Here is the engagement picture!!

There it is...

our engagement picture!!

AND THAT'S ALL YOU'RE GONNA GET!!!

Come September 20th to the wedding (invitations to come) to see more!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

just to clear a few things up...

Yesterday was the single most amazing day of my life...I was supposed to have a fancy dinner with friends, but it ended up being the night that the man of my dreams, one, JASON ROHMAN of Woodland Park, Co, walked up behind me and changed my life.  I turned around from an intentional distraction of local friends (the Mitchells and Lyndy) to see him walking up to me looking debonair and dead sexy in a khaki colored suit with the biggest grin on his face.  I wasn't sure what to do, so as most of you will see in the video, I didn't do anything but looked quite dumbfounded.  I stared at him as I tried to process many things at once...wait, this is Hawaii...Jason said one day he'd come, but not today...and he's supposed to meet me at the airport in Denver...and what is he doing here?? Realizing my friends knew all about it with their video cameras trained on me...

He walks up, hugs me, tells me, "God has done some amazing things in my heart.  I love you and want to marry you.  Will you marry me?" And gets down on one knee to give me the ring...it is then that I realize what is happening to me and I say, "Hold on a sec, let me put down my purse and my camera...HEY IS SOMEONE VIDEOTAPING THIS??? AM I ON SOME TV SHOW??? THIS IS CRAZY!!!"  Then realize I haven't answered him yet, and yell out, "YES YES YES YES I will marry you...that's all I've ever wante

d."  As he gets up and I put on the most beautiful ring ever (pics will be coming), the staff at the restaurant nearby start clapping, people are poking each other...it was the most romantic moment of my lifetime...followed by very little dinner as we just wanted to hold hands and talk...and then walking on the beach and some dancing and some smooching!!!

HAHA!!! I'M ENGAGED!!!  OH HOW GOOD THE LORD IS TO THOSE WHO WAIT!!!

This is us at my 30th birthday...he doesn't have a long beard now and my hair isn't black anymore...I have engagement pics that I will send out very soon...with ring pics and everything...

Oh and for the important details...

1. we're getting married on Sept. 20th - all plans are in progress...

2. we're going to live in Woodland Park

3. we will be amazingly happy as both of us have waited patiently for the best and it has come!!!

4. as soon as i know more, i might tell you...or i might just let you find out on the 20th!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Two days left...

With only about two days left here in Chiang Rai before heading out on an overnight bus to Bangkok with my friend, Jessica, almost every bit of time is scheduled with friends...last dinners, last times shopping at the night bazaar, last coffees, last...and the list goes on.  I, though absolutely hating goodbyes, am so SO CONFIDENT in what is to come that it makes the saying goodbyes easier to know that I'm about to say hello to some really uber sweet stuff and that what is about to come into my life is much bigger and better than anything I could even imagine!

From friends and some sweet goodbye prayer times, a few scriptures have been passed onto me from the Lord and they are pretty specific (in my opinion) and inspiring.  Here they are...starting with Proverbs 25:2 - It is God's privilege to conceal things and the King's privilege to discover them.  This scripture has so pushed me into the Lord's presence as I "wait and see" what He has planned next for me.  All I've gotten from Him is "Wait and See," so when you ask me what I'm doing next, that might be the only answer I can give you.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (From The Message): "Seize life!  Eat bread with gusto, drink wine with a robust heart.  Oh yes--God takes pleasure in your pleasure!  Dress festively every morning.  Don't skimp on colors and scarves.  Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precarious life.  Each day is God's gift.  It's all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive.  Make the most of each one!  Whatever turns up, grab it and do it.  And heartily!  This is your last and only chance at it!  For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think in the company of the dead, where you're most certainly headed."  This is so the way I've been created to live life and it helps me embrace what I see as sometimes the "ridiculous" in myself.  More than that, it speaks to me of Him providing what I need to do and the way I need to live.  No whackers!!  No worries!!

Jeremiah 17: 6-7 (from The Message): "Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight.  He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth.  he lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows.  But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the WOMAN WHO STICKS WITH GOD!!!  They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers--Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season."  OH SO MUCH!!!  I'm learning simplicity, which is my word for my time here and might be a new tattoo on my right wrist when I return home.

All that to say...God is preparing me for the return home fully loaded and overwhelmed and I CANNOT WAIT!!!  I'm in awe at the moment to moment provision as I pray, He moves...He's way too good for me!!  I already have a family who has offered me a room to live in for awhile, which is in town so I can ride my bike everywhere until it starts snowing and possibly even after that.  I have a part time job at Starbucks lined up for when I return.  I have some pretty sweet passions and also some specific words about what comes next, but in the waiting and seeing to see how it all comes together.

On how you can pray for me in this transition and re-entry time:

1.  From what I've heard the debriefing time is difficult after a long term missionary stint and hard for one re-entering their own culture...so grace and peace in the process and the ability to hold tightly onto the hand of the Father as I walk through this with Him.  I will have some sweet time in Honolulu, Hawaii with some missionary friends from Texas and some YWAM girls that came for their DTS here.  So sweet of the Lord to connect us and send me there on the way home before diving headfirst into the whirlwind and much anticipated family and friend time in Texas and then home to Colorado.

2.  I covet your prayers for my foot, which is full on infected as a result of pulling a gate over it and wounding it pretty severely.  I have pictures if you want to see them.  I went to the hospital today and have bigtime serious antibiotics and some oozy stuff for the outside to keep it clean whilst traveling and on airplanes and in airports and on overnight buses.

3.  I am also currently sick with stomach issues of some sort whether from food poisoning or from some bad chicken...intestinal cramps and Montezuma's revenge...it is brutal and tough and I'm just exhausted from a week of ending school and saying goodbyes.  Doesn't take much to bring out the tears!!  Especially being sick...

4.  For all the details to be taken care of in the transition time and return...money, mattress, bookshelf, car/motorbike, all those little things but things that nonetheless the Lord has promised to provide.  I am confident as I already have a place to live!!  

If you feel led to help with traveling and/or transition costs, you can send the support to: 

Joy to the World Foundation

4570 Hilton Parkway, Suite 203

Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Iam4Thai - project name

I love you!  I cannot wait to see you and catch up with each and every one of you!!

Two days left...