Third Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Matthew's third birthday! It's hard to believe nearly three years have gone by since he joined our family!

We invited some of our Chinese friends and some kids over to a party on Saturday. Matthew's always had a favorite show (Elmo, Pooh, Cedarmont Kids, Karyn Henley, Chuck the Dump Truck...) and now he's really into Jake & the Neverland Pirates (a spin-off on the classic Peter Pan). As such, Cheryl & Jenna made him a treasure chest birthday cake. :D

 

For those who would not join in during the eating of the treasure chest, we also provided a mousse-ish chocolate cake we bought at a bakery (It's called Ali's Bakery.) I [Abby] think I was the only one who didn't have any treasure chest cake, simply because the mousse cake was just too good to be replaced by the likes of a cake with frosting. (I am of the odd few that do not like consuming tons of frosting. I like whipped cream and cherries and such, but frosting is just too thick for me.) 

This was a delicious chocolate mousse cake made at our favorite bakery.

Some of the invited

Matthew & Mom

~Rick

~Cheryl

~Abby

A Morning in the Life of The Lindners...Amidst an Earthquake.

The following takes place between 7:00 am and 8:00 am CST (Read with Jack Bauer's voice). The times are all approximate because nobody was looking at the clock. Events are portrayed from Jenna's perspective.

7:00 Matthew wakes up at his usual time, slapping his bare feet as he runs down the hall. He does this every single morning.

7:30 I finally dose back to sleep.

7:45 Mom announces"we are having an earthquake". I am startled awake and immediately say no we're not only to find that my bed is indeed swaying and my heart is racing.

7:45:15 Dad yells from the living room that we are having an earthquake, his warning more startling than the first.

7:45:30 Mad race begins to get a family of 8 (including the dog) down 16 flights of stairs and outside.

Viewer/Reader discretion now partially advised.

7:46 Frantically in search of pants and boulder holders (there are 4 women in our home) so I can go get the baby (Zachary, our foster boy) up. Also mentally preparing myself for the very messy diaper he presents us with every morning.

7:48 Mom is getting a bottle prepared as Dad gets Matthew dressed and grabs the Passports. Emma gets the leash on the dog and Abby grabs umbrellas (we noticed is was pouring outside).

7:49 I was successful in changing Zachary's diaper and getting him dressed. Now begins our descent.

7:51 Made it down 16 flights of stairs with 3 adults, 2 teenagers, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, stroller, umbrellas, passports, a diaper bag and are now amongst quite a few people huddled under the overhang above the apartment building entrance (I am not a morning person and don't think well that early and without my coffee so I was unable to capture a picture during the huddle, my apologies).

7:51:30 Matthew, huge smile on face, announces "Look! Everybody is here"

7:53 We have 3 baby bottles and 3 covers, 1 of which Zachary refuses to drink from...we grabbed that 1. Cranky, hungry baby...check.

7:55 Matthew comes back to the shelter of the overhang after enjoying some jumps in the puddles. He was a happy camper.

7:56 Dad comes back from the front store with news of the location of the earthquake. Gansu province, about 300 miles NW of us.

7:57 Really wishing we had time to brush our teeth, morning breath started to overtake us.

We headed back up after about 25 minutes knowing we were in no imminent danger. Pretty proud of our 4 minute evacuation considering a majority of us were awoken mid-sleep. As I began typing this post, our earthquake warner (lights above our kitchen table) started to sway. We thought it was maybe an aftershock. We had things packed and ready for descent number 2, but decided we were ok after the swaying duration lasted for only 15 seconds.

Thankful for God's protection and praying for the areas affected more severely from this earthquake.

Also thankful for my Mom's preparedness amidst the the chaos as she started handing out cheese crackers to our fellow huddle mates.

Servant Leadership Talk

I had the opportunity to teach servant leadership to a developer company. They are one of the larger companies here building new apartments for all of China. My teacher and her husband requested this. (Her husband is the general manager of this company to talk with his employees.) I based my talk on Pastor Rick's teaching on servant leadership “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28).  Here are the points Pastor Rick talks about, 1. What servant leadership looks like. 2. What a servant leader says to others. 3. What a servant leader says to himself.  I talked to about twenty-five employees. The problem my friend is having at his company is the same one companies all over the have; issues with integrity,dishonesty and not wanting to do extra work,with employees often saying "that's not my job".

We played a variation of musical chairs, in which we removed chairs and not people. The men were on one team and the women were on another. They had so much fun; the women were the smarter ones and were able to get everyone on one chair before the guys did. I shared with them that the women just knew what to do while the men tried to think too much about how to get everyone onto one chair. They were planning it all out ahead of time and it did not work. I feel it went well; they have asked me to come back and share more.

The next topic they would like me to discuss Jesus (ye su in Chinese). I am so excited to have this opportunity. They also want my wife and daughters to go to the company and share with the women. They want them to teach the ladies how to cook western food and share their testimony. God is using us more and more on a daily basis. We told the Lord the saying our Pastor always says, "Use me and/or us".

You really. have to be ready if you use these words.

Well, we are excited. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support! :)

A few of Matthew's favorite things to do

Matthew loves riding in a Beng Beng Che, going shopping at Metro, and riding on the subway. Metro is like the Chinese version of Costco, without the $2.00 hot dogs, coke, or pizza. Just about five months ago Matthew wasn't allowed in Metro because he was under 1.2 meters. For some reason they now just let him in, yet he is still not yet 1.2 meters 

The completion of Matthew's adoption is pretty close. All of his paperwork is in Beijing and we are just waiting for the permission to travel to his province for the final steps. Thank you to God, Show Hope (http://www.showhope.org/), and The JSC Foundation (http://www.jscfoundation.org/)  for giving us the grants to make this adoption possible. Also, thank you to Elim Kids (Dr. Sam & Dr. Julie) for giving us the opportunity to foster Matthew almost three years ago.  

So GQ

Riding the subway

View from the inside of our Beng Beng Che.

~Rick

P.S. from Abby: Hope you had a happy Fourth of July holiday. And, for those who don't celebrate Independence Day, I still hope you had a good day. :D