February {Month in Review}

I cannot believe that February is coming to a close, and yet, with it's 28 days, February always does seem to be a month that flies by.

As I've been making little (and big) changes to our blog recently, I've also been thinking about changes in what and how often I post. Since this blog is purely a personal blog about what God is doing in our little family, I know there will be dry times when I am not motivated to post or time is better spent on other things. Thankfully, there are also times when the opposite is true! I thought that a good way to balance that would be to do a {month in review} post just to highlight what has happened in the past month.

I've also decided not to post my gratitude journal weekly, but I wanted to find a way to include part of my gratitude list into my blog posts. So as I review a month in the life of our family, I think that's also the perfect time to share with you how God has been blessing me during that month.

So, February for the Kinne's looked something like this...

We experienced our first Chinese New Year. The "Year of the Rabbit" began at the beginning of February, and Brendan had a few days off work so we enjoyed some nice time together as a family. As the month progressed, we realized that Chinese New Year is actually celebrated for about 2 weeks. The decorations around Hong Kong were amazing. I was a little sad to see them taken down but it freed up LOTS of space...I couldn't believe the transformation in our local grocery store - I actually didn't feel claustrophobic while shopping in there!




During Chinese New Year, Charlotte received some lai see. These are red envelopes which are given to children, unmarried juniors, service people, and employees. We thought it was quite sweet when a lady on a bus gave a 'red packet' to Charlotte because Charlotte had been friendly to her. We equated the red packet tradition as similar to giving a generous tip at Christmas to your postman, newspaper carrier, hair stylist, etc.




During Chinese New Year the weather was great, but then we hit a spell of cold, wet weekends that didn't offer us much in the way of exploring Hong Kong. But last Saturday that changed and the weather was clear and warmer. We found ourselves hiking up the Peak with some friends. Yep, Brendan pushed Charlotte up the paved trail in her stroller! Too bad we weren't prepared with her jogging stroller. Instead she was in her lightweight umbrella stroller and it wasn't intended for use on a rugged, although paved, trail. Oh well! We were excited to get outside and see some new areas of Hong Kong, and now we're really motivated to set out exploring more outdoor areas around Hong Kong - hopefully we'll have that to share with you next month!

And what about our little family? How are we all growing together?

Charlotte is now 16 months old which means she is constantly testing us to see if we really are in charge or if we'll finally give in and let her run the house! :) As trying as this is, we know that if we stay the course of disciplining our child it will reap rewards for her and us later in life. Her language has finally taken off a little bit in the past week or so. So while "bow", "ball", "bowl", "box", and many other "B" words sound like the same word out of Charlotte's mouth, she is intentional about giving them a name rather than pointing and grunting (which was driving me crazy!). She also demands Brendan and I to sing nursery rhymes to her and her absolute favorite books right now are Mother Goose by Gyo Fujikawa (this book has the BEST illustrations!) and Dr. Suess' ABC's (which Charlotte will bring to us and say "A, B, D!").

"Not Getting What I Want" Face

God has also opened up a new level of communication between Brendan and I that has been very exciting for me! We often find ourselves discussing something we've been reading or listening to (Brendan has an hour or so everyday to listen to podcasts while he commutes to work) which in turn leads to us figuring out that it applies to our life today too. I have been reading a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sharing with Brendan some of what sticks out to me. He was excited one day when one of the podcasts he listens to was interviewing the author of this biography about the book! Brendan is not a big reader, but to listen to some of what the book was about was a great way for him to then be able to discuss it with me.

The other book I have been reading this month is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Finding her blog a year ago is what lead me to begin my gratitude journal. I am only five chapters into the book but it is definitely helping me better understand my need for expressing gratitude to God and the role my gratitude journal plays in that. I highly recommend you pick this book up!

I hope you can rejoice in some of my gratitude over the past month:

624. an afternoon with new friends getting a foot massage
625. long holiday due to Chinese New Year
629. Pizza Express on the promenade at Stanley - yum!
630. blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in her red Chinese outfit
633. American friends coming over for lunch and games
634. online grocery shopping and delivery
635. routines developing
637. homemade cookies from friends - when you don't have an oven to make your own
642. making Valentine's Day cards with Charlotte
643. the Spirit giving me insight into my husband's heart/emotions/response

Blessings!

Gratitude in Silence

It's Monday. It wasn't too long ago that I would post my gratitude list every Monday, but I haven't done that in a while. Maybe you noticed. :)

Instead of continuing my blog gratitude silence in silence, I thought I'd just let you know that I am still recording my blessings from God in my gratitude journal. And I think I will return to posting my gratitude list on this blog - maybe not weekly, but at some regular schedule (maybe monthly).

Right now, I feel that I need to keep my gratitude between me and God in order to really get to the heart of why I'm keeping a gratitude journal at all - to acknowledge God's everyday grace in my life. Because there have been many times when I thought a little more about other people viewing my list than I did about what I was truly thankful for. I'm not okay with that. I want my gratitude to be genuine.

So, please excuse my lack of gratitude posts on Mondays...I'm going to be recording my gratitude in silence for a little while.

Celebration of God's Grace

Happy Thanksgiving to you! We hope you have an amazing time this Thanksgiving with family and friends, and we also hope you take a break from the eating, football watching, eating, and more eating to thank God for what He has done in your life this past year...because the food and football are great but gratitude is really what Thanksgiving is all about.

Here on our blog this Thanksgiving we're having a Celebration of God's Grace!

We invite you to read through our family's blessings from the past year, and then add a comment sharing how God has blessed your family. We can't think of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than by rejoicing over God's everyday grace in our lives!

Kinne Family Blessings 2010

• First and foremost, we are thankful that we have a relationship with the God of the universe! We have seen the Lord working in new places and new ways this year. What a mighty God we serve!
• Good health for all of us, but we are especially thankful for incredibly good health for Charlotte while living in Spain without much knowledge of medical terms in the Spanish language.
• We always have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs - our needs are always met!
• Safety and adaptability while flying overseas multiple times with an infant.
• Provision of Christian community, especially in a foreign country where few people profess Christ.
• Safety for our family in the military who have served in the Middle East this past year AND extreme gratitude for their sacrifice to serve our country.
• Learning how to do without many of our comforts and conveniences in the United States.
• Friends in many countries who have helped us in our strange transient life this year - living in and taking care of our U.S. home, helping us with language and cultural barriers associated with finding housing, and many other small ways people have blessed us as we've been foreigners far away from home.
• We aren't who we were a year ago - our faith in God has grown through many changes in our life (moving overseas, having a new baby at home, Anne becoming a stay-at-home mom, and Brendan no longer working from home).
• God has given us a unique opportunity to see and learn more about the world He created.
• Charlotte Grace - our beautiful, sweet, happy 1 year-old daughter!
• Each other - our marriage is not perfect - far from it - but because of our relationship with Jesus, we turn to Him to lead us through the tough days (and weeks and months!)
• Each of you - we're grateful for the love each of you give us; you encourage and push us in our faith; our lives would not be same without you!
• Time to spend with our family, especially in the midst of a busy year. {Below are some pictures taken earlier this week with Anne's family in Texas.}

We would love to hear how God has been blessing you this year! At the bottom of this post you can leave a comment, or, if you like, you can leave the link to your own Thanksgiving celebration blog post. We hope you'll also read through comments left by others and rejoice together over what God is doing in our lives!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Kinne's!

*Family photos by Sinklier Studios in Abernathy, Texas.