Cookies Sheep

One of the most special things in the whole world to me is when I receive a letter or package from one of my girls in China.  It's been over three years since we left to attend seminary, but the friends we met there are friends forever. ♥

This week we got a fun box for Knox from Auntie Catrina and he is loving it!

This cool yellow star shirt may be Knox's favorite shirt EVER. 

 He LOVES the smiley stars on his new shirt.

And if the smiley stars aren't enough to bring a smile to YOUR face, just read the tag:

  

COOKIES SHEEP

THIS HAS AN UP. TO DATE

FASHION FEELING

SPECIAL CONCEPT

COOKIES SHEEP

"Farm Natural Health Feel and Smell"

One of our favorite pastimes in China was searching Chinese clothing stores for the best "Chinglish" shirts.

This one is adorable.

I miss my Chinese sisters...

and I LOVE CHINA!

Egg & Tomato: Chinese Comfort Food

 What's on your list of  "comfort foods?" 

Here's my top 4:  pizza, macaroni and cheese, waffles, and egg & tomato. 

Egg & Tomato.


This is a recipe I don't know if anyone will try, but I hope you will.  It's a dish we learned to LOVE while we were living in China. 

The first time I ate it I think I was just thankful I knew what it was. 

Eggs, tomato, and rice.

 
Straightforward and safe...I recognized every ingredient. 

It didn't involve goose heads, or floating turtles, or fish bones, or chicken feet, or slimy white tofu, or colorful jellied ???, or even any insects of any kind. 

It was just eggs, tomatoes, and rice.  Beautiful!  You can see how it became one of my first favorite dishes. :) Give me the "common food" of China any day!!

But it didn't take long before I wasn't just ordering it because it was safe...I was ordering it because it was delicious.  I craved egg and tomato.  And I still do.

There are many other favorite Chinese dishes I wish I could make here, but I've tried and they just don't come out the same.  

The art of Chinese egg and tomato, however, has been mastered by Josh and Leah.

We can make it and we can make it right.  And so we do.  At least every other week, sometimes more often.

It's delicious, it's quick, it's comforting, and it's even healthy!

It's authentic Chinese comfort food...for Americans.  Try it!

Egg & Tomato

Xi Hong Shi Chao Ji Dan

1 cup uncooked white rice (we prefer Jasmine)

1 Tbl. oil
3 ripe, juicy tomatoes
4 eggs, beaten
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 to 1 tsp. sugar (or to taste)
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
4 shakes dried ginger (or to taste)

Begin cooking rice with 1 1/2 cups water in rice cooker or on stove top according to directions.

Chop tomatoes and set aside.  Combine eggs and garlic in a bowl.  Heat oil in pan over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add eggs and cook, scraping pan as you go.  (Similar to making scrambled eggs.)

When eggs are almost cooked, add tomatoes, salt, sugar and ginger to taste.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, until tomatoes are heated through.

Serve egg and tomato over cooked rice.

Serves 2.

My Own American Idol Debut

I'm actually starting to get into American Idol this season.

I watched it here and there last year but this year I'm hooked.  Like everyone else I saying, "Wow - so much talent this year!"  It makes it exciting to watch.  I haven't voted, though, because I honestly can't decide who I like best.

Last night as Josh and I were watching the performances we had a little flashback.  Some of you don't know this about us, but Josh and I, along with our 6 teammates in China, once had our own shimmering five minutes of fame under the brilliant lights on stage.

For your entertainment I am linking a video of a performance we did in front of 3,000 students while we were in China.  Let me tell you, you are in for a treat. 

This is, my friends, the most embarrassing moment of my life.

And the most surreal.  Did I really do this?!

It makes me laugh so hard that I cry.  And Josh breaks out in a cold sweat every time he sees it.  I hope my wonderful teammates won't kill me for posting this.

There are a couple of things you need to know before you watch this video.

1.) In China, "performances" are a very important part of the culture.  This was not a fun thing for me to find out when we moved there, since I hate being in the spotlight and can't sing or dance to save my life.  But our students always wanted us to perform for them.  It is just part of life there.  So we did.

2.) This particular performance was not optional.  We tried VERY hard to get out of it, but the school officials wouldn't back down.  The foreign teachers had to do a performance, and it needed to include a song and dance. We had some very talented singers and dancers on our team, but not all of us had that gift.  We couldn't figure out how to dance to Away in a Manger, so, as you can see, we performed that other very traditional Christmas dance that all Americans dance at Christmas every year. :)

I have to admit, terrifying and embarrassing as this moment was, it was also kind of fun.  I really did feel kind of like a star for those five minutes.  :)  There is definitely something heady about being in front of an audience that big, under those lights, with the BUBBLES!

Our gracious Chinese hosts were  kind enough to shower us with applause and afterward they gave us the largest bouquets of flowers I have ever seen in my life.  They were wonderful.  I love China!

It's a little bit long, almost 6 minutes, so watch it when you have time to sit back and relax and enjoy a good laugh show.

Click HERE for the video!

Randy:  "Dude, it wasn't the best performance I've seen you do.  It was a little pitchy here and there."

Jennifer:  "I love your outfits, you really have the whole image thing down.  But the vocals and the moves just didn't do it for me this time.  I'm sorry."

Steven:  "I agree with Randy and Jennifer.  I know you have it in you, but it didn't work out.  Better luck next time."

Ruby’s Mom and the Lotus Flower

Most days I'm immersed with life in Dallas.  Diapers, dinners, church, friends, chores.  But some days, like today, my mind is back in China.

One of the most beautiful people I met during the year we lived in China was my student Ruby’s mother.  

One weekend Josh and I traveled with Ruby and two other girls to a very small community in Jiang Xi province in Southern China, only a couple of hours by train from Nanchang, where we lived.  We were going there to meet Ruby’s family.  

We took a non-air-conditioned train to the nearby town and then hopped on a rickety bus that took us from the train station far out into the middle of some rice fields.  The bus let us off at the end of a long, straight dirt road that stretched as far as we could see through green rice fields.  

Ruby’s high school aged brother was waiting for us there when the bus dropped us off.  He shyly said “hello” and tried out his English on Josh and me as he led us down the road toward a small gathering of houses we could see in the distance.

Ruby’s village was one of the smallest and poorest I had ever seen.  There were maybe 10 or 12 houses making up the village.  As we approached the houses we left the road and followed a path into the village.  There were no roads in-between houses, just pathways.  And that made sense, because few (if any) there owned a car...the majority of Chinese people travel by bicycle or motorcycle.  

We had to walk around several cows that were lazing in our pathway and we keenly watched our step...there was garbage and cow dung everywhere we looked.

As soon as we entered the village a group of about a dozen children came running up to us and followed us toward Ruby’s house.  We smiled and tried to interact, but they held back at first, shy.  They laughed and skipped behind us, whispering about us and giggling.  I felt vaguely like the pied piper. 

As we neared the back edge of the village, Ruby pointed out the cut stone house at the very end of the row.  That was her house, and her parents were waiting in the doorway.  

I knew already that this was no ordinary woman I was about to meet.  Ruby had confided in me several months earlier, with tears, that her mother is blind.   Several years before she had battled a brain tumor that left her with her life but stole her eyesight.

Blindness is never an easy thing, but in China her handicap is considered shameful.  When she first went blind Ruby’s father was very harsh with her.  He told her again and again that she was worthless, and Ruby’s mom believed him.  Several times she tried to end her life by swallowing pesticides.  

Thankfully, she failed!  A sweet Christian woman in the village took Ruby’s mother under her wing.  She helped her as she learned to live with her blindness and eventually introduced Ruby’s mom to Jesus!  She still visits her every day to check on her and see if she needs any help.  

God used Ruby’s mother’s blindness to show her how much she needed Him.  And another miracle had happened only weeks before we visited the family.  Ruby had run breathless from her dorm room to our apartment to tell us the news: her mother had led her husband, Ruby's dad, to Christ as well! 

I held Ruby’s mother’s hand with both of mine when Ruby introduced us, and she beamed.  Her hair was cut short for easy care, and her skin was rough from years of hard labor.  But her face was absolutely radiant.  Tears are pooling in my eyes as I type this.  I have rarely seen so much quiet joy in someone’s face as I did in Ruby’s mother’s face. 

We watched in awe as she helped her husband prepare our dinner.  She took a large, sharp knife and chopped raw chicken and vegetables with quickness and precision, like a gourmet chef.  She knew we were watching her, and she smiled with delight.  

There was no such thing as a gas or electric stove in this village.  After she finished chopping, Ruby’s mom took position by the woodpile and fed the fire and fanned it while her husband stir-fried our food.  I was scared for her as she threw log after log into the fire.  But she knew exactly what she was doing, and how much distance to keep from the flames.  She had her husband chattered away and laughed and joked in Chinese as they worked. Every once in a while Ruby would translate for us so we would know what they were saying.

At one point during our visit some of the children from the village picked me a huge pink lotus flower from the pond just outside Ruby’s parents’ house (and made us costumes from the leaves).  The flower was stunning.  

I so wanted to share the beauty of the flower with Ruby’s mom, so I took it to her and pressed it into her hands.  

She gently fingered the blossom and her face lit up like the sun.  She nodded and murmured a Chinese phrase I knew.  Piao liang.  Beautiful. 

It struck me then that Ruby’s mom was so much more beautiful than the lotus flower.  She is a breathtaking picture of how God can take a horrible situation and use it for His glory.  

I know every single day is still incredibly difficult for her.  Her son and daughter are far away in school.  Her husband, like most men from rural China, is a migrant worker constantly traveling from city to city trying to find work so he can bring a little money home for his family.  She is alone, and life is hard.  She still lives with a lot of heartache. 

But she has Jesus. 

She has met Him in her darkest hour, and anyone who meets her can see Him shining through her.  All I could do as I watched her was praise God.  She is blossoming despite – or perhaps because of – her pain.  God has seen her suffering, in that hidden little village in the middle of rice fields in Southern China, and He is using it for good.