Day 43: Giving up my dreams for HIS.

Well, so much for the waterfall and temple. I woke up feeling sick this morning, so after we ate breakfast, I decided to just sit that one out and chill at home today. It's all good though, because I got some rest and had a chance to just be alone. I read a lot today, so I'm almost finished with Genesis...now I just gotta get through Exodus and I'll be back on track. I really enjoyed just sitting outside on a bench, pondering life with Tractor and Sammy, the two adorable dogs who live here. Tractor is a golden retriever who is slightly obsessed with well, retrieving. He will seriously play fetch all day long. (That's him in the picture.) And Sammy is a black retriever, and we've concluded that he has short-term memory loss because he barks at us every morning like he forgot that we were friends the day before. Haha.

Since I ended up not going with Allison and Alyse to the waterfall today, I was really hoping that I'd be able to see Siam today when I went with Samsot (I think that's his name) to pick the kids up from school. That didn't happen though, because he had already left by the time we arrived at the school. (Sorry Caleb.) :( But all the kids looked cute in their little scout uniforms, and some of them even had face paint and stuff on so they were quite a sight to see. They are beginning to be more comfortable around us now, so I'm really excited about that. They're starting to joke around and hug us and stuff. The first few days were sort of awkward because everyone was too shy, but now it's great. I love to hear them say my name...It's way cute to hear it when I'm on the other side of the propery or something because my heart just smiles and I think, "Aww...they love me!" :)

The picture to the right is just a hut off the road on the way to the kids' school. I'm glad I'm getting to see real Thai culture here in a smaller town. That's definitely something I was missing in the big city.

So Mateo is my dude. (That's me with him in that picture up there.) This morning when we woke up and walked outside, he was raking some leaves. I yelled "good morning" to him, and he smiled and walked right up to me, handed me the rake, and motioned for me to start raking. Haha. Well, ok Mateo. So I raked a row of leaves and handed the rake back...Haha. Every time he sees me now, he gives me a hug or high five. Gosh I love him. While the girls and I were chillin in the room before dinner tonight, we looked at the River of Life website and read some of the kids stories...talk about breakin' your heart! (http://www.patdebthailand.org/ourchildren.htm) It's like I see these kids in a different light now, and it's even more awesome how far they've come from where they've been. Debbie and Pat are truly amazing people, and I love it how God's used them to minister to so many young lives.

We ate green curry for dinner tonight...that was a first. I've had in my mind that curry is disgusting, but it honestly wasn't that bad. If my stomach had actually been feeling healthy today I would have eaten the junk outta that stuff, but I ate light since I wasn't sure how my stomach would react. We also ate some kind of Danish dessert afterward, since the other guests from Denmark were leaving tonight. That was interesting. Haha. After saying goodbye to the Denmark folks, we watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with Fern, Not, and Done.

The picture to the left is of Acheep...that boy can win your heart in a minute. Tractor found a baby bird and thought it was an brilliant idea to play with it, so Acheep rescued the poor thing and built a ghetto birdcage/nest for it. He was so proud.

So while I was pondering life today, I came across Jeremiah 29:11-13. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'" A lot of times we just stop after verse 11, but my mom's been quoting verse 13 to me recently so I just went ahead and read on to that. I feel like this verse goes hand in hand with my favorite verse - Psalm 37:4 - "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Any way you look at it, if God is our number one priority, all other things that pale in comparison should (and will) fall into place. Though I have my own desires, thoughts, and dreams...I want to be walking so closely hand in hand with God that His desires, thoughts, and dreams for me become my own. In my Bible, I wrote down a quote from some conference next to that verse..."God's saying, 'You can't discover my dream until you get over yourself and leg go of your own dream.'" I feel like that might be good advice for the place I'm in right now, deciding where to go after graduation...Bangkok or Cleveland. I don't really know what else to think or say, I just know that my thoughts are heading in the right direction...I think.

Well guys, I'm gonna go throw up now. Haha. But don't you worry about me...I'll be fine. The positive is, I'm losing weight! :) I weighed today and I've lost about 10 pounds. Yep, I'll take it. Haha. Love yall...this time next week, I'll be hanging out with all of you amazing people in good ol' Cleveland.

I'm out.
Cwalk.