Little piggy, little piggy....

The three little pigs has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I just ate the three little pigs. Jack ate this ones tail. It was crunchy. oooohhhh. We just had a 'goodbye' party for a dear co-worker at Candlelight this past weekend and this was the 'special' dinner, alongside yummy Lao kabobs and springrolls. Everyone raced to get pics of these guys and so I took advantage and snapped a few myself. Pork is actually our main meat staple here alongside chicken. In fact, we dont eat beef here, but THIS poor pork, was just hard to eat.. I think it was seeing all of his bits and pieces still intact made it a bit more real than just buying your shoulder at the market. :)

A Lao teacher who works at Candlelight and a friend. Kham (on the left) is Davids Lao tutor. He is an awesome guy who follows Father and has the most beautiful smile ever!

Somphou, Phuee, Sodachan, Nate, Jack, Bounlom ~ workers and good friends from Candlelight
Bee and Carolyn.. Bee is a sister
Typical Jack manning the kabobs

Jenny Bajema and her friends.. sep te!!!
Thats it folks! :) hugs to all ~ Jen

Watching the Hourglass fill

I love my life. Pretty much everything about it brings me great joy and the only reason I wouldnt look forward to waking up every day would be because I crave more sleep. I do have bad days.. ya know, like right now there are NO -and I mean, ZERO- chocolate chips in my house. This- brings me pain. Call it shallow, but since I live in a 3rd world country and have no malls, fast food, clothes OR shoes my size, and flies live on the fresh meat I buy, I feel like I have some right to whine about not having chocolate chips pouring out my cupboards.
However, thats not why Im writing today.
This weekend I had a wake-up call. You know in those movies when a character gets 'hit' with a realization about something... sometimes the camera goes screaming into a super close up view of their face and freezes. Time just completely stands still and all the thoughts you have completely line up and make sense and reality can be touched. I had one of those moments. It was literally seconds, but felt like hours.
This past Saturday my teens, Nathaniel and Jackson spent the entire day out gallivanting around with friends, or on their own studying at Joma... things they have done before.. but this time, instead of me running around doing this and that, I sat down with my sweetie man and the 4 younger kids. We watched a movie and had snacks etc.... It was at this moment where I got slapped... I looked and saw 4 little ones, completely content at being home with mom and dad and while that delights my heart, I started to ache. I recognized in an instant that we were incomplete and life had changed.
Ive been watching it happen. I have been feeling it happen.. I can feel it in discussions I have with Nate, I can feel it when I watch Jack so confidently take off around town and when they engage adults and ask for certain movies, music and even food.. no longer do they long for pizza... now its Indian, steaks, and flavors that dont normally appeal to childrens pallettes.
My heart started to cry inside of me I think. It practically is just as I write this. My babies, are no longer babies. My precious little 2 year old Nate who would beg me not to give him 'yuckie medicine' and my chunky, compliant Jack who smiled constantly, have transformed into these gorgeous young men who tower above me now and sound like men. They have surprised me at every turn doing things I never knew they would do, and sweetly growing in the Grace of God.
The bottom part of the hourglass is filling up rather quickly, which means the top part- MY time with them, is quickly emptying and I will soon have to CHOOSE to turn it over and let them go on to experience adulthood... the next portion of their life. Oh my.. while this will be normal, I know my mothers heart. I know I am going to a part of my heart cut out with each one.
How do you carry these pieces of you for 9 months, falling in love with every moment, and then raise them, school them, train them, baptize them, and walk them through trials in life and heartaches in love, and release them to the world outside your protective hands. I have Very specifically chosen to pour my essence of life into them as best I could and train with all I am so that they are ready, but OH the PAIN in release. -deep, DEEP, sigh- inhale, exhale.
So, Im grateful for the awareness.. that the bit of time I have left with them IS MINE for now. What am I doing with it.. is it enough (will it ever be?), do I please the heart of God in my training of these Mighty Men of His? Have I missed the mark at all?
I do feel confident in many things. Homeschooling. I am shocked that without any previous concept of it before we had kids I had felt God stirring me to consider it. It is hands down the most brilliant thing we have done with them. (I am confident of this, whether they agree right now or not!) You could not pay me to alter this. Prayer and Journaling. These two have always gone hand in hand. I journal my prayers as well as my hopes and dreams for each child. They know this. They are all looking forward to receiving their journals when they graduate. I have periodically pulled them out from time to time to read an answer to prayer that I wrote when they were 2 or 5 years old etc... we are all completely flabbergasted by what God has done through this. It is certainly proof to them of my prayer life and Gods sweet goodness and activity in our lives as we walk in obedience.
Raising these World changers, these Global Nomads, God men, has been my greatest joy and certainly the most important thing I could ever do or be known for. I praise God for the priviledge of being a Mother. Their mother! Id just like to slow that hourglass stream down a couple notches.
xo
Jen

Yummy Jack food!

