in case you didn't hear yet...

My sister had her baby on Friday night! He came at 7:31 PM weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. Everything went really well. In my sister's state of epidural bliss, she told me I could stay in the birthing room. It was amazing to see him take his first breath and cry right away and to feel the tears on my face and see them on hers. A miracle.

He's pretty much the cutest baby ever and I am so happy to be here to enjoy his first two weeks of life. (I'm heading to Texas after that.) There are some pictures on my flickr page. You can click the badge on the right to go there and take a look.

moments of wonder

I have had a lot more time to read since I got to the U.S., seeing as how I don't have a real job here and all. The latest book in my stack was the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I loved this description of the stranded boy on the boat when he experiences a flash of lightning.

It was something to pull me out of my limited mortal ways and thrust me into a state of exalted wonder.... To Richard Parker I shouted, "Stop your trembling! This is a miracle. This is an outbreak of divinity. This is...this is..." I could not find what it was, this thing so vast and fantastic. I was breathless and wordless. I lay back on the tarpaulin, arms and legs spread wide. The rain chilled me to the bone. But I was smiling. I remember that close encounter with electrocution and third-degree burns as one of the few times during my ordeal when I felt genuine happiness.
At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.

Hopefully it won't take being stranded on a boat in the middle of the ocean for me to experience some wonder at the amazing created world. Actually, I'm going to have an awesome chance tomorrow because my sister is scheduled to be induced into labor. I'm going to be holding my little nephew soon!

Go.

I read two posts recently on a blog of someone I don't know. They are really challenging for me. As I've been here for a month now, I realize how easy it is to be caught up in myself. I could give a lot of excuses for that, but I won't. I have gone to places where I could engage with people outside of my comfort zone and I haven't. It's not limited to my time here in the States, either. I certainly get comfortable and stuck in a routine when I'm across the ocean, too.

If you have any spare time, read and consider this. Here's one quote. (I modified it just to keep my blog on the safer side for when I go back.)

Following J requires following J; and He’s far from the home-bound, television-loving, non-Democrat we’ve made Him. The real J is out on the fringes going, moving; alive, enlivening. He might hang out with a few rich people, but mostly J is with the outsiders and nogoods. It seems to me that if many of us had to follow J through the Middle East of A.D. 30, we would have let him walk far ahead of us until finally our obsession with ourselves left us hanging out at the Jerusalem Starbucks to talk about mnstry with other Pharisees.

There's a great follow-up here. The author says "This is not a list for 20-somethings who have not yet “put down roots” alone. This is a list for 45-year olds with three kids in school, a mortgage, and a shaky retirement plan." Take a few minutes to read and consider. I know I need to.

On a somewhat related note, also check out this gem of a website: 6 Billion Others. You can click and hear different bits of life stories from people around the world. It's so good to have your worldview expanded and your heart touched. It could lead to so much more with an open heart and a willingness to go.

I won't keep going on this too long

but I just ran across another article related to my previous post:
Who pays the price for cheap goods?
We Americans need to think about where our cheap stuff comes from and whether we want to support it.

thinking about China and me

I just finished reading Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang. I've read a few different books on China, but this is one that really helped me get a clearer picture of China's history. It's kinda long, but enjoyable and totally worth it if you are looking for a glimpse into Chinese life from before the time of Japanese occupation of Northern China in the 30's to just after Mao died in 1976. Reading it has given me a better understanding of the Chinese people and perhaps any people under leadership that exploits them.

Lately, there has been talk in the news which has led to a lot of talk among people in the community of how Chinese products are unsafe. Some people even bring it up in the context that the Chinese are out to get us.

My Dad subscribes to the New York Times and sends me articles on China occasionally. He just sent me this: As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes. I took some lines out of the article that I relate to.

Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud.
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun.

On windy days in Yanji, I'm thankful that the pollution is blown away and we can see something other than gray sky. Whenever I visit bigger cities, though, clear days are much harder to come by. Here in Kentucky, I've been reminding myself to be thankful that there are beautiful white clouds and blue skies so often.

Chinese buildings rarely have thermal insulation. They require, on average, twice as much energy to heat and cool as those in similar climates in the United States and Europe, according to the World Bank. A vast majority of new buildings — 95 percent, the bank says — do not meet China’s own codes for energy efficiency.

This is too apparent in the winter. I have seen snow blowing in through the roof of a hallway in the winter. The rooms we teach and work in are heated, but we almost always wear our long down coats and sometimes hats and gloves inside when it's cold. The wind in the winter makes our buildings whistle.

