Who knew giant blobs of plastic could make a Momma's heart so happy?

Since moving to China, grieving over what the kids are missing out on in the States has been a constant struggle of mine. I know they are gaining so much. Believe me. I know. I try to focus on those daily. But some days I dwell on the things they're missing. The library (although this year, we've been so blessed with a local that opened one up that actually has English books!!), parks...REAL parks, not ones with just exercise equipment, and right now, since it's in my face, pumpkin patches.

They don't even know what so many things are. I'm pretty sure Malachi has never been to a real playground. One with slides, swings, something besides concrete on the ground, and things he can climb on and fall off of, knowing that daredevil.

But yesterday, my heart swelled with joy. A former tutor and friend with her own son about Josiah's age (I've mentioned him before--they're great buds!) took Josiah and I to a playground!! We squealed with joy when we saw it! It's literally the first one of this magnitude we've seen since being here. It was inside an apartment complex that houses lots of foreigners. Rich foreigners..go figure.

It was great to see Josiah running around with his buddy, playing games, and acting out characters from a Chinese cartoon. I even enjoyed sitting on the bench with my friend, chatting about life, just like mommas do in America. I told her this and she said, "Good, this is your little piece of America right now." 

It was so fun, I told some friends about it last night, and we made another trip this morning and 3 more little ones squealed with joy at a familiar sight. It was awesome!

My only regret is that we knew about this earlier. I mean, we were here all summer and this glorious playground was sitting across town, a mere $2 taxi ride from us.

Alas, we'll enjoy it until we can't play outside anymore, then watch the weather like a hawk come springtime for when we can return.

Guess That Flavor

The other day, I was desperate for a salty, flavored chip. Really desperate. I went to the little store in our complex and found my choices were plain (boring), cucumber (refreshing, but not feelin' 'em this time), and several meat flavors. I took a chance on a bag of spicy chicken ones. 

I brought them home and the boys were ecstatic. Josiah popped one in his mouth and said, "Mom, these taste like spicy chicken!" He hadn't even seen the bag. 

Either I should be proud of his amazing palette or scared that he could imagine such a combo for a chip flavor.

Maybe someday I'll have him try the fish soup and blueberry flavors to see if he can guess those, too.

 

Precious Prayers

After praying for dinner tonight, Josiah broke into his own prayer. Not unusual. Except tonight he did it in Chinese. I didn't understand a word of it, but to him, it was a prayer nonetheless. Lately he's been breaking out into full dialogues (sometimes with me, sometimes to himself) in unrecognizable Chinese. I love it!

I then asked him who he heard pray in Chinese that he learned from. His answer: "God, Jesus, Ayi (our helper, who is a believer and does pray in Chinese), and Jodi (a Chinese-American, although I'm not sure he really made that connection or of it was just coincidence)."

I love that precious boy.

After seeing all the attention big bro was getting, Malachi chimed in with a prayer in his own language.

Quotable

While eating lunch today, I picked a rotten grape off the stem and put it on my plate. After examining it, Josiah asked, "What is that?" "A rotten grape,nit's dying," I replied. "Ohhh. "Yeah, those are pretty, they're healthy! That one isn't healthy, it didn't eat very well."