A CHANGED WOMAN!!

  I have probably seen Bethany's video of her meeting her birth mother dozens of times and yet, as I was editing it and putting it together and then watching it as a finished product...each time...tears just streaming down my face! I am not exaggerating. It's just so intimate and beautiful.
  Each time that I watch it, I always take in something new. Like the way that all of our friends are just surrounding us, the way that Joy and the search team leader Thomas started crying, the way that mom introduces Bethany to her birth mother by lightly gesturing and touching her, and how happy Bethany's uncle looked when he realized it was indeed her. He literally pointed and his grin was a mile wide. Every single moment of that was so special and I am so thankful that we had the chance to do that.
  I asked Bethany today what was the one thing she took away from our trip besides meeting her birth mother, and she said she really realized how blessed she is. She said "Today I was talking to grandma telling her how I was hoping that my new cell phone would come before we leave for our youth group trip this weekend. And then I was like 'Really Bethany?! Stop being so spoiled.' There's people in Vietnam with hardly anything"
  My heart swelled.
  I posted all 600 something of my Vietnam pictures on Facebook a couple days ago. For those of you who don't have access to that, I'll post highlights of our trip below and I am going to look and see if there's a way to post an album on here...

The blessing our friend Rachel made to that village was life changing!

 

 

 

The kids after swimming Ha Long Bay! Gorgeous scenery every where you look...

 

 

 

Late night talks and sleeping on the roof of our boat in Ha Long Bay...

 

 

 

Hoi An had a large festival going on and many shops were selling lanterns that illuminated the city

 

 

 

Mom and I caught three crabs in our basket boat fishing adventure!

 

 

 

Fit four girls into a supposed one person cyclo!

 

 

SO MUCH LOVE, SO MANY PICTURES...

If you already saw these pictures on my FB, just scroll down for like...five minutes ;)

 

 

 

 Mom and I on top of Marble Mountain!

There were a lot of 5 hour drives back and forth...

 

baby octopus!

 

 

 

Bella, our tour group leader's daughter

Some of the girls and our tour guide, Chris

 

 

 

  Since we have been home, Bethany and I have both been experiencing pretty bad jet lag. I accidentally start napping in the middle of the day and Bethany despite her greatest efforts fell asleep tonight at 7:00pm and didn't even eat dinner with us because she was so exhausted. I have to give her kudos though, because the day after we returned from Vietnam she volunteered to be a camp counselor helper at our church for this week. Mom also went to work the day after we got home...man I got it easy!

 

 

The whole group on our boat in Ha Long Bay!

 

See you next time!

Blessings!!

Marisa