Sunday, November 24, 2013

Holidays in the Air

As the cold descends upon us, the air here leans into the uplifting spirit of the holiday season. There are colorful lights popping up all over town.  Our singing group practices have put Christmas songs in my mind.  For the first time ever I have all the family gifts bought, wrapped and ready.  And it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!  Wow.  I'm so proud of myself!  So, in spite of being far from family, I feel the spirit of Thanksgiving and Christmas already.

The large Costco Christmas tree we bought for our California home will not fit in our home here.  I love that tree but it is no use keeping it.  So I offered it to my sister Maryanne and her hub Bob.  Their new home in Draper, Utah will hold it nicely.  They offered two smaller trees in exchange, so the deal was made.  On Thursday we drove half way to their house and met up with them in Burley, Idaho, to exchange trees.  So, instead of one big Christmas tree our home is filled with smaller trees.  5 are now arranged in our entry and living room.  It seems like a lot doesn't it?  But I think it fits nicely.  Once filled with lights, it will be lovely and, I think, joy-promoting.  Sparkly stuff does that, you know.

On Wednesday we pack up for California.  We will be there for Thanksgiving and stay on until after our performance in Nutcracker, on Temple Hill in Oakland.  By then Christmas will really be in the air.
I'm excited for it.


The beginning of lights in the front yard.

Some of the trees in the living room.  I plan to add another
tree and more lights later.  There is something magical about lights!

The Christmas tree exchange in Burley, with Bob and Maryanne.

Layne in Burley, wearing the jacket daughter in law
Frances gave him in Taiwan.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Jet Lagging

Ah, how sweet to be home.  Except that, instead of waking at 5 am as I did in Taiwan, I sleep until 7:30 or even 8:00!  That is way sleeping in for me.  I like to be up and doing early.  I'm having trouble retraining myself.  But I am happy to be back into something of a home routine.  Memories of Taiwan rest sweetly on my mind and I cannot resist the frequent wish that, somehow, our Taiwanese family could be closer by.

In spite of a rather lengthy readjustment time, our days are filling up with activities and assignments.  My little singing group is practicing once again for a Christmas concert series.  Layne is singing with us again.  That little group of ladies just love him.  Our leader has even gone to great lengths to find a Christmas song for his base voice.

We are also dancing in Nutcracker, in Oakland, CA, again.  Layne once again says this is absolutely the last time we will do this.  But I'm happy for it as it takes us back into familiar territory for a long enough time to reconnect with people there to our hearts' content.  We will even get to spend Thanksgiving with family.  I'm excited about it.

Our first time to be in charge of our Addiction Recovery group came this past Sunday.  Layne is in charge of the guys group; mostly addicted to porn.  I am in charge of the ladies group; mostly wives of the guys in Layne's group.  I was nervous.  But it seemed to flow nicely.  I am so impressed that this little group of women are willing to meet together and develop methods of forgiving and supporting their husbands or other family members.  They are a group of doers.  That is quite something to behold and admire.  It occurs to me that the 12 step program of recovery that the Church has established (after the pattern of AA's 12 steps) is a workbook on repentance.  I find it quite helpful in breaking down steps to changing behaviors.  I've decided to use it myself.  I love the emotional openness of my ladies.  They are willing to share their feelings so openly and frankly.  It is inspiring to me as I am so emotionally closed.  Just listening to them has helped me to explore my own emotions more honestly.  I think this assignment will be a great blessing.

It is getting colder.  The trees are mostly denuded now.  But the grass is still green and we have some mums in the front yard that seem to do best when it is cold, as they are full of blossoms.  I love being caught up in the changes of nature.  There are so many here.
Our front yard; note the bright, cold-loving flowers.

Our back yard with leaf-less trees.  Thank goodness for evergreens.
 

Monday, November 4, 2013

Taiwan

October would be a great time to visit, son Gerald told me.  I think you should come, he said.  So we began making plans for yet another trip.  This appears to be the time in life when we seem to be at our kid's disposal.  Not that I mind; I love spending time with them.  After a couple of pleasant weeks at home, we packed up and headed out.

Going to Taiwan is sort of a big deal.  It takes 1 1/2 hours to fly to San Francisco, then 11 hours to fly to Narita, Japan, sleep overnight and catch a 2 1/2 hour flight into Taipei.  Whew, two days later we arrived.  Our night in Japan turned into a blessing as it gave us lots of sleeping time.  So by the time we arrived in Taipei we felt pretty good; no jet lag to speak of.
Outside our Narita hotel the entrance sign was
decorated for Christmas!  

There was a bamboo forest near our Narita
hotel, where we spotted this amazing spider.
For a spider, he (or she) is quit beautiful!

