New Things-

April 22-25, 2014

Dear Ones,

  “Was it a morning like this?”…The sunrise shrouded in fog and grey?  I glance out the window at the stone hut with its door ajar in the middle of the peach orchard and I wonder about so many things but on Easter I wonder about that morning about the beginning of a new day resounding through all of history.  

   The daylight hours are over I sit on the floor taking in, contemplating, watching, singing quietly, a little one pulled close and held tenderly the scene seems so very familiar and yet in many ways new.  New beginnings, the moments play through my memory as I gently rock back and forth, listening to myself whispering softly to the baby in my arms.  We have only had this new floor open for a few days…new rooms, new office, thus the sitting on the floor- I have been here for several hours holding him as I have no chair yet, it will come in a future load but for now I rest my back against the cabinet and I think about the fifteen new little ones we have received, the ones who are still here, the ones who were quickly sent for surgery and the ones like this one who will not make it through the long night hours.  New beginnings a start of something, Easter, what a perfect time to be here doing this.  Being reminded with each “new” of new life, new hope, new freedom, new grace- the big things.  And then the little things like new cabinets to fill, new rooms to organize, new ayis to teach, train, and build relationships with, new dialect, new foods.  There are pieces of this that seem like I just experienced them at the Big House and now here I am doing it over again in our Zhengzhou unit but with a new perspective.  Snapshots of those new moments have stood out to me over the past many days:

-Cross-legged on the floor of a new nursery, one hand gently moving a bouncy seat, little lungs trying with all their might to pull in the new air filled with misted medication and life bringing oxygen.

- New building lay-out, new traffic patterns, new construction taking place, new roommate.

- New Shelves to put together a new clean sparkle (after the cleaning of course), new office area, new pharmacy.

- New moments cradling a listless baby as I sing quietly, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” a tear slipped down my cheek as I realized the new ayi sitting on the floor next to me was humming along, when I lifted my eyes to meet hers she smiled and with priceless joy spreading across her face she said, “Now I understand why you are here.”

  It is just as He promised… “See, I have come to make all things new.”

By His Grace Alone,

Mariah

PS- I am sorry if this note sounds a little bit disjointed I have been making notes on it over the past several days and decided I had better go ahead and get it out…with love for you!

 

Hallel...Passover

I have always loved the festival of Passover- No, I am not in any way Jewish by heritage but I have always loved the incredible story of God's love and sacrifice the story of redemption that He shares with us in the remembrance of the

 Passover Feast.  

  Last time I was home in California my Aunt and Uncle bought me some Bible study books and I was so excited that this week I was in my study book on the Feasts of Israel and as God would time it I finished my Passover week section today so as you can tell it has really been on my mind.  So you will have to bear with me as I share that I see the bright red New Year decorations over the door posts of the homes and businesses and I think of Passover.  I sit at a street shaokao vendors stall and as he grills my lamb skewer over the open flame smoke rising in billows I remember the sacrifices, the altar and the Passover lambs.  It is the remembrance of the greatest Sacrifice in all eternity- the price for a blood bought people, a redemption from a Holy Grace filled God  and so tonight though there is no Passover feast in my home I will read with great joy the Hallel- Psalm 115-118

Living Water- Hosanna

 

April 13, 2014

Dear Ones,

I have been back in China right at a week, my little charge and I safely arrived after some adventures and we are ever so grateful that he is doing well.  Now I look around and it seems so long ago as I see the dishes are piled high in the sink, there is extra laundry in the bin, and I follow a fresh trail of splashed and sloshed water drops to the large red bucket in the bathroom our house doesn’t usually look like this.  We have been without running water for 4 days so we won’t even mention the unique smell or the fact that I actually resorted to using some of the bucket water to semi-wash my hair yesterday afternoon.  I am considering all of this as I once again dip water from the larger buckets into a smaller one to be carried into the bathroom to use for flushing toilets and another for the kitchen to be used for washing some of those piled dishes.  I am grateful- we are blessed that even though it is not flowing through the pipes we have water available.  We still have bottled drinking water and we are all grateful that the neighbor is selling us water from their well.  That is where the large red holding buckets are being filled from. Onto carts, rolled next door, filled, and rolled back.  I smile and say a prayer of thanks that the power is not out so the buckets can be brought up to the various floors in the elevator and not up the stairs.  There are even more bottles of instant hand sanitizer sitting out all over and we are using wet-wipes by the hands full.  Water- we all realize the importance of it, the need for it, the problems created when there is a lack of it, and the disease it brings when the source of it is contaminated.  I reach in to dip another bucket though I cannot drink the water flowing into my small bucket it is clear, it is cold, pulled from deep in the well, and it will care for the needs at hand.  My mind drifts to stories of Rebecca drawing water for thirsty camels, of young women waiting for the stone to be rolled away so that they can water their father’s flocks, a Samaritan woman at a well meeting with the source of eternal Living Water…It is Palm Sunday, the well spring of Living Water flowed through the streets of Jerusalem.  “Hosanna- Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”  He is waiting, ready, expectant, willing, “Drink, that you may never thirst again.”

