Prayer Request

Goodness knows WHY I'm still up writing posts when not a STITCH of our packing is finished. But this is an important request...

Ah, visas. They are always a major challenge.

Tomorrow we leave our apartment here in Fort Collins for a retreat. Yeah! Then we'll be back in Texas, around the 27th of July. One VERY important task that we completed today was sending our passports off to the consulate. Would you please pray they grant us 90 day visas? It would bore you to explain WHY we need this type and what would need re-arranging if they give us another type. But PLEASE, until I post an update, would you pray that the consulate would grant us this specific request?

Thanks! We'll be away from internet access until the 29th... I'll post an update then! :)

Terry Bison Ranch

Fort Collins is just 30 minutes from the Colorado-Wyoming border, so you have to go up there, even if you don't know why. Also right there at the border is the Terry Bison Ranch. That 30 minute drive was a disappointment, because you feel like you are driving away from the mountains. By the time you get up to Cheyenne, the geography is as flat as a pancake. But we did take a different route home, and it was BEAUTIFUL! OK, back to the buffalo.

For 12$ a ticket, you can ride a train (a V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W train, about .5 mph!) into the middle of a real live buffalo heard.














You also get to see camels, but apparently you can see those for free from the highway.































Here's the buffalo, and also highlighting K's missing 2 front teeth!


































We were close enough to this guy to feel the jolt when he rammed his horns into the side of the car, and shoo away the flies that were swarming around his back. Can't say I've even been that eye-to-eye with a bison.




















































Mommies can have fun on the swing too.



















This woolly mamouth wasn't actually at the bison ranch, but one last great shot of the girls with Nana & Pags. We sure did have a good time!

Rocky Mountain National Park

My parents came up to visit us here in Fort Collins a couple of weeks ago (still catching up!) and our first stop was Rocky Mountain National Park. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, the mountains. I'm not as much a beach gal. Whenever I have a chance to be in the mountains, it's like it opens a window in my soul. I'm not exaggerating! :) 10 years ago in April, we honeymooned here. We even stopped by the Sunnyside Cottages on the outskirts of Estes Park where we stayed. We had a "moment" there in the parking lot, but so much had changed that I barely recognized the place.

For some reason, Nana & Pags didn't make it much in this set of pictures, but I'll post more later this week...














Long's Peak seen from Bear Lake













It was a GORGEOUS DAY!



















Picnic on the rocks...















After my children ignored the signs-- "Please do not feed the animals", I had to snap this pic. This little guy looked like he was really comfortable with Pringles, and was livin' the good life among the picnickers at the Park. (I don't have a super-close lens-- I was really that close!)












Here is the Alluvial Fan created by a massive flood in 1982. I swear that there was no water here 10 years ago. Just rocks. They must have re-routed the lake water above it, or I'm totally losing my mind.






































I'm really NOT posting these to make my China friends jealous! :) It is a huge challenge, a test of your creative juices and insight, to enjoy nature in our China home. So I'm breathing in ALL the clean air I can, and locking all of these images to keep in my mind!




























What are some of the beauties of creation you are enjoying this summer?

Inside My Heart

I don’t always understand what makes for a day like yesterday (teary, no ability to concentrate, self-condemning thoughts) as opposed to a day like today (alert, thinking on Jesus & enjoying his beauties.) And to be honest, I think I often tend to question your care as I cry out with no seeming response, on days like yesterday.

But I think I need to be careful not to interpret my feelings and experience as an accurate commentary on your care.

Human emotions, hormones, tiredness, insecurities, sin, vision darkened by concern of others’ opinions… all these things, it would seem, obscure my ability to accurately perceive what you are doing in my heart on any given day or through any particular struggle. And yet, growth in the gospel means an increasing freedom from those things that blind me. And this SHOULD lead to an increasing experience of joyful emotions and responses.

So it seems I teeter between these two truths—

You hold me securely in the palm of your hand, whether I feel it or not.

Yet, when I do not feel it, it is part of your growth process for me, a good struggle, to wrestle with that and seek to discover why not.

Thus, says Howard Hendricks, “Balance is the ability to swing at the right times between extremes.”

To “know Thyself” is crucial and a vital part of our journey. But to “know Thy God” … infinitely better.

Fort Collins Highlights I

Our first days here in Fort Collins, with more to follow:

After a quick settle, Jim's meetings began early morning day 2, and the girls and I headed for the mountains. I didn't have a map or a road to follow... just drive west and you run into them! Our first stop took us to Horsetooth Trail Park. I thought "park" meant, you know, PARK. It was really a hiking trailhead, which in hindsight, we were not prepared for. But zealous and delighted to be in nature, we took off down a path. Here's a view of Ft. C. down below...












K started snapping pictures of every flower she saw and I promised some could make it in the blog... (Can you see the bees?)



















