Three Cups of Tea

Since that fun day our family has been busy - maybe too busy. Over the last week my body told me it was through! I crashed this week and finally on Thursday I intentionally slowed down, stopped answering the phone, left my computer behind and picked up a good book. And wouldn't you know it - the Lord had a plan to show me something in those sweet pages.

I've been reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book is about one of the author's - Mortenson - who was a mountain climber that ended up in a remote Muslim "town" of Pakistan, called Korphe, due to a failed attempt to climb K2. Mortenson promises the native, Muslim people who took such great care of him that he would come back and build a school. He indeed does that and so much more, but not without tremendous effort and time. I do not know if Mortenson is a believer (though I haven't finished the book, so maybe I'll be surprised by the end). But God has used so much of Mortenson's story to speak to my heart about our time with the Somali people.

As I read this book I was gently reminded by Jesus to stop making my own plans and follow his lead in simply building relationships with people.

In "Three Cups of Tea" it takes Mortenson several years to get the first school built. There are many reasons, but mainly the people were slow by American standards in getting the project done. When Mortenson tries to control the situation and push the people to finish the school, the main elder (Haji Ali) pulls Mortenson aside and says, "If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. ... The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time."

Greg Mortenson goes on to say, "That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills...Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

Mortenson HAD spent time getting to know the people. The project to build the school was taking years longer than expected. He probably had hundreds of cups of tea. But somehow, the community still wanted more relationship from him than service.

Mortenson came to the people of Korphe and won their hearts because he loved them and let them teach him. Obviously, in the end, they need more than our love, but I believe our love will lead to the "more". Let love lead! When questions about Jesus or our faith come up we don't hesitate to answer and teach - but we need to remember that when the questions do not come it is okay to let them teach us. I think if we're all honest with ourselves - that takes more humility and change of thinking than we want to admit.

Here are some other family fun details in pics:

Libby and Daddy on Fiesta Parade Day: Libby is turning into a jokester - every time I counted to 3 to take this picture she would do a funny face. I was lucky to get this smile rather than eyes rolled back into her head with gaping mouth!

Libby with her class at the parade with crazy hats and shakers (turned into drums for Libby).

A few of Libby's Chinese friends met for breakfast. The moms behind me must have been making some crazy noises and faces bc each of the girls' faces is saying, (with teenage sass and a valley girl accent, of course) "Oh-My-Gosh... that is NOT my mom acting that way in public. How embarassing."

Foote and Martine girls are so cute together!

So - I'll have to explain this one: Libby loves to get into mommy's bathroom drawer. She gets spanked every time, but still she plunders. The other day I noticed it was quiet so I went to my bathroom to see if she was there. Sure enough, she was. But I could hide my laughter. Libby discovered mascara in my drawer (which I didn't know was there!) and she even knew where to put it - well, kinda.

Libby picked out one of her Chinese dresses to wear to a dinner party. Isn't she a doll!!

The other thing Libby finds in momma's bathroom drawer is floss - and she loves to suck on it. Is that weird?

We had a family day at the zoo last week. Libby discovered butterflies in the rare butterfly exhibit. She enjoyed blowing on them to see them fly.

In adoption news - no news. Just waiting on the I-171H. Visit www.adoptingaria.blogspot.com to follow the journey.

Love and Blessings,

Cindy

Liberty Kingdom and God's Kingdom

Libby has a new kingdom - one made of wood, sand and swings! Her daddy spent all day Tuesday building the new swing set with a friend - Steve the Fireman! After a little heat exhaustion and a day's rest we added sand, a chalk board, a Dora chair and a play sword (for Princess Libby to defend her kingdom, of course! - see above pic: Libby wards off bad bald man with her terrible swift sword!). She is smitten, let me tell you! We will be spending some hot afternoons in the backyard from now on! Hopefully some neighborhood kids like Mridula and Mahira can come over for some swing set fun! Grammy and Papa Boots gave us a significant gift card to help pay for "Libby's World". Thank you Grammy and Papa Boots!!!! You're the best!! Oh, and we hung the red swing for little Aria. Can't wait to see both the girls defending their fort and laughing as they swing side by side!





In other news... Daddy and Libby have begun a REAL garage band! Look how serious Libby is about it! Attention mommy and daddy - this may not be a fad.... this may be a real life-time hobby/career!


Libby and her friend, Taylor, had a blast at the San Antonio Children's Museum recently. They could have stayed all day! But truly - it was mommy Cindy and mommy Jenny (a.k.a. Sassy Puppeteers) who were having the most fun!

Libby's way into talking on the phone these days. Yesterday she was wearing a cute sundress with her hair up in one ponytail on top of her head. She was chewing gum (which she LOVES to do) while I tried on some clothes in the Old Navy dressing room. Billy called my cell and Libby wanted to talk. So when it was time to leave the dressing area - out comes cute Libby smacking away as she tells daddy about her day at school and asks him if he's been fishing. Everyone in the store was enjoying that sweet moment.
Libby also loves dogs. Libby's new friend, Lily has two dogs and Libby (not understanding the concept of dogs "fetching" the ball) kept pelting the poor things with the rubber toy. Libby may look all girl - but there is a serious tom-boy in there with a great throwing arm, I might add.

We are finishing up work on a 5 song worship CD. Next week, Kevin will begin the final stages of mixing and then it's off for mastering, printing, etc. We'll let you know when it's ready!



