uno-language

We had the loveliest afternoon today!

We went to our friend Claire's house.
Her sister in-law and brother in-law were here visiting from Germany.
And they have the most beautiful children.
They are half Chinese and half German.
Mom is Chinese, dad is German.

Both parents and their daughter speak three languages.
Their two-year old boy speaks two.

I felt like such a slacker, I tell ya.
Me and my uno-language.
But golly, I know it well.

Anyway.

Our two older girls went to the park down the
street together all by themselves.
Believe it or not,
that's great progress for Macy!!
They were both shy but seemed to have fun together.

I had some extended time to talk to Claire and her
sister-in-law. We had a really good visit.
They were so eager to talk about Macy's on-going transition
and offered great advice.

~*~*~*~

All of the Chinese friends from church that we have met
since Macy arrived are precious to us.

I'm so very thankful.

Their love for Jesus is demonstrated with each and
every visit.

There is absolutely no doubt that God has
strategically placed them in our lives
for a very specific purpose.

lunch with claire

We went for the most delicious lunch at our friend
Claire's house.
(reminder: she's the Chinese friend God brought into our path)

She made the most amazing homemade dumplings,
vegetable stir-fry, and cold green bean soup.

Seriously,
it was all incredibly amazing.

Our visit was equally wonderful.
Claire shared more about how she and her husband
came here from China (separately).
Their stories are pretty remarkable.

And again, she openly shared God's love with us.
She prayed the sweetest payer over lunch and for Macy...
for her to understand and to KNOW Him personally.

It was a beautiful visit.

I couldn't be more thankful for God's provision in this.

an answer to prayer

A couple of months ago as I was getting myself ready
to take the girls to Chinese church,
I thought about how the wonderful people there have
truly embraced us and have shown such
grace and friendship.

Macy and I have developed a sweet relationship with
a college girl there (I've told you about her before) who is studying
to be a social worker.
She is absolutely adorable and we love spending time with
her and next semester, as her classes on attachment will be in
full swing, she wants to spend even more time with
us to get a closer look at what that's really like in a real life situation.

I'm so thankful for how God has timed this new friendship
so perfectly.

But that Sunday morning I prayed that God would bring an
"older" Chinese woman to us that could also
be a mentor to Macy.

Well, He answered that prayer that VERY DAY.

A wonderful woman came up to me that day and told
me she (and her husband who just so "happens" to be from
Macy's province) would love to spend time with us
and help Macy however she can.

Wow.
Don't you love it when God answers immediately?!!

But our summer got off to such a busy start that we only found
time to get together with her (Claire) this past Tuesday.

Our time was limited because we were running behind in our
day of running here and there for various appointments and
classes. BUT, our time with Claire was amazing.

She told Macy that when she came to America from China to
go to college, she spent the first six months crying
every single day.
That her English was horrible and she was scared to death.
She said she was completely alone and spent
hours a day in prayer.

Then she explained to Macy how GOD spoke clearly to her
about His plan for her life.
He gave her a specific vision of what she was to study.

Linguistics.
And she later became an ESL teacher.
Which I'm thinkin' was just for us!

Anyway, more importantly, she told Macy how she knows that
in China they teach that there is no God.
But that He is very real, alive and has a purpose for her life.

I sat there in complete awe.

In this short amount of time,
Claire opened up to Macy about her experience in coming
to America and how extremely difficult it was for her,
and how God paved a way and showed her His love and gave
her a plan for her life.

Her words were so very gentle and kind, filled with compassion.
She spoke in both Chinese and English,
being very considerate to allow me to understand
what she was saying to Macy.

It was amazing.

Macy seemed to soak it all up.

And now we are eager to go back to her house next Tuesday
when we'll have more time to spend with her
and she's going to make us homemade dumplings for lunch.

We are so excited.

And I simply can't wait to see what God will do next.

He is amazing, friends.