54 Reasons

Eng, doing what he loves best!
He'll soon need to give up the management of our
friends' restaurant. They'll arrive in two weeks!

Fa-see-pa, happy to see us. The doctor
said her eye condition (she sees dimly) had
nothing to do with her having HIV.

Beautiful, any which way you look at it.

54 reasons as to why Eng is a blessing. His name
means "blessing" in Chinese.

Pictures Alone in 2014

Eli turned 18 on January 19th

Maddie Moore surprised Eli with cheesecake
and gifts to open for each of his 8 periods in school.

Eli was thrilled at being remembered and fussed on

At Central Festival celebrating Eli's birthday

Eng turned 54 on January 22nd. Called up to
dance with the professionals. =)

Pastor Aury Reitz and her group of professionals
performed at GIS on January 22nd, 2014. They're from the
Underground Church in North Hollywood, California

Chris and Joy's Wedding
January 11, 2014

Eli was ring bearer with
Juniper Stewart as flower girl.

Sick This Week

For the first time in years, I am not well. I blame myself for depriving my body of sleep and not being wise with the use of my time. I know I spent too much time working. This is something I definitely need to work on in 2014.

Thank you for your prayers. It will help me stay focus on what matters. Bless you!

And the Winner is...

With Evan and Eric at a guest house in Toronto, we
tried our best to capture all our faces as we did our
Christmas greetings by Skype. Thank you, Lord,
for technology. =)  And, Eric played for us on his
new Epiphone guitar that he received for free. The
provision was mentioned in the December 24th posting.

        As in previous years, last week, we got together as a family to pray for the happenings of the year before. It roughly takes about two hours to thank Papa God for everything He’d done for us. Typically, we do the whole process in two days. As always, the fun part was recollecting what happened in any given month. We laughed at our funny moments, smiled at accomplishments, or grimaced at hard memories, but we always ended up thanking the Lord for what He’d allowed to happen to us. We also praised Him for getting us through all kinds of happenings last year. Then, we went through the more serious part of our tradition which was to pick the winner of the “person-who-changed-the-most-in-the-last-year” award. The reward of 1,000 Baht wasn’t very much (about $30.00) but each of us wanted to win it because of how hard it was to get it. I’d never won it and it’s not for lack of trying. Someone in the family was always far more deserving.

Here are the sheets that I hope to pay attention to
as the Lord uses my family to help me be a better person.

       We’d tweaked it through the years but the best way we’d done it was to write three positive and affirming character traits that each person possessed. Then, on the bottom of that list, we wrote down what we prayed the person would be better at, in the new year. Our gauge for who to vote for as winner was the last part. Basically, if we’d heard the answer from any of the previous years’ responses, then it’s a sure indication that the person didn’t change much in the last year. And, of course, we had prayed to vote and choose wisely.

         Ethan, our youngest son, now 12 years old, won for 2013. It’s the very first time for him. He earned it. He changed a LOT and became more and more responsible. We are very proud of him. Now, if only I’d get a turn. Maybe next year I’ll finally win? =)