"This one has an attitude..."!

God is faithful to answer our needs.  Praise Jesus for the Chinese Body of Christ and those who are bilingual!  We planned an outing to see my friend, May Chun.  She and her husband, Tin Chee, lead the ESL ministry at our church where many come from our community to be taught English.  I have volunteered as much as I could there the past year to serve as well as develop a network for this Chinese endeavor.  I got to teach quite a few times with a firm but gentle push from May Chun!.  I have met many dear people there, and at the top of the list is May Chun.  She is a mother of 2 older children, one college graduate working and one in her Junior year of college.  She invited the girls and I to lunch at her home, 5 minutes away from us, and then we were going to go to Super H Mart, a large Asian supermarket 5 mintutes from her home.  Maggie resisted getting in the car, and she wouldn't drink the Coke I offered her because she saw that I put a little Ginger Ale in it.  Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!!  And Michael told me Ginger was the strong-willed one...!  She sat in front, window down, and has learned to keep her eyes on the road and she seemed fine.  We arrived to May Chun's, and again, Maggie was very silent (she is definitely shy).  May Chun began very sweetly welcoming them and talking to them in Chinese, and Ginger began smiling and interacting with her.  Maggie not so much!  It took about 5 minutes before she turned to me about Maggie and said, "This one has an attitude!"  She proceeded to give what I call "May Chun Therapy".  She is a no-nonsense, truth-speaking, Spirit-filled believer who gives potent doses of truthful correction all wrapped up in laughter so you don't really realize what's happened.  I watched my girls transformed into laughter, smiles, and talking, even Maggie!  After lunch (it made me feel better that they really didn't eat her cooking very well either.  What we found out is that they ate very simply, very little meat, and they don't like too much - which since their last 4 years have been in an orphanage, is understandable.)  We then prepared to go to the store.  She talked to Maggie about her fear of the car, and explained that there is no choice but to get used to it and work through this problem, because they're in America now.  We arrived at the store and she was fine, but she sat down on a grassy median in the parking lot and didn't want to go in, saying something about the smells.  Again, she explained it wasn't safe to stay there and she had to go in, and she did.  We then proceeded to have a 2 hour walk through the supermarket where she found out what they were used to and we found some good solutions to get us through until they fully become used to American foods.  We made it home, and I sensed we all needed some downtime, so the girls watched a DVD of Chinese TV and I took a little power nap!  Afterwards, the girls and I made a dinner and I discovered they are very good little kitchen helpers.  They chopped up potatoes, meticulously like shoestring potatoes, green peppers and onions to stir fry, we steamed rice, and added fruit and watermelon.  The 6 of us sat down to the very first vegetarian meal at the Amburgy's, and we had a delightful dinner.  We've had good attitudes since!

Adding the girls has already transformed our family into something new and better - our older kids have the gift of having new little sisters to share and pour into, and giving of one's self is always a beautiful thing.  Mom now has extra motivation and extra help to make real dinners happen, which any of us would tell you that's a welcome addition.  And our faith has been built, seeing first hand that when God calls you to something, He will make a way over the bumps, and our character gets improved along the way.  If you have made it through to the end of this blog, which is really a therapeutic way to journal for me, join me in praising Jesus for His loving care over ALL His children, old and young, Chinese and American!