Praying for our children...day 2

This morning at breakfast, I held both Keane and Gracie's hands and looked them in the eyes (they were looking around a bit of course) and I told that them that I was praying everyday for them. I told them that I wanted to pray for them right now and that is what I did...as they mumbled away and looked all around I held their hands and lifted today's prayer up to God. It was such a special time.

Day 2: Growth in grace

"I pray that they (Keane and Gracie) may grow in the grace

and

knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3:18

Praying for our children...

Since the moment I found out I was pregnant with Keane and Gracie I have been praying for them. I have been praying most importantly that they would truly know God and His salvation and live a life that glorifies and honors Him whatever it may cost them. I have prayed that I, as their mom, would always encourage them in that. I of course pray for their health, for their safety, for many, many different things as well. Lately, I have felt a need to really have a way to be in constant prayer over them for specific things. I recently came across a document that I think I was given at a women's retreat here in Kathmandu last year. It is called, "31 Ways to Pray for your Children" by Bob Hostetier. I am not sure who Bob is but on this piece of paper is a list of prayers, one prayer for each of the days of the month along with scripture to pray over our children.

He says, "Each day of the month, in addition to my prayers for their saftey and concerns for that day, I also pray for a specific character trait, virtue or fruit of the Spirit to be planted and nurtured in my children, through my efforts (and my wife's), through the influence of others, and through my children's own actions and decisions."

I began praying on day 1 today. I will try to add a new days prayer each day on my blog so that together we can be in dedicated prayer for our children. I want to see God working in their lives. What a blessing it is and has been when I see Him visibly at work. It is amazing how fast Keane and Gracie are growing. I want to make sure that I am intentional each and every day to lift them up in prayer before my God. I am excited to see all of the many ways that God will answer our prayers.

Day 1: Salvation: "Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."

Isaiah 45:8

"Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down

righteousness;

let the earth open, that salvation and

righteousness may bear fruit;

let the earth cause them both to sprout;

I the Lord have created it."

John 1:12

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Inspired and Encouraged

These past 10 days I have had the privilege of working with two female volunteers from the states. One of the women, Jessica, is a college student and the other woman is the wife of the BCM director from University of Hawaii at Hilo, Jennie. Their team brought 5 other volunteers (including Jennie's husband, John). The 5 other volunteers spent the past 10 days up in remote Himalayan mountain villages doing a variety of different things including serving the people by helping them harvest their wheat in their fields. Anyway, John and the rest of the team leaving for the mountains meant that Jennie (and her TWO children that she brought with her, ages 2 and 4) and Jessica would serving by themselves in Kathmandu for that time (they knew that they would be separated for a while but did not know until days before the trip that it would be for so long). Anyway, all this to say that Jennie decided that she still wanted to teach English each morning to a group of Tibetan woman even if it meant bringing her children with her and trying to monitor them while she taught (she had already brought them around the world with her so I guess she was ready for anything). She did have help because Jessica was so willing to help with the kids when she needed it but still they wanted mommy a lot and are still just kids coming up and asking mommy a question or getting upset in a way that only mommy could soothe. Each day Jennie came prepared with a backpack full of workbooks, stickers, snacks and games for her girls. She would set them up at the table next to the one the Tibetan ladies were at (often with Jessica) and they would play there. Of course there were times when they "interrupted" Jennie or times when Jennie had to take one of them (especially the 2 year old) out of the room for a minute to calm them down but as you can see from the pictures she did it...she managed to teach, to serve the women and monitor her kids. I am not saying that everything went perfectly smooth and without help (like from Jessica) it would have been a lot different but I am saying that it happened and Jennie even found ways to include her 4 year old in the teaching. Her 4 year old sang a song to the women about the months of the year when they were studying that and she even handed out stickers to the ladies when they wrote things correctly. The entire time the Tibetan women were not fazed by it at all. In many parts of South Asia children are just a normal part of everyday life no matter what is going on. They bring their kids to weddings, funerals, school, etc. and are really not fazed by what we would often see as 'distractions'. I am not saying that it was always easy for Jennie...she did say that it was hard to stay focused and there was a day that she had to cancel because both of her girls were sick but again she did it and many times she made it look easy....and certainly do-able (with a little help). I am not saying that we should all go out and start English classes and bring our kids to them (although that would be great!) but I just wanted to share this with you since I was so encouraged by it myself. I want to find more ways that I can incorporate my children into ministry here and this was a great example of one way that I could do it!

The English class. Jennie is in the red shirt. The little girl on my lap is the 2 year old daughter of one of the students (who attended class with her mom each day).

Our translator with two of the Tibetan ladies.

Jennie teaching while holding her two year old daughter and standing with her 4 year old daughter.

Teaching while holding her daughter!

Bath Time!

When we were in the states traveling and speaking at churches people often asked us more questions about how we do life overseas with kids than they did about ministry and our "work". I kept that in mind and have decided that I really want to blog more about everyday life here and what makes living here so unique but how we make it work. Keane and Gracie LOVE baths! In America it was SO easy...just walk to the tub turn on the hot water, fill the tub, drop in some toys and let the fun begin! In Nepal we still do bath night every night but there are just a few more steps involved.
1. We don't have a bath tub (most people only have showers here) so we bought an inflatable pool and use that as our tub for Keane and Gracie. We have to move it in and out of our main bathroom each evening at bath time because we only have hot water in one bathroom (it is heated through a portable gas tank, most people here do not have hot water in their home at all. Many people don't even have running water in their home!) and we need to take showers in the same bathroom in the morning. After we put the pool in we fill it with water from the hot water shower.

2. Water that comes out of our taps is not clean though so we have to put iodine in the water in case Keane and Gracie decide to drink some of the water (which they LOVE to do). The iodine kills any bacteria that would be in the water and would make them sick. I have to wait a few minutes for the iodine to work. In the below pictures the water looks a little brown. When it comes out of our taps it is clear but the iodine gives it the brown tint.

3. This picture is out of order but this is Keane smiling for the camera after his bath! He loved it. While I am doing all of this I have another pot of boiling water on the stove that I add right before the babies get in the water because by now the water has cooled off a bit (not cold but too cool for a bath). I add the water and then they are ready to get in and play!

4. To them a bath is a bath and they sure love them. They really are troopers.

5. Once the bath is done and we get Keane and Gracie dressed in their pj's and ready for bed, we dump the bath water down the drain in the floor and store the pool in our laundry room until tomorrow! It really doesn't take as long as it might sound and it is worth it to keep them healthy and happy! Happy bath time!

Milk

This is a picture of the box of milk that we drink here. It does not have to be refrigerated before opening. It costs about $1 a box and the babies drink one box a day...a half a box in the morning and a half a box in the evening!

We are back in Kathmandu and one of my biggest fears before arriving was that Keane and Gracie would not like the boxed milk that we get here after having milk from America for a few months. I was so concerned about the transition. Although the milk is completely safe to drink and isn't that bad, Ryan and I definitely like American milk better and think that the boxed milk tastes so different. I am SO thankful and happy to report that they LOVE the boxed milk...maybe even more than milk from America. They chug it down and always want more! I am so thankful that God answered my prayer!

As you can see from these next few pictures...one morning Keane and Gracie decided to have a little fun with their milk while I wasn't looking. I had my back turned cooking breakfast and Ryan was taking a shower. When he came out of the shower all I heard was, "How in the world???" and he was laughing. I turned around and saw my two COVERED in milk. I had forgotten to put the stopper into their sippy cups so they were just free flowing and Keane and Gracie took full advantage of it. It was quite a clean up but it made for a great morning laugh!

The smells of America...

Well after about 6 weeks, three road trips, four speaking engagements, two AMAZING holidays spent with family and a lot of shopping and eating in between I feel it is definitely time to sit down and write a little about it. Actually, what I specifically want to write about was my walk today. We are in Charleston, SC right  now and the weather is pretty amazing...not your typical winter weather at all (which I sometimes miss) but beautiful nonetheless. Yesterday it was 78 degrees and crystal clear skies and today was a bit cooler (probably in the 60's) and overcast. Ryan was out with his dad and I decided it would be great to be able to get out and take a walk with the babies. We only walked for about 30 minutes because it began to sprinkle but what an awesome 30 minutes it was. The smells and sights I saw on my walk were incredible. 

After three years of living in Nepal, taking a 30 minute walk around a beautiful American neighborhood takes on a whole new meaning and is so special and so simple. As I walked pushing Gracie and Keane in the stroller I smelled the smell of rain, the smell of the clean, great outdoors, the smell of grass and trees and clean air...what does clean air smell like you ask??? It smells fresh and good and makes you want to breath it all in!! As I walked past house after house I could smell fresh laundry from the dryer and wonderful smells of all kinds of after holiday food cooking. I saw beautiful homes decorated just so for Christmas with lights and snowmen and wreaths. I saw kids on break from school riding their new scooters and bikes they got for Christmas down the street and I saw people of all different ages and stages in life spending time in their yards and with their families each of whom waved at me and said a friendly hello as I passed. I saw a family feeding geese in their backyard and a man working on his car. I saw all kinds of different trees and birds and cars (some I had never seen before). I saw moms with car loads of kids on their way somewhere who just smiled and waved as I passed. If it sounds like a peaceful, serene, relaxing walk...it was!!! There is so much I take for granted each and everyday of my life and so much that so easily becomes "normal". I pray that simple smells and sights and sweet time strolling around with my two babies will never become so "normal" that I will not take time to appreciate it all and soak it all in. If today's walk would have just been "normal" there would have been so much that I would have missed and so much joy that I would not have experienced.  

I realize that many of you are not in a "peaceful" or "serene" place at all right now. In fact, many of you live in very busy cities full of people who don't speak your language or even notice that you are there (or who notice you too much) and certainly where the smells around you are not "amazing" or "wonderful" but I pray that today, you will notice things in your life that are special and I pray that the "normal" things in life would jump out at you and that you would be able to experience a little bit of what I did today wherever you are.   

Overwhelmed, Happy, Tired...

Well, we have been in America for almost three weeks now. I am sorry I have been so bad about blogging. We truly haven't stopped since we arrived. We flew into North Carolina where our home church has provided us with a wonderful apartment. Ryan's parents met us at the airport and it was truly a sweet reunion. The next day, Ryan's brother flew in to be with us for a few days and then they all left on Sunday evening and on Monday morning we left for our 12 hour drive to Connecticut to be with my family. We stayed there for two weeks and just arrived back in North Carolina the day before yesterday. Yesterday we had two speaking engagements that were wonderful and today we have a relaxing morning with a meeting later this afternoon. We have had a wonderful time with family and friends and are just overwhelmed at all of the ways that we have been blessed. We love being in America and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family. Being here is so refreshing and so overwhelming at the same time. I have not really had much time to sit and process all that we are experiencing, where we have come from and all that we have done. I plan on trying to get some of my thoughts out in a few blog posts when I get more time. For now, I wanted to let you know that I am still here and really want to blog but just haven't found the time yet. But I have posted a few pictures for you to see.