Wow, what a week!

So much has happened since my last blog. I've started my new position as lead Preschool teacher at Bright Horizons. I drove over 1,000 miles last Tues./Wed. as I drove up to South Dakota to attend the funeral of my uncle. It was a great testimony to God's faithfulness as his grandson got up and spoke about his grandfather's role in his life. He said that his grandpa never stopped praying for him and telling him that needed to have faith in Jesus. Even though this grandson rebelled and even got into drugs, his grandpa and God never gave up. That grandson and several other kids and grandkids have all finally returned to God's family. In fact, the grandson is now an evangelist in an Assemblies of God church in Lincoln, Nebraska. I met my parents at the funeral and they drove out to Colorado, too. So, we convoyed back together. The next day I got up early as I cooked the Thanksgiving meal for us, my parents and Jay's parents. I'm so thankful for in-laws that get along. On Friday my parents helped me totally rearrange the furniture in my new preschool room. We also cleaned thoroughly and they helped me make a blackboard on the back of our toy kitchenette. The next day we went shopping and I found some cool dress-up clothes at Goodwill. I went back there on Sunday and ended up also getting a cool trunk for our dress-up clothes. Yesterday was the first day for the kids to see our transformed room and have me as the head teacher vs. their movement teacher. All went well, especially since I had put out lots of new toys. However, today my cold that had been getting better after 10 days started getting worse, again. Not a sore throat again! Ah, the joy of being a preschool teacher. I hope that I'll be healthy to go pick up our beautiful daughter. Speaking of whom, the most exciting news is that I sent off our first Christmas package to her. This is the one in which we were able to include a card and letter introducing ourselves. It's supposed to arrive within six to ten days. I'm not sure when the orphanage worker will be able to translate our letter. But, hopefully, by Christmas she'll know about the ones who keep dreaming of her and praying will come home to us soon!

Sleeplessness & Joy

Lately, I've been struggling with insomnia. I have a lot on my mind. It's not only the adoption. The biggie is that I just got offered a new position at my school. The week after Thanksgiving I'll be taking over the lead preschool teacher position. So, my brain is spinning at 100 miles per hour about how I'd like to arrange the furniture, what cool activities we could do, etc., etc.... Then there's news from home about relatives struggling with relationships and great losses for some. I don't know when I may have to pick up and travel to South Dakota for a funeral of an uncle. Then there's the holiday dinner I'm planning on cooking for our parents on both sides. But, then we're wondering if I'll end up meeting my parents at that possible funeral, instead. Hopefully, it won't come right when I'm starting my new position. Oh, my! Too much to think about...thus, the lack of ZZZ's. But, the encouraging thing is that my sense of the heavenly father holding us in in His hands is growing through it all. He knew about all this way before any of it ever happened. He loves all involved, even those people who seem to be acting mean and nasty. How amazing that His love is so far-reaching. Speaking of that far-reaching love, I found the Steven Curtis Chapman music video about adoption called "When Love Takes You In". I haven't, yet, figured out how to put a YouTube video into the body of my blog. So, I'll just copy and paste the URL address here in case you'd like to view it. It's so beautiful and quite a tear-jerker. I've not been able to view it once with dry eyes. I just ordered the album with that song on Amazon. I also ordered Sherri Eldrige's "Forever Fingerprints: An Amazing Discovery The cool thing is that they were virtually free to me, as I received an Amazon gift card for filling out an E-harmony survey. Again, so thankful for God's providing me such a wonderful man to call my husband through E-harmony. Life is full of blessings! Well, here's a link to the YouTube video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=demRHgul2Zk

A Busy Weekend!

We had a very eventful weekend. Jay had to be in Colorado Springs for a conference related with his work. I (Chandra) had my Japanese worship service on Saturday morning. In the afternoon I began shopping for Penny and her friends in the Girls' Home. Here is a picture of all the fun little gifts I picked up. I also almost completely finished all of my other Christmas shopping, as well. In the evening my friend, Tomoko, and her husband, Ikuya, along with their son, Shoichi, came and picked me up. We all went over to CSU to attend the annual International Festival where we met some more Japanese friends. I think the best part for me was reconnecting with the local Thai community. My language exchange partner, Ratree, was there, too. I introduced her to my friend, Tomoko. The food was great! Jay made it back from the Springs in time to get in on the last hour of festivities at the festival. Then this morning at Timberline Church I was manning the table for our Orphan Care/Adoption Ministry. We were able to show a Steven Curtis Chapman video during the start of the worship service called, "All I Really Want this Christmas is a Family". Tears were streaming down my face the whole time. It was really exciting to see how many people were interested in finding out more about how they can get involved in foster care, orphan care and adoption. We went through hundreds of pieces of literature. If it provides more kids with loving homes it will all be worth it!

Some Surprising News!

We were quite surprised to hear today that not only can we send a package to Penny for Christmas, but we can even send a card, signed by us. We don't need to stay anonymous, anymore, according to the director of the orphanage in Udon Thani. Our adoption coordinator said that that means that the orphanage director must be quite confident that there will be no problem with us being matched with Penny according to the Thai government. Now, if only that orphanage director in Udon Thani could somehow speed the government workers up down in Bangkok. Thanks to those of you who have been e-mailing some great ideas of things that we could send as gifts. Now I'm getting so many ideas that it will be hard to narrow it down. And it will seem weird writing to our future daughter to introduce ourselves. What do you write? "Hi! We're your parents-to-be, although you've never ever met us. We hope you like us, because we love you." Ha! Seriously, it's hard to know how to start and how much to share. As our adoption coordinator said, "Try not to overwhelm her with emotions. After all, she's never even known what it is to have a family." I can't imagine what it must be like to receive a package from a foreign country, from virtual strangers, who plan to come take you away from everything you've ever known. What an amazing thing international adoption is. But, of course, God has done the same for us. He's welcomed us into His family. And some of us were very distant strangers before we became His kids. I'm sure for many, they've had to learn a whole new set of vocabulary since they became adopted by the King.

By the way, this Sunday our adoption small group will be able to have a time during the service to share about the needs of orphans. And we'll have a table set up in the mall (the big hallway in the foyer of our church). I'll be manning the table during the 10 o'clock service. Also, the Thai student group at CSU will be involved in sharing about Thailand at the CSU international festival on Saturday. So, all kinds of exciting things for us to be involved in right here in Fort Collins. We're so thankful for such a supportive community here.

Any Ideas?

Does anyone out there have a great idea for a Christmas gift? We're being told that we might possibly be able to send an anonymous package to our daughter for Christmas. We're waiting to hear if the director of the orphanage in Udon Thani will approve of this or not. If so, they said it would be best if it would be something that could be shared by the other kids in the orphanage. So, if anyone has a great idea, I'd love to hear from you. It should be relatively small and simple, not weigh too much, and be something that could be shared. I don't feel very creative. So, I hope someone out there in cyber space has some brilliant idea that they'd be willing to share with me.