new ink

in april of 2008, i wrote a blog entry titled, "daughter of the king," last december i got this (on my left shoulder)....

today

i've had several of you ask after my post 2 days ago about how i am doing now. today, i am doing great! the last 8 months have been great. i have had to rediscover who i am personally, professionally, as a daughter of the most High, what community truly means, and what my values and priorities are. God has brought amazing people into my life to help me figure some of this out. i am beyond blessed and am extremely humbled. today, i live in more freedom and joy than i've had before.

thank you to all those who have been patient and have given me grace. i wish i was a better communicator of how i feel and where i'm at. many of you, i have not been in touch with since i've been back in the states. many of you, i haven't been in touch with since last october. please know, that this is not because of anything you have done.....just part of the journey that God has me on.

Obadiah

last week, i bought a new study bible, the new inductive study bible, by kay arthur. my wonderful friend, lisa, recommended this bible. i've never been a good study-er of the bible...studying is not my thing! :) ha. let me rephrase that...i am not confident in my ability to study the bible and have heavily depended on commentaries and other resourcs that feed me "what to think." so after purchasing the bible last week, lisa and i decided to study the minor prophet obadiah....i know....a little random....not sure if i have ever even opened up to obadiah before (i usually stop my "bible through a year" plan before obadiah :( ). it has been such a good challenge for me. the tools at the beginning of the book do a great job of guiding the reader to discover "themes" in the book. as a teacher, myself, i am appreciating this process and seeing how powerful self-discovery is, rather than being told what i should learn.

today, i am reflecting this question: how do i respond when things don't go the way i think they should?

two years later

Its been over two years since my last blog post....in fact, I don't think I've come back to my blog since I have been back in the states almost 2 years ago. I'm teaching a "cyber" class this summer, and am extremely bored. With nothing to do, I remembered my blog. It's crazy....I didn't even remember how to post a blog on here! I read through all my posts and for some reason, I have knots in my stomach.

It has been quite the transition home for me. The first year and a half threw me for a loop and put me in places I never thought I would be. More difficult than I'd like to admit. Lonelier than I ever would have imagined. Confused, uncertain, fearful, depressed. Regrets, new beginnings, growth, forgiveness, grace. Extreme lows and highs. I have just scattered thoughts.

This will be good for me. Maybe in the next three weeks, I will attempt to blog about this "transition." I'm thinking it will be therapeutic for me.

Wanting so much to be fully alive!

Tonight's Simple Pleasure....

i do wish i had somebody to enjoy this with though....nobody drinks wine, just beer....sad monkey. oh well, i'm loving it!

(i got this bottle of wine for my birthday....yippee! thanks, hope!)

We went in this line anyway...

at a bus station ticketing counter.....

just because.....

he's soooo stinkin cute! i miss this little kid!

terracotta warriors

in december, a couple of friends came in from out of town. it was such a nice treat. we also had a short visit to see the infamous terracotta warriors. this was absolutely stunning. it is estimated that in the three pits containing the terracotta army, there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried. the terracotta warriors were first discovered by well-diggers in the late 1970's. first emperor qin shi huang had this army buried with him to protect and help him rule another empire in his afterlife! isn't that wild?

winter wonderland

we have had several snowy days this winter, which has been so great! the only problem is that transportation is a nightmare on snowy days. my roommate and i had to wait in the snow one day for about an hour and a half!!!

catching a cab is usually uneventful, except if you are needing one during rush hour or on snowy days! it kind of can be summed up like this.....you wait, try to flag down a cab as they drive by only for them to tell you that they aren't going in the direction you need, so you wait, then somebody else comes up next to you in need of a cab and they stand on the side of you that if a cab were to come along they would get it, so they get a cab and you end up having to wait some more! this can get quite frustrating.

anyway, a couple of weeks ago, my roommate and i were waiting for a cab in front of our apartment on a snowy day. after waiting for about half an hour in the freezing cold, we were not about to let anyone cut us off and get the cab that we so deserve. sure enough, two korean men walked up to the curb to the left of us. my roommate went over to them and did the talking for us. the conversation went something like this...

LP (my roommate): hi, we have been waiting for a cab for the last half hour. (in chinese, of course).

man: ting bu dong ("i dont understand" in chinese. he did not speak any chinese or english).

so my roommate proceeded to think of other ways to tell the man that the next cab belonged to us.

LP: chu ju che....(taxi)

man: (still a look of confusion)

LP: da di ..... (call a cab).

man: da di?

LP: yes. da di.

man: da di? (one hand pointing to himself, the other waving no).

at that point my roommate realized that the man might be thinking that she is saying "daddy." she gave up and walked away towards me. couple minutes later, the men left and went back to their homes, i think. i can't help but laugh at what they might be thinking? is she asking me if i was a daddy? is she asking me if i want to be a daddy?

gosh, it is hard not to be able to communicate clearly! haha.

we didn't get a cab for another 10 minutes or so. :(

catching up

dear friends,
i apologize for not being in touch (blogging) often since i left the states in september. it has been a roller coaster ride-for the most part. please know that i have thought of you often. and so often, i have thought, "oh! i need to blog about this!" or "_____, would love to hear about this one!" i just never got to actually sit down and blog about it. :(

i will attempt to write several blog entries this weekend to catch you all up.