Someone made the comment to me upon receiving the news of my pregnancy with Reese...
"Hope you've gotten everything in that you wanted to do in life... 'cause those days are over now!"
Well dude, I don't know what world you live in... but you must not have a Mia. Or much ambition.
Not that I'm feeling terribly ambitious these days. Saturday is the day I board the plane for my second trip to this precious land. And while I am excited, yes... and expecting to watch in awe what God's gonna do with us and how He's gonna use me to communicate to a bunch of people that will understand about as much as I am saying to them as I understand Reese's jabber, yes... I'm still on a bit of a roller coaster with it all. As a matter of fact my heart kinda sinks when I think about leaving her for two weeks. I'm not afraid she won't be taken care of... good grief. She's gonna have a BLAST and won't even miss me. I'm the one that's gonna miss hearing her sing when she wakes up in the morning, and hear her jibber jabber as she "reads" to me from her carseat, watching her play with her cousin... I'm just gonna straight up miss her. Some people look forward to a break from their kids... and while one day I'm sure I'll fall into that category, I'm not there quite yet. I count myself extra blessed to be able to stay home with her and spend my days with her. I love everything about being her Mama.
Let me just tell you how much God has revealed himself to me in the past 5 days in what I believe to be an effort to calm my jitters and just remind me that He is acutely aware of silly little unstable emotional me and that
He cares how I feel. See, my sister in law commented a couple years back about having to leave her kids to do things like this, and how God spoke to her saying "I love them more than you do... they're mine. I've given them to you- not the other way around. You've gotta trust me with them." Let me just tell you the minute I heard her say that, I was like "ooh God, you are
so gonna use that on me someday!" Well, the day has come, y'all... :)
So Sunday, my mind had been a whirlwind of emotions all morning
already knowing that this was the week I had to leave her... I was down to only seven days. (Can you believe how much we work ourselves up over stuff?!? And a
week ahead of time!) And in the middle of a 5th grade Sunday school lesson on Abraham and Isaac, I read this in Genesis 22:15-18...
"Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
OH the peace that flooded my heart in that moment! I know that was written to Abraham, but had there been the audible voice of God I couldn't have heard Him speak to me any more clearly. And y'all don't
even know the times God has used the life of Abraham to speak truth into my life... it was during a quiet time years ago while studying Abram that I realized God was calling me to leave home and move here in the first place. That's another post though...
So I'm suprised I don't have that passage in Genesis completely memorized by now, because Satan has made my nerves flare up multiple times during each day of this week, and each day I go back to the promise I received on Sunday.
The grass needs mowed after the rain we got this week, and I am on borrowed nap time as it is, so I don't have the chance to get into my Bible Study this morning... I do ask you girls to pray, though. Pray, pray, pray, like your kids begging you for candy in the Publix check out lane. The Lord spoke to me so much about how powerful the prayers of His children are, and if
anything is going to be accomplished in this land, with such language barriers and government opposition, it will only be through the miraculous hand of our powerful God.
See y'all in a couple weeks!
We spent all of yesterday and will spend today with Aunt Alicia, Uncle Rob, Hannah, and Hudson and had sooooooooo much fun.
A long trip still awaits us, but the first leg begins tonight around 8:00 and we are ready to kiss your sweet little face again!
Day two of English teaching is over... let me just tell you this is a different trip than any I have ever taken. I'm enjoying myself, don't get me wrong. And I'll do it again in a heartbeat. My brain is just in a different place than usual when you do something like this. Most of the time it's (pardon my code) EE, EE, EE... Make sense? Ask two questions... get results by the end of your trip. Let's see if I can explain... for one thing it's hard for me to even sit here and think straight while I type because my brain is straight up tired from having to think so hard of simple words that the teachers can understand... and I haaave toooooooo taaaaalk soooooo sloooooooow. (Please forgive me if my "L"'s still sound like "R"'s when I get home. If you hear me say "famery" instead of "family" I'd appreciate your patience as I detox. :) )
I don't know... like I was saying, most trips have an end in sight... by the end of your week or ten days or whatever... Take a group and build the building. Go run the children's program for 5 days. Hit the streets and win 'em over. Get as many as you can and connect them with your local contact for follow up. This isn't like that, and it isn't going to be like that... all of the "spiritual highs" that come with many things like this aren't here for me. It really feels more like just getting up and going to work everyday. The burden is no less- don't get me wrong. The burden is incredible when you see it with your own eyes and experience the gravity of having something you want to say soooo badly that you can't even remotely communicate. There is a big story unfolding though that Father is writing and in the recent days has just begun penciling our parts onto the pages of it. 
It seems more like I just started a new book... an exciting one with lots of intriguing clues and insights into the coming pages. Except the pages haven't been written yet. A new page begins every time Reagan's phone/alarm clock goes off at 5:30 and invites us to put our ink to the paper. And it's incredible the way new characters are being added everyday. A new person with lots of influence in the area of education over this area of the country walks in and wants to begin relationships with us and more importantly the company we're representing. In two trips we haven't had to search for one person or hardly break a sweat to find the doors that Father is swinging wide open. They're coming to us! Teachers and education officials are coming from many places around the county to sit in on our classes and learn from us. News cameras were there today... yep- we're gonna be on asianese tv... :) Thank you for those of you who are holding us up... please don't stop! He is hearing you! 
Here are a few pictures of us working hard! :)
