April - a busy month!

So April came with many events. It began on April 1 with Samantha's dance recital. They did a dance reenacting the Little Mermaid. Unfortunately Samantha and her dance class were the ones that were Ursula, the mean one in the play.

This is Samantha in costume with some of her classmates. Samantha has always loved to dance and she has believed God would use it for ministry. Well, she has now joined a dance company here and when asked if she wanted to be in the foreigner class (meaning people like her) she said, "no, I want to be in a class with Thai people." Praise God, she really has a heart to share Jesus with her new friends.

After the recital all the dance groups were making pictures together. The Thai girls think that Davis is so cute that some of them wanted their picture made with them. He's getting used to it now so he doesn't mind it as much as you can tell.

We had a surprise at the recital. David won a door prize so he got to go up on stage as well, along with Ms. Teen Southeast Asia. This was a big deal and fun! We were blessed with a free meal at the hotel.

Then on April 4, we celebrated David's 50th birthday!

The school Easter program was on David's birthday so after the program we took Aajan Busaba and Ice Cream with us to celebrate David's birthday. Aajan Busaba loves Samantha and Davis too and has a lot of fun with them. This is a typical pose for Thai people. Thai people love taking pictures.

Then we had presents and again it was amazing to see how excited you can get over the little things. This is a pencil case he got for school.

He was also thrilled, even though you can't tell it, because we finally found some normal size dress socks that he can wear with his dress clothes he has to wear to school. Before now they were Thai socks that don't come much past your ankle. It drove him crazy. So, he had to display them on his head so we can see they are long.

Then we had another special event. I had felt like God wanted me to take Samantha away for a special weekend just the two of us. So on April 6-8 we got that special weekend and God blessed it tremendously.

This was our cute little home away from home for the weekend and we loved it. It reminded us both of a place we use to stay in as a family when she was very young.

The weekend was about having fun, enjoying one another, surprises and about growing in our relationship with God. All of that happened in that weekend and it was wonderful. At dinner this first night God had put in my heart to give her a photo album of her growing up through the years. She loved it!

We also spent intentional time together looking at the Word and what God says about being a woman of God and how that effects all those big decisions coming in her near future. We really enjoyed these times together as well and the weather was perfect for it all!

I have never been one to do well with fixing hair and Samantha has always wanted me to learn how to french braid her hair. However, she always had other people around that could do it for her so I never learned. Well, God convicted me of this and for this special weekend I learned how. So this night I surprised her with french braiding her hair before we went to dinner. I also gave her a pedicure and manicure myself the night before. It was a weekend of firsts for me. I loved being able to do all these special things with her.

Then it was off to dinner. We have these tuk tuks everywhere in our city but we never ride them because we have a van. Well, this night we decided to take the tuk tuk and we thought it was loads of fun! It was a very special weekend all the way around and we are truly blessed that God has given us a wonderful daughter and son! Thank you for praying for them as they have made huge transitions in their lives this past year. God is answering your prayers.