Today we celebrate the birthday of a great lady! Tom's Mother is generous, encouraging, loving, caring, giving and an all-round dynamo! She shows us how to live life serving others with a humble heart. Thank you Shirley for the example you are to us all. We all want to be more like you -- you are Jesus to us! We love you.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Happy Birthday Grandma!
Today we celebrate the birthday of a great lady! Tom's Mother is generous, encouraging, loving, caring, giving and an all-round dynamo! She shows us how to live life serving others with a humble heart. Thank you Shirley for the example you are to us all. We all want to be more like you -- you are Jesus to us! We love you.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
About Graham Siao
Today I realized I hadn't told you much about our little Graham! His Chinese name is Chong Siao. Chong comes from the city where he is from "Ancestral Mountain" - Chongyang, Hubei Province China. The Siao portion means (roughly) one who ponders with a strong sense of self. His birthday is May 14, 2007, so we will be with him in China for his first birthday! We'll all celebrate in Guangzhou, China together.
The most recent information we received on him was from December 2007 - when he was only 7 months old. At that time he was healthy and seemed interactive and happy. He was responsive and responded with laughter when his name was called and when he was teased. Sitting up, holding things in his hands and feeding himself cookies were part of his daily activities. He has been living with a foster family since he arrived at the Social Welfare Institute the end of August 2007.
So, that's about it. He'll be a surprise to us when we see him. The only pictures we have of him show a little butterball with a round head and fat cheeks waiting for kisses.
You know we've been praying for this child for over 2 years on a daily basis. Praying God will prepare him for us and us for him...the time is almost here, and we can't wait to see the answer to our prayers. Thanks for joining the journey with us!
Love ya!
The most recent information we received on him was from December 2007 - when he was only 7 months old. At that time he was healthy and seemed interactive and happy. He was responsive and responded with laughter when his name was called and when he was teased. Sitting up, holding things in his hands and feeding himself cookies were part of his daily activities. He has been living with a foster family since he arrived at the Social Welfare Institute the end of August 2007.
So, that's about it. He'll be a surprise to us when we see him. The only pictures we have of him show a little butterball with a round head and fat cheeks waiting for kisses.
You know we've been praying for this child for over 2 years on a daily basis. Praying God will prepare him for us and us for him...the time is almost here, and we can't wait to see the answer to our prayers. Thanks for joining the journey with us!
Love ya!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
DWTS and getting closer
We're sad in our house tonight. Amelia is crying because her favorite from Dancing with the Stars, Marlee Matlin is going home. Amelia LOVES Marlee! She's a huge fan of DWTS...and can quote all her favorites....oh gosh, they're singing Dust in the Wind as the closing song...boo-hoo! Come on...how about a happy song?! (If you remember "Dust in the Wind from your Jr. Hi or H.S. days you've just dated yourself!!! You're OLD!!)...and so am I! :) Just thought I'd share this in case any of you are fans...and do you remember your favorite shows from when you were a child? I think that's another blog post all together...but for now, just some food for thought.
We leave in just 9 days...it's getting close. We're getting ready. Half packed, tickets bought, paperwork ready, arrangements made...and lots of life to fit in before the 2nd. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Love ya!
We leave in just 9 days...it's getting close. We're getting ready. Half packed, tickets bought, paperwork ready, arrangements made...and lots of life to fit in before the 2nd. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Love ya!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thoughts on death...and Life
Today I went to the funeral of the Father of one of my best friends. Her Dad was an amazing man, accomplished linguist, (10 languages), an Old Testament scholar of renown, loving husband and engaged Father. He died this past week - his 82-year-old body just gave out from old age. The end. Finished. No second chances to fix things. He's experiencing eternity...now.
His son did the euleogy - a beautiful sermon. The son spoke of how his "Pop" loved him. Pop loved him with actions and words and time and focus and more time. Love in action.
Matthew 25:14-30 was mentioned at length. Do you know it? It's the parable of the talents. Let me refresh your memory. A landowner was headed out on a trip. Before he left, he called a meeting with his servants and "entrusted his property to them" (gave them varying amounts of money) "each according to to his ability". The Master left and the servants got busy (or not). When he came back from his trip, he asked them for an accounting of his property (the money-or talents) he had entrusted to them. Two of the servants had doubled their money - they had worked hard and used their talents to create even more for their Master's benefit. So far so good. "Well done, good and faithful servant!...come and share your master's happiness!" Then came an accounting from the last servant--he just gave back the original talent. No return on that talent at all. Here's his excuse..."I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground". Needless to say the Master was furious at the waste. "You wicked, lazy servant!...You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that I could have at least received it back with interest!"
