Merry Christmas!

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope this year has found you well. It’s hard to believe that its this time of year already. 

Last year we left you with me working & D unemployed. With that being said, this year has been soo good to us.

I started taking classes in January, while D looked for work. In March, D was blessed with a job through a Temp Agency, working for CH2MHill doing drafting work. It was a 4 month contract that continues to be extended & and we rejoice in how the Lord is providing for us. His current contract is good through the end of January, and we continue to pray for extensions or something permanent. 

When D went back to work, I took a term off to figure out how family & school would work out. I also began a new journey working with Premier Designs Jewelry & we have been truly blessed to be apart of such an amazing company! Over the spring and summer I was able to stay at home with our little guy, and hold Jewelry Parties at night after D got home. It has helped bring in some much needed extra income, and I enjoy it so much. I get to hang out with awesome ladies, give away free jewelry, eat brownies & get paid for it! Being able to do this has also allowed me to return back to school this fall, and not worry about work. I have been able to take my classes and schedule my work around family & school. 

This summer I was also able to go on a short trip to nepal. It was only 2 week, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I was stretched in so many ways. Thank you for all your prayers and support. God’s peace for this trip & on this trip overwhelmed me.

Our Little man, d2 Turned 2 this year, and 3 is soon approaching. He has entered a stage where he likes to push his limits & sometimes it is hard not to laugh. He loves pretending & telling stories and is a very social boy. He brings such joy to our lives and we are trying to soak it all up. He loves all things cars, trucks, toy story & thomas. His newest thing is LEGOS...thought that didn’t start till they were 5. We are soo excited to have christmas this year, as he has understand presents and even christmas. 

We are looking forward to this coming year, with high HOPES. Knowing God is good.

Things we are hoping for & trusting in the Lord for are:

D getting a permanent Job

d2 becoming potty trained

& my Year Anniversary with Premier.

There is soo much to look forward to.

We hope you all take some time to remember the true meaning of christmas & praise our saviors birth.  

Love,

The Don’s 

d2 singing

Just thought I would share this!

Oh my October!

It seems to have flow by faster than I would like.

So many times I have thought about blogging and yet it hasn't happened. And as I write this now, I have homework calling out to me.

Im gonna make it wait, and then once I get these words on the screen, then I will tackle it with no mercy.

So lets see, I left you with back to school.

d2 has adjusted to pre-school very nicely. There were a couple weeks when I thought the crying would never end, and I heart strings ached for him, and I wondered if going back to school was really worth it. (in my head I knew it was, but my heart didn't agree during the moment when my child is crying, and I am trying to get out the door.)

Now our mornings on school days consist of him asking, mommy you go to school too? and daddy go to work? and the final question.. mommy you pick me up after nap? All to which I confirm and repeat to him to insure that is it just part of the day and we will have the rest of the night to have fun.

October has been full of fall fun!

I am unsure how I will narrow down all my wonderful photos of the memories.

We made our way to the pumpkin patch, at which d2 exclaimed when his eye caught all the pumpkins

“Mommy!, Look at all the pinecones!! Love it!

He picked up the 1st one he saw, and it was the perfect size!

By the end of the month, he was calling them pumpkins, but oh how I loved that he called them pinecones! 

This is the pumpkin he wanted

The whole family

He also got to take his 1st pony ride! And really enjoyed it!

1st Poney Ride

Then & Now

4 months pregnant with david

2 and half years old... and look at him copying the pumpkin!

We also made our way out to the fruit loop in Hood River. If you have never been, I really recommend it! Soo worth the drive. There are all these orchards and you can stop by all of them and load up on fresh oregon apples and other fruit.  Heres a few photos from that. 

feeding an alpacka 

Big Tractor

little tractor

Climbing in a tree! And soo proud of himself

We carved pumpkins, and I let d2 use the “Mr. Potato head” pieces to do his pumpkin. We got them for his 1st Halloween and they have worked out quite nicely. He wasn't much into sticking his hands into the pumpkin guts so this also helped, plus his love for “tatoe heads” made it a win win!

His pumpkin

We joined his pre-school with an outing to Toy Story 3 on Ice, and he ate it up. Show started a little late, so by intermission he was getting tired. He did make it through the whole show though.

Our Family. . . . of course he had to dress up as woody!

Of course he had to share his popcorn with Rex

Enjoying the show

Then of course we had to go trick-or-treating!

It only took him 2 houses for him to catch on. I had been couching him all week on saying trick or treat, so we had that down. The Toystory Theme Continues...and I might add that he asked me to draw on his face after he saw me draw on D's!

The 1st house he got 2 bags of M&M’s his favorite.  He looked and me and exclaimed. 

“Mommy! I got 2 of them!”

After the next house, he looked at us and ask...

“Want to go to another house?”

We made it to about 5 or 6 houses, and then his bucket was full. The all gave him 2 to 3 pieces! It made it easy. We didn't have to go for very long and he was happy. 

The whole gain!! 

So that was our fabulous October!

Im enjoying my classes, taking 2 art classes and 2 psy classes. I’ll post all my art soon but you will have to check it here.

I also had 4 Jewelry Parties in October & have 5 for this month. God has truly bless me with this job & he has aslo

extended  D's job until the end of the year. 

Still praying that this temp job will turn into something permanent, but grateful for how the Lord is providing for us now. 

Hello Fall!

The term in is full swing with homework on my to-do list as well as everything else that has been on it.

I am enjoying classes and d2 has transitioned to pre-school very well. He loves going to school and taking his backpack or as he calls it his pack-pack. And actually last week he was asking me to go to school every day. He was excited! (confession: i am actually sitting at home in complete silence, alone, to blog, when I could have picked him up. But I paid for the whole day and don’t have to pick him up till six. You know how many things I can get done with 2 hours of me time, no interruptions? Yes, blogging is one of them!)

He is getting so big!

Excited to take his pack-pack

Ok mom, lets go!

Back to my classes. I had painting in the morning, and am loving it. I will be posting stuff on here when it comes to my art. So check it out! Well...not yet... I haven’t competed anything yet.

Then I have 2 psy classes and to my pleasant surprise, Chelle is in both of them! Totally random, but loving it! I like having a friend to sit next to and chat with here and there. And we are each others Life-Lines for one of them. (its complicated so ask me and I will tell you all about that class...or maybe I will find time to blog just about that).

Jewelry is really taking off! I am loving it. I have never had a more fun job! And I get paid to play with jewelry, wear it, and hang out with girls and eat brownies.. I know you are jealous! So if you want some free jewelry, let me know, or if you want to have an amazing job like mine, let me know! I can get you the hook up! Im your girl!

D’s temp job is coming to an end (as far as we know).  It ends Oct 21st. We keep hoping for another extension, but nothing yet. So keep him/us in your prayers. God is going to provide, but your petitions are greatly appreciated. 

So life seems to be up in the air, and changing frequently. 

That pretty much sums it up!.

However, things I am excited for are:

School

Unleashing my inner artist!

Fall!

Pumpkin flavored things

And whatever God has in store for us next!

We have arrived!

ok my friends.... I know I left you hanging there.

I was having a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to finish up this trip.

Really God moved so much before I even left, I wasn’t sure what to say.

After multiple talks at church and with friends. I have come to a conclusion, but I will save that for the end.

Check out I've Got this for the 1st part of my trip.

So we get back to the airport, enjoyed are day out in Hong Kong. Or in my case..as  much a I could. Looking back, it was great to see all that we did. Props to Alyssa for hooking us up!

Alyssa and I make are way down to the lost & found. 

We walked in the door, and the lady I had left my info with kind perked up when I walked in.

She said. “We found your bag!”

I through my upper half onto the desk and exclaimed, “Praise Jesus!!”

She continues, “We found it in...how do you say.. in toilet.”

I looked at her, thinking my bag would be soaking wet, and then realized she meant that they found it in the bathroom. 

Nothing was touched, or moved. Now from my memory, I took my bag out of the bathroom. How it ended up there we are not sure, but praise Jesus for finding it and keeping it safe for me. 

All was well in the world as we heading onto our next flight!

The Stupa

We arrived in nepal late. It was very dark, and everything was shut down for the night.

We got to the place we would be staying, and hit the sack! Excited to sleep lying down, with a pillow under head.  

We were staying in Bouda, 

which is close to the Stupa.

A majority of Nepali people are Buddhist. As part of their religion, the must pray to buddha. 

They walk around the Stupa, spinning prayer wheels, keeping track of the # of times they have prayed with prayer beads.

One of many Monasteries

We spent the majority of our time going to monasteries & hindu sites.

We prayed over them, and 

as we walked from place to place. 

Half way through a trip, we had a women’s retreat. 

There are believers in nepal, just not many. I was amazed at the turn out, we had 30 or so women from around the area. It was encouraging to me, to see that God is moving in Nepal. I enjoyed teaching them, and encouraging them as the continue to live is such a lost place.

In the end, I prayed. A Lot.

I don’t remember the last time I prayed as much. And in doing so, God was able to show himself to me in ways I could have never imagined.

Women's Retreat

One of the things I enjoy most about going on a missions trip is that I know God will show himself to me.

On this trip, I saw his heart. How he loves the Nepali people and wants so much for them to turn away from their idol gods and worship him, The one true God.

God’s love is far beyond any words I could use to express. If you have not experienced it, I encourage to you seek after him. He loves you too, and wants you to turn away from whatever it is that you worship, and worship him! Allow him to change your life! 

Here are a few more photos!

Calling Home

Prayer Wheels

The Thangka....made all from sand

  

Ladies Retreat

Nepali Church

Heading Home

"I've Got This!"

My hopes were that I would post pretty soon after I returned from my trip, yet its been a month since I left, and 2 weeks since my return. I still find myself completely blanking out, and unsure where my train of thought was going, and wide awake 2 hours after I’ve decided to go to bed. 

Im hoping within the next few days or weeks, I will get to it.

As you all know, a lot of the trip for me was being processes here in the states before I even left, so that being said, God’s peace completely overwhelmed me! Even before I had left, he was telling me with every issue I brought up. “I’ve got this” 

And he really did.

Here’s that back story for this trip. Picture the 4th of July 2008, our dear friend, Jessica, was leaving for Nepal, and while at her going away shin dig, our group mentioned that we should take a trip there.

D whispered in my ear, when that trip happens, I’ll stay home with the baby, and you can go on this trip. 

My heart sang, and my head said... that will be interesting.. Im not even sure I will be able to leave my child at that point. The one that was just conceived and we had accidentally told the whole group I was pregnant bc Im not good a keeping secrets. 

So when the planning for this trip came, and the dead line to commit came, I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but I had known for 2 years, that I was going on this trip. 

I saved my money I got for christmas to make the deposit, keep in my D was unemployed at the time, and signed up, sent support letters, and let God do his thing. 

What were my concerns:

$...although isn't this always everyones?

But more came up as D got a job.

What would we do with d2.

I continued to give them up to the Lord, and he kept telling me 

“I’ve got this”

I had nothing else to do but trust in him, and watch at it all fell into place.

Dear friends & family of mine sent in $ that I didn't expect, and the Lord game D overtime that covered the last little bit. 

The last thing that was still sitting in the back of my head was d2..what to do with him.

We had D’s sister. 

But I really wanted to keep d2’s routine and environment as close to normal as possible, which meant having someone watch him at our house. I asked the first person I could think of, and she was out of town. 

I pondered some more and then finally the Lord put her name in my head. It was a lot to ask, but I asked my dear friend Ann to and at first she game me a maybe...but it eventually became a yes. This whole time knowing that she would be the one to watch him, because God had said to me “I’ve got this”.

So that being said, I got on a plane and left my family to fend for themselves for 2 whole weeks. 

Our Team

Our parting was bitter sweet. We hugged and kissed and our team made our way toward the security line. I heard d2 in the background fuss a little and cry out.... “I wanna go with mommy”. It tugged at my heart strings, but I knew this trip was good for me, and that God was going to show me a piece of him. I was fighting back the tears, glanced over at my family and waved. Then focused on making my way through the maze they had for us just to get to the ticket checker.

Then my dear friend Beth looked me in the eyes and said, “ Do you need a moment?’

And at that...tears streamed down my face. 

I replayed sarcastically. “Now I do!”

To which Beth said...”I was tryin to be sweet!”

I smile and laughed a little and told her I knew she was. 

I glanced over where my famliy was standing..and they had gone.

So we get on a plane, Lay over in LA for 3 hours..and then get on the long flight!

I think I got a hour of sleep here and there.. maybe 3 hours total, but it was pretty bad.

We arrive in Hong Kong with a 11 hour lay over, so we plan to go out and check it out.

We go through customs, exchange money, freshen up, get a train ticket, by some water...and with all that...I realize I have lost my carrie on. Or left it somewhere.

So Beth and I try to find the lost and found....but Im pretty sure after the 3rd person we ask...that they don't call it that here.

We finally get pointed in the right place and 3 long hallways later, we find the office. 

They don't have it, so we leave my name with them and hope that when we get back to the airport that by some miracle they will have found it.

On that note.... Beth prayed for my suitcase and we exit to Hong Kong.

And I try not to let it get to me....but I put everything that I wanted for this trip in that suitcase! Through out that day I am remembering more things that are in it, that I would really like to have when we get to Nepal.   

On that Note....here our my top picks for photos from Hong Kong!

Beth....making sure she knows where the closest bath room is.

The City

Alyssa and I on the Ferry

Wishing our ferry looked like this!

Beth enjoying the sunshine!

Please mind your head!