Madeline Noel Chhing Lawler

So I got a new little puppy for Christmas. She is really gorgeous... I thought once I got her I wouldn't miss these kids so much... but no! My heart still aches for them... but it is good to have a little friend to lick my tears and give me kisses! :-)

Here are some pictures of Maddie:

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP

I wanted to take some time to thank each and every one of you for all your support! I had such an amazing time... but even more importantly here is a list of things you helped give to the kids

• A five month supply of vitamins for all 36 kids in the orphanage
• A five + month supply of fever/pain medicine
• A TV and a DVD player (you should have seen the kids watching the movie Cars...they were mesmerized). The TV will be used as entertainment, of course :), but also for educational videos
• Posts, a net and a ball for a volleyball court (they were playing the next morning at 8am :)). Volleyball is the sport in Cambodia
• A digital camera they can use to send us pictures of the kids
• Christmas gifts for 100 kids in the surrounding village. The gifts included crayons, pencils, pens, highlighters, erasers, sharpeners, bracelets and candy. The kids at the orphanage invited the kids from the surrounding village to a birthday party for Jesus and give them the gifts. They did this as outreach and to show others God's love and generosity for us.
• Lots of love and attention through songs, games, crafts and sports

The kids were so excited and soooo gracious!!!! They had the time of their life!!!

YOU WERE THEIR CHRISTMAS GIFT THIS YEAR!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

My heart remains in Cambodia

Here is a preview of some of my pictures! I MISS THEM SOOO MUCH!!!

All the kids at the orphanage!
Son, Chhing, and Sryley
My little Chhing!
Helping Kea color!
Adorable!
Diamonds on our foreheads!
I love you Chhing!
Son and Chhing!
Goofing around!
Jesus fed 5,000 with just 2 fish!
Tey and Takna - best buds!
PEACE!!!!
I love your smiles!
I love you!
The girls blowing kisses after we gave each other makeovers!
Rotha and Chhing
Miss Priss!!!!
My Chhing!
Chhing, Vidiya, and Ratha

Yes Jesus Loves Me... about an hour before we left!

To see all my pictures - they will be on FACEBOOK or go here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=NatalieJLawler&target=ALBUM&id=5279834169351873425&authkey=F9ZGf9piBiU&feat=email

A video slideshow and even more pictures are to come!!!! Enjoy these for now!!!!!

God Bless!

The 8th Wonder of the World

Hello all! Sorry its been a little while since you have heard from me. We left Battambang yesterday and traveled to Siem Reap where Anghor Wat is. It recently has become the 8th wonder of the world. It is beautiful... and all the other temples are breathtaking. But I still feel sad. I miss those kids so much... especially Chhinh. :-(
I also have gotten pretty sick. Thank the Lord I my doctor wrote me a rx for a zpac! I couldnt go to the market last night and shop and I couldnt go see the sunrise over Anghor Wat this morning becuase I have been sick. Dont worry mom... it could be way worse... I think its just a mixture of the food, the dust in the air, and just being emotionally drained. I am feeling a lot better since I started my zpac! :-)
Thanks for all your prayers... I miss you alll and cant wait to see you!
xoxo

The Hardest Part

Oh my... well thats it! We are back!
That was an emotionally draining, very sad evening at my orphanage. The kids cried very hard... which surprised me. I thought I would be the only one to cry. They cried and cried and hugged and hugged. They are sooo sweet! One of them named Chihhah told my team are HIS PARENTS! WOW! Another said she was so blessed to have us in her life and to please, please come back - she said all this in between tears. The older ones, even the boys that were 16 and 17 cried. It truly broke my heart! My Chhing he cried when I held him and we sang "Yes Jesus Loves Me." He held my hand so tight. A lot of the kids wrote me letters. One of them asked me in his letter to be his God Mother. Another told me he wanted to be a doctor. These kids are just so amazing. I cant believe I cant go back to see them... until next time I make it out here. I miss them sooo much already! WOW! I have to go... see you soon.

pictures

Oh and I have taken over 300 hundred pictures of the kids and this country! More will definately come when we are at Anghor Wat too!
The internet is too slow to post... but I promise by Sunday night I will have them posted to view! I cant WAIT FOR YOU TO SEE THEM... to see my Chhing and Son and Syrley and Vidiya and Vandam... gosh... just all the kids!!!!! YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE!!!!!
Ok... we are loading the bus... PLEASE PRAY FOR ME AND STRENGTH THAT I CAN BE STRONG IN THE GOODBYES!!!!!! :-(
God Bless!

Please Pray for Me and My Team

So its lunch time on Thursday... I am sorry that I did not write yesterday... I actually did and then lost networkd connection... so my whole post was lost! :-(

We go back in about 15 minutes to spend our last afternoon with the kids. We are having a Birthday Party for Jesus in light of the coming Holiday... plus all the Bible stories we have done this week has lead up to this BIG PARTY! We are inviting all the village children. So we will have the 40 orphanage kids and about 100 village kids! We are very excited. We will have cake and all the orphanage kids decorated with streamers and ballons already!

I am trying to enjoy this time with the kids... but I cannot explain my anxiety I have right now to leave these amazing children. I have even gotten so close to the older children. I thought in my life I have loved with my whole heart, but I have been so wrong. The love and affection I have for these kids is overwhelming. My heart is already breaking... I feel it in my chest. I have never been so sad I dont think. I pray to God to not let this kind of feeling mess up my whole day because I am dreading the goodbye. So please help me if you are up late and reading this. Please pray for me and my team to have a wonderful afternoon with these children and JUST TO FOCUS ON WHATS IMPORTANT... these kids are in love with the same God as I am. I need to relish in that and just learn from them and their joy. As for the goodbye's I know its going to be hard... part of me feels like maybe I wasnt cut out for this trip... but hopefully in God's grace I will get through it! I have a good team with me. I am strong... and I WILL COME BACK AND SEE THESE KIDS AGAIN. I hope some of you will join me next time.

In the meantime... I know you all have already given so much. However, my team bought a big screen tv and dvd player for the kids. So once I get home I am going to print out pictures and send clothes and DVD's... so if you have either DVD's or clothes you dont use any more please gather them up for me. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support already. I am truly blessed to have family and friends like you. These kids had the time of their lives this week and I am a changed woman!

Hopefully I will write more from Siem Reap (Anghor Wat) tomorrow! I love you and miss you all! God Bless!!!!
x0x0

Lunch Break

So i got a couple minutes... well like 20 (thats what I need to get this internet working)!

I just wanted to say I started to cry a little bit this morning. See every morning we act out a Bible story with the kids. Yesterday it was "give it to Jesus!" Today it was "Everyone has something to give." The kids love it! They scream and laugh at our customes! :-) We get it on video so you guys will be able to see it once I get home. But anyways... we sing before and after the Bible story. Well I got up to show them the motions to "Lord I lift your name on high!" We didnt think they knew it yet... but were we wrong! As soon as Chris started playing the guitar they were singing on top of thier lungs. If you dont know the song, there is a part "You came from Heaven to Earch to show the way, from the cross to the grave, my debt to pay, from the grave to the sky... LORD I LIFT YOUR NAME ON HIGH!" I teared up a biut during that part becuase they sing so loud and with such joy. I really cant explain it but it was one of the best feelings in my life! And then if you listen closely and concentrate on one kid at a time you can hear their little voice over all others. Gosh... its just sooo cool! Even the shy ones are singing sooo loud! And Chhinh... oh Chinnh. He is the love of my life. When we group out girls and boys he doesnt budge. :-)
I also have to little girls now that always wear skirts and their hair is braided so perfectly!!! Son and Syran!
Ok... gotta go eat! Love you all... ho0pefully I will write more later tonight!

God Bless!
PS and Mere... you made me cry with that comment on the last post! :-) I miss you!

xoxoxo

No words to explain...

There is nothing I can really write here to describe what I am experiencing. THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING PLACE I HAVE BEEN TO IN THE WHOLE WORLD... this goes way beyond my expectations! The way I have explained to my team is the most TRAGICALLY BEAUTIFUL place. I MAY NEVER COME HOME!
First of all... if Jessica is reading this let me apologize for the spelling errors... the keyboards are strange, the internet is soooo slow, and the computers just DIE on you after so long. So I am typing very fast on a foreign keyboard. I was reading my last post and I wrote customers instead of customs... among a lot of other errors. :-)
Ok... back to whats important...
So on Sarturday morning we went to the school in Phenom Penh that was turned into the largest torture prison in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge. Let me just say I cried my eyes out! The things these soldiers did to innocent people like anyone who expressed religion or education. Any one who worked for the prior governmnet... anyone who smiled or cried. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, borthers... NEWBORNS! Just totally sick! Pastor Vek's wife named Somerlyn brought us there and toured us around. Her stories were chilling... she explained what she and her husband and her 2 month old baby were experiencing during the time... they were evacutated from Phenom Penh and forced from field to field to work 16 hour days on a bowl of rice once a day. She told me when this all happened she was just 26. WOW! My age!!!
Goodness... so as soon as we got done there we jumped in our bus and started the 6 hour journey to Battambang! You can see in my last post I was totally dreading this ride... well GOD IS SO GOOD... this was the most humbling and beautiful thing to me. Basically all the people of Cambodia build their villages along the rode. I looked into the lives of the natives from the window of my bus. I waived (in between tears) to the people... THEY ALL SMILED SOOOOO BIG AND WAVED BACK! Some of the kids chased our bus... the others were headed home from school on their bikes... books in hand... so happy!!!! They live in these little huts... sometimes with just 2 or 3 walls... and sometimes with no roofs. They sit on their tables to EAT and lounge in their hammocks! IT IS SOOO AMAZING!!! I FELT SO ALIVE!!!! These people are just so friendly and sooo peaceful!
So we arrived in Battambang on Saturday night....
Sunday morning we woke up and went to church. The moment our bus pulled up the children came running out of the church! They were soooo excited! There were so much laughter and hands just pulling at every part of your body!!!! They performed some songs for us at church and during the message... they kept turning around to look at us with ear to ear smiles.
Since then we have been at the orphanage singing songs, playing games, running around, and even painting finger nails (dont worry this is just for the girls... well... with the exception of a couple of the boys! Hahaha)!
The kids just latch on to you every morning when you get off the bus. I have 3 that follow me pretty much everywhere... one, a little boy named Chhinh (pronounced ChingChing... this is how I think it is pronounced... but I am really bad at these names. The kids make so much fun of me everytime i say something wrong)! Well Chhinh LITERALLY does not leave my side the entire DAY! Always holding my hand... even when we are running. When I get on the bus in the evening he blows me kisses through the window and holds up his hands in a shape of a heart!!! OH MY... I am starting to cry! :-)
So its truly been a gift to be here... thank YOU so much for all your support and prayers. THIS IS A TRIP OF A LIFETIME... I love all of you... but I seriously DO NOT WANT TO COME HOME! :-)
I have already takin over 200 pictures... so much the shutter of my camera broke... so I cant zoom in or out anymore... but its ok because i am sooo happy and thankful! :-)

