Big Week!

What a big week we have ahead of us. This is a great time in our marriage. We are positioning ourselves in a big way for the dreams of God for our lives. WOW! Okay, so in about 5 days we will be on our way to a far away land. I was talking to Dad Foster on Skype today and I was telling him about this next week coming up for us. Here's a brief of our week:

• Bye Byes & Tears (Oh my goodness, I can't start now)
• 21 Hours on 3 Planes, 4 stops with a two-year-old (leave 08/05/08 at 5pm)
• In a new country, adjusting to new time zone (arrive 08/07/08 at3pm)
• Then, the Olympics begin (08/08/08 at 8:00 pm) Excited!
• Gabe's 23rd Birthday celebrated in a new country (08/10/08)
• Our 3rd Anniversary... I Love my Husband! (08/12/08)

----------------------All in One Week--------------------------

What a crazy but exciting week! Thanks everyone for loving us and standing right by us through all this. I plan to be on Skype, writing to everyone at every airport we stop at. And when we get to Malaysia, we will give you a guided tour of Gabe's parents apartment through Skype. If you haven't gotten Skype yet, PLEASE get it. XOXOXO We Love You So!

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

FREEEEDOOOM!

This is the bumper sticker we got for our car, but we don't 

have a car to put it on because we are moving to Thailand.

Maybe we will just stick it on our luggage!

Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness.....I am so ecstatic to announce that we are completely DEBT FREE! As of yesterday, July 17, 2008 we have no more yucky debt hanging over our lives. We paid the last $1,800 of our student loans off.  So we paid off almost $16,000 in about one year. My heart feels like it is jumping for joy inside my chest!

And, today another dream of mine came true...I had the opportunity to talk to Dave Ramseylive on air on his radio show that millions of people in this country listen to. He is a Christian financial counselor that has his own talk radio show & a prime time slot on FOX Business News every night. Gabe & I have been listening to him for almost two years now. Anyways, I got to talk to him and I would love to share it with all of you. As soon as I can get the link, I will post it on here (and even maybe email it to you guys...hehehe!).

Gabe and I are CHANGING OUR FAMILY TREE...Hallelujah!!!

This is Dave Ramsey at the FOX news office for his show. Go Dave Ramsey!

What an incredible ministry.

Happy Daddy's Day!

How could I let Father's Day pass by without writing some shout outs? 

To my Daddy, I just want you to know that I am so proud of you. That might sound silly, but it's just incredible to me how hard you work for your family. There are so many fathers out there that don't work or don't care to support their families, but I can say the complete opposite about you. You have always been a huge example of staying focused and diligent and persevering. I thank you for that, and I want you to know that I truly believe in you. You are a great man, and I believe that this next part of your life will be the part that God really brings you into His peace and rest and, Praise God, JOY! I am praying for that new job, it's just what the doctor ordered. I love you Daddy! Mwuah, xoxoxo. Caught mine? I caught yours :)

To Dad, I am so excited that we are following you and mom. I want a marriage like you guys. I want us to be a parents like you guys. And I am so thankful to have a husband  that wants to be just like you & Jesus. Thank you so much for taking me in like I am your real daughter and nothing short of it. You guys have been amazing to me and there is really no way I will be able to thank you enough. I love you Dad more than I can possibly explain here! Okay, now let's go see lives changed in Southeast Asia, in Jesus name, Amen!

And To My Husband, I watched as Sailor fell asleep on your chest tonight. I see the way she is always most excited whenever You come home at night. And I wonder, how in the world did I get you? I guess God only knows. He was sure being kind to me when he brought me you. You are my #1 favorite person in this entire world. I don't even understand sometimes how you can get up every morning so early, work such long hours (with no air-conditioning), and then come home and do everything that needs to be done without making ANY complaints. I admire you & I will do everything I can to make that known to our children. I Love You! I am your Number One Fan. What can I ever do to show you how much you mean to me. If only there were a way for you to really feel exactly what I feel for you in the deepest places of my heart. You mean the world to me. I want to be right next to you all through this life and then all through eternity. You are God's Choice Picked Prince! Thank you for everything. I love you.

Good Story...

I had something really sweet happen this afternoon and it was just a special reminder of how much God really delights in us. He really knows us and he takes note of even the smallest desires of our hearts. Okay, and so the story goes...

Katie Hope called me today and asked if she could come by to bring me something (which she always has surprises for me and Sailor, and it's always something very thoughtful). Well, she comes in with this bag that me and Sailor open tog

ether, and it's the most perfect wallet in the world (for me at least!). It is a red white and blue sailor wallet from Urban Outfitters, and we all know I love sailor stuff because I even named my daughter that. Anyways, what is so special about this wallet is Gabe and I went to Urban Outfitters in Baton Rouge last week and I saw that exact wallet and I wanted it soooooo bad, but I couldn't get it. It was the only thing in the store I wanted and I could feel my heart flop in my chest when I saw it. No one knew anything about that wallet but Gabe or would even know that I had even been to that store. 

