Family vacation part 3... East Asian blessings

Being back in the states these past few months have been great and we are loving our ministries at Hocutt baptist Church that we are both getting to be a part of but still we both miss our home a lot. It's exciting to know that Lord willing we will be back soon but at the same time it's a hard wait to go through and daily I have to give my anxiousness and broken heart over to the Lord, trusting in His plan.

Thanks to the internet, we have both kept in touch with all of our friends and hear from them on a weekly basis. Some friends we have even gotten to video chat with and that has been incredible. Helping them with speeches and homework, seeing their new haircuts, meeting new friends, it's all helpful to get to still be a part of friends lives but sad to long to be with them and know we must wait and trust God's plan.

Just yesterday, as I read my latest email from my best friend (Martha), I was brought to tears as she told me great news of new friends and shared pictures, sharing she had been to my old apartment and how it made her miss me even more. I would give anything to hop on a plane and go visit her for just a day and wish so much that I could. Now, how does this relate to our family vacation? Just read and see....

While eating dinner at Sea n suds, a favorite on the beach seafood restaurant of ours, the doors of the restaurant opened to have kids come pouring in. Now these weren't just normal kids.... these were what we think we counted to be over 26 kids belonging to 4 families we think! Now yes that is a whole bunch of kids to give birth to but you see, about half of the kids were ADOPTED!!! Not only adopted but most of them adopted from our East Asia home!!!! Harrison and I not only have a love for East Asia but also a love for adoption and hope to one day be able to adopt ourselves and this brought extreme joy to both of us!

 Harrison snuck some pics of one of the tables as we left.

As we oohed and ahhed over all of the kids, one of the mothers (who has 6 adopted from East Asia) turned around to apologize to us if they disrupt our dinner. Disrupt? we wanted to join them! I then shared with her that we both have lived the past two years in East Asia and are planning to go back soon and how exciting to us it was to see them. It definitely brought us a piece of home! She was beyond excited to hear this and as we continued to talk and share both of our loves for East Asia we discovered something that only God himself could have orchestrated knowing how much I was missing home.

Her husband had just returned from a trip to an orphanage in East Asia! Now, not just any orphanage....  An orphanage in the city that I lived in! The same orphanage that our ministry had just partnered with last May to start going to and serving by playing with the children. Her husband had not only been to that orphanage but also when he went, some of our students joined to translate and help and it just so happens that Martha was one of those students!

I wanted to cry I was so excited! I asked her husband if he met her and he said that he did. I then shared that she was my best friend and had shared with me about her experience at the orphanage with them just a few weeks ago. We continued to exchange familiar names of people we both knew through that and were all just in shock and excitement to get to meet each other. What an incredible God we serve! Family and relax time was a great part of our vacation but this was by far the greatest. God knew exactly what I needed and made it happen. I wish we would have asked and taken a picture with the family but we did exchange contact info and plan to stay in contact so maybe one day we will. We hope to one day set an example like them by showing God's love to orphans and adopting ourselves.