Road Trip

One gorgeous day.

.

One amazing Creator.

One perfectly delightful roadtrip!

Awsome views

Checking out the roadside map

                                               

     






Ripening coffee beans!

 



That's our city, Taichung, off in the distance

Pottery filled with vinegar

Road Trip

Topics to Ponder

So here I am again. Sitting at the computer, ready to share some tidbit of my life. Not difficult due to a lack of material, but rather, the opposite- too much to share.

During the week, I often find myself thinking of things I should write.. Possible topics flit through my mind, often during the long walk to school every morning. Ok, long is a relative term. Just ask a pregnant woman waiting for the next available stall at a public bathroom. Five minutes can be an eternity!

But back to my possible topics. Here's a few that occupied the recesses of my mind for at least a short time this week.

1. Celebrating Christmas in a Buddhist country
2. The advantage/disadvantages of owning a scooter
3. The crazy dogs of Taiwan
4. Hospitals in Taiwan
5. My husband, the Taiwanese scooter driver
5. It's almost Christmas and I'm wearing shorts (this I decided against, considering most of you   packed your shorts away almost two months ago, and I want friends, not enemies)

Ok. I think you get the idea. So what topic did I decide on? Read on and take a guess.


School work. Friends. Swimming. Homework. Starbucks. Shopping. Basketball. Chinese.

If you guessed Abbi, you are correct.

 Abbi settled right into life in Taiwan as if she had been born here. She adjusted to the new challenge of attending a school with typical Chinese high expectations. And despite the fact of never swimming competitively, she joined the swim team. She almost ran for class president but a typhoon day kept her from turning in the appropriate paper work. Probably a good thing. I think she had enough on her plate.

Abbi and friends

During swim season, Abbi not only learned how to dive off the starting block, do the racing underwater flip turn (yeah, I don't know the terminology, sorry Coach Randy, and other coaching staff), she also learned the butterfly. Two weeks later she competed at a meet in a butterfly event. As the season progressed, she improved. At one meet, the women's relay team of which Abbi was a member, broke a school record. At the final meet, Abbi took four first places. One race  placed her in Morrison records with the third fastest time for 100meter freestyle. At the sports' awards, she was voted as most valuable member of the junior varsity team.

When basketball tryouts rolled around, Abbi was ready. Morrison has three women teams- varsity, junior varsity, and JVB- usually comprised of freshman and eighth graders. Abbi did great and earned a place on the JV team- the only freshman to do so.  Despite being the youngest, she has proven to her teammates and coaches she has the skills to be a great basketball player.





Ready for the rebound

Abbi's life is full. She studies hard. She plays hard. And if God leads you to, please pray for her and her brothers, too! This momma thanks you!






She shoots. She scores!

Still Alive!

Life. Is. Crazy.

 There I said it. I know you know what I mean. No matter where you go in this world, the month of December is jam packed with responsibilities, appointments, and celebrations.

For me, it started last weekend.

 Friday night was the K-2 Christmas pageant. Quite entertaining! I was very proud of the raw talent in my students.

Saturday evening, three families gathered for a time of games and fellowship.

Sunday evening, staff from both the elementary and middle school gathered at our principal's apartment for a time of fellowship and food.


Today, I spent all day in Taipei with Jacob at a softball tournament. Yes, you read that correctly.... a softball tournament. In December! That definitely was a first for this Ohio gal. No snow. But lots and lots of rain. Yep, they competed in the rain. They played a total of four games and just missed being in the championship. We left at 6:15 am and returned at 9pm. Loooooooong day!

So what's in store for this week.....decorating our Christmas tree, basketball games, formal observations (yikes), meetings, and birthdays (Abbi will be 14 on Thursday!)

And  I haven't done a stitch of shopping yet ....

Thanksgiving Day

Recently, on a glorious Saturday, I was avoiding work. Not any particular work, just work in general.
Have you ever been there?

I should have been in my classroom preparing lessons for the upcoming week.
I should have been at home cleaning, or something domestic related.
I should have been furniture shopping.

But I wasn't. I was, instead, watching a soccer tournament. I might mention here that none of my biological children really like soccer, so its safe for you to assume I wasn't there as a mom.  But several of my Monday through Friday children were involved. I had planned to watch just one game and then head over to my second home (my classroom). But as I mentioned before, I just wasn't feeling it. So I just watched and watched. Oh, and of course, conversed.

So the day passed pleasantly on that warm November Saturday. Eventually, hunger pains jarred me out of my nonresponsibility bliss. Carl and I decided to jump on the scooter and head out to some local furniture stores. On the way, we agreed to look for something to eat.

Now that seems easy enough, unless, of course, you are unable to read the local merchants' signs. With Carl driving and me comfortably situated on the back, we passed place after place. We knew food was being served, but could not tell what without stopping and looking into every vendor's cart.

Luckily, I recognized a steamed dumpling shop by the bamboo steamers.We like dumplings and the lunch hour was long gone. So we stopped.

And, although everything was in Mandarin, both Carl and I have become very proficient at communicating with our hands, faces, and whatever other body part that gets the message out. So thus began the ordering adventure. But it wasn't too difficult because the owner spoke enough English that communicating was possible, even pleasant.

To make this increasingly long story, shorter, we had a great time eating and conversing with Steven, the owner. As we sat below his family's god shelf, I felt pulled to pray for the Holy Spirit to somehow reveal the truth to our new friend and his family.

 Needless, to say, we never made it to the furniture store.

But if you were to scroll back up to the beginning of my discourse, you would notice that I entitled this piece Thanksgiving Day. Which so far, I haven't said a single thing about Thanksgiving. But hold on. Its coming.

When we finally left Steven's dumpling shop, we told him we would return and bring our four children. The only problem was we were at least 2 kilometers from our apartment and with no car...  If only six people could fit on our scooter.

So Thanksgiving Day (see, I told you I would get here eventually), I was feeling somewhat disconnected. Our Thanksgiving had been the day before, and although we all had been there, we had been spread out among fifty other people. I wanted, no needed, a family gathering. So it was decided that a trip on the bikes to Steven's dumpling shop would be the perfect family Taiwan Thanksgiving. Wow, its taken a long time to get to the point of this blog. But here we are....

                                                                                 The Dingus Family's Thanksgiving Day meal!

          Yummy steamed dumplings!

Delicious Hot and Sour soup!

Nick and Ben shared a huge bowl of noodle soup-- no turkey, just pork and assorted seafood.












We enjoyed spending time with Steven again. He said Carl must be very strong to have four children. And,  he said our children were very handsome (the boys, of course) and beautiful (that would be Abbi). Steven is such a wise man!

We will visit Steven again. One, because he has really great steamed dumplings, and two, because we may be the only Christians he may ever know!