Pho

It’s been about seven years since I had my first pho.  Before I go on, I should explain for those who have never tried it.  It’s a Vietnamese noodle soup with beef broth, meat, herbs and bean sprouts.  And if you’re wondering if you are saying it right, you cheeks should turn a little pink when you say “I could really go for a good pho”….

My first pho was at the now closed Baltimore Pho in Hollins Market, Baltimore.  They did a weekly neighborhood discount day and I had a few friends who lived in Hollins Market and I worked there, so we would meet together to take advantage of the discount, at first.  This time turned into some of the most precious memories I have of my early years in Baltimore, spending time fellowshiping with my New Song girlfriends.  No topic was off limits and we provided support, advice and  laughter as we navigated life out of college.  At least half of us have moved out of Baltimore since.  There have been career changes, weddings, big moves, grad school, babies…I will never forget the special times we shared while our lives were in this similar place for a moment of time– of being newly grown up and learning to serve God in Baltimore.

Those times ended and I almost forgot about Pho.  Little did I know, it would become one of the key staples of my diet.  Because Sung Yoon doesn’t just like Pho– it sustains him.  It was one of the first things he told me about himself.  It is the meal we always share when we are with his sister.  It is the meal he wants after a long week.  Or the celebrate his birthday.  It was a sign we were in the right place last year, when we found Pho on base in Nebraska–something Sung had never seen before.  It’s a way we spend rainy Saturdays or a way to catch up with old friends.

    

It is so special that I am able to connect this man I love and our life together, to the rich legacy of Tuesdays with my girlfriends before I knew Sung Yoon existed, when I still wondered if I would ever find the right guy.  Life is funny that way.  As things continue to change for my relationships, as seasons of seeing certain friends regularly come and go, it can be really sad.  But, I see that it is such a rich blessing to have friends come into your life at the right time, for the right time.  And, ladies, I have a good reason to remember you often.

Here are some of the best phos Sung and I have tried together.

Pho So 1~ Richmond, Virginia (Our first Pho together and the place we go every time we’re in Richmond)

Pho 382~ Offut Air Force Base, Nebraska

Saigon Surface~ Omaha, Nebraska

Vietnam Restaurant~ Philadelphia

Cafe Pho Ga Thanh Thanh~ Philadelphia (Our first time trying chicken pho!  Only I didn’t know the difference….)

Pho 75~ Philadelphia (loved by Anthony Bourdain and also us)

We’ve Landed!

So….we live in Philly now.  That’s kind of crazy.  In my long absence from this blog, Sung and I have been very busy starting a completely brand new life!  I’ll try to give a brief summary of the past two months here and, later on, I hope to begin with regular posts again.  I have missed writing so…hopefully you’ve missed reading 😉

Here’s a bit about our move…

1. We left Nebraska on August 12.  Besides locking our keys in the car before we left, it was a pretty stress-free trip for Sung and I– Oliver was significantly less patient with this move than he was with the first one, for some reason.  Other than that, we had a great trip and got to visit a few people as we made the journey back east.  (Not pictured: Jocelyn and Alex Meyer– how did we not get a picture??)

2. We arrived in Wilmington, Delaware, road wary and ready to stay in one place for more than a few nights.  Here is how Mom and Joe greeted us:

We stayed with them for a few weeks while we recuperated, apartment hunted, and visited some of my “essential” hometown places including Brew Ha Ha, Charcoal Pit, the Arden Fair, and Rehobeth Beach.

3. I started work at my new school.  I’m teaching Kindergarten again, and I really, really love it.  It has been such an incredible blessing to me that the transition into this new job has been so smooth.  I feel welcomed by the amazing staff at my school and my children are really a delight to work with.

4. We celebrated one year of marriage!

4. We moved into our new place in Norther Liberties.  It’s a “trinity style” house which means that each of the three floors are only one room (plus a basement kitchen).  I promise to post more pictures soon but here is Sung looking through the trap door used to get our furniture upstairs.

5. Sung started at Drexel and he loves it.  So, I guess we made a good choice in coming here. 🙂

We are happy here and continuing to get more and more comfortable and settled.  We have already had a few visitors– just a reminder that it is really great to be back on the East Coast, near so many friends and family members.  It is so hard to even wrap my head around all the blessings we have experienced since we began the process of leaving the Air Force.  Thank you for following us through this journey and for your continued support as we begin this next chapter.

All our love,

The Hwangs

How the Lego Movie Changed Our Lives….

On February 17, I took this picture because  I thought Sung and I looked like real grown-ups.  We were on our way to see “The Lego Movie”.

