The end of a year

Many of you know that this has been a very difficult year for us. We headed back to Asia in Feb. spent 1 month in Singapore for some meetings. Then spent months in Thailand before finishing a 14 month long journey of living out of our suitcases to finally arrive in Hanoi. Of course there has been the difficulty of starting over in a new country. However, for me the thing that makes 2010 hard is our struggle to have another child. We have spend many hours in prayer and petition. I have cried more tears this year then I think this whole decade combined. I experienced real depression for the first time in my life. I lost the baby that took 2 years to concieve at 9 weeks along. I have seen countless friends who started this journey with me get pregnant and have babies (in which I rejoice for them). All that to say Im glad 2010 is coming to an end. My prayer and HOPE for 2011 is that where I have sowed in tears I would reap with joy. So raise you glass with me for a FRESH START IN 2011

Our New Advent Tradition

Advent is a special season of the year and we are enjoying each day of expectation and waiting for Christmas. Right now this is one of Preston's highlights of the day: After we finish cleaning up from dinner we head up to our living room and together light the advent candles. In the corner of the room opposite our Christmas tree we have our advent branch. Every day we tell a different story from the Bible as we move chronologically from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Jamie has creatively made a series of ornaments that symbolize each of these stories. We review the previous stories with Preston and listen to him retell as much as he can from the earlier stories, then add a new story and place its ornament on the branch. Besides being great fun for all three of us, it is a good way to practice our storytelling and we are seeing some of the principles we have learned about oral communicators lived out in Preston. He learns so much through repetition and other memory devices, and the symbols on the ornaments take him right into each of the stories.