The door to our Narita bathroom.  Definitely
not made with a tall man in mind.
We had our best time yet in Feng Yuan, Gerald and Frances' home town.  We visited the kids' elementary school (where both Frances and her father before her attended).  It was arranged for us to give simple presentations in both Seth's and Angelica's classes.  So fun!  Layne talked about flying and I talked about Halloween, which they are really into.  They were fascinated although I must admit that much of their fascination probably centered around our not being Asian.  They called us grandma and grandpa and practiced their best English on us.  It was a lovely experience, followed by photos of us with the kids.  Some of them even sent gifts home to us.  We felt so honored and appreciated.  Respect is big here.  Especially for older people.  I like it.

Angelica's class.  She is in the front row, wearing glasses.

Seth's class.  He is in the back row, the tall guy in red.


Seth loves to run.  Here he is running during
PE at school.  He's in the middle.

Gerald and Frances have a successful English school here.  This year they are giving a lot of attention to Halloween.  Their teachers decorated the small school building across from their home for a special Halloween experience for their students.  One of the teachers (all are BYU grads) had a vision for a spook alley room that was bigger than she was.  So we decided to help her make it happen.  Layne, I, Seth and Angelica went to work painting cardboard panels and turning them into a spooky maze.  Sunny, the teacher, added bunches of other stuff.  She was there every evening, developing her vision.  She would not be compromised!  We started helping her last weekend and she was still at work Thursday night.  Such steel-willed determination is pretty rare.


Here is Gerald with a class of tots at the English school.
Here is part of our mural for the spooky maze.
We ate dinner each night with Frances' parents, the Changs, who live next door.  Her mama's meals all follow the same pattern:  we each are served a bowl of rice; the rotating lazy susan holds a selection of vegetables, meat and fish, with a pot of soup in the middle.  We graze through the various offering, placing them on the rice and eating it all down to just some rice grains remaining in the bottom of the bowl.  Then comes the soup to finish up every morsel.  Dessert is fresh fruit.  It is a great way to eat, and delicious "Han suh" is delicious in Chinese.  I used it every night.

Here I am with Mama Chang, in their dining room.

The problem became eating too much of all this good stuff.  Being the caring people that they are, they kept filing us with big meals and all sorts of treats in between.  So, in the midst of these skinny Chinese, I believe I've gained weight!

While there we experienced a sweet family miracle.  Gerald's children are now 9 and 11 years old and still not baptized.  He wanted to wait until Fran felt good about it and give her permission and blessing.  She has felt that they were too young.  So they have been fasting and praying for three years for her heart to soften.  While we were there Seth felt inspired that now was the time to ask his mom again.

Frances has been struggling for some months now with insomnia and digestive issues resulting from extended periods of high stress, brought on by her own relentless work load.  It has brought her to her knees and to a rediscovery of God and the spiritual world.  Her heart is tender.  So when Seth asked to be baptized this week, she said yes!

Cautious excitement followed as Gerald quickly arranged for the baptisms last Wednesday.  The Chang grandparents came, along with a surprising number of others.  Layne and I gave the talks.  A sweet spirit filled the room as the meeting proceeded.  And so we experienced our miracle, timed when we could be there!  So far we've attended the baptisms of every grandchild and I believe I've spoken at all of them.

Wednesday October 30, baptism day!  Here you see Seth and Angelica
in front.  Back is Papa Chang ("The Chairman"), Layne, Gerald,
Mama Chang, me and Frances.

We spoke English to the senior Changs and they responded in Chinese.  Still, we managed to communicate, using sign language, limited mutually understood words, smiles and laughs.  The Chang family show their love through service.  They made our stay embracing by feeding us, paying all of our expenses and providing sweet comforts of various sorts.  Frances, too, spent time with us and did all sorts of things to serve us, including a trip to a place nearby called Chalk City.  Rayne visited it while she was here and I've wanted to see it since then.  It isn't really much, just someone's abandoned home that is covered in drawings, done in brightly colored paint. 

Here we are, posing with a brightly clad guy, at Chalk City.

We were able to spend quite a bit of tim with Seth and Angelica; also Gerald and Frances.  "I"m much better now," Fran assured us, speaking of her struggle with insomnia.  And she is.  We had a lovely visit with her.  Gerald and I talked for two hours straight one day.  He studies both spiritual and temporal subjects regularly and has developed a powerful philosophy and has an extensive plan for educating his children.  He is very consistent with personal study and teaching time for the kids.  I'm so impressed with his insights and competence.  

There is something special about the Chang family.  Perhaps it is their strength of character.  Perhaps it is their affectionate ways; unusual in the Chinese culture.  There is something about them that calls out to us.  We love them.  This visit with our Chinese family was the best ever!

A flight to Narita, then San Francisco, then Boise brought us home 24 hours later, by Friday night.  I saw two great films along the way and thanked Layne for taking me to the movies.  It's the only time he does.

Seth

Angelica

Homes:  Gerald and Frances live on the left; Senior Changs
on the right, in the bright white home.

Gerald and kids, on the way to school.  Taiwan is
full of scooters.  Perhaps because gas is so expensive.