Lakewood/Springs

I spent the better part of a week with my little cousins in Colorado, helping with homework, playing hide and seek, and mostly trying to catch up on blogs and facebook messages. It's always so awesome to see them, even if I am a little distracted. Also prayed for like an hour with my aunt, which was really cool that she wanted to do that and just because I needed it. Also, they and my grandparents are my most faithful supporters in prayer and encouragement and occasional "Hey have you thought about this?"

My favorite little cousin moment was when Maiya, who is eight, asks me
"Cousin James are you married?"
"No."
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"No."
"Do you have someone you're in love with?"
"Mmm......not really."
"Do you want to be married?"
"Yeah."
"Do you want to have lots of kids?"
"Yeah."
"See you're like me, cuz I want to be married and have lots of kids." :) I reckon she'll have to wait at least ten years, so I can wait two or three, right?

Aliya, who is six, always prays for healing at dinner: for her little scrapes, and for all of us, from sin and just in general. She is the most sensitive person I know, it makes me so happy to hear her prayers, and she encourages me to be more loving. A typical Aliya moment is someone is sitting down and she'll come up and just say "Cousin James (or mom or dad or sissy), I love you," give the person a hug, and that's all.

I also was able to meet up with representatives from two different organizations that work with orphans, VisionTrust International and World Orphans. Both guys really challenged me to think critically about how to do Orphan work well and to do it in such a way that is sustainable, minimally invasive, and an outgrowth of what makes the most sense given the local situation. The guy from Visiontrust was cool enough to meet up with me in Garden of the Gods, which was pretty sweet, I got lots of great pictures. On to Oklahoma!