Chinese Government Building, Family with 5 kids, and Perspective…

Guess where I got to spend my Thanksgiving? Come on…one guess!

Yup, you got it…(you peaked at the title, right?)…the Chinese Government Building. It has a different name from that–I don’t know it and neither does Peter–but a lot of police and government-looking people work there, so that’s why I’ve named it the Chinese Government Building.

We were contacted on Tuesday and told we would be going to the visa office on Thursday to renew our visas. (BTW, I’m not talking about the Mastercard, Visa kind of visa; I’m talking about the one you have to have to live in China unless you want to get booted out…yup, that visa.)

Why do we have to do this on Thursday?! Don’t they know it’s Thanksgiving?!!?!

(There were other thoughts going through my head as well, but they weren’t very nice, so I won’t be sharing them.)

The fact that it was Thanksgiving day really didn’t matter since we had already decided to host Thankgiving dinner on Friday. But it was a matter of principal! I’m an American and entitled to my American holiday on the holiday, right?! Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is MINE…right?

Let me just add an insight here. Getting over my “American pride,” “entitled rights,” “what I have coming to me?” and “independence thinking” has had it’s tough moments. It slips into my thinking unnoticed until moments like this when my holiday has been taken from me. I had no idea I had so much of this thinking in me until I moved out of my home culture to another culture. Wow! Hard…humbling. I’m glad I’m going through this.

So, in a grumpy mood I packed our kids up by myself, piled them in the company van and rode with the liaison to meet Peter at the Chinese Government Building on Thanksgiving to renew our visas.

Let me also add that this wasn’t my typical week. Monday there was an unexpected water shut off, so my home was never cleaned from the weekend mess. Tuesday there was an unexpected half day of school…so, yeah, my home was never cleaned from the weekend and Monday MESS. Wednesday was my only day to recover.

I got everything done, but in the process it totally wiped me out. I think I have bronchitis and the week’s events just pushed my health further and further into the pits so that by Thanksgiving Day, I was not patient and longsuffering. My throat hurt, my body ached, and I needed to not go anywhere.

Keep reading though ’cause eventually I get perspective and it’s good! Oh so good!!!

So, here I am with my four kiddos dressed in all our winter gear feeling like Eskimo sardines packed in our company van on our way to renew our visas.  I’m totally thinking about how I’m gonna make sure our Chinese liaison never schedules another visa renewal day on my Thanksgiving again, rehearsing the Chinese for it too, when I hear that still wonderful quiet voice impress upon my heart, “Would you rather be at the PICU on Thanksgiving?”

Did I tell you about our friends whose daughter had a seizure on the morning of Thanksgiving and had to spend their holiday in the hospital?

Um…yeah, way worse case scenario than mine. I’m humbled.
“Thank you God for a different perspective. No, actually, I rather like that I’m on my way to the visa office instead of the hospital.”

Can you imagine the stress they must have gone through?!  Taking your daughter to any hospital anywhere  is stressful enough, add to that the language barrier and not being able to hold your precious child or know how to help her. The visa renewal office never sounded so appealing!

Perspective made an unhappy attitude change into a grateful one.

But, wait, there’s more. What’s that I see as I’m waiting for the official to process our paperwork?

A family of 7 walking in. Oh my, they have 5 children! FIVE children! How do they live here with so many children? How do they travel? They must have to get 2 taxis! I wonder how big their apartment is.

You see, this week I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with my apartment. I want a bigger one. I want more space, space for kids to roam, space for our stuff, sPACe. Just really want it. It’s winter outside and the kids are inside.

Conversation finally got around…no…not really finally…let’s face it, I just blurted it out, “Where are you living, ’cause I am feeling the confinement of living in a small apartment and am wondering where to move once our lease is up in April”

The mom says they are living in a 3-bedroom place at such in such complex.

Sigh…I have a 3-bedroom place. I was really hoping she would tell me of a complex with lots of four-bedroom apartments, maybe even 5…oh my!

What’s really odd is that I grew up with seven siblings. I’m the oldest which means I shared a room many times with many little kiddos and lived to tell about it. Why am I so hung up on having more bedrooms?

Then she goes on to say that they have one bathroom…she had hoped for two.

“Oh,” I think to myself. “I have two bathrooms.”

I did some quick mental math and realized she home schools her five children and lives in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with no backdoor swinging out to the backyard. Which in my head adds up to a lot of people, in a small space, for a lot of hours together.

Perspective. So thankful I received a new one on Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving brought a new perspective which resulted in a contentment for my home. I am so thankful for our apartment. It is warm, mold-free, and cozy. It has no water leaks, quiet neighbors, no construction noise, and just enough space for our healthy family of 6.

Contentment. Love having it!

Psalm 16:6 “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”