Cute Gappy Trey

Sunday night ended up being a big night at the Evans House! We were sitting around the overstuffed table with family and friends eating spaghetti & meatballs...and Trey's favorite...garlic bread. The next thing I know I hear Trey say, "MOM!! My tooth is coming out!!" At first he was a little startled by the whole experience. It probably didn't help that he had at least 8 pairs of eyes staring at him, all waiting for the "big event"! Because being the center of attention makes Trey extremely nervous, he and I excused ourselves to the bathroom. By that time he thought all the blood was cool! :) I was getting my "tool" ready (my mom always used a washcloth to pull our teeth), when I heard Trey say, "Look mom!! It's out!!" All he had to do was push a little with his tongue and that cute little baby tooth came right out. I guess it was ready! I know Trey was WAY ready!

He made SURE I took some pictures and immediately asked if I was going to post them on Facebook. He told me, "This is a big deal! Everyone needs to know I lost my 1st tooth!"

HA! Kids these days! :)

Did I mention he was EXCITED and PROUD?!?!

Hope in the Darkness

Of all the things I saw while in Cambodia, the hope in the darkness shone the brightest.

The village of Svay Pak in this video is where we spent the majority of our time. These are the streets we walked. These are the buildings we entered. These are the kids we played with. These are the warriors we walked arm in arm with. Their story became my story. Our lives intertwined and I will never be the same.

Hope In The Darkness-Exclusive Trailer from J.E. Video on Vimeo.

In 2005, Don and Bridgette Brewster sold their house, belongings, and left their kids and grandchildren to aid in the fight against child sex trafficking. They moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia "a pedophiles paradise", to started a center for girls who have been rescued from the trafficking industry.

The Agape Restoration Center specializes in not just restoring physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, but re-integrating the girls back into the society to make a positive impact on the culture. In the process of re-integration, a small village named Svay Pak (or "K-11") was found to be the epicenter of child sex slavery in Cambodia.

Without a sure hope of re-integration back into Svay Pak, it became clear that girls weren't the only ones who needed rescuing, but communities as well. The only way to make a dent in trafficking in Cambodia is to change communities as well as lives, and the transformation process is identical... from the inside out.

"Hope in the Darkness"

Coming 2011

On His Way...

My best friend, Amanda, is in labor!! In Austin!! It is KILLING me that I can't be there to cheer her on and love on her other 3 fabulous kiddos!! Come on, Baby Jude!! Aunt Kelly Ann can't wait to meet you!!

My Boy is 8!!

I CANNOT believe I am a mom to an 8 year old!! It feels like yesterday I was swaddling him and rocking him to sleep. Sometimes, on a rare day, Trey will curl up in my arms and ask me to tell him all about when he was born and what he was like as a baby. I LOVE those days! I cherish those days! Walk down memory lane with me:

We lived in St. Louis when we got pregnant with Trey. We were youth pastors (on a tight budget :)) so one of our youth girls offered to take some pregnancy pictures for us.

Here I am, 9 months pregnant! Later that afternoon, we met some friends at a local pumpkin patch. I have a picture of Alf pushing me around in a wheelbarrow. My belly fit right in! Trey was born 1 week later!

Alf was feeling left out, so he thought he needed a belly pic too! :)

The boys showed up with gifts!! We had Mountain Dew flowing like a river in our hospital room!! And of course, Trey received his first set of jumper cables from Uncle Matt.

Baby Trey, one day old.

He is being held by an old co-worker, Joni. I had two co-workers claim to be grandmothers so they could get past the nurses. It worked!

I was SO blessed by all the visitors!

Who can resist baby feet?

Our first family portrait!

We have LOTS of sleeping pictures!

Trey - my big 2 year old!

Trey - my big 2nd Grader!

Trey was born on Halloween night, so we always have a great time! Up until a few years ago, he thought all the festivals, costumes and trick-or-treating were all for him! We spent this weekend celebrating with family and close friends. Trey is such a blessing! My life is forever changed for the better. He makes me want to be better.

I Need Words

I love this song by David Crowder! It has been my heart's cry at very specific times in my life.

I remember laying in bed on a spring afternoon in April 2005 with tears streaming down my face crying out to God. Loving Him and hating Him all at the same time. Hearing this song being sung by my husband on his guitar somehow brought some peace to me as it permeated through our walls. A few days earlier we had lost our second child through miscarriage. This second pregnancy was a "surprise" to us, but not to God. Through this pain and loss, Alf and I became closer. Through this anger and confusion, we came into a deepness with God like no other time before.

I find myself in this place again, but in different circumstances. I've been home from Cambodia for 1 week now. My heart is still there. A part of me wants to grab my husband, my kids, pack a few bags and head back to the airport. I don't have any words yet. I need God to give me the words to tell His redemptive story of Cambodia. I am pressing into Him and relying on His unwavering character to carry me through this time.

He is alive! He is active! He is there in the midst of the darkest darkness.

I don't have the words...yet. I know they will come. Until then, you get music that interprets my heart! :)

Cambodia Bound

Our plane heads out at noon today! It is finally here! Below you will find the church blog address where we as a team will be posted updates and specific prayer needs. Talk to you soon!

121 Community Church Mission Blog

Golden Goodness

The Chronicles of Narnia movies are some of our favorites around here. We've seen each one numerous times, sometimes daily! :) The kids enjoy the story, the characters and the animals. Alf and I enjoy those things too, however, we are in love with the story of Jesus Christ (as Aslan the Lion) that is told through each one.

Once we decided to homeschool, I KNEW these books were first on our reading list! We are on book 2 of 6 right now. Trey and I are enjoying reading through these together. He is always quick to point out where the book and the movie don't match up! :) I told him that they can't always do everything the book says or else the movie would be WAY too long. Luckily, that answer was sufficient! The awesome thing about reading these books out loud to each other (besides the obvious reading practice) is that we can talk through it together. Even more importantly I can explain why some passages stick out to me or make me cry when I read them. Because the stories are ultimately pointing to Jesus, I've had more than a few emotional reading sessions. I've included one section below that really struck my heart:

"Both the children were looking up into the Lion's face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well."

The Magician's Nephew (Book 1) by C.S. Lewis

Trey looked concerned as tears rolled down my face as I read this section to him a few weeks ago.

"Are you sad?" Trey asked.

I said, "No sweetie. These words struck me because this is how I feel about Jesus. I am nothing without Him. There is no good in me without Him. From the second I asked Him into my heart many years ago, He has never left me...and He never will."

It was such a sweet time with my son! I love sharing these times with him!