Liebster Award

A warm thanks to Savanna at Me+ My Little for nominating my blog for the Liebster Award! Check out her cute blog when you get a chance!

She asked me to answer some questions on my blog, so here it goes…

Tell us what lead you to the blogging world. 

Well, I actually started blogging when we moved to Haiti to keep our family and friends updated on all that was going on while we were there, but it turned into a love for writing! I am now writing for several other blogs and magazines!

Five years down the road, what is your ideal future looking like? 

Well, currently I am living in Bangkok and loving it, so I am hoping to still be here. My husband is a pastor of a church, so ideally in 5 years, I would love to see our church grow and to have planted another church! I have a counseling degree, so I hope to be using that in some way in the next 5 years.

I know that is super boring, but I am really happy with my life right now, and am not really sure what I want to change about it!

Where do you find inspiration for your writing/blog?

Most of my blog writing comes from my faith. I love sharing God with others, so I write from that angle most of the time. Some of my writing comes from experience and some comes from research. I am kinda a research geek, especially when it comes to mental health and raising my kids. I’m not like a strict rule follower or anything like that, but I at least like to know what the research says, so I can make an educated decision about how I choose to do things. I also like to keep up with current events, so some of my writings come from that. Most of them stay in my head though because my thoughts probably go against popular opinions! Haha!

How did you choose the name of your blog?

Oh, you mean the generic, lame name at the top of this page? That’s the best I could come up with at the time! I really need to change it! Ha! Any suggestions? No, seriously…anyone have any good suggestions?

If you could hang out with one person for a day, dead or alive, who would it be? Why?

Well, my obvious answer is Jesus, so I guess I will just stick with it. But really, who wouldn’t want to hang out with Jesus? If He could be annoyed, He would be annoyed with me by the end of the day because I would ask Him so many questions. I don’t really think they would be deep theological questions necessarily though. I think they would be more like “How To” questions. How can I love unconditonally…? Stuff like that. I really want to be a better person that way. And I would probably just cuddle Him all day because He would just be so loving! I really like to cuddle! And cuddling all day is annoying to other people, but He can’t get annoyed, so, yeah, I think I would just cuddle him ALOT. Does that make me weird?

If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing (don’t you even dare say money), what would it be? 

Ice Cream! But it would have to have a stipulation-you can’t gain weight when you eat it, of course!

What social media platform are you most active on? 

Facebook-I have a love/hate relationship with it, but it’s more love than hate. I love how it keeps us all connected, especially since we live so far away from everyone, but I hate the drama. I also hate the bad stuff that happens because of Facebook, especially like child abductions and things like that.

If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I know I mentioned ice cream earlier, but I seriously think I could eat pizza for every meal. It’s sooooooooo good! Healthy, huh?

Describe your dream vacation.

Anything with my family at the beach with no crying or whining! A girl can dream, right? I just love my family and love spending time with them. I LOVE the beach-the hot sun on my skin and the water to cool me off! Yes! And who likes crying and whining? Especially at the beach?

Give us one piece of advice that you wish the younger you would have been told.

Love others so deeply you aren’t afraid of getting hurt. Don’t be afraid to love others-not just the opposite sex, but everyone. Ah, wouldn’t the world be such a wonderful place if we could all love without fear! Dreamland, I know, but we can all choose to be better people, despite how others choose to act.

 

Here are the 10 bloggers I choose to nominate for the Liebster Award:

Here are some fun blogs I nominated for the Liebster Award! Some I know personally, others I have found by happening upon them on the web and others are from the amazing online blog Her View From Home. If you don’t know about it, I suggest you check it out and check out these blogs while you’re at it. There are all kinds of fun stuff on the blogs-life, fashion, health, etc. I hope you enjoy reading them too!

Hope & A Future

Elle Kae

Modestly Hot

From Blacktop to Dirt Road

A Musing Maralee

Simply Liv

Eating Healthy in a Tough Economy

Aspects of Ashley

Quiet and Simple Thoughts

Life of a BBall Wife-Morgan Williams

Here are the questions for the bloggers I nominated to answer on their blogs:

1. How would you describe our blogging style?
2. How do you want to improve yourself in the next year?
3. What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?
4. Describe a time in your life when you have been most satisfied.
5. What do you like to do in your spare time?
6. What chore do you absolutely hate?
7. What is your favorite form of exercise?
8. Share 1 of your favorite quotes.
9. Who is your role model and why?
10. How would you describe your personal style and who is your biggest fashion inspiration?

And here are the instructions for what to do next if you have been nominated:

• Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog in your Liebster Award post.
• Copy and paste the Liebster Award badge into your post.
• Answer the 10 questions you were given when you were nominated.
• Come up with 10 questions you would like to ask of your nominees.
• Nominate 10 bloggers who have less than 200 followers (subscribers), by commenting on one of their blog posts with a link to your Liebster Award post, and a short message about nominating them.

I hope each of you have as much fun with this as I did!

 

 

 

Let Your Light Shine

We recently took a trip to Chiang Mai. It was a wonderful time of rejuvenation for our family as we visited a long time friend while we were there. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with her and her church family  as well.

We also were able to see the Loy Krathong Lantern Festival while we were there. The festival in Thailand has become a way that the Thais honor Buddha. They write wishes on their lanterns and send them up into the sky hoping they will come true. In addition to the lanterns they send up into the sky, they also float lights down the river. The floating away of the lights represent floating away of bad luck to some and for others it is a way they worship the goddess of water.

The sight of all the boats floating down the river and all the lanterns going up in the sky was spectacular, but at the same time, the entire celebration was so sad for us to sit and watch. Celebrating an empty goddess of water and sending up and away wishes and luck are so sad to me. I couldn’t help but pray for God to be known amongst the thousands, from numerous nations, that were there that week, celebrating emptiness.

Continue to pray for Thailand. I know our God will do big things here. He is bigger than luck and has even more heartbreak for each person there than I experienced that week.

Despite our sadness for the people experienced during Loy Krathong, we truly enjoyed the city of Chiang Mai. The slow pace, small town feel was so refreshing to experience for a few days. However, we were glad to get back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and jump right back into the ministry God placed before us here.

Thank you to each of you who continue to pray for us and pray for Thailand. We feel your prayers and appreciate them so much. Please continue to pray for Thailand, Bangkok, LifePoint BKK, and our circle of influence. Pray for us to remain strong and be rejuvenated when we feel weak, sad or overwhelmed. We know God hears each prayer, and we are overwhelmed by them here.