(The blue wallet on the right side is the one she gave me. It's by loop, 

www.loopnyc.com, amd it's called Oooh Sailor!)

Once I told Katie the story about the wallet, she reminded me that I had given her a bathing suit earlier this week. She said that she had seen the exact bathing suit top in the store a few weeks earlier and had really wanted it, but couldn't get it because the store had no fitting room to try it on. But sure enough, I gave her that bathing suit and had no idea she had wanted it. 

This may just be a simple little story to you who read this, but to me it's a precious reminder of our incredible Heavenly Father. He is the greatest Daddy ever! Lately I have been really receiving this word into my heart. The other day I was holding my sweet little girl, and all I could think about was how God even feels stronger for me than I could ever feel for my little one. That's a huge revelation because I love my daughter so much and can't even imagine a greater love. But there surely is one, a love from our Heavenly Father!

Debt Free Update

I am a little bit sad to say this, but we did not reach our goal to have our debt completely paid off by May 31st. We would have had it almost done with, but we used the money instead to buy our plane tickets for Thailand. It was a tough decision at first, but we knew if we waited any longer to buy those tickets, they would have went up in price a lot. 

No worries though, we aren't leaving for another two months, so that is plenty of time to stay focused and get that debt knocked out!!!! This is definitely not something we are taking lightly. We are gazelle intense about this. 

If only someone would have told us not to take out student loans. We didn't even need them for school, they were just used for whatever we wanted at the time. Bottom line - they were a huge mistake that have done no good for us except to teach us a lesson. 

Okay, back to here and now, we will have our debt paid off by the end of July - in Jesus mighty name, Amen. Jesus bought our freedom from debt and poverty on the cross and there is nothing the enemy can do to stop us from receiving the Lord's blessing. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, we will be DEBT FREE this summer!

Left to pay ........... $3505.85

Please believe with us on this!

MORE PICTURES...

Just wanted to post some more random, adorable pictures of Sailor Grace Foster, because it is our blog and we can do that :). 

above: Passport picture

below: This one looks like Dawn as a baby.

above: Perfect Swimwear - All American Girl Sailor

PICTURES...

I thought these were definitely worth sharing with everyone. I love my baby girl and sometimes I feel like I don't act proud of her enough, but I totally am proud of her. Thank you Lord for this gift you have given me!

This is Sailor holding Ashley Hall's newest baby boy. Ashley and her husband Adam are some precious friends of ours and they now have 4 beautiful children. Sailor had got the baby out of his car seat when no one was looking, and she just proceeded to take care of the baby like she knew exactly what she was doing. She's going to be wonderful in helping us take care of some special children in Asia.

I love these pictures! Sailor really likes to be right next to Matthew Wallace Hughes (Dadis). Maybe she thinks of him as the cool older boy or something, hehe. She does love Zion Hughes too and he's really close to her age. I'll have to post a picture of them next time.

Thai Friends in Hammond ... WOW

We just wanted to share our new friends with you guys. We met these guys at McDonalds. They are all here on like a work program. Most of the people that are in town right now on this work program are from Thailand. How amazing is that! We just know that it is the Lord. He gave us these special friends during this particular season in our lives when we are preparing to move to a far away land. Our new friends have been teaching us the Thai language and we are teaching them better English. Thank you God for showing your love for us in the most precious things such as this!

left to right: Wax, Oon, Ty, Pat, & Gabe

We bought them crawfish to eat one night. In Thailand crawfish are considered pets. They cost about $35 a piece in Thailand and Thai people keep them in fish tanks. They thought we were rich because we bought so many, but they were only 99 cents a pound here. :)

Wax, Pat, & Ty

Shout to the Lord!

Okay, how cool was it that two nights in a row Shout to the Lord was sung on American Idol. Again, it's like the most watched show ever on television and this is two weeks running that Jesus was really shining through (read my other post about Jesus on American Idol). I don't know who is behind this, but Jesus is definitely in someone's heart that has something big to do with the show. Anyways, just wanted to put this in the record books. I am very excited. 

You know, I just really love people. I don't care who they are or where they come from or what they do. God has called us to love our neighbor as ourself. Do we want other people hating us because of the beliefs we have? No. So let's love other people, no matter what beliefs they have. 

Sorry, I know this is a little bit off the subject of American Idol, but I am so thankful to be writing what is on my heart tonight. I am just thinking these things I guess because I am about to move to a country where I am truly the minority. Less than 1% of the people in Thailand are Christian; 95% of them or Buddhist and 4% are Hindu. That means that there are going to be many many many people who will believe very different things than me.

Man, I truly want to love these people no matter what! I want to love with no limits! I want to understand the people better. I am sort of at a block and can't seem to get out exactly what is in my heart. It's just that in the last few years I have realized that it's my actions and kindness towards others that makes them want what I have.

The Words of Jesus are no doubt extremely powerful, but I am the one who is actually on this earth presenting Jesus to them. What can I DO? What will I DO?

When I get to Thailand, I plan on smiling at the people there so big that my cheeks are sore. I want to bless people all the time. Hmmm...... Thanks for listening!

