New Friends and the One Year Mark

Well, as of yesterday, we have been in Thailand one full year! It's amazing and I am sure I have changed a lot in this year. I just want to share with you what I wrote in my journal a year ago on June 25, 2005

"As I begin to write in this new journal I think back on my college
journal. I was excited about the LORD and excited to see what He was
going
to do in my life at Toccoa Falls College. Tonight, I am again in
a new
phase of life getting ready to realize and begin some of what God
called me to
at TFC. It's VERY exciting but I think more so it's VERY
humbling. I
am very aware of my sin and pride and I am also keenly
aware of my lack of
dependence on the Shepherd of my soul."

So, maybe I haven't changed all that much. I am still very aware of my sin and daily humbled because of it. I can thank God because I know I am His, He has bought me with a price and He is NOT letting me go. Praise the Lord, for my name is written on the palm of His hand!

On another note, I think it might be finally happening, I think I have some Thai friends!
How exciting! As PJ, Calvin, and I have made a habit of going
outside in the early evening to walk around and try to meet neighbors it seems
God has directed us to two women specifically who are always so friendly and
nice to us. These two women each have a son. One woman is married to
a Bulgarian man and the other woman is married to a Thai. Their little
boys are both younger than PJ and older than Calvin (one is almost 2, and the
other is 2 ½). PJ loves playing with them, but mostly loves the one little
boys’ toys! Just about every night they expect us to come out and play and
talk and walk. It is so nice to feel welcomed like this and to feel that I
have some friends. Granted, there is still a long way to go before sharing
the Gospel but I am thrilled that God is answering our (when I say “our” I mean
both yours there in the States (or wherever you might be) and ours) prayers for
the relationships He is building in our new neighborhood. I also have
received two phone calls from one of the women I got to know on the English
retreat. Please pray for my relationship with this woman as
well.

I can’t believe how much busier life is here. It is
just crazy. So, I know I have posted a lot in the past few days but there
is SO much more to write about. It is really hard to tell you everything.
At any rate, I will do my best to keep you updated and aware of how to
pray.

On that note, there is one area specifically that if
you feel the Spirit lead, please pray for us. PJ as you might remember is
turning three on July 16. Most of the time, he has been a pleasant
child to be around. A few months before leaving Lopburi he started to act
quite rudely to people, but especially Thai people. Here in Thailand it is very
important for little children to “wai” their elders. To “wai” is to simply
put your hands together and bow your head. PJ basically has been refusing
to do it but it has really gotten bad since moving to Bangkok. I think
that it is a combination of a lot of different things (sin, transition in
moving, and his age.) I have been really concerned and often times
embarrassed at his behavior when greeting Thai people. He has started
getting spanked for it once we return home and we have seen some improvement but
still the problem is there. He also (and I think this is mostly
age-related) has shown that he is afraid. When he hears a loud truck roar
by or any load noise he is quite frightful. So, I started praying for PJ
and then the other night in my Psalms reading I read Psalm 4. It was so
encouraging for me to read and so I have now begun to pray it over not just PJ
but over Paul and Calvin as well. Below, I have written out a few of the
verses, the ones that really spoke to me.
v.3-8 “But know the LORD has set
apart the godly man for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him.
Tremble
and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.
Selah.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the LORD.
Many
are saying, “Who will show us any good?” Lift up the light of Your countenance
upon us, O LORD!
You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their
grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You
alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.”

My favorite verse is
verse 6 “Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD!” This has
become my prayer for our family but especially PJ. How I long to see him
reflecting Christ in his behavior and I have great hope that he will.

