In America, We will never....

So in honor of the past three years that we have spent in Nepal and the excitement we have about coming to America in just 6 days we have been spending some time "reminiscing" about life here and our adjustment back to America for a while and we have come up with a great list of things that will NEVER happen or that we WILL NEVER DO in America that happen here or that we do here in Nepal (thanks to our great friends Jesse and Shanee and Jo for help with this)...

(in no particular order)
In America...
1. We will never see people riding on the roof of buses, trucks and cars because the inside of the bus, truck and car is so full.
2. We will never go into a video store (picture Blockbuster...do they still have that??) and ask, "Is this a pirated copy?"
3. We will never go to a friend's house for dinner and have to hide the food they give us in our pockets, bag or better yet, have to throw it off the balcony when they are not looking because they give us WAY too much and it tastes SO bad we can't eat it if we tried, just to make them happy because food is so important here and in this culture you definitely DON'T leave food on your plate even though THEY served you a GIGANTIC portion.
4. We will never have to bargain to buy things like toilet paper, jackets, taxis, light bulbs, etc. And we will never have to ask a salesman if he is giving us the right price or if the price is just high because we are foreigners.
5. We will never have to boil or filter water.
6. We will never eat with our hands, lick our fingers after a meal, lick our plate or drink soup from the bowl without using a spoon.
7. We will never find a piece of hair (or glass or a bug) in our food in a restaurant and just pull the hair out, not say anything, and continue eating the rest of the meal like nothing happened.
8. It will never just be OK to show up 1 hour late for a meeting, church, sporting event, conference, lunch date, etc and not give an excuse, call or even mention it.
9. We will never see a blind person (or multiple blind people) leading another blind person down the road (I PROMISE this happens here).
10. We will never see a family of 4 (or 5 or 6) all riding on the same motorcycle.
11. We will never have to carry our own toilet paper with us to our friend's homes because they don't use toilet paper and don't have it in their homes.
12. We will never have to use a squatty potty.
13. We will never have to soak our vegetables in iodine water for twenty minutes before we eat them because they are so dirty.
14. We will never sit in traffic for 20 minutes and after it dissipates see that the reason for it was 4 cows lying in the middle of the road (or a man crossing the street with his goats or sheep).
15. We will never eat cheese SO hard that we have to keep it in the side of our cheek until the hot tea we are drinking melts it.
16. We will never drink tea with butter and salt in it.
17. We will never have language barriers. We will never be walking down the street and not understand 95% of what is being said.
18. We will not be able to talk about anything we want to in English in front of people because they have no idea what we are staying.
19. We will not see a lady making and selling tea on the side of the road.
20. We will not have to wonder if the place we are going to for lunch has wild monkeys there that take away your food.
21. We will never be driving and have to turn around because a riot has begun without notice.
22. We will never have a "shoot-to-kill" order on our street and be stuck in our home for 22 days straight because there is a mandatory curfew called by the government.
23. We will never find a person who will work with all of their might for $1 a day and be completely happy about it.
24. We will never hire "professional" movers and have them show up with a dump truck filled with an inch of sand to move our stuff in.
25. We will never be allowed to drive on the wrong side of the road, on sidewalks, through traffic, etc.
26. We will never get away with SO MUCH just because we are "white" (or a foreigner)like driving right past police check-posts, not having plane tickets to board an airplane, etc.
27. We will never be able to schedule very important meetings involving many people hours or one day before hand.
28. We will never see parents in America cover their child's head completely with a plastic bag to shield him from the rain.
29. We will never carry an umbrella on a bright sunny day so we don't get tan from the sun (people here love having "white" skin).
30. We will never choose to use the bathroom outside because the "public restrooms" inside are SO nasty and clearly HAVE NEVER been cleaned.
31. We will never be invited over to our friend's home for dinner and be placed in another room completely separate from the family who invited us so we can eat alone.
32. We will never have the option to go to the grocery store and buy the head of the chicken, goat, buffalo or cow.
33. We will never have a cold and have one of our American friends say it is because we drank cold water the day before or that we have a fever so we need to drink hot tea to get rid of it.
34. We will never have diarrhea for a week straight and think it is "normal".
35. We will never drive by the street that our house is on and see 5 men lined up peeing in the field.
36. It will never be OK to pick our nose or spit in public.
37. We will never go to some one's home and have them serve us pure cooked fat as an honor.
38. We will never see 3 year olds playing with matches and fireworks or 12" kukri knives that their parents gave them.
39. We will never look out our window and see 20+ children flying kites off of their roofs.
40. We will never be able to drive without our license and get away with it.
41. We will never have to filter the water for our babies bath.
42. We will never be able to buy prescription drugs without a prescription.
43. We will never wear clothes for multiple days without washing them.
44. We will never have to binge buy when imported goods from America are available at the supermarket because we don’t know when they may come again.
43. We will never have to buy gas on the black market from the local supplier as there is none available at the pump.
44. We will never have to wait for 1 month for cooking gas as there is severe shortage of essential goods.
45. We will never feel like we are "off-roading" while driving on the main road.
46. We will never drive in a car holding our babies in our laps.
47. We will never pay $5 per month for cable TV.
48. We will never have a porter carry our new refrigerator on his back for 3 miles to deliver it to our home.
49. We will never have to point and tell the butcher which part of the meat we want to take home.
50. We will never take ½ day just to get money out of our bank account.

Not me Monday...

For a few weeks now one of my favorite "stranger friends" (as my husband likes to call them, referring to people I don't personally know but read their blogs) began hosting a blog carnival entitled "Not me Monday" where you are brutally honest about some of the crazy things you did the past week by writing "not" in the sentence thus masking what you did, to yourself and everyone else around you so that you can feel more comfortable writing about your life and the crazy things you do and experience each day. I think it is a fun, hilarious idea and for weeks now I have been wanting to participate. McMama (the one who started it all) has an amazing blog and although she is a "stranger friend", I have enjoyed getting to know her and her family a little bit through her wonderful blog. She loves God and desires to serve Him even during the difficult times. You should definitely go over and check out her blog for yourself and while you are there you should read her amazing story and consider praying for her soon-to-be-born son Stellan. So here goes my first attempt at a "Not me Monday"...

1. I definitely did not see a completely naked man walking down the same street I was walking down with my husband and two babies and if I did I defininitely would not have wondered why in the world was said man totally naked yet carrying a suitcase? and I definitely would not have found it funny that all of the Nepali people all up and down the street were talking and laughing about it. No not me...stuff like this does not happen to me. I definitely do not live in a crazy country where things like this definitely do not happen everyday!
2. I did not stay in my pajamas 3 days this week while I did stuff around the house. No, not me! That would be breaking one of our house rules and I never break our house rules, not to mention would be lazy! And I am never lazy!
3. I definitely did not say anything mean to my husband this week and regret it later. I am always the perfect wife and I never say anything I feel sorry for later.
4. My bed definately did not go unmade almost (ok all) of the days this week. I always keep a perfectly tidy home and can easily balance it all! (I am really trying to work on this one!)
5. I definitely did not work really hard on making my first every falaffal balls from scratch only to have them disipate into basically nothing when I put them in the oil to fry them. Not me! I am an amazing cook and everything I try in the kitchen always turns out perfect!
6. I definitely did not reach my goal two weeks early and run for 30 minutes this week during my exercise time...not me! That might mean that I was a 'runner' so that definitely could not be me. (YEAH!!!)
7. I definitely did not have the guard at the hotel by my house where I go running at tell me in Nepali that I should keep it up and that I will look pretty if I am just a little bit smaller. No, that defintely did not happen to me. Nepalis are definitely not that blunt!
8. I definitely did not forget to write my accountability partner an email this week. Not me! I am always on top of these things and never forget to write, that would be irresponsible!
9. I definitely did not fall asleep two nights this week at 8 pm. I am a night owl and I would never fall asleep that early!
10. I definitely do not have only 15 more days to go before I board an airplane to go to America to be with my family and friends! And I definitely am not totally excited about it!!!!

Baby Food

One of the wonderful benefits of living in Nepal is the fresh produce and its amazing prices. The produce is literally pulled out of someones field or garden and sold that day. That doesn't mean it is clean...we have to soak it in iodine for 20 minutes and wash it in filtered water (not much in Kathmandu is clean) but it does mean that I can make some great baby food for CHEAP! I have college aged girl that helps me around the house during the week and she cleans and boils up the veggies and I blend them up and put them in the ice cube trays for perfect easy portions. We only have to do this once every two weeks or so. So, what do we pay for these delectable baby treats?

