Kindred Spirits

The Andrews family swooped in for 24 hours of sweetness.

Eric and I moved to Michigan just after we were married and spent five years growing up there. We worked and played, but the fellowship with couples like the Andrews -- we will treasure for eternity.

Now a decade and six children later, it was an incredible blessing to see their beautiful faces again. The finest qualities of Ben and Kris are now abiding in the hearts of their children... gentleness, graciousness, truth, and love. They are truly a breath of fresh air, a taste of heaven -- sharing meals together, playing, and talking about all that our God has accomplished by His merciful hand.

While we were waiting on China to get to Zane, the Andrews were waiting for the final details to unfold to bring their son and daughter home from Ethiopia. It was exciting to be paper pregnant together and know the challenges and thrills that we shared by God's miraculous gift of adoption.

Noah is clever. Lydia is a true friend. Haile is kind and Minna is just too adorable. See...

I told you so!

My heart sank when they pulled out of the drive...how I wish Michigan was a whole lot closer!

Year of the Rabbit

"Snooooooooow." That's how Zane says it and most appropriately because it's just everywhere. We experienced the 2011 Blizzard and survived. Not as bad as we imagined, but impressive at 12 inches with drifts at 3 feet.

Our road is private, but with help from the sun and a few neighbors that have tractors, we headed out this morning to shake our cabin fever and have some fun on Chinese New Year's Day. Really, you can only mush playdoh and pretend to be Cinderella for so long.


We met up with Aunt Alicia and Titus at one of the largest Asian markets in town. We are making plans for a delicious family Chinese meal in a few days so we wanted to get some key ingredients and fun items to help in our celebration. While cruising the isles, we saw familiar things from our time in China and Taiwan and just had to throw them in the cart as well.

About 50 heads of garlic - we're smelling yummy baby!

Yes, that would be Zane throwing a temper tantrum. As if we weren't already interesting customers. ;)

What is that duck-thing? A rice cooker? A trash can?

There was also a cafe there where we dined on pork dumplings and egg rolls, but the standout was a green onion roll drenched in butter - OH.MY.GOODNESS.YUM. Zane and Titus could not get enough of that!


Elle and I are fighting a cold, so we were super tired when we got home. Zane had mercy on us and took a long nap so we too could rest - sweet!

After a late nap, I fixed up a pot of bok choy that tasted just as good as it did in Fujian where I 'fell in love' with it. Using an internet recipe to go off of, I sauteed fresh garlic and ginger in a tablespoon of walnut oil, tossed in fresh bok choy, added 2 tablespoons of chicken stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, covered and steamed for three minutes. Drizzled it with a little sesame seed oil and served with a side of chopped chicken fixed up exactly the same way. It was delicious!


Zane had some texture issues with the bok choy. Maybe if I cover my eyes, it'll disappear....

Argh, still there!

All done, all done, all done!

For dessert we had dragon fruit, but unfortunately, not as good as the platefuls we ate in China.

Yes! Dessert!

Aunt Alicia saw tons of these in Taiwan, but don't remember them in China...soda sealed with a marble.

Push down and the marble releases.

Cool!

Today was fun...talking about China, remembering our time there together, and tasting our favorites from a part of our family's culture.

Gung Hay Fat Choy
Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year.

CNY

The Chinese New Year celebrations begin! This past weekend we joined hundreds upon hundreds of others at a local art museum for its annual samplings of all things Chinese - dragon dance, traditional music, games, crafts, calligraphy, food....

But before we headed out, we feasted on a large Chinese meal with cousin Titus and family. Oh we were stuffed, so it was good that we had to park several blocks away. The mild weather that day made for a pleasant dinner walk-off.

For the second year in a row, Zane wanted nothing to do with the dragon dance. He feels very strongly that it is too loud and scary. So we cuddled on the floor around the corner, waiting for Elle and Dada. "All done?", he kept asking. He cheered when the cymbal crashes concluded. :)



The excitement for the evening was the Chinese yo-yo demonstration. It's a football-sized toy consisting of two equally-sized, facing cones connected with a long axle and is kept spinning on a string tied to two sticks at the ends. Apparently, it's used as a children's toy and as a performance tool in juggling and sometimes in Chinese dance. The performers did a variety of tricks -- throwing the yo-yo up into the air and tossing it around their back, just to name a couple. Both Elle and Zane were in awe as they cheered on the students and master teacher. We were lucky not to get a yo-yo in the face as another front row guest experienced.


After that excitement, we especially enjoyed the traditional music, so beautiful. It wasn't until late that evening at home that I realized I hadn't taken in any of the museum. There was just so much activity and people everywhere...someday we'll have to go to just take in the art.

Year of the Rabbit