Itsara

This has nothing to do with anything. Click to enlarge. Click here for a really big version.

Now that we have Sandra, we’ve been doing proper devotions every morning. Since I didn’t really know what her Bible background was, I decided to start reading Luke. We’ll read a passage, I’ll go over it again to explain it (cuz even the NIV isn’t very kid-friendly), and we talk about it.

From Luke 1:1-2:40, I’ve been struck by God’s love for us in a way I never noticed before. First, he sends an angel to tell Zechariah about his soon-to-be-son John. He then sends an angel to tell Mary about Jesus. It seems like Elizabeth was told through the Holy Spirit about Mary and Jesus as well. Then, after John and Jesus are born, God sends angels to a bunch of shepherds to tell them about Jesus’ birth. Eight days later, when Mary and Joseph are being good Israelites and taking Jesus to the temple for dedication, God had already told a man named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna about Jesus, and they began telling everyone in the temple about him.

In all of this, I am struck by how excited God is. He didn’t have to tell Zechariah about John, except perhaps what to name the child. He didn’t have to tell Elizabeth about Mary. He certainly didn’t have to tell the shepherds or Simeon or Anna. It will be another thirty years before Jesus even does anything to begin to fulfill all of this. Yet it occured to me that God was doing all of this because he was so excited, and he wanted to tell somebody. He was like a brand new father telling all his friends, “It’s a boy!”

So in the mornings we’ve been talking about how much God loves us. He loves us so much, that he even loves to share his plans with us. All of these people that God shared with were folks that spent time with him, loved him, and served him. They were his friends. God is so human, so close, in all of this that I’m surprised I never noticed it before.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

I really respect parents. I always have, but since we’ve begun to take care of Sandra, I love and appreciate parents even more. Parents with multiple kids – Wow. And I can’t even fathom what a single parent of any number of kids has to go through. I never realized how much free time I had before having a child. It’s like we are both constantly on call. All of our free time can and will be interrupted because we’re parents. It’s one thing to be around 50 kids at Im Jai everyday, when they have at least five other adults to seek attention from, but with just one child and two parents, you’re always the one they go to. I wonder sometimes if we had another child, it might be easier on our free time since they could seek attention and playtime from each other. Who knows?

I am so incredibly thankful to have Adam to be such a loving husband and now father. He wants so much to love both me and Sandra, and sacrifices so much in order to show us each individually. He also is giving me a day off every Friday, so I can run errands, take a break, and prepare for the next week. He’ll be in charge of school on Fridays and will be able to teach the subjects he’s gifted in (e.g. computers, art, music, etc.) in addition to the other regular subjects.

Daily life has been just fine. Monday through Friday we get up and Adam leads a Bible study for us, which is great because I’m learning so much more now that we have to explain it in simple terms for Sandra. We then have breakfast and Daddy (Adam) leaves for work and kisses us goodbye. Sandra and I do homeschooling for the day and we end when we end. (Did I mention that Sandra is in 5th grade, the same grade that I taught and loved to teach back in California? Praise God!). After school is over, we either go to Im Jai, run errands, spend time with other families with kids, or just take care of things at home. Adam comes home and gets attacked by Sandra and me with hugs. We then have dinner (sometimes Thai, sometimes good, old American). Two days of the week, we have Thai class at home, where the biggest problem is getting Sandra to entertain herself and not bother us. Then, it’s read aloud (currently it’s Stone Fox), and prayer time in Sandra’s bedroom. Finally, Adam and I get our alone time and usually end up spending most of the time talking about Sandra. Saturdays we will do our chores, probably go to Im Jai, and have Family Night (some fun activity that we can all agree on). Sundays are church and relax as much as possible. Of course, intertwined with all these activities, we have to teach good habits, discipline (which involves taking away allowance and time-outs), and love, love, love, with patience, self-control, and gentleness, and some more patience.