My friend's brother then went on and spoke about how his Pop had used his many talents doubling and tripling them for the Lord's glory.
Hmmm...so, how are you doing? I don't know about you, but on a reflective day like today, when I hear this passage (one of the last parables Jesus ever gave) I am convicted. Am I using up and doubling, tripling the investment God has created in me? Or am I letting FEAR or even worse...LAZINESS keep me from being the woman I was created to be?
As I'm getting ready to add another precious child to my already busy life I pray I will be able to be fearless and industrious in my work, and in my love. Playing school with Amelia working on her letters, inviting the "Craft Lady" to come do crafts, or maybe a session with "Bernice the Beautician" is in order playing with her hair. And how about scheduling my work so when I am with them I'm really with them...not checking emails, or on the phone, or doing laundry, or checking emails, or reading blogs or stuck with my nose in a book or, or, or....but am really, truly with them...actions showing love, love in action. That's what they will remember.
Thank you Joel for your words today. Thank you for reminding me of what's really important in life...
The end of that parable is really interesting. The Master didn't just get mad at the lazy servant, he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who had the best return on his investment. "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
I want that abundance. My prayer is that I will be willing to do more, to be more, to have more, to give more...so that at the end, I can hear "Well done good and faithful servant, come and share your Master's happiness!"
Love ya!
His son did the euleogy - a beautiful sermon. The son spoke of how his "Pop" loved him. Pop loved him with actions and words and time and focus and more time. Love in action.
Matthew 25:14-30 was mentioned at length. Do you know it? It's the parable of the talents. Let me refresh your memory. A landowner was headed out on a trip. Before he left, he called a meeting with his servants and "entrusted his property to them" (gave them varying amounts of money) "each according to to his ability". The Master left and the servants got busy (or not). When he came back from his trip, he asked them for an accounting of his property (the money-or talents) he had entrusted to them. Two of the servants had doubled their money - they had worked hard and used their talents to create even more for their Master's benefit. So far so good. "Well done, good and faithful servant!...come and share your master's happiness!" Then came an accounting from the last servant--he just gave back the original talent. No return on that talent at all. Here's his excuse..."I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground". Needless to say the Master was furious at the waste. "You wicked, lazy servant!...You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that I could have at least received it back with interest!"
My friend's brother then went on and spoke about how his Pop had used his many talents doubling and tripling them for the Lord's glory.
Hmmm...so, how are you doing? I don't know about you, but on a reflective day like today, when I hear this passage (one of the last parables Jesus ever gave) I am convicted. Am I using up and doubling, tripling the investment God has created in me? Or am I letting FEAR or even worse...LAZINESS keep me from being the woman I was created to be?
As I'm getting ready to add another precious child to my already busy life I pray I will be able to be fearless and industrious in my work, and in my love. Playing school with Amelia working on her letters, inviting the "Craft Lady" to come do crafts, or maybe a session with "Bernice the Beautician" is in order playing with her hair. And how about scheduling my work so when I am with them I'm really with them...not checking emails, or on the phone, or doing laundry, or checking emails, or reading blogs or stuck with my nose in a book or, or, or....but am really, truly with them...actions showing love, love in action. That's what they will remember.
Thank you Joel for your words today. Thank you for reminding me of what's really important in life...
The end of that parable is really interesting. The Master didn't just get mad at the lazy servant, he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who had the best return on his investment. "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
I want that abundance. My prayer is that I will be willing to do more, to be more, to have more, to give more...so that at the end, I can hear "Well done good and faithful servant, come and share your Master's happiness!"
Love ya!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Travel Information
We got our tickets to China yesterday! We will leave on Friday May 2nd and fly to Hong Kong. Disneyland Hong Kong here we come! Amelia is looking forward to the character breakfast. We'll fly out of Redding, head to San Francisco, then on to Hong Kong. We'll arrive the night of the 3rd...talk about making time fly! Saturday night in Hong Kong, Sunday at Disneyland, Monday take the train to Guangzhou and fly up to Wuhan. Tuesday the 5th we'll get Graham! We're very excited. More information later...
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