One of the perks Im certain comes from homeschooling, is the opportunity and time made available for cooking. Cooking, granted, comes several times a day, but when kids are running off to school and stressed with homework and activities who has time to walk them through the fine arts of baking and putting together a beautiful meal?

DVD's! haha... Ok, so truthfully, most everyone knows our family loves to cook and create, and even here in Vientiane, we DO try to make the most of what we have. Anything other than veggies and meat tend to be imported and rather expensive, but sometimes you MUST invest in youthful 'Jamie Olivers to Be'. And as I am no adult Jamie Oliver, I admit to owning his dvd's and gaining scads of insight from him. Its brilliant. (In my other life, Im English! :) )

Now, truthfully, homeschooling HAS afforded us more time and therefore patience in cooking.

Jackson has been with me in the kitchen since he could stand. I have journal entries (no lie!) of him helping me stir and bake, measure and pour since he was 2. He just has that Garcia gene in him that Has to be in the kitchen. The past 2 years my Gabriel has been showing the same Jack symptoms. He has this 6th sense ... even if I sneak into the kitchen to start working, he comes out of nowhere and has to help. I realized he would always come, sit and watch, but not be verbally demanding of me that I let him participate. Im so slow!!! He has gotten more bold in the past 6 months or so and has a knack for knowing what to do. Initially I would tell him to just watch since Jack was always doing the work and then I realized, Poor kid! He wont have a chance to learn if I dont allow him the same opportunity Jacksons always had!

Getting Jackson to 'allow' for another cook in the kitchen has NOT been easy. Apparently he already has a cooks mentality that two cooks do NOT work in the kitchen and there is not enough room for his mind and more people. sooo funny!

Gabriel creations will be coming soon Im sure, but for now, Im posting pics of Jackson at work with his attempts either at his own ideas or take off's of Jamie Oliver creations. He has been begging for weeks to make Tiramisu, but the ingredients are Seriously expensive and hard to find. In times like this I have told him to get creative, do some research and find ways to make it a bit different without compromising the beauty and taste of the dessert. He is keen to give it a go.

M A N G O S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mango theives...

cooling off in my 'pool'! :) (ie: backup water storage container)

Custard Apple

The mango rains have come... amazing thunderstorms and torrential rains that can be really quick and move on, or last for a while. Its been lovely. The wild wind comes up and brilliantly sweeps the oppressive heat and dust away. We have taken to open our balcany doors out the master bedroom and just sit and watch the distant thunder and lightning until it is upon us. More often than not the lights go out and the world becomes dark and yet in the moonlight we can see the mix of mango and palm trees swaying wildly in the wind. The view out the balcony is just a full blown mango tree and we have been watching the tiny buds blow up into monstrously beautiful mangos...

If you have seen 'Marley & Me' (and surprisingly, I recommend it) you will remember their Lab would eat all the mangos that fell in their Floridian yard which subsequently led to a nice orange mushy poo. Well, that wasnt just a funny twist, our Retreivers actually eat the mangos as well and we are left with similar gifts. In an effort to keep the mangos from being eaten by the unappreciative dogs (or at least assumming WE would appreciate them more), we drove our van up under the tree last week and the boys climbed up and pulled as many big ones down as they could. As you can see in our pics, there were scads! It was great fun. They ripen quickly off the tree and so we have been sending them off to Daves school and baking anything that would taste remotely good with mango! They have been divine and what a treat to just head outside and grab them! Wish you were here to enjoy them with us!

The first non-mango pic is a fruit called Custard Apple and it is Hands Down, my fav!!!! I dont even know how to explain it to you, but its soo very sweet and refreshing!~ Lots of love this rainy day.... Jen

Coffee House number......uh, cant remember

PICTURE DESCRIPTIONS:
-New addition to Coffee House night... Game time! Everyone in the middle of the room... Two options go up... bread or rice? Bread people go to one side, rice people to the other... then you talk about 'why'.... great game for ESL students! I think this one was Coffee or Tea? Coffee actually won out!

-Married or Single (which do you want to be??)
Cats or Dogs??
Mountains or Swimming?
:) Lots of laughter...
-Teammate Jenny Bajema calling us for game time. She is leaving us after several years with Cama and several years with ELIC serving in Laos. Check out that beautiful Smile! She is a keeper!
Sigh.
-Carolyn P and her student.... plus his extended family! His daughter is in the orange sitting by Carolyn. Some of them dont even speak Lao as they are Hmong. It was a privaledge to have them all join us. He is a Shephard about an hour from Vientiane.

We are continually grateful for these Coffee House moments where many expats can join in building relationship with these sweet people. They actually really enjoy all the sweets we make and there is always plenty of Lao fruit around... seeds and pits and shells end up piled high on plates all over the house! THINK with us as we obviously hope to add on to not just building an external friendship but sharing what an Internal one looks like. The perfect Friendship!
Lots of love to you all..... Mothers Day tomorrow!
Jen

just thinkin'...

No pics today... Today, I am sitting in a new Vientiane cafe called 'True Coffee' with my man. We are veggin'. Probably more than we should. Its a holiday today and we spent the am taking our tribe to Joma for breakfast and then ran errands... Gabe got a few new pants and shirt at some outside vendor for a few bucks and we picked up some groceries.. typical things families do. David and I then dropped them off at home in the care of our very reliable (ahem....) teen boys and went for coffee so we can have some talk time and find a place to use our computer and work. Internet is still down at home and I have given up trying to get it fixed.
But, now its early afternoon and we are sitting in some comfy chairs with our coffee, jazz music playing, and Dave is in another dimension and zone... apparently in the last couple of weeks the Cafe has added a flat screen tv. up on the wall and Premiere League is on... I think Dave will leave having gotten no work done, but feeling rested. :)
We have been thinking about our next week and all the things we slotted in without realizing that they fell on the same weekend. Oops! David agreed to speak on Sun. pm, but didnt remember he has exams to write and give this week at school, and since a Senior in our Inside/Out group just told us he was leaving on the 9th, we are rushing to have a goodbye party for him and basically all 4 Seniors on the 8th in the pm. Sat. pm we will have a coffee house for Candlelight, but this time not at our house. That will help for sure! My biggest concern out of it all is that Dave will get time to work on his sermon since I know he takes lots of serious time for it the week before.
However, even with all of our 'yikes we are busy' thoughts, I feel we are layed back compared to many friends. I wonder when we get to the US, how we will be able to fit in and how the boys will handle the level of activity others run at, but they wont necessarily be able to join. Maybe it will be different than I think.. its always so much harder to plan when your 1/2 way around the world and cant see it.
Im holding out right now for Australia and my time there with Nathaniel. I keep praying that G would REVEAL, REVEAL, to him..... I think Im asking Him to reveal His purpose for Nathaniels future, His vision for Nate in ministry and His great Love over Nate. I know N is ready to receive it.
Ok, lots of work to do. Just wanted to say hi and think a bit outloud.
Jen

Beauty and Life on the Road to Bangkok

Leaving Udon Thani heading to Bangkok

the Thai King has his picture posted not only on walls in EVERY single building in Thailand, but there are monuments by the bijillions and life size posters of His Majesty at practically every corner. He is Highly revered and in fact you will be jailed for defaming his picture or speaking ill of him. The Thai worship HRM.

a lovely temple going up on our way down.. very ornate.

Chok Chai! Good friends traveling

with us mentioned a Hamburger joint on the way down and said we HAD to stop... which of course we did and loved having a good American type hamb again!~

We cant figure it out, but on the streets of Thailand there will be sections of the road that for mile stretches have mini stands selling random items. The thing is, EVERY stand sells the SAME thing...our dilemma is always 'geez, which one do we stop at?'... normally we stop at the one with the most little kids dancing in front of their stand. This was the first time we had seen weiner dogs flapping outside in the dust. (eww!)

This lady is selling sweet sticky rice with corn or sweet potato chunks, stuffed in a bamboo tube.. its been grilled and is sooo tasty!

the LONG stretch of bamboo sticky rice...

the LONG stretch of fruit

What a wonderful place to live! Can you imagine sitting out on the freeway all day selling fruit, sausages, rice or any number of other foods to travelers? And no crossword puzzles to keep you intertained! Just weird quizzical foreigners! hehe