a waiting game

one thing i've realized is that the entire 9 months of pregnancy is a waiting game. we had to wait to hear the heartbeat for the first time, see the first sonogram picture, find out the sex of the baby, and now we wait for the baby to decide to make her appearance. honestly, it's quite maddening to me. i like to make plans. i don't really like to fly by the seat of my pants. i'm not very spontaneous. but there's no making plans for delivery. we just have to wait on her. and something i've learned over the past 9 months is i'm not a very good wait-er. i'm praying that i can be patient over the next few weeks and enjoy the home stretch. (as much as you can enjoy the last weeks of pregnancy!)

Global Rest Retreat

We recently had the opportunity to attend a Global Rest retreat with some fellow Team Expansion coworkers in Kenting, Taiwan. Kenting is a beach town on the southern coast. Originally the plan was for us all to rent a charter bus, but in the end a few families couldn't come and it didn't seem worth the cost to go that route.So it was every man for himself to make the trip down (about 4 hours from Taichung). When we realizedthis, we knew it was time to step up our car search. Thankfully the week before the retreat we were able to purchase a new (to us) car. It ran very well and was very comfortable. We were so excited to be able to take this first road trip in our new car.

We were blessed in a variety of ways on this trip. One of the ways was our hotel. Usually these kinds of retreats are spent at hostels or retreat centers, but because of some special connections, we were able to have the retreat at the Howard Beach Resort. It was a nice change from the hotels we're used to staying at! :) Our room was huge and had a decent view of the ocean. It was a very comfortable place to spend the week.

The Howard Beach Resort

The view from our hotel room

We were also blessed by the team who came from the States to lead us. Every morning we were led in worship (in English!), and heard the Word (in English!). This was a highlight to us. Being "newbies" still in Chinese, we crave for times of being fed and worshiping in English. We do participate in our weekend Chinese services, but there is something quite special about worshiping in your mother tongue.

This week away (just a short time before the birth of our first child) was also a blessing to our marriage. We were able to have some long talks and share some hopes and dreams with each other, that sometimes aren't always possible with the day to day life routines. We also had the chance to play a lot of cards with each other on rainy afternoons and play games with friends in the evenings.

I (Kimberly) was especially excited about the retreat b/c I absolutely love the beach. I love the sights, sounds, and smells. Unfortunately it rained nearly every day! I did get to the pool on the first day, but it was quite windy and cloudy that day. On the last day of the retreat, Lance and I walked down to the beach, but didn't even bother with our beach gear b/c we knew the rain wasn't going to hold off much longer. But it was nice to spend an hour walking and sitting along the shore--even if it was cloudy and overcast.

On the last day of the retreat, the teams from the US shared some incredible news with us. They had raised extra money for the retreat, and it ended up being enough to cover the cost of the hotel! We didn't have to pay for any of our lodging! What a blessing this was to each of us! In fact, the only things we had to pay for during the week was our gas down and back and our evening meals. This was such wonderful news! Thanks Global Rest for a great week of rest and refreshment!