good news, y’all.

We have some very good news, friends!

We have purchased tickets to visit England over the Christmas holidays this year! We are more thankful than I could even begin to express. This is such a gift from God, and with each passing day, I am more and more thankful that He knows what we need and what we ache for and what we desire. And He gives good gifts to His children!

This is a really, really good gift.

We’ll be there for an entire month–we leave the day our offices close for the holidays, and then we are taking two weeks of holiday vacation in January. We will be with family, we will be in cold weather, people will speak primarily English, and we will be resting.

Sheer joy!

And since anticipation is so much fun, we are reveling in the preparations.

I started knitting again, something I haven’t done since we were in America! I am working on a scarf for each of us. I have been working on Stephen’s while we are here in the jungle, and the students keep telling me how smart I am for knowing how to knit. I don’t know how to let them know that their Karen weaving is ten times harder. I did tell them that its usually something old ladies do, and maybe they shouldn’t think I’m cool for it.

We also don’t really have warm clothes here in Thailand with us–we each have one long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt for traveling. We have started visiting export shops. where factory items intended for export but rejected by Western standards are sent, and a few local places that have warm clothes. It is a little difficult to try them on and appreciate the value of their warmth, but it is oh-so-fun to imagine being cold and wrapping up in a sweater, scarf, and boots if I’m so lucky to find them!

I really can’t express how excited we are or how grateful we are. But we are!