Update and the much requested pregnancy pictures

Hello Everyone! Thank you for your encouraging comments - it means a lot to us. Everything is getting to be somewhat back to normal in the past week. There are not as many police and military units out everywhere. Hat Yai is lit up with lights though! It's not Christmas of course but the whole city is decorated with lights.

The Thai people use "christmas" lights and rope lights for everything. Their police station has red, white and blue lights decorating the front of it. I just can't imagine anything like that in the states to this extent. I will try to get some pictures.

The rest of the team is away in the Phillipines right now. They will be gone for a week at a missions conference that FIRE school setup. We're holding down the fort :) John begins his new Thai classes this next week - in which he will begin with learning how to read and write Thai. It was recommened by a team member that he begin with this because it might be better for him where as I am learning the phonetic language first. In 10 weeks I will begin reading and writting at the school I attend....but this next week I will also attempt to join John in his classes also.

I want to at least get started with the reading and writting before it is actually introduced in my classes because I know it is going to be very challenging. So I want to get all the exposure I can. It has been a very very hard task learning the Thai language. The team warned us that there would be many times where we would just cry and feel as if there was no possible way we could learn this language....and I have had one of those days so far!

But I had my first successful un aided conversation (about something other than easy stuff) with Pii Saow the other day and I felt like I was on top of the world! She understood me and I understood her! For the first time that week I felt like "HEY! I CAN DO THIS!" The language is so different from our own sometimes it just seems like it will never click - but then it does and voila!!! God continues to give me strength and a passion to learn the language ASAP!!!

Well, I have had many e-mails asking for pregnancy pictures so I sent some out to a few of you but I then realized that most of you can not receive e-mails that large. So - I apologize if I clogged up your inbox...if you didn't get the e-mail or couldn't view the pictures I am posting them here.

We had an ultra sound last Friday and everything is going GREAT except for the fact that she could not tell whether it was a boy or a girl!!! I am going to go with my friend to a clinic here in a week and have another ultrasound done to see if we can get our confirmation that it is a girl :) Ultrasounds at this clinic are very very inexpensive!!

Please keep us in your prayers this week - we will be going out to the villages all throughout the week along with studying Thai Language HARD! Hope you enjoy the pictures - I'll write again soon! I have added a links section over on the right side. There are some great links there - check them out. I also added "Steph's Two Cents" which is simply going to be a place for me to write down what I've been thinking about what I've read recently in the Bible and what God is speaking to my heart. I highly encourage you to check out the link that says Free Sermons - it is to an incredible website that has free sermons from great men of God from a long time ago as well as today - I recommend one of my favorites - Keith Green!!!

Alright - thanks again for the prayers and comments! Talk to you soon!