So, these have been just a few musings of mine of late.
Thanks for stopping in this little location on the blog-o-sphere. God
bless

Learning How to Cook Thai

Pictured to the left is my new teacher, Khruu At. She is doing a great job teaching Rhianna (our teammate who just arrived the end of May) and me Thai. I am studying a module to do with kitchen stuff but mostly with how to make Thai dishes and the names of the ingredients in those dishes. So, last week I asked Paa At (she has asked us to call her Paa becuase it means "auntie") if one day she could teach me how to make some Thai dishes. Today was the day we decided on and instead of PJ, Calvin and I going to Rhianna's, Rhianna and her daughter Emmy came here.
I went out yesterday morning and bought the vegetables and spices I needed from the truck that comes thru our neighborhood at 7AM. I misunderstood our neighbors (by the way). The truck doesn't sell the actual soups but you can buy the stuff to make the dishes from the truck. They even sell meat! It's great. But, I have digressed yet again.
So, we decided to make Tom Khaa Kai, Fried Rice and Cashew Chicken. Tom Khaa Kai is a very yummy soup made with chicken, lemongrass, coconut milk and several other ingredients that I don't have an English word for! It was delicious! The meal was so filling and even though I was full I could've continued eating! In the picture to the left you see to the far left the fried rice, then on the plate in the front is cashew chicken. In the small bowl is the Tom Khaa Kai and in the large pot is jasmine rice. (We had a whole soup pot full of the Tom Khaa Kai). There was a lot of food leftover, so you know what we will be eating for supper! I also sent some home with Rhianna.
Pictured to the left is our teacher with Rhianna. Rhianna is due to have her second child the end of August.
I am hoping to get some of these recipes perfected before long. They are so good and simple to make (and much cheaper than eating farang food) BUT the difficulty comes in knowing how much of x and y to throw in the pot. The Thais just know and so I hope that someday (not too far from now) I will just "know" too! 

From the Archives

This is a snake story from our Lopburi days. Just before we moved in May Phii Lina was doing laundry and I was rocking Calvin. She said, "Crystal, you might want to go get Paul, there's a snake out here." So, I went and got Paul and this is the snake she saw. Paul saw it and identified it as a poisonous snake and so he killed it. I will mention that he felt very badly about killing the snake. He said that it wasn't that poisonous and that if bit you would only have to go to the hospital...sometimes I wonder about him! It made me feel better that it was dead though (in my opinion they only good snake is a dead snake!) 

"ngu" or snake

We had our first snake sighting today at our house here in Bangkok. It was pretty crazy. I was talking to Paul and I noticed outside the back window a green thing climbing up the pole and said to Paul, "there's a snake!" Of course, those of you who know Paul know that he was really excited to see a snake. He immediately said, "oh, it's not poisonous." I am always amazed at his talent in correctly identifying animals but especially snakes. He refused to kill this snake so instead he took a rake and tossed it back over the wall from which it came. It started to climb up the awning and Paul knew that wouldn't be good! Anyway, here are a few pictures of the snake. Sorry they aren't better but the sun was in the wrong spot for getting good pictures!
You can be sure I will be checking and double checking while I am doing laundry on the back porch!
In this picture the snake is really hard to see but it's there. On the left side you might be able to see a squiggly thing, well that is the snake. 

Another New Blog to Check Out!

Well, our friend, Catherine, has started a blog. She is a very talented young woman who spent six weeks with our team last summer here in Bangkok. She decided she liked it so much she is returning in about a month to take a position at the international Christian school teaching music. We are very excited to have her joining us here and looking forward to helping her in any way we can. Her blog is www.catherinegracerogers.blogspot.com, check it out and keep her in your prayers if you have room to sqeeze her in!

More Pictures of our Weekend

Here I am teaching one of my two classes. It was on "compliments" and so was VERY hard to explain what a compliment is. In American culture it is VERY common to compliment someone once greeting them but in Thailand that is very strange. If you do this, they think you want the shirt you complimented them on, etc. So, I had to explain that. It is also very common in Thailand to give an insult when greeting instead of a compliment for fear of spirits. This happens very often with little children. Instead of saying, "you're baby is beautiful" a Thai will often say "you're baby is ugly." They don't mean to be rude but it comes from the beleif that if the spirit overhear you giving a compliment such as that to a baby some bad thing will happen to the baby. During the class I had them write out compliments about a friend and the hotel we were staying at. They did a great job!
Here I am pictured with my class and fellow teacher, Sarah.
Another beach games picture is below. We had a sand castle competition.
























