Sticky Falls and The Walking Street

Last weekend we decided to go exploring. There are lots of fun and interesting things to do in and around our new city, and we had been chomping at the bit to get out and enjoy some of them.  Everyone was finally well, and while our little Thomas still had four stitches in his head, we decided to not let that detour our plans.  Saturday we headed out to the sticky waterfalls which is a natural waterpark of fun! Hiking through the cool mountain water is the way to hike in this green jungle heat. 

 We had a blast climbing up and down the falls--I'm talking off the charts on the fun-ness scale. It is a giant natural (with the major on the nature) waterpark where the climbing up is as fun as the going down. It's more fun, in fact, since the sticky falls are, well, sticky, there's no sliding down, until you hit a mossy spot and then things can get wild. We almost lost Kate. I think Brian caught her by the ankle and she dangled for a minute. At least that is how it played out in my mommy brain.  But that one moment of terror was light and momentary compared to all the wet and wild fun we had. And as you can see in the background of the picture above, the people enjoyed watching us enjoy ourselves. The paparazzi followed us into the mountains too. A couple of them just cut in between our littlest man and us to grab him and get some selfies with him. He cooperated for the most part, and when he made it clear that he was done, they just took pictures from afar.  (And sweet, protective reader, our little one is ok. We are making sure he is safe and happy.)

We all loved it and will make it a regular stop. And you can see more pictures of our waterfall shenanigans here.

After getting Thomas's stitches removed, we decided to head on down to the Sunday night walking street. It's another kind of jungle where the only coolness was the sweat dripping down our backs.  The Sunday night walking street is a treasure to anyone looking for state fair like foods with an Asian flair, souvenirs of any kind, foot massages, and even live music and dancing. Basically it is the state fair that rolls out every Sunday night.

We found a parking lot and rode the Song Teew in.  You remember those? The truck with the benches in the back.  This was Kate's first ride and every person has to document their child's first ride in a Song Teew.  

So pretty.

There's the food. I mean, this was like 1/1000th of the food. There are little vendors set up like this every where. Fried food, wrapped food, food on a stick. Blended fruits, wrapped fruit, fruit on a stick. Pink noodles, green noodles, noodles on a stick. Ok, so I haven't seen noodles on a stick, but I wouldn't be surprised...

Here we have a yummy potato on a stick. The potatoes are crispy, salty, and oh so good. 

There's wrapped veggies, also known as the spring roll, served with sweet and spicy sauce. There's wrapped banana, fried with sweet sauce on top. And then there's the fried milk. Yep, fried milk. If that's not straight out of the state fair, then I don't know what is.

(Ok, so I called it banana milk for the first 15 seconds. Whatever.  I have had three children. The end.) And can we just replay and watch how Thomas keeps chewing and chewing and chewing? I guess he eventually swallowed it. The consistency left much to be desired. Think cottage cheese, except sweet, with a crunchy outside and sweet creamy syrup on top.  

Kate loved her meat on a stick accompanied with peanut sauce.

After walking forever looking at cultural beauties and bargaining with their sellers, why not top the night off with a foot massage?  We haven't had our feet rubbed down yet, but it's on our list of new things to do.  Stay tuned...

The Mask

No, this is not a picture of an overcast day. This is smoke--the cause of the black lung-- that has descended on our city in full force. And gross. Just so gross! We are all coughing, with scratchy throats and itchy eyes.  The hard working farmers are all burning off their rice fields, and all of the smoke is sitting in the bowl of our city. So on this try something new Tuesday, we decided that because it literally hurts to breath, we would do as the locals do and get our very own masks to shield us from some of the fumes. 

And now we are all ready to venture outside into the never-ending fire-pit in hopes that we won't get the black lung. And would you just look at Little Doogie Howser 1, 2 and 3. Are they not the cutest?!  I'm thinking Isaiah's mask won't do much in the way of protection since it hangs off his little face, but man, he looks cute. We may just have to cover his whole face with a bandana like this fella' did.

He's covered from head to toe.

And I guarantee he is smiling while I shoot this picture of him. :)

We hear this will go on for a few weeks and will get worse before it gets better.  I can't even... Worse!? But God promised that when I walked through the fire He would be with me. And even though Kate loves her mask, we probably won't go as far as wearing it all over town. But we're braving the fire--the 100 degree temps and the smoke.  And praying that the sick and weak feeling from constantly breathing in carbon monoxide will end soon.  

A Little Macedonian Dancing Throwback

Because it's still Thursday somewhere in the world, I decided to post a little throwback from our last night in Macedonia with some of our very best friends whom we miss immensely!!!

This is one of my favorite memories ever!!! Maybe one day I will get to dance that dance with these precious friends again! Oh I LOVE them so very much!!! I think of them and so many others from Macedonia every time I drink my coffee, every time I read from my Macedonian Bible, every time I breath. Oh! So! Much! Love! My heart is still a little broken from the goodbyes. But man am I thankful for the internet where I can still see their sweet faces and hear their voices.

Don't you just love this?!
So while I may not know the date when I will get to hug them, dance with them, and of course, drink coffee with them again, I will pray for them every single day.  Will you also join me in praying for these precious people, the people of Macedonia?

Getting Settled

Mercy! It's been a while. I've had emotions and feelings and thoughts and so many things I want to write down, and absolutely no time to do it.  So here's a little (very tee-tiney little) recap of what has been our life the last few weeks.  

We are finally moved into our house. We are still missing quite a few things that make up a westerner's home, but for the most part we are settled. We are crazy about our new neighborhood where there are plenty of people out riding bikes and playing in the streets.

Our stuff from Macedonia was delivered the very day we signed the lease for our house. Talk about good timing.

And so the last few weeks have been full of ripping open boxes and trying to find a place for all of our stuff. When we weren't doing that, we were carting our poor-pitiful-bored-out-of-their-minds children to the stores with fridges, ovens, fans, dishes, rugs, beds, mattresses, wardrobes, tables, couches, and ant cabinet (there's something for you to chew on) and so on and on and on. And while it may sound fun to some, fun is not the word I would use to describe shopping to furnish your new home in a foreign land.  Three babies in tow, one of them being carted off by someone who wants to take selfies with him, the other two playing bumper carts in the washing machine department, a foreign language, foreign currency, little to no direction and hot. Y'all, it's hot. And at the end of the day, every day, when we just wanted to plop on our couch, there wasn't one.

Until three days ago when our beautiful new comfy couch was delivered! Who knew I would ever be so thankful for somewhere soft to sit!

In the middle of all that jazz, we are still in the midst of language learning where we will be for the rest of forever.  We LOVE our language tutor. She is just the greatest. I wish I could put her in my pocket and carry her around with me every where, and then I wouldn't need to learn the language because she could translate for me. That would be wonderful! But alas, no such nonsense is going to happen. So I must press on and study, study, study, because knowing the heart language of the people you live among matters, and it speaks volumes of love. We are so thankful for the opportunity and time we have to learn it.

Our try something new (that I actually remembered to take a picture of) was riding in a Song Taaw. It's a truck with benches in the back that'll cart you around town on the cheap.  

Isaiah was cuddly that day... for like two minutes. There are no pictures of the moments when he was hanging his little blonde head out the window or the moment he decided to hang from the handle bars across the top like a monkey. We're basically a traveling circus.

Thomas loved the ride!  

We are happy, healthy and slowly adjusting to life here.  We are thankful for sunny days and a small yard to play soccer and golf in. We are thankful for new kind neighbors who always throw our ball back over the fence and smile while we practice this new language with them. We are thankful for new friends. We are thankful for you praying for us. We are thankful you gave sacrificially so that we could be here doing life among a people who are shrouded in darkness. We are so thankful for God's mercies that are new every day. We are thankful that His grace is sufficient for those times we lost it on our bored, hungry children. We are thankful that He has carried us every single solitary step. We are thankful that He will continue to carry us. He is teaching us all so much. (Deep sigh full of love!)

And so tomorrow we will venture out into this over-polluted city. We will drive by these people and all the others like them, and we will remember why we do what we do. We will remember that Jesus loves us and Jesus loves them. And just as He did, we will strive to deny ourselves and lay our lives down for the sake of His great Name in this new place.