God's Blessings & Provisions

"Come to me with empty hands and an open heart, ready to receive my blessings." God continues to pour out his blessings on us. Daily He gives us something new, whether it be an object, or a message from Him, something around us that is new or just a special blessing. David said in Psalm 145 verses 1-4, "I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." As God blesses us, we praise Him, and we share with the children how He is blessing us. One of the first blessings for this week was finally getting our high-speed wireless internet! Now, we can keep in touch with family and friends easier. As you know, God has provided many things for us so far. He has gone before us and made our way clearer. When we moved into this house, there was a small electric wringer washer for which we were thankful. Randy went out the other day and bought an upgrade! What a huge blessing and time saver!

Monday, I started school with the children. They have done so well this week. Andrew has finally learned his alphabet and we are going to be able to start working in his textbook next week. As we were working today, William got very quiet. I assumed he had gone to sleep so I looked across the room to see him quietly looking over the edge of his playpen! Without being too loud as to scare him, I told the children, "Okay, let's stop what we're doing and get William out of his playpen and take the bassinet part out!" As we worked together to get the bassinet out and lower the bed level, I thanked God again for giving us this precious child who had a shaky start. William has grown so much over the last few months. He is now 8 months old and weighs almost fourteen pounds. He is growing slowly BUT he is growing! He is doing everything he should be doing for his age. It seems funny to watch him doing things even though he is so small. He is now crawling but only wearing size 3-6 month clothes! This tiny child has been such a blessing in our lives.

Several days ago, Randy and I found a language school that we would like to attend. Tomorrow, we will be going for a trial class. We have been trying to find a nanny for the last few days to watch the children so we could both go together. We received an e-mail from some friends in town of a lady who helps nannies find positions. She spoke English! That was a tremendous blessing. I was able to talk to her and tell her a little about all the children. Randy called back later this afternoon and she had already contacted someone who could start tomorrow! How God provides!!! She is coming with the nanny tomorrow to meet us as the nanny doesn't know English. She has worked with other English speaking people before. I think the children will be able to learn Thai just because of the simple fact she doesn't speak English. Cynthia even commented that if she pointed to something and then had a questioning look on her face would the nanny maybe tell her what the object she was pointing at was called in Thai. How encouraging that she is looking forward to learning another language!

Please pray for Randy and I as we start language school. It is a difficult language but we are confident that we will learn as we know that God has moved us here and this is His will for us. The people are so friendly and we are looking forward to a new stage in our lives. Please pray for the children also as I know this will be somewhat difficult for them in the beginning. Randy and I will be gone Monday through Friday from 12-5 in order to be in the language school. One tremendous blessing is that the nanny is a Christian! Pray that the children will be able to learn some Thai as well. Hopefully soon, we will also have a tutor coming to our house on certain evenings to help our language along as a family.

Things continue to go well here. Please keep the country of Thailand in your prayers as there is some political unrest at this time. Some of you may have even seen some of this in the news. There has been some violence, but we do not live close to the protesting that is going on.

May God bless you as you head into the weekend. May we all strive to serve Him more as one week comes to a close and another begins. What a mighty God we serve!!!

Unpacking is Done!

Things are going great for us! We moved into our house on April 16th, our second day in Thailand! I have finally gotten the last suitcase/trunk/container unpacked. There were 23 of them. However, when almost half (or so it seems) of what we brought were school books and materials for three children, it wasn't such a huge feat! I hung the first picture yesterday, so according to Lee, the house now looks like it belongs to us. A huge blessing was that the owner left the mattresses and some bed frames in all the bedrooms!

The first time Randy went shopping by himself, he brought home a microwave and a playpen! He did a great job! The playpen was an especially nice surprise because William has learned how to crawl. Plus, when he is upstairs in the crib, we can't hear him if we are downstairs.

Randy went shopping with Lee and Cynthia yesterday and brought home a printer, ironing board and FANS!!! I have been extremely proud of how the children have adjusted to this new culture and the climate.

To close, I would like to share the entry from my devotional book for the morning after we arrived. "Trust Me, and don't be afraid. Many things feel out of control. Your routines are not running smoothly. You tend to feel more secure when your life is predictable. Let Me lead you to the rock that is higher than you and your circumstances. Take refuge in the shelter of My wings, where you are absolutely secure.

When you are shaken out of your comfortable routines, grip My hand tightly and look for growth opportunities. Instead of bemoaning the loss of your comfort, accept the challenge of something new. I lead you on from glory to glory, making you fit for My kingdom. Say yes to the ways I work in your life. Trust Me, and don't be afraid."

Obviously, many things are "out of control" in our lives right now! We are holding on to God's unchanging hand. Growth opportunities are abundant!!! We are accepting the challenge that God has laid before us and we are trusting in Him to make us fit for His kingdom. God truly is working in our lives and we are looking forward to the challenge!!!

We Have Arrived!!!

