Sent with love, we are. We are undeservedly blessed and taking in each moment of this adventure!
Monday evening our good friends Kim and Shawn and their sweet kids stopped by with a complete labor of love; this amazing quilt for Glory, that Kim no doubt spent countless hours of creativity and skill to make!  I just had to share this beautiful gift here with you.  Thank you Kim!

 

Ready, Set, GO!  The countdown is on until the 14th when we take off to meet our little Glory.  It has been a whirlwind of a month in which God has moved.  In just over a month we received, and celebrated our
Article 5 paperwork, at the Sure to Rise bakery in Cashmere....

thinking about our own little Xia Rose-  her middle names.....Xia meaning; 

"the glow of sunrise or sunset"

travel Approval a week later, and new little sister's 1st birthday- with Chinese food and glitter and pink....

everything!

We continue to be surprised by joy when we should be worried, blessed and provided for when it doesn't 'make sense', and supported beyond measure by the body of Christ along this journey of  adoption - celebrating, praying and loving with us, His little Glory home.  Thank you Jesus!

   

While the Lewis family is waiting on the edge of their seats to see God's timing in putting us on a plane for Bejing, let me share this short video that captures the heart behind our adventure of adoption.  A dear sister in Christ and friend shared with me long ago, before our journey began. I hope it encourages your faith with fresh eyes. Even if it is a familiar song, try to listen with new ears and bask in God's grace. 

Well, well, well. It is hard to believe I am actually sitting here working on this blog after almost a year! But alas and alack, for those of you just 'tuning in', I began this blog last year before i went on a short trip to Thailand  and Cambodia, in order to share what God was doing, and in hopes of using later in the year to share about our adoption journey.  Upon returning home to a very challenging season of life, and not being anything close to 'techy', I barely managed to add anything to this blog. For those of you who had hoped for more communication about my trip, here are FINALLY a FEW follow up images.

So sorry about the wait!

The boost to finally add these has come in wanting to start sharing our adoption journey with family and friends, here, but still felt i had to 'wrap up' what happened last year!

Thank you for your patience. Soon we will be posting about our little- God's little - Glory girl! 

In the city of Pnom Penh, Cambodia

Our first stop, Garden of Hope rescue house  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IJM (International Justice Mission) fighting trafficking in Pnom Penh

 

 

 

 

 

Heading to rural villages outside Pnom Penh; 

 

'Clean' water supply for the dry season

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the ICCM school's FM churches support

The House of Peace

 

 

A walk through one of few legitimately operated clothing

factories

 

 

Gathering rice bundles for planting

 

 

 

Thailand....

 

 

 

child being used to earn money from tourists  -'being cute'

at the famous temple, Doi Suthep, in Chiang Mai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting our sponsored girl, Narin and Wanepah, at Breanna's House of Joy

- a home and learning center for children without a home in Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our team at the Training and Forum on Human Trafficking in Chaing Mai.

Advent in action

          

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Christmas is Waiting to be Born

Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes, And the heart consumes itself, if it would live, Where little children age before their time, And life wears down the edges of the mind, Where fear companions each day's life, And Perfect Love seems long delayed, Christmas is waiting to be born: In you, in me, in all humankind. from The Moods of Christmas by Howard Thurman (Harper & Row, 1973)

  

 I wanted to take a moment at the beginning of advent, to share one simple action step you might be willing to make in response to what I have shared so far...

In all your Christmas shopping this year, consider looking first at some of the following websites to make your purchases.  When you buy from one of these fair trade businesses, you are creating a wave of God's love around the world....a gift of love and awareness to whom you are giving, as well as helping create a new future and hope in Jesus' name for someone else around the world.


www.stoptraffickfashion.com
www.tradeasone.com
www.project7.com
www.lightgivesheat.org
www.seedlivelihood.org
www.worldvision.org
www.notforsalestore.org

May God bless your journey to the manger...

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Beginning in Bangkok

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After meeting up with Kevin Austin (NFS Faith Communities Director and FM missionary)and Ginger Coakley (NFS representative for Illinois) in San Fransisco on October 24th, we headed off to Thailand. We spent one VERY long flight getting to know each other better and looking forward to all God was going to show us and teach us over the next couple weeks. Here are a few photos of Bangkok the day we arrived, 'resting' for a day before flying to Cambodia, quite jet lagged.

   

A common site were spirit houses just like this one in front of every house, business, outhouse, you name it in Thailand and Cambodia.  People believe that they need to build a spirit house on the property they have built something on, to appease the spirits they displaced.  Every day they make offerings of incense, food, or flowers at these shrines. This was one of the very first things that I noticed upon arriving; I can't think of anywhere or any culture that I had been to where there appeared to be a complete void of things relating to Christianity in symbol or structure or anything..

This was not a common site, thanks to Kevin's knowledge of Thai terrain, and what areas of Thailand to avoid because of flooding, since he had been a missionary there for even years. This was the worst that we saw of the Bangkok flooding that was covering the news around the world. It did change our plans the last 2 days of the trip, and several areas that we traveled to this first day we couldn't come back to on our last day in Thailand. The night before we flew out, the floods had reached the area we visited our first day to Thailand.

....a Tuk-Tuk

This was our first room, first night in Bangkok.  The painting on the door was a 'blessing' by a Buddhist monk.  These were also often put on the ceiling of the taxis that we rode in.  We had many gecko friends that shared the room with us, but in general it was much nicer and inexpensive than we ever expected.  We were blessed with  a  great night's sleep.  So I am still wondering if I slept so well because I was jet lagged or because there were no 'little people' waking me up in the middle of the night?! Actually it would be a great time to thank all of you who were praying that I could sleep, He answered so I could function on all cylinders, relatively!