Sharing One Hundred Joys

Thanksgiving begins to shake a joy that tremors in my heart because then I know, Christmas is coming.  The twinkling white lights, the sparkly star on top of the tree and the excitement in my littles' makes my heart excited, too.  Really, what I want my family to know is pure JOY and where it truly comes from.
One of my favorite bloggers, Sarah Markley at www.sarahmarkley.com is doing a JOY Project.  What I love about Sarah and her blog is that she is real, honest, full-of-grace and she shares what God is doing in her heart.  She makes me think, challenges me and God uses her words to change my heart.  
I am going to participate in this Project, as I hope you will, too.  I will take photographs and write about 100 things that bring me joy...JOY that changes my heart.
Every Monday for the month of December, like Sarah, I will share my Joys and put a link opportunity in my post to share your joy with others.  When you link a post, grab the 100 Joys button at the bottom of Sarah's One Hundred Joys post, to put in posts that you link.
Let's see what joy God brings to people all around the world.
  

One Hundred Joys, 31 Days...God, what will you do?

What's on your table?

I asked her again, "Mom, why are we celebrating Thanksgiving TWICE in one year?  And why so close together?"  Mom exclaimed, "It is not the same Thanksgiving you are thinking of.  Chuseok is a Korean fall harvest celebration.  In Korea, EVERYONE would get into their cars and drive to the country to go pay respects to our ancestors in their graves.  And then we would have a feast."  My interpretation...FOOD.  

As a 10-year-old, I knew I was Korean, growing up as an American but always looking and feeling like an American girl.  I knew I was different.  I mean, I looked different.  My parents spoke to me in Korean and I spoke to them in English.  We ate Korean food most nights, except for the fact that I think we begged for meals of spaghetti, pizza and hamburgers.  My Mom graciously pacified us.  Mom & Dad would even get meals from McDonald's for us.  It is pretty funny and ironic that, as a grown woman and Mom now, we try to avoid McDonald's like our lives depended on it!

At around 11-years-old, I had begged my Mom, quite enough about roasting a turkey for American Thanksgiving.  I remember her saying "No" but then telling me if I wanted it, I could do the cooking.  It might seem strange that my Mom would tell her little girl to attempt this but she. didn't. know. how.  It all makes sense now.  

So I, the "brave and courageous one", agreed.  Little did I know that this was the beginning of me cooking Thanksgiving meals for years to come.  I would watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day parades and watch the 'Today' show, religiously, to figure out the recipes to make sure that I wasn't going to kill my family members off with Salmonella.  

Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad, Rolls, Pumpkin Pie.  As the years rolled by, my repertoire expanded.  So did my waistline.  

The Korean traditions that were handed down to my brother and me always made me curious.  Of course, we followed suit in our younger days because that's what we were supposed to do.  I am still curious as to why we would honor our ancestors when, well, they were dead.  

I was thinking about the American tradition of Thanksgiving as I watched my sweet little girl performing at her Preschool Thanksgiving celebration.  They were singing things about Squanto and turkeys.  She even brought home a paper-made Pilgrim hat.  She exclaims she wants to wear the pilgrim hat every moment of the day!

Korean Thanksgiving originated to celebrate the harvest and to honor their dead ancestors.  American Thanksgiving came out of giving thanks to God for the Pilgrims surviving their first brutal winter in America.

In our family, mixed with different backgrounds and traditions all rolled into one, we will give thanks to our Jesus for who He is, how He loves us, how He provides for us.  Hubs and I will give thanks for each other, our three littles, extended family and friends.  We will take time, before tomorrow to cut-out leaves (hopefully before Littlest Little pulls them down), write down and remember all that we are thankful for.

Tomorrow, our family of five will celebrate at my Mom and Dad's home with my brother's family, Korean and American traditions together.  Guess what is on the menu?

Dae Ji Gal bi (Spicy Korean Ribs by Mom), Mashed Potatoes (by my sister-in-law born and raised in Wisconsin), some kind of vegetables (by my Vegetarian brother) and Green Bean Casserole (minus the Cream of Mushroom soup for our dairy allergic daughter), Stuffing (for my stuffing-obsessed Hubs), Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie for all.  It's beautiful, isn't it?

What are you thankful for?  What do you hold dear?

Psalm 100

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 

 Worship the LORD with gladness; 

   come before Him with joyful songs. 

 Know that the LORD is God. 

   It is He who made us, and we are His; 

   we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving 

   and His courts with praise; 

   give thanks to Him and praise His name. 

 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; 

   His faithfulness continues through all generations."

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

If I could sum the whole of what this week has been, it would be.....Diaper Rash.  Our littlest-little Monkey-man has had a bit of a tummy bug.  I've tried almost every Mama-trick in the book:  feeding him bananas, toast, applesauce, milk with probiotic powder in it, but he just won't stop doing his business.  It's a never ending cycle.  He goes, he cries, I wipe, wash and change.  Diapers, wipes, powder, and 2 different kinds of diaper rash cream have exploded in my home.  

In the midst of our poor little man's pain, my usually constipated Pretty Princess has been on the pot more than the number of times I could count in a usual THREE weeks of her 'normal' routine.  Me?  Don't. even. ask.  And I have caught a cold.  

I am sure you didn't think you would come to the blog and read about poop, right?  There, I said it.  Did you think I would avoid this topic because there are other matters to discuss?  This is the reality of being a Mama.  The reality of thoughts not ever....what was I saying?  

Sometimes you just have to laugh.  We've got to.   Sanity, people.  So, to kick off your weekend, here is a photo that sums up our week:

I only have one question:  Don't they make these dolls in Asian and Half-Asian?  Just saying.

