Dec Highlight: Foodie Post

I would be remiss if I did not do a December post on food. I could really start a whole food blog about so many interesting, disgusting, delicious things we find on this side of the world, not to mention our fave western recipes I have tweaked here... but let's settle for this tidbit!

After sports day, Isabella's class had a party where they ate "Shou (hand) Zhua (take, as in grab) fan (rice/food)" This is from a local minority, eaten on a banana leaf and is indeed eaten with your hands. I personally do not care for the flavor, but our kids really like it. 

And I have to admit the presentation is awesome: 

Here is a weekly meal for us. And please know that not all noodles are created equal.
(and neither is rice, for that matter. At. all.)

These are 'pulled noodles', westerners also refer to them as 'Muslim noodles' because they are made by a Muslim minority here.  These are wheat noodles and they are delicious.

Ate the same restaurant we get stir fried pulled noodles with onions, peppers, and beef. All with awesome flavor. Even the little bowls of beef broth with green onion and a little cilantro are devoured by our fam.


Now, here is a different noodle. We call these 'Shan noodles' also because the Shan minority of Burma make these. These are rice noodles 'er si' and other varieties like 'mi xian'. This particular restaurant's has a flavor all their own. We have been eating these since 2002. Though they have moved all over town, and have had to keep up with new health regulations and Chinese FDA standards, they are still going strong. You need to top this noodle off with a good egg pancake drizzled with sweet and condensed milk. This is called 'Roti' in Thailand, India, and Burma, and is another mouth-watering local treat.

Gabrielle and Amelya love theirs. (Amelya will be introduced in another post).


Now. I LOVE baking at Christmas time. I LOVE cooking at this time. Usually I can get in the kitchen with less responsibility elsewhere and really enjoy myself. It is my year-end therapy. Seriously. I can start tasks, work hard toward a goal, and produce something (usually pretty decent).

 A lot of my daily tasks don't hold out such promise of accomplishment....

I made a lot of fudge. I made a lot of bread. I tried some new dinner recipes. 

 And for gifts, we gave away a TON of Challah bread, a beautiful braided bread, having its roots as a Jewish Sabbath and holiday bread. It is very easy to make, and delicious when eaten warm. I froze this and when rewarmed almost tasted pure fresh.This is the recipe I used though there are a ton of variations. With one batch, I made four smaller loaves (3 stranded braid) and used those as my teacher gifts. When giving to a family or the neighborhood guards I split the big batch in two and did a six-stranded braid.

Plus, the girls got into helping me braid!!

I have made cinnamon rolls before.
I have used a mock Cinnabon recipe before. And they have been fine.
Cinnabons are one of David's all-time favorite things, and since December was a 'not eat healthy' month....I decided to provide. This was his Christmas gift from me.

And let me tell you friends, this recipe was not 'fine'. It was exquisite. I know I am talking about a breakfast roll, but please believe me. This is it! Cinnamon rolls are not my favorite but after tasting these I am a changed person.

I am sure everyone is into their New Year diet groove. But hold onto this for Valentine's Day (or Chinese New Year (Feb 5)), you will not be disappointed. Go HERE and thank me.

So much more in the Food realm I could explore here. Maybe I will start a series...another task that may not get accomplished. Let me go make some soup...

Dec Highlight: School Sports Days

December always bring sports days at school for our kids. Each one was on a different day and was all day. This year they had each kid participate in running (30m for smaller kids, 50m for others), ball throwing, jump roping, long jump, and then group events as well. We went to watch the morning individual events. This was another event that was lots of fun to go and be a part of the school community. We know so many of our kids' friends now that it was also exciting to support them as well. 

These competitions were per grade, and separated into boy and girl competitions. What this means is that for Second grade the total grade has about 420-450 people, and almost equally boy girl. As the grades get higher the student number increases some. So the kids are competing against about 200+ other folks. 

Tobin's day was first.

He placed in the running event. Tying with others for 5th place. His prize was a pack of rulers, etc.
(The other foreigners here, (our very close friends) have a girl in 2nd grade. She placed FIRST in ball throwing!)

The jump rope competition amazed me. Some of these kids could jump so fast you could not see their feet leaving the ground. One kid in a higher grade jumped 230 in one minute (no self-counting, there was a real judge per kid counting). Holy Cow. Go try it, see how you do...NOT easy.

