More Answers

Time for round two of Q&A. There's still one more question that I was asked that I haven't answered yet... it's a big one, so I wanted to take some time to thoughtfully reply. The rest of the questions should be answered... if you asked something and haven't seen an answer yet, let me know! I wasn't avoiding ANY of the questions, so if I didn't answer, I must have overlooked it. So, without further ado... here are some more windows into our life.

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Other than seeing family and friends, what are you most looking forward to on your trip home?

Target and Costco.  Texas BBQ.  Camping.  Driving a car.  Mexican food.  Not finding the simplest tasks to be confusing and convoluted.  But mostly... seeing family and friends.  :) It's funny, the list of things we crave gets shorter and shorter the longer we live here.

What's the recipe for the scones you make?

They are really good, though definitely not good for you.  Here you go:

Scones

Mix following dry ingredients:

2 C. All-Purpose Flour

1/3 C. Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Cut 1/2 Cup of softened (not melted) butter into dry ingredients with fork (you should do this until the butter is thoroughly mixed with the flour, forming tiny "pebbles.")  Add 1.5 C. (less 2 Tblspoons) of heavy cream.  Mix well (knead a bit).

Roll out to 3/4 inch thick.  Try not to overhandle the dough.  Cut into desired sizes and brush with remaining cream and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

Bake at 375 until just turning golden... in our "easy bake oven," that's about 10-15 mins... but it could be much faster in a normal oven.  Don't overbake!  Better to underbake than to overbake.

During your quiet time do you feel He "speaks to you" about witnessing to certain people in your lives and do you spend time praying with the kids?

There have been occasional circumstances and instances when we have a specific burden for a specific person.  We try to act on those.  But more often than not, we just feel a conviction to live in love towards everyone we meet, knowing that love speaks louder than anything we could say.  We always answer questions truthfully and as thoroughly as we can, and if an opportunity arises to speak into someone's life, we do try to take it, but we don't aggressively try to open up doors for conversations about spiritual matters.  

As for the kids... of course we pray for them. (We pray for lots of people!)  But we do not pray with them.  We must respect and obey the local authorities in this matter or we will get shut down and the children would get sent back to their orphanages, and to respect the authorities means not exposing the children to religious teachings of any kind.  Some might look at this situation and say that by obeying this request, we aren't being "bold."  I disagree.  It takes a lot more faith and trust to believe that God works in all situations regardless of whether or not we're "doing" something.  And, I'll say it again... love speaks louder than whatever we could say, and love points people to the Father.  1 John 4:7-21