Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I can’t believe how crazy it got around here.  Since y’all got our newsletter I won’t go back over it all but I will go into more detail on some of the events.

Our Christmas party with Josh’s class went well. I had met a couple of his classmates before on different occasions.  There are a few who are older who are studying the language for business purposes.  One brought his family and they were so sweet as to bring us a gift.  It was a brand new wok!  Their generosity just floored me.  And I absolutely love this wok, its light, non-stick and cooks evenly.  I use it everyday if not twice a day.

But back to the party… most of the class is made up of younger guys and girls and the party kind of highlighted the maturity level. So afterwards, I was a bit disappointed at not finding anyone that I could connect with because I thought for sure Josh’s class could provide some kind of opportunity.

You can imagine my elation when after going door to door to invite neighbors to our house for a party we began to meet some great people.  There are four apartments in particular that stopped by at some point during the week to bring a gift for Jaden or fruit and wine.  It all just really encouraged me in knowing “yes, we heard correctly when He said “this is the place”.  You have to remember, when we were looking for a place to live we had three days and when we saw this apartment and realized it was livable we rented it on the spot.  Making such big decisions so quickly is enough to put both of Josh’s and my stress level to the max.  But I remind myself that the Father is never rushed and as we try to follow Him He makes our paths straight so we don’t go the wrong way.  That being said, its amazing to think that this time last year we had no idea (absolutely no idea) that we would be here.  We are living examples of how He truly can do all things… may we not underestimate Him this new year.

Here are some pictures from life here in XJ: