Our last day

It is 4:50am and I can't sleep. Today is our last day in Vietnam. I'm sorry that we haven't blogged for the past three days but we have been so busy and so tired. We have had so much fun doing food distributions, teaching English, taking the kids to the beach, and just loving on the kids. God is so good to let us be a part of this trip. Words can't describe the joy on these beautiful people's faces when you give them a food pack. I was asked to stay home from the last feeding to teach English but my team said the feeding was amazing. Minnie, one of our team members, speaks some Vietnamese and she is a nurse. She was checking out a child's eye that had been stabbed with a pencil a while back. The child's grandmother said that she had taken the child to the doctor but they couldn't do anything and she wanted to know if Minnie had medicine. Minnie told her that she didn't have medicine but that she would love to pray over her. Minnie, although Vietnamese, doesn't speak the language all of the time so she wasn't exactly sure how she was going to pray in Vietnamese so she said a quick prayer to the Lord to help her. She said as she started to pray she knew the Lord had taken over because the phrases and scripture that was coming out of her mouth was beautiful. She was saying things in Vietnamese that she had never said before. Isn't God amazing?! He cares so much for each and every one of us!!!
Yesterday, our Friday, we were all able to sit down with the head nun at the orphanage. I sat down by Kevin but the head nun patted the seat beside her so I moved. She then handed me a mug of beans. If you know me then you know I am a picky eater and I really didn't want to eat beans that were in some brown watery liquid with ice! I think she moved me beside her to get a little laugh. :) I did try them and they were very sweet. They were not as bad as I thought but I still wasn't a big fan. Anyways, she told us her plan for building a bigger orphanage that holds 200 children. She plans to have a garden for the children and a soccer field. She also told us how she plans on turning the current orphanage in to a kindergarten that teaches English. All of the kids will be able to attend but she will also open up the kindergarten to the children in the city. This will bring in money for the orphanage. We were able to visit the land and it was beautiful. We also visited the cemetery where she has buried about 19,000 aborted fetuses since 2006. If she did not bury these fetuses they would have been thrown in the trash. She also has buried many unkown soldiers that had to be moved from land that the government wanted and remains that no one claims. This nun has a huge heart for God and for her people. She is so inspiring!
After meeting with our team, the head nun asked to speak to our family. Once again she told Tram story in front of her. She told us how Tram says her mom doesn't love her and how Tram wants to be a teacher but that she can't because she doesn't learn like the other children. Seeing Tram get upset broke our hearts. At first I was mad and then I had to remember that this is their culture not ours. They are a culture that speaks how they feel or what they see is truth. Where as my culture sugar coats everything. I truly don't think she was trying to hurt or upset Tram. She was just speaking what she believes to be the truth. She also told us that she loves all of the kids but Tram is one of 2 that she loves the most. Unlike the last two trips, some of the things that she said led me to believe that she doesn't want us or won't allow us to adopt Tram but I know that if she is supposed to be home with us in America that she will be. God is so much bigger and has big plans for this beautiful little girl. She did say that if Tram studied hard that maybe she could be an exchange student. We told her how good Tram was with technology and she said she would try to get her some training. Maybe this is why God has put her in our hearts, to be her advocate. All I know that we are going to continue to love and pray for her. I rest in knowing that God loves her even more than we do and that whatever His will for her it will be perfect because it is His.
The head nun also said that she hoped my family could come and stay for a month and teach English. She said that we could stay in a hotel but that Tram could stay with us. This is a very smart lady! She wouldn't have to pay, as she does now, for an English teacher because she knows that we would do anything to have more time with Tram. I feel like it would be a win-win for everyone. I would get to teach and we would get to spend a lot of time with our sweet girl, two things that I love!!!
I do need to wrap this up because I need to get everyone up and packed. As I am typing this Tram woke up and is now watching Tom and Jerry! She has spent the last 3 nights with us and it has been amazing. I love watching her cuddle up next to Kevin. She loves him so much! She has been so happy this trip and we are all going to be so sad in a few hours when we have to say goodbye. Both of my girls have begged to stay but we can't. We were going to try to stay an extra week but we couldn't get flights back together. Maybe next summer we will be able to stay for 4-6 weeks. We will see what the Lord has planned. Please be in prayer for our team and for the kids as we leave. This is never easy for any of us.