life as of late.....

has been so hectic....but in a good way. In the past couple months I have been graced by some amazing visitors coming to visit here..... It's been so refreshing being able to catch up and see them and here what's going on in their lives. Over my 31 years I have had the chance to meet some pretty amazing people and build some really precious relationships. You all know who you are. ;) The first people who came to Thailand are some good friends from Spokane who I was in a small group with (Bryan and Kalya Bogue). They are an amazing couple who have a heart for the thai culture and people group. We have always shared this passion together and they have been some of the most amazing people in my life as far as being an advocate for me in my church in Spokane, Wa. Thank you guys! I got to go visit them while they were in Chiang Mai, a city that's about 3 hours south of Chiang Rai. I had a really nice visit with them and then a month later they came to see me in Chiang Rai. We had fun visiting all of the coffee shops around Chiang Rai and eating lots of yummy food! Here's some photos of my time with them.

Bryan, Josh, Me and Kalya

Bryan and Kalya.... amazing friends to me! 

I was able to go visit Bryan and Kalya before they headed back home to Spokane. Bryan was teaching at a private university in Chiang Mai, for a few months, called Payup University. He taught some Jazz music classes. Over the weekend I visited his class put on a small jazz concert. It was amazing! I loved it! It was so fun to see what Bryan had been doing during their time here. I felt very honored to be there to share this with them. Thanks you guys! Here's another photo from the show.... 

Here is Bryan and Kalya on their motor bike.... living the Thai life!

Sweet Sufjan Wilcox

Next were some good friends of mine who came with a special little pressie for me..... This is Luke and Pen and their precious little girl Sufjan. When I went to visit them back in November/December Pennie was ready to pop with this little girl inside her. I got to meet her and she is a joy! I had so much fun playing with her and laughing with her that I was so sad to say good bye.... 

Here's her parents... They are amazing parents at that. I am so proud of them. They are thriving on being parents and I see so much growth! It inspires me! They inspire me! I'm so blessed by each one of them! Thank you guys for sharing life with me! I love you guys! 

Morrow family at the waterfall!

The next group to come were the Morrows. They are good family friends of mine. I used to take care of their kids when I was going to school. They are an amazing family and have always fully supported me in doing what I'm doing here. I am so very grateful for them. I feel so honored that they came to visit me here. They came with their daughter Whitney (13), son Seth (10) and niece Hope (16). We did some community work in the hospital and they did so much work around Baan Nam Jai! They worked so hard every day! I was so proud of them and they represented me well and got so much accomplished every day! We went elephant riding, shopping, had lots of eating adventures. They had fun playing soccer with the kids at Baan Nam Jai. We also were able to take some of them swimming one of the days. Thank you guys so much for coming! I had a blast and was so blessed by you guys! Love you so much! I hope the memories of your time here will last forever! 

Hope, Whit, me, Seth, Corrine, and Troy

water fight with the kids!

The last set of visitors were my old house mates Mike and Bec. They came during the busyness of all of these other visitors here however we managed to have some really good times together. We had a fun night of eating moogata all together!  It was so good to see them! I was glad I was able to get to see them as well! I felt very blessed and so full of joy to have my worlds collide all into a month!

bec, mike, ae, susie, kak, esther and sarah

amazing dinner at P'Narongs

So that's pretty much it for the visitors part....it's 2 am and I think I should get to bed now....but I will be back shortly to finish telling what's going on with me over here....there's lots more to tell ;) I hope you enjoyed the photos and update so far. Sorry that it's been so long since I have updated this. I have been super busy as you see! I hope this finds all of you doing well. I am missing you all....I can't wait to come back to Wa to see some of you! I will be coming home in December for the Christmas holidays. I will keep you all posted on dates very very soon. Take care and enjoy.....