Let's just pretend that January 28th is not too late to say Happy New Year to you. It is still a relatively new year after all, right? Guys? Please? Whatever. I'm saying it: Happy New Year. :)
Let's also pretend it's not absolutely ridiculous that my last post was about the end of pregnancy and our son is now over seven months old. I am ashamed. New goal for 2015: blog once a month. Will you guys hold me accountable?
But now I'm back. The last several months have been pretty crazy, but we're back. And I have much to catch up on. I'll try to keep this short and sweet and let pictures do the talking. Everyone loves pictures.
I'll categorize:
Family:
Since my last post, our family has grown from a family of two to a family of three. Elliot Akira Sartore was born at 6:05pm on Thursday, June 19, 2014 after a rather horrible labor. You can read all about that {here} if you want. I also ambitiously started a blog just for Elliot you can check out {here} if interested. If you'd just like to hear about Elliot in a nutshell, here you go: He's adorable. He's enormous. He's teething. He's not sleeping through the night at all. He has a cold right now. He is the best thing ever.
p.s. We still have Nala cat, but she's an outside cat. I know. Booted out by the baby. I tell myself she's happier as an outside cat. Haha.
Holidays/travel:
We attempted to renew our visas through our Japanese passports this past summer. It ended up not working out, but we still had a great time in Japan. It was so fun to introduce Elliot to all of our friends and family in Okinawa. We were blown away by how rich we are in relationships across the globe. God has blessed us with some truly amazing friends and family.
As I mentioned above, the Japanese visa thing didn't work out. Kind of a bummer at the time, but it ended up being pretty great. It meant we had to get to the U.S. sooner than we'd expected, which allowed us to spend time with family for the holidays. We were able to spend about six (very busy) weeks in the U.S. during which we visited Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Vermont, Alabama, and Tennessee. Again, we were blown away by how many awesome people we get to call friends and family. It was so good for our souls. Elliot did pretty fantastic in all the traveling (I think we drove over 36 hours through like 12ish states while in the U.S.) and our time in the U.S. flew by. We were able to do Thanksgiving with the Sartore side in Greensboro, and Christmas/New Year with the Rhode side in IL. While in Illinois, Elliot turned six months old so we even had a "half birthday party" so we could celebrate with his grandpa, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Lesson learned: Elliot is not a fan of peaches...
Ministry/Life in Chiang Mai:
We are now back in Thailand, with one-year visas again. Our team leader, Buddy, got an office building that he, Alex, and our teammate Peter are now working out of on a M-F, 9-5-type schedule. I'm mostly staying at home with baby.
Over the last year here, we were working on an art business idea called Stone in Shoe. Things never quite panned out the way we had hoped, so now we are working on other ways to generate revenue online to help fund Stop Slavery. I'll let Alex tell you more about that in a post soon.
While we were in the U.S. we had a lot of time to think about our time in Chiang Mai so far and what we hope for the future. While I wish we could say the last year had been more fruitful than it was, and while I hope that this upcoming year is fruitful, I am reminded time and again that God has not called us to bear fruit. He has called us to be faithful, and He will bear the fruit in His way, His time. Please pray for us as we figure out what God has for us in this next year. With our current visas, we'll have to go back to the U.S. again next year (and every year, should we continue living here) to renew our visas. Unless we can start making money online or are able to raise more support, we won't be able to sustain a life in here Chiang Mai for much longer. Again, please pray that God would make the path that He would have us take known to us and that we would be attentive to His leading.
In the meantime, we are excited to be back in our home, with our community, and to have some sort of a routine again. Whether we end up staying in Thailand for 20 more years or just one, we truly want to make the most of our time here. Please pray that we would be sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit; selfless, generous, and intentional with our time and gifts; and wise as we venture forth as followers of Christ and parents of a little one.
As always, thank you thank you thank for taking the time to read this, to pray for us, to support us, to partner with us, to invest in us. We do not take any of it for granted. Thank you. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested, and if you feel led to partner with us financially, you can click {this secure link} to do so or click the "Donate" tab above.
Prayer Requests:
- continued spiritual growth and development individually and as a family
- continued physical health and wellness
- that we would be sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading
- that the Lord would provide for us financially here or show us what is next for our family
- that we would be a blessing and encouragement to our community here in Thailand
- that we would impact the world around us for the Kingdom of God
Thank you so much again. We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below or shoot us an email!
on behalf of the (three!) Sartores,
Jess
Let's also pretend it's not absolutely ridiculous that my last post was about the end of pregnancy and our son is now over seven months old. I am ashamed. New goal for 2015: blog once a month. Will you guys hold me accountable?
But now I'm back. The last several months have been pretty crazy, but we're back. And I have much to catch up on. I'll try to keep this short and sweet and let pictures do the talking. Everyone loves pictures.
I'll categorize:
Family:
Since my last post, our family has grown from a family of two to a family of three. Elliot Akira Sartore was born at 6:05pm on Thursday, June 19, 2014 after a rather horrible labor. You can read all about that {here} if you want. I also ambitiously started a blog just for Elliot you can check out {here} if interested. If you'd just like to hear about Elliot in a nutshell, here you go: He's adorable. He's enormous. He's teething. He's not sleeping through the night at all. He has a cold right now. He is the best thing ever.
p.s. We still have Nala cat, but she's an outside cat. I know. Booted out by the baby. I tell myself she's happier as an outside cat. Haha.
Holidays/travel:
We attempted to renew our visas through our Japanese passports this past summer. It ended up not working out, but we still had a great time in Japan. It was so fun to introduce Elliot to all of our friends and family in Okinawa. We were blown away by how rich we are in relationships across the globe. God has blessed us with some truly amazing friends and family.
As I mentioned above, the Japanese visa thing didn't work out. Kind of a bummer at the time, but it ended up being pretty great. It meant we had to get to the U.S. sooner than we'd expected, which allowed us to spend time with family for the holidays. We were able to spend about six (very busy) weeks in the U.S. during which we visited Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Vermont, Alabama, and Tennessee. Again, we were blown away by how many awesome people we get to call friends and family. It was so good for our souls. Elliot did pretty fantastic in all the traveling (I think we drove over 36 hours through like 12ish states while in the U.S.) and our time in the U.S. flew by. We were able to do Thanksgiving with the Sartore side in Greensboro, and Christmas/New Year with the Rhode side in IL. While in Illinois, Elliot turned six months old so we even had a "half birthday party" so we could celebrate with his grandpa, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Lesson learned: Elliot is not a fan of peaches...
Ministry/Life in Chiang Mai:
We are now back in Thailand, with one-year visas again. Our team leader, Buddy, got an office building that he, Alex, and our teammate Peter are now working out of on a M-F, 9-5-type schedule. I'm mostly staying at home with baby.
Over the last year here, we were working on an art business idea called Stone in Shoe. Things never quite panned out the way we had hoped, so now we are working on other ways to generate revenue online to help fund Stop Slavery. I'll let Alex tell you more about that in a post soon.
While we were in the U.S. we had a lot of time to think about our time in Chiang Mai so far and what we hope for the future. While I wish we could say the last year had been more fruitful than it was, and while I hope that this upcoming year is fruitful, I am reminded time and again that God has not called us to bear fruit. He has called us to be faithful, and He will bear the fruit in His way, His time. Please pray for us as we figure out what God has for us in this next year. With our current visas, we'll have to go back to the U.S. again next year (and every year, should we continue living here) to renew our visas. Unless we can start making money online or are able to raise more support, we won't be able to sustain a life in here Chiang Mai for much longer. Again, please pray that God would make the path that He would have us take known to us and that we would be attentive to His leading.
In the meantime, we are excited to be back in our home, with our community, and to have some sort of a routine again. Whether we end up staying in Thailand for 20 more years or just one, we truly want to make the most of our time here. Please pray that we would be sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit; selfless, generous, and intentional with our time and gifts; and wise as we venture forth as followers of Christ and parents of a little one.
As always, thank you thank you thank for taking the time to read this, to pray for us, to support us, to partner with us, to invest in us. We do not take any of it for granted. Thank you. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested, and if you feel led to partner with us financially, you can click {this secure link} to do so or click the "Donate" tab above.
Prayer Requests:
- continued spiritual growth and development individually and as a family
- continued physical health and wellness
- that we would be sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading
- that the Lord would provide for us financially here or show us what is next for our family
- that we would be a blessing and encouragement to our community here in Thailand
- that we would impact the world around us for the Kingdom of God
Thank you so much again. We'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below or shoot us an email!
on behalf of the (three!) Sartores,
Jess