Anyway, please pray for us for the following:
1. Our marriage to stay strong.
2. Sandra to know and love Jesus.
3. Our relationship with God.
4. Wisdom in making decisions in regards to Sandra.

I’ve uploaded three new albums of pictures.

First off, Ladda is now engaged to an American named Stan. They will be married near the end of the year I think. Anyway, the engagement party is a big deal in Thai culture, and it was a huge deal here.

The second album is a mess of random Im Jai pictures. There’s some of the new houses, some gardening we did with the kids who have already moved there, an outing we took with the kids on Saturday, and a sunrise for good measure.

Finally, I took a few pictures around our new house. They’re not great, but you can always come out to see it for yourself. You can also see the aforementioned truck and pink bedsheets. And it looks like Sandra took a picture of herself. That should teach me to leave the camera out. I wonder if she was planning on telling me she took that…

We woke up early this morning because today was a busy day. Im Jai was going to the zoo, and we wanted to go with them. Also, Jess and Lisa were in town and we hoped to see them too. Cindy and Sandra got up and dressed before I did, so when I walked downstairs they were already having breakfast. I got my own toast and spent about 5 minutes putting the too-cold butter on in little pieces, trying not to completely destroy the bread.

We ate, we talked, then we did devotion. We read Luke 2:21-40, where Jesus is first taken to the temple to be dedicated and two different people (Simeon and Anna) start telling everybody about this boy and who he will become. I likened it to us having a brand new baby and taking him to the doctor for his first regular checkup, and while there someone in the waiting room, and later a nurse in the hallway, both take the baby from us and start telling all the other patients, nurses, and doctors, “This child will save the world!”

After that I took a shower, while Cindy and Sandra started homeschooling for the day. We were leaving for the zoo at nine, so they had a lot of work to do if we were to make it on time. I went out to take a walk and pray. I ended up praying for Sandra (of course), and for Jai, one of the older girls at Im Jai. She’s a sweet girl and has always been friendly with us. She’s also a leader, though I don’t think she realizes it. I see certain girls, including Sandra, looking up to her and following her and learning from her. So I prayed that God would bless this gift and protect her. (more…)

Wow. So we’ve been pretty busy, and I’ll tell you why. We’ve had a major change (related to the teaser from a previous post). We are no longer living at Im Jai, but have rented a house near the new site. We have bought a car (a truck, actually). We have been busy cleaning and fixing up our new place. We bought pink bedsheets. All because we’ve gone from zero to parent in about three weeks.

So there’s no confusion, we weren’t and aren’t pregnant. I’d tell you if we were.

We do, however, have a child.

Her name is Sandra. She’s 11 years old. She is a Thai orphan adopted by Cindy’s cousin in America. For reasons that I can’t really go into here, Sandra has been to boarding schools for the last couple of years, and now Cindy’s cousin has asked if we can take care of her.

We feel that it would be best for Sandra to be with her mom, but that is not a possibility, so we both agreed that the next best thing would be for her to be loved in a place where she would not have to be afraid of being moved again. We’re 100% certain that caring for her is God’s will. So as of March 4th, she has been living with us. And we are very suddenly parents.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but we just found out about the possibility towards the end of my parents’ visit. After that we weren’t certain it would happen or not, and by the time we were certain, we had a lot to do.

What does this change? Cindy will be homeschooling Sandra, so she won’t be at Im Jai during the day most days. I will continue working at Im Jai as the computer guru (which is going to be a major job as they move). Hopefully, as our new schedule becomes better established we’ll be able to spend some more time with the kids at Im Jai again. Pray about that. We really don’t know how this new call fits in with our current one of serving Im Jai, but we don’t want to back out on Im Jai if we can help it. We want our relationship and commitments to Im Jai to be a blessing to our new family rather than a burden. Besides that, we believe God has called us to Im Jai, so we figure He’s got something figured out – we just don’t know what it is yet.

That’s all details though. What this really changes is us. When I get a chance, I’ll talk about some of the awesome things God has been doing in our lives already through this little girl.