Happy New Year!!!

it's 2010!!!!
BIG year!!!
happy new year everybody!
thank you, Lord, for another year! help us live it for You!

Christmas, New Year, and Happy Birthday Isabella!!!

so, Christmas was awesome, as usual!! i LOVE Christmas!!!!!
We had a very special time on Christmas Eve singing carols with several families that are our closest friends...
Christmas morning we were forbidden to wake up our parents until NINE o'clock!! nine!! that was just torture! Then we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of sausage biscuits, yummm...Then Cole read the Christmas story from Luke to the whole family, that is always a special time that helps keep us focused on the real meaning of Christmas and this year was the first year Cole read :)
Then the opening of the presentssss!!! SO much fun! lots of laughing and hugging and surprised faces, and then everyone plugged into the various pieces of technology they had received! haha
which brings me to my most exciting Christmas present......my laptop!!! i'm updating my blog right now, for the first time, from my pink mini laptop!! which i LOVE! i'm SO thankful for this gift from my parents! i also got a pair of earrings and several scarfs from my brothers... :)
I also got to open up a package from my besties in America on Christmas Eve, on webcam with them, i LOVED every little thing in the package, it was SO thoughtful!! i love me some Sarah, Aubrey, Sami, and Kristina!!! :)
tomorrow is New Year's eve!!! we're gonna spend family time, making snack, playing games, watching movies, should be fun!!! :)
it's also Isabella Xing Hope Garland's 4th birthday tomorrow!!!!!! happy birthday you precious angel i will love you forever and ever, i can't believe you're such a big girl!!! <3

Senioritis, the power of prayer, Elf, and Christmas shopping...

so, i seem to have bitten by some sort of bug that many people seem to be bit by in their senior year of highschool...a bug that causes a state of being here referred to as "senioritis" which is basically extreme procrastination becoming a way of life and an atypical desire to just stay in bed all day every day...i've always been a very active, confident, out-going person, but this year i've just been feeling so blah...sluggish, bored, discontent, etc etc...you can blame it on whatever you want but I think it all boils down to both a spiritual battle and a struggle with the flesh...i have a lot of big things coming up in the next six months or so and i think there's spiritual warfare going on over what i've made up my mind to do with the rest of my life and whether i'm actually going to go through with it...and there's the fact that i KNOW my spirit is willing but the flesh is weak...
i've shared much of this frustration with a few close friends in the last few days and both have encouraged me to PRAY PRAy PRay Pray pray...thanks guys, you know who you are! :)
i hadn't been keeping in touch with my Father so much these days so when these friends reminded me that prayer is what keeps us "sane" it pierced my heart and i had to spend a little time talkin to my BEST friend...so that's what i'm gonna do, i'm prayin against this thing now, and i feel my strength being renewed already!
on a much lighter note, it's almost Christmas!!!!!!!! i'm so So SO excited!! i love christmas!!!
we watched "Elf" a few nights ago *sigh* that movie makes me smile! "smiling's my favorite!!"
"buddy the elf, what's your favorite color??" "i'm in love i'm in love and i don't CARE who knows it!!!" "i'm sorry i ruined your life and crammed 11 cookies in the VCR..."
did some christmas shopping today and going again tomorrow! SO fun!! this christmas season is bittersweet because it's my last christmas living at home...i'll surely come home for many more christmases down the road, but this is my last one spent as a full-time Monger house resident...
i LOVE this time of year...it's the time of year to appreciate all the simple things in life like baking cookies and playing games and drinking hot chocolate and trying in vain to keep a two year old from messing up the tree...haha...and also a time to be thankful for all the so-called "simple" things we take for granted that many people don't have...a happy home, a warm house, good food...
but the most important thing to be thankful for is the fact that God sent His son Jesus to come to earth to be born as a fragile human child in the poorest of conditions so that we could one day be saved through Him...i heard someone say last Sunday that Jesus' sacrifice did not begin when He hanging on the cross, it didn't begin when they began to beat Him, it didn't begin when He was betrayed, it began when He left Heaven's glory to come to earth and live life as a man...we sometimes forget about that and it's so true and it really stuck with me this week...

a heart FULL of thanksgiving and praise...

man it has been WAY too long since i wrote a new post...

