were very excited. Relieved. Just last week we met some beautiful people and they shared that their visa's had been rejected. Our journeys of coming to live in Hong Kong were very different but very familiar in that we followed our Father's voice in leaving our life behind to live in this strange and wonderful country. So does that mean I am more 'blessed' than they are because our visa's were accepted? By all means absolutely not!!!!!!! Rather, I step back in awe of what it means to follow his voice. He is so faithful to lead us in small steps, showing us we can trust him, building our trust in him. There are many things I that I have heard Abba speak to me about, but most of them I have not the faintest idea how they will come to pass.

In the last few weeks I was never fearful that the visa's would not go through, but I have also come to have a healthy respect and understanding that 'His ways are not always my ways'. This is the journey he has chosen for us, but I know he is no more with us than he is my new friends and I wait in anticipation to watch how their journey unfolds. I know he has a plan, and and I know he will hold them tightly. Just as I know, I am in his plan and he is holding us tightly.

What is your journey? Do you hear his heart beat?

today

today.

Today was good.

Watching hubby teach and explore with the children. Inspiring.

Finding amazing eats at a street side vendor in some crazy crowded market in Kowloon.

Watching my children become more and more familiar in these new and strange surroundings.

Buying a rice cooker. Yippee!!!! Thanks Kimberly! One day I will cook for you out of it!

Laughing with relief as the humidity is less and I was finally not sweaty today!



I came home and was reading a new friends blog. I found this quote from a book they were reading by Andrew Murray called 'Prayer'.

“You know how the eagles are taught the use of their wings. See yonder cliff rising a thousand feet out of the seas. See high up a ledge on the rock, where there is an eagles’ nest with its treasure of two young eaglets. See the mother bird come and stir up her nest, and with her beak push the timid birds over the precipice. See how they flutter and fall and sing toward the depth. See now how she “fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings” (Deut 32:11), and so as they ride upon her wings, brings them to a place of safety…. He (God) stirs up your nest. He disappoints your hopes. He brings down your confidence. He makes you fear and tremble, as all your strength fails, and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on and offering His everlasting Creator strength to work in you. And all He asks is that you sink down in your weariness and wait on Him. Allow Him in His Jehovah strength to carry you and you ride upon the wings of His omnipotence.”

I love that, 'all he asks is that you sink down in your weariness and wait on him....allowing Him in His Jehovah strength to carry you.....'.

Breathe.




Tonight Sammy read our bible story 'David and Goliath'. The kids and I have been talking about this over and over. I love how God loves to do crazy nonsensical things. A little boy taking out a giant with a rock. I love that because it is so insane. What hope there is for me and my life, and what a complete release of me trying to 'make sense' of my life. When I look at what my great Abba usually does. What fun to be free to live a life that does not make sense!

Now I wanna paint.

The inbetween places

This week marked the one month stage of our life here on Cheung Chau. I feels like a bit of a 'no mans land' we are in. We still await word on our visa. We have been unable to really connect with very many people yet (yes I know it is only a month......). We have not begun to walk out, and hardly even step into the things that ignite us for being here. Today in the midst of a bout of kids-not -wanting-to do-school-work-and -being-distracted-by-every-little-thing-moment (that included more than a little frustration from mom and dad), Ethan walked up to me and whispered "Mom, my heart feels so much better when I look at the school rock."


we can make out this large white rock on Lantua Island from our window


When he said that I held my breath for just a moment. I remembered the why of it all. I remembered that we are in-between.

For a long time now hubby and I have thought and discussed how we don't really read much about the in-between times of people's lives. We read about the grand vision and then we read about how the vision came about. But not many pages are filled with the spaces and places that filled those grand times. I do feel the importance of this time for our family, but that doesn't always make it easy. My hearts cry is that my life would be poured out for HIM. He is my all, my beginning and my end.

But then I think of how often, even on this blog, I have written about wishing to know how it was all going to work out. Most of the time I would have to say. I have a personality that longs to understand and know how it will all work out.

So then I am reminded again of the lesson of learning to trust. Learning to trust anew. Trusting in the in-between non grandish times of my life. Working out my salvation. Working out my trust in my FATHER. Knowing that he always has his best for me, and that right now, right here, this is his best for me.

Nothing but the cell phone

My last few days have been here, at home. Monday was my birthday and it was POURING outside (tail end of the storm that hit the Philippines and caused all the tragedy there), so we stayed home. A fellow teacher had invited us out for supper, so we headed out for the evening under the protection of our umbrella's. Just as the food was coming to the table, my dd suddenly felt sick and I rushed her home. Well, 'rushed' as in left the supper and slowly walked home hoping we wouldn't have an 'incident' on the walk home. We said our hallelujah's as we got safely home. We have been home bound since as she recuperates. (Hubby made it up to me by bringing home an amazing chocolate mouse cake and some Tiramisu from a local bakery...YUMMY!!!)

Brad has been taking the boys on outings to save all our sanity, and once every few hours I call him, just to make sure we are not alone in this world. Our place is nicely hidden away but after a few days I begin to feel more than a little isolated.
So, seeing as I don't really have any exciting events to tell you about, I will give you some pictures.


my new house.....




Meeting new furry friends and dreaming of getting her own....


enjoying a free ride thru town.......

local answer to a 911 call,,or 999 here.....

a shot of our walk to town.... haha get it 'shot'....basketball....haha...yes I have been alone for a few days.....

Some times you gotta laugh.....

Today we are loving a home day. We were all exhausted from the last few days, and as we 'settle in' we are also letting us ourselves relax more and more. The school has officially told Brad to enjoy this time before the visa goes, because as Alman said "You will have years to work soon". This is actually hard to let ourselves do as we are so excited to throw ourselves into life with the organization, the reason we came. So we are learning to relax and enjoying ourselves. Yesterday as we were hanging out at the beach I suddenly burst out laughing.

We have been here for 3 weeks now. Just.....hangin out.....so as we sat there, eating our dim sum, being watched intently by the lifeguards and beach cleaners because there was no one else at the beach, I realized how this must look and what they might be thinking of us. I mean really, who can afford to fly around the world and just holiday for a few weeks. I know there are a lot of people who could afford to do that, but we are definitely most certainly NOT in that category. Yet, here we are, living on a foreign island, just relaxing.

For weeks, actually months before we came, I had been asking Abba Dad for a family holiday. I wanted a time for our family to just be together with out all the stress of planning, packing and such. I dreamt of living in a small place close to the ocean. I was feeling a little disappointed when it was time to go and we had not been able to get a way even for a bit.

But, he truly knows better than I, and gives us things in a much better form than I could ever have even asked for. Here I am, living in a small place right by the ocean.

As I listened to his voice yesterday I felt him stressing the importance of this time as a time of 'settling in' for our family. He certainly works differently for different people, and I am beginning to learn the lesson of not 'questioning the potter'. I am beginning to see that this waiting/resting time is perfectly in his plan. A few days ago I was bemoaning the fact that our visa has not gone thru yet,one of my children replied "Mom, Abba knows the perfect time and you need to trust him!!!!". Out of the mouth of babes!

For all this I am feeling thank-ful today!