2.2 lbs of green beans - $.50

2.2 lbs of potatoes - $.30

4.5 lbs of apples - $2.50

3 lb pumpkin - $.40

Total for 2 weeks worth of baby food: $3.70

Important Election

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the election and it has been on my heart to truly understand the issues and what each candidate stands for. I never want to simply vote for someone because they are labeled 'republican' or 'democrat'. I want to know what I am voting in favor of, what the person I am voting for intends to do if elected. Just this morning I was talking to an amazing friend about all of this. As I was sharing some of my concerns about some of the things that Obama stands for she asked me where I heard the information. I told her that I knew it was fact but had to find out where/when it was said...anyway...tonight I was online looking for stuff for her and came across my friend Shanee's blog and she had just posted a wonderful break down of some of the things I was searching for. I have been really appalled at some of the things that Obama stands for and have felt compelled to share those with others (even though politics is always a difficult issue to talk about). I want to post this post from Shanee's blog here for you all to see. I hope it gives some true insight to the battle we are fighting.

For those of you who plan to vote for Obama, please make sure that you understand his moral character and the serious changes that will be made (and that you will be supporting) if he is elected President. (I got most of this information from an article by Princeton University professor Robert P. George, Princeton University Robert George).

Barack Obama is the most liberal candidate ever to run for President, and surely the most extreme supporter of abortion that has ever graced the national ticket. Here are just a few of the changes Obama promises to make if he is elected:

Change #1: Obama has promised to seek repeal of the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment has protected pro-life citizens for years from having to pay for abortions that are not necessary to save the life of the mother and are not the result of rape or incest. This goes way beyond “pro-choice.” Obama does not merely think that abortion is a private choice that public authority should refrain from getting involved in (as his running mate does). Rather, Obama would use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, thereby leaving Americans with no choice but to implicate themselves in feticide. (That is why the abortion industry loves Obama).

Change #2: Obama has promised that “the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” (known as FOCA). This legislation would create a federally guaranteed “fundamental right” to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including “a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined ‘health’ reasons.” In other words, FOCA would abolish every existing limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry (protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs).

Change #3: Obama wishes to strip federal funding from pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that provide alternatives to abortion for pregnant women in need. Basically, according to Obama, abortion is the answer to unwanted pregnancies (doesn't sound very "pro-choice" to me).

Change #4: Obama, unlike even many “pro-choice” legislators, opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions and condemned the Supreme Court decision that upheld legislation banning this inhumane practice.

Change #5: This one is unbelievable. As an Illinois state senator, Obama opposed legislation to protect children who are born alive as a result of an unsuccessful abortion. This legislation would not even have banned any abortions; it was simply to provide basic medical and comfort care for living babies. It passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate, supported by pro-choice and pro-life senators alike. But Barack Obama opposed it, fighting for a form of infanticide. (The Obama campaign lied about this until critics produced documentary proof of what he had done).

Change #6: Obama has promised only to appoint Supreme Court justices who support Roe v. Wade. Over the next 4-8 years, as many as 3 justices are likely to retire.

Change #7: Obama has co-sponsored a bill, the “clone and kill” bill, that would authorize the large-scale industrial production of human embryos for use in biomedical research in which they would be killed. In fact, this bill would require the killing of human beings in the embryonic stage that were produced by cloning. It would make it a federal crime for a woman to save an embryo by agreeing to have the tiny developing human being implanted in her womb so that he or she could be brought to term.

Change #8: Obama was one of the few senators to oppose a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate to fund research to develop methods to produce the exact equivalent of embryonic stem cells without using (or producing) embryos. Why create and kill human embryos when there are alternatives that do not require the taking of human lives? It is as if Obama is opposed to stem-cell research unless it involves killing human embryos!The pro-life policies that Obama has promised to get rid of save thousands of lives every year. I am very concerned when I consider what America would become if Obama were elected—one in which not only the unborn have no protection, but one in which a baby who survives an abortion does not even receive comfort care as she dies. Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: “that question is above my pay grade.” His unspoken answer is clear: human beings have no rights until infancy—and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then. It is time for some changes in America, but certainly not these kinds of changes.

Thank you and some new things...

