Counting Down

We now have one week left in Bangkok before we head back to Nepal. It's been fun, but we are ready to settle down and get back to work. We are still waiting on Isabelle's passport to come in, but that gives us a little time to get some last minute things done here before we pack up.

Sisters

Sweet sisters

Aquarium

Sophia and her buddy Claire went to the Aquarium and learned all about fish.

Amusement park fun

We took Sophia to the amusement park here called Dream World. She had so much fun because they had lots of things for kids to do.

Zoo

Sophia likes to play with the frogs in the yard where we are staying.  But she liked the animals at the zoo even better!

Fun in Bangkok

While Isabelle is still in the hospital, we are trying to keep Sophia busy.  She loves riding the tuk tuks, however she is scared of the boats that go by on the canal.

Daddy's Girls

Sophia is enjoying her time in Bangkok.  She goes swimming at a hotel nearby and knows how to ask to for taxis.  When we take the Sky Train, she says hello and goodbye to all the choo-choos and gets excited when it's our turn to ride the choo-choo.  This trip is a planes, trains, and automobiles trip for her and she loves it.  She has gotten to go to Toys R Us and ride her first carousel.  

Isabelle update

Isabelle is doing better and better everyday.  She still has bile coming out of her body, but it is getting clearer every day.  This is a good sign that the surgery was a success.  Monday they will begin giving her electrolytes to see if she can digest those well.  If she can, then on Tuesday they will try breast milk to see how she handles that.  We can take her out of the case and hold her now, so that makes our visit with her much sweeter.  Although it's hard because Sophia is not allowed in the ICU so we have to take turns going inside to see Izzy.    

Baby Isabelle

This is Baby Isabelle, 6 lbs. and almost 3 oz.  She is still in ICU right now so we haven't gotten to hold her yet.  She was born on Sunday January 25 at 2:06pm.

FB Moss Bluff Volunteer team

We had a volunteer team come from FB Moss Bluff.  They did several medical camps around an area that has many ethnic Tibetans living there during the winter season because it is too cold to stay in the mountains during the winter.  The team also visited some orphanages and did other things to help out our ministry among the Tibetans in Nepal.  At one school for Mustangi children they did a hygiene clinic.  They washed the children's hair and treated their hair for lice.  

Getting ready for Thailand

We are getting ready to leave the cold and head to the warmth of Thailand.  We will be there almost two months to deliver our second baby, Isabelle Kate.  We are looking forward to eating the good food and having electricity 24 hours a day (right now the power is out 18 hours a day in Nepal.  What's the point in having electricity at all?)  

Christmas party with Tibetans

We held a Christmas party in our home for all our Tibetan friends around the neighborhood.  It was very successful because all the Tibetans that came, about 25, said that it was their first Christmas party to attend.  The gospel message was shared through Bo and a translator as he told the Christmas story.  We can only pray that what was heard will transform their hearts to want to know more.  

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a good time even though we were away from family.  We all pitched in to buy an imported turkey at $80!!  We smoked it, had lots of other goodies then played football.  I think the only thing we were missing was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and college football games on TV.  

Baby it's cold outside!

It's getting cold in Kathmandu and with the cold comes an awesome view of the mountains.  This picture does not do it justice, but in the winter you can see the Himalayan mountains that surround the Kathmandu valley.  It is absolutely incredible to see.  

The picture of Sophia sleeping is of her new bed.  Now she has sheets and blankets that match, but in this picture she did not.  Not only is it hard for the Nepalis to understand why we wanted rails on the bed, but it was also hard to have the sheets made.  You can't buy sheets here and they do not have the concept of a fitted sheet, so it took about one month to get the bed and the bedding all correct.  The mattress actually barely fits in the bed but we just wanted to the bed to be ready so we are dealing with it.

We Love Receiving Goodies

Sophia's Grandpa Bruce and Granette sent us a huge package of goodies last month.  We can get most staple foods in Nepal but we love special treats that aren't available here (i.e. Betty Crocker cake mixes, muffin mixes, & Jiffy corn bread mixes).  As you can tell, Sophie has a blast opening packages.

The Lazy Gringo

Authentic Arizona-style Mexican food in the heart of Kathmandu.  This is a restaurant we opened in October 2007. The Lazy Gringo was started by a team of American families who live in Kathmandu and LOVE mexican food. We have trained an amazing staff of wonderful Nepali men and woman to cook authentic mexican food and to make your time at our restaurant a throughly wonderful experience. We hope you enjoy and continue to come back again and again!  For more info about The Lazy Gringo check out www.thelazygringo.blogspot.com

J-town For Jesus

At the end of July, I traveled with volunteers and a national SC to a remote mountain village in the Himalayas.  We were able to see fruit from our ministry in area where there has been no fruit for a very long time.  I met an ethnic Tibetan man, his wife and his daughter in a wheat field.  He is a lower caste Tibetan Buddhist man who works with his family in the fields outside of a village called J-town.  On a rainy afternoon, we stopped by their threshing floor where they were threshing wheat.  The daughter and her mother were plucking the heads from grains of wheat that did not get caught by the threshing device.  We asked if we could help and they allowed us to work alongside them.  This provided us with a great opportunity to begin sharing Christ with them.  The mother spoke broken Tibetan and the daughter spoke Nepali and a little English.  The women asked us to come to their home the following morning to share this message of hope with the man of the house.  The following morning, as we drank tea together in their home, we were able to share intimately through a translator the Creation-to-Christ story followed with a detailed Gospel presentation.  Although the mother was not there, the father and daughter decided they needed to turn from Tibetan Buddhism and follow Christ.  This same day, the only other two believers in this village were baptized.  They had been led to Christ 3 years before but had not publicly professed Christ as their Savior through the ordinance of baptism.  There is still no church or fellowship in this area yet, but we have two journeymen there right now doing follow-up and discipleship.