Gladys Aylward - Missionary to China

The girls and I just finished reading the most amazing book about Gladys Aylward. I had actually never even heard of her before, but wow, what a story. I would highly recommend this book to any adult. I read it out loud to the girls, but there were a few parts I had to skip over or reword - a few violent war scenes and beheadings. The story of how God miraculously provided for Gladys so that his name could be proclaimed in very remote parts of China is very foreign to modern people who are so self reliant. Her obedience to stay in the midst of danger because of her love for God and the people sounds foolish to modern day Americans. This is an amazing story of God's sovereignty and Gladys' willingness to suffer harm for the sake of making the name of Jesus known among the people of China.

I won't give the story away, I hope you'll read it yourself. There are several books about her. We read Gladys Aylward The Adventure of a Lifetime by Janet and Geoff Benge. I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it. You can also google search her and get little short paragraphs about her life.

This is what I came home to on Friday night

Friday night the girls spent the night with Nanny and Pops. I had been working at Loop De Lou and I was going to drive home and pick up Ronnie, so we could do some shopping. I was running late and Ronnie was waiting for me on the porch swing. I was going to just stay in the car, but he went in the house to turn off the lights and didn't come back for a few minutes, so I thought I would go in and grab an extra jacket. When I walked in the house I was so surprised - candlelight, a beautifully set table and music. Ronnie walked me to the table and made me sit down while he served me the most wonderful dinner (and he did eventually eat with me after everything was brought to the table). We had salad, rolls and chicken and rice soup from Dumplins, finished off with a piece of pumpkin cheesecake. It was great! The best part was just the surprise and to know that he planned something special for me. He is the best. I keep telling him, he should write a book.

What a Fun Weekend!

This weekend was so much fun. Here is how it went down. Thursday was Lilly's playschool halloween party. Even though she had a brand new tinkerbell dress (with all the accessories), she wanted to be Alice in Wonderland (which is what she was last year). So, I let her dress up like Alice and we saved Tinkerbell for halloween. She was adorable and had so much fun at her party. Friday Parker lost her fourth tooth (when Chloe punched her in the mouth). It was hanging by a thread and needed to come out anyway. Then we all got dressed up and went over to the Pflasterers for fun snacks and trick-or-treating. I wish I had taken a picture of the snacks because they were awesome - punch with a floating ice hand, monster mash and lots of other fun goodies. The kids loved dressing up and being with their friends - and the candy! We also trick-or-treated Nanny and Pops who loaded us up for the next year on chocolate. Then Saturday the girls got to spend the evening with their sweet friends Braden and Ella Catherine, which was a special treat for Parker and Chloe because they haven't seen Braden in quite a while. They really enjoyed it. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend. Here are some pictures from all the fun.