Yesterday we went to Matt & Jeana's to celebrate Chinese New Year. What fun times. It will be so much more exciting next year when we celebrate because then their daughter will be here with us! (They are adopting from China and this should be the year the referral comes.) For now, it was our family and Jeana's parents, grandparents, brother and his family. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day but it was completely worth it. Noah had so much fun he decided to not take a nap (not fun for me) but was the life of the party. Jeana's brother has 2 very well behaved daughters, who are 8 and 4 years old, so an active 2 year old boy running around was quite the change for her family to observe. We're glad we could provide the live entertainment. =)
The table was nicely set. Everyone had chopsticks (mine were stolen by a certain toddler and used to stab at his food.) The kids received fun little "take-out" boxes that had cookies, a tiny plastic saki cup, a red Chinese envelope (containing $1 - I wish we had more traditions like this!), a paper-accordion Chinese dragon (you can see Sydney in the picture pulling her's apart), and Noah's contained a dinosaur (he was thrilled.)
This is part of the reason I think naptime may have been skipped and pure silliness taken over: a blue sugary drink from the Asian food market. He loved it...obviously.
Tim (in festive decor) and me (looking very tired and pregnant) towards the end of the evening. Red shirts were as Chinese as we could get for costume - the hat is Matt's.
Noah "playing" the Wii with Jeana's dad. He thought he was so good at the golf games.And on other very exciting new year news: Tim landed a part-time job on Friday! He was offered the position on the spot and accepted. The guy was extremely impressed with his presentation (which most likely he was the only one who actually had one for a part-time painting job.) It's great because they're going to work around each other's schedules so that Tim can still do his own small business and continue to grow that. I am so glad because three and a half months with a total of 4 weeks of work can come to an end. We are so thankful to everyone who has been an encouragement and support to us during this challenging time. We have learned many valuable lessons that will be applied from this point on (such as getting our "3-6 months emergency fund" together as quickly as possible, God really does provide in ways you don't see coming, and it is better to stay strong and faithful than waiver in your trust - I learned that the hard way.) The past week has been the crescendo of emotional and spiritual stress for me. I thought things couldn't get any worse...they did. Then that very same day, after - as silly as it sounds - I actually shut myself in the bathroom and yelled at Satan out loud to leave me alone and that I wasn't going to let him steal my joy or have power over me anymore, God started opening doors. Our marriage has grown leaps and bounds. Our faith has been challenged and strengthened. We have ended the week feeling renewed, refreshed, and hopeful for our future. We also covered the top of the fridge in white paper and started writing Scripture verses on it to remind us of God's promises for us as well as those that instruct us on how to be.
Gung hay fat choy indeed - happy new year!
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