Off to Lebanon

In 2 days I will embark on a journey across the world to Lebanon with 6 others. I will leave my husband and my sweet Hannah behind. I will join in the amazing work that God began decades before now. I will love on some sweet children who live without their parents in an orphange. I will grow closer to my team of good friends. I will miss Jason and Hannah with every ounce of my being. I will see things and experience things that I never have before. I will miss home. I will trust in God in new ways. I will develop relationships with those we meet. I will eat delicious food. I will worship with Lebanese brothers and sisters in Christ. I will sightsee. I will blog. I will tutor kids. I will laugh. I will cry. I will take pictures. I will be awed by God's continued work. I will be thankful...very thankful!

God has called me (and my team) to this trip, at this time, in Lebanon. Yes, I realize that we are traveling to the middle east, and yes, I am OK with that. I have a peace about going and I trust God about it.
Meet my team. The 3 people to the left of me are in my lifegroup and have become like family. The 1st to my right is our Children's Minister at church and one of my dearest friends. The other couple on my right are fellow church members who I hope to get to know more on the trip. God has bound us together and I am deeply thankful for each one of these people who will be journeying with me.

We have a team blog that we will be updating hopefully daily (we will see if the internet and power cooperate) and we would love to have you follow our journey. There are already links on the blog to the orphanage, seminary, and school if you want to read more about where we will be.

The blog address is: http://www.lebanoninjuly.blogspot.com/

Please be praying for our team and for our time there. I am so blessed to be traveling with this group. It is such a solid group and I am thankful for each and every one of them! We will be mainly working at the orphange with about 25 boys age 6-18. While we are there we will be working with the boys in the mornings on their school work. The orphanage tries really hard to keep the boys on top of their studies, even in summers when they are not in formal school. In the afternoons we will be playing games, going to a waterpark, baking, and generally loving on the kids. There will be prayer and bible study time at night that we will get to join in as well. Pray for us to love well, smile often, share our hearts, pray openly, give joy, receive joy, learn, trust in God, be unified, and to share Jesus' love!

One other thing that you can pray specifically for is my time away from Hannah. The thought of being away from her for 9 days KILLS ME! And, the thought of only being able to talk to her once or possibly twice while we are there is enough to put me in tears. I know that she will have a blast here with her Daddy (and with Pop who has graciously decided to come out for a long weekend and Papaw who will come visit too) but I still will miss her terribly! Please pray for peace for me and for Hannah and Jason while I am away.

Thanks for your prayers, support, and love during this time. May God truly do more than we could ask or imagine while we are in Lebanon! Be sure to click over on our blog to read more about where we will be and check back there for updates on our time.

Rock climbing

We have been wanting to try this with Hannah for a long time, but just recently we finally took her rock climbing. Baylor has a HUGE free standing rock wall that she has asked to climb many times. I have to admit that I was worried she would get scared and back out but much to my surprise she did great and had NO fear whatsoever!
She was actually coming down this point, but you can get an idea of how high she actually went before she couldn't go any higher. I thought that she might be scared to finally let go of the wall and only be held up by a rope, but I think that was actually her favorite part!

Here she was climbing next to another Baylor student. Makes me proud of my brave 4 year old!!

Sea World

Last week, we took a day trip down to Sea World in San Antonio. Kelly, Hannah, and I packed up for the day and had a great (but HOT) day! This was Hannah's first time at Sea World and she really enjoyed it.

We saw 3 shows and LOVED the Azul show with beluga whales and dolphins. We also saw the Shamu show and a sea lion and walrus show. Hannah seemed to really get into the dolphin show so we actually ended up going to that one twice.

We got a chance to feed the dolphins which was a lot of fun! They came up close enough to pet and we got to throw fish into their mouths.

Hannah rode her first roller coaster that day too. Kelly and I asked her if she wanted to ride this big water ride (similar to a large log ride) and she did. She did get a little nervous when they put the big bar down over her lap, and she covered her face the whole time with my arm...but she loved it. We actually ended up going a second time since she liked it so much. I found my new roller coaster buddy...she just needs to grow a few more inches!

They had a whole kiddy area with little rides that she loved and a water park. At this point of the day, she was hot and tired. We had a great time though, and I hope to go back soon...when it cools off!!

Transformation

Every day our sweet Hannah goes through a transformation. It doesn't matter if she has just woken up, gone for a bike ride, been swimming, eaten a meal, or is about to go to bed. Without fail, these small changes occur frequently throughout the day...

First, the sparkly shoes appear. Mimi bought these for Hannah last month after Hannah so sweetly looked up at Mimi in Target and told her how much she absolutely LOVED these shoes...you can imagine how long it took Mimi to decide to buy them for her. Hannah would wear these shoes day in and day out if we allowed it (despite the fact that they are about 2 sizes to big).

Second, one of many tutus appear on Hannah's hips. Thanks to our friend Beth and Gramma, we have a plethora of them for her to choose from.

Third, the pink leotard (with food stains and all) is worn.

Then, our sweet Hannah quietly turns into a beautiful ballerina.

I still have yet to figure out where she learned her ballet moves...she's actually got them down pretty well! She loves to have me put on music for her to dance to, and she loves even more for her Daddy and I to watch her do a "show" for us. She is even willing to give lessons, although she was pretty sure I was not doing the moves correctly yesterday. She's a tough teacher!

She's a girly girl to the max, and a sweet ballerina at that! It brings me such joy to see the delight in her eyes when she transforms into a little ballerina...Thank you God, for these sweet reminders of the joy of being a carefree 4 year old!