Hymn of Praise from the Jungle

Cicadias sing their song and the tea-colored river ambles lazily beneath me.

I am joined by the occasional butterfly fluttering past me as I greet the dawn from the bow of my river boat in Borneo.


Not so far away, monkeys and birds join in the chorus, lifting up their anthem of praise to you for another day of life.

Gibbons glide silently across the canopy of the rain forrest.

The quiet rhythm of the gentle waves rock the boat as I sit in awe of you. I giggle and my soul claps her hands in delight at the wonders of your creativity. I loved to watch the probiscus monkeys with their exaggerated noses, leaping from tree to tree yesterday evening.


I admired your artistry in the mighty orangutan, perched precariously in the towering tree tops at the river's edge.






The curiosity of the young macaue monkeys, with their mohawks as they try to intimidate me into sharing my orange juice with them must have made you smile, as must the warthogs, lumbering by.

Out of a desperate hunger to savor this moment, I take a million photographs with my mind's eye. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but there is no way my pictures can tell the complete story.





Your creation, the rain forrest of Borneo yawns around me - beckoning me, inviting me, propelling me forward to explore, taste, and experience you. "Taste and see that the Lord is good," It whispers in my ear. This place is saturated in your glory.

Baby Watch

Jody thinks my blossoming belly is the most beautiful thing. Here are some pictures he took today at 23 weeks.

2 months!

We have been so privileged to serve here for the past three years. As our term comes to a close, we are struggling with the mixed emotions of wanting so badly to spend time with our family in America and wanting to be here and finish well what we have started. Please pray for us as we bring closure to our first 3 year term here and plan to go to America for 7 months in May. It is an exciting time for us, but also a sad time as we leave our "home" for such a long time and our friends are grieving. Pray that we would be faithful to finish what we started and boldly share with the ones He has put in our lives for this season.

Baby watch

For those of you an ocean away, here are some pictures of my growing belly at 3 months...there wasn't anything new to see yet.

At 4 months, Baby Blanton is just beginning to stand out!


Let's keep an eye on Jody too...for anything suspicious!

Guess who's 29

We had a wonderful time celebrating Jody last week on his 29th birthday!

Our teammates drove 2 hours with their family to celebrate him!

He got a new game: Blokus!

A yummy chocolate cake!

And "Team Blanton" jerseys!

All around, a great day!

Fun in the Sun!

We were so excited when some of our friends from school in North Carolina came to visit us with their two precious daughters at the beginning of December.

They loved going to the beach, so we did that every day!


"Hey, there's my foot! Now if I could just get it in my mouth!"

I enjoyed the rare chance for "girl time" with someone who speaks my native language!

We visited a small zoo with animals indigenous to our area. This is a cuddly asian bear.

Up close to Flipper!

The proverbial jail bird!

One day we hiked through the jungle to a waterfall. We picnicked and spent the day playing in the river.

They left me in charge of both girls so that they could jump off the rocks and slide down the waterfall into the pool below!

Isn't God amazingly creative?

At night, Jody and I loved reading stories to the girls before bed. Fun times!

Christmas in the Tropics

This is literally the only public Christmas decoration in our entire city!

This Christmas I wished for snow! It was overcast all day but we only got rain. It was close to 100 degrees. I took a cold shower in the middle of the day to cool off and seriously thought Jody was going to have to drag me out of the cool water with a wench! It felt so good to be cold!

We didn't have family to celebrate with...in fact, Christmas surrounded by 3.8 million Hindus is completely stripped of all the things our American culture associates with Christmas. It has provided a wonderful opportunity for us to focus on what the true meaning of Christmas is without all the commercialism. No one seems to notice that today is any different from any other day and all the stores are still open. Jody was checking out at the grocery store and the clerk was wearing a santa hat. She said, "Merry Christmas!". He thanked her and politely explained that he doesn't celebrate Santa but the birth of Jesus on this day. Perplexed she looked at him and said, "I don't know who that is." He was able to share about the special baby who was born on this day to save all mankind from their sins and bring hope to all nations.
I was delighted to find this Nativity set and angels made out of bamboo by a local pastor. I bought a set for everyone in my family this year.

Jody served me breakfast in bed! We ate Bacon and Onion Quiche, peppermint tea and mandarin oranges.

Thanks to our families for spoiling lavishly with gifts. Next year we look forward to celebrating with you in person around a fire!


Thanks Deborah and Michael for the Christmas presents. Jody loves his new soccer stuff.

It was impossible to find a Christmas tree in our city. Evergreen trees aren't easy to come by on the equator. Instead Jody brought a dead branch home from the village for me to decorate. The people who saw him ride by on the road had to have thought he was insane carrying a tree on his motorbike. I love a man who isn't afraid to make a fool of himself for me!

Oh Christmas tree!

December is the month that Rambutan come into season. This is one of my favorite tropical fruits. It has a white flesh about the size of a grape and resembles the taste and texture of a grape when you peel off the furry skin. Jody brought me 5 lbs today for Christmas! Yum!

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