Thank you, Pinterest!

Based on this image found on Pinterest..

Here is my picture taken from the other side...not exactly Pinterest worthy, is it?

We drove over to Portland to go to Cathedral Park today.  Cathedral Park is a small city park on the Willamette River.  To quote the Portland Parks and Recreation site. 

The site which now bears the name Cathedral Park is steeped in history. It is believed to be one of the 14 Lewis and Clark landing sites in the Vancouver-Portland area: William Clark and eight men camped there on April 2, 1806. This spot had been a fishing and camping site for many area Indian tribes. In 1847, the founder of St Johns, James John, settled on the site and operated a ferry to Linnton across the Willamette River. In 1931, the St Johns Bridge was built on the site with 400-ft towers and a main span of 1,207 feet. It is the only steel suspension bridge in Portland. 

It really was quite lovely. Today was a warm fall day with minimal rain and it was good to get out.
Here are some of my pictures from my i-phone.

This isn't the first time we have found something fun to do on Pinterest.  I guess it's not just crafts and baking!

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The Beauty of Simplicity

A song for simplicity

by Luci Shaw

There are some things that should be as they are:

plain, unadorned, common and all-complete;

things not in a clutter, not in a clump,

unmuddled and unmeddled with;

the straight, the smooth, the salt, the sour, the sweet.

For all that’s timeless, untutored, untailored and untooled;

for innocence unschooled;

for unploughed prairies, primal snow and sod,

water unmuddied, wind unruled,

for these, thank God.

Singly and strongly, from each separate star,

a brightness pricks the retina from far

to near.  And for clear eyes to see

deep space and dark infinity

with an untroubled gaze,

give praise.

With both hands unjewelled and with unbound hair

beauty herself stands unselfconscious where

she is enough to have, and worth the always holding.

The mind perceiving her, the heart enfolding

echoes the unchanged pattern from above

that praises God for loveliness, and love.

Glory again to God for word and phrase

whose magic, matching the mind’s computed leap,

lands on the lip of truth,

(plain as a stone well’s mouth, and as deep)

and for the drum, the bell, the flute, the harp, the bird,

for music, Praise! that speaks without a word.

As for the rightness to be found

in the unembellished square and the plain round,

in geometric statement of a curve

respond! without reserve

but with astonishment that there’s for every man

one point in time, one plainly drafted plan,

and in your unique place,

give glory for God’s grace.

All this from him whose three-in-one

so simply brought to birth

from the red earth

a son.

All our complexity, diversity, decor,

facet the gem, encrust the clarity.

So pierce you now the opalescent glaze

till all your praise

rises to him in whom you find no flaw.

*Pictures taken this morning at the Columbia River Environmental Education Center.

Othering people.

Last night, one of our church small groups met in our home.  We are studying Paul Miller's Love Walked Among Us.  Part of the study is looking at the parables of Jesus.  Last week, we looked at the widow of Nain and Jesus restoring her son to life. We talked about the fact that Jesus really looked at her, really saw her, felt compassion,  met her need and restored her to her community by raising her son from the dead.
 This week, we did the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The Good Samaritan is probably the most famous of all the parables...except maybe the Prodigal Son.  We get our "Good Samaritan" laws from the story-those protective laws that allow us to help a person in harms way without fear of retribution.  The importance of those laws were really brought home to us as China does not have "Good Samaritan" laws and if you help a person in crisis, you can be arrested and blamed for the accident.
The story of the Good Samaritan is  told in the gospel of Luke and it is simple and complex. The Samaritans are a  group despised by the Jews.  They are considered half breeds, they have intermarried with pagans, they worship wrongly and at the wrong mountain.  Earlier in Luke, a city of Samaritans reject Jesus and the some of the disciples ask Jesus if he would like them to pray for fire to be rained on them.  Jesus rejects this idea and tells them that he has come to save people, not destroy them.
Later, a young "expert in the Law" asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus answers back from the Law with the answer that all Jews of the time know - "Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind."  and then He adds "Love your neighbor as yourself."
The expert "seeking to justify himself" (and don't we all do that) ask him who is neighbor is.
So Jesus (as He so often does) tells a story.
Basically- a man is walking in a deserted area of Israel. He is taken by bandits, robbed and beaten and left for dead.  Two prestigious people come by (a priest and a Levite-religious and authority figures in Jewish culture) and continue to walk/ride by.  They are possible too busy to help, to afraid to help, fearful of religious uncleanness, lacking in compassion or whatever.  For whatever reason, they refuse to help. Since they were important people, I wonder if they were traveling alone and if their whole group refused to help.  Scripture doesn't say this but it's something to ponder.
But a Samaritan walks by and helps. He takes him to an inn, cleans his wounds, pays for his stay and says he will be back to check on him. The Samaritan shows himself to be the good neighbor, not the esteemed people of the culture.  It's a powerful story.
But last night, a woman in our group said something that really struck me. She asked "I wonder what the man who was victimized felt like to be cared for by a Samaritan."  What was it like to wake up and realize that the person who was caring for was from a group that he had been taught to despise?
To apply it to today...what if you woke up and the person caring from you was from a group that you despise?  An injured person who believes in strict gun control is being cared for by a member of the NRA.  A gay person being cared for by a person who is working against gay marriage.  An ideological Democrat being cared for by a dogmatic Republican.  A soldier being cared for by a peace activist.  A progressive Christian being cared for by a fundamentalist.  You get my point.
It is easy to "other" people, to dismiss them as part of a group.  The poor, the gays, the liberals, the conservatives, the Calvinists, the.....whatever.  It's easy to dismiss a group.  It's harder to dismiss a person.
A while ago some friends were visiting.  We had a great time until towards they end, one of our friends made a comment about an issue. I strongly disagreed with her...very strongly.  It was tempting to simply "other" her.  But that would demean the friendship.  We had to agree to let it go and agree to disagree.
In our many years in ministry, one thing that we have learned is that people are not the sum of one experience.  If we have had a bad experience with someone, that does not dismiss all of who they are as people.  It is entirely possible for us to have a bad experience with someone....and for others to find that person delightful and warm.
This is not to negate those differences or to say that differences are  not serious.  Just some thoughts that people are people, not ideas and ideologies and that to group or "other" them is not the way of Jesus.

