Pumpkins, Piercings, and Poetry

 Happy Thanksgiving!
We have so much to be grateful for!

Baby dedication at church.  The 5 year old is my buddy.  He likes
to come sit and speak English with me.  He's getting really good!  The mother is my friend
and attends Bible study with me, and the dad attends with Ken.

We came across this amazing tree on a family hike.  

Max attends 1/2 day kindergarten.  It's exhausting, but he loves it.

I love finding shirts that get "Lost in Translation."

He really wanted Pokemon gloves and I had some yarn.
He's pretty excited.  I guess they make him feel fierce or something.

I had a group of Thai teens over for a sleepover.  We crafted until nearly midnight.

Here's their sock creation kittens (before tehy added the eyes).

The next morning we went out for breakfast. 
It was really yummy and so filling!  

My parents came to visit!!

Fearless boys at an exhibit. They drew a crowd and many people took
selfies with them.

Milestone: Callie got her ears pierced!  She worked towards being responsible and
felt such accopmlishment when she was rewarded with earrings.  

Bookbinding tutorial!  I kinda love that she's
a crafty kid. :)

Since my parents were in town, we were able to stay in the city, kid-free
for a few nights.  I still love this guy!  We don't get away, ever, so
this was a treat.

Goodbyes are hard, but this time was a bit easier.  They have
already booked tickets to come back whent he baby is born.  We are thankful!

This is one of our thrift stores.  It's outdoors, (no A/C) and you can't wear shoes,
so you walk on tarps on the ground. I use the shirts I find as fabric, or
scarves as table runners.  

And this is fabric shopping.  It's a huge market with many stores.
The fabric is piled everywhere and with a big pregnant belly it's hard to
fit through the aisles!

About 20 families gathered for a trunk or treat.  This is really special for the kids for a couple reasons:
They get candy and they can get creative.  We did a magic show at our trunk.  Jack is getting really good and the kids
were intrigued.  It was a great opportunity for Jack to shine as he often avoids the spotlight.

These are a few of my Bible study friends. I love these ladies!!

He just loves his baby brother.  

This girl is an acress in the making.  Her class
had a poetry recital and she did so well!  She really
wants to get involved in acting in a play one day.

PRAISES:

• I have made it to 31 weeks!  The baby seems healthy and is measuring on track.
• We moved to a different house.  Friends, we have a yard, a yard where the kids can actually run a bit, and climb a tree.  It is such a gift and I feel so undeserving of our house.  We want to use it for God's glory: we have Bible study here, mom's group, and will host Thanksgiving and a church Christmas party.
• Bible Study: Ken and I both have groups that meet throughout the week.  We're thankful for people eager to study the Word with us and be discipled.
• We moved a Thai college student in with us.  We love her and the transition went well.  We're learning from each other and laugh often at how different our cultures are.
• We have around 50 homeschooling families this year that Ken get's to support through his work as Director of the program.  They are serving throughout the country, making our Father's name known.
• Jesse Tree: I'll do a blogpost on this soon, but God gave me (Summer) the idea of making ornaments to correlate with the stories of the Jesus Storybook.  14 other women joined me and we will gift theses handmade advent sets to the Thai women in Bible study, along with the "Jesus Storybook" in Thai.