And another picture of "dizzy bat."
The only BAD thing about this weekend is that many of us are sick with some sort of stomach thing. Please pray for quick recovery and that it is nothing viral. Thankfully, our children aren't sick and Paul has had a bit of queasiness but all in all I am bearing the brunt of it. Please pray for recovery.
Also pray for the relationships that were started this weekend. Pray for God to continue to build them and draw families to Himself. I didn't mention that we used clips from the Narnia movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to be a segway to talk about spiritual things. Please pray because many Thais had a lot of good questions and are seeking deeper Truth. Thanks again. 

A GREAT weekend!

To those of you who were faithfully praying for us, THANK YOU! Our weekend was full of fun (sunuuk) and also good teaching. I guess I should back up and let those of you who didn't know that the MTW Thailand team hosted an English Family Retreat at Cha'am Beach. It was wonderful. We had about 100 Thai folks join us and everyone really seemed to have a lot of fun. I had several Thai people ask me if we do this every year! We hope to. To the left you see a picture of Paul judging some beach games. We did the old baseball bat game where you have to put your head on the top of a baseball bat and run around three times and then run back to your team. Instead of baseball bats, however, we used pvc pipe. It worked just as well, if not better! We left on Saturday morning (around 7AM) and arrived around 11. Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings had English teaching sessions. Because it was a family camp (by the way, the first time we had ever done a FAMILY camp!) we had people from all different levels of English language proficiency. I taught the Adult Intermediate along with one of our interns, Sarah. I REALLY enjoyed teaching. I had women ranging in age from 16 to 47. It was a delight. I was also able to connect with some other mom and and in fact this morning one of them called me! I was so excited and surprised. Paul mostly was invovled with the games and watching our children while I was teaching. He also was able to meet some guys who attended.
Pictured to the left is PJ playing in the sand with his friend Sinai. Sinai is almost 2 1/2 and a sweetie. His mom works with our team.











Here is Calvin with another Thai worker, Pawn. Pawn is due to have her first child the end of September! Everyone wanted to see Calvin and everyone was googly eyed over him. Almost everyone commented that he has such a good personality.
Pictured here is an entire family that attended. This family was so sweet (the mom and oldest daughter were in my English class). They LOVED PJ and Calvin. Please pray for them. They live very close to our office and the mother attends New Community for English classes. 

kitchen, living room, dining room

Another blessing with this house is that it came mostly furnished which means we didn't have to spend extra money on things like a table, chairs, beds, a couch or closets, etc. By the way, in Thailand closets are not built into the room, you have to have them installed or buy a wardrobe, etc. We have been blessed with LOTS of closet space...which is just really wonderful.
Pictured you see our kitche, then our living room which has doors that open up onto that front porch and then the dining room. The downstairs is in an L shape.  

Long Awaited Pictures of our NEW home!

I know, I know, everyone has been dying to see pictures of our new place here in Bangkok. Here is an outside shot from the soi. It is a step up from the house in Lopburi...we have actual glass windows (!) but there isn't as much room to play outside as we had in Lopburi. O well, can't have everything. We are very thankful for the playground down the street a little ways.






This is our "front porch." You will definitely get wet if it happens to rain while sitting on it but I like it. Paul and I both feel like this house has a definite Florida beach home feel to it...in fact this morning as I was hanging laundry out (below) there was a slight breeze and several water birds flying about and I thought, "I feel like I am in FL" except of course I NEVER once hung my clothes out to dry in FL!




This is the "gravel pit" where PJ spends a lot of time playing with his trucks. We really don't have a nice grassy yard but he doesn't really seem to mind. The tree in the background is a mango tree and the tree in the foreground is a jack fruit tree! We have yet to receive fruit from them, but hopefully soon the mango tree will produce. We have been told by our neighbor that the jack fruit tree should give fruit in Nov/ Dec.
And this is our back porch. You can't tell from the picture but it is actually slopping quite badly. Well, maybe you can tell from the picture. You can see our washing machine and "drying machine" and our trusty bike. Notice the wall on the right side of the picture. This wall is what protects us from the water buffalo and goats that graze on the other side. There is some water on the other side too which is why when I was hanging out clothes this morning there were water birds flying about. It's nice to have a little bit of country here in the city! 

The Boys

Here are Calvin and PJ, all pictures taken today. The pics of PJ are of him making silly faces, so don't be concerned that he looks a little abnormal, he's supposed to! I made hamburgers tonight with real groud beef (this is something we didn't eat much of in Lopburi because it was out of the way to buy ground beef). Anyways, tonight as we were eating supper PJ took his hamburger out of the bun and ate the bun alone and then ate the hamburger, picking it apart...not the greatest table manners. I thought it was pretty funny though.

 

No More Blogs?

Well, I just have to admit that after writing my last post most of you regular readers were probably concerned that I would no longer be blogging (and with my absence in the blogging world the past few weeks, I was beginning to wonder myself!). BUT, no, I have thought about giving up the blog in reference to my previous blog on idleness but then I realized that this blog is not an idle use of my time but that it's purpose is to encourage our supporters and also give you a glimpse of our life here as well as help you know how to pray. I think that is happening and so until the Lord shows me that it's no longer happening and that I am just wasting time I will continue to blog. So, there you have it!

So, how to sum up the past three or so weeks in a single blog entry is an impossible feat that I am not really going to try to do. Our new home is definitely up and running. We received our washing machine and stove/oven two weeks ago (that was nice!) and our water is finally getting delivered without any problems too. We have sorta had a routine the past couple weeks but not really. I start back with language on Monday so the past two weeks have been a lot of just having fun and meeting our neighbors in our new neighborhood and hanging out with teammates. Paul, of course, has been working with the five intern guys that are here for the summer. He usually leaves around 10:30Am and gets home around 9PM. He seems to be really enjoying the ministry with these guys and with the Thai students he's meeting at the university.
Perhaps the biggest thing that has been happening in this wonderful country is the celebration of the king's reign for 60 years! It has been amazing to witness how much love the people of Thailand have for their king. He is deeply loved and adored. It's really been a neat time in the history of this country and I am glad to have witnessed it. If you'd like to know some more about it all check out my friend Beth or Kim's blogs...they have covered the topic well.
I have been trying to get out and meet our neighbors. PJ and Calvin are HUGE draws in this department! There is a small playground in our neighborhood and we try to go there in the late afternoons/early evening to meet people. (This is when everyone is out.) Probably those I know the best so far (and it's VERY surfacy right now) are our two neighbors who live across the street. The wife of one family is old enough to be my mom and she told us to call her Khun Paa which means "aunt" and the other family that lives right next door have a little girl who is eight years old. She LOVES the boys and plays with them a lot. She actually came in to our home the other day, it was great. Her name is Faa. Her mom is Khun Noi and I didn't get her dad's name. Please pray for these neighbors. They have been very helpful and friendly.
There is JUST so much to share and I really don't know how to share it all. How do I paint a picture of life here? Maybe I will just have to go out with the camera some day and take pictures!
I will say one really, really great thing about our neighborhood is the fruit truck that drives thru every afternoon to buy fruit from (!) and the "som tom lady" who drives thru on her motorbike/food stall and sells a northeast dish called "som tom" which is unripe papaya salad with peanuts and peppers (and REALLY good!). There is also another truck that comes thru around 7AM that sells Thai soups and veggies, I haven't bought anything from that truck yet becuase I am not really in the mood for a really spicy soup at 7 in the morning. And PJ would probably tell you his favorite vendor is the ice cream motorcycle that comes thru. So, even though we have no market close by we have the next best thing! It's truly great and a blessing.
At the end of our soi about a kilometer away is a fairly large mosque...yes, that is right. I haven't noticed any Muslims in our neighborhood yet but I keep my eyes open. The women are usually veiled here. Only 4 percent of the Thai population is Muslim and most of those live down in the southern part of Thailand. So, when we are at the playground in the late afternoons we can hear the call to prayer and we can hear it at other times of the day too if we listen closely.
The boys are growing quicly and seem to be doing well. Calvin had a doctor appointmet last Friday and he weighed in at 8 kilos! He is a big boy.
As I mentioned earlier I am starting back with language on Monday. PJ, Calvin and I will be traveling to our teammate's house (they have a little girl PJ's age) and we will take turns caring for children while the other is with the Thai tutor. I am planning on doing some very light homeschooling with the kids during this time. I am looking forward to starting a "schedule" with PJ and have been looking forward to this time for some time now. Speaking of homeschooling, I am reading RC Sproul Jr's book "When You Rise Up" and it's getting me even more excited about homeschooling and the WHY of homeschooling. It's good to get our priorities right. I will stop there...another blog on that later!
Well, this is long enough. I will try to post some pictures of our surroundings and our boys! Thank you for your faithful prayers for us...

