Merry Christmas!

23 weeks, you guys. This is for real. :-) AND we've been feeling him kick a lot! Baby J is already trying to play soccer. 

The three of us are headed to a real NFL game!

Merry Christmas to all!

Camping!

Wind Creek State Park was wonderful! We camped and hiked and had a lovely time.

Shin's bday pt 2

Americans celebrate with birthday cake... Koreans lurve seaweed soup. Shin's birthday dinner was a success. He said 'best miyeok guk EVER!' and I've been making it every year for three years. Felt pretty good to finally get it right. It's not my favorite dish, but I'm really glad it turned out tasty for him.

I also got him his favorite cupcakes from our favorite cupcake making friend. And his favorite lemonade from Chick-Fil-A. Basically everything I got him was perishable. But I believe the way to a man's heart is thro... Jk. I'm pretty sure there's more to Shin than his stomach. But he does like when I get him his favorite things.

Happy birthday week end :-D

A Time for Birthdays!

Today is my husband's 32nd birthday. We met at a Bible study on our college campus almost 5 years ago, and it's been a fantastic adventure ever since.

Neat thing: We met studying the book of Ecclesiastes. Everyday I try to read a little bit of the Bible using One Year Bible Online. Today's verses are the very beginning of Ecclesiates! (proof: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/september.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101)

I think these verses are perfect for his birthday:

A Time for Everything
3 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

We've gone through a lot of these 'times' and I look forward to many more years and birthdays together.

Two Years

We've been married for two years! We've been together over four years!
Woo hoo! It's been quite wonderful. We didn't make any plans for anything fancy, but we still had a lovely evening together. We enjoyed late night appetizers and drinks (thanks to my friend's inspiring tweet). And now we're wrapping up the evening like most nights: gazing adoringly into our iPhones.

Sidebar- No offense to babies, but my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all had babies by my age/stage. I feel like we Jeong's have broken a cycle of bi-decade reproduction. In college I learned that most marriages are much healthier if they enjoy two childless years together before popping out spawn. Now, obviously textbook research is not actually predictive of all real life relationships, but I still feel better knowing we made it two years and we still lurve each other. Here's looking forward to many more committed years of love and marriage.

Easter!

This morning I woke up before 6am. We were getting ready for the 6:15am sunrise service at a church our church partnered with (across the street from our house). I sang 'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death. Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the bed!' Shin wasn't too impressed with my lyrical creativity. We ended up having a lovely sunrise service anyway. Then Shin went back to sleep while I got ready for Sunday School. Sunday School was good, but small. Most of the class was missing! Shin joined me us at the end of Sunday School and we went on to a fantastic church service, complete with triumphant worship music, a highlariously adorable children's choir performance, and a stellar/deeply convicting message.

We talked with some friends afterwards who also don't have family in town. They had ham and we had veggies so they invited us over and we pieced together a delicious Easter lunch. For photos of two couples having Easter fun check back here.

I'm just astounded and in awe of the life Christ has given us. We don't know where He wants us to go, we don't know what our careers, ministries, or family will be like. But days like today and weeks like this week are fully reassuring that Christ IS risen and we were purchased and forgiven so we can live this life and the next life with Him. This week wasn't easy. Quite frankly, extra church activities and things I felt the Holy Spirit pointing me towards were often inconvenient and performed under forced obedience. However God ALWAYS meets us where we are. I never once regretted the decision to go when and where He told me to go.

Anyway, we came home and fell immediately to sleep. Shin's nap is lasting a little long (mine was only 45 minutes!) so I might have to start singing again pretty soon. :-)

Here's the original Christ is Risen, for anyone interested. Happy Easter to you!

Here we go again

1. Shin's doing well. He's getting the hang of things, keeping a positive attitude, and by the grace of God, I am too.

2. I made a 78 on my first TESOL final. That's like the worst grade I've ever made... I'm planning to keep up with the next course a little better. :-)

3. My Mary Kay party went great! I knew once I stopped fretting and just let God handle the attendance, that things would go much smoother. And they did!

4. My sister's coming on Friday night and she's staying a whole week and I'm SO excited!!!

5. India Child Sponsorship is still coming along well. It's so good to have a few people on board who really care.

6. I'm enjoying this Lent. I've given up TV. For anyone keeping score, we don't own a TV, but that hasn't stopped me from watching Conan, Castle, Saturday Night Live, New Girl, Psych, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Once Upon a Time... What HAS stopped me from watching them is the realization that I spend at least 8 hours a week just numbing my brain. So, in an effort to spend my time more engaged in and aware of the life Christ has given me, I cut out all TV.

7. I'm reading a YouVersion (Bible) app 40 day Lent plan. It's walking me through the life of Jesus. I've basically come to realize I understand very little about the life of Jesus.

