Delight

I have to show you something. I’m sorry if we are facebook friends and so you have already seen it but in my very humble opinion, this video is quite possibly the cutest thing that has ever existed. Ever.

To me, it is cute on so many levels. It is cute that Lucy stops what she is doing and makes a b-line for the door all the while doing her best to communicate her joy in her own cute little language. It is cute that Lily becomes so overcome with joy that she just screams over and over. It is cute that they, at this tender young age, already have fashion preferences and favorite shoes. I think that the cute little shoes look great on their cute little feet. I just love this video.

It has occurred to me, however, that quite possibly one of the reasons that I love this video so much and find it so adorable is that the two main players just happen to be my offspring. In the days pre-children, people tried to explain to me how much a mother loves her kids. I used to smile and nod, throwing their comments into the same pile as “Your life is going to change!” and “Get sleep now!” not really knowing how to respond.

And then they came. I’m going to be honest. Those first few post-partum weeks were not necessarily filled with the “my children are my heart flitting about outside of my body” kind of moments I had dreamed about. However, slowly but surely, the little buggers started stealing my heart away. Smiles, giggles, learning new things, every day started getting more and more fun. And now, I can’t get enough of them. Every morning I look forward to seeing them. I miss them every night after I put them down (Okay, okay, so not right after I put them down. Maybe about an hour after…).

 In short, I really delight in my kids. Everything they do fascinates me. Every time they learn a new word, get excited about their shoes, or ask “please dance” when they actually want to hear me sing (that is true love right there), my heart is filled to overflowing. So something dawned on me this morning. Do you realize that that is how much God delights in us? The Bible calls us children of God for a reason. He is absolutely over the moon, crazy about us. How about that? The creator of the universe is as delighted in me as I am in my girls. More so, in fact. Just think about that for a second. Now, if that don’t light your fire, as my grandfather says, your wood is wet.

Pressing the Unmute Button

Well, it has only taken me a little over two years but I have finally made the leap to join the land of the unmute. Monday marked the first of what I hope to be many Korean language classes. Being a language teacher myself, it was exciting to once again be on the “other side” of language learning. Our tutor’s goal was to speak only the target language (Korean) in class. Often having the same goal in my own classes, I well understood the purpose of this aim. Sitting at a desk instead of standing at the board, however, gave me a deeper understanding of the mystified and sometimes horrified expressions on my students’ faces as I babble on about the geographic layout of Spain. As we dove in to the lesson, I frantically searched for a pencil as I scribbled down what I thought I heard our tutor say with their supposed English translations.

In no time at all my two fellow classmates and I were practicing pneumonics and dancing around like kindergarten students as we rehearsed various sounds in the Korean language. We traded tips and tricks on how to pronounce things correctly and to make sure not to confuse ㅗ with ㅜ, or ㅈ withㅊ.  I was able to ask the first of many burning questions about the Korean language and to properly order my coffee. As it turns out, 커피 (pronounced cuh-pi) is what I want as it means coffee. I do not want 코피(pronounced coh-pi) as that means a nosebleed. No thank you, I would not like a nosebleed with an extra shot of espresso. This little tidbit certainly explains a lot of giggles from local baristas.

And so begins the language learning journey. The steps are baby ones but at least it is progress.  My goal is for people to actually believe that I have been living in Korea for the last three years and not hiding under some bridge somewhere being anti-social. Or, at least to successfully walk away from Starbucks without a nosebleed. I like to set the bar high. So off I go into the wild frontier of a new language. Now all I need is a Korean to ask me my name or to borrow a pencil to put into practice my new fancy linguistic skills. Look out Seoul, here I come!