Jim is off to Ethiopia this morning, along with a close friend who also happens to be a deacon at our church. They're on a vision trip with Children's Hope Chest, with the purpose of prayerfully seeking a Carepoint with which our church can partner. We're super excited about the prospect of that partnership, but meanwhile another more personal partnership is also being forged. Well, it's not really being forged...I believe it was forged long ago by a God who has seen every one of our days before a single one of them came to be. Jim will be meeting tomorrow with an Ethiopian young man who has become a trusted friend, and who has orchestrated something that seemed impossible to us two years ago. A chance to meet with a woman we love with all our hearts without ever having laid eyes on her. An opportunity to speak words of love and esteem, in person, to someone for whom we've prayed and longed. To embrace her, along with her young daughter. To share with her and cry with her. To thank God that He works all things together for good...even when those things include loss and suffering.
The flight departed this morning at 11am. They'll arrive in Addis Ababa at midnight our time, which is 8am Addis time. I don't know for sure what time the meeting will take place. God knows...and we'll just be praying all day. Join us if you're willing, please. Honestly, my heart is breaking that I won't be there. My tears at the airport this morning weren't only because I was parting from my husband. I was almost physically aching in my longing to touch and hug this precious member of our family, and for our tears to mingle.
Meanwhile, here are some pictures I sent along. It's been two years since MJ and Y left Ethiopia...longer than that since she's seen them. They're almost unrecognizable compared with the pictures I have of them then. But she'll know them.
Thanks for your prayers...more updates to come. Jim is in Ethiopia until March 30.
By the way, if there are any Blogger experts out there...what happened to my header? I haven't posted since December, and when I opened it up this week the header was messed up. I don't even remember how to change it!
Hi Susan! From your very nontechnologically advanced friend. Also, I view your blog on a reader, so I had not seen your header before and am just guessing that it used to extend to the width of the entire box. I had the same problem with mine for the last several months, and I think, I have figured out how to make it work. Here it goes: When you edit your header, one of the options is "shrink to fit" which I am assuming that you are using. It used to shrink to the proper size. It now shrinks to 760 pixels, regardless of the size of your picture. A search online revealed that the width of the header is 940 pixels.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I know to get around this is to uncheck the "shrink to fit" box and crop the picture you want to as close to 940 as you can get. For me this means using a picture where the subject is far away so when I crop it; it looks like the right size. Because of this, it looks more pixelated than I would like. It is also hard for me to get the photo to exactly the right size. Lots of tweaking.
This used to be the way that I always did it, until they put the shrink feature there. Don't know why they adjusted it, but it makes changing the header a real headache! Hope this makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you! I'll give it a try. Really, I think the header could use an update anyway!
DeleteThey are *so* cute! I love those pictures...:)
ReplyDelete