forever being changed.....

i have been reminded afresh over the last few days.....how much my life has changed since i first met Jesus and began following Him...........it is so easy to be lulled into a sense of not going anywhere or that nothing is changing in our lives fast enough.............we need to be reminded to look back and see how far He has brought us.........as i remember back to the day i gave my life to Him 15 years ago i am amazed at who i have become.....from a broken mess full of anger and hurt ........ to one filled with joy, peace and purpose..........i would be nothing without HIm and i am grateful that He will complete the good work He started all those years ago...............i heard someone say 'i am not were i want to be yet...but thank goodness i am not were i once was'......

take a moment today to look back and see how far He has brought you.......................its a marathon not a sprint.........

pinatas and helium balloons..................

today was my little nieces 2nd birthday party....i think it has been quite some time since i consumed so much sugar....and i must admit on occasion being a little more hyper than the kids......maybe it was the intake of helium from stray balloons that did it ..i'm not sure....... when the kids struggled to break open the pinatas to release the goodies...the grown ups were very quick to step up and give it their best shot....at one point launching it free into the sky missing my mums head by a whisker......i on the other hand used my two year old niece as my cover story saying she needed help to hit it as she was to little to reach.......i think that on the inside we are all little kids waiting for a moment to drop our grown up guard and take our best shot at the pinatas...eat jelly....and make our voices like mickey mouse with the thanks of left over balloons............happy birthday lovely becca.......sleep well....x

we choose peace................

our wee country has been shaken this last couple of days with the shooting of two soldiers and one policeman and others seriously injured.....a flashback into the past of what used to be sadly common place...years later ..standing out starkly on front pages of newspapers....today i had a lady come into my workplace...who was shaken and in tears...as the motorway was closed due to further scares..and she could not get home.......she said through tears....i dont have the strength to go through this again...meaning the mindless hateful shedding of innocent blood on this land..........i said to her.....we as a people cannot be silent.....we need to join our voices and proclaim aloud...that we refuse to go backwards ...we refuse to walk the old path of violence...we choose peace and we refuse to settle for anything less..................she dried her eyes and said....yes you are right.........
as the church we need to be heard and seen in these days more than ever.....leading the way of peace......we do not have the time to be complacent.....expecting someone else to fix it.........

soar in the storms...................

i have been so bad at blogging this last few weeks.......as i feel that there is so much going on i dont know where to start...so sometimes instead of just choosing one thing..i do nothing........i am in the throws of diving into a new job at the moment.....and still living in a building site...after the flood..........so much is happening in the world of ally........in the midst of all this excitement i am always learning more about myself and being stretched in my walk with God.....having so much in my life changing all at once..is always fertile land for God do do some refining....and my goodness...He is making good use of this time..................one thing God has been speaking to me about this week in the midst of all that is going on ........is to be like the eagle and learn to soar in the storm......Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher

the rest of my thai trip journal........

the rest of my thailand trip journal is moved to our adoption blog....

thailand..................day one......

the night before we left for Thailand..i had pulled my back............so thankfully when we got to amsterdam the flight on China airways was not full so they gave us an extra seat to enable me to stretch it out...so grateful....stuart was ever the gentleman and sacrificed his comfort for me ..thank you....during the flight i felt waves of emotion come over me every so often...a mixture of i cant believe we are going to the land that will become apart of our lives forever...and being surrounded with 80% men on the plane alot of who were going to Thailand for other reasons.......when we landed and arrived in immigration the queues were endless and the first greeting was the heat mixed with the smell of food......i was glad for my trusty handheld fan...stuart mocked..but i noticed many an envious glance as people tried to make their own fans.............always be prepared.............

eventually we got through and were met with out private transfer.........how grateful was i to see and air con Mercedes when those next to me were getting into a hot tin mini bus...i may have cried if that was me......especially when you leave and irish winter and land in 35 degrees C.............off we went being whizzed in and out of the Bangkok traffic....instantly noticing the unique driving skills of the motoring community ....indicators are just to make a fancy light show...nothing else......
when we pulled up to our first hotel.we were surround by bell boys all around the car and greeted with multiple bows and smiles...what a welcome...all the tiredness fell away and we were blown away with their welcome.......the hotel was amazing ....we went to the restaurant for a complimentary drink ..stuart chose coffee....unwise when u want to sleep soon i pondered....i thought i would try the thai iced tea..thinking that would be refreshing...........i was wrong.......it was thick condensed milk with tea mixed in..not what i was expecting...stuarts coffee looked good.......

we slept for a few hours....and then went to meet our tour adviser...who was very sweet..........when we had gone through everything..we asked her to translate into thai the address for the social worker at the adoption centre we were to meet the next day..........she was very puzzled as to why we wanted to go there...i think it was a first for her....but she went a step further and phoned the office instead making sure all the arrangements where in place...............




,that night we went to the two night markets in bangkok..it was a riot of all our senses the sights, sounds, smells., poverty standing alongside wealth ....so much to take in ............we quickly learned to keep our eyes on the pavement while weaving through the crowds as they were all shapes.......there felt just too much to take in with a jet lagged head......after a couple of hours we took a taxi back to our hotel..............



even the taxi rides are a cultural experience...with things written on ceilings incense burning.......multiple gods lined up along the dash........its a wonder the are room for passengers.......

as our first day draws to a close.....i am so glad we came here first before coming to collect our baby..........as i think all at once would have been alot to deal with................

He is faithful......

i am back after my two week trip to thailand.........we had such a great time packed with so much of everything......it will take a while to process....although we came to earth with a bump as our home had flooded while away...but praise God our neighbours noticed and called the police.....it could have been so much worse...so once it dries out in next two weeks we will have a couple of months building work to enjoy.......life is never dull........but in all these things He is faithful and sees the bigger picture.....