And, besides our destination, we really were.  We had been married for five months and things were going well.  We both were working and maintaining a pretty happy work/life balance.  I was wearing a shirt with a collar!  Most importantly– we had a plan.  Sung had decided to separate from the military at the end of the summer and he had already applied to the perfect program for the fall.  At the University of Nebraska Medical Center, just thirty minute from where we live now and so close to our church, there is a program that would allow Sung to quickly become a radiography technician and move from his Associates Degree to a B.S.  It would allow him to stay in the medical field, get a job quickly, and have great job security.  We could stay where we were and wouldn’t have to go through too many changes besides the switch to Civilian life.  It seemed perfect.  Just look at those smiles.  But just a few weeks after we took this picture, Sung would turn down an interview for this very selective program because of what happened next…

Since our Perspectives class began in January, I got more and more excited about separation from the Air Force.  We could do ANYTHING!  I kept thinking that the obvious solution to our situation– military separation, no commitments, missions course– was that God what calling us into ministry.  A medical profession for Sung made sense to me because I saw clear ways that we could serve God in that capacity.  We diligently prayed that God would give us guidance but, to us, this radiography program made sense.

And then “The Lego Movie” changed our lives.

Sung loved the movie!  It had everything a good kids’ movie that is geared to adults should have– cheesy pop culture references, ridiculous music, a bit of off-color humor that flies over kids’ heads.  What was not to love?  But it also reminded him of something– himself.  As a kid building with legos was one of his favorite things to do.  It was, for him, his creative space.  And the reality is, he has quite a gifted, creative mind.  I have seen him constantly tapping into this creative ingenuity, since our days of emails when he specially rigged a mouse trap to catch a mouse that kept outsmarting an unaltered snap trap.

 

Seeing the movie brought up these pleasant childhood memories for Sung and it changed him.  Not two days later, Sung texted me during the work day.  He “joked” that maybe he would get a nursing degree and also get an engineering degree, “for fun”.  And once he actually said those words, it was so evident our old plan was a mistake.  Within the week, this was no longer a joke, he dropped the medical plans altogether and began applying to engineering schools.

He chose five and all five chose him.

 

We had an answer in mind that made sense but when we submitted our search to the Lord, He gave us an answer the made sense MORE!  After a lot more prayer and weeks of discussion, we made the decision to move back to the East Coast.  Sung will attend Drexel University in the Fall  and he will pursue Mechanical Engineering.

In closing, all I have to say is

Thanks for the support on this journey, everyone!

All our love,

The Hwangs

…..

 

Week in Review

Hi there!  I hope everyone is enjoying the highs and lows (literally!) of March!  The Hwangs have had a productive week and I’m happy to share it with you.

1. The BEST thing that we did this week was finalize all one million of Sung’s college applications… hmm…maybe it wasn’t quite that many but it felt that way.  Special thanks to Lou Anne Pasquarella who we called in at the last minute for some coaching.  Now all we have to do is wait.  Believe me, we will keep you posted!

2. My student who has been out for surgery was able to skype with our class this week– so cool!

3. I applied for my first teaching job NOT in Omaha, as I’m trying to prepare for a potential move if we make one.  But I’m not going to get my teaching license in any OTHER states until have I have a job because, let me tell you, it is not cheap!

4. This Friday, for some reason, Sung decided to pull out his LASER TAG SET for the first time since we’ve be married.  It is the coolest toy ever and I have no idea why we never played with it before.  You hook it up to your computer and it tells you when to start and end the game and also who won.  Well, I never won but that’s ok.

5. We had a pretty tough day of studying for Perspectives this Saturday.  We are so excited for our “spring break” (from that class, haha) next week!  To decompress after studying, we went bowling! Then, last night, the women from my small group had an impromptu girls night (which means Oliver and Sung and an impromptu guys night!)  It was great fun for all.

Sorry for no pictures this week.  I’ll leave you with this to get you through until next week.

Love you all!

Margot ❤

Week in Review

This week’s review is coming a bit late but I don’t mind because…

1. Daylight Savings Time means I actually get to sleep later now (unlike most people, sorry guys) because the time did not change with the students I tutor in China!!  I still may be getting up earlier than I would prefer (haha) but no matter.  I’m super stoked and have been counting down the days!

2. I’ve been doing the low carb diet with Sung since Monday and I’m pretty happy so far.  By which I mean, I’m glad I’m doing this diet with my husband.  In terms of feeling happy, I have definitely had a bit of carb withdraw symptoms this week which include inexplicable ennui.  I think I’m over the hump though and looking forward to feeling the positive effects in my brain soon 🙂

3. This week I got an exciting package from my roommates from Sandtown but more on that later this week…. 🙂

4. I attended a Women’s Conference at Glad Tidings (our church) and it was great!  I heard talks about renewing your mind through God’s word, having a Godly marriage, and discerning God’s will for your life.  One thing that was a common theme was that in marriage and our Christian walk, the daily relationship is what enables us to handle big challenges.  If we have a strong marriage everyday, we will be ready when the big trials of life come.  If we are trusting God to help us make little decisions, it will be much easier to discern his will in the bigger decisions.  That was a cool thing to think about because it means what I do each day to strengthen my relationship with the Lord and with Sung is prepping me for things I don’t even know about yet!

