These past few weeks have been filled with changes.

Some good, some bad, but excitingly for us it has meant two teenage boys moving in with us full time! We have welcomed Nakong and Lijoo into our family with open arms, and they will be living and working supervised at the farm while we are in Australia for the next two months. 
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Lijoo is turning 18 tomorrow, and we have known him for the past 7-8 years. He will be continuing his Electricians Degree when the school opens up in June/July and will then live at our house in town during the week. Amazingly his College is about 2 minutes from our house so it works out perfectly. He is a really hard worker, funny, great with Charlotte, we love him to bits and are so excited to be able to support him through the rest of his education. 

Nakong is a 16 year old who has been with us permanent part-time for the past 8 months. Unfortunately he is one of the "invisible" people in Thailand with no proof of identity. So he will live with us until we can get him some ID and then we want to help him get back into schooling. Mind you getting him ID has been verbalised by others as impossible. But we serve a God that is bigger than any ID issues, and would appreciate prayers for him and his sister's ID issues. Nakong has a dream of doing an apprenticeship in construction, and being on the farm has already taught him many new things. This kid is a hot head, hilarious, also great with charlotte, not so much of a good worker yet but he is learning the ropes and we love him as if we were our own. It will be hard to leave him for 2 months, but we are excited to see him grow and learn to take initiative.

I never once thought that my life over here would involve mothering teenage boys. Like not even a slightest mind drift in that direction. Yet here I am buying soccer boots and baking a cake for the birthday boy! I must say hanging with these kids has been some of the best times I've had in Thailand. They have stretched my heart and caused me more heartache in the past few months than I care to admit, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I love it when we have slapping wars, mud fights, sit around the fire drinking tea, work together and talk about God together. It literally brings my heart JOY. Stef  - it makes my HEART SING.

Have you ever really wanted to yell and scream and fight for something so so bad it hurts? Being a very passionate person, a bit of a hot head and loyal I probably experience this feeling more frequently than most. And unfortunately this response doesn’t always work. Ok ill be honest - its rarely to helpful to a situation at all. 
These past 6 months John has been struggling with some depression, and even though I experienced some of the worst days of my life in there- it has taught me so much more. I learned to LOVE and not fight. Normally I run at a situation head on. However I noticed that my response only pushed him away, so I had to change my approach. Don’t get me wrong - I fought tooth and nail - but I fought by forgiving him every day for the things he said. I fought by coming home every day and not running away. I fought by saying ‘I love you’ when all I really wanted to was yell and scream and kick him where the sun don’t shine. I fought by praying with him. I fought by praising him. I fought with LOVE. 
I was so blessed to have others around me during this time. Others to support me, make me laugh, and fill my love tank when it was empty. This time has brought John and I closer to each other and closer to God. Insecurities are fading and the conviction of our eternal inheritance is growing stronger each day. 
I just felt to share this today. I know everyone has their own demons and I just think they are so much easier to fight out in the open. With Jesus and great friends and family - those demons don’t stand a chance. 
God is Good. He loves us and can use all things for His Glory.