Disneyland!!!

Hello, friends! 

We're back from a wonderful trip to California to visit family. The only snafu that we ran into was that EVERYONE in my extended family came down with COVID at one point or another during the trip. Somehow, we avoided catching it (or at least everyone was asymptomatic), which was a huge blessing, especially since one of our days out there was a trip to Disneyland! 

Megan and I have wanted to do a family trip to Disneyland for some time now. We also knew that we wanted to wait until the kids were old enough to have memories of the trip. Ezra and Megan went to Disneyland about 6 years ago when her cousin got married but Ezra was too small to remember any of it. As an added bonus, Jonah is exactly 40 inches tall, which means he can ride most of the rides too! 

Thanks to the generosity of my mom and some family friends who work for Disneyland, we were even able to get free tickets! That was a huge blessing as well, as those tickets are NOT cheap... We did pay for the Genie+ addition, which was totally worth it (more on that later). 

Disneyland's parking lot opens at 7 and the rope drops at 8, so we were motivated to get there early. I grabbed some donuts to entice the kids to hop out of bed at 6 so we could get to the parking lot right at 7. Our family friend with the pass met us at the park and we were in! 

Friends, it really was a practically perfect day. Here were a few highlights:

- Right off the bat, we went to Toon Town. Mickey Mouse was in front of his house and while JoJo (the biggest Mickey Mouse fan in the family) didn't want his photo taken with him, we did get Mickey to wave at him. The smile on JoJo's face was priceless. 

- I'm not a roller coaster guy but I love me some Big Thunder Mountain. I was really glad that we were able to go on that as a family and the kids really enjoyed it too. 

- The Genie+ pass was absolutely worth the money. We were able to get in the "Lightening Lane" for a ride once every 2 hours, which saved us a ton of time. By my count, we went on 20 rides (some we did twice and sometimes we split up) and watched 5 shows (including 2 parades).

- Thaliea lost a tooth! 

- The kids really did great. We stayed until 11pm and everyone was in mostly good spirits. 

- The meal food wasn't terribly priced! The dinner we got at the Cantina was actually about what I would expect to pay at a restaurant and the things we got for lunch were maybe only a dollar more than it would be at other places. 

- Matching shirts are always a good call. 

Of course, it wasn't perfect. There were a few rides that were shut down that we couldn't ride. The snacks (churros, popcorn, ice cream, etc.) were DEFINITELY overpriced. And, because my watch doesn't track my steps when I'm pushing the stroller, I fell just short of 30k steps. Still, we'll call the day a definite win. 

The hope is to make it to Disney World at some point. There may even be a week long Disney/Universal Studios trip in our future at some point. Either way, it was a really great trip and hopefully the kids will remember it for the rest of their lives. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

Unmerited Generosity

Hello, friends!

It's amazing to think that the summer is already halfway over! It's the middle of July and before you know it, it'll be time to get ready for school again. 

For InterVarsity staff, the summer is a good time to focus on ministry partnership development (affectionately known as MPD). Our schedules are a little more free so we have more time to meet with partners and potential partners to invite them to partner with us.

It's been a lot of fun meeting with folk, hearing how God is moving in their lives and connecting with them. I've done a few asks by myself and I've done a few with Megan and both types have been great. 

What has been even more fun (and humbling) is how folk have started giving or increased their giving without us even connecting with them. We usually get one or two of those a year but this summer we've already have 4 or 5! 

This comes at an especially good time as we have a big budget jump for the upcoming year. Every year that I've been on staff (this is now year 18!), I've made budget and ended "in the black." Even in just the first few weeks of the summer, God has shown, through unexpected generosity, that he plans on showing up again in our finances. It's been a fun reminded that God is in control. 

Have an excellent day!

Psalms of Praise

Hello, friends! 

I got another opportunity to preach on Sunday! It was a joy to be able to share the word with everyone. 

This definitely wasn't my best sermon. It's been a really busy few weeks with work and various family things, so I didn't get as much time to prep as I would have hoped. Still, God came through as he always does and I think it turned out OK. 

Enjoy! 

~Adam 

End of the Year!

Hello, friends!

Just in case you didn't get it, I wanted to post our end of the year update here. 2023-2024 was another very full year and we're thankful for all the ways that God showed up, both personally and professionally. 

If you didn't get this update in your mailbox but would like to, please, drop us a line and we'll gladly add you to our mailing list. 

Also, if you're interested in giving to partner with us in the work we do with InterVarsity, you can do so by following this link.

Have an excellent day! 

~ Adam

Welcome, Gus!

Hello, friends! 

Well, big news in the Leong Household... We got a tortoise! 

Meet Gus. He's kind of the best. =0). 

Growing up, we had a tortoise that found its way into our backyard. We named him Ted and he was fun. We once lost him for a while but that he came back. If I remember correctly, he got in a fight with some animal one night and his shell got cut. I don't think we took him to a vet and eventually Ted died. I also remember very distinctly saying goodbye to Ted very briefly because I wanted to go back to watching Duck Tales. Not my finest moment. 