Can you recommend a book I can read to give me some of the historical background? I feel like His parables, teachings, and miracles should REALLY blow my mind, but most of them go over my head or seem normal because I've read them so much.

Please comment or email suggestions! Thanks.

Update

Okay, we're still here and life is still good. I just feel like I can't take the time to create a single, coherent post. And that when I do, I'm avoiding doing something else I should be doing. But I'll just do it anyway...

1. Shin just opened a new restaurant (he's managing, we don't own it). It's called Martha's Place and it's a southern buffet. So far, he's enjoying it but it's a lot of hours at first as he tries to figure out how things should go. (Please pray for him and me as we adjust to this new schedule/life.)

2. We are both enrolled in a Teaching English as a Second Language class and our final is due next week. It's REALLY hard. So, that's what I *should* be doing right now. I'm avoiding it for this post but I definitely need to jump on it and focus.

3. I'm hosting a Mary Kay party on Saturday and I'm nervous no one will come. Or no one will buy anything and I won't get my foundation and primer like I really want. This is clearly not the end of the world, it's just something I've been thinking out/preparing for. I'm really hoping my friends and coworkers can come through. I think it'll be a fun time if anyone actually shows up!

4. It's so humid here these days. Like, winter is 100% vanquished.

5. I miss talking to my mom. We're in different time zones now and it seems like our schedules never quite align like they did before. We have to schedule intentional talking time, which is different from when we talked just a little bit twice a day.

6. Karen and I are really trying to get in gear with India Child Sponsorship and that's exciting. I'm looking forward to strengthening and improving the program.

7. My sister (and possibly Julie) is coming for spring break. We're planning to go to the beach while she's here. This will be Shin's first trip away from the restaurant. I'm SO excited. About all of it. Really looking forward to seeing my sister.

8. I made a song about Lent to the tune of "Rent". It's pretty bad, but I still like it and it gets stuck in my head sometimes.

9. My cat's still alive and annoying. He's meowing riiiight now. (as I write this and probably as you read it)

10. Shin's home! Huzzah!

Good day

I just woke up from a nap. After doing nothing. After getting 9 hours of sleep.

What a wonderful Saturday.

Loving People

1. I'm going crazy with excitement that Shin will be home soon. Please pray for him as he makes his 36 hour trip home and readjusts to Alabama (time, weather, food, etc.).

2. God (and my pastor) has been teaching me about loving people...

C.S. Lewis says, "There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."

I hope my actions towards others can become increasingly informed by an understanding of eternity and that I would not brush people off as temporal and insignificant.

For more: http://www.downshoredrift.com/downshoredrift/2012/01/cs-lewis-on-what-we-will-one-day-be.html

Or 'The Weight of Glory' by C.S. Lewis (which I have only read bits of)

We are Alive

I'm definitely home. Life is good. Not dead, just haven't updated because I've been busy unpacking and getting back into the swing of things. I haven't even uploaded my pics from my phone, but here's one that I've emailed myself. It was taken in the post office in Incheon and it reminds me of how COLD it was there as I sit around my house in shorts and a t-shirt. And it reminds me how cute Shin's smiley face is.

Lovely day

Just a quick update. I'm typing from phone and have low connection so this will be very brief:
-visited FIL at work mon night
-fell asleep upright while shin and his dad chatted :-)
-went to bed for real at 9pm
-woke up 5:30 :-/
-breakfast made by MIL
-went with SIL to hosp in Pohang (20 min away) to pick up prescription
-visited other SIL at work (she's a nurse at a swank OBGYN)
-2 SILs, Shin, & I at lunch
-dropped SIL back off at work and I tripped over a parking stopper block, face-planted, skinned knee, destroyed leggings
-went back to other SIL's house, doctored up knee (I'm perfectly fine, mom & gma), took nap
-came home and looked through photo albums. Shin fell asleep on floor at 8pm. I fell asleep at 9.
-weds morn woke up 5:30am :-/
-went with FIL & MIL to Bomun Danji (scenic, touristy lake place) 20 min away
-came home or FIL to eat lunch before work
-took nap on floor
-went with MIL and Shin to huge, open, fresh market
-ordered lunch delivered to home
-hubs and I walked about his hood. He took me to his favorite arcade where we DDRed and karaoked to M Buble & B Spears. Then drank coffee in cute shop.
-went to SIL's home, finished Pride & Prejudice!!!, ate dinner
-nephew treated us to 2nd cute coffee of the day
-walked around SIL's apt complex w/neph & niece
-visited FIL @ work
-came home and packed for trip to Seoul tomorrow!!!

Okay... That's a list of what we've done. Porbs can update again after our 2 days in Seoul.

