We have been celebrating Chinese New Year in some form or fashion since Faith has been home. This year we were invited to the house of some of our friends from church for an authentic Chinese New Year celebration!
They taught us how to make Chinese dumplings.
Ceci is from China and Brandon is from Taiwan. They have been sweet friends since they joined our church right before Faith came home. They have loved her well since she has been home and we are so blessed that they can help us as we try to honor her heritage and birth culture.
We ate so much delicious food! Besides the dumplings, we had duck, purple rice, shrimp, sausage, bok choi, and more. We drank hot tea and enjoyed each other's company.
After dinner the kids got a calligraphy lesson!
Gabe was quite good at it!
Mig perfected the ink blob.
We learned that there are overlapping stories in the Bible and the Chinese culture. This was amazing to hear! The word for big boat in Chinese is made up of the symbols for boat, 8 and people because they have a story about a great flood and a big boat that had 8 people on it who were saved from the flood - just like Noah and his family! Also, at Chinese New Year, the people in China hang red banners over their door posts to scare away the beast - much like the red lamb's blood smeared over the door posts at Passover in the Old Testament to protect them from the angel of death.
Before everyone left, all of the kids received red envelopes with some pocket money inside. Don't they look adorable in their silks and red?!?
This was my favorite Chinese New Year ever! We were so honored to be included in this celebration. We all had so much fun!!
Do you celebrate Chinese New Year?
