Josh's Recent Trip to Laos (Part 2)

The trip continued with me getting to spend some time with my Korean friends Kwangsoo (David) and Jinho. They were great students at ARDA! Also spotted some monks freshening up a local temple complex for Lao New Year.

The wedding day started with a boat ride across the river to Keo's village.

The main ceremony took place in Keo's house. It was great seeing so many people there to support this amazing couple!

The ceremony included a traditional Lao Blessing ceremony. It was an honor to be able to pray for our dear friends as they begin their life together. God is going to do great things through them.

After the wedding we had one more night with friends. Bowling in Luang Prabang! We followed it up with a walk through the night market.

I had to get a few final pictures with my best friends in Laos. I miss these guys so much. I can't wait to return home to Laos in 2014. Please continue to pray that God would be with our dear friends!

Josh's Recent Trip to Laos (Part 1)

I (Josh) recently had the amazing opportunity to go back to Laos for our dear friends Keo and Thiengs wedding. This was also a great opportunity to see Singkham. He took a bus from his hometown into Luang Prabang for the wedding!  I’m so thankful for a very special person making it possible for me to go!

I flew from Pensacola and had stops in Seoul, South Korea and Bangkok, Thailand before finally reaching Laos. The Korea layover allowed me to even check out a few tourist areas.  I couldn’t believe how big this city was. Absolutely amazing. I got to see some very interesting places that give you a look into both the past and the future at the same time. Seoul is one of my new favorite cities!

It has been great spending the past few months in the US. We’ve been able to catch up with loved ones, enjoy traditions from our home culture, and share our hearts for Laos with many great communities. The transition has been pretty smooth even though we have been incredibly busy. With all that being said, the moment I stepped off of the plane in Laos everything changed! I felt like I was home. As soon as I saw the mountains, the people, and felt the heat my heart started jumping. I immediately became so happy I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. It was a great feeling knowing how tightly Laos still had my heart after being away for a few months.

The week started off with me surprising some of my old students during Rahul’s class. He let me sit in during his class and participate. It was great being back in my old classroom. Afterwards, Thieng and I visited our friend Zhang at his restaurant and watched him perform with his band. He’s got some skillz!

The second night was spent going out for Lao BBQ with some close friends. Alek, Thieng, Keo, Phengsy and Noy came. It was my favorite meal in Laos. What a great way to catch up as we spent time around the table sharing food and stories!

I wanted to have plenty of pictures so this is where we end part 1! Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

Babies Everywhere!

Well, it's Facebook and internet official! We are having another baby! We will return to Laos next year as a family of four! The estimated due date is for October 18th of this year. We are so excited. Noah doesn't seem to be too thrilled in the picture below.

Stay tuned for Josh's blog on his recent trip back to Laos. It should be up in a few days!

Still Running!

Hey, we are still out here. I must offer my apologies again for it being so long between posts. The good part is, the reason we haven’t been updating is because we are meeting with you in person and spending quality time and making memories with everyone! When I last blogged we were in Ohio. We got to make some amazing memories with friends and family while there. I was able to catch up with some friends from High school that I hadn’t seen for about 14 years! It was great just filling in all the years we have missed together and see where life has brought us. I also got to see a girl I use to take to and from Youth all the time when I was in Ohio, it was a great time.

We then headed to Columbia, Tennessee  where we had fun filled days when we weren’t sick. I think the busyness of it all caught up with the three of us. We pushed through and were able to get some good quality time in with our friends in Columbia and share three different times in Columbia with our Destiny family. As soon as we got back to Pensacola, we were all in rough shape. The month long trip and not resting when we got back to the states finally caught up with all of us.

Then Josh, when he was feeling his worst, shared two times on Sunday. He spent a total of 8 hours on the road. He could have cut that time in half but he is such a great dad and husband, he left us at home in the morning and back tracked just to pick us up so we could rest in the morning.

Last night we had to make a run to the store to try and make sure we have enough dress clothes for our candidate training and interviews. Thanks to a great young couple who sent us some gift cards, we won’t have to repeat the same outfit 7 times!

Tomorrow we are back on the road. We are heading to our orientation in Springfield, MO. There we will have our last interviews and meetings to see if we will be fully appointed to Laos. Wish us luck! We are still all not 100% health  and have about a 12 hour drive ahead of us followed by a pretty busy week.

Thanks for keeping up with us and being patient between blogs! We appreciate everyone and everything you all do!

Whirlwind!

You will have to forgive me for taking so long since we have posted. If you keep up with us on Facebook you have gotten a feel for how on the run we have been. It is still hard to believe we left our simple home in Lao and are back into full swing raising money to return!

Since we last talked, I (Tonya) had the opportunity to share five different times with the women of our district about our amazing friends overseas! We have also been to Brownsville, the Youth of Christ Chapel, and Transforming Life were we saw old and new friends. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity, love and support of everyone near and far!

We were able to go spend a few days with Josh's sister and brother in law along with their kids. It was a blast watching the kids play together!

I am now sharing with you from my Mom's couch in front of a Christmas tree getting ready for Christmas in February, since we were in Laos for Christmas! I am beyond excited to be with family! And so honored to be the daughter of my mom and step dad who willingly kept all the Christmas decor up for my family!

Not to mention getting to go to some of our brothers last pep games and spending time with Josh's family!

Like I have said time and time again, I am so overwhelmed and honored to get to live this life that the Father has directed us to!

A look into the future involves us spending some time in Tennessee with good friend on our way back to Florida along with  most of our big trips the first 7 months of this year with all three of us and then Noah and I will probably stay back while Josh does some traveling. Also Josh will be going back to Laos in April for a week to see our good friends get married!

What an exciting and adventurous life we lead! Please think of Noah as he is completely confused with all our transitions and traveling and for protection and strength for us as we travel so much!

We couldn't do this without out all of you, wouldn't want to either!