5. It finally warmed up!  Last Sunday, at Perspectives, the heat was out in the building and it was basically one of the most cold, miserable experiences of my life.  This week we drove there in 70 degree warmth!  Praise God for Spring!  But I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t enjoy one last surprise snow day as we, unlike all you East Coast people, have only had one this year.

All my love, Mrs. Hwang

Surprise!!!!!– I WORRY

I have had a chance to look back over my life so far a lot, since we moved here.  One thing that has become overwhelming clear is that many of the problems that I had in my lifetime were actually just the same problem over and over again– my personal issue with anxiety, guilt and worry.  I have begun to notice how frequently a small unpleasantry, be it a comment from someone else or a change in plans I’m not prepared for, can spark a cyclical pattern of worry that I find very hard to get out of.  One that I almost seem to relish, that I keep my brain in all day.  One that I keep trying to “solve”, not realizing the worry itself is the problem, not the “problem”.

There are many people who struggle with anxiety disorders.  At this point, I don’t think I have something like that and I don’t intend to speak for someone that may be battling such a diagnose.  I have known many people who benefited from professional help for anxiety and depression and I would encourage anyone reading this who may need such help to seek it!  I am only writing this to speak to my own personal experiences and where I’ve found some of the roots of these thoughts to lie.

I suspect that if you are someone who has known me well, you are nodding your head when I confess I struggle with daily worry.  Everyone seems to know I do, I just didn’t acknowledge how constant worry was in my life, until recently.  Now that I think about it, I actually remember my kindergarten teacher calling me a “worry wart”.  Also, Sung and I have been going through the copy of Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest my parents gave me for my sixteenth birthday– and found I underlined and marked significant portions of an entry on worry— more than I marked on any other page.  I wrote things 14 years ago in that book that seem to mirror the exact thoughts I still have regarding worry today.  But, still, this problem floated under my radar.

There are a few reasons I think I finally became aware of this habit.

1. It got worse when I met Sung.  All my life I have been dreaming of meeting “the one” and when I realized he was the one, the only one forever, that put a heck of a lot of responsibility and pressure on this relationship, to live up to all of my expectations of what marriage should be like.  And it was not so much worry that he was not right in some way– it was worry that something I did would be wrong and ruin this thing I have wanted for so long.

2. Then we moved and I’ve had a chance to be myself in a new context.  It’s funny how my life got so much easier– some major stressors like my schedule, finances, and job decreased in difficulty– but my anxiety level increased.  I began to see that I was worrying but not about things that I really needed to worry about.  It became funny– except I still couldn’t stop and I didn’t know why.

3. The Holy Spirit convicted me of real sin in this sermon given by Pastor Walt at our church last month.  I have always known that if I was worrying I was not trusting God.  But I had never really evaluated that more deeply in my own life.  I had cultivated a lifestyle of constant unrest.  I kept thinking, “Well once this problem is over I’ll be at peace”.  But then something new came up and I’d be anxious again. Now, I have come to realize that, in Christ’s power, I am able to live a lifestyle of peace regardless of my circumstances and that is what I am now seeking to attain.

My favorite part of the sermon is that our pastor points out Jesus’ words: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30)  It doesn’t say “O you with lots of problems.”  In the past, I have always attributed my stress level to the problems in my life.  As those have changed shape and, for the time being, decreased in some areas, my stress level has stayed the same.  It is not a problem issue– it is a faith issue.

I am so excited to be able to see this, more clearly than ever before, as Sung and I just begin our marriage journey.  I truly believe, as I seek God’s peace throughout each day no matter what challenges arise, that I will be a better life partner to my husband, and a more enjoyable one to be around.  It has, so far, proved a challenging task, but I am committed to changing my outlook for good.  I will no longer allow worry to fill so much of my mind, unchecked.  Rather then merely wishing I didn’t feel so stressed, I am committing each issue to the Lord with the simple prayer suggested in this sermon, “Jesus, I trust you.”

Week in Review

This week… I TURNED 30!!!!  Thank you everyone for the lovely messages, even from afar!  Here’s my week…

1. I’ve been cooking low carb for Sung and decided I would just go all in and join him in this crazy diet, starting this Monday… yikes!  I’ve found this website extremely helpful.  I’ll keep you posted on how I feel next week 😉

2. I became Mandt Certified this week, after two days of training.  While I had heard this training was about “restraint”, meaning how you physically restrict children who have become violent, it was about so much more than that.  This training focused on relationships and how you can use strong relationships to help prevent children from escalating, even when they encounter triggers at school.  It was cool and really helpful for any teacher, not just one working with a special education population.