GyeongJu

We've made it to GyeongJu...

We arrived and Shin's BIL picked us up from the airport. We got ALL our luggage (a total of 6 pieces- 4 checked bags and 2 carry-ons). This is a huge praise because I was SURE we would lose some if not all of our luggage somewhere in our 4 flights.

Anyway, he picked us up and we headed from Busan to GyeongJu. We were surrounded by the huge city and surrounding suburbs of Busan- there are gigantic, towering, apartment complexes everywhere. We traveled about 20 minutes and then we stopped at a little cute restaurant/food/convenience store and got some coffee. I drank my cappuccino, we got back in the car, and I fell asleep for the remaining 20 minutes. Shin and his BIL pleasantly chatted the entire time.

We arrived at his parents home and his sister, nephew, and niece were there with his parents. We saw everyone, gave out a few gifts, talked a bit, and then the family left. His dad had to run off to work and Shin's mom, Shin, and I looked through lots of old pictures. I've finally seen my husband as a baby and a kid and he was cuuuuute, and always smiling. Then we went to bed around 1am.

Woke up this morning at about 7am and sorted through all of our stuff to figure out what gifts/food went to which families. Shin's mom made us breakfast. Then gathered things and came to SIL's house to shower. Nephew, SIL, Shin, and I headed out to get Shin a haircut. He looks SO MUCH better. Then SIL, Shin and I ran a TON of errands. We went to public admin office about Shin's ID (he lost old one), we exchanged money and tried to help lost Chinese girls, then went to photographer to get a picture taken for his license, went to lunch, we went to butcher, we went grocery shopping, we went to police station to submit paperwork for ID, we went to public health dept dentist about his chipped tooth, we went to a swanky private dentist office b/c public couldn't fix it. We finally came back to his SIL's house. I'm tired, but overall good. We're now headed back to parent's house and I'm ready to unpack all of our clothes so I can remember everything I packed to wear.

(Picture is of GyeongJu, the freezing cold city we've been driving/walking around ALL day).

Etta Lee Farmer: 1924-2011

My great-grandma died on October 27th, 2011. She was 87 years old and had a stroke on the night of the 23rd which left her unconcious during her last four days on earth. She was an amazing, godly woman whom I unfortunately didn't get to spend much time with. Her legacy is clear in the incredible family she leaves behind. This weekend Shin and I traveled to Hattiesburg, MS for her funeral and we met a LOT of family. I finally met my grandma's brothers, her older half-sister, and her younger step-sister. I also met their children and saw pictures of their grandchildren. Even though I will probably never see most of them again, it was good to finally put a face with a name.

Shin & I graveside (COLD) in Mendenhall, MS

 Saturday, October 29th, 2011

The funeral was also a good reminder that life is so short in comparison to eternity. I know this is a popular video, but our actions on earth DO determine our eternal existence. Chan's message became strikingly clear to Shin and I this weekend. It reaffirmed my desires to live life well. I want to follow God and to serve others because people WILL remember you by the sum of all the small actions that make up your life. Whether directly serving in India, sponsoring a child in need from halfway around the globe, or even serving a child's lunch in your own town (like my great-grandmother did as a cafeteria nutritionist for an entire county school-system), the things you do to serve others are important and they make you who you are.

Catching Up on Life

This is just a list of random thoughts. There's no theme. But it IS brief.

1.        I PROMISE I will continue to share more about India… in case you’ve missed it, all I’ve said so far is there were lots of animals. Trust me, there’s more to it than exotic animals.

2.       I’ve got other things going on. Like school. Working on a project on early childhood obesity.

3.       Shin’s been working hard on his own business (drug screening and background checks).

4.      He’s had several meetings. So far, none have panned out. He also has an interview at the end of the month to be an auditor with the AL Dept. of Public Health. This was a complete surprise. He applied to the state a long time ago. You basically fill out a resume and just send it off into space and they contact you if they’re interested. That was back in the summer and he didn’t think anything about it because he had been applying for LOTS of jobs. So, he has an interview at the end of this week. It would be really great to have a second source of income, but only if that’s where God wants him.

5.       Shin also gave a short presentation to our Korean church about our India trip. Almost everyone at the church supported us financially and it was really great to give them some follow-up on how everything went (other than “it was great!”). It was just 10 minutes, but still. Glad he got to do it.

6.       I also have a short presentation that I get to give at a Bible study in December. I’m pretty excited about it. We get to take our ICS show on the road. My goal is after that, to get to go to at least ONE place per month. (Other churches, Bible studies, youth groups, Sunday school classes, Wednesday night meetings, AWANA meetings, etc).

7.       At work, our office just moved to a different part of town. The new office is just down the street from my house!!! I’m so excited about my much shorter commute. The new office is also bigger and cuter and safer. *sigh* just excited about everything being so fresh and so clean, clean.

8.       This weekend we spent some great time with people from church that we haven’t hung out with much before. We’re having a get together at our house on my birthday (Nov. 12^th). It’s not a birthday party, but that’s my gift from Shin that I get to host a partay. I know, I’m weird. But I love hosting and he doesn’t, so it’s a wonderful birthday gift. Anyway, it’s for S.I.N.K.s and D.I.N.K.s (acronym courtesy of my mom) and I’m hoping that we’ll get to spend time with some new “Single Income No Kids” and “Dual Income No Kids” couples/singles.

9.       I’m tutoring 5 (possibly 6) kids per week. I really enjoy tutoring. But I have really cut down my free time. But we do need the money, so I’m really thankful to be able to do it.

10.    I’m done. There is more going on in life and in the world. But I must go back to paying attention in class.

Home

We're home now... our sleep schedule is still all messed up. We got home at 7:30 Saturday night and immediately fell asleep. Like walked in the door, set the bags down, got under the covers. This (Sunday) morning we woke up at 4:30. Ate, puttered around, I started laundry. We went back to sleep from 8-8:30. Then we got up, went to church, and saw everyone in Sunday School. I was a little out of it (trouble tracking what people were talking about) and Shin had a little headache. We had to share a little bit from the trip up in front of everyone in the sanctuary during big church. I shared something God showed me over the course of the trip, which was from Isaiah 7:9, "If you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand firm at all." Shin shared from 1 Cor. 15:10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am... though it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me."

And we came home right afterwards. I made fried rice. We ate and we cleaned up everything. Shin was a HUGE help. He was really awesome. He wanted me to be able to focus on my homework. Then he fell asleep, and I worked on my homework. Until 5pm, then I took a nap. We woke up at 10. I freaked out because my homework is nowhere near done. And here I am. I've recorded all the answers (which were provided). Now I have to actually figure out how to get to them.

Ugh. Work & school is going to be really hard tomorrow. (Don't worry, I'm definitely going to post more on the trip... I just don't have it in me right now.)

Ten Days Left!

So, we’re at… 63% of our funding goal!!! That’s so stinking, incredibly awesome… We are also 100% immunized. (FYI- I’m stats class. We love percentages!) So, lots of shots. 5 for me, 4 for Shin. TDaP? Yep. Hep A & B? Got it. Polio? For sure! Typhoid? Yeah, and that one definitely causes soreness.

We also leave in 10 days… September 22^nd is coming QUICKLY. Does anyone remember when I wrote about our trip being one month away? Well it feels like I wrote that yesterday. But I didn’t. Now we’re 10 days away. It’s a little stressful. We want to freak out a little. At the same time, it feels SUPER far away. Like surreal. Not actually happening. But it is.

AND we have to pack everything in one backpack. One carry-on. 9 days. One carry-on. We DO get to do laundry mid-week. So that’s helpful. But still, tough decisions… I’m not sure Clarence is going to make it. L We’ll see. I’ll keep you all posted on Clarence’s ability to take the trip. He is a perfect size for a pillow.

Lastly, please pray for our church fundraiser. We want people to come and donate because this is probably the last chance we have at raising money for our trip. There’s a spaghetti lunch this Sunday, September 18^th at Gateway Baptist Church. Money for the meal is all donations and it all goes to help the support-raising efforts of the team AND the ministries in India that we’re going to visit. My friend, Amanda, and I are trying to pull this lunch together for an expected 150 people. It’s going to be great (we hope!). If anyone who reads this wants to help, please contact me or Amanda ASAP.

Thanks everybody! Keep praying for us and for our the people of India that we will meet soon.

Oh, a specific prayer request? That Shin will have an aisle seat. OR that he will have an inside seat and be miraculously okay with it. The guy is 6’1”… and most of that is legs. He’s a little nervous about the LOOONG international flight. Kay, thanks!

Alright.

I'll post something. Val sent out another letter and I feel like I have to keep up. So, Jun, Shin's co-manager, got fired. It all boiled down to gossip, pride, and greed showing up in a lot of people... which sucks, because we all love Jun. He's a hard worker who's still trying to find himself, but a great guy and would bend over backwards if you asked him (which is a big deal because he has a lot of back problems!). Anyway, I lost some of the warm fuzzies I had about some people, but all-in-all it's been a learning experience. I'm also learning that life is NEVER something you can count on being how you expected. Which is okay, I have a feeling it's going to be way more adventurous than I was thinking it would be. I'm excited.

Also, my class is winding down and I should be writing a paper instead of writing this blog to no one.