Counting down to Christmas

So we have now been in Thailand for 6 weeks! Things are starting to fall into a predictable rhythm and not feel quite so foreign. Even driving on the "wrong" side of the road in the opposite front seat isn't quite as terrifying anymore! We have enjoyed settling into our home, and getting to know better all of the people who live and work at the base. While I am primarily home with the boys and Mike is often working on various projects at the base, for the past few weeks we have had a couple of evenings a week where our whole family with join in with others who are going out on Bible distribution to give away Bibles and show the recipients a short Thai video explaining what it is and how to read it. The boys like to run up ahead and be the first to give away their Bibles, and the recipients are all very happy to meet them!

 We have had some opportunities to see some of the sights close by to where we live. Last Monday was a national holiday so the staff and us all went to the mountain Doi Tung to visit the Mae Fah Luang botanical Garden. This is where the mother to the previous King had her summer home and who was instrumental in helping local villagers to get out of growing poppies for the opium trade, learning to grow other crops and developing useful skills for tourism. The gardens were beautiful and the boys enjoyed all of the space to run around. 

 

 A couple of other discoveries very close to our house is a hot springs complete with large dinosaur statues, a hiking trail to a waterfall, and the university botanical gardens. The university also has a fighting beetle museum that hasn't yet been open the few time we have been there, but the boys sure get a kick out of the statues.  It is great to have these places close by for the boys to run around and explore.

 The boys are all very excited to be just a few days away from Christmas and have been enjoying having their advent countdown. Oscar was overcome with excitement the other day when he saw how few more little Advent tins were left before the big day! While it isn't quite like Christmas at home, we have had a great time getting our home festively decorated, and have been invited to attend a few different Christmas parties. We even hosted our annual Por Christmas party here this past week and were very popular among our guests when they saw the cheese plate we had provided. Cheese in Thailand is rare and expensive so it was fun to see it all get gobbled up with big smiles.

This past Sunday we were invited to go along with another family up to a city that borders Myanmar to a church that is comprised primarily of young girls who are getting sponsored to go to high school and are mentored by a christian couple. These girls are high risk for getting forced into the sex trade by their families who are very poor, and many of them have siblings who have already gone brothels in Bangkok. It was really amazing to be able to participate in church and the Christmas party with these girls and see them so full of joy and so excited to be learning about their bibles. After the church service many children from the village around the church came to play and were all invited to a Christmas program with their parents that evening.

We have been able to make a dent in cleaning up our garden and during the Christmas break hope to get some planting and gardening accomplished. We had made a large pile of dead branches and leaves in our big garden clean up, so in true Thai style last night we did a big ol' burn of the whole thing. The boys loved it.

Overall, life here is going well! Unfortunately our Vancouver home is still vacant after having yet another renter canceled last minute (the day he was supposed to move it) which is disappointing. We have no idea why we haven't had success with finding tenants, but need to continue to trust in God's call for us here in Thailand, and His plan for our home back in Vancouver. 

Merry Christmas!!

Missionary Mama

So we have had 2 full weeks now since we arrived at our home in Chiang Rai and life is starting to get into a new rhythm. Our home family is involved with life and ministry at the YWAM base here, but Mike is most often put to work while my primary role is with the boys.

Life as a missionary mama is in many ways what I expected. Lots of laundry... there are two laundry machines at the base to be shared for all 35 people who are here so I try to sneak in a load every day to keep on top of things. We then take it home and hang it up to dry outside our house.

Life with the boys is very similar to home, without the public playgrounds, science world, the library, aquarium... ok, so the boys are the same, but I have had to be a bit more creative with how we spend out time. We are in a quiet village just outside Chiang Rai so we can wander the streets without too much fear of being run over. Even better when there is a stop at the local corner store for a popsicle!

The base has a small playground which the boys like to play on, and which Emmett likes to scare me by trying to jump off of. Thankfully when the dogs are around he is distracted from his death defying feats!

 We also make up fun things to do in our backyard. Emmett is still at the age where a bucket of water and some measuring cups provide endless amounts of entertainment. Isaac is excited about soccer and will practice using what we have.

The boys also enjoy watching the daily move of the local cattle from where they graze during the day to where they sleep at night

I have been trying to do some homeschool work everyday with Isaac and at times Emmett and Oscar will join in.

 Our house is feeling pretty well set up for daily life. We have a gas stove top and toaster oven for cooking and we are getting more familiar with the local grocery stores and markets.

