it's a wide world

This week has been normal, run-of-the-mill for us, doing our thing in our corner of the world.  But for others, it's be disappointing, terrifying, and devastating.  I am feeling the distance between my safe haven and others who sprinkled across the continents.  We've heard some sad stories this week, all from missionaries serving the Lord in their specific ways in the lands that have captured their hearts.  In South America, a family lost their son after only nineteen days together on Earth.  In the Indian Ocean, a family seeks answers to their baby's unexplainable high fevers and resulting seizure.  And in East Africa, a judge ruled "not now" to a family waiting for the law to recognize a little girl as their daughter, something that has been official in their hearts for over two years.  Yet here I sit, powerless and far from their personal tragedies.  Weak. The verse that came to mind was 2 Corinthians 12:9 -

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 

It is my prayer that God's power will be known in the hearts of those suffering and recognized by the ones they live amongst.  We cling to the assurance of a perfect eternity, free of tears, disease, and injustice.  

a walk.

The kids have the day off again, and I found myself with two little boys on a sunny autumn morning.  They love Moose and jumped at the idea of taking him for a walk.  The little stinker has been suffering a pulled muscle all week after going bondoogles last weekend in the leaves.  I thought a walk would be good exercise for his almost- healed little leg.  

 

Sometimes leaves get stuck in slobber.  It's just a fact of life.  

I'm hoping the leaves hang on for another eight days so my poor, deprived, Oklahoman family can see the splendor of our fall.  

gratitude: many homes

I have lived in six states.  And that is just the American part of my life.  If you were to place my homes on a map and plot them from birth to now, the globe would be a colorful connect-the-dots that spanned back and forth across the Atlantic several times.  There have been periods when I've wished for a more conventional upbringing, that I had a hometown and an easy way to answer "where are you from," a question I always feel I'm lying about when I answer.  But now, I see my many homes as a gift, something I'm so thankful for.

It all started here:

I'm the blonde one, sitting on a former sheikh's lap.  I suppose it would be the equivalent of sitting your daughter on President Bush's lap and snapping a picture, except this country had gained it's independence only 13 years earlier.  My parents moved to Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates, shortly after they were married.  Their parents thought they were crazy to move to the desert, but supported them as career missionaries and their desire to trust God to provide their finances.  My dad assisted at Oasis Hospital as they built their new facilities, where Ryan was later born. I was born in the "old-old" hospital, and Elyse was born in a newer addition than us both, ten years later.  Now the whole thing is quite the modern operation.

My parents served there for over five years before moving our family of four to Dallas, Texas, where they would attend seminary.  As soon as they were done, we moved back to the UAE, this time to the capital city of Abu Dhabi, where my dad was able to transfer with the engineering firm he worked with in Dallas.  I was eight and my brother was five.  A few years later, plus an extra child, my sister having been born, a job change led us to Dubai.  We lived there for six years, until I graduated high school.

So, if a conversation gets that far, I often say I grew up in Dubai.  It is the longest I've ever lived anywhere, and sixth-twelfth grade are pretty important years.  I loved living in Dubai, the pristine beaches, the spicy smells of the markets, and going to school and church with people from fifty different countries.  We were like the UN, all the time.  I enjoyed being one of a few Americans out of my closest friends.  In the picture below, my friends are from Canada, Philippines, England, Scotland, South Africa, and Pakistan.  

I loved camping in the desert, having prom in the world's only seven start hotel :), and enjoyed coming back to the US to stay with my grandparents in Cincinnati almost every summer.  Living in Dubai was a lifestyle of frequent traveling, as our family would stop places on the way back to the US and our school often took trips to other countries.  It was during a school trip to Tanzania in tenth grade that I was first introduced to Africa, and first thought I'd like to live there someday.  I am so thankful we were able to stay until I graduated, when my family moved to Oklahoma and I went off to Indiana to attend Taylor University.  

Of course I missed Dubai, but I loved Taylor, despite its distance from Oklahoma.  We racked up a lot of Southwest miles in those days.  I also couldn't shake the desire to "get out," and was able to spend a semester in Tanzania and part of my student teaching experience in Taiwan.  And then I developed the plan to teach in the U.S. for a couple years to get some experience, and then teach overseas.  This plan actually worked, as I taught in Charlotte, North Carolina for two years before heading to Kenya.  And that's where I met Matt, and we got married and moved to Long Island while he completes his residency.

Phew.  That's it in a nutshell.  

All of that to say, it is a different sort of life.  I feel connected to each place, regardless of how short the stay.  One year is plenty of time for a place to root in your heart.  At times I am envious of Matt's hometown pride and having the same best friend since kindergarten, but that's not my story.   My story is a bit more complicated, and I love it all the same.  

gratitude: church

Our church here is a blessing to us.  Three Village Church is perhaps the quaintest church I've attended, with its red brick exterior, white pews in two straight rows, and silver chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.  And it has a stained glass window.  The window is often covered by a screen, so during the sermon they project a picture of the window on the screen so we can still see it.  I think that is cute of them.  But for all of its charm, it is not stagnant or old-fashioned.

Matt moved to Long Island a couple months before we were married and started to attend TVC during the summer.  After I moved here, I came with him a couple weeks was ready to stay.  There wasn't anything grand or earth-shattering about it, it didn't have the flashiest website or a giant worship band.  However, we saw our time here as limited and did not want to spend one third of our stay church-hopping and resisting the urge to settle somewhere.  I was anxious for fellowship, and this church spoke Truth.  We were staying.  Within a couple weeks, we'd joined a small group.  

http://priscilla-stonybrookdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

As we settled in, we met others and I was able to attend the weekly women's Bible study.  We enjoyed the solid teaching of our pastor.  Unfortunately, he resigned a few months after we started attending.  At first this was discouraging, and I wondered how the church would react.  They loved  their pastor dearly, and the congregation was full of weeping women at the announcement.  But the church pulled together, our youth pastor and associate pastor took turns preaching until we brought in an interim pastor this fall.  And the church has grown.  We became more involved, and I taught VBS this summer and am now teaching Sunday school.  

Our small group is no longer small, having grown steadily over the past year.  We enjoy the fellowship and accountability that comes with our weekly meetings.  We take turns leading the week's lesson, and our varying background and professions mean thorough discussion.  We are a little family, helping each other with home improvement projects and celebrating milestones.  

I am so thankful for this church that welcomed us and continues to provide solid Biblical teaching, week after week.  It is the body of Christ that makes me feel at home, wherever I might go.  

gratitude: friendship

I am friends with some pretty great people.  When I graduated from Taylor, I was distraught over leaving behind these friends who became like family to me.  I shouldn't have been so upset . . . my friendships have just grown and multiplied since then.  The ones closest to my heart live scattered across three continents.  I am amazed at how strong our bonds still are despite the distance.  It makes the moments together so precious.  

My bridesmaids came from six different states (and Canada) and gave me the gift of standing beside me at our wedding.  But before they could put on their matching dresses (which I'm sure they've had ample opportunity to wear again), there were years of life together that knit us as friends. 

My predominant memories are funny ones, centered around Taylor and staying up too late and eating too much ice cream.  But we were good for each other, too.  Our relationships really were iron sharpening iron, the type of friendships that withstand trial because they are built on the foundation of Christ.

When I left Taylor, God was so faithful in surrounding me with some of those same people.  We jumped into our low-income schools with the blind enthusiasm of new teachers and supported each other through the difficult times that followed.  It was my Charlotte roommates who saw me through the process of moving to Africa, who ushered me into a new chapter of life. 

And what a beautiful, although short!, chapter it was.  In a community of just a few, I was so thankful to meet a couple other kindred spirits to walk with me through the transition to a new culture and, it turned out, falling in love. :)  

 

Since Matt and I located in yet another new place, we've come to treasure our friends from our past.  We are thankful for the people who know where we've been, who've seen us through the hard times and shared with us in our rejoicing.  I have been blessed by their sacrifices and support.  But again, God has been gracious to put new people in our paths.  I have learned to trust God in this, because wherever I go, from Dubai to Indiana to Taiwan to Tanzania, I've always found a friend.  Of course this is true in Long Island, too! 

Although the ones here seem to be a bit odd . . . :) 

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy!

Philippians 1:4-5

Gratitude: Family

Despite being cold, November is an exciting month because of a) its proximity to Christmas and b) its tendency to promote feelings of gratitude in Americans.  And so, because I do not want to spend an entire month complaining about the cold that will only surely get worse, I have decided to focus on things that I'm thankful for.  Cliche, yes, but it really gets me in the mood, you know?

When I started to compile a mental list, of course at the top was Family.

Where do you start when you say you're thankful for your family?  