"...the bread of idleness..."

Since we have moved to Bangkok we now have ALL of our beloved books at hand…and it’s great! I never realized how much I miss picking up a book and reading a few encouraging words (most of our books are spiritual growth/how to raise a godly heritage type books and reference books). I started reading Doug Wilson’s book “My Life for Yours” the other night. I know there is much debate out there on Doug Wilson but I am not going to go into all that here. In the book, Wilson goes through each room of the house and relates it to Scripture. It’s pretty neat, actually and it has caused a great deal of thinking in my little pea brain. Then two nights ago in my proverbs reading I read Proverbs 31. If you are familiar with the Bible then you perhaps may have heard about this “Proverbs 31 woman.” I have heard MANY a sermon on this woman (and I have read MANY a book on this woman too!) and I think every Christian woman desires to be THIS woman and every Christian man WANTS a woman like this. Verses 10 thru 31 paint a picture of the godly woman, the woman who fears the LORD. In my reading the other night verse 27 REALLY stood out to me. It reads (New International Version) “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” And then I continued reading. Then, I believe the Holy Spirit of God stopped me and had me reread the verse, “and DOES NOT EAT the bread of IDLENESS.” “Whoa”, thought I. “Is that me?” thought I. “God are you saying I am sinning in this area?” And, yep, the nasty truth is that I am found wanting, I am oftentimes idle with my time. The great thing about God’s Spirit and His Truth (the Word) is that once God hits us over the head and gets it into our little pea brains we want to obey and please Him in that area though it may be a struggle to do so.
Then on Sunday we watched another DVD sermon from our home church. And Pastor Phil preached on Romans 8. The most striking thing (for me) in that sermon was when he exposited verses 5-8. He talked about our mindset and what we think about when there is nothing else to think about. What kinds of things fill our minds? What kinds of things fill MY mind?? Good question and lately there hasn’t been much down time but as I have been pondering that question these past days I am realizing that it is VERY tempting for me to turn on the TV. (I am not saying the TV is an evil and vile thing in and of itself but I waste time in front of it when I could be doing something that will bring greater glory to God i.e serving my family and neighbors).
It continues to amaze me how God puts all these things together to bring me to understand more of what He wants from me and to expose to me more of my sinful habits and ways. His Word is so powerful and His Spirit so amazing. I do digress…
So, the past two days I have tried to fill the days NOT being idle. I will think, I should turn on the TV while the boys are napping but instead I have not, I have ironed the pile of laundry from the previous days’ load. (And just so you know I COULD justify turning on the TV because it’s Thai TV and there is SOME good in watching it for language ability!). This passage also ties in nicely with the book I am reading by Doug Wilson. He talks about the wife’s domain (the house, just in case you didn’t realize that fact!). So, I have been challenged to have the house in order and clean for when Paul gets home. These three points have come together beautifully and though I am still not perfect (waiting for GLORY on that one) I am much more aware of my time and how I use it.