yesterday was Thanksgiving and it was a WONDERFUL day...we had our dear friends over (they're practically family) and, of course, gorged ourselves on delicious American food, played board games, and had a very personal time of giving thanks to our Father...it was the first time i've ever played "apples to apples" and i loved that game!! it got pretty heated though, haha, as you can well imagine if you've ever met the Monger family...i'm STILL fuming over some of the "judges" decisions...not really, but seriously, it was a GREAT day...the best word i can think to describe it is a chinese word, "re nao"...gives the idea of noisiness, closeness, warmth...so, yeah, i'm grateful for a very re nao thanksgiving day!! God has given me so many opportunities this year to be thankful for...He never works in the ways you expect...He didn't send a funny, awesome highschool girl for me to "hang out" with this year like i wanted, He sent a married couple for me to confide in, learn from, and grow to love...He gave me a group of girls i've never met before for me to worship with and be encouraged by, who i LOVE...He hasn't given me a foster baby to take care of, He gave me the two little boys down the road to be a friend to...He hasn't given me an easy school year, I've wanted to pull my hair out, but He's given me the most patient mother and teacher who's there for me through it all...He didn't give me what i asked for, that is, a giant neon arrow reading "My will" pointing me in just the right direction, but He has given me SUCH a wise father who is always there to hear (and sometimes laugh at) my PLANS...I'm thankful that He NEVER does what we expect, that He catches us off-guard, that He pushes us to our limits so we lean on Him...this is probably my last Thanksgiving with my family for a while, but I am SO thankful for the MOST perfect family for me...I don't know what i would do if i didn't have a mother and father i could completely trust and confide in...they're my best friends, counsellors, prayer warriors, teachers, preachers, and (sometimes, especially these days, to my extreme annoyance) they're always trying to make me into a better person...
now, what am I not thankful for (HEY i'm only human) i'm NOT thankful for the pile of school work waiting for me on Monday...but it's mainly my fault for LETTING it pile up on me, haha...but seriously, SO thankful for this week OFF from school!!
thankful for the FOUR people out there who follow my blog, haha!
thankful for the people who pray for my family and our work, we love and appreciate you!

pumpkins? candy? hay rides? nope...

wellll, it's halloween, and in america that means a lot of things, dressing up, trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, but here, eh, i watched a scary movie with the bros...no pumpkins...OH, we are getting some candy from america tomorrow though! yippee!!! reese's cups!!

been thinking about what to blog about, and can't come up with anything...i've come to the realization that it can't be forced...if there's something that God speaks to me about, I'll just KNOW, i can't sit around waiting for inspiration to strike...like my blog about God strengthening Paul, that just, jumped off the page, and knocked the air out of me...i wasn't looking for it...

one thing i have been thinking about today is how easily we can become comfortable and forget that we're at war...we're at WAR, people...someone posted a sermon on facebook about how prayer is not a intercom asking your butler for another pillow or to change the thermostat, it's a WAR-time walkie-talkie, asking for reinforcements! powerful words...that's what prayer was MADE for! C.S. Lewis describes this world as "enemy occupied territory", and that's exactly what it is...one of my favorite movie quotes, from one of the terminator movies, John Connor is speaking (hmm, J.C., that sounds, familiar...??) and he's on his radio speaking to the survivors who are fighting the robots or whatever, and he said "you are the resistance." YOU are the resistance. you ARE the resistance. you are the RESISTANCE. if you think of this world, this life, like a war, and prayer is our walkie-talkie, and JC (the WORD) is fervently whispering "you are the resistance," it puts a lot of things into perspective...battles won, battles lost...ammunition...set-backs...deserters...casualties...

yeah...that's it...on that note, happy halloween! lol

October 30th

hehe, it's only been october 30th for 14 minutes...i'm up waaaay too late...

well, i haven't blogged about anything in a while so i thought i needed to write SOMETHING, trouble is, i have no idea what to write about...the only thing i've been doing for the past couple weeks is school...well, last weekend we went camping, that was fun! it was so good to be away from mad-made concrete buildings and out in God's beautiful nature! had some good family time just worshiping the Lord...

school's been going ok, had a pretty productive week...
been thinking a lot about getting ready to go to college next summer...exciting!! nervous though, there's gonna be a lot of new things on me all at once, namely DRIVING, haha...if i lived in the states i'd be driving myself everywhere now, since i live HERE, driving scares the heck out of me...laundry, i'll be fine...cooking, good...handling my own finances? scarrrryyyyy...just the fact that i won't be in china any more, haha, it's gonna be so crazy...it'll be comical...
cassie is so much fun, she's like one of the funnest things in my life right now, she's just such a bossy little sassy britches...she keeps us all entertained...the more she starts to talk, the more HILARIOUS she gets...she can say the most bossy things in the most polite way, hold up her hand and say "stop, please" or "go away, please"...it's so funny...she only says "i love you" in chinese, among other things...her favorite thing to watch is "ni hao kai lan", a cartoon about a little chinese girl...the show drives us all insane but she's adorable imitating it...
tonight i went with my mom and our good friend, candice, and we got pedicures...for 7 US dollars we got this ginger soak and scrub that was SO nice, and then our nails painted with whatever-you-want hand-painted flowers, one of the amazing/wonderful things about living here...7$ amazing pedicures...
well, been prayin about a girl's bible study group i'm tryin to get going...really excited with the possibilities! hope the blog can be a tool to help facilitate that...
random: i took one of those spiritual gifts tests, and it said that my (highest, biggest, no. 1, whatever) gift is a tie, Evangelism/Administration...anyways, just thought that was interesting...
i'll attempt to write something with more substance tomorrow, right now i'm gonna get some sleeeep...