I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who wrote comments about my long posts entitled Are you a godly woman if you use canned spaghetti sauce Part 1, Part 2, Part 3? I was encouraged by your comments and some of your ideas for how you make it work for your family and are able to minister to those around you were helpful for me. I pray that we would continue to learn from each other and grow as godly women in the Lord.

I have mentioned previously about the women's retreat that I had the privilege of attending here in Kathmandu earlier this month and have blogged about some of the things God was showing and teaching me there. Well, there are just a few more I would like to share with you. One of the mornings the main speaker said this:

"Satan does not care about you. He doesn't love you. He wants to kick you when you are down. He has no compassion for you."

Wow. Satan is my enemy. I know that. He is the complete opposite of God and all He stands for. But for some reason when Ms. Bettie said this, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It make me think...does the fact that Satan hates me (and my family, my friends, my co-workers, my neighbors) make me live any differently? Am I daily asking for the Holy Spirit to protect me from Satan's lies and attacks? Am I calling sin: sin and evil: evil, everyday or do I just go about my day without much thought of the fact that there is someone out there that HATES me, that wants everything bad for me and my family, that wants to see me fail, that finds joy in my weaknesses and faults and sin? Am I conscious of the spiritual battle going on around me everyday? Am I prepared for it? Am I tapping completely into the power of Christ, the One who has overcome the world? the One who has power over evil, sin and death?

We are fighting a battle ladies! We have a REAL enemy. Let's not walk blindly through this life, let's put on the full armor and fight with the strength that can only come from Christ: Our amazing God who cares about us, loves us (so much), who wants to lift us up when we are down and who has great mercy, grace and compassion on us!

Why I (now) hate stink bugs...

It is 9:47 pm and I just returned from my second (unexpected) shower of the night. Why, you might ask? Well that is a great question...because I just got sprayed or pooped on or tooted on or whatever it is that stink bugs do when they land on you and get "threatened" as my husband says. Yes, a stink bug (a giant one, I might add) landed on me about 15 minutes ago. I was unaware of his presence and all of a sudden he started making his way up my neck and I felt him and I squealed and I knocked him off of my neck all of which was "threatening" to him, I guess. My husband ran in to find out what was wrong and I just kept pointing at the bug (which I DID NOT know was a stink bug at the time) on the floor and asking him to get rid of it all the while telling him that the bug STUNK (is that a word)? He was just laughing at me and told me that "my new friend" was in fact a stink bug...hence the stink! I felt violated and smelly so it was off to the shower again. I am back and feel much better. But the most important question now is, "Where did the stink bug come from???" We are not safe anywhere...even in the comfort of our own office chair...darn stink bug!

Are we less of a godly woman if we use canned spaghetti sauce??? Part 3

Continued from previous 2 posts...

I feel that we in many ways are living in the past; we've reverted to the past, pre-feminism. As a response to feminism, which in many ways sets up the individual as god, Christianity looked to cultural and social answers for a biblical role of a godly woman. I think that Christian godly woman in the past HAD to make bread, HAD to learn to sew, HAD to make dinner from scratch every night. I think that we have falsely equated what they HAD to do to survive and thrive with what we have to do in this day and age. Is it WRONG to buy store bought bread? Are we less of a godly woman if we use canned spaghetti sauce? MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, where does homemaking fit into the work of the Gospel, for which all of God's children are responsible?: certainly it [homemaking] plays a major role, but it is by no means a complete understanding of the role of a Christian woman in the world bringing the Good News to the lost.

I know you have thought these things. And you know what one of the biggest problems is? Because the Christian culture is telling us that these things are most important, our husbands (like us) believe it. So if you don't make bread but Mary from across the street does, then she is doing what she is supposed to, and we are not.

What about teaching our daughters to serve their husbands, families, homes AND to love the lost, to spend time serving others around her, to spend time cleaning the old ladies house down the street, to spend time washing dishes at the homeless shelter, to take food to others to bless them, to share what Christ has done in her life with the world. The only way she is going to learn these things is if we model them in our own lives. This is "Discipleship 101."

Serving others around you does not mean that your home life has to suffer. I definitely don’t think that that is what God intends. It just means that you figure out what is most important and do it and teach it. Figure out what is most important because God says so and not because the world (Christian or not) is telling you so. It would be amazing to know how much the world is changed if every housewife shared her faith with at least one other woman a week, if every housewife not only made bread for her family but also made it for the neighbor's family.

