Happy Valentines Day

Happy Late Valentines Day to all of my good friends out there. I was going to post some pictures, but my computer is broken right now (the chord stopped working to charge it) so I have to get a new part.. until then I am using Leah’s computer while she is out of town!
So I pray that you guys had a wonderful week and a fabulous Valentine’s day. I spent this year celebrating that I have two old Valentines and one new one: Valentine #1) Jesus, the Lover of my Soul, the one who will never let me go. The one whom every good and perfect gift comes down from, who does not change, Who never leaves or forsakes, who wrote a whole book of love letters that are not just ooshy gooshy but lifechanging, who calls me princess, who is the KING of KINGS, who opened the roses that I bought just for me, who colors the sky and calls it a sunset, who spoke and there was the Himilayan Mountains, who romances me everyday as He sings over me (Zephaniah 3:17), who loves me, gives life to me, forgave me, paid the ultimate price for me.. now that is better then any HallMark Valentines Card promise from a man huh!
Valentine #2) My Earthly Daddy. He sent me the sweetest E-card for Valentines Day. My Daddy always makes me feel like the most beautiful princess of the world. I am so thankful for His love and for who he brought me up to be. He makes me feel special just like my heavenly Father does. He taught me to dance on his feet when I was a little girl, and I still enjoy doing that even today. He tauhgt me that I am a princess of the king! Yes Daddy it is my joy to be your valentine… (and I know there may be some of you reading this who have not have good earthly daddys and for that my heart truly breaks for you.. but as you are reading this think of the men that God has placed in your life to show you His safe love and spend a moment thinking God for them) And Mommy i loved the E-card that you sent me also.. such sweet words. I am so thankful for you and Daddy’s example to me of love and marriage!
Valentine #3: my little budro Alex. He sent me a valentines E-card also.. how amazing.. only six months old and already a genius!

So I did not feel that I needed to dread this holiday because it was my 26 Valentines day as a single girl. Instead I just felt so loved by the King. In fact I got more valentines gifts this week then probablly most people with valentines did. THank you thank you so much to 1)Sandra Rose: those mocha chocholate truffles were to die for, as were the other chocholates, the coffee and I loved the jingly cup 2) Leanne.. you sure do know how to make me feel special and you always seem to know exactly what I need. Everything you sent was AWESOME!! I am especially thanking God today that you sent the Puff’s Kleenex’s.. toilet paper here could be more accurately called Sand paper.. and I have been sick with the Kathmandu crud (passed on as a valentines gift from my team members family upstairs) and I don’t know what my nose would have done without those kleenex’s.. there is a pile at my feet right now 3) the package from open door fellowship .. thank you soo much Ginny and those precious hearst made by the kids just made me feel so loved and special
4) my precious friend that lives upstairs, Margie (who calls her self my ama, mama) bought me a gift certificate for a massage at my favorite Happy Place, the Christian massage place that i got to all the time!
So for a girl without a valentine, I sure was blessed huh! Just the Kings way of loving on me through himself in people bodies!

So how did I celebrate V-day? Well six of my single gal friends from our m:*ss*ionary fellowship came over. We celebrated BIG as we tend to do for holidays. Someone shared their precious peperroni they had gotten in a package, I shared some real cheese (both of these things you cannot get here so it was extra special),and we had real ranch dressing from america: We made yummy calzones and enjoyed eating them and fellowshipping together so much. Then as happens here often, we proceeded to enjoy a candlelight evening, not so much for atmosphere but for necessity for it was our power outage time. I had lots of new candles (thanks soo much for the care package of candles Cindy and all others who contributed, those were soooo needed!) so we had a yummy smell, good atmosphere– our friend Katy got a guitar and we spent the rest of the evening singing Love songs to the lover of our souls. What better way to celebrate. Six single girls without an earthly lover in sight — worshipping the ONE who was the reason we followed Him all the way over here, to try to shine a light in the darkness.
I don’t know if it is because I need Him so much more for survival here, realize that I would have never made it if it were not for His amazing love and GRACE, would have taken the first plane home if He had not stuck to His promise to never leave me or forsake me, but this year I felt more full of His love, more full of joy, more Taken as HIS GIRL then ever. Now that is a reason to celebrate all year long.

So day after v-day what am I doing? I got the crud the rest of our household has had. I came down with a fever/chills in the middle of the night.. woke up feeling like I had been run over.. nose run, cough, flu… yuck! so while we have had power I have been watching a marathon of seventh heaven episodes, wrapped up in my pink robe, wearing my valentines socks, and using those nice soft kleenex. I plan on hunkering down at home until this gets completely out of my system.. if it goes as it did with the folks upstairs.. it’s about a 4 day cold course! wahoo!
pics to come of valentines day soon!