The memory is Enough. . . for today

I feel his 4 year old little hands tugging at my pillow and as I squeak open my sleep ridden eyes, I am greeted by his, “Mom, is this rock beautiful?”  I rub my eyes a bit and sit half way up to see what is 2 centimeters from my eyes, “Yes, buddy. It is beautiful.”

Yesterday we went with some friends to a new wilderness park and while the other kids played in a sand pile and raced on new trails, he had occupied himself with finding new rocks for his rock collection.

“No, Mom, I mean is it really, really beautiful?” I sit up and he hands me his prized rock from yesterday. . . the rock that has been washed and dried and washed and dried and polished until it shines to me. "It's special. . . for you." was his reply and he gave it to me with enough sparkle in his eyes to melt my heart into a puddle.  Someday he will give some other girl a sparkly "rock" as a token of his love and the sparkle in his eyes will be enough to seal that special memory into her heart forever too and she'll wear that sparkly rock on her finger with love and devotion. . . but for today. . .my sparkly rock is proudly displayed on my dining room table and the memory of my little 4 year olds gift of love is enough for today.

Parenting from the 7th Floor . . .

So, here I sit in my 7th floor apartment on a 100 degree day trying to figure out how in the world do I parent from the 7th floor!  I know that sounds strange to most people. . . you parent in the same way that  you do from the 17th floor I have been told.  But what I mean is that living in urban China high rise  apartments has been a huge challenge for me coming from rural Minnesota.  Summer has always been my favorite time of year and mainly because I LOVE being outside. I love playgrounds, and dandelions in the back yard and chasing bubbles and sprinklers and gardening and picnic tables used at least once a day in the summer.  I LOVE being at the lake or at the pool and I LOVE all of those things with my kids in tow.  Try translating that to my 7th floor apartment in busy urban China and you'll see that not much of it is transferable.  I'm  creative by nature so I find creative ways of bringing some of those things into our lives but not in a way that truly meets my needs and definitely does not meet my desires.   So, hence, here I sit in my 7th floor apartment trying to figure out how in the world do I "parent" from the 7th floor? And praying that I don't have to for much longer.  What I wouldn't give if God were to provide for us  a different housing situation.  There have been a few "possibilities" that have been sort of dangled in front of us in the last year that I thought  would solve maybe half of our needs but none that would solve all of them and for various reasons they did not work out so I am still praying and still trusting that a place will open up for us that will close the gap between what we have and what we need.  But until then also wanting to live in a place of contentment and joy.  I don't know what is harder parenting from the 7th floor or being content to parent from the 7th floor. :)  I guess both will require a huge dose of grace.