I'm tired. September was a hard month for me- emotionally and spiritually. October is looking brighter.

My parents will be in Thailand on Saturday. I'm going to Bangkok to meet them and bring them back to Chiang Mai. I'm excited.

Anyway- here are some pics from the past month.

I"ll work backwards

This past weekend- went to a women's retreat here in Chiang Mai and played guitar on the worship team. The women on the team are amazing- especially the singers. AMAZING voices and harmonies. And amazing women of God.


Yes, it was a women's retreat, but Tyler came along to play drums for us. He's really good.

You can see me- or more like my guitar behind Kris


I was also glued to my laptop, preparing the powerpoints. I loved it- felt so useful


Didn't have much time to walk around the resort but what I saw was really pretty.


Gathering of almost 200 women from different countries praying


I was really blessed by this retreat- heard lots of testimonies and realized I'm really not alone in this journey. Well, I am alone but others have gone before me who face even more difficult things than I do.  I don't want to be a pansy anymore.  I want to be a tree, like the one in Psalm 52:8 "But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever."  I don't want to doubt or be weak.

One Friday night in September, I had dinner with a former au pair in training.  She took me to this amazing place- but we couldn't see the lake because it was so dark, but the food was amazing especially this fish




We had another party for the ladies of Garden of Hope


Fooling around on the crocodile




At home- playing with Mr. Potato Head




Me with 5 of our 6 kids


Caretaker with the 6 kids


These kids are soo cute


At the beginning of September, I ran away for a day- went to the beach- Cha-am. I needed to clear my head and think about things and of course-be renewed.





I rented one of these tubes for 90 cents and floated on it for 2 hours


The next day I had dinner at my Great Aunt's place in Bangkok- as usual, it was a great dinner




Fried sushi


Me and Joey (my 14 yr old 2nd cousin)


Me and Gio- (Joey's 12 year old brother)


I'll always have family.

Whoa- 2 entries in 2 days. wow!

Some more photos of my kids- big and little.

Eva and Ruth from MA were in Chiang Mai last month volunteering their time. Ruth taught English to the kids at Garden of Hope and Eva was a GREEK TA at Payap University. I'm so proud of both of them.

My big kids loved playing with my little kids
 











He's quite a character these days




We train them to be runners at a young age


Food:
Banana Waffle from Doi Suthep


Moo Ga Ta


Rotee


The girls enjoying their rotee- As you can see Ruth is all done with hers


A caramel coffee drink from Wawee Coffee


Off a coffee cup that Ruth had


Elephant buddy


Ruth's friend says candid shots are the best

The Garden of Hope had a Mexican party for the ladies.  I couldn't help prepare but I helped with the eating. Such goooood foood. And I was hungry. I didn't just show up to eat- I washed the dishes afterwards. I liked that.

We played the name game




Me and Air- she works security at the airport.


Chang came back to Chiang Mai before heading off to France this Saturday so we went to Mont for some food


And milk of course


Another photo of our new little girl- my part-time roommate.


I met up with my mom's cousin whom we call Uncle Victor. I hadn't seen him in almost 6 years.


The houses are coming along. Pretty sure they won't be completed by September 17th like they promised.


The view from one of the windows


I'll be living in this building on the 2nd floor


Bricks




So tons of bicycle tires. What are they used for?


To tie the bamboo scaffolding together


Of course!

You know Coldplay's Fix You?

When you try your best but you don't succeed
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you love someone and it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

This friendship has been such a rollercoaster ride. So many times I've dropped everything to be there for her and now??  I don't know.
Well, I refuse to believe my love has been wasted. I hear God saying to me- "You'll see. Just wait, you'll see."

I'm laying it all down...not gonna lie- it's not easy- even painful at times.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

My new favorite song:

My Savior My God by Aaron Shust
I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

Chorus
My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

I'm BACK!  Have much to update after a long hiatus.  I will try to be better at keeping people up to date with the events surrounding my life.

When you feel life ain't worth living
You've got to stand up and
Take a look around you then look up way to the sky.
And when your deepest thoughts are broken,
Keep on dreamin boy, cause when you stop dreamin its time to die.
And as we all play parts of tomorrow,
Some ways will work and other ways we'll play.
But I know we all can't stay here forever,
So I'm gonna write my words on the face of today.
And then they'll paint it

Here are some pics:

It was this little guy's 3rd birthday this past week


Ate out at moo ga ta with Melissa the volunteer, Jeab, and Ruth who's here teaching English with Garden of Hope


 Went to Doi Suthep with Melissa, Ruth and Eva who is in Chiang Mai again teaching Greek at Payap University


We said goodbye to some very good friends who went back to the states


We've played dress up with some new clothes that my friend from the states so kindly gave us






Played with the parachute




We've gone swimming


We've been swinging a lot


I also took a trip to the Philippines to see Glad on her birthday and to bring her back to Thailand.
Went to the beach on her birthday- had to take a boat to get there :)




For 1 week I followed her around, taking all the classes she taught and more.  Here she is boxing


There was a special 2 hour martial arts class. Glad taught the last part of it

Will update more soon...