This spring, officials in Yunnan Province in southern China beautified Laoshou mountain, which had been used as a quarry, by spraying green paint over acres of rock.

I often think about how some of the things that bother me in China or about Chinese people are things that are common in America, too, but just are covered up a little better. Often when I ask what students want to do when they finish college, they'll bluntly say, "I just want to make a lot of money in business." Of course, most people in America want the same but say it in a way that sounds better. Americans are also destroying our environment and doing other things we blame on other people, we just know how to cover it up in a way that is more distinguished or less recognizable than green spray paint.

Chinese manufacturers that dump waste into rivers or pump smoke into the sky make the cheap products that fill stores in the United States and Europe. Often, these manufacturers subcontract for foreign companies — or are owned by them.

Indeed, Britain, the United States and Japan polluted their way to prosperity and worried about environmental damage only after their economies matured and their urban middle classes demanded blue skies and safe drinking water.

But China is more like a teenage smoker with emphysema. The costs of pollution have mounted well before it is ready to curtail economic development.

Wednesday night, China and what they are doing to the things they export, was brought up. Another person then commented that maybe we should stop pointing the finger and look at our own greed for a second. I was really glad to hear that. We should be concerned about health and safety, but we can't forget our own role in world events. The actions we take when we hear news like this should cause us to make changes in our own lives and hopefully changes in our community and world. That will mean different things to different people, but I know one place that I can look at is whether I treasure my Maker and the things of him over things that don't last.

The toll this pollution has taken on human health remains a delicate topic in China. The leadership has banned publication of data on the subject for fear of inciting social unrest, said scholars involved in the research.

In some countries, not all the news gets out to the people. Surely even in the States there are things that are hidden from us, but what are we doing with the information that we do have? Are we allowing ourselves to keep delicate topics in the news from impacting our lives? I have recognized a callousness in myself lately with all the news I see on the internet or hear from other people. We, as people who have great freedom, have great responsibility. I don't know the full extent of what that means, but I know it's something I have to deal with.

tobacco barn

We stopped at a random barn on the side of the road today because I wanted to get pictures of the tobacco drying in a barn. There are old barns like this all over the place. Most of them look like they are about to fall down, but they are still used for a few weeks out of the year to dry the tobacco leaves from the rafters.
Views tonight on our (almost) nightly walk. The sunset amazes me every time!

If you thought Texas was country...

There are some characters in Kentucky. A phone call just came in from one of the members of the congregation here. He began the conversation with, "I thought you woulda done gone to the hospital by now!" Today is his birthday and he wants the baby to be born on his birthday. There are quite a few August birthdays in the small congregation here and they all keep making requests that the baby be born on their day.

Last night, at the Sunday night gathering, the quirkiness of the people out here made me laugh. My brother-in-law taught on 1 Corinthians 13. At the end, he asked for comments and one of the guys (who makes a good living by picking up roadkill and making it into pet food) asked "We didn't miss the one on women speaking at meetings and wearing head coverings, did we? I don't want to miss hearing your take on that one." That guy also frequently comes to meetings in his horse and buggy. Another lady said "Talking about patience, what if you're married to someone who doesn't have that?"

A few nights ago we went over to the house of the guy who has the birthday today. His wife made us some of her famous pecan pie. We got to hear about their dog, Woodrow, and how she cleans his behind after he poops. The pie maker's sister was also there. Everything she said was funny to her, so after every comment, she would get a huge smile, look at us, and then hit her knee. She actually was a pretty entertaining lady, but perhaps in a different way that she imagined.

A lot of people out here have gardens, so we are enjoying baby watermelons, flavorful tomatoes and jalapenos that get dropped off on the doorstep or given to us as we go on evening walks. I made some yummy jalapeno poppers and John Mark has been making some tasty salsa, but we've still got a lot of garden goods to eat up.

I don't know if it's just a good conversation starter when I'm around, but everybody's talking about China and how we need to throw away or return any toys that have come from there and be careful not to buy fish or seafood that's imported from China. Since it's not something I can really avoid when I'm living in China, I don't pay attention to the news, but people want to know what I think about it. Saturday, we had the neighbor across the street over for turkey burgers and discussed our disillusionment with Wal-Mart. She said she thinks she made it through last Christmas without buying anything from there, which is no small feat when you have grandkids.

We're still waiting on that baby, but having a good, relaxing time in the process.



Laura and me a few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon.



Laura's baby shower last weekend.