just another day...

well today was just a typical busy school day...when i was little i thought i'd NEVER be one of those "cool" seniors that i looked up to WAY too much...welll, now i'm a senior, and as far as school, i still feel like a little kid with WAY more to learn...and i don't see myself as all that "cool" either, haha...when you're 13, the *gasp* EIGHTEEN year olds seem so much older and more mature, it's really comical looking back on how i and others around me used to DREAM of being...a SENIOR...and now, i am...whoop...dee...doo...haha...i mean, it is great to be a senior, last year of highschool, goin to college next year and all that good stuff, but, it's definitely not what it appears to a 13 year old...we're all still just a nervous, anxious, curious, awkward kid sometimes...i guess whether you're 13 or 18, all you can do is just live for Christ, be who He wants you to be and not who anyone else wants you to be; and don't second guess yourself, who you are, what you're made of, you're a child of the King and destined for wonderful things...

this year my classes consist of government & economics, english literature, physics, advanced math (trig, calc, and analytical geometry), genesis and revelations, spanish, and piano...so far my favorite class of ALL TIME has been spanish! i LOVE it! i think already being able to speak mandarin and seeing all the opportunities that has opened up for me gave me the needed boost to be passionate about working on spanish, my third language...it's so simple compared to mandarin, and really fun to speak! i can't roll my "r"s though, that's a big problem...haha...workin on it...i do believe G's calling me into overseas work, and since i still have no clue where that is, i thought it would prepare me for that to learn some basic spanish...unless, ya know, G decides to demonstrate His sense of humor, as He often does in these situations, and after i take years of college spanish send me to africa or something...haha...ideally i'd like to be fluent in mandarin, spanish, and french...that's part of the 10 year plan for now...i love math, i would have taken Algebra 2 over and over and over again if they'd let me...but i had to move on to plane geometry...which i hated with a PASSION...this year i'm doing calculus and trig...that hasn't been soooo bad, i'd take it over geometry ANY day, but it's still not as FUN as algebra!! physics, eh, not my favorite science, but at least it makes sense...my FAVORITE is definitely biology...then chemistry...physics is kinda boring...gov. and economics, interesting, very detailed study on american government, something i think is especially relevant today with the current political turmoil in the good ol' US of A...english literature...ah, Shakespeare, chaucer, spenser, campion, love love love...piano...i love piano...it's a shining beacon of hope as i trudge through my bleak days of calculus and physics...i can always get on the piano and play to my heart's content and insist to mom that piano is just as important as all that other...stuff! in addition to all that good stuff, i'm tutoring chinese for the first time, i've taught english plenty of times, but i've never taught chinese...the couple i'm teaching is DELIGHTFUL so i am really having a lot of fun with that!

on another unrelated note, please pray for a baby girl in an orphanage near here, she is just one month old and has spinabifida, a cleft palate, and she is completely blind...she desperately needs a foster family or she will not make it...pray that the Lord will raise up a family willing to take her in who will be just what she needs...not that there aren't hundreds and thousands of other children in the same boat as her, but this baby really needs a miracle...and i believe miracles still happen...so, please pray...

well i could go on and on about other things, BUT, i need rest before school tomorrow so i'm gonna climb in my cozy bed and watch an episode of The Unit (yeah!!), before drifting off to blessed sleep...thank you dear Jesus that i'm not cold, i'm not hungry, i'm not ill, and i have a bed to sleep in...good night, world!

"nevertheless the Lord stood with me and strengthened me"

In 2 Timothy Paul said, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." WOW...i've often felt like no one would stand with me when i was making hard decisions and i have to confess, i'd pray it WOULD be laid to their charge! that's an amazing testimony Paul gives us, even though he was in prison about to be executed and NO ONE was there for him, he prayed for all the people NOT there for him!! he goes on to say "nevertheless the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me..." THAT's the key...only Christ will always stand with you, and only He can give you the strength to PRAY for the people who won't stand with you...

thank you Lord, for Your blessings on me...

yesterday we went to the chengdu zoo in celebration of cole's ninth birthday! we had an AWESOME time!! we had several friends there with us, and really enjoyed seeing all the animals...there was this one monkey in particular, that was, so ugly...haha...so ugly it was COOL!! does that make sense?? aaaaanyways, we had a lot of fun...it's kind of depressing to go there because the conditions the animals are living in are very poor, but it's wrong to drum up toooo much sympathy for the lions, tigers, and bears when there are children living in worse conditions in this very city...but, that's a topic for another blog...the cool thing about zoos here is that you get so CLOSE to the animals, much closer than you'd ever be able to in the states...plus the chengdu zoo is one of the few that has pandas, we LOVE the pandas! that's cassie's favorite...

today we had a wonderfully refreshing day in fellowship with our expat friends reflecting on G's many blessings in our lives and pouring over wonderful truths in His Word about grace, forgiveness, and our Mediator...there was such a sweet spirit of thanksgiving, i thoroughly enjoyed this sunday...JC continues to show me every day that He is the only One i can depend on, and the only one i really need...
it's back to the school books tomorrow morning...which is kinda icky, but, i don't HATE school as much as some people, which is a good thing considering the profession i believe God wants me to go into, haha...

i'm listening to tenth avenue north, LOVE them...
"could the Maker of the stars hear the sound of my breaking heart? one life that's all i am, right now i can barely stand, if You're everything You say You are, won't You come close and hold my heart?"
Thank heaven that the Maker of the stars DOES come close and hold our hearts when we can barely stand...

Hulk Eyes

most of you have never had the incredible privilege of meeting my adorable little sister, cassandra (we call her cassie) and if you have, well then you know that when i say she is the cutest little girl in the world, it ain't no lie! she is biologically Chinese, but we're still hoping and praying for the day that she can become a Monger and an American on paper, because in our hearts she's already family...but anyways, that's a story for another blog...THIS blog is about eyes...
i want my little sister to always know that what makes her different makes her beautiful, so i started telling her about how beautiful her shiny black hair is, how cute her little button nose is, and i told her that her eyes are the color of chocolate...that led to our talking about her little "chocolate eyes", i say "cassie, you have the most wonderful chocolatey eyes!" and she says "chocky eyes!!" wellllll, one day my brothers and dad were watching The Incredible Hulk and if you've ever seen the movie you know that when Bruce Banner starts "hulkin' out" his eyes get BRIGHT green, so cassie looks up at my dad, grabs his face and pulls it right down in front of her and says "daddy HULK eyes!!!" we all have blue/green eyes, so now she is constantly saying that we all have "hulk eyes" and she has "chocolate eyes"! is that not hilarious?? she's so adorable...i love that little girl for so many things...those little chocolate eyes melt my heart...

My first blog!!!

*drum roll* this is my first everrrrr blog....wow...as someone who ALWAYS has a LOT to say about EVERYTHING, i feel overwhelmed by the power at my fingertips...*evil laugh* i first and foremost want to dedicate this blog to Jesus Christ and the furtherance of His dear cause. so, that's heads up #1 ...i PROMISE you it will be EXCITING! Jesus is anything but boring, i get the biggest rush just talking about him! plus my personality will shine through, and, anyone who knows me knows i'm hilarious and lovable, haha! heads up #2: i am a very very busy woman so these entries are going to be typed hastily, thus punctuation and spelling may not always be accurate, and...just deal with it, haha...i don't want comments telling me i misspelled something or my grammatical structure is incorrect because probably EVERY sentence will be a run-on, haha...heads up #3: i live in china...that's a HUGE part of who i am...and i want this blog to be a place i can share anything and everything i've learned as a MK growing up in a closed country...so, PLEASE please please PLEASEEEE ask questions!!! ask about china, growing up overseas, life for C's over here, my personal walk with JC (He is my best friend and i LOVE talking about Him ANY time). so, i reiterate, ASK QUESTIONS! heads up #4: the core goal of this blog is to open people's eyes to what God is doing all over the world, and to encourage believers to connect with brothers and sisters in a different culture...and it will get messy...they look different, talk different, eat weird stuff, but guess what? we look funny to them too! and more importantly, we're COMMANDED to love them...

so, sit back and enjoy!
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
do NOT sit back!!!! sit UP, do some finger stretches, jump in and ASK QUESTIONS!!! no question is too simplistic, too personal, or too complicated...i will do my very BEST to answer every single one! oh, and i'd prefer if you don't post anonymous questions because i'm plagued by insatiable curiosity, BUT, if there's a question you're shy to ask, by all means!
last thing: be careful what you say...don't say anything discouraging to another brother or sister, no gossiping or name calling please, remember this blog is DEDICATED to JC and HIS cause...i wouldn't mind friendly debate on relevant issues, but we're all brothers and sisters here, no bickering please...second, i can not stress this enough, I LIVE IN CHINAAAA. hence there are certain things you shouldn't say about me, my family, and our life over here, especially about our chinese friends...i greatly appreciate discretion...now i hope i didn't say all this in vain...i REiterate, GET INVOLVED!
can't wait for my first question!!!
All praise goes to Jesus Christ!