Because of this little oven I was able to make Mike a birthday dinner with a few of his favourite foods, porchetta and apple pie! It had to be the night after his birthday due to a scheduled power outage all day on the 22nd but who doesn't want a birthday that lasts two days? We had the Wiebe's over for dinner that night which was so nice as many of you know how much we love to share food with our friends.

Mike has been trying to tame our garden, cutting back the crazy tall weeds and grass with a machete. 

 We were all very excited that one of the staff at YWAM was going to let us have his kitten, lemongrass, for the time that we are here in Thailand. We have attempted several times to take him home with us, and have bought a cat toy, cat dish, and new cat food, however lemongrass is not so sure this is a good idea. We have even gotten him to our house once which lasted about 15 seconds before he jumped over our fence and ran back to the base. Mike and I have scratched up arms and now lemongrass runs when he sees us coming. I'm starting to think we will just have a cat to visit and not to live with us.

Mike was able to go on a village outreach last week to hand out Thai bibles, and we will be doing more of that in these next weeks before Christmas. The boys and I will be heading out with them as well which I think will be really cool for the boys to be a part of. We are excited to see what God will be doing as people receive the bible in their own language and can read the good news of Jesus.

 
 While life looks primarily how I thought it would here, there are a few happy surprises I have discovered. Cy has invited me to join other missionary moms on Tuesday afternoons for a zumba exercise hour. I hide in the back row and try to figure out what the heck the ladies on the video are doing. It's lots of fun. Apparently there is even a barre fitness trained instructor here which we may try out. Apparently you don't have to live in Yaletown for this!

I have also been included in a Christmas cookie exchange with other missionary moms which I am very excited about!! Mike, the boys, and I will get to enjoy an assortment of delicious cookies which will be so nice for Christmas.

Another surprise is the loyal Gilmore Girls followers here. I have been invited to a binge weekend of all 4 episodes with some of the other ladies at the base. I'm not sure I can ditch Mike and the boys for all four 1.5 hour episodes, but I will enjoy at least one or two with the others.

 Overall, life here is good. We are so thankful for everyone at home who keep sending us love and encouragement and for all of your prayers. Keep them coming!!

Home

We have arrived in Chiang Rai, our home for the remainder of our time in Thailand. The process has begun for us to get our truck, but it was going to take about a week for everything to go through so we hired a driver to get us to Chiang Rai. He showed up at our hotel with a mini van, but quickly discovered that a family of 5 with luggage for 6 months would not fit. Minibus it is!

The trip from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai should take about 3.5 hours, but our driver accomplished it in just under 3. I have never seen such a skilled tailgater before, and his swift pace did wonders for getting Emmett to sleep.

Once getting to Chiang Rai, Rob and Cy Wiebe, our friends who run the mission we will be volunteering with, were at our new home to great us with smiles and lunch. We all tumbled out of the minibus and eagerly went inside to get a tour of our new home.

The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, one with a toilet and one with a squatty potty :). Being the only lady in a house full of boys I get first dibs on the "real" bathroom, and the boys love using the squatter! Rob and Cy explained that this house is a hybrid of Thai and Western in regards to the kitchen. Thai homes usually have the kitchen outside, and this house has it at the back of the house with a half height concrete wall, and a chainlink fence with mosquito netting from the top of the wall to the roof. A bit of an indoor/outdoor feel.

We have a gated yard, a covered carport, and an overgrown garden and gazebo we are eager to claim back from the jungle. The boys love all of the space to run around. Our new home comes with a few house guests. First is ratty, he's left a few little treats behind in the kitchen, but we think he may now be taken care of. There are also several colonies of ants that Isaac is happy about and will pick up his ant friends to run around his arms. We are looking for a loaner cat to help with our rat problem, as well as keep scorpions and snakes out of the house. Yikes! We hope the geckos that run around will help us with the bugs.

Rental houses in Thailand come totally empty but we were able to buy a few pieces of furniture off of the previous tenant and we have a few things from the base. Still we had many items to buy to equip our new home for daily life. Our first shopping expedition was at the Thai version of Costco, Makro, where we piled high our buggy with items such as dishes, mop, broom, cleaner, and a few basic food items, while our boys ran wild around us. Mike and I felt a little stunned at we evaluated what was truly necessary. Apparently, I drew the line at paper towel...
Emmett loved that they keep eggs stacked in the middle of the aisles, when we put him down at the far end he'd run happily back murmuring "eggs, eggs, eggs"

Rob and Cy have a little boy name Elias, who is 6 years old, he and Isaac and Oscar hit it off immediately and have a great time playing together. They are just a few minute walk from our house and the boys are so excