Xi'an Wall

 

We went to the Xi'an wall a couple of weeks ago.  We rented bikes and biked around the whole thing with another family here.  It is about 7 or 8 miles around (I think) and we biked it in just over an hour. Here are a few pics that we took on our way around. 

 We have arrived in Xi'an, and are getting settled into our new home.  It is very different from our village house in Hong Kong.  It is all on one level so in some ways it feels bigger and in others it feels very small.  It is hard to get away from the noise of 5 children and we miss being able to put a floor or 2 in between us.  The bedrooms are much bigger and the kids are enjoying being able to have place to play.  We are on the 12th floor and are getting used to using an elevator everyday.

 This is the boys room.  It has at least 5 times more play room than there room in Hong Kong!

This is the girls room.  They are loving these bunk beds that gives them each their own desk underneath.

HIS wonderful Healing!!

This got a little long. I hope you will set aside a few minutes to read through this. It is meant to be an encouragement to all of my friends and prayer warriors. God is good and he is still in the business of miracles. I hope this will help you to continue pressing in for whatever miracle that you are in need of today!!

I know many who read this blog have been faithfully praying for me for healing of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I just want to share with you what our Father has been showing me recently. I had a couple of discouraging days with the most recent issues with my face. I was having some really honest and upfront conversations with the Big Guy!! I couldn't wrap my brain around the idea of His word promising that He heals every sickness and every disease, that He is no respecter of persons, and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and yet, my healing has not manifested in the way I think it should. As I was kindly reminding Him of all of these promises and asking him what is taking so long...He spoke to me and reminded me of all of the wonderful healing that He has already completed in me!! I really felt impressed to share this with all of my friends and prayer warriors!!

MIRACLE #1
The first thing I was reminded of was over 9 years ago when Mike and I decided to add a 3rd child to our family. About 5 or 6 weeks into the pregnancy I began bleeding. After having an ultrasound the doctor described what was happening as a miscarriage and said there was only debris left in my womb. I went home from that ultra sound knowing the promises that God had for me. He promised the Isrealites that they would not cast there young early (not even there livestock) He also heals every sickness. Therefor I went boldly before the throne room and firmly reminded Him of His promises to me. The words that followed came directly from the heavenly's. While speaking with my Father I said "Lord, I don't know what you are doing but if you are taking this baby for some reason you have to give me 2 next time." Twins are not anything I had ever wanted or desired ever in my life. I remember only a couple weeks prior telling a friend that twins would be a curse. So this was not me speaking but the H.S. speaking through me. For those of you who know me well you know that my boys David and Dru are healthy 9 year old boys. I went in for an ultra sound, one week after being told my baby was debris and that I needed to have a DNC, only this time when they looked at my womb there were 2 healthy babies that we heard the heart beat of. I firmly believe that we experienced God raising the dead in my womb. He took that unhealthy baby that had died and raised it from the dead and created 2 healthy baby boys!!! I know some may think this is CrAzY, but I know that God did something amazing that night when I was praying!!

MIRACLE #2
Almost 6 years ago I was diagnosed with MS as you are all aware. At that time, I had the faith that God would take care of me and heal this but there was still quite a bit of fear that was in me. I was afraid we wouldn't be able to do the work that we are now doing. I also had watched my aunt die from this terrible disease. I remember sitting in the doctors office as the doctor said the words that we had been dreading. He said that I officially had MS. These words just pierced through me and I lost it right in the office. I had to excuse myself from the doctors office. I went into the bathroom and got down on my knees. I just remember saying "Lord, I can't do this without you, you are my strength when I am weak, you are my strong tower, I run to you and you keep me safe" At that point I remember having a strength come over me that has never left. My sister reminded me the other day that the strength and faith that I have is a miracle and a gifting. This is one more miracle that I really felt that I needed to share with everyone to encourage you to keep praying. Also, through sharing these things it strengthens me and renews the supernatural gifts that He has so willingly given me!! I live each day without fear of my future. I seek people to help through tough times. This is only possible because of His loving grace, mercy, and strength in my life!!

MIRACLE #3
Three years into this disease some of you may remember watching me slowly loose my coordination walking, and loosing a lot of my sight. Everything was blurry and I had double vision. This just continually worsened over the next 6 months. It had finally gotten to the point that I was having such a hard time seeing that I opted to have mega doses of steroid treatment done. The immediate effects of this landed me in the hospital for 3 days. This was a terrible time for my family. I had to have help to walk, and do just about anything. The final diagnoses was a severe yeast infection caused by the steroid treatment and made worse by the antibiotics that the hospital kept pumping me full of. This threw my body out of wack for many months. The next year was a slow uphill climb back to health. Through all of this again I knew the Lord was with me. He brought the right Dr's into my path that had wisdom in natural treatment of MS and of overgrowth of yeast. About 10 months after my stay in the hospital I was able to run again. I started slowly and now 2.5 years later I have steadily gotten healthier and healthier. I am now running 20+ miles a week and have the crazy idea that I am going to run a full marathon as soon as I can find one that I can get registered for. God is good, He is faithful!! I don't know of many people with the diagnosis that I have living the active life that I continue to live through His grace!!

MIRACLE #4
The yeast issues that I just shared seemed to cause other problems in my body. My thyroid gland went out of balance and I ended up gaining around 25 to 30 lbs in just 2 or 3 short months. I went on thyroid medicine and it balanced out. About 6 months ago I started having symptoms of a hyper thyroid. I had my levels checked again and I was able to cut my medicine in half. Then about 1 month ago I started having the symptoms again and I decided to stop taking the meds all together. I know for all of you medical personnel out there that this was not the smartest idea without blood work but it is what I did and almost all of my symptoms subsided. This is one more sign to me that my Father is healing my body. I am now on ZERO medications. I take lots of vitamins but none are medication. And I feel great!! God is good!!!

These are just my health miracles that we have been so privileged to experience. There are many more miracles that continually happen in our lives. I don't know what the end of our story will look like and that keeps life fun and exciting. It would be no fun if we new the end of the book!! I hope this was encouraging to someone. If you know anyone that would benefit from hearing some great testimonies please feel free to share with them.

It's been a year!!

So many things have happened in this past year. I thought I would share with those of you who continually check back to this blog for updates, and continually find NOTHING new, a little about how we are feeling after one year of living in Hong Kong! The first thing I have to say is, WE LOVE IT!!

Our Father has continued to show himself so faithful in our lives. We have been stretched in just about every area and have fallen more deeply in love with Him and with each other. It all began a year ago leaving both our family and church family. What some of you are not aware of is that Mike and I had never looked for a new church together and we had never lived outside of the TC area. Living Hope was the only church family we had ever known and TC was the only place we both considered home.

So, we said goodbye to small town TC and landed in one of the largest cities in the world. This began a year that would stretch and grow us in ways we never imagined. We started by looking for a new home church. This was a 6 month search, through which the Lord taught us how to wait on Him and be anxious for nothing!! He was faithful and in December, after attending at least 6 different churches, we finally agreed. There were still a few more bumps but He is faithful. He also really taught me how to really submit and allow my husband to lead through this. I know you are thinking, what? didn't you do that already!! LOL This was a huge lesson for me in which I am still growing but I feel I have grown so much!! The best part is our new home church is starting to feel more and more like family!

My kids have also been stretched and have grown a ton! They have been learning right along with us. There faith has increased and there dependence on prayer has grown beyond anything I could imagine. They are worshipers and prayer warriors!! Through all of the growth the Lord has given our whole family a heart for the people of Hong Kong. We love our village and the people here make us feel right at home.

In the midst of all of the stretching and growing we continue to do lots of fun new things. I will continue to do my best at sharing more on here. I know I am stinky at keeping up on this. I continually try to try harder!! LOL :-)

It's been a long time

So many things have been happening in the last month since I posted. Work has been crazy so I have not had a chance to update our blog :-( Here is a quick run down of some happenings

• said goodbye to our good friend Lori who returned to the states for a year with family. Of course before you leave you must try something CrAzY. Her departure food was dried shrimp from Cheung Chau.
• Mike had his first public speaking opportunity. He did AWESOME! He was so nervous but he really pulled through. Afterwords he even jammed with the worship team. They were very impressed as you can see by there faces!
• Jodie had an opportunity to speak at children's church (sorry no pics). The best part of this was after the first service I went and sat down next to Mike and he so kindly said "great job, Jodie, but your zipper was down the whole time." So the next service I made sure that was taken care of before I began!!
  

and...
a few things that deserve their own blog update. to be continued...

CRAYON BOX CLUB

Since we got adjusted here in Hong Kong we have been looking for ways to reach people in our village. This concern was first voiced by my kids. I told them I didn't know what we could do and that we just needed to pray. As we began praying things started happening. The first thing that we all started feeling we could do, was to start a bible study for all of the kids in our village that we had been meeting. So...we kept praying. The next thing that happened was the Lord gave Jezrielle the name for the group. It was to be the Crayon Box Club. There are so many different nationalities in our village like there are so many different colors in a crayon box.

So, at this point we had a name and ideas but still had no direction or idea on how to make this a reality. So...we kept praying.

Then one day it happened!! We could see things falling in place for the Crayon Box Club to become a reality. Zoee called one of her Chinese friends to see if she could play. The girls mom answered the phone and asked Zoee if we were Christians. When Zoee answered yes she asked Zoee if I could teach the Bible. Zoee said yes right away! And the birth of the Crayon Box Club was only weeks away!!

Within a few weeks I learned that there was another mom who had been wanting to start a bible study for kids but was looking for someone to teach it in English. I guess I was to be that English teacher!!

This Saturday will be our 4th week. We have this every Saturday morning in our home. It started with 6 children, and last week we were up to 11 (plus my 5). I know that there are 4 other children who are trying to arrange their schedule to be able to come.

Here are some pics:

This weeks lesson was on Noah's Ark. I have found that when teaching children who know very little English it is important to have visuals. So I was talking to my kids about how I wished we had one of our old toys from the states with Noah's Ark and all the animals. Jez is such a genius, she suggested making it out of legos!! The kids all loved it!!
Noah's lego ark!!
and the lego animals entered 2 by 2!
Here are some of our new friends.
God had a plan for providing us with what is considered a very large home in Hong Kong! On Saturday mornings it is now busting at the seems with kids. Please keep the Crayon Box Club in your prayers! We don't know what He has planned for this but we are excited to be a part of His plan!!

Easter!!

We celebrated our first Easter in Hong Kong. We had a cook out with the Sweeney's and Whitford's. We decided that it would be fun to have an easter egg hunt in out home!! The kids all stayed on the first floor while the moms hid the eggs around the second and third floor. It was lots of fun!!

On your mark, get set, GO!!!

Leave no lego unturned!!
(of course little Kennedy got a head start!!)

Be sure to look everywhere!!

I am happy to announce that all eggs where found!! Lots of candy for everyone, including the moms and dads!! Happy Resurrection Day to all!!

USS Halsey

The kids and I had a great opportunity a few weeks ago to go out on a US Navy Fighter Ship. It was so much fun!!




This is our crew on the boat ride out to the ship. Our friends Brooklyn, Savannah, and Jennifer joined us on this adventure!!

More home school friends listening to the commander teaching about how the ship works.

PROUD TO BE AMERICANS!!

Dru and David with mommy in front of one of the helicopters on the ship!

"If I were just a little taller!!"

"Hmmm, If mom wasn't looking I could...."

This is the POWMIA table set up in the mess hall on the ship.

TAI PO KAU NATURE RESERVE

We went out on an outing yesterday with the home-school meet-up group. We went to the Nature Reserve which is very near our home. The hike was not to hard and the kids had a great time playing with all of their friends. We had lunch on the hike and then headed down.

A couple things worth noting: First, the kids all brought a back pack with our lunches and water bottles in them. This way momma can go without a back pack!! :) The only downside is when 2 of the 5 leave there back packs half way up the hill and you have to go back up to retrieve them!! On the positive side, I had decided to skip my morning run since we were going on the hike, running back up the hill, I think more than made up for my missed run!! Zoee, Kyle and I ran up the hill in 7 minutes (On the way up the first time it took us about 15-20 mins to walk up). The second exciting news is that while walking back down for the second time David took a drink of his water and his 4th top tooth fell out. You can see from the photo that he is beginning to have more gums than teeth!! He actually started crying, because he is worried about what he is going to be able to eat!!

Here is toothless David and a picture of the most recent lost tooth!!

Here are the kids on the hike with some of their friends. You will notice that Zoee and Kyle are missing!! That is because they went ahead with some other friends so I don't have any pictures of them on this hike!! Oops!!

This is a Lizard that Jezrielle spotted on the hike!! I'm just glad we spotted it outside and not in our house!!

House Tour

Many people have asked for pictures of our house. I decided to do a video tour!! This is my very first attempt at editing a video so please excuse the mistakes!! Enjoy!!