3. I hosted my first “lady’s night” at our apartment!  A friend from work and a friend from church joined me for an evening of wine, chocolate fondue, and good conversation.  (Thanks to Sung for giving us the apartment and also since he’s the one who got us a fondue pot!)

4. On Thursday, Sung texted me let me know we had to attend a meeting on base in the evening.  Instead, he skipped the highway exit that would have led us to base and took me to a very nice restaurant down town to celebrate my birthday, a day early!

5. Sung said he had no more tricks up his sleeve.  On Friday, he headed off to work in his uniform as usual.  Only I found out later he didn’t go to work– he took the day off!  He spent the whole day shopping, cooking, and cleaning and I came home to a beautifully decorated house and a three course dinner!  I think it’s safe to say, we rung in my thirties pretty well!  Thank you, Sung!!!!!!!

And thank you, friends and family, for your continued love and support!  I’m looking forward to sharing this next decade with you all!

All my love!

This Time Last Year

It’s a fun game to play for me.  I’ve been marking my months of marriage to Sung Yoon with memories from this time last year.

A year from our wedding day I was adopting Oliver and emailing Sung for the first time.  A year from Halloween, I was taking in my first Air Force party (not with Sung) and wondering what I had gotten myself into.  A year from Thanksgiving I was making him his first present from me.  A year from New Years, we were watching fireworks together in Germany.

This time last year marked the end of a rather difficult month.  I had several pretty big, startling changes occur in my little world.  My Pastor and his family had just announced their move to Saint Louis, another close friend and church leader also announced their move, and we had an abrupt leadership change at my school.  Within a month, Sung’s departure date from Germany changed twice and a training that would have allowed him to be with me on my birthday got canceled.

We didn’t know that he’d be able to visit me for two weeks that April.  We didn’t know a lot.

As I sat in church, hearing the announcement that another leader was moving on, I grit my teeth.  “I see what you’re doing,” I said to God.  “I see that you causing some folks to move on.  But I will not be next.  I am not going any where.”

I think I told God no because I already knew.  I told him I would not be next but I knew that I would.

Not long after that, Darcy and Jake came to visit me.  Oliver peed on Bekah’s new arm chair and I broke down into tears.  I started telling them everything that was wrong.  And, finally, the real thing– “I’m not ready to be ready to leave,” I cried.

Darcy told me to stop– how could I worry about leaving when no one had asked me to go anywhere.  But I knew.

The day after my birthday last year, Sung and I started talking about marriage– it hadn’t been mentioned seriously for some time, but it had been on my mind all these months.  I asked if he had some sort of timeline in mind for it all.

“I thought you’d like to get married before you turned thirty,” he said.  I laughed.  I hadn’t really had that as some sort of deadline.  Then he said, “Well, at least that was what I was going to tell you…as an excuse…so you wouldn’t wonder why I wanted to get married so soon.”

I wasn’t ready to be ready to leave Sandtown and Baltimore and my life there.  But I was ready.  In many ways, I’m still not ready to have left.  But I’m so grateful that, as stubborn as I was, I was willing to walk the path God placed before me.  That step, into his will, is always the best step to take.

Week in Review

Welcome to another installment of life in Nebraska….

1. Last Saturday we bought some frames for our wedding pictures!  This is the first step to having actual photos from our wedding in our house.  So exciting!

2. I was observed teaching by my principal this week.  This is something he is doing, extra, for me so he can write a recommendation for a teaching position for me next year.  It went great… until a five year old literally would not accept that he had given a wrong answer even after I told him three times he was wrong.  Ain’t nobody take no for an answer like a five year old.  The principal– and me– were dying laughing.

3. We celebrated Valentine’s Day in preschool this Wednesday.  You have probably never seen more glitter in your life.

4. We visited a friend’s house for a delicious home cooked meal on Thursday.  Sung made the point it was our first time dining in someone’s home since we arrived here.  Thank you, Nicole! :))))

5. I had a day off on Friday and got the rare treat of grabbing coffee with a fellow military spouse.  We always have fun together!

6.Sung prepared me the most amazing Valentine’s meal.  It was a three course fondue extravaganza.  I love my husband!!

Thanks for reading.  Keep it classy!  Love, the Hwangs

 

V-Day Mix 2014

My dearest friends,

When I lived in Baltimore, I dreamed of waking up early on Valentine’s morning and driving all around the city to deliver my special, annual Valentine’s mix to your front doors. But I never did that… I always hit snooze.

It took moving to Nebraska to ensure you would get to listen to this mix on ACTUAL Valentine’s Day! I started doing this, years ago, to express my love and excitement to my friends. Thanks for listening to me, even if you don’t want to listen to this MIX. Also, never try to read too much into my song choices. I just like these songs.

All my love,
Margot Hwang