Braces

Guess who got their braces off today! Before without gum...

And after with the gum! Her sister, Faith, bought this for her yesterday in preparation for today!

 She is SO excited! As I was sitting with her in the orthodontic chair I was thanking the Lord for those that have sacrified their lives and their comforts so that she is with our family. You see her God story is that people from Australia raised money for her to have surgery. Not just any surgery but 2 surgeries that are considered top-notch by her cardiologist here.

I stand amazed that I get to parent her and am very grateful that we were sitting in an orthodontia chair and not a hospital bed having heart repairs!

All my kids have really lived up to the quote, "I thought I became a parent to raise children but really I had children so they could raise me."

I am so amazed at our Grace as she has started middle school. She has had opportunity to live out a godly, Christ focused life with her peers and is standing the test well. We have been helping pick up children to come to church on Wednesdays and two of the girls that are her age made decisions to commit their lives to Jesus a week ago.

Grace was so excited! She was giddy and couldn't sleep saying that she doesn't think she's ever been this happy! I'm so grateful she has such an eternal perspective at such a young age.

Faith has also had opportunity to befriend one of the girls that is her age that we pick up. I have watched her share her life with this little girl making her feel so comfortable at church.

And little man Joshie seems to have some things going on in his heart too. Yi and I are going through the Firm Foundations lessons together. Her in Chinese and me in English. As Yi was looking at her book Joshua tells her, "Yi, you need to teach me to read this so I can go to China and tell people about Jesus." I'm not kidding y'all he said it. It seems God is giving him his mama's love for China. He has pretended to be a pastor teaching with his Bible more than once. Now he is on me about buying him a Bible in Chinese. He was quite upset when I went to Walmart and didn't come back with one :)

Soon I am going to be sharing parts of Samuel's God story too. The part that we know and what God has done in our lives. God is starting to formulate some things in my heart and remind me of His faithfulness even at our lack of faith at the beginning of this journey.