Matt and I are so blessed.  Our parents have laid a wonderful foundation for us to start build a life together through their examples of healthy marriages.  Our siblings all know and follow the Lord.  We have a rich heritage of generations of believers.  They have provided us with the most precious gift we could ever give our children - a family knit together by a commitment to the Lord.  

My parents and sister live in Oklahoma and my brother made a recent move to Houston.  I can not wait for them to come up for Thanksgiving in a couple weeks.  I treasure our years overseas together and when we sit around the dinner table, our conversations inevitably turn to "remember whens" that grow more fantastic every year.  Remember when . . . Dad thought the Native Americans were astronauts?  Elyse got pinned underneath her dresser?  Mom used to bring an air mattress while we were camping and make the rest of us sleep on the sand? Ryan wore his wrestling singlet around the house?  They are to blame for ALL of my quirks. 

I love how we all insist that Tucker be in family pictures.  

The rest of my family is spread from shore to shore, so it is rare that we are all together, although they made a great showing at our wedding!  I had to go pretty far back to get a picture of all four grandparents in the same place.

I am envious of how close Matt's family is - most of them live in one of two states.  When I first visited Kentucky with him before we got married, I had to be "approved by the aunts."  I am so thankful I met their approval!  Matt really loves his aunts and uncles and is always telling stories about picking dandelions for a penny each or how they all got Underoos for Christmas.  Just kidding, he doesn't tell that story, I saw it on a family video and I think it's hilarious.  

Of course since this picture was taken, we added another family member, baby Evan:

Matt really loves his nephews.  We don't get to see them enough.  This picture is already a year old and Connor is almost two!  

We hope to someday live close to them so the cousins can grow up together.  Evan and our baby will only be six months apart.  Matt would like nothing better than for his brothers to live next door, one on each side.  

So, this thanksgiving season I resolve to spend more time being grateful.  

it's so cold here

I know the seasons are supposed to just flow together and you look around one day and say, "How did it become summer already?"  That is actually how I felt this summer, as the days gradually got warmer and then in the middle of July it was finally HOT and we realized that summer does come to Long Island!  Fall, however, leapt upon us the same week the kids headed back to school, the warm days suddenly crisper and all at once I couldn't wear shorts anymore.

And THEN . . . NOVEMBER.  With November 1st came The Big Chill.  The one that finds me shivering in my house and wailing, "It's here!  I'll never be warm again!" after looking at the weekly weather forecast.  Poor Matt, what a way to wake up.  It's hot drinks every night.  It's hat-mittens-scarf-coat every morning.  It's "the thing I love most in this world is the button that heats the steering wheel."  It's wearing Uggs every day regardless of your outfit. It's unbelievable bills from the oil company.  It's heating bags of rice to wrap around your toes while sitting on the couch.  It's a crackling fire in the fireplace to welcome you home after work.  It's spotting deer in the frozen meadow on the way to your car.  It's the countdown to Christmas music.

Now, I realize November has only been in effect for two days, but those days were a shock to my system.  Today being Election Day, the littlest had the day off and I took him to a playground and walking path . . . and didn't get warm the entire time.  It was in the low 40's all morning.

And so, with the change of seasons comes a change in menu.  Goodbye grill, see you in six months.  Hello, soups and stews.  Unfortunately my crockpot bit the dust last week which is cramping my working-woman style, and I might just have to buy a new one to see us through the harsh winter.  I will kick off the new season with what I had for dinner last night - and lunch today.  I tore this chili recipe out of a Real Simple magazine and I like that it uses black beans instead of kidney.  I modified it a bit but you can find the original recipe at their website.

Southwestern Chili

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 10m | Total Time: 30m

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 poblano or bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 pound ground turkey 
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (from 1 ear, or frozen and thawed)
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar (2 ounces)
• 2 scallions, sliced

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and poblano and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
2. Add the turkey and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until it is slightly darkened, 1 minute.
4. Stir in the beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, 2 cups water, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
5. Simmer over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the corn, add more water as needed.
6. Divide the chili among bowls and top with the Cheddar and scallions.

My only changes were to sub turkey for beef and tomatoes for carrots - I made it with carrots for the first time this week because I had some in the fridge, but I didn't like it as well.  I also add a little extra chili powder and red pepper and such.  And salt.  Always more salt. :)  Add a side of cornbread, and hooray, dinner is served in a flash.