Time to Travel...Going Down Under!

In just a few short hours I will be "good on ya" spending time with these precious friends!

Sundown...Celebrating Purim

February 24, 2013 

 Sundown…The celebration begins filled with little girls dressed as princesses and people celebrating salvation and rescue from death.  I smile as I stand by the kitchen window forming little circles of dough into tri-cornered Hamentaschen.  Purim has begun and though I am not Jewish I find it uniquely special to be reminded of this holiday for I live in a house filled with little orphans, I see names like Esther and Hadassah as I walk through the halls and each time I hear them my heart rejoices to consider the plans that God has for these children.  I think through the story God choose to tell us of a little orphan girl in a foreign country, raised by her loving cousin, taken from her home, filled with grace and beauty, who becomes the Queen of Persia, and placing her life on the line saves her people from annihilation.  This day is filled with celebration for an orphan girl was called “For such a time as this…”  And choose to obey her God rising to the purpose and plan he had for her life.  I want them to catch a glimpse of the whole picture, the whole Megillah.  I carry the plate of warm cookies into a room filled with children and draw them close to share the story, I want them to understand, I want them to know, I long for them to see that even in the harsh, in the not understanding, in the reality of this sinful world we live in filled with pain and suffering  they have a Heavenly Father who adores them, who is vigilant to protect and provide for them and that He has plans for each of them, “For such a time as this…”

  

 

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
    The saints’ and angels’ song

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

Happy New Year- Welcome to the Year of the Snake!

Fixing  New Years Eve Jiaozi

Family of Jiaozi Makers

Sparkling Nurses

Bombs Bursting in Air- yes we set them off ourselves!

February 9-10, 2013

Look what fun- we are planning, fireworks, fireworks and more fireworks

The Children were thrilled to watch out their windows

New Year's Carnival

Feeding Time at the Zoo- we felt like rare animals in cages with crowds pressing in to see what we were eating/doing!

Keep Smiling, we are headed for the gate!

Welcome to the Year of the Snake!  By the way in case you ever wondered this is "My Year"

Sorting through the Seasons...

February 4, 2013

Dear Ones,

   It does not seem possible that it is already February, The Chinese New Year is about to get well underway and the weather outside is fully winter as occasional snow flurries and non-visibility of smog and winter fog keeps our Big House in a sort of cloud.  Another season, another opportunity to reflect on the never ending changes all around us…

   Those seasons have seen me on the playground and in the pit looking up and wondering, “What Happened?”  They have seen me in the valley low where I simply cannot understand the pain and heartaches but instead I must simply cling by faith to The One who does know and who will carry me through.  I look back to seasons on the mountain top with clear views from the vista and then the cloud covered peak where I carefully step one foot in front of the other and have no concept of what is all around me.  There is the gentle sound of falling snow or like at the moment that I am writing this there is the rolling boom of thunder and the seasons, the moments pass quickly on.  How do we live in this world where seasons change so quickly, moments that took our breath away in awe can in an instant take our breath away in pain?  We go from playground to battleground, toys to trenches, laughing tears of Joy to heart wrenching tears of Sorrow and at times these things are so intertwined that we hardly know where one begins and one ends.  This is our world, a world of whole and broken, empty and full, truth and lies, lost and saved, forsaken and found.  Can you tell these opposites have been on my heart and mind a lot lately?  In fact many of these opposites where going through my mind as I reached for my Bible the other morning and held fast to the words of Psalm 27…  

“I would have despaired

unless I had believed that I would see

the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the Living”

  And there I had it, in this world of stark contrasts I would have despaired UNLESS…The goodness of the Lord!  So as we prepare to enter this new season, this new Lunar year I want to look for the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living.

Loving each of you,

Mariah

PS- I kept hoping that suddenly there would be a breakthrough in the firewall and I would be able to post lots on my blog and catch you up on all the happenings.  However that is not happening so my apologies that correspondence may become a little less frequent.

Back in the Big House...

 Back in the Big house filled with precious blessings, gentle snow falls, the fog rolls in and out, and we stick to the business of Being- Being in every moment!

Catchin up- On Home

A Trip to Chattanooga to ride The Polar Express

A visit with Santa at Christmas seems the best

Lots of Cocoa, Coffee, and Conversations round the fire where had

Little Sisters Dreamed Big Dreams and shared the love they had Found

Special visits from Friends far and near

And of course a family Photo to finish out the year...for now we are six siblings and blessed beyond measure!