It is He who made us, and we are His

I know I blog a lot about orphans, but they are literally always on my mind.  Chinese orphans...American orphans...African orphans... I can't help but think about them.  Today I was thinking about the reasons I feel like I can relate to the orphans I have come to love so much.

*I don't have a dad.  I'm fatherless.  Granted it's a different kind of fatherless than what they have experienced in their short lives, but it's a loss nonetheless.  When taxi drivers ask about my family, I have to tell them I don't have a dad.  "Meiyou baba." I try to tell them in my best Chinese that I used to have an amazing dad who loved me very much, but now I don't.  It's a hard reality.  As difficult as he was to lose, I'm so thankful that I have known the love of a father.  The babies I visit on Saturday mornings have never experienced that.  I pray someday they get to experience what my dad and I had.

*How many times have I looked at my own brokenness, my own imperfection, and my own weaknesses and doubted the future that the Father has for me? As I sit at the orphanage and hold orphans with special needs, I see precious lives that someone saw as broken and unwanted. But thankfully there is One who made us, who WANTS us, and who can use our brokenness for our good and His glory.

For kindergarten graduation my students memorized Psalm 100 - "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are his; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. 

It's Jesus who saved me and who loves me with an everlasting love. He's the same Jesus who died for these little ones.  The same God who is a father to me is a father to the orphans I love.  What a comfort!

A new bike, a free bell, and an anime sticker

Today I bought a new bike!

I love it!  The store where we bought it was really awesome!  Check out their website - yolike.com.cn.  You custom design the bike - everything from the frame to the chain to the spokes can be mixed and matched.  I could have chosen twenty different colors for my bike if I wanted to.  (I was there for a REALLY long time and tried every possible color combination before I settled on the green, orange, black, and white.  I'm pretty sure they were ready to kick me out of the store on the grounds of indecisiveness.)

After I picked up my bike I had to go to a nearby market to have them put a kickstand on my shiny new green bike.  (They don't put kickstands on at YoLike...apparently they aren't aesthetically pleasing? I'm usually all for cuteness over practicality, but no kickstand is annoying.) I bought my old bike from the guys at the White Market, so I went there for my kickstand. They gave me a kickstand, making sure to scratch up my new paint while they worked.  BUT the good news is they gave me a tacky anime sticker to cover up the chipped paint.  That was so generous of them. They also threw in a free bell for my handlebars, but not before offering us a seat and a cold beer.  Gotta love the bike guys!

What. A. Year.

Well..... I made it!  I'm finished with my first year of teaching in China.  As my students would say, "Phewf!" It's been a crazy year!