the J i aliVEnture?

So at some point, you may wonder, or you may have already wondered, what 'jialiventure' means or where it came from, or how I came up with it. As I was trying to think of a creative name for this site, it seemed only fitting as I've been using it as a screen name for quite some time now (since 2004), and saw this as an opportunity to explain it's origins.

Five years ago, when I first decided (or more accurately, followed a certain Someone) to live on the other side of the world for a year and was coming up with a fun email address to use, I was playing around with the name I would be going by in the local language/dialect "li jia ying." I really liked the "jia" part of my name and knew I wanted to use it - for some reason I've always been partial to the letter "j". Don't know why really, but that's besides the point. I then quickly realized that if I put "li" after the "jia" and added a "ve" the word "alive" could be spelt...jiALIVE.

It seemed natural to tack on the full word "venture" as it would be quite a venture, or adventure, living on the other side of the world. Lastly (and to be honest I am not sure if I thought of it at the time or if I recently came up with this - considering I actually forgot that the word ALIVE was in there until a month ago), as I was playing around with "jialiventure" in my mind the other day, I remembered (or thought for the first time) that the "ji" could also stand for "J---s Is". (please use your imagination for what letters the dashes stand for...)

So there you have it. Jialiventure. J(---s) I(s) Alive (and as a result, I am truly alive as well for He came that we may have life and have it to the full) and He is certainly leading me on an (ad)venture and calling me to venture out of my comfort zone, lay down my life, surrender all, and follow Him...even if it means I need to leave everyone and everything I've ever known behind, give away all that I have except for a few suitcases, and move to a place that will and has challenged me beyond my human limitations to trust and walk with Him.

And back in 2004 when I first came up with "jialiventure" and followed Him to this side of the world for what I thought would be a year, little did I know that I'd be married and living back on this side of the world indefinitely 4 years later.

And now, I guess I'm venturing out on this whole blogging thing, wondering who and if anyone will be reading these musings of mine on life in another country. I'm surprising myself actually by starting a blog, but what can I say? I got hooked. Some friends of ours recently came from the US to this side of the world to adopt a baby, and I got hooked reading their blog. From there it was a slippery slope...in the past weeks I've found myself slowly discovering other friends' blogs and even catching up on ones I've known about for months but never read.

The more I've read, the more I've appreciated the ability to keep up with what's going on in my friends' lives even though we may not always have time (or the ability, because of physical distance) to stay in touch. And the more I've longed to express the highs and the lows, the discoveries and the frustrations, of this thing we call life, and share it with those I miss dearly as well as those I get the blessing of living life with for a time. And so now I guess it's time for me to start my own, and I can only hope to be as entertaining as my inspiration...thanks a lot for a blog addiction, E :)