Last Look at Lopburi Part Two

Khruu Wan taking her turn with Calvin.
PJ having a moment of the packing blues. He has often asked when we are going to "our other one home?"


Last Tuesday was PJ's last day to go to Shiloh and play with his friends there (Shiloh is the name of the OMF Guesthouse and where PJ was babysat in the mornings). I decided to make his last day special for him and for his friends so I made cupcakes for them all to enjoy during their "tea time." It was a hit and PJ felt VERY special. 

Last Look at Lopburi, Part One

Well, it's sad to say the least, but we have officially moved out of our humble little home in Lopburi and are now adjusting to life in the "Big Mango" (as our teammates would say!). Here are some pictures in review of our last five days in Lopburi.

Pictured above is my last teacher at LLC. Her name is Tum. She is the sweetest and best! I LOVE her and I WISH I could have brought her to Bangkok with me. We had lots of fun these past three months.
On our final day of class (the 20th of May) Paul and I bought a cake and some other sweets at the local bakery and took them to the school for our teachers and fellow students. Here are several of the teachers at LLC enjoying their cake and Calvin too!

Khruu Ann, Khruu Toy both take their turns holding onto Calvin and saying "goodbye."

Getting Settled

I am sure most of you have noticed I haven't posted for awhile. I am also sure most of you regular readers are aware that we moved this past Wednesday from our home in Lopburi to our new home in Bangkok. We have been busy this past week cleaning, packing, unpacking, cleaning some more, shopping, and buying and did I mention cleaning?! It seems in Thailand you can never clean enough. It's always so dusty and dirty. Anyway, I have lots of pictures to post but I don't have the time to do it right now. Please be patient the pictures are on the way soon...I promise.
As for how we are doing? Well, we thank you for your continued prayers for us. We have truly felt them. PJ's adjustment has been quite smooth and Calvin doesn't even seem to notice we've moved locations though I think both boys (and mommy too) miss Phii Lina VERY much. We hope to have her visit us soon. We would appreciate continued prayers for us as we adjust to a new rhythm of life here in Bangkok.
Well, I will post some more later, until then please keep praying and THANK YOU! God is good and blessing us with His guidance and assurance.

PJ's Friends

The following are a few pictures of PJ with his friends here in Lopburi.

 

Saying Goodbye

In the past days and weeks I have been thinking a lot about our time here in Lopburi. When we first arrived here and I wondered how I would survive the hot season without a/c throughout my whole house and I wondered how Calvin’s birth would go with me traveling two hours to see a doctor (by choice) in Bangkok. I wondered how my relationship with our house help would go and would I ever be ok with her loving my children as her own? I, obviously, was concerned about my language ability and truly was under the assumption that after a year of fulltime language study I would be fluent in Thai, it didn’t take long to figure out that that is NOT the norm nor the case for me! I was somewhat annoyed that our house here in Lopburi only has one sink to wash our hands in, wash our dishes in and brush our teeth in. Yeah, kinda gross, right?! But, after 10 months of living here, I have adjusted to all of the above and have even found much comfort in our life here. It’s really bitter-sweet to have to say goodbye to it all. From our wonderful house help who is also a friend to the quirkiness of our home here, I will really miss it all. I have found great satisfaction and freedom in jumping on my bike to get to the market or to the local coffee shop to have a coffee with a friend, but in Bangkok, I won’t be jumping on my bike as a means of transportation. Life is really going to change in another week and I am really excited about the changes but I think it might take some time to get used to it all. In some ways we are entering a totally different world in Bangkok and yet SO much is the same.

Last night was our last fellowship group. We spent much time in prayer for the various teams and ministries that the LLC group represents. It was very encouraging to hear the hearts of our friends here and their desire for God’s will to be done in their lives and ministries. A highlight of the night was that Jan and Jose (remember our Dutch neighbors who moved to Bangkok just two months ago) came in from Bangkok. Jose has a language check today. It was great to see them again and tonight we will be eating supper with them.

I think, perhaps, one of the hardest aspects of leaving is the fact that PJ is really going to miss his friends here too. He loves going to Shiloh (where he is babysat in the mornings) and loves interacting and playing with the kids there. I thank God for the opportunity PJ has had here this past year, of being introduced to the Thai language in a very natural way plus interacting with children from different cultures than his own. He is the ONLY American in the group and so it’s been good for him to learn to play and get along with others from other cultures. I thank God that there are other children on our team that he will be playing with in Bangkok but he will also have to make new friends again in our neighborhood and I foresee that being a huge transition for PJ. Please pray with us for God’s Spirit to be upon PJ as he says goodbye to all that is familiar here and will be learning along with us all the new stuff in Bangkok.

Often when I am about to move on from a place that I have lived I do a lot of reflecting and regretting. I realize things I should have done that I didn’t do and things I did that I shouldn’t have done. I always think, “I should have done more for the Lord.” Paul says I am too hard on myself and that I set very high expectations for myself. He reminded me I need to live each day by grace. I agree that this is true of me and I know that it’s not my works that make God happy but it’s the joyful obedience in serving Him that pleases Him; however, I still need to be disciplined with time and energy to be available to serve Him when He opens that door. I am looking forward to a fresh start in Bangkok. I am looking forward (albeit it will be hard at times) to having an open door policy with our home and Lord willing having Thai friends dropping in to see us often. It will be exciting and at times heart-breaking to see what the Lord is going to do not just through our family but through the other families on our team as well living in community with Thai people. Something Paul and I have realized is that we could very easily be so family-oriented that we forget about the lost and hurt world right outside our door. We need to keep the right balance of the two. We don’t want our children growing up to resent us for always being involved with everyone else except them but we are here to proclaim the message of Christ. Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to strike the right balance. The Lord gave me this verse the other day during my devotions, I will leave it with you.
“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” (Proverbs 24:3-4) Please pray that our house would be filled with wisdom and understanding. Thank you for your prayers!

Babies, Tailors and Haircuts

For those of you who know PJ, he loved (and still LOVES) his "night-night" or pacifier or binky (whatever you like to call it, PJ coined the term "night-night" when he was just a little guy). We are down to PJ only having his "night-night" during naptimes so we are happy about that. It seems, however, Calvin prefers his fingers. Here you see him almost ready to fall asleep with his night-night out of his mouth but a few fingers in. This is a little disturbing to me because you can't just cut off a finger or two when you want your child to stop sucking them...what's a parent to do?!
Earlier this week Paul surprised me with my anniversary present. (We have been married 6 years yesterday!). Anyway, Thai silk is very beautiful here and it is very cheap to get clothes tailor made, so he said he wanted me to go get something dressy made with real Thai silk! I was so excited. So, yesterday afternoon, Phii Lina and I went and picked out an outfit (I will have to show you a picture once it's made) and the fabric. I picked this pretty pink for the shirt and a dark purple color for the pants. I can't wait to get them! You can see in the background the large selection of silk they had and all the colors to choose from! It was a nightmare for me because I am so indecisive but it didn't take TOO long to pick some colors out.



And here is the lady who is going to make my new outfit. I will be picking it up next Saturday. This lady is our landlord's aunt! She has been making clothes for over 50 years! I think she knows what she is doing!
On a final note, this afternoon Paul is giving PJ another haircut. I think the kid eats something to cause his hair to grow. Anyway, Daddy is getting quite good at cutting his hair. This time, I asked if he could do it OUTSIDE instead of inside (less mess!). He concurred. =)