There are many ways to do this and make it happen. Maybe you can sit down with your husband and figure out just one hour a week where he can stay home with the kids and you can get out. For women on this side of the world, this may be easier for you because your husbands' schedules may be more flexible (and many of us have some sort of house help). For ladies whose husbands have full time, set-hour jobs, this may be more difficult, but you also could hire a high school kid to come and stay at home with your children for just one hour while you spend time visiting with ladies on your street. (I encouraged taking your children with you before. These are just ideas if that is not possible or for times you would just like to be able to have a deeper conversation without having to get up every few minutes to take care of the children.)

This all may sound silly, crazy even, but perhaps that is because there is little to no priority given to the Gospel. For wives who have husbands who have flexible work schedules, consider discussing this with him and seeing if there are ways that you can compromise and work out a few hours a week (or one day a week) that he can stay with the children while you go out into the community OR (since I am sure many of you might say that these things won't work) what about inviting women into our home? What about hosting lunches at our home for the ladies on our street and all chipping in to hire a babysitter (even just one babysitter who can be an extra set of hands) and talking about life issues? Serving them?

We make it work for things we want to do (ouch…I am speaking to myself here (in ALL of this) just as much ladies!) like going out to eat with friends, going to the mall or movies, but for some reason when it comes to ministry we have let ourselves become content with serving only within the confines of the home.

Have you ever been around women who say, "I know my ministry right now is to serve my husband and my children and take care of my home, but I am just not happy: I feel something is missing"? I have! I have been around MANY women like this who are battling between what the Christian community is telling them and what they understand Scripture is saying. I think this is because we are imbalanced about what we are teaching women is important, and I think this is because we are settling to stay in our comfort zones in our home and not push each other to look for ways that we can not only serve inside our home but also OUTSIDE among those that need the Gospel (OF COURSE I know your children need the Gospel too, PLEASE don't misunderstand or misread!), need to know God loves them and wants a relationship with them and has a perfect plan for their lives! I think this is also because our husbands are also listening to the "Christian culture" and thinking that we should be happy and content and fulfilled in our duties at home. So, they can't understand (and sometimes don't help) when we want to find some way to serve others in our community.

I think one of the most important things in all of this is the WHY. Why do we want help from our husbands...why do we want time to "get out", etc? Is it because we feel ENTITLED to some time away, because we desire EQUALITY so much, because we are seeking for something else to satisfy us other than our duties at home, because we feel our gifts and talents will be better utilized and appreciated outside of the home? If it is for one of these reasons I think we have MISSED it as well. I am not condoning ANY of these reasons. I am only suggesting that we should "get out" (or invite women in) because of our awesome responsibility as Christian, Jesus following, women to take Christ's love to the lost around us.

I am not asking you to approach your husband and tell him, "I need MY time." I am asking you to consider (and pray about) approaching your husband and explaining to him this INTENSE (God given) desire you have to SERVE your Lord with those around you and explain to him that you might need his help to do so. I am suggesting that you approach your husband and explain to him that you simply want to fulfill what the Lord has asked of you in impacting the world around you in your community BECAUSE of your love for Christ and NOT out of selfish motives.

I venture to say that if we do this, we will all be MORE equipped to serve our families and our home and will be better wives and moms because we are doing exactly what God asked us to do and not spending our days wondering why we feel like 'something is missing' the way that we often do.

I pray that as you have read this you feel LOVE and not condemnation. I pray that you see my humble, learning heart in all of this and not an arrogant spirit. I am not trying to be offensive or to shove my "opinions" down your throat. I am not trying to be a renegade and go against all cultural norms. I am not trying to JUDGE. I am not making a blanket statement that all Christian women are under this impression. I am not trying to put all Christian women in a box. I am trying to do the OPPOSITE!

I am trying to encourage and sharpen you and me. I am trying to hold us all to the correct standard. I am trying to search through Scripture and truly live according to God's plan. I am simply trying to help us all become the women that God has designed us to be.

**OK, I have already heard from a few of you (thanks for commenting) but I want to hear more. For those of you who stuck with me for all three posts, what do you think? I would love to know what this has done in your life. I would love to know your opinion on the matter, what God is teaching you. Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!