February 2008 Archives

A Random Act of Kindness

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Happy Leap Day!

Today I was walking home with Ellie in the backpack. The wind was quite strong and cold and I  regretted not putting on her hood before we left. I eventually decided that I needed to ask someone for help, so as we passed a bus stop I bothered a nice looking lady to help me. Not only did she very lovingly arrange Ellie's hood, she also gave me a piece of chocolate candy! This small act of kindness made my heart happy. By far the best thing about Taiwan is the people living here. Most people are super nice, and things like this happen all the time.

Package Day

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It is SOOOOO exciting to get a package!

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This one was full of birthday goodies for me and Ellie from Jason's mom (best-mother-in-law-ever to me, and Nana to Ellie). A second round of present opening is fun, but it doesn't make up for not being able to see family on special days. Ellie loooved the little stuffed kitten her Uncle Justin sent, she carried it with her for the rest of the day. I loooved the rain boots I got. I almost can't wait for it to start raining.

Temple Worship

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The above picture was taken inside of one of Taiwan's most famous Temples, the Matzu Temple in Dajia. Below shows worshipers inside the temple.

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A friend of mine recently asked what people are worshiping when they go to the temple. There are countless gods worshiped in traditional Chinese religion, which encompasses Taoism, Buddhism, folk religion and ancestor worship. In each temple you can find a statue, often about 5 feet tall and surprisingly unimpressive, carved to represent one of these gods. In this temple the god is called Matzu, part of the Taoist pantheon.

Each god offers the worshiper a particular blessing: there are gods who can bring you wealth, gods who help students do well on tests, gods who heal sicknesses, gods who keep you safe, gods who help the crops grow, even gods who can help you find a husband or wife. As I was thinking about this, I realized how wonderful it is that the God I worship is all powerful. He is the One who is able to meet all needs of all peoples. Praise Him!

Another thing that comes to mind is the fear involved in Taoism. Temples are not pleasant places to be, in my opinion they are foreboding and just plain scary. I think this comes across in the first picture. I am so thankful that as a Christian I have hope instead of fear, security instead of uncertainty. Praise Him!

Catapult!

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This is just one of the ways Jason and Ellie play together. Jason calls it "The Catapult", I call it "Wild Play" (and it is not allowed between dinner and bedtime).

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Other versions of Wild Play include "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", "Blast-off", and "Pony Ride".

Ellie Can.......Walk!

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Here she goes...

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Hooray! Ellie can walk! She went from taking one or two steps yesterday
to walking all over the apartment like she owns it today. What fun!

Outside Fun

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On sunny days these kids are always playing outside in the garden of our apartment complex. They all love Ellie, and whenever they see her coming will start calling her name. She likes to play with their fun balls and tricycles. They are all a year or more older than Ellie, but she does her best to keep up.

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There is a little statue of a deer sitting in the grass that Ellie likes to "ride". The other kids like to ride the deer too, and the cutest thing is when two of them are on the deer together.

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The people who live in the downstairs apartment have a cat. He is just as curious about Ellie as Ellie is about him. Check out the little sweater he is wearing!

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This little boy is not quite two years old. He LOVED the cat and kept looking for it even after the other kids lost interest. He kept repeating "kitty" (in Chinese) over and over and over. Poor guy, he was a little too earnest and the kitty kept hiding from him.

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Ellie is thinking, "Okay, this is it. I can walk, I know I can," and sets off as though she can walk, only to have her little ankles crumple after a few steps. She is very brave, confident and persistent, so we think the day she keeps on going is coming soon.

The Lion says....roarrrrr!

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Ellie has learned how to make her first animal sound...the lion!  In truth, she has been "roaring" for about six months now, but recently she has connected the "roar" sound to animals that roar, like lions or tigers. When I ask her, "What does the lion say?" she will respond with a hearty "Roarrr!", like in this picture.

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Thanks to Aunt Amanda for giving Ellie some awesome finger puppets (they were handmade in Peru!) for her birthday. Ellie is holding the lion one in this picture, it just got blurred due to the gusto of Ellie's roar.

Miss You!

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For me, the most difficult thing about living in Taiwan is being far away from family. My mother and sister left yesterday and boy do I miss them already.

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It took Ellie a little while to warm up, but she misses you too.

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When she woke up today she came out of the room, looked around the corner, and just sat there, wondering where everyone was. (I told her you had to go "bye-bye" and she waved.)

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Thank you for coming to visit, for spending your vacation in Taiwan and for traveling more than 24 hours to do it. Hopefully, we can all be together again soon.

Happy Birthday, Little Valentine

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A year ago today we received the best Valentine ever...

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...and today, Ellie is one!

Good Morning Birthday Girl

Grammy bought her a princess dress to wear for her party, so she got to open that up first thing after breakfast.

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Ellie is not shy about opening presents, she gets right down to business.

Funnily enough, while in Taiwan my mom was reading a book in which the author says that relatives who have something to prove buy beautiful but impractical things for babies, his example: sweaters with detachable fur collars. So we all got to have a good laugh about that (see bottom left corner of the picture above).

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Ellie is already girlie, she can't resist the pretty flowers.


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"Let's try this thing on, I have a party to get ready for!"

The Princess

Here she is, the little birthday Valentine Princess, all ready for her party.

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The Cake

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I made a carrot cake, but because I waited until the last minute had to improvise a bit on the decorations (chopped up raisins and a god-shelf candle!).

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Ellie needed a little help blowing out her candle because 1) she doesn't know how to "blow", 2) she was a little shocked by the singing and fanfare and 3) the candle was a little tall.

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Ellie checks out (and likes!) some frosting. Later as she ate her cake she would peel off the frosting and eat it first (yes, one of those).

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"Is this what I ordered? It looked different on the menu."

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"This is good stuff Mom, you gotta try some."

The Presents

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Next, Ellie got to open her presents. She got plenty of fun toys, but her favorite toy by far was a silly pillow shaped like two dogs.

The day before her birthday we had been in a store shopping for souvenirs. Ellie spotted this pillow and started squealing with delight (not to mention at an ear-splitting new decibel and pitch). I told my mom the story and she decided she had to buy it for Ellie's birthday.

This is Ellie face when she opened the package and realized it was the same dogs from the store...
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Once she got over her shock she looked down at the dogs, first at one, then the other, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Then she started screaming...

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...and screaming...

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...and hugging the dogs...

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....all the while still screaming. My sister said it was like when someone opens their door to find Oprah standing there. At first they can't believe it, then they can't stop screaming.

Dinner and Goodbye

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After opening presents we had a very lovely dinner together.

My sister and mom had to leave at 3am the next morning to catch an early flight back home, so it was also time to say goodbye. It was a wonderful two weeks with them and I can't wait until the next visit.

Not Just a Walk in the Park

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After weeks of cold, cloudy and cold weather the sun decided to peak out a few rays, so we headed straight for the park to ride bikes.

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We all had a blast. The park was full of people to watch and it was great to finally be out in the sun (although it was still cold).

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Ellie even got in on the bike action, she was thrilled by all the dogs and other interesting things to see.

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Here she is pointing out one of the many dogs we saw that day...

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This is how excited and happy seeing a doggy makes Ellie. As you can see, her joy is contagious.

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Look at that face! This is her defiant face (I was telling her to turn around and sit down in her seat).

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Amanda, aka Miss Hardcore, opted to jog for 2 hours instead of bike. Yep folks, 2 hours. She's training for a half marathon. I think she looks remarkably fresh and happy for someone who has been running for over an hour.

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After biking Ellie got to play in the grass (while we scouted for dog poo!). She also got to see lots of people with her second favorite thing to see at the park...

...kites!
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This kite was huge! In the background you can just see Taichung city through the haze. You wouldn't know it from this picture, but there are huge mountains just behind the city. We get to see them a few times a month, on very clear days. 

Noodle-oodle

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Noodles are one of Ellie's very favorite foods. She especially likes it when I leave them long so she can slurp them in (punctuated by a wonderful little slurp-y-pop sound).

Happy Year of the Rat!

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February 7th is the Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday in Chinese culture. This year is the year of the rat, considered the best of all the 12 zodiac animals.


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Even better, my mom and sister were here to celebrate. Plus (yeah, it gets better), the owner of the coffee shop where we buy our coffee invited us all to their celebration at his parents' home in Da An, a small town on the west coast of Taiwan. They fed us two huge meals and entertained us all day. They even let us watch while they did their ancestor worship. This is beyond like inviting strangers over for Christmas dinner, this is like inviting strangers over to open presents in pajamas on Christmas morning and then stay for dinner.

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Check out Ellie's New Year outfit, she and Grammy (my mom) are both festive in red.

Ellie was a complete hit with all the kids. She was so much of a hit that I actually had to protect her from their overzealous attentions.

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One of them is trying to feed her in this picture.


Before lunch we went to see a small temple down the street.

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Four lovely ladies...

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....and the rest of our crew (minus Jason who is behind the camera and the adults who are back home, probably glad the foreigners and kids are all out of the house so they can have some peace and quiet).


This is our wonderful lunch, the smaller of the two meals (and still twice as much food as we needed to stuff ourselves silly).

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After lunch we drove over to nearby Da Jia to visit the famous Matzu Temple.

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The temple was packed with worshipers coming to make offerings to Matzu in hopes of receiving blessings and good luck for the coming year. The tables set up outside are waiting to be filled with offerings to Matzu, and I am sure that in the next couple of weeks they will be full to the brim.

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Tables inside were already overflowing with offerings of food, fake money, and flowers.

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In addition to food and other offerings, worshipers also offer prayers and incense.

When we had finished ogling observing the temple goings on, we milled around outside while our hosts finished worshiping.

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Aren't those chrysanthemums gorgeous!?

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This is my favorite picture from the time with my family.

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We thought this little fella was funny. Taiwanese people love the Yankees of course.

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Amanda talks with a couple of her young fans.


After our trip to the temple we received a driving tour around Da An. This was fine with us, it was too cold to get out and walk. Then we went back to the house to drink tea and hope our lunch would digest before we had to stuff ourselves again at dinner time.

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During dinner the children came to the adult table and started saying wishes and blessings to their grandparents. Most were cute and silly, like "I wish you to be 18 forever".  In return each child got a red envelope full of money. Instead of looking forward to Santa Claus all year, Chinese children
look forward to getting their red envelopes at the New Year.

Then, on top of all the kindness and generosity this family had already shown us, the grandparents even gave Ellie her own red envelope full of money!

If it wasn't for this family, we would have spent the New Year in our apartment with nothing to do because all the stores are closed. Instead we had an incredible experience and learned tons about Chinese culture. They went way out of their way to make us feel at home in their country.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hey, it's my birthday!

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Look who came to my party!!!!

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My mom and my sister Amanda came to Taiwan for two weeks, starting with my birthday and ending with Ellie's. Having family visit is the best thing that can happen in Taiwan. This is how happy it makes me:

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(Ellie is doing her signature growl in this picture.)

Dark chocolate cheesecake (the birthday cake they made me) makes me happy too! Here I am blowing out my make-shift candles. Each one counts for nine years.

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