2020 Blessings - Part 1

Written July 25th...but forgot to hit Publish.  Oops :)


What a season 2020 has been.  Thankfully, I only sporadically blog anyway, so no one can blame 2020 or Covid-19 for my silence.  But I did feel the need to write today and process with you, dear friends, where I am at.

I know that this year has been hard for all of us, but I've been really trying to seek out the blessings despite the craziness going on in the world around me.  Can I share a few of those blessings that I've been especially thankful for with you?  I can?  Aw thanks! I'm going to write a bit of a series on the things that have been a blessing to me during this season of insanity and unknowns. We'll see how far into this series I get :)

1st Blessing - Mobility

I know that this is an unusual one in this season of borders being closed and quarantines, but let me explain (or at least summarize):

I first received news of the virus when I was in South Korea with a good friend on our Chinese New Year holiday.  It was just a day or two before we were traveling out of Seoul and into a city in Eastern China where some dear friends lived.  Masks started being more normal (welcome to Asia...we've been through big diseases before and masks are the immediate go to for prevention) and we started checking updates several times a day to see if we should be worried.  We bought a few masks and continued with our original plans.  Once we arrived in our next destination, we battened down the hatches, donned masks every time we went out, and settled in for a week of card playing and movie watching and just being.  Cities in China during the New Year are quiet, for sure, but this was a different kind of quiet.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed intentional time with friends and started to wonder what the rest of the school year would hold.

Our trip back to Chengdu was uneventful, but the thermometers were out at the airports and there was an extra layer of paperwork each step of the way.  Worry crept in, but again, it was early on in this whole situation.  We didn't know what we didn't know and luckily we were able to return home uneventfully.

Vacation ended and we began the journey of what our system called Home Based Learning.  I started working from home and prepared for the long-haul (2 or 3 weeks at most, right??).  Unfortunately, numbers continued to rise within China and the world was watching. I wasn't planning on leaving China at all, even as this novel coronavirus (remember when it was just called that??) continued to gain traction, but when my parents said it was time for me to get out for a bit and come to them, I didn't hesitate.  I don't see my parents very often.  Maybe once a year.  That's become very normal for our family, but when there is an opportunity to spend more than just a week or two working out of their apartment and doing life with them, I couldn't say no. 

What a blessing it was to be loved on and cared for by my amazing mom and dad.  To take long walks with my dad almost daily, to watch cooking shows with my mom and willingly be the taste-tester for her creations.  To explore new areas and do new things.  This was long before France had any cases and based on where I had been it was fairly clear that I hadn't brought anything with me.  This season was a gift.

But I knew I needed to get back home.  Europe is not a convenient time zone region to be in when your staff and students are in the US and Asia. 2 a.m. staff meetings and before the crack of dawn check-ins were wearing on me and I knew I needed to get back to at least Southeast Asia before things got more precarious, as they appeared to be doing.  My brother was in Malaysia at the time, working form his AirBNB online, and some dear friends from Chengdu were also there waiting out this storm.  I bought a one-way ticket, knowing that quarantine was a possibility when I returned to Chengdu and that if I was going to spend 14 days in my apartment alone I would have to have my people cup filled up first.

When I checked in in Marseille, they said you have to have an exit ticket from Malaysia (for visa purposes) before you can fly into the country.  Okay...$15 ticket to Singapore (where other dear friends were waiting out this virus) it is.

The week or so that I spent in Malaysia was so life-giving.  3 days with my brother, who I hadn't seen since October and likely wouldn't see for another year or two depending on both of our schedules, was a gift that I didn't expect to receive.  Time with the family there that I adore and whose kids I am the principal for (imagine having your principal stay with you during Home Based Learning!  Yipes!) was exactly what I needed...and I think what they needed to.

And then Singapore, with a family I've recently grown close to and have so appreciated on so many different levels.  I got to be the entertainer (aka distractor) for the kids as their parents figured out next steps.

And then I came home to Chengdu.  And served 14 days in quarantine.  And got back to this absolutely non-normal season of life in a year we won't soon forget.  The borders essentially closed to foreigners on March 28th and we're still working out what that looks like for our community...that was the day before my quarantine ended.  Just 13 days after I returned.

And both of the families that I visited on my way home were not able to return to Chengdu. 

So how is this all a blessing?

I am blessed to have been able to help those families pack up  their apartments and love on them through that from afar.  To help them close out their Chengdu life.  They are families that were my Chengdu families and I will miss them.  I know that some would see traveling to them in the midst of all of this as a poor choice...but I stand by it and am so thankful that I got some more laughter and tears and hugs in with them before and as they made the hard decisions not to return.

I am blessed to have had quality time with my family that is so rare and so so precious.  I haven't spent more than a week or two with my parents since probably 2007.  What a gift to be able to just be and enjoy and breathe together....even while working random middle of the night hours and figuring out what Home Based Learning was going to look like.

I am blessed to be in China right now, where domestic travel is possible with minimal fear and safety screenings to keep the country with very low numbers of this virus.

There are blessings hiding around the corners of this pandemic.  What are some of the blessings that you have experienced?

T.HanksGiving

I'm thankful for so many things this year on this holiday focused on giving thanks, but I'm also a little caught up in the sadness of memories and missing people that I've shared this holiday with over the years.

Let me start with what I'm thankful for...that seems like a good way to get this post going.

I'm thankful for...
...friends around the world that I can stay connected to no matter where we are or how many miles and years separate us.  With the little smart phone I hold in my hand, I can capture new memories and reconnect over old ones.  What a gift!
...my job and the opportunity to pour into students and staff each day.  It can be hectic, but what an amazing blessing it is to do what I do where I do it.
...my family spread to the corners of the world.  While I wish we could all be in one spot on days like today, I love that we are all doing what we are called to do in such unique places around the globe.  Our lives are never boring, that's for sure.

I'm also missing a lot of people and non-traditional traditions today. 
I'm missing the Friendsgivings of college days, especially that one year that we made the local news in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
I'm missing our thrown together makeshift Thanksgiving dinner on Cougar Mountain when the snow kept us from getting to where we had planned to go, but it turned out to be an extra special day with friends.
I'm missing staff members that used to be here in China that became family over the years...sitting with the littles while their parents got stuff done and knowing that snowflake cutting season was just around the corner.
I'm missing Thanksgivings from elementary school when the after meal nap meant I could take a spin on my uncle's wheelchair.

And if I ever spent a Thanksgiving with you, I'm probably missing you a little bit (or a lottle bit) right now too!  Thanks for being a part of my Thanksgiving memories.

And on that note...

Things Remembered – Day 5 – Looking Up

There is something magnificent about looking up into the night sky and feeling as though you can see every star that has ever been or that will ever be.  Laying on your back in the grass and just basking in the grandeur of the universe.  In that moment, you feel so small and yet the fact that YOU get to see it all and experience it all makes you feel so important and necessary.  What good is beauty if no one takes the time to enjoy it, right?

I’m no astronomer, and I have to use an app on my phone to know what anything is (except for Jupiter and Mars, apparently…), but I have always appreciated moments when I was able to pause and look up.  My dad and uncle both had/have fantastic telescopes, and I remember as a little girl being taught how to find the stars and focus in on them.  There’s something though about craning your neck and attempting to see all that you can possibly see in those moments, and those are the moments that I want to focus on tonight as I write.

When I was in 9^th or 10^th grade, I was able to go to Langano in Ethiopia with some friends for the week.  We helped out at a clinic by day and explored the area, hunting for chameleons to take home as pets, in the afternoon.  One night, the five of us middle/high schoolers went and camped down by the lake.  All of my irrational (and quite frankly rational in rural Ethiopia, but let’s call them irrational so no one freaks out about the what could have been’s) fears were set aside as we set up tents and got ready to enjoy the sounds of evening that surrounded us. At some point, while we were all laughing and telling stories, someone looked up.  Suddenly, the sleeping bags were repositioned and the five of us had our heads outside of our tents, gazing in wonder at what was above us.  The sky was a glorious connect the dot picture that was so complex and intricate that it was impossible to figure out where one dot ended and another began.  I fell asleep gazing at those stars…and convinced that a python or something worse was going to kill me in my sleep.  Those stars though…unforgettable.

In 10^th grade, the star gazing continued in Addis Ababa as well.  My best friend and I would walk around campus each night, processing the day, talking about big life challenges and issues, and star gazing.  The southern cross would come into view each night from the place where we sat at the end of our walks, laughing and crying and being. We couldn’t see as many stars as I had that night in the tent, but what we could see was almost a sign of hope.  A sign of more.

My senior year of high school, there was some sort of cosmic event that was a must see. It might have been an eclipse, but I can’t remember now.  What I do remember is the entire senior class meeting on the field at 2 a.m. to watch whatever it was.  We felt so rebellious that night, but not because we were rebelling…we just wanted to be together and experience that once-in-a-lifetime view.  Many nights we would lay on the field and watch for shooting stars, but that night was different.  We were all there, one last late-night hurrah…and goodness was it cold, but beautiful.

There are so many more moments involving stars that I could share. This summer in Switzerland with one of my favorite kiddos after a World Cup Game.  This fall in Thailand after my brother’s wedding. Seeing that one start that always seems to peak out even here in bustling Chengdu…

You never know what might pop up in the sky if you just take the time to look up.

Things Remembered - Day 4 - A Stitch in Time...

Over last week and weekend, I was at a conference in another part of the continent and managed to finish a baby blanket over the course of the week, stitching as I listened to different sessions and letting the crochet hook mindlessly do the work while my brain focused on other, far bigger in the moment, things.

While waiting for one of the sessions that I attended to start, I was chatting with a few folks at my table and one of them commented that it seemed as though I had been crocheting for a long time.  27 years, to be exact.

I still remember the first time I held something crafty.  I was sitting on my bed in Rwanda with my Grandma Hammond by my side. I don't remember exactly what we were doing, whether it was cross-stitch, petit-point, or crocheting, but I remember watching her strong, weathered hands carefully attend to the task at hand.  I was mesmerized by the fact that from something so simple, something beautiful could be me made. Later I learned that my Grandma could do just about anything when it came to crafts.  She taught me how to paint (a skill that never quite stuck), got me started on hardanger, showed me how to frame prints, and was always willing to try something new.  She has such beautiful hands that have made such beautiful things.

My Grandma Teusink was also incredibly crafty.  She always had a bag with her knitting somewhere close-by.  I was mesmerized with what her hands could make as well. She would take something as simple as a ball of yarn and turn it into a blanket that represented her love and prayers and hugs.  I loved watching movies with her on Sunday afternoon, both of us with a craft project of some sort in our hands and chatting the days away.

 I remember the first time that I watched Anne of Green Gables or something similar and there was a sewing circle.  That was the life!  Can you imagine sitting around doing crafts while talking with your friends all afternoon? What a treat!

There were, of course, other people who helped me along in my craft endeavors along the way.  I’m so thankful for Julie, who taught me how to make delicate snowflakes for Christmas gifts. So many trees have little Teusink creations because she took the time to inspire me in something new And then there was Carol, who was shocked that I didn’t know how to make a Granny Square when I was 12, so she taught me how.  Countless baby blankets have been made and shared with love and prayers because she took the time to help me figure out something new.

I’m thankful for hands that can hold a crochet hook as if it was a natural extension of those hands.  Every stitch is a reminder of people who have poured into me, and a prayer for the lives of the people I am able to pour into.

Now I must be off…it time to make myself a cup of tea, cuddle up under my blanket from Grandma, and stitch away.

Things Remembered - Day 3 - My History with Pets

I’ve always liked the idea of pets, but I think it’s time to admit that Bekah Teusink on her own should not be a pet mom. 

Growing up, my family always seemed to have a pet of some sorts. In Rwanda, we had dogs and chameleons and rabbits, oh my. So many memories from those first few years revolve around trading hot wheels cars for reptiles or naming yet another little of bunnies. (Is it litter of bunnies or is there some other fancy name I’m supposed to put here? Please advice, those that are wiser than I!)

In other exciting news, all of the bunny babies were always named Bekah. Little did I know they all eventually turned into dinner. Some day I’ll probably need to hash all that out with my therapist! (They renamed each bunny ‘Chester’ before they became dinner...Hoosiers, anyone?)

When we lived in the US between countries, our miniature schnauzer, Winston, was my dearest friend and confidant. Thank goodness he couldn’t talk...the secrets he could tell!  In Ethiopia, dogs were a part of our norm as well, but they were outside dogs, so it was different. I still loved time laying on the lawn with them and watching them grow. 

When I went to boarding school, my roommate and I decided that fish would be a good idea. Heath, Orlando, Zeus, and Cupcake became our scaled friends. We loved them well and even managed to transport them between countries in water bottles during our long vacations. I don’t know how they survived. One break, Cupcake committed suicide. The bowl was too full and he always was an adventurous little thing. The day after we gave the other 3 away to a 9th grader, a few weeks before graduation, they were eaten by a cat that came in an open window. Oops!

In college, I had two goldfish: Manuel and the Dread Pirate Roberts. Manuel ended up eating the Dread Pirate Roberts and then lived for 6 more years. He was an impressive little thing!

About a month ago, I decided to get fish again. They cost about $1 and, after much consideration, were named Joe and Kathleen. They were beautiful. 

Joe died a week ago while I was in another city for a soccer tournament. Kathleen died Sunday while I was at a conference. 

Anyone want to buy a fish tank?

I’m not going to be a pet owner again anytime soon...