Fast forward a few decades. Megan grew up with dogs and said she wants a dog at some point. I tell her that we can get a dog as soon as we get a tortoise. She agrees and we're off and running. 

The plan was to get be a tortoise for Father's Day. We were doing a lot of research, looking in a lot of places online both for a tortoise but also for an enclosure for our tortoise. We had a lot of questions, especially about the enclosure so I decided that our best bet was to actually talk to someone. I went to a local reptile store and here's for the conversation went:

"Hi! Welcome to Nebraska Aquatic Supply!"

(Thinks about asking his enclosure question but then decides to go for it) "You don't happen to have any tortoises, do you?"

"Actually, we only have one. He's a Russian tortoise"

(Eyes light up): "Really?! Can I see him?"

We knew we wanted a Russian tortoise because they're small and easy to manage. It was too perfect. I bought him right away and took him home. 

The kids love Gus. They are constantly trying to feed him and like holding him. Thaliea has already been pooped on by him. At the end of the night, he and I have some time together and he likes to crawl all over me. I think he's getting used to me too. 

Russian tortoises are supposed to live somewhere between 40-60 years in captivity. Our best guess is that Gus is about 2 or 3 years old, so we are looking forward to having him be a part of our family for a long time. 

Have an excellent day!

International Getaway!!!

Hello, friends! 

It's a few weeks late but I wanted to give an update on International Getaway. 

This year's Getaway was the biggest we'd ever had! We had 77 students from over 20 countries attend this year, which was massive! When you include the staff and families, I think we ended up with over 100 folk in attendance. Wow! 

My role was kid duty (as usual). Because of some flooding in our basement earlier in the week, JoJo and I didn't come up until Friday (it started on Thursday) but that didn't stop us from having a good time. The older kids especially enjoyed hanging out with another staff kid who was there. They spent pretty much the whole time on the dock, trying to catch fish, frogs, and collecting shells.

A few highlights: 

- Watching the kids play. As Ezra and Thaliea have gotten older, their sense of independent play has grown. They're also much more responsible than they were a year ago and can fend for themselves a little better. That was great because it gave me more energy to focus on JoJo, who is still growing and needs my help a little more. 

- Fishing. Not only was it fun catching fish (isn't it always?), but it was also fun watching others fish for the first time. For many of the international students, it was there first time with a rod and reel. The look of elation they had when they hooked their first fish was so great! 

- Cultural Showcase. One of the highlights of the weekend is the Cultural Showcase. Students get to show do a performance and it's always a good time. There was dancing. There was singing. There was beat boxing. There was a PowerPoint presentation. The Cultural Showcase had it all! 

- Dari-B. There's an ice cream shop not too far from the camp. We go there every time we're at the camp and it's always excellent. =0). 

- Seeing Megan at work. Megan had been director for the past few years but this year was "just" put on hospitality. Still, it was so great seeing her in her element, whether it be making students feel welcome, having great conversations about Jesus, or just making sure that everyone was well fed. 

I've said before that International Getaway is one of the best things that we do as a Region and this year was more proof of that. Hooray for International Getaway! 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Growing Up...

Hello, friends! 

Last week, we hit a big milestone in our family. Jonah learned how to swing on the swing by himself! After many weeks of wanting to learn but also wanting to be pushed constantly, he's now decided that it's better for him if he swings by himself. He was very proud of himself. 

Megan and I had some mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, we love how Jonah continues to grow and develop. We also love that we don't have to stand behind him and push him for forever when he wants to swing. Megan is especially excited for the prospect of Jonah being able to entertain himself while she does some summer gardening. 

On the other hand, it is a reminder that our kiddos aren't as young as they used to be and that they're becoming more and more independent. We are getting closer and closer to the point where we're going to have 3 school aged kids, which I think will be a major transition for us. 

It's not just JoJo either. Last week, Thaliea celebrated her 7th birthday, and she wanted to have a "spa day" birthday party, which meant a bunch of little girls at our house doing their nails and putting on face masks (the boys and I were banished from the house so I took them to an arcade). Her friend group has changed in this school year and her personality is becoming even more pronounced. Ezra has also seen his friend group adjust and his interests have changed some too. He's finished the first 2 books of Harry Potter and we're finding that he can do a lot more things on his own (like cook eggs for breakfast). He also can swim on his own now, which is HUGE. 

Ultimately, all these things are good things. We want our kids to be independent. We want them to be able to think for themselves. We're thankful that they continue to learn and grow and develop into people that other people want to be around. Still, it's weird... 

A few months ago, Jonah had a really big problem of sleeping through the night. He'd get up around 2 or 3 pretty regularly. Sometimes he would cry in his bed for us. Sometimes he would walk into our bedroom and drag us out of bed to put him back to sleep. It was a really rough time for getting good sleep but it was also sweet in its own way, knowing that he just wanted his mommy and daddy. I just noticed last week that we haven't had any problems with him sleeping through the night in quite some time. I guess he's growing up, and that's OK. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam