Asked of God

We named our son SAMUEL because of the Biblical meaning of the name..."ASKED OF GOD."  (1 Samuel 1:1-20)  We prayed for 9 years 4 months and 18 days for a child and God answered our prayers with a beautiful son.  Samuel is God's child and we desire to raise him to love, worship and serve the Lord (1 Samuel 1:26-28).

Zàijiàn Taiwan

On Tuesday night, April 27th, we said our final goodbye to Chad, Cole, Alicia, Caitlyn and Allyson Edwards.  We were so thankful for them opening their home to us and showing their city to us.  We love you and miss you and look forward to the day we can all go to a Cardinals game together!

 

We flew out of Taiwan on Eva Air at 11:55 PM.  We recommend this airline to anyone traveling to the far east.  

Samuel slept for 9 1/2 hours in this bassinet on the flight to Los Angeles.  

Samuel got his first stamp in his passport on this trip home!  

It was such a special moment to walk out the door of the LAX airport and stand on American soil with our son for the first time.

We were really, really tired.  We had a four hour layover in LAX.  I slept with Samuel on the floor of the airport.

We were thrilled to reach our final leg of the journey home...Dallas/Fort Worth to St. Louis.  

 

 We were greeted by several church family and friends at the St. Louis airport.  They even had a welcome sign for us at our home!  Thank you again to everyone who made this day extra special for us!

 We went for a brief walk around our neighborhood with Samuel and introduced him to some of our neighbors.

To end this tiring, but wonderful day, we had devotions together before going to bed.

We loved our trip to Taiwan and all the experiences that came with it, but like Dorthy said, "There's no place like home...there's no place like home."

A Tremendous Tuesday in Taipei

On April 27th, Jen Jen and Janet took us to some more sights in Taipei.  First stop was a delicious lunch at Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ.  Samuel enjoyed his first taxi ride to the restaurant.

After enjoying great food and fellowship, we took another taxi to the National Palace Museum in Taipei.  http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/home.htm

Samuel enjoyed a free stroller ride through the crowded museum.  I think the tourists in the museum spent more time observing Samuel instead of the beautiful jade, ivory and wood carvings.

After the museum, we took another taxi to the Miramar Ferris Wheel in Taiwan.  We enjoyed a 25 minute ride seeing the great city of Taipei from above. 

Samuel enjoyed his first merry-go-round ride with Mommy and Jen Jen here, too.

This was a fun-filled, action-packed day.  It sure did wear our little boy out.  He fell asleep in his Mommy's arms walking through the Subway to our train ride back to the apartment.

At the apartment, we said our final goodbyes to our great friends, Jen Jen and Janet.  We love you both.  We miss you!  Thank you for all the love you gave to Samuel these last eight months and for everything you did to make our trip to the great country of Taiwan extra special! 

Bittersweet

Today was a bittersweet day.  We had to say goodbye to some of the most wonderful Christians that we have met, Ted and Bev Skiles. 

 We love them very much.  We are very thankful for them and their staff pouring the love of Jesus into our son these last eight months.  We miss them already and will never forget them.  Thank you Shr Baba and Shr Mama for everything! 

We arrived to Chad and Alicia Edwards home in Taipei.  They are church planing missionaries in Taipei.  They are from the St. Louis area so there was an instant connection.  They are a wonderful family doing great work for Jesus in Taiwan!

Chad and Alicia took us to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

We went all the way to the top in the world's fastest elevator and thoroughly enjoyed breathtaking views of Taipei.

Afterward, they took us to Lung-Shan Temple.  It was extremely sad seeing so many people worshipping and praying to dead gods made of stone, clay, and wood.  We praised the Lord for His grace in enabling us to see the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As we walked through the temple, I proclaimed out loud Philippians 2:5-11 and Acts 17:24.  (We left Samuel outside the temple with Jen Jen and Janet.  We did not want to expose his eyes to this spiritual blindness.)

We then proceeded to the CKS Memorial and watched the changing of the guard.

We enjoyed spending some quality time in the courtyard with Samuel and our friends.

At night, Steven, Janet and Jen Jen treated us to some delicious Chinese food in Taipei.

We dearly miss our loved ones back at the Home of God's Love, but we really enjoyed our time with friends in Taipei.  We're so glad to be a part of the family of God!  Thank you, Lord for saving our souls!

Our Final Days at The Home

On Saturday and Sunday we just hung around the Home and enjoyed our time with Samuel and friends.  It was very hard to say goodbye to a dear friend and sister in Christ, Showhwa.  She poured her life into our son for the last 8 months.  We love her so much!  We will never forget her.  

After Showhwa left we spent some time playing together inside and outside the Home.

Mommy did a good job coordinating our outfits for a nice family picture on the porch swing.

At night, I was able to play guitar and lead the English speaking volunteers in worship.  We sang "Forever," "Blessed Be Your Name," "Take My Life," "Revelation Song" and "How Great is our God."

I also was given the privilege of preaching a message from Isaiah 45 on the sovereignty of God.  I shared with them about our 9 (+) year journey to Samuel from a miscarriage to infertility to adoption.  I told them of three truths about God that we clung to and found our hope and strength in. 
1.  God is in control!
2.  God is in control of all!
     A.  People
     B.  Time
     C.  Peace and Calamity
     D.  Creation
3. God is in control of all for His glory!

On Sunday morning, we joined the older children and Taiwanese workers for church.  This was our first church service together as a family.  A very special moment for us! 

We sang great hymns of the faith with them.  Samuel especially liked "Onward Christian Soldiers."  He about ripped that song out of the hymnal to enjoy!  :)

I was able to preach to them the same message I preached to the English speaking volunteers.  Ted translated for me.

After church, we took a walk to the lake where Daddy and Samuel enjoyed watching some ducks and fish up close! 

Our First Date as Parents

On Friday, April 23, Ted took us to Taroko Gorge, one of the seven wonders in Asia.

 It was a full day of sight seeing so we left Samuel back at the Home.  This trip would have worn him out and thrown him off schedule.  We took an hour train ride to Hualien. 

It was such a pretty ride.  We saw the Pacific Ocean on our trip.

When we arrived, Ted picked us up some lunch.  The fruit here is out-of-this-world.  We will definitely miss it!

Ted showed us a church that began inside a cave.

 During WWII, the believers invited the mountain people inside this cave to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.  These believers suffered severe persecution, yet the church grew.  Here is what their building looks like now.

Ted took us to the Eternal Spring Shrine in Taroko Gorge for lunch.  What a beautiful backdrop for us to enjoy a great meal.

After lunch, Ted drove us 10 miles through God's incredible creation.  Here are a few pictures that do not do justice to what our eyes enjoyed.

Our trip through the Gorge ended at Tien-Hsiang.  Ted took us to a church building that has an adjoining hostel that his family used for their family vacations.  The flowers there were beautiful!

 We truly enjoyed our date.  We often thought of the verse Psalm 8:4, "What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?"  This was a great day, but we aren't going to lie...we were excited to get back on the train and hurry to the Home to see our son!