Internet seems to be running better today so hopefully I will be able to post every night... but you never know out here in the JUNGLE! :-)

TIll next time... take care and you are in my thoughts and prayers!!!!

XOXOXO

GREETINGS FROM CAMBODIA

Well, 22 hours later we made it to Phnom Penh!!!!!!

Pastor Vek (the owner of the orphanage), his wife, one of the older orphan boys, our driver, and the translator were waiting right outside of customers for us with HUGE SMILES on their faces!!! THEY WERE SO HAPPY TO SEE US AND SOOO SWEET!!!!

The young orphan boy was ADORABLE! He roide in the back of the truck on TOP of all our luggage to make sure it didnt fall out! The whole time with the happiest grin on his face... I couldnt stop watching him!!!!

The place ride here was quite interesting! We flew Korean Air and thanks to my pilot dad I HAVE NEVER BEEN ON AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT IN COACH CLASS... haha! Call me spoiled I know, but when is a better time to try out coach than on a 16 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea... followed by 6 hrs to Cambodia!!!! It sure was an experience in its self!!! I managed to sleep a little, but I was sooo sore. The flight was confusing for me becuase they were serving breakfast when I should have been eating dinner and lunch in the middle of the night, etc... this time change is really hard for me! :-) So we got to the hotel about midnight (noon your time) and I fell asleep pretty much right away and slept till about 4am in the morning! It is 7:30 am now on Decemeber 6th. That makes it 7pm on the 5th for you guys! Confusing huh? We just had an interesting breakfast... all I ate was 2 boiled eggs and a piece of toast... I am going to stick to the red bull and granola bars i think! :-) YES I BROUGHT MY OWN RED BULL!!!! Haha!

So 24 hours of traveling... I really cant believe we are here. IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT that coach class seat! :-) I am just absolutely falling in love with the people of the country and by the grin on that little orphan boys face... I CANT WAIT TO MEET ALL THESE KIDS!!!!!! And it doesnt hurt that I have the most AMAZING team to share it with!!! We are all getting really close... I mean when you are sitting on top of each other on an airplane you really have no choice! :-)
My team is made up of 7 others:
Kira is so honest and real.
Carrie is just the biggest sweetheart you have ever met.
Tammy is our worl traveler... she knows what to and not to do!
Mandy has 5 kids back at home so she is like our caretaker. I look to her when I am lost or confused! :-)
Chris is like our BIG kid! He gets so excited at the littlest of things like a little boy on Christmas.
Jason is the leader of our trip and a leader he is! I feel so safe with him in charge of all of us!
And Jo, he LITERALLY ALWAYS has a huge grin on his face!!! It makes me smile!

Pastor Vek and his wife are sooo sweet. They have been married 35 years she told me... she wears a huge sapphire ring on her finger. They are taking us to the school in Cambodia which is the main prison where people were tortured during the Khmer Rouge and then to the Killing Fields.... it should be interesting. I cant wwait to hear more of their story too...

Since it was dark and late when we got in last night I didnt notice much... other than this is definately a 3rd world country. There were barely any cars and a lot of garbage on the street. I am going to go for a morning walk and then we have a devotional at 9am... then its off to the Killing Fields!

Once we get to Battambang (5 hour drive from here) this evening I will let you know about today!

PS and dont worry mom... I am not going for the walk by myself!!!! :-)

I love and miss you all!!!!!

GOD BLESS!!!!

xoxo

ONE MORE DAY!!!!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all!!!!!!

Have a wonderful next couple weeks and GOD BLESS!!!! :-)

xoxo