Especially Wasabi

God created certain foods in holy matrimony. Peanut butter and jelly. Cinnamon and sugar.  Tomato and basil.  Hummus and pita bread.  And...the shining stars of my dinner this evening: wasabi and soy sauce.  More on that in a minute.

Sometimes vacations start out rough.  Over-excited kids, over-exhausted adults...it really isn't a recipe for a swell beginning to any venture. This vacation didn't start that way. Despite all the different emotions, we spent an extremely chill morning splashing around a sunny pool. J and B each got a quick swimming lesson and our morning vanished like a mountain mist.

After a low-key lunch, we divided and conquered.  The kids tromped around the guesthome playground; the guys took on the hardware stores; Shannon and I traipsed through SM with minimal guidelines for this week's menu.  It was...*ahem*...we did not tell ourselves no about very much. Lo and behold, that is why we have leche in the fruit bowl, melon seeds in the snacks, and wasabi powder in the cupboard. Avocado season is upon us, so we scrounged around for cilantro and corn chips for guacamole.  We found a random jar of Dijon mustard...and bought it.  Same thing with a bottle of sriracha sauce.  Eggplant, lemons, a white cucumber. You get the idea.

Upon returning to the guesthome, another pair of missionaries treated the family to a barbecue dinner.  This was a great blessing to Shannon because it meant she didn't have to cook.  It was also a blessing for me because it meant I got to make whatever I wanted!  THAT is how I ended up with wasabi-sesame-soy fried eggplant and tofu over rice with a little more wasabi. My tastebuds were in so much love that I made a second batch to eat tomorrow for lunch.

As if these blessings weren't enough, I have been praying for an opportunity to talk with Shannon about the future.  The opportunity arose this evening and we were both able to share our hearts with each other.  You have absolutely no idea how great it feels to know we are all on the same page.  

One step at a time, remember? And who knows! You might even get to learn how to make wasabi paste along the way.

One Small Step

Mom, do you remember when I was a kid and we listened to Jungle Jam and Friends? I find myself humming one of the tunes from the show all the time these days. "If I take one small step, one step at a time/ I can do anything that I have in mind." Baby steps. We can do this.

When I left the US, I didn't anticipate having any real health issues.  I mean, sure, I thought maybe I would have a few hiccups especially considered my plant based diet.  Going to the doctor in a foreign country, though, absolutely not.  Except, that's where I'm going next week.

I feel like everything was chill and there was an easy groove forming.  "All was well."  Then everything decides it wants to hit the fan at once.  Okay, God, where are You going with all of this?

So, I'm just going to explode information, take a deep breath, and keep taking baby steps.

1) Starting in March, I noticed some irregularities in my cycle.  Okay, weird, but nothing panic inducing.  We're going on three months of nothing, though, and Google says that merits a doctor appointment.  Google obviously knows best, which is why I'm headed to an ob-gyn and blood lab.

2) One hundred days. (Give or take a few.) That's it until I board an airplane and head back home. But for how long? I requested info on coming back to teach in the Philippines a couple months ago, and it all looks like I would be permitted to return, but is that what will bring God the most glory? Do I try to go back to school in for spring semester 2018? Lord, what would You have?

And then, in the middle of this slowly building stress post, I got a package from my sister.  She isn't a Believer, but she has sent goodies from home on numerous occasions.  That the package would arrive in our village today of all days, when there wasn't even a scheduled supply flight, just fills my heart to overflowing.  God used her to give me the encouragement I needed.  I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, He will provide the answers for "What next?" in the most unexpected way.  

If I take one, small step/ One step at a time/

I can do anything/ He has in mind/

Whether I stumble/ Whether I fall/

I'll just take one, small step/ One step at a time

Breathing Fresh Air

 

(Honestly, I don't know what the words mean, or why they're written here.)

 

(S and J cooling off in the river after a walk, both sporting braids by yours truly.)

 

(The view downstream.)

Beautiful Things

Imagine following a narrow footpath through cornfields climbing the sides of low mountains at an impossible incline.  The intense sun threatens to overwhelm the elements.  Where agriculture ends, jungle-like bush takes over.  Under the covering of the tree canopy, the oppressive air becomes cool and damp.  Here the ferns are the size of saplings; fiddles swell beyond the length and girth of a man's arm.  Dao trees stretch skyward around a gentle waterfall that pours out over a tremendous calcium deposit.  This water does not disappear in dry season so it is our water source, roughly 2 km deep into the bush.

Earlier this month, I was privileged to have the opportunity to see all of these beautiful things firsthand.  My companions joked that I was the first white woman to complete the trek to the spring.  First or not, my heart was in awe of creation and its Creator.  The words of the old hymn describe the feeling best: "Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, How great thou art!"

When Words Fail Me

 

(The river isn't visible in this picture, but during the flood, this entire area was submerged)

 

(Some of the damaged corn.  The men are attempting to salvage some of their damaged crop, but others had more than half of their harvest totally washed away in the raging water)

 

(Small beauty in the aftermath. A reminder that everything will grow again)

(A tiny glimpse of how high the river water rose) 

Picture This

 

(Just something from our walk)

 

(The blondies everyone can tell are vegan)

 

(Adobo is growing up!)

Peaks and Valleys

We all experience peaks and valleys, right? I mean, I know we do, Mom, but other people must experience them at some point.  So that's how I go through life: peak after valley, valley after peak. Sometimes the cycle takes weeks or months or years.  Today carried all the wonders of both, like a smaller peak and plateau along a greater range of sister peaks.

There are underlying issues that I'll address in a little bit, but for now I want to focus on today.  We started with the peak.  Early morning prayer and yoga helped shake the z's from my eyes. Val and I took our Saturday walk, said hi to some neighbors, chatted nutritional balance, beautiful normal stuff on a bright, hot morning. After our walk, I scarfed down a delicious breakfast of sweet potato hash browns and sesame-ginger tofu. (Cut me some slack, it's delicious to me.) And then I rounded out my morning by experimenting with bean brownies.

Now, I wasn't sure about the brownies, so I brought some over to Val's to share.  We got talking about food, surprise-surprise, and I mentioned cardamom. It's the flavor of my childhood, the scent of Christmas and family reunions, my personal kryptonite.  It's something I haven't had at all during my stay here in Southeast Asia.  Needless to say, when Val pulled an untouched container of cardamom out of her cupboard, I was speechless. When she kept pouring it out into an empty spice jar until it was nearly full, I actually shed a tear. We're calling it a miracle because the original jar is STILL two-thirds of the way full. 

Somewhere in the afternoon, though, memory lane decided to take a severe nosedive into the "oh-shame-I-can't-believe-that's-my-actual-life-story" depths. Then the reviews came back about the brownies. Not good. Slowly but surely, the evening fell flat. Why?

Underlying issues, coming at you. They aren't even real issues.  Two months ago, I requested permission to return to the Philippines in 2018.  The idea was that I would go home in October, then return in January.  A reply came in yesterday with a "still not sure, but here are some things to do in the mean time," but now I'm not sure.  Would God have me return, or would He have me go somewhere else? What will the state of things be when I get home in October? What can I do now to prepare for the future?  And then, of course, I'm nothing if not a middle child.  It's in my nature to make everyone happy, but this future, no matter what it brings, will leave someone disappointed in me.  

Pray that I will get the emails sent that need to be sent.  Pray that I would leave the future in God's hands, where it belongs.  Pray that God would allow me to be confident in His will, whether or not everyone else is happy with it.