Welcome to a brand new twelve months called two thousand fourteen! Wow! Time flies faster living in a foreign country! There is so much learning wrapped up in a single day of living overseas. It’s no surprise that I’m turning into a pumpkin at 8:00 practically every night. I sleep so soundly except for those moments of abrupt awakeness due to fireworks or firecrackers that are set off randomly during the night. Sometimes I wake up startled by a local person singing at the top of their lungs as they meander around outside. These moments have become so familiar to me the last four years. They are truly moments that I can only live in China.

This new year will be half dipped. My family and I will be living half of it in China and half of it in the States. We are on the move! As you can imagine, there are all kinds of emotions coursing through my veins. Each day continues to be a gift here even when I haven’t seen blue skies in a week. Change is evident for my family and I this year. Adapting to the States (a now foreign-to-us country) yet being fluent in English will be an interesting mix. We have visited America once in four years. That was a tiny glimpse of what would it could be like returning to America.

I am looking forward to change and all that it will bring. Like so and so says…..”Change always comes bearing gifts.” (“Welcome” reflection) I am actively sorting through physical stuff. I am tearing down in that regards. (I’ve done this before….Stateside coming here….this is the easy part of moving.) However, as I start packing my “mental bags” I am refreshed by seeing things with a different lens called freedom. I have intentionally started this year rooting my heart in my faith. I have been fertilizing my faith through Beth Moore’s “Believing God”. This has been so good for my heart at just the right time. That’s the power of His spirit working in my current season in life connecting me to the vine when I need His voice, His words, His thoughts speaking to me. This is the beginning of the new year, refreshed, refocused. I no longer call the new year “two thousand fourteen”. I call it “Freedom Fourteen”. Welcome to my life, freedom, come forth so my family and I can flourish as we transition into the next chapter of our lives. May you, my friends, experience freedom in a whole new way this year. It’s a theme for the year which is worth pondering, reflecting, and being thankful for. Share with me your freedom moments and how you delight in them. It is with a smile upon my face as I lift my cup of hot water and “gan1 bei1” (toast to you): Here’s to a wonderful growing year for you through “Freedom Fourteen”!