Love, Dawn

P.S. By the way, I've decide that I am going to learn how to sing. I may not be an amazing singer, but I want to sing pretty good (prophecying!). Please don't laugh, even though I know that i funny.  But I heard that Jason Castro from American Idol just started singing like in the last year or two, and before he didn't sing at all. Hello -- Now he's on American Idol, WOW!

Skype

We are just trying to promote Skype (not that we really need to, bc Oprah does a great job of that already). But we want everyone who can to get on Skype so you will be able to call us and chat with us free when we are in Thailand. And you can even video chat with us if you have a camera on your computer. Gabe's parents have been in Asia for going on three months and it's been so nice to still be able to call them and see them for free through Skype. We love it!

So sign up. It's free and easy and we need you to! And when you have gotten Skype, look us up. Our Skype names are: garbagio and dawnagio

http://www.skype.com

P.S. I think with Skype we are even going to have a local 985 phone number that will ring through to our computer all the way in Thailand. AMAZING!

WE'RE (almost) DEBT FREE!!!

We have been working on paying off our debt for almost a year now. We started off with a little over $15,000 in debt which included medical bills, a credit card, and student loans. Now, we only have (drumroll please!) ...

$3805.85

...left to pay. What is left to pay is our student loan balance. Our goal is to have this completely paid off by the end of May. We are sharing this information with everyone because we want you, our closest loved ones, to believe with us that we can do this. That's quite a bit of money to pay off in two months, but we have faith. And we believe that we are doing what is right, so that is precious in the eyes of the Lord. Thank You Father that this can be done!

Also, like we wrote on our other blog, we don't want this debt to follow us onto the mission field. The people who are going to be supporting us need to know that their investment is going in the right direction, forward to what we will do, not backward to pay off what we have done.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and support! When we pay off that last bit of debt next month, we will be calling everyone to tell you when to tune into the Dave Ramsey Show to hear us tell our story and to hear us scream "WE'RE DEBT FREE".

Our Favorites from The Clark Brothers

Just promoting our boys some more.

Here are links to Gabe's and my favorite Clark Brothers originals...

Gabe's favorite, the song actually starts at about 1:30 (minutes:seconds) on the video, but the stuff before it is just clips from their whole season on American Band:

You Are Still The Same God

YouTube - Clark Brothers You Are Still The Same NGB Finale

And Here's my favorite, song starts at 1:30 also. The first song on there is just a cover they did of a Bob Dylan song, but my favorite is the second song.

Billy the Kid

YouTube - Clark Brothers Maggie's Farm Billy The Kid

JESUS on American Idol!

WOW! Jesus was so glorified on American Idol tonight. I couldn't pull my eyes away from watching. The most watched television show of all times gave most of the night to Jesus. Hallelujah! 

Okay, for starters, I am not completely into American Idol this season. Last season I got way to carried away about one person, so I decided this season I was just going to cheer for a bunch of people. And I have to say that there are like six people that I actually really like -- and maybe I would buy their cds (maybe?). But I knew this wonderful Dolly Parton week was coming and I loved it.

Now, about the results show tonight, WOW, wow, WOW! 

First of all, Gabe and I love The Clark Brothers and we don't care who knows it (John Hughes). They truly, amazingly love God and aren't at all afraid to shout it from the roof tops. I don't think I have ever been this excited about a band's album coming out. Man, those boys sing with the greatest conviction and boldness. I have heard  them sing the song they sang tonight like 3 times already, but every time it seems to be as fresh as the first time. 

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine ...

I won't let satan blow it out, I'm gonna let it shine ...

Jesus on the main line, I'm gonna let Him shine ...

Jesus on the main line, tell Him what you want ...

And if you need a healing, tell Him what you want ...

Let Him shine, let Him shine, let Him shine, shine, shine, shine, shine, wooo!

Go Clark Brothers!

And how Awesome was Dolly Parton tonight!!! I have always been a Dolly fan, yes, it's true. I had one of her greatest hits cds when I was about 8 and I remember listening to Coat of Many Colors over and over again. I would cry to my mommy about that song and she would so sweetly comfort me. I also loved her song PMS Blues - hilarious. But, I have to say that the song she sang tonight (from her new album Backwoods Barbie) is definitely my new favorite Dolly Parton song of all times, JESUS & GRAVITY... I am about to go buy it on itunes (and maybe you can too). I never realized what an incredible song writer she is. The lyrics were totally country, but totally good gospel -- The best of both worlds for me, my two favorite types of music. 

JESUS on the main line NOW!

Thanks for listening. Love, Dawn

Not So Cute Photo Booth

Gabe playing with Photo Booth and our child....enough said!

(This is what Gabe does when he's watching Sailor by himself.)

Foster Family Photo Booth

I was just looking through our pictures in Photo Booth (all Mac people know Photo Booth) & I found some of these sweet family pics and I thought I would post them. Next time I may just randomly click on Photo Booth pictures and post them. Who knows what kind of distorted, weird pics may pop up (Gabe loves to play with Photo Booth and some of the pics of him are hilarious).