Since the Simple Woman’s Daybook has been moved to Tuesdays now, I’m trying a new Monday feature. (Thanks to SAHM for tipping me off on that!) Hope you enjoy.

We were in Vietnam to adopt Brian in July and August. To say it was hot and humid is an understatement of the gigantic variety. I’ve never felt heat like that – well, maybe in Arizona where it was 114. But it was 100 degrees with 100% humidity. I began to sweat the instant I left the air conditioned hotel. It was miserable. How did the every day person who lived there survive? Well, I saw more than one old woman, squatting in the doorway of her home, fanning herself with this wonderful, scoop-like fan, woven like a basket. We’d bought some beautiful perfumed fans to take home to my mom as a gift, but I wanted one of these. We searched the shops high and low but never found one. Then one day, as we were out on our daily shopping venture, we literally tripped over a woman on a bicycle, loaded down with small brooms and these fans! It was great. I eagerly shelled out the few dong she quoted as the price and came away with several of them.

We got back to the hotel that evening after dinner, and the never-on-when-you-need-it electricity was out again. We waited in the hotel lobby for a while, not wanting to climb the seven flights of stairs to our room, which we assumed would be rather oven-like. But Brian was tired and getting fussy, so one of the girls who worked there took a candle and led us up the stairs to our room. It was hot. The windows didn’t open. But that very day, the Lord had provided the woman with the fans. We stripped down to our undies (TMI?) and the three of us laid on the bed fanning ourselves until the electricity kicked back on.

We were half a world away from our home and our culture, new parents struggling to find our way. Sometimes it felt like God wasn’t in this place where they worshiped trees. But he gave us this wonderful reminder that he is with us wherever we go. He provides us with exactly what we need at the precise moment we need it. We needed those fans that night to stay cool. We needed his reminder that he was right there beside us, a reminder that he will never leave us or forsake us.