Isabella's class was the next day. She tied for fourth in the Ball throwing competition!

Competition gets a bit stiffer the older the grades. Sophia's grade has some great athletes.

She ran strong, threw far, and her class placed in one of the group events.

And even Gabrielle's kindergarten had their sports day, which was really each class dancing to a song with a different theme. Her class' theme was basketball. This was on a Saturday because it was a school make-up day for the day they were getting off for New Years (yes, the make-up holiday days). The other kids were in school, so off we went in the freezing cold (cold for wimpy me, 55 degrees maybe) to watch her dance...

...but just look at the view. Crisp, clear morning. She did great, and because she got a little cut after her performance, we left the shindig early!

Dec Highlight: Frodo, the Dog

We've been promising a dog for years. "Once Gabrielle is potty-trained" I used to say. 

"Mom she's been potty-trained since she was two years old!"

And this summer David and I really started talking serious about it. IF we were going to get a dog, it had to be an indoor, smart, non-shedding, small dog. A poodle. I never loved poodles, but the ones we had seen around here were so adorable. And he had to be cute, no froo-froo poodle hair cuts. I kept showing David pictures, and man was I being picky, but I didn't care. 

We never actually went looking, though. I saw one that I asked about in a shop in the summer, but the shopkeeper was so unfriendly, we didn't go back. 

So, after our Thanksgiving trip, the first weekend of Advent, we went out to actually just look for a puppy in order to get one in time for Christmas. The first shop didn't have any, but he knew of someone who had some poodle pups and showed us some video on his phone. We decided we might come back, but we would keep looking. 

We stopped by another shop with an adorable five month old very hyperactive poodle. Not the one for us. Did I mention the other requirements? No barky, yippy, out of control dog. I basically wanted the dog to not act too dog-like. I needed a calm addition, not more chaos. Yes, the bar was set HIGH, poor new Coker dog, right?

Next we decided to ask at the only vet we knew in town. She told us right away, her daughter had been raising some. She had one left, a 3 month old poodle, she could bring it over. Sure, why not?

While waiting at the Vet, we saw a sick dog get an IV, another dog had been attacked by a big dog and was in desperate need of stitching up, and a variety of other unsightly things. 

They brought the pup over in a little shopping bag...poor thing. And of course, we were all smitten. 

Who wouldn't be?

This was our first impression. 

Utter cuteness. And supreme calm. He was scared. He did not make one sound. And I started to back-track on my 'no barking' qualification, because, after all, we wanted a dog with a little personality-Part lap dog, part kids play companion. 

This little tyke was so docile, let us all hold him, and was quite charming. 

We sat with him for a good half hour. We all already wanted him. But we still decided to wait a bit, think it over and discuss. But really our hearts were his. 

When we asked via text later if the dog was playful, did he ever bark? They sent us a video of him in his cage barking quite a bit, and of him interacting with another dog. This sealed the deal and we arranged to pick him up the next day.

Frodo became our dog! The name was hard because I always wanted a Samwise dog, my fave character in one of my fave books, but Frodo was more fitting. We also considered Chewbacca, Chewy for short, since he was loving to chew. We settled on Frodo Chewbacca Coker. Fro-Fro, and Fro-boy are some of his nicknames. 

And boy do we love him. He is super smart, and has trained well. 

But we have our days. Days where he frustrates us just like a toddler might. He has rocked our world when we realize every morning he has to go out and we need to keep him from waking the kids. But seriously he has been GREAT. 

He is a people dog. He just wants to be near us always. He loves to snug into a spot and chill.
He loves to chew, David has taught him how to sit and shake. The kids are doing great with training, taking him out, and even cleaning up poop and throw up.

He also lets our kids treat him like a rag-doll at times. He is so fun with them. His personality has blossomed so much! They pick him up and cuddle him all day long, they play fetch with him in the yard, and daily say how much they love him.

He does like to nip/bite/chew everything. He has bitten our kids playfully though it is painful some times. We are training him not to do this, but it takes work!

We love this grandma too, she was playing peek-a-boo with Frodo. We are training him to stay in our yard when he is outside (which is usually only outside if we are) and so far he has obeyed.

 We put him back in the box to remind the kids this was their Christmas gift. They also mutually decided to help pay some of the monthly costs from their chore money.

He is great with all kids! Even our friend's 2 yo, loves on him well!

Welcome Sweet Frodo to our family and blog story!

November Highlight: Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we traveled north a bit to spend the holiday with sweet friends. 

Though David fought a raging cold (his first in years!), we had such a great time watching our kids reconnect with friends and enjoying our own time as adults talking through so much of parenting, lives here, heart issues, etc. We love getting real with these folks and appreciate their friendship so much. 

We met with other westerners for the actual meal and ate wonderful holiday comfort food.
I belly-laughed a ton through this meal and the adult conversation...I really needed it.

We went on hikes, hammocked together to chat and enjoyed sunshine!

 Love our kids' connecting.

Precious peeps!

Post Thanksgiving (Black Friday) Hike!

And the usual firepit smores!

We loved being with this family and were so blessed by our visit with them.

Oct Highlight: Reformation Halloween Fusion

Every year around and on Oct 31st we study and remind our kiddos about Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses and the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the world of the time and on their lives today. We always join with the S family to dress up in any costume and play games and even 'trick or treat' at the feet of every adult  (total=4). Because they have never experienced an American Halloween, they think they are getting lots of candy! 

This year I decided to have a costume parade and contest with silent votes for the winner. The S fam had great costumes too, not included here, but we had an army soldier, a princess, a softball player, and more. 

Here is what our fam came up with (winner announced at the end, with the funny prize)

Black Panther

Spy Kid

Official 'Nerd'

Princess Leia:

Chinese School student (squeezing into Sophia's uniform)

 Princess Elsa

The winner was...of course....David with the Nerd outfit. He received a 'spicy' snickers. Yes, it is a real thing. They add spicy pepper to the chocolate...and for the record it remains uneaten.

Oct Highlight: My Health Concerns Part 2: My Journal

(during one of my trips KM boosted my confidence to dye my (graying) roots)

So many people came alongside us during all of this. Many people offered to go with me, one friend (a mother of 5) offered to travel to our house so David could go with me! The prayers poured out on my behalf encouraged my soul so much. During these days everyone kept asking how we were doing emotionally with everything. (There were so many other things going on in this country, so much busyness in the work here, deadlines, etc.)

The theme was peace. Seriously. I'm not trying to sound super-spiritual, there was an ever-present lack of anxiety in our hearts. This was all HIS grace and so many people's prayers answered.

Here are some excerpts from what I journaled during that time.

Here I am, third biopsy, 2 minor surgical ones, breasts changing, body changing, cells are changing. This we know for sure. I have been so prayed up by everyone, peace has abounded to me in so many tangible ways. Deep breath in, and anxiety has not even been on my plate. But other emotions are playing their part and I would be a fool to ignore them simply because I fear being a little over dramatic.

I have had very real and deep senses and impressions the Spirit has given me through the word and my prayer time in regards to marriage and family and parenting and this short life. Its all I've ever written about…simple variations on a theme. Calm, enjoy, beauty truth goodness, with Christ at the center of it all. How can the psalmist say (131)... I have quieted and calmed myself, like a weaned child with its mother, I am content... apart from the work of Christ? 

This last trip back, there I sat, my face awash with tears in the dark on the airplane pondering, praying through what might be next. Told I will most likely get cancer in the next 2-20 years. Take a medicine though and you may never…but you will have aches and pains and lose your vibe, lose your womanhood, lose the spring in your step. Which is way better than the alternative, right? Or watch and wait. Wait for it. Watch (meaning cut open every suspicious thing), and wait (until they change to malignant). The pre-malignancy diagnosis is so interesting because it is such good news, and still so unsettling.

I just kept thinking...'don't waste your life' what a cliché these days. I kept thinking... Take the time now to travel, to experience your kids your husband, your world. Stop the speed train of homeschool and local school, and extracurriculars on repeat. SLOW it. Taste and see His goodness in this diagnosis.

I have begged God to change me by killing my sin. He told me he did...in His son, who became my sin. And this may be the follow up answer, this diagnosis. There is no back up plan. Death is the plan. And how he weaves it into each one's story is His gig. Lean on me he says. Don't just lean…lay down. Don't take it up again.

Studying Galatians with Keller. I run, he preaches. Freedom. Foolish Lorraine who has bewitched you? Why do you add to the gospel…it is no gospel….only Jesus. Only Jesus. Not Jesus+. I've been caught with beaming smiles on my 5k as this invigorates my heart anew. The same power that saves us is the power that changes us. It is not get saved by His power and then be sanctified in your own. Oh I how think I can keep myself clean. A lie. This is His wisdom: the Freedom that I can't do it,  and yet I have the power to do it. "In Christ alone, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease, my comforter, my all in all, Here in the love of Christ I stand. Here in His death I live."

Now I am processing through all the anecdotes, the data, the statistics, the choices, information and more. Yet Anxiety is not the emotion I am feeling. I'm not antsy. And though I have made no decision yet I wouldn't even say I'm unsure.  I'm just a bit scared. Of the changes no matter what-- physical ones, mental ones…and the biggest one that I have begged for…the change into Christlikeness through it all. It scares me, what it may take to make me beautiful like him and yet I am all in. It is all I want. A mirror dimly now…some day face to face to fully see.

Oct Highlight: My Health Concerns, Part 1, The Facts

When we touched down in China from the USA we had a message that the docs saw something suspicious on my mammogram. I wrote our medical people and they said I needed to get it followed up on within four weeks. 

[The kids were troopers while I was away on so many short trips, and they loved the candy, games, and sticky rice I brought back!]

Knowing our next few weeks of Sept were going to be swamped I decided to get on a plane to Thailand that weekend. While getting an ultrasound, the doc in Thailand found something even more suspicious on the other side. 

The options: watch and wait, or do a needle biopsy. After much discussion with David and Doctors, and because of family history, we went for the core-needle biopsy. This delayed me a few days in Chiang Mai but I was thankful for the good care. 

I returned home and the results were quite inconclusive. The cells were certainly not normal, they couldn't rule out cancer, they needed to do more pathology on it. With what they were seeing the protocol is for a bigger biopsy (excisional). After more discussion we decided to move my care to a Breast Center in Bangkok. 

I planned another trip out, to BKK this time. And the amount of craziness it took to get my 'tissue' from the core needle biopsy from Chiang Mai to BKK was unbelievable. So many people came to my rescue in this, from SM talking sweetly in Thai to the doctors in CM to LT and DC actually getting the slides with my tissue on them (which is why they couldn't be mailed) on her already planned trip from CM to BKK. This other tissue was needed along with the current bigger biopsy in order to make a complete diagnosis. 

Precious friend, KM came to be with me. I stayed with her in CM and she flew to BKK to be with me through it all, all weekend. It was a two hour surgery, there three hours before, in recovery two hours. It was really like a lumpectomy (they showed me a picture of what they removed). 

KM became a bosom friend through this all. She was exactly who I needed. We talked everything: cancer, friends, theology, cancer. We did a ton of research together, and talked through every aspect of breast cancer. 

The doctor put a rush on the pathology, and also said in her pre-surgery ultrasound that she didn't like what the USA saw on the other side either (though ironically the USA didn't catch the more suspicious spot). I wasn't expecting to get the answer there but in the appointment the next day she drew me a picture of what my cells were doing. And it wasn't good. No malignancy, yet, but looked to be moving that way. 

There was a name for the diagnosis, but it doesn't matter at this point. From there the doctor wanted to put me on an estrogen-suppressor. She also said she wanted to remove the spot on the right too (the one that brought me on this road to begin with). I decided to wait on the medicine, but a few weeks later there I was again for another minor surgery. And KM was right there with me. Precious, precious friend, I could not have done this without her at all. 

David also and always has been my hero (managing home and work 5 days each on three different trips) and he started researching. We consulted with other docs as well. Some said watch and wait (biopsy anything suspicious), a few said, sure take the medicine (watch out for some serious side affects). And also, as always,we started looking at the cancer-fighting diet options. 

My right side was completely benign and I was negative for the Breast Cancer Gene--all great news. We are still in a holding pattern in regards to the changing cells on the left and I will return in March for a breast MRI and the decision of whether to take the medicine or not. 

Those are just the tidbits of the facts from my health concerns that rocked us in Sept-Oct. 

Next post: A (long) journal about the experience. Feel free to skip if you want! ;)