Proof that there is a God and that He does, indeed, love us

And no, it is not, as Ben Franklin put it- evidenced by beer. (Fun little fact: beer smells gross. I've never tasted it. Smelled it, and was done. BLECH.) Moving on. Yes, God DOES exist and He is actively involved in our lives AND He loves us. Us. Messed up, selfish, sinful, short-term memoried humans.

How do I know that He exists, is involved, and loves us?

This:
Hmmmm... it's not showing up as well I would hope. The little red and white sign says WARUNG.

What is THAT? -some of you may be wondering. Others of you know what THAT is. Or, at least what it means. (Because yes, THAT is a sign. But what does it mean? What does it say??) What in the world is a Warung?

Well, loosely translated (or until I am informed otherwise by those more knowledgeable than I) it means food stand/place. In Indonesian. Garuda I knew from it being the name of the Indonesian/muslim TV station in Suriname.

Are things becoming clearer?

As soon I saw that sign, and it registered what it said, Max and I RAN up the three flights of steps to check it out. I was not disappointed. In fact, I read the menu, looked around at the stuff they had for sale (two walls of Indonesian food items), and cried. Yes. I cried. Max thought I was crazy and walked out of the restaurant.

We went and got Ryan and Elisha, and returned for lunch.

Sadly, most of the food was not up to my Suriname standards of Indonesian food, however we did purchase several of the food things from their selection. I'm super excited about those!

Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with God and His loving us and all. Well, I'll tell you.

We headed down to Pyeongtaek this morning, hoping to ride a faster train up to Yongsan/Seoul. Well, they were all full, so we asked for tickets on a fastish train to wherever the next one was going. We got tickets on a small commuter train to city further south, and headed out. A little while in, yours truly started getting motion sick. As it just got worse and worse, we got off a few stops before our tickets were actually for.

Headed out of the train station into what was a decent city- we were quite impressed! We asked Max to pick a street -out of three- to go down and explore. She pointed left, so off we went. Lots of fun Western stores, and then... lo and beyond... what light through yonder window breaks... a WARUNG.

Word.

Of all the stops to get off at. On all the trains to ride. Of the streets to pick.

There is a God. And He loves us.

Don't try this at home!

Today I attempted to make peanut butter cookies with my 2 1/2 year old. And my one year old thrown in for good measure, about half way through.

Do I need to go on, or do you already know where this is going?

Well, for those of you who haven't interacted with a toddler lately, I'll continue. The rest of you can just continue laughing at me and close the tab.

She did great helping turn the mixer on and off, adding ingredients, etc. Except that she thought the shortening must taste similar to peanut butter since it was in a similar container. The main job I gave her, however, was to roll the dough balls in sugar. Easy enough. Simple. And she did it, very well, I might add. The trouble started when she 1) discovered how good the dough tasted; and 2)when she decided she didn't like the feeling of the sugar on her fingers between rollings. Sooooooo to fix number one, she started pinching off bits of dough to eat. And to fix number two she would stick her whole hand in her mouth to suck all the sugar off.

Yeah.... we won't be sharing these cookies with friends and neighbors.

So, you want to pray for us, huh?

Well, we'd sure appreciate it!

Please pray that:
- we would stay healthy through the Korean winter.
- that Ryan's back would not give him anymore problems.
- that I, Corrie, would be safe taking the kids out and pushing the double stroller through snow and ice.
- that we would strive to be the best parents God has for us to be.
- that school would continue to go well for Ryan. He is really enjoying teaching here, and enjoys his students and fellow staff members.

We are so thankful:
- for all God has given us. (That's another post for another day.)
- for good health. Even when it's bad it could always be worse.
- that God knows what we need before we need it or know we need it, and provides for us.

While I don't particularly like it that my please pray list is far longer than my thankful list, it's really late and I'm having a hard time thinking and seeing straight. But thank you for praying for us, and surrounding us with that love.

Merry belated Christmas

Christmas Break; a summary

So remember how back before Christmas break started we asked for lots of prayer that we all stay healthy during break? Esp. since Ryan's sister, Jo Anna, was visiting us for a week? Well, we were all completely healthy for a grand total of 5 1/2 days. Yep. 5 1/2 days of no backaches, vertigo, puking, fevers, high fevers, body aches, coughing, runny noses, sinus pain, or nausea. Thankfully, those 5 1/2 days coincided with Jo Anna's visit.

Which, by the way, was lovely. She had no problems getting here, we were able to spend Christmas together, played games, and saw some of Korea. She is a wonderful aunt, and the kids had a blast with her. Max is still asking "where Aunt Jo Anna go?"

Elisha started walking for real on Christmas Day. It was very cool. He is walking more and more each day, and the past few days has been getting up and going from a sitting on his bottom position. He also thinks it's great fun to take his diaper off and then walk away. Laughs hysterically every time.

Ryan and I are astounded on a daily basis by how much Victoria talks, what she says, and what she remembers. She loves snow, which is good, since we've had several snowfalls here. She loves looking out the window and realizing that it IS snowing. "It 'nowing, Mommy!!"

So, those are basically the highlights of Christmas break. We spent Christmas morning having brunch with our friends, the Sortores, and that was a lot of fun. The other parts of break... well, you don't really want to hear about them. Needless to say, we were very frustrated and beat down by everything.

Of course now, 3 days into school being back in, we're all healthy.

Who owns what?

Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you? We live in a small apartment. I think I heard that it's approx. 900 sq.ft, and that includes the front and back "porches." On one hand, we really feel like we don't own a whole lot of stuff. But on the other hand, we feel like we do. Even though my kids don't have most of the "newest" and "biggest" toys, I still pick up puzzle pieces and plastic blocks every day. (Yes, Max DOES help us, but if she's just picked them all up, and her brother has dumped them out again, I'm not going to make her pick them up again.) There are still toys they don't play with (although I can guarantee that if I so much as THINK about giving a certain toy away, they'll start playing with it again. And I'm not even talking about what happens when they SEE toys being given away!!!)

Also, I just decided, although I have thought this several times in the past, that if it doesn't get worn, used, read, or watched before we move again, it's NOT going with us. With a few exceptions, of course. Always exceptions....

I'll be back with more on this later, I'm sure, but before I go, I wanted to make sure and share the blog that is currently inspiring me to get rid of more stuff: Miss Minimalist

Praises and Requests

Please join us in prayer for the following.

-Christmas break has started! Woo Hoo!

-Co-worker Shannon Hugo came over last night for dinner and brought a copy of White Christmas to watch. We had a lot of fun and Max and E seemed to like it too.

-Shannon and many other teachers are leaving Korea for the break. Tad and Teal are heading for Switzerland to ski, please ask the Lord for travel mercies for all of them.

-Jo Anna is coming from China to visit for Christmas! She is due to arrive on Thursday the 23rd.

-Max has been very two years old lately and is driving us a bit crazy. Please ask that she learn to obey and that we are good parents.

-Elisha is very close to walking. It's great!

-Yesterday, I developed some severe lower-back pain and had to be checked out at the hospital. I am not seriously injured, but the pain is bad and my back is weak. Please pray that it heals quickly and I do not injure it further.


We love you all. Thank you for your prayers.

~Ryan