An Evening Out

Over Chusok break, Jarrod and I were invited to go out to dinner for with evening with our school's Korean office manager, Mrs. Hong. She said it was a "Korean tradition" to do something nice for pregnant women. :) I like this tradition. She invited another pregnant couple from school, the Lasondes, and one other staff memeber - which made for a nice evening. Mrs. Hong took us to a Korean Pork BBQ restaurant - which was not only incredibly tasty, but we were also informed that if we eat this food, we will have beautiful babies. :)

After dinner, we walked back to Mrs. Hong's apartment building - and were delighted to find this FANTASTIC dessert restaurant near the entryway. Mrs. Hong said that it was their family tradition (when their daughters were home from college) to go out to eat at the BBQ restaurant and then to this place for "ice cream waffles"!! What a great idea for dessert! The waffle had bananas, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce.. and a couple of grapes for decoration. :) I highly recommend this combination!.. and promise a visit to this ice cream shop for visitors that come to Seoul (any excuse really, to go back!).
With VERY full bellies, we headed to Mrs. Hong's apartment to relax and listen to music! Mr. Hong came home from work and quickly became our DJ for the night, choosing from hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of special edition CDs, records, and real tape (recording studio quality)... just about any song we wanted. We enjoyed a variety of music from the Beatles to Elvis to Michael Jackson to Peter, Paul and Mary, to Mariah Carey to Simon Garfunkle.... it was fun to see what Mr. Hong would pull out next. We even listened to "Take me home, country roads..." by John Denver, which was definitely appreciated!
It was SUCH a relaxing evening.... I am very thankful this Korean tradition. :)

I know that Jarrod has expressed this in the past, but I am hit once again with such generosity found amongst this culture. To give of yourself and put others before you - it is a lesson I heard about in Sunday School, but now witness before me in every day life situations. Jarrod and I continue to be blessed beyond measure - even as we are away from family and friends back home. It is very sad to not be together with family and loved ones to share the excitement of this special time of life - but at the same time, we are experiencing graciousness and such generosity from co-workers, like Mrs. Hong... from our Korean landlords, from Jarrod's former boss - Mr. Lee - and his family.... and even from family back home sending care packages of maternity clothes, food cravings and cute baby outfits. Once again I am reminded that we belong to a family that is found in Christ - that is active and present no matter where we are in the world. I am thankful for the generosity that Jarrod and I have received and recognize just how rich we are. I only hope to "pay it forward" as we have received much - and have much to be thankful for.

"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. " 2 Corinthians 9:11