sojothomps @ ourplace: 2010

A Morning of Photos with the Dimoffs.

Justin, Katherine, Katelyn, and their little girl in the womb have become very special friends to us in Korea over the past year and a half. Just when it seemed like most of our closest friends were leaving the country to return to their homes, we met this family who have become dear to us. I've especially enjoyed being able to go through a similar phase of life (being pregnant) with Kat. She is expecting her second daughter in October! Can't wait for my baby to have a little girlfriend for a few months in Korea before we leave for Nepal:). This family has taught me that God provides in many big and small ways.

Thanks, Dimoffs!

Baby Blessings

Last Saturday, our family was blessed. Reminder after reminder that we are part of a very diverse and rich (in heart) community in Korea. Our friends Leslie and Krista put together a baby shower for our son, with delicious desserts and sweet friends. We received some lovely, unique, and practical presents for our baby but more significantly, we were blessed with words for our little guy and for us as new parents.

Such wisdom and love, we wanted to remember and share some of these:

-Why do we have children? Not to make ourselves 'happy'. Great JOY comes through them...but also disappointments to learn from...they are a true blessing from God. Romans 5:1-5 "...And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

-Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Love God first, and then each other; children notice.

-that our son will know God's grace and His Provision...

-gain from God's word and other parents.

-recommended books:
The Mystery of Children by Mason
Grace-Based Parenting
Love & Logic Magic for Early Childhood
anything by Dr. Sears (Fussy Baby, Discipline Book, Nutrition, etc)
The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Happiest Baby on the Block
Making the Terrible Twos Terrific!

-Matthew 19:14 "Jesus said, "...Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

-Deuteronomy 6:5-8 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up..."

-What a great opportunity it is to raise a child amongst the RANCH children...full of the Spirit and purpose.

-Psalm 72:12-19 (written by David for his son, Solomon ~ BOLD and brilliant!)
For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help
He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.
He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray fro him and bless him all day long.
Let grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway.
Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon; let it thrive like the grass of the field.
May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun.
All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.
Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
Praise be to his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.

-and then our beloved brother Yong Jun's poem that he wrote:
"Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and I love you very much."

Doula Family Shoot.

I had some good laughs while editing this set; I wish I could have posted every sequence of photos with all the changing expressions and movements but alas, that would have made up 300+ photos:). Quentin and Lisa were great at getting Evan and Evie to interact with my camera. Running around after Evan the Tiger and capturing those sweet blue eyes of Evie (and that smile!) made for a fun shoot despite the summer humidity and an 8 month prego bulge.

Lisa is our amazing friend, doula, and hypnobirthing instructor. Anyone considering having a baby in Korea? Check out her incredible work at birthinginkorea.com. She is one reason why we decided to stay in Korea to have the baby rather than launching into the unknown birthing experiences of Nepal (which I'm sure would have been fine too and we'll probably be a part of for baby # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7....unless John puts a cap on #3, or unless baby #1 is about all I think I can handle!). She is full of resources for the mama and daddy who want to bring in their baby through natural (drug-free) gentle birth. After doing some research on our end, we knew we wanted to bring our baby into the world with as little intervention as possible. We're so thankful to have Lisa as a doula and to have learned some valuable tools through her hypnobirthing class. We're thrilled and waiting eagerly for a memorable birthing experience! Less than one month to go!

View full set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soyonamary/sets/72157624852087540/

MountainChild at Ignite 1040 Conference.

I really wish I were a consistent blogger. So I try...

Last weekend MountainChild held a presence at the Ignite 1040 Conference at Young Nak Church, in Seoul, Korea.

John helped out a lot with the admin/organizing of the booth. I took a backseat on the planning end of this event as my planning juices have been more absorbed in preparing for our baby who's predicted to arrive within this month! But I did get a chance to help out with manning the booth for half of Saturday. And I was touched by the volunteers that came out to help. I love it when I meet people with the same enthusiasm and heart as our own. It reminds me that this work is so much larger in vision and purpose than we realize sometimes. Here is a blog entry of one of the girls that was there...

here we go SOKO!: MountainChild at Ignite: 1040: "We got to give away a free guitar! And in doing so raised 300,000W. I am amazed at God's timing! Sometimes i have to literally LOL ('laugh o..."

FOTO FUNDRAISER.

I bought my baby - Pentax K10D - about 3 years ago when I had just started dating John, right before our major 2 month backpacking trip around Australia and New Zealand. Images make me burst inside; I could stare at certain colors and patterns and compositions for hours and feel like there's an internal bubbling of warmth rising up. But unlike the camera, there's something about wet paint and tactile paper and globby crayons that turns my senses into the way God intended me to experience them. Unfortunately, I don't always have time (or sometimes the courage) to get out the paints and so my camera has become my quick expression. I always found it satisfying but it's just not the same as hours of touching and manipulating mediums with my physical hands. So in the past, I mostly put photography to the side as my mere springboard to other creative endeavors. Until I went to the Himalayas.

There's something divinely arranged about the stillness of the people in the mountain ranges of Nepal. And the instant connections I made with them because of my black accessory! There were hundreds and hundreds of photo-ops and really, my camera was my life-saver up there. I love to hike, but maybe a day's worth of hiking is plenty good for me. Ten days of trekking is really not something I would get paid to do; John - yes, me - not really. But with my camera at hand and the interactions I built with that black thing and the ethnic Tibetans, I had some exhilarating moments during those sweaty achy uphill days. And the stillness. Sigh. Yes, the stillness in them did something to my shutters that I had never experienced before with photography. I found and caught images that I didn't know that an amateur photographer could go near. And I guess that's when I started valuing my baby a little more.

But since coming back from the Himalayas, I haven't done a whole lot to nurture this find. Being pregnant and all, I don't exactly want to be holding another heavy thing on top of my bulging belly, or twisting and climbing places to get a better shot. UNTIL. Our great friends who we've known for about 3 years in Korea asked me to do their maternity shots. Beautiful belly. Beautiful couple. And of course I said yes! The heat, the hours, the manipulating of my pregnant body to find different angles, the hours and hours of editing and experimenting - they all seemed like a time-stopper. When I lose track of time, I know it's because of something I love. I loved the process so incredibly much that this 'project' was the spark to more creative usages with my camera. More portrait photography. Three other families are lined up... So I thought, why not invest the hours of photographing and editing as a FUNDRAISER?

So I'm making the official announcement: that during June, July, and August (the wonderfully humid summertime of Korea), I'm taking photos for anyone (while I still can before my real baby arrives in Sept) to RAISE FUNDS for our big move to Nepal in Dec 2010. Our hope is to raise enough for our set-up costs and airplane tickets to Nepal! So if you or anyone you know in Korea is interested (maternity, engagements, weddings, newborn, family, fashion, or strange arrangements of groups shots with your friends, whatever the occasion!), please contact me at soyon@mountainchild.org. I'm leaving it up to YOU to set the price, so whatever you can afford, it would be an honor!

It is a sweet thing when passions align, isn't it? Now for some wet paint...

You can view my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/soyonamary/.

Climb the parade.

Mountains indent and protruded, beams
the color of citrus and earth, inhale.
The terraces of crops, they danced as if
to sprout to songs that had never been,
and yet timely through the ages, heard, hear.

I walked on it, dripping weight, the weight of
stagnant pain pressed, bled, into my shoulders, and I cried,
knowing these indents as all of our own. But
flowing even wetter, glory spirals within, and I catch
dancing mountains and layers of green
spread roots, trees in stature gleaming tall, they clap
and flow up to praising heights, knowing these songs as their own.

And I promised, to forever search these mountains.
To climb the parade of beams.

Also posted on http://mountainchild.tumblr.com/

video update

our first one... some awkward moments... but we hope you enjoy...

A Walk through an Ethnic Tibetan Village of the Himalayas

This was at the top of one of our treks in the Himalayas. It took us 6 days to hike uphill to this ethnic Tibetan village. All buildings are made of stone and wood.

September Baby.

Our Photo Album of North America

Check out the photos and follow the captions for the story. Start at the first photo. Enjoy.

Click me to see the full photo album!

the mountains and hills will burst into song before you

This was my 1-year anniversary present to my husband back in August 09. It's our story of how we met, connected, and are living out our dreams. On white paper, with a black marker, I drew the main border that frames the piece, and then bordered out the 7 individual stanzas that would tell the story. Then with each stanza, I spent tedious hours drawing the lines and cutting out each of those lines and curves. I wanted to make sure that the major lines were attached so that when held up in the air, it would be just one piece of connected stenciled work. After it was cut out, I took another piece of white paper and color-penciled in different shades of green, a color that, for me, grows. Then with glue on the back of the black, the cut-out piece was pasted on top of the green. The very last step was to paste the piece onto a wooden board that I got from the lid of a musk melon box. Now ready and waiting to be hung at our new house in Nepal one day, hopefully soon.

The first 'stanza', starting at the top, represents John two and a half years ago when he was trekking up the Himalayas on a short-term trip. The Himalayas held for him a lot of substance and something that was adventure, grounding and mysterious, a place to which he knew he had to return. As he was trekking, he shared his heart with the village people, and he said a lot of prayers committing to being part of these mountain people's lives. There was also a reoccuring prayer that he describes as the scare of his life, the need and desire for a wife. This was before he knew of my existence.

The next box is me. Zoomed into my face, representing the introspection that was my life two and a half years ago. I had gone on the same short-term (10 days) trip as the one John had been on, but instead of trekking the mountains, I was down in the city of Kathmandu, with the children at the home, experiencing one of the biggest changes in my mind - the acceptance of my past. I had grown up as a missionary kid in Nigeria, where I was put into boarding school at the vulnerable age of 8, in total confusion and abandonment, as I had interpreted it in my child's mind. So I grew up with misunderstandings about what true faith and devotion in Christ meant - why would God let our family go through this, I always asked? A story I hope to write in more length and depth one day soon. On this trip, I still had questions unanswered but when I saw the children at the home, I saw something fresh. A truth that I had known in my head all along but one that I couldn't soften myself to internalize. On this trip, the sights and smells and sounds of Nigeria strongly gushed back in a way that I can only explain as the triggers of memory through commonalities in developing nations. With my senses opened and a spirit that was eager to soak up truth, I saw in these children my own childhood. On the first day we arrived, they held my hands tightly and showed me their bunkbeds, their few possessions and their life in a hostel. This was me. Then all the figures in my life up to this point, all the events and losses and gains connected in my head. It made sense to me for that brief moment why God had let me go through what I had. It was to show me that no matter how bad the situation may seem he is always there. He was there so present and evident in each of those kids' lives. It wasn't that their situation was 'bad', in fact, they were all probably far better off in the safety of this home than back in the conditions that they were found in the mountains. But their situations were still imperfect, as all of ours. For me, the separation of families was and is tragic and I breathed that conviction from personal experience. And I knew that these kids had something in common with me. But despite the situation, Christ was in them and with them always. And I knew he had always been with me when I was alone in my dorm room. He had brought me to this home to tell the story of what God would do in these kids' lives, to offer them a real personal testimony and hope, and I was there to finally let go of my past of bitterness. So I shared my story with the children on the last day and somehow managed to make the whole room cry. And John happened to have returned from the mountains that day. He heard me and something piqued his fancy. So he prayed.

He prayed that we would sit next to each other on the plane ride back to Korea. I secretly had a hopeless interest in him but never took my imagination too far as he seemed unattainable. But I did secretly wish that we were sitting together too. Sure enough, we found our seat assignments next to one another, with an hour delay in take off, which was an extra hour for us to talk. Talked for the entire 4-5 hours and made the connection. We started dating and he asked me if I wanted to come with him on a trip that he had been planning way before he knew me. Two months in Australia and New Zealand. It was make it or break it. But we walked through jungles, forests, and beaches in NZ, forming roots in our relationship that would take us to new and trusted territory. Before we knew it, we knew it was right and sweet to get married.
So the bells rung. We got married in Korea and although the wedding planning was not bliss, the day and marriage itself was bliss. We continued to look up to where our roots had been established and with the joys and challenges that came with marriage, we continued to grow and solidify our call in life. To love God, ourselves, each other, and others.

We set up house in the apartment provided by my job. It was spacious for two, and we had a spongy schedule that allowed us time for each other. It seemed perfect for our plan to set our first year aside to solely building a foundation into our marriage. We knew we wanted and needed this foundation that would keep us standing with whatever good or bad shot at us in the future. At this point, we knew Nepal was still in the future. But we thought, oh, why not wait a few years, have some children, save some money, then go. So in that first year, we continued to learn about each other and get comfortable in Korea, but soon it became time when we knew we were avoiding something. Commitment to something bigger than ourselves? Yes, I kept saying I was not ready to commit to life in Nepal. Not yet. Well, we continued to pray and sort through our fears of committing to the unknown. In prayer, and with time, we found that the Spirt was leading and equipping us to go. We had committed the first year to US, and the first year was up. Now it was time to act out love into the world.

In prayer, we decided to extend our home to others. For us, this meant we needed to return to Nepal. We wanted to include the children at the home in Nepal into ours, in whatever capacity that may be. And through them, continue to extend this love to the Himalayas. Through the institution of a home, or 'family', we wanted to continue expanding the roots that we had found 2-3 stanzas ago. So we signed up for the 4-month internship so assess whether or not God was really leading us back to Nepal. We completed the training with an assurance that yes, he wants us back, longterm.

The final box. Arms extending upward, giving praise and glory to God. On the mountains, the Himalayas. We foresee our family, whoever and whatever will be part of our 'home' in the near and far future, to spend the rest of our lives learning how to return all glory to our big and gracious God. "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." Isaiah 55:10-13.

Our nephew, Phoenix, loved those slikworm larvae

on the road again...

from pasadena, california, i (john) finally write an entry:

my wife and i have been traveling around the states since just before Christmas.
it's been difficult at times,

but then again we've had awesome times too...