Grace in all things,

Mariah

Moments from Somewhere Ville Indiana...

 Long Hours on a plane- Grace seen in refills of coffee in a real cup, lots of ink spilling onto journal pages and sleeping baby in the seats beside me...

 Cold and snow- sparkling morning sunrise seen hours after waking...

 2:30am Play time for jet lag baby and nurse (Thank you family for the touch and feel books, they have been invaluable...the smile it brought to my face as I realized after my second pot of coffee at 5:00am that I was wearing a "147 Million Orphan" t-shirt that said "Feed 1" as I did just that my precious bundle sucking down his bottle and patting my cheek...

 

 The start of long hospital hours...

 3:30am Happy St. Patrick's day- Sharing lucky charms with happy boy while smiling at my green wear- Loving the little moments!

Bling it up-

Once upon a time a girl lived in China and she needed a new phone case so...

off to the market we go-

Just because it was a silly thing and because it was one of the only ones without a MASSIVE sparkling stuffed animal attached...(that is not a joke) I just had to giggle and get this temp case to protect my phone friend and the fact that the back is pretty cute with all its sparkles AND a coffee cup, well it was just meant to be !

A Sweet Aroma...

 February 21, 2014

Dear Ones,

   I could hear them coming, the elevator bell, the laughter, the chatter, the opening of doors, the rustle of jackets and scarves being pulled off, and then the burst through the door with the exclamations of “We knew you were here, we could smell it, the cinnamon and the fresh baked sweet of whatever it is- what is it, can we eat it now?!?!?!”   I had to smile as bodies all gathered round hands’ reaching for muffins pulled fresh from the oven, they all chattered about how they came out of the cold stepped into the elevator and KNEW I was cooking, as they looked at one another and exclaimed… “mmmmm Mariah.”

   I thought about it and just had to share, it is something you may not know about my world here but that is lots of fun to give you a glimpse of.  I am known in the House as being the creative one with a lot of things but food is one of those creative outlets, the “family” tends to give me a hard time in a loving way that I am the one who takes all the left overs or the random items of food that have been brought or left behind and turns them into good…maybe even incredibly good dishes of food that we all enjoy.  It is something I love doing- taking what is left behind, what is about to go bad, the things that no one else can find a use for or know what to do with and turning it into something wonderful that literally draws people from all over the house into the kitchen.  There are a couple of interns who would laugh and say, “There she goes again with that, essentially utilizing resources.”  But hey, I never heard them complain about the cooking!  Is it not amazing how the smell of something wonderful draws you in beckoning you to come just as a stench causes you to draw back or turn away?  We miss smells, aromas of home, of a special person, the wafting fragrance lingering, we hate smells, things that taint, the smell of death, or rotting, our sense of smell tells us to come to dinner, to sip our coffee, that there are fresh baked cookies, that someone was in the elevator, and I hope it was not right after they took out the bags of diapers, it tells us  to run from danger, to clean out the fridge, or fix the broken pipes, we smell water, fresh snow, blooming roses, gardens, produce, dirt, streets filled with carts and people, formula on baby’s breath, and the list could go on and on…

“But thanks be to God, who leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.  And who is adequate for these things?”

II Corinthians 2:14-16

  What fragrance do I leave behind, what smell do people miss when I am gone, what aroma enters the room when I come in?  Is it Christ living in me or is it something rotting, are others drawn to it longing to linger, to simply sit and take it in or are they ready to run from the gagging or the danger.  My prayer today... 

  "Lord, make my life a living fragrance of You…"

By His Grace alone,

Mariah

Snow Angel- Frozen Wonderland

 I love the Snow I have told you this before...I am such a December Baby- the cold, the sparkle, the sheer delight I have when I see the first flakes start to fall!

 I love that my friends send me the smell of snow- and that I just have to stage it in a bank of snow for a perfect sparkly white blog photo shoot.  I delight in the fact that my brother lovingly added "Frozen" Princess Elsa as my screen back drop and that when I opened my computer this morning there she was!

 What if I invited you for coffee now- how cold, how beautiful,how glittery, how many twinkling lights...  Would you sing with me, "Winter Snow is falling down, Children laughing all around, lights come on like a fairy tale come true..."

 Would you make a snow angel on the roof late at night just because it makes us laugh... I would!