The site of our picnic, the only shady spot in 2 miles, thus marking the end of our hike!



















The next day we took another path along Horsetooth Resevoir and enjoyed a Father's Day picnic. I have to say I was a bit annoyed that the State of Colorado thinks they own the mountains. Did you know you have to pay $6 to park anywhere along this road??!??














K & I hiked down to this rock... FYI, getting stuck by a cactus hurts, and leaves little bubble marks on your skin for a few hours.



















I always love these daddy-holding-daughter's-hand-from-behind shots.














Here's one from a similar picnic spot outside Ft. C., 4 years ago... that's little K!

Table Oasis

"Christ has planted his Table like an oasis along our pathway, in order that when we become weary with travel, weak and hungry in our souls, discouraged and wounded because of our false steps, stumbling, and failing, we may then enter there and be refreshed with the living Bread of Life."

--Karl Olof Rosenius, Swedish Revivalist, 1816-68

Dancing to the Music?

"Imagine yourself in a large house in which those who are deaf and those who can hear and living together. In one of the room, you see a guy sitting in a chair and listening to music on his iPod. Rhythmically, he's tapping his foot, drumming his thighs, jutting his chin out, swaying to the beat, and pursing his lips like Mick Jagger. His entire body moves in response to what his ears are hearing. It's obvious that he's enjoying himself and listening to a pretty good song.

A few minutes later, one of the deaf persons enters the room. Seeing the guy listening to the music and impersonating Mick Jagger, he thinks, That looks like fun. I think I'll try that. So he sits down next to him and begins to imitate him. Awkwardly at first, he tries drumming his thighs, jutting his chin out, and swaying to the music just like the guy wiht the iPod. With a little practice, he begins to catch onto it. By watching and trying, he begins to mirror the other guy's actions pretty closely. But although he eventually gets better at keeping time, he concludes that it's not as much fun or as easy as it initially seemed (especially the chin jut--very difficult to do when you're not actually hearing the music.)

After awhile, a 3rd person enters the room and watches this scene. What does he see? Two people apparently doing the same thing, apparently listening to the same thing. Is there a difference? Absolutely. The first guy hears the music and his actions are a natural response to hte music's rhythm and melody. The 2nd guy is merely imitating the outward actions. Being deaf, he's not listening to anything.

There's an important spiritual paralell here. The dance (outward actions) represents the Christian life, which the music represents the grace of the gospel. Though we have come to know Christ through grace, we are often like the deaf man in the story who tries to perform the dance without hearing the music. Our spiritual life is reduced to a series of dance steps--external behaviors and activities--devoid of God's animating and transforming power. God's desire is not to get us to do the dance but to get us to hear the music of the gospel, with the dance (godly actions, character, and activities) flowing naturally from it...

...We were created to know God--our hearts were made to respond to the music of the gospel. There is nothing more beautiful than a life grcefully responding to the rhythm of the gospel, and there is nothing as painful to watch as someone just imitating dance steps. As we allow Scripture to expose our brokenness and point us to our Savior, it functions as it was intended: as a speaker amplyfying the music of the gospel. And as we communicate the Scripture in a Christ-centered way, others will begin to hear the music as well."

--excerpt taken from an article entitled Music of the Gospel, by Keith Johnson; originally developed as an illustration by Larry Kirk, pastor of Christ Community Church in Daytona Beach, Florida. Want to read the whole article? You can find it here.

Fun in Athens

A couple of weeks later, we spent time at Jim's parents (GG & Da) in Athens. The festivities began with an impromptu birthday party... not 64, but "6" and "4." ANY time of the year is a good time for a party!



















These cute summer dresses were a gift from Aunt Ginny...



















...and the make-your-own-necklaces and the "loop and loom" were a big hit!

















Bedtime storytime with Da & new books... Kevin Henkes' Wimberly's Ice Cream.



















GG and daddy took the girls to the Athens State Fishery... Ellie has always been fascinated by crocodiles (or are these alligators? I can never remember the difference!) There's a wonderfully cute crocodile story by Ronald Dahl called The Enormous Crocodile, if you want to check it out... (I've got children's literature on the brain right now because we are having such FUN at the local library here in Ft. Collins. We can check out up to 100 books at a time-- what a treat! Now back to the crocodiles...)












The funnest part of the fishery is, of course, the fishin' pond. It is a well-stocked lake for little ones, geared at guaranteeing successful fishing, to create life-time fishermen... or women. They had a great time.














GG & I took the girls to the Athens Arboretum. It was a beautiful day!










































































GG doesn't believe me when I tell her we LIKE coming to Athens... (maybe if I put it in print for all to read she will? :) But we DO-- it's a refreshing, away-from-the-city getaway for us with two of our favorite people! Love you GG & Da!