How He Changed Our Life.

This month is Down Syndrome awareness month and I'd like to write a little about our foster son. In the fall of 2010,  while living and working in China, we unexpectedly became foster parents to a little baby with Down Syndrome.  He was malnourished and needed one on one care. I don't write much about him anymore because he really isn't ours anymore.  He belongs to his future family and with the complicated adoption process going on, I don't want to write anything that would make it too complicated.   Leaving him behind in China was one of the hardest things we have ever done. We still hear about him and get pictures and sometimes even SKYPE.  We make sure his ayi gets paid and he has clothes. He is thriving with his ayi, being loved and cared for while he waits.
He is a part of our story and we are a part of his.  His being in our life changed us forever. Our being in his life changed his life and gave him a future.  The mutual impact is profound. We miss him everyday.
So what did we learn about Down Syndrome while we had him?
We learned that Down Syndrome is about an extra chromosome in his cells.  We learned that the extra chromosome give him more widely spaced eyes, lower ears, a sweet round tummy and rather poor posture. We learned that  Down Syndrome gave him low muscle tone and that made him slower to crawl, sit, stand and walk.  We learned all of those things so that we could strategize his care.  Not all of his issues came from having Down Syndrome but it was a good starting place.  We consulted with a speech pathologist friend about things to do to strengthen his swallow reflex.  I talked to my friend Gillian who has two children with Down Syndrome-she was a wealth of help and information for me.
We learned that while he has Down Syndrome, he isn't Down Syndrome.  He is very much himself-lively, funny, a book lover and cuddler.  After a while, we didn't really think that much about it except for when we were in public and people would ask.  There is a famous conductor in China who has a son with Down Syndrome and many people knew about him.  That was always a starting point.
Because of Down Syndrome and our little guy, we learned about love.  That's the biggest thing.  Our hearts were enlarged and our spirits enriched.  He gave us eyes to see. We are forever changed.
From the time we got him and he looked like this.

(Yes, we were trying to make up for lost time with all the black and white stuff! He is nine months in this picture and black and white stuff is usually for very young babies)

To when he started to chunk up and looked like this about a month after we got him.  This is one of my favorite pictures.

To when he went in the hospital with severe pneumonia and low oxygen...oh what a hard five days that was.

To our first family picture at Christmas.

To a second Christmas together.

To the playing with the phone, the cars, the trucks, the books, the computer.

To walking him at the river near our home.  People would stare at us as they couldn't quite figure out what our relationship to him was. Grandparents?  Adoptive parents?  If Elisabeth was with us, it lead to even more confusion.

To playing with his beloved big sister.

To his heroic ayi who has gone against her culture to love a special needs little guy.

From all of that...to this!  He is no longer a baby-truly a little boy!  He walks and runs and turns in circles.  It's amazing.

This is a well loved little boy, both by people geographically close to him and many who know about him through my Walking to China blog.  Thank you for loving him and hoping for him. I am so thankful for the many who walked this part of his journey.

Last summer I was working for a few weeks at Portland State.  I would often see a young woman with Down Syndrome walking around. She was nicely dressed and clearly had a job there.  Every time I saw her, my heart welled up with tears.  This is a young woman with a hope and a future that is determined by what she can do, not just her limitations.

That is what we want for our foster son ...and the many who are like him.  We want them valued because of who they are-intrinsically valuable human beings.

What I am seeing these days.

I took this photo by accident and almost deleted it.  But then I thought that it reflected a part of my life.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately.  I did not love the book in the picture nor the author's other book Sarah's Key.  They were just okay with endings that were too tidy.  However, I am loving the Flavia de Luce Series by Alan Bradley.  These books are funny, smart and just a great read.  They are written for adults but the protagonist is an eleven year old girl with a flair for poison and chemistry.  They are mysteries without blood, gore or sex.  They take place in post WWII England in a small village. The first is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Other things that I am seeing-beautiful fall flowers.  I got these at the Portland Saturday market.  It can be faster for us to drive to downtown Portland (if there is no traffic) than across town to the western part of Vancouver.  The Saturday market is an arts and crafts market with a fair share of the tattoed and dreadlocked.  I avoided the incense but got these and a few gifts for Elisabeth's upcoming birthday.

Speaking of Elisabeth-here is the shawl that I knit her,  not very attractively position on our sofa.  I do like it. It turned out to be pretty big after I blocked it.

Here is a close-up of the Indian Pillar stitch that is the main stitch in the shawl. And by main, I mean I knit hundreds of them.  Close to 1000.  The basic pattern was one knit, one Indian Pillar Stitch and yarn overs on each end.  I didn't know how to make an Indian Pillar stitch before this shawl but now I am an expert.  

This is a little sweater that I knit for our sweet little foster son in China. There is a simple cable on the front.  The side seams and neck are not quite finished.  However, when I took it off the needles, Paul told me that it would never fit our little guy.  Indeed, I read the wrong numbers and it is too small.  So I started another one in a bigger size.  Sigh....now I need to find a toddler for this sweater.

Paul and I drove up the Columbia Gorge on the Oregon side and stopped off at this museum.  This basket really caught my eye-look at the detail on the top of the basket.

The other baskets with the top basket-so intricate and lovely.

The history of the Chinese workers in the West in fascinating.  There were several displays about the Chinese workers in the area-both their positive impact and the racial prejudice.  The displays as a while were pretty honest.  They also had several about the positive impact of missionaries in the area-always good to read about!

We drove up to The Dalles which is close to the high desert. Outside of the museum was this monkey brush. It was all over the place and there were bees all around.

The mountains and desert brush as the sun starts to go down.  Really lovely.

Life here is so different than life in China.  In China, I often longed for peace and nature.  Here, I find myself missing the frenetic aliveness that is China!  We are settling in well, adapting to being back in pastoral ministry.  We had a vision casting retreat a while ago.  Now for the hard work of putting feet to the vision.

I am still unemployed and a little surprised to find myself without a job.  ESL is a very competitive field here. I have resumes and applications all over the place and have interviewed several times at places that had no positions available.  I have started volunteering at our local junior college  ESL program one morning a week so that I don't have a gap in my resume and so that I can keep current.  It's very humbling to be in this position!

Fall studies have started at our church.  Small groups are studying Love Walked Among Us:  Learning to Love like Jesus by Paul Miller.  We hope this will have an impact on individual families and marriages as well as our church.

Things that have helped me along the way.

Now that we have entered this new era of parenting, I've been thinking about some things that really impacted me as a mom.  These are fairly random and come from a variety of sources. I am a parent of one child and that impacts my parenting in many ways
 Parenting has been a tremendous experience of sanctification and blessing for me.  It's not always easy but I will say that I love being a mom.

So, in no special order...

* Pray for your kids.  This seems so obvious but it's so important.  When I was pregnant with Elisabeth, I had a book called "Your Pregnancy Week by Week."  As I would read it I prayed for both her physical and spiritual development.  For example, if the book said that her eyes were developing that week, I would pray for her eyes and then for eyes that would see God.  I prayed that she would be a good sleeper and she was. As she has gotten older, my prayers have been different but very specific.  Pray for your children.

*Have strategies.  When I was a pre-school teacher, I read an article  in a professional journal about having patience with young children.  The gist of the article was that teaching young children requires strategies so that we are not only relying on our patience to make it through the day.  Having patience implies that children are somehow unpleasant and something to be endured.  I am not denying the need for patience with our children.  But having strategies that help them make such a difference.  With little ones, a five minute warning before changing activities, choices where possible, regular routines and bedtimes make a difference.
Part of strategies mean guidelines and consequences.  It makes me sad to see parents be impatient with their children as their children fall apart because they are hungry and overtired.  Get to know your children and find strategies to get their cooperation.

*  Sanctify the will.  When Elisabeth was not quite three, someone told me that I was going to need to "break her will" or we would have trouble with her later.  Fortunately I read a book about strong willed children called You Can't Make Me But I Can Be Persuaded by Cynthia Tobias.  http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Make-Persuaded-Strong-Willed/dp/1578561930
In this book, she talks about molding and shaping the strong willed child and how to get cooperation with out battling them to the mat.  Strong willed people who have sanctified strong wills accomplish great things for the Lord.  This book really helped me to shape, rather than break.

* Time.  Many years ago, I was gifted to hear Wally Yu speak at the Chinese Gospel church retreat.  He told a story about playing pool with his teenage son. He knew his son had something to talk about but it wasn't until they had played many hours and it was late, that his son began to talk.  As a non-late night talker, this really impacted me.  Teenagers tend to talk at night and we need to give them the time to do it.  It's so crucial to have those conversations.

* You can talk about anything.  Really.  Anything.  Gay marriage, poverty, bullies, boys, girls, shopping.  Anything.  Make your home a place where your children can ask any question, respectfully express any opinion.   Allow them to have different opinions that yours. Along those lines, if you want your children to speak respectfully to you, speak respectfully to them.  Sarcasm, cutting remarks and so on are not relationship builders.

* Enjoy the season.  When Elisabeth was a new born, my mom stayed with me for a week.  We were out walking with the stroller and I commented that I looked forward to Elisabeth being a little bit older.  My mom reminded me that this time was very special and you know, it was.  Enjoy the time that your children are in.

*  Finally, don't expect a fall harvest in the Spring.  I also read this in a book about pre-school parenting.  When your children are young, you are in the Spring. Harvests that are forced are not mature harvests.  Keep planting and watering and the harvest will come.

Celebration and Sadness.

If there is anything that I have learned in the past few years, it's that conflicting emotions are normal.  We have felt sadness and joy so many times at the same time.
Taking Elisabeth to college yesterday was one of those times.  We are thrilled for her.  Seattle Pacific is the perfect place for her.  We are excited for the things she will learn and how she will grow.  But there is still an ache in our hearts as we let her go.  We are still family, still parents...just in a different way.
We left fairly early yesterday morning with a pile of 东西。

She actually had more than this but compared to some other girls, she didn't have much!

We took her to this school.  

We piled some of her stuff into her dorm room.  She is on a floor where over five of the girls have grown up in different countries- we are pretty thrilled about that.

We met her adorable roommate who grew up in China. She is half Dutch and half Chinese-the perfect combo!

We had about a day and a half of orientations and meetings. We heard three sample lectures from professors, went to a meeting on university ministries, met the professor that will head up her University Scholars program and went to many other parent information meetings.  One thing that surprised me were the many questions about campus security.  Parents wanted their children escorted to the dorms if they came back to campus late at night...what???  When told that the easiest way to get around Seattle was by bus, one mom asked if they would be given a demonstration on how to buy bus tickets.  Maybe it's because we have just come from overseas but those questions just were odd to me.

The new students were in parallel meetings on different or similar topics.  We didn't catch up at them until the end of the second day.

On the last day, there was an invocation.  The professors came in in their academic regalia (some with jeans and sandals underneath).  They were led in by a bag pipe player.  The President spoke, the pastor of the Free Methodist church that is across from SPU spoke and maybe someone else.  Then we sang the SPU song (Elisabeth and I actually sang the Shenyang International School Song "We are the tigers!"  We sang the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" as the new students went down to the floor.  The professors were down there, circling the students and each student got an SPU pin.  It was supposed to a tissue moment but for me it really wasn't.

See Elisabeth in the crowd getting her pin?  No, I can't see her either.

After the pinning, there was a final dessert. There was a clear message that parents were to say good-bye by 4:45.  I really was okay until Elisabeth's roommate started crying.  Her dad has raised her as a single dad in China and he has just done an awesome job.  He was leaving her to go back to China and it was just so hard.  Seeing her cry made my mama's heart bleed and I started crying.  Then it was time to go and I got myself together.  We were taking another girls mother back to Vancouver with us, so we all walked to the car.  I cried a little then but no public embarrassment, I hope.

We came back to a quiet house.  We really are thrilled for her as we believe she is in the perfect place for her academic and spiritual growth.  But we miss her daily presence in our lives.