We made it! It’s been one year since we arrived in Thailand. We’ve laughed, and we’ve cried. We’ve soared, and we’ve crashed. We’ve tried, and we’ve made mistakes. Through it all, we’ve learned so much and become stronger as a family.

As we look forward, we know we’re going to make a mess of things at times. Some will criticize and be quick to point out our mistakes. Sometimes, while lying in bed at night, we will review the events of the day and find fault with ourselves. But we will get up each morning and keep moving forward by God’s grace.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat” (Theodore Roosevelt).

“For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” (Prov. 24:16).

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