Christmas Greetings - 2014

2014 has been a blessed year for the Meyer Family: We began the year in Shanghai, China and will close it out in Minneapolis, Minnesota - where we moved in June.  While we miss so much about our life in China, especially our dear friends, we are thankful for God's faithful provision to return to the U.S.  We are still adjusting to life here, including Joab looking for a new job after being laid off in September.  Overall, we have been encouraged to see how everyone is building more connections here.

Adjusting Well to the US: A lot of people ask us how the kids are adjusting to life in the USA. Truly, they are doing great: School, Church, Neighborhood and Time with Family - they love it all!
- Miriam and Asa: Our big kids attend a local Chinese Charter Immersion School - Ying Hua Academy.  This has been an amazing way for Asa and Miriam to continue in their Chinese studies. They both have made some great friends and love being a part of such a great community.
- Salome was fluent in Chinese when we left this summer and now has forgotten most of her Chinese. This makes us sad, but hopeful she can gain it again next year when she goes to Ying Hua for Kindergarten.
- Silas is talking more and more and when you ask him his name he replies "Elmo" just to see you laugh! He brings a lot of laughter to our home.

Prayers Answered and Fulfillment Awaited: I (Emily) had three prayers for our move to the USA: That we would find a house that feels like a home, a church that feels like a family and a job Joab loves. Truly the first two have been met as we are renting an incredible home in North Minneapolis near the kids school and in November become members of Sovereign Grace Church! Now we are just waiting on God for the job! God has answered so many prayers and we are eager to see Him do so again!

Leaving China: Leaving the place we called home for seven years was probably the hardest thing we have done as a married couple. It was not easy to leave a land and community that we loved. But have learned a lot, grown a lot and by God's amazing grace have seen God provide time and time again.  Below are some highlights from the last year.  As always, we would love to hear from you - either through posting on the blog below or e-mailing us (joabandemily@gmail.com)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cutting the Christmas Tree

Halloween Costumes

Carving Pumpkins

First Day of School at Ying Hua Academy

Exploring Minnehaha Creek in South Minneapolis

Moving Into our New Home in North Minneapolis

Leaving Shanghai: Boxes and Goodbye

Summer Trip: Visiting Our Friend's Family in the Anhui Country Side  

Final Party with Local Chinese Friends

Spring Trip with American Friends (the Bowmans) to Nanjing

Ringing in the Chinese New Year with Lights in Downtown Shanghai

Celebrating Christmas and New Year's Day in Penang

This year we celebrated Christmas and brought in the New Year in a special way; we took a family trip to Penang, Malaysia.  In the end, this was a blessed family time of relaxing, re-connecting and enjoying a culture quite different than any other our family has experienced thus far.  

Beautiful Beaches

The first thing we all enjoyed was the beaches and clean air.  Here are the kids standing on a small beach near the National Park.  It was their first time to see the ocean, which Asa declared was "Awesome!".

The second beach we visited was Monkey Beach, which is inside the National Park.  As you can see each of the kids - including little Silas - greatly enjoyed playing on the beach.

Here are the older two kids enjoying a beach-side swing.

The younger two kids enjoyed this "baby pool" type section of the beach.

No beach trip is complete without a sand castle and digging for shells.

Hiking

At the end of the beach was a trail to a light house we heard had a beautiful view of the surrounding area.  Our guide told us it would take 30 minutes to hike (each way), but I guess he didn't calculate hiking with a 14 month Silas and 4 year old Salome.  In the end, the hard work was worth it as the view from the top of the light house was amazing!

Here are Emily and the older three kids while our guide patiently waits at the top of the hill.

This is the light house at the top of the hill, which was built in the late 1800's.

Here is the breath taking vista from atop the light house.

Food

Besides the view another thing that kept us going on the hike was the incredible lunch we ate before hand.  The new types of food we were able to try in Penang was certainly a highlight, especially for Emily and I.

This is our spread from Monkey Beach, which included grilled chicken, fish, shrimp and satay.

Another local treat is shaved ice with flavors and sweet veggies on top.  While the kids didn't go for the sweet canned corn, they loved the shaved ice.

Cool drinks were also a big hit.  Miriam typically stuck with her old standard - Sprite - while Asa discovered milk tea and Salome enjoyed pineapple or mango juice.

We also enjoyed the easy access to Indian food - even if Asa didn't like the Tandoori chicken 

I ordered in the "Little India" section of the historic Georgetown neighborhood.

Local Culture

Penang has a fascinating history that mixes influences from the majority Malay communities as well as ethnic Chinese, Indians and European settlers.  We explored Fort Cornwallis near Georgetown to get a sense of the European influences and also had an opportunity to interact with the local Malay Muslim community near where we stayed.

The kids enjoyed climbing on the old cannons at Fort Cornwallis.

It was also fun to see how much they enjoyed being together - especially the older three kids.

Everyday we were awaken by a call to prayer from this mosque in the neighborhood where we were staying.  The few Malay Muslims we had the opportunity to interact with were very hospitable to outsiders and at the same time earnest about their faith.  We have much to learn about this faith held by many people across the world and here in Asia.

This is a picture of our entire family squeezing with all of our luggage into a single taxi for the last leg of our trip in Penang.  I love seeing the joy on the kids faces - something common throughout the trip.  Not only from the amazing sites and food, but most importantly time together as a family and the opportunity to interact with and learn from many different kinds of people.

Christmas 2013: First Sunday of Advent

Continuing the holiday theme for the weekend, we kicked off our Christmas celebration on the First Sunday of Advent by setting up our Christmas tree.

The Kids enjoyed setting up the tree and eating popcorn.

Asa showing his University of Nebraska loyalties - a Husker Sweatshirt and Ornament - one of my favorites!

Miriam with of U of M (Minnesota) ornament; when I asked which team it was for she proudly announced - The Minnesota Tigers!  Uh, no....it is actually the gophers, honey.  Much sports education remains in our household!

In the end, everyone played a part in setting up the Christmas tree and had a blast.

Both of our girls have December birthdays, so a few years back Emily started the tradition of a "birthday tree".  The girls have collected their ornaments over the years and have a way to make their birthdays festive and special.

What a gift to have this family tradition of celebrating advent to help our hearts begin to celebrate Christ's birth!