WOW!!! So much has happened in the last few days. We arrived in Thailand with no problems. Caleb had a hard time traveling due to teething which he is still suffering from. Other than that, we were pretty much wiped out the first two days. The Salmon family, who has been such a tremendous help to us, picked us up (and our 23 suitcases/trunks) at the airport. We stayed with them the rest of that night. Our first day in Bangkok (Thursday) pretty much was all about getting our bodies switched over to their time. We had a light breakfast of cereal and fruit. We tried a new fruit called pomelo, which looks like grapefruit but is not quite as juicy and is much sweeter. After that, we went to look at our house. What a surprise of space! I loooovvveee my huge kitchen! There were several hidden cabinets and several surprises inside them. On either side of the refrigerator, there is a floor to ceiling pull-out cabinet with 5 or 6 shelves! To the right under the sink, the cabinet "door" pulls open to reveal a built-in dish drainer! The downstairs consists of a kitchen, dining room, 2 living rooms and a maid's quarters with a bathroom. The floors are tiled. A beautiful wooden staircase leads to the upstairs which has all hardwood floors. There are three bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one of which has a bathtub!), another huge living room and a walk-in closet. We have all been thrilled with this tremendous blessing from God. The bedrooms all have their own air conditioner. In our yard, we have 2 mango trees, a jackfruit tree, pomegranate tree and a guava tree! We are looking forward to getting the fruit from these trees. After getting acquainted with our new house, we went shopping!!!!!!!! We bought the bare necessities like sheets, pillows and baby food (which we found Heinz IN ENGLISH!!!). We returned to the Salmon's house and began washing sheets. We all went to bed early as we were totally exhausted. Friday morning, we woke up ready to jump into the day. After breakfast, we headed to the mall. It was the first time for the children really to be out in Bangkok. It was so much fun to hear their reactions. They are loving Bangkok but trying to get adjusted to the humidity. Yesterday, it was 102 degrees and 73% humidity!!! The children were amazed at the size of the mall. It was four stories tall! While the adults split up to shop, the Salmon's son took the children to basically an indoor amuzement park. Of course, they had a blast. Randy got both of us a cell phone, while I went shopping for pans, cooking utensils, plates, bowls, diapers, an iron and various other things. I even found Enfamil formula! We bought a crib for William which he thoroughly enjoyed last night! The stores I went shopping in would be equivalent to Walmart and Sears. I have been pleasantly surprised at the different brands that I recognize as things that we had in the U.S. and in Mexico.

Lee asked me yesterday what culture shock was. I asked him why and he said a lady at one of the last churches we were in had told him she would be praying for us as we went through culture shock. I explained to him that that was what Americans called it when someone went to another country and everything was different and unusual and hard to get used to. He replied, "Everything is so much like Mexico. I don't think we have culture shock here!" What a blessing to watch our children make an easy transition to another country. Lee told me later that he thought really the only difference here was the language. Living in Mexico has helped the children tremendously. It truly is amazing how many things are so similar to life in Mexico. Yesterday afternoon, I heard Cynthia and Lee talking about how much the people reminded them of the Mexican people. I know we all have rough days ahead but, for now, all is well on this side of the world with our family.

Please continue to pray for us as there is still much to do. We are working on getting an internet connection at our house hopefully by sometime next week. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him here and we are looking forward to how He is going to use us here for His glory. As soon as we get our internet, I will post pictures!

Packing and Letting Go

It is with mixed emotions that I sit here and type one last blog from the United States. My family will move to Thailand in less than 24 hours!!! God has truly blessed and led the way through every turn over the last year, preparing us for this great change in our lives. My mother-in-law gave me a wonderful devotion book for Christmas that has been a tremendous blessing in my life. It is entitled Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, who is also the wife of a third-generation missionary who switched fields. This devotional book was written from the perspective of what this lady felt like God was saying to her through verses in the Bible. I feel like this book was written just for me! The Lord has helped me find a greater peace through this book. Not too many weeks ago, when I was struggling emotionally with the thoughts of our move, there was an entry that really touched me and has continuously come to mind over the last few days as I have gone through things and separated more of my belongings to be sent later instead of taking them now and contemplated the fact that we will be farther away from our families for a longer period of time than ever before. One of the verses for this particular day was Isaiah 41:13 which says, "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." The words on the page of the devotional page jumped out at me. "THIS IS A TIME IN YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU MUST LEARN TO LET GO: of loved ones, of possessions, of control. In order to let go of something that is precious to you, you need to rest in My Presence, where you are complete. Take time to bask in the Light of My Love. As you relax more and more, your grasping hand gradually opens up, relaxing your prized possession into My care. You can feel secure, even in the midst of cataclysmic changes, through awareness of My continual Presence. The One who never leaves you is the same One who never changes: I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. As you release more and more things into My care, remember that I never let go of your hand. Herein lies your security, which no one and no circumstance can take from you." Oh, how I have felt the security of my heavenly Father over the past few days. May I continue to hold onto His hand as I "let go" of this hemisphere and all it has been to me and all it has held for me. May I continue to feel His peace in the midst of change. I send a special thank you to my mother-in-law for this little book which has meant more to me than she could ever imagine. And, a special thank you to my mother who listened and cried with me as I shared this book with her and showed her the many things that Jesus has said to me this year. I love you both so very much!!!