Right Now

Right now, I have these 6 friends in Haiti.  Right now, Haiti has seen an outbreak in Cholera, a disease caused by poor sanitary conditions and bacteria transmitted through contaminated water and food.  Right now, they say that 501 Haitians have died from this Cholera outbreak but health workers say there may be more victims cut off by the flooding after Hurricane Tomas hit.  Right now, Haitians are still suffering from the devastating earthquake that hit, almost 10 months ago.
The Mission that my friends are working with have become the only functioning Cholera clinic in the Northwest of Haiti.  They are saying that there are Nurses and Doctors from all over America that have come to fight this disease with the people of Haiti.  
Right now, my daughter is in her bed looking at books.  Right now, my youngest son is warm and snug in his bed taking a nap.  Right now, I am looking at dishes that I will wash that had fresh and clean food on it from breakfast.  Right now, my eldest son is at school, learning more about sentence structure, playing games in gym, sorting things that are alike and will soon be eating the lunch we packed him earlier this morning.
Will you pray with me for the people of Haiti?  Will you pray that these people will have clean water to drink, clean food to eat, clean clothes to wear and a roof and walls to cover their heads?  Will you pray with me that these people would know the hope of Christ, in a God who loves them deeply?  Will you pray with me for the people who would be called and sent out to offer help to those who need it in Haiti?  Will you pray with me for the friends who are there now to joyfully do what they were called to do to help?  Will you pray with me that these friends will return safe and that the work they have done in this short time would multiply as other missionaries, Nurses, Doctors and Friends continue to arrive over the next weeks, months and years?


"...If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  John 7:37-38

Princesses, Fairies and Pretty Things

My three-year-old daughter loves anything princess, fairy, pink, purple or pretty.  She has caught on to my ways of exclaiming how pretty the changing leaves are, the beautiful sunset, the vast ocean and me looking at her and telling her how beautiful she is.  Oddly enough, I have been noticing myself holding back from telling her how pretty she is, so that her heart doesn't focus on or put value in her looks.  

I have this daughter, you see, who has figured out, in her own little three-year-old mind what is pretty and what is not.  This morning at breakfast, she started getting upset and started to cry.  We asked her what was making her feel that way.  She said she didn't like the Frankenstein Halloween card or the mean-looking pumpkin card someone had sent.  She was not saying this about the sender but just what these images conjured up in her head.

When I think about what is beautiful and what is not attractive, my thoughts have been changing over the years.  At a very early age, I remember family members telling me I was chubby...in a "loving way", if that's even possible.  I remember being told to exercise but no one ever showed me how.  I got to Middle School and I learned from other girls the value of putting make-up on or even sneaking clothes from home to wear that parents wouldn't approve of.  I remember learning the value of getting attention from boys.  I remember in High School learning the value of reading teen girl magazines and reading articles of how and why I should be sexy.  Then I got to college and I saw how young women would abuse their bodies by depriving themselves of food or vomit up their food after eating so that they could be pretty, skinny, sexy, if you will.

Now, as a grown woman, in my thirties, God has put young women in my life that I see struggling with the very thing I saw my own college-peers struggle with.  There is nothing new under the sun, is there?  I see a craze to exercise and to eat very little.  I see an obsession of comparing self to women in magazines, to friends and strangers.  Don't get me wrong.  I see a value in taking care of the bodies that God has given us through eating healthy foods and exercising our able bodies.  

My own struggle of who I see in the mirror, you see, is horrifically skewed.  Even in my trimmest, healthiest times, as an adult, what has starred back at me in the mirror, was false.  My sense of self was false.  I didn't see myself or believe in the reference that I was "fearfully and wonderfully made".  And now, after birthing three babies from this very able body, I have had to re-evaluate, once again, how I have been made.  I am exercising, I am eating and  yes, I am a woman who lives to eat, not a woman who eats to live.  I enjoy good food.  I am also married to a husband who, by God's grace, loves me.  He says I don't see what is really there.  I wave off any compliments he sends my way.  I get dressed and ask him how I look.  

What I have to tell you, is this.  Girls, take a look in the mirror and tell me what you see.  If you have no good thing to say, hold back.  Especially don't say it in front of my daughter.  I am not the only one responsible for my little girl.  My Husband is.  My sons are.  My parents are.  My In-Laws are.  The Church is.  

Don't look at those magazines or walk by the Victoria's Secret "Street Corner" and tell me that THAT is desirable. Men will undress you with their eyes, even if you had a shining suit of armor on.  Respect yourself enough to not wear clothes that reveal your underwear.  Respect little girls enough to teach them that their value is not in what attention they will get from a man.  Respect men enough not to give them a reason to objectify women.  

If you are a woman that has been objectified, molested or abused, please don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that you did ANYTHING to deserve it.  You. did. not.  What I am saying is respect what the Creator has created in you.  Your value is not in your looks.  Your value is not found in who you are dating or married to.  Your value is not found in anything but Christ.  He. did. not. make. a. mistake.  

Husbands, Fathers and Brothers: love your wives, daughters and sisters well.  Appreciate who they are and who God has made them to be.  Don't buy into the false value that screams out from a magazine, movie or lying brother who chooses to tell you lies from the pit of hell.  

It is true that my daughter is beautiful.  It is true that she was created in my very womb by a God that knew what she would look like and what and who she would grow up to be.  He knew and said she was good.  I could hold back my compliments on her beauty but what Hubs and I will teach our little girl is that her value is in Jesus.  It will not be in a boy or even the shotgun that we will have next to the door.  

Sweetest little noodle, you are an answer to our prayers.  Who you are is exactly who you need to be.  To find out who you are, seek Him with all your heart, Pretty Princess.