There is a Kingdom that will never pass away. Liberty Kingdom will rot and fall. But the Kingdom of God is victorious and eternal. Picture Jesus in Libby's place (from the top photo in this post). There he stands firm fighting for you and every other helpless soul. What will you do... ignore his authority and commands? That would not be the right response of an otherwise dead person being defended by the highest authority in the land. And now picture eternity - in that eternity there will be some who were the least but have been made the greatest. And some who were the greatest who have been made the least. It is a Kingdom that turns our own upside down, isn't it? May all our own kingdoms fall as we raise the banner high for the only One that fights for us and gives life!


Love,
Cindy

Libbyisms

Queen of the Jungle LOVES chewing gum. In this pic she is chomping away as she plays in the airport.

Rise and Shine - It's Easter Sunday! (in a hotel in Villa Rica, GA)

Libby's Easter Attire (the backpack was necessary for happy times!)


Elissa smiles beautifully as she holds Lily and embraces family just moments after landing in San Antonio - after more than 22 hours of travel from China. Elissa - how did you look so beautiful after such a long trip?

Precious Lily! Welcome Home!


We still LOVE American Idol!


Our Sweet Princess!


Just a lovely day on the front porch!


Libby is quite the talker these days. Here are some cute examples:

1. The other day I said to Billy - "Baby, can you help me with this?", to which Libby replied (with some sass), "No momma, his NAME is DADDY!"

2. Libby has learned some sweet words from her daddy's overprotection - so Libby is always telling us to "be careful" about something. If Billy is in the car driving away she'll say, "Be careful in car, daddy. Be careful run errands." After putting her to bed one night she said, "be careful on stairs mommy, be careful watching Amicky Idol."

3. After putting Libby to bed one night I went downstairs and started talking with our company. Libby called out so I went to check on her and she said, "I hear momma." I said, "Do you want me to shut the door?" "No momma." "Well, I'll try to be quiet," I said and then I went on to say some other things. Libby interrupted and said, "Don't calk to Libby, momma. Libby sleeping."

4. Libby is really serious about prayer. She wants to pray before each meal (and several times throughout mealtime). She puts her hands together, squints her eyes, furrows her brow very seriously and rocks back and forth while she prays. Sometimes it's short, sometimes not but every prayer includes, "thank you for help mommy sing, and daddy play guitar and Kevin play drums and hymbals (cymbals) and Isaac have good day. Amen"

In other news, Kyle and Elissa made it home safely! And their sweet Lily is even more precious in person!


We've been in the studio and we continue to work on a short but rich 5 song CD which we hope to have finished and available by the end of May.

Oh - I finished Libby's lifebook and I love how it turned out. And lastly - we updated our Ethiopia adoption blog with info about our paperchase. You can check it out at: http://www.adoptingaria.blogspot.com/

Gotta go, it's getting late.

In Christ,
Cindy

Chinese Girl Band

Libby and Maliah had a play date and they rocked it out!

Here's to Xuwen Sisterhood!

Our Friends, Kyle and Elissa Harrell Finally Received Their Baby Girl!!!

Announcing The Harrell Family Gotcha Day! Kyle and Elissa Harrell (after 3 years of paper work and waiting) finally have baby Lily in their arms!!!!! Elissa is a fabulous writer and has done a great job of detailing their journey in China. If you want to follow their story go to:

http://www.theharrells.blogspot.com. Enjoy! Isn't Lily so beautiful and precious!! She's 15 months old and entirely precious!

Carissa's Health

Thank you all for your prayers today. As the day progressed I found out the Carissa's vision was blurry while the tingling and numbness spread to her face and arms. Since she had a small black out last week and she had a splitting headache with the blurry vision and numbness they felt it was enough of a problem to have the ER run some tests.

Kelly, my brother, just called and said the doctors could not find anything wrong and she was fine to go home. While that is good news and I praise the Lord that she is feeling better, I am still concerned about what happened today. Since high blood pressure runs in Carissa's family and Carissa's blood pressure was high when she arrived at the hospital the doctor said that it's possible she had a very small stroke, but nothing showed on the MRI. Carissa has several mystery things going on with her health and we just need to be praying for her protection and for some answers.

Having said that, both Kelly and Carissa feel like everything is okay for now and they are just happy to be headed home. They are also grateful for your prayers!

Some good news for the day - Kelly has accepted a job at East Cooper Baptist Church in Chas, SC where he will be one of the contemporary worship leaders. He is part time now and will go full time in August. This is a praise as he has been longing to get out of his retail job and go back to leading worship in a local church. I know he is relieved to return to his passion.

Also great news - my brother-in-law, Jason has a new job as well. He had been laid off from his last job due to the real estate slow down. But he is happy to have a great job offer now. Pray for him to feel a peace and comfort as he learns the ropes of this new job. I know he is a little concerned about how much he will have to learn. But I also know - He CAN do it!!

Thanks again for all the prayers over all these matters! The Lord is good to us!!!

Cindy Foote

EMERGENCY Prayer Request!!!!!!

My brother, Kelly Graham, is married to a beautiful young woman of God named Carissa. Carissa has had some episodes of passing out over the last 2 years, but they have not happened in a while. At the same time, Carissa has been struggling with some abdominal pain that doctors have been trying to figure out. Today Carissa had a terrible headache and then her arm and face went numb. There is concern that this is either a blood clot issue or a stroke. Please be in prayer for her as she is being taken to the hospital right now - 2pm central time.

Please be lifting up Carissa's healing and Kelly's heart and mind as the enemy is certain to use this opportunity to fill him with fear.

I will keep you posted as I find out more. Just PLEASE PRAY!!!

Cindy Foote