they made it!

mom & sarah

They're boarding the plane and headed to Hong Kong! We'll see them tomorrow night. I'll take good pictures [for once] and show 'em to you soon.

And pray for no peanuts to be around sarah on her little journey here. Add mom to that prayer too. She's not even allergic and we all know she'd probably have a worse reaction than my sister.

shoulda

Duh. I should have put a picture up yesterday. These are the girls that sent a little delivery on over this way. All these girls [plus katy and grayson who aren't in the picture] and I were in a bible study together up until i left for hong kong. I'm so excited for what God is continuing to stir in their hearts. They are so fun and of course there was never a dull moment with them.

[And I'm sure they're already taller and even more beautiful than this right now]

a delivery!

and the delivery man:

[Our friend, John. He's here for a couple weeks and brought something special. Scott and I met him a few summers ago in Swaziland. Just thrilled that he's here. There's the explanation for these super random pictures that I found on my computer.]

He brought something from a group of fun girls in Auburn.

My little package had some sparkly ornaments to livin' up our tiny tree. And sweet cards.

Thanks girls, this was such a great surprise to wake up to! And to you, Abby for getting it all together. Means so much.

craft & cookie time.

we had some girls over to create little ornaments and cards. and of course, some cookies too.

they were really into it. it was so fun to watch because they never just sit around and do these kinds of things. it's funny because when i think about it, that's pretty much what all my christmas memories are about. just making things. so how neat to be a part of introducing creative get togethers with them.

they were like little kids again. glitter ALL over their fingers and funny decorations on their cookies. it was a good day.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Surprisingly. The city is covered in Christmas lights and decorations. So we decided that even though Christmas is going to look a little different than we are used to that we would not let that keep us from making our home feel like Christmas. So we decided to go find ourselves a tree...

Sorry for the blurriness but if you can make it out that is our little tree wrapped in plastic

So we got home and put it up and hung the stockings...

I know this may look like a Charlie Brown tree but this is the best we could find and it works just great for us. In all seriousness it is somewhat crazy to walk through the streets and the malls here and see everything and everyone so decked out for Christmas and as I thought about it more it really is pretty disturbing that the vast majority of the people here have no idea who Christ even is. I would venture to say that 95% of the people here would tell you that Christmas is just when Americans give gifts to each other, which may not be far from the truth in much of America. I pray that it looks different from that for us. I pray that as we (as the Church) prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior we would be overwhelmed by the grace of our God. That while we were still sinners, he made a way for us.

happy birthday to our mimi.

[mimi with my sister]
[this one is me and mimi]

Wish I was with you to give you a huge hug mimi! I love you so much.

and just because i can't resist putting up my favorite picture of you three...

[mom, mimi, and aunt beth!]

super awkward picture

Especially the one in the middle, where Scott is doing a surprised smile and I'm not looking.

BUT it sums up our time with the conversational english class [this semester has flown by]. This picture was given to us by the people who headed up the class. Sweet Chinese collage.