Intersecting On Ice

That boy is one of Titus' best friends, Niu Niu, and turns out he's a figure skating prodigy.

Jonathon enjoyed a special evening with Auntie Wang; once his balance improves he'll like skating too.

Drew and I grew up in Minnesota. Our memories are cringing behind the wheel whilst gliding into ditch snowbanks, the same dang ditch two late-for-school mornings in a row (really, so sorry Mom and Dad...), glorious snow forts, snowmobiles, herds of deer moving across white-covered cornfields, drying hats and mittens on heat vents and also microwaving them which did lead to a small house fire (sorry again...), minor sledding injuries, scampering from the gymnasium to the car in shorts in sub-zero temps, a stinging snow wash, chewing on icicles, damage to pride and tailbone after an unfortunate underestimation of slick ice underfoot, late starts, snow boots in a line, months of shoveling neighbor's driveways to earn money to buy a primitive computer (that would be the Addington boys, not me). 

As our kids grow we've been surprised at how meaningful it is to share with them an experience that we also enjoyed as children. I realized recently that this must be a fulfilling and common phenomenon for families raising children in the same general culture and climate of the parents' upbringing. Special! I realized how little of my kids' childhood resembles my childhood, and that's cool too.

Then there was tonight, when urban southern China 2014 and rural northern United States 1994 intersected on the coordinate of ICE SKATING.

I laced up my kids' skates real tight, strings cutting into my hands. Man, I can remember being the kid and Mom or Dad was pulling my laces tight. Now I'm kneeling in their spot and Titus and Michael are propped on the bench, excited. I had this same circle-of-life feeling the first times I taught Titus proper ice-cream cone maintenance, you know, a sweeping lick of the drips in a circumventing movement at the lip of the cone. Apparently this behavior is not intuitive. So I'm teaching Titus this, and recalling very clearly Dad training me in the exact drip prevention technique, with his squinty grin and laugh, and he's just 28 or something in my memory. So I am now.

Life! 

It's so good. 

counting the graces

thank you Father for

my kids all have a different way that they express love to me

always can stop and ask for forgiveness, assurance that all past, present and future is atoned for by the cross

means of drying laundry on the radiator

Drew is handsome, especially in new frames

mind full of sweet memories from childhood

fresh loose-leaf green tea leaves to serve guests and especially Auntie Wang

LJ felt comfortable to call and ask for our help

understanding everything at the preschool parent-teacher meeting

weekly talk and prayer with my personal role models, LLJ & LM

coming home to laundry hung, dishes washed, floors swept and mopped -- I am a well-supported mother

Ms. Yao at Butterfly Home helping me recite part of John in Chinese, unexpected

LC & WZ forgave me for being a rude host