Sophie's Song

Sophie's Song.

Singing at the table. Breaking all the rules. I was trying to get some footage of her talking but she decided to sing. Don't read into her song...she is a happy girl who knows who she is and also knows her stuffed animal flopsy.

Ballet Class

Today Sophie took her first ballet class at the Hug School in Khon Kaen.



Here they are warming up.













Working on positions.




We are very pleased that there is now a ballet school in our city. Sophie had a great time!

Waiting

I wanted to blog about "waiting" this morning. I just googled, "wisdom from waiting" and I ran across this website, someone interviewing Lewis Smedes. These are the bullet points of his interview:

I. We all have to wait sometimes.
II. Nobody likes to wait.
III. Waiting is the hardest thing we ever do.
IV. Waiting can be a beautiful experience.
V. People who cannot wait almost always make things worse.
VI. The strength to wait comes from faith.
VII. In fact, waiting for God is the supreme test of faith.

These are all great reminders for me right now. We turned in the paperwork for our second adoption, here in Thailand. Initially, I was told that the wait time would be one year. The social worker casually informed me that it would now be at least 2 years. This waiting time will not even begin until we have finished our homestudy. I don't know when that homestudy will take place, I just have to WAIT for someone to contact me.

This is not how I had things planned. Isn't it interesting how we don't even realize we are making plans until we find out things aren't going according to that plan. I definitely agree with point VII. "... waiting for God is the supreme test of faith." I struggled HARD while waiting for Sophie Mei. Many days of crying and disappointment, not understanding why it was taking so long. But God was patient with me as I was impatient with Him.

Sophie just woke up and is laying her head in my lap. Wow, looking into these dark eyes, that I love beyond words, how can I question God's wisdom and timing? I can't. Thankfully, He is always patient with me and I will pray that He will give me the grace to wait and be patient in response.

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."- Ps. 27:14

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope."- Ps. 130:5

"I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'"- Lam 3:24

We are waiting and we are open to whatever opportunity God might put before us in the meantime. The more babies, the merrier the home. Please pray with us.

Sherry, Marc and Sophie

"Its ok Mommy. Grammy come back again. Maybe not tonight."

Wow. We sure did have a wonderful time while my mom and dad were here. I didn't want it to end. Praise the Lord their travel was uneventful and no sickness, exactly what we prayed for. Sophie loved having multiple playmates everyday. Her favorite phrase was, "Come on Grammy, follow me." And you know my mom followed her everywhere she led. We stayed at our house in Khon Kaen for the first two weeks. Marc was still on campus so mom and dad just got to see our normal life, Sophie and I at home all day :-). We did make a few short excursions to some nearby places, King Cobra Village, The Obonrat Dam, a friend's rice field. We took it easy. Hopefully, it was a good taste of Thai culture for them. We don't have cable so we had to get my dad set up on the internet to follow a few football games, Ga. Tech to be specific. Other than that, we just spent time together, drinking coffee, reading books and laughing at Sophie. One thing about living so far from family is that when we are all together it is quality time.

My favorite part of everyday was waking up, walking downstairs to the smell of coffee brewing. My dad would already be sitting on the front porch reading with a pot of coffee ready for my mom and me. I usually always drink coffee alone in the morning so it was really nice to enjoy the mornings with them. My mom and I would then sit on the couch and talk, drinking coffee and sometimes talking to my sisters on skype. So, my mornings now are a little sad but it was precious while it lasted.
We spent the last week of their trip in Khao Yai and Bangkok. I decided to wear them out the last few days. I loved being their tour guide. We rode elephants, saw wild monkeys at the National Park, rode in a taxi for hours on end (my dad's least favorite part). All the while sitting not more than 2 inches from one another, always close enough to grab their hand or put my arm around them, and that's all that mattered.


I knew my dad was wild at heart but I guess its laid dormant for the last few years. He decided to let it fly while he was here- eating bugs, handling snakes, even getting a tattoo in Bangkok. I loved watching it all. My mom just rolls with it. The craziest thing we did was sit and get a mural painted on our toenails. I came really close to eating a bug with my dad but I just couldn't do it.

I was getting sadder and sadder as the day approached for them to leave. I shed a few tears at the hotel before Marc took them to the airport, but I was ok. We drove home to Khon Kaen the next day. Getting back to our house was the difficult part. We walked in the door and the smell of our new bamboo blinds made me burst into tears. My dad worked so hard to get those hung. He was our regular fix-it man while he was here. He loves fixing and building, he really ministered to us. Then I walked into "grammy and papa's room" and more tears came. Sophie came up, looked right into my eyes, and said, "you little bit sad, mom?", I said, "yes, i miss Grammy and Papa." she answered, "It be ok, Mom. Grammy come back again...Maybe not tonight." Of course this made me laugh and I hugged her little body til it hurt. She is my sunshine.

So, its only been 4 days since they left but for some reason it seems like a month. I love my family. I love my home country. But I also love this life that the Lord has called us to. Its not easy but it sure does bring me to my knees. I don't know how God is going to use us here in Thailand, but He sure is using Thailand to do a work in us. My peace and true satisfaction is found nowhere but in Jesus. He is my strength when I am weak, He is the treasure that I seek, He is my all in all.

Visitors and New Arrivals

I'm going to stop saying that I'm going to post regularly because it hasn't happened yet. I'm one of those people who needs to write a note of encouragement to follow up on a conversation but I have so much to say that I keep putting it off until just the right time. Then of course that perfect time never comes and I'm left with lots of good intentions. The same goes for blogging. I feel like I have to wait until I have something extra interesting, extra encouraging or extra funny to post. Then when I think I have something blogworthy, I keep putting it off until I have uninterrupted time to be thoughtful about it. Marc, on the other hand, can just sit down and be objective, spitting out two full paragraphs of witty, encouraging and interesting tid-bits. Oh well, I guess I have to be content being the "sweet one".

Sooooooo, on with my irregular posting....

Life is going very well at present. I'm actually on cloud 9 because my mom and dad are coming to visit next week. Who knows, they may be the first Marechale's to ever come to Thailand- ever. I will get to spend a full 36 hours with them in Bangkok, just me. This is precious to me b/c I know that as soon as they get around that little dark haired, dark eyed munchkin, I'll be nothing but chopped liver. (we moms always say that about grandparents but we really love it that they love our kids so much). They are going to absolutely eat her up. And rightly so, because she only gets cuter and cuter. She has been saying the funniest things lately. After play group on Wednesday, she was sitting in her booster seat eating lunch when she exhaled deeply, leaning back in her seat with a bereft look on her face and said, "me and my friends had a rough day." then shrugged her shoulders and said, "anyways".

Sophie is also really into painting. She wants to paint all day every day. I don't protest too much because when I have the opportunity to sit down and paint with her I really enjoy it, its very therapeutic. She has a pretty long attention span. She will really stick to a project. I had to clean lots of really nasty windows today and she was right there with me wiping and scrubbing until I gave her her next assignment. She's quite the helper. Though, along with getting cuter and cuter, she's definitely exerting some independence and reminding us why they call it the "terrible two's". Just when you think you've got this discipline thing down, it gets even more challenging. Its getting harder and harder. I need to pick up few old books and read them again.

Well, those of you who are on facebook probably got Marc's recent message, non-chalantly announcing that we are in the beginning stages of adopting again. Those of you who aren't on facebook, this is the announcement :-). We are adopting a Thai child. We've requested as young as possible and are open to either gender, which in Thailand will most likely mean a boy. We are told that it will be roughly a year wait from the time we finish our paperwork. So, we're thinking maybe Christmastime 2010. Please keep us in your prayers.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I'll be sure to post some pictures of my parents visit. We're planning to do a few neat excursions.

God Bless,
Sherry

Lovely Day with Sophie Mei

Yesterday was quite a sweet day. It started off a little rocky when I couldn't put Sophie's carseat back together. I had taken it apart so that I could wash the cover but there ended up being one piece whose original place I could not find. I love putting things together so it became especially frustrating when I couldn't do it. I searched all over the internet for a diagram on how to put the carseat back together but couldn't find it. I had tried not to bother Marc b/c he was working on something but finally I put out my distress call. Thankfully, it only took him looking at it for about 30 seconds and he told me where it went. My hero. This small crisis put us way behind going to the grocery store. It was 11:30 and I knew Sophie would be way too sleepy to make it through the grocery store without falling apart. I decided that my chances for a successful shopping trip were a lot better if we ate lunch first. There's a small Thai "food court" upstairs at Lotus (grocery store). We ordered Khaw Mon Guy (baked chicken and rice) and Phad Thai (stir fried noodles). We ended up sharing the Khaw Mon Guy as the Phad Thai was inedible for me, full of fatty pork and tiny dried shrimp. Because I generally eat anything, it has to be pretty bad for me to leave a full plate of it.

Well, to my surprise, Sophie was an angel all through the grocery store. She was quite content, just talking to me the whole time. We were even serenaded by a man from Whales, seriously. He was a character. We got finished in record time but I knew that a good nap would be ruined if Sophie fell asleep in the car. So, there began "Operation Keep Sophie Awake". It wasn't as difficult as it has been on other occasions. I have even resorted to feeding her candy to keep her awake. This time I just talked to her, asking her all kinds of questions. I could tell she was getting sleepy when all of a sudden she just yelled out, "my tummy hurts... I eat too much food around here." Where did that come from? Sophie is a very sweet child but it just seemed that she was especially sweet that day. Or was it just that I was in a good mood, able to appreciate her sweetness? I just couldn't keep my hands and lips off of her. I probably told her I loved her 85x's. She replies with "tank you, mom."

We get home, get a nap and all is well. Later that night I made spaghetti and invited a friend over. My friend, Blaa, is Thai and she used to be on staff with our ministry. Now, she has opened a Christian bookstore in the city. She asked if a friend could come with her. The guys were on campus for dinner so, for me, the more girls at my house the merrier. Her friend was a sweet girl from Taiwan. She was a Christian who was here teaching Mandarin at an elementary school. Her name is Wendy and she is very homesick. She just walked into my Blaa's bookstore looking for a friend, for fellowship. I was so glad she came. We ate dinner and talked for while. She told me how she became a Christian 10 years ago. She had been looking for meaning in life, her purpose. She asked her teacher and she gave Wendy an encyclopedia and told her it would have the answers. Sad. One day she went to get a new haircut, hoping it would make her feel better, less depressed. The hairdresser was a Christian and Wendy could tell there was something different about her. Long story short, Wendy heard the gospel and placed her faith in Jesus. I was very encouraged. I hated to cut the conversation short but I needed to give Sophie a bath and get her to bed. You could tell Wendy didn't want to leave. I went upstairs, gave Sophie a bath and then came back downstairs. They were leaving and Wendy asked if we could all pray together. It was precious. Sophie sat in my lap for about 10 mins. while we prayed. I prayed in English, Wendy prayed in Chinese and Blaa prayed in Thai. A beautiful picture of heaven, people from every tongue, tribe and nation gathered around the throne of God. I love that praying is such a normal thing to Sophie already. She would never let us forget to pray before we ate. She's precious. I know all mom's think that about their children so I make no apologies :-).


Blaa, Wendy and Sophie


It was a sweet day with Sophie Mei.

Sophie's new video

Random Moments from marc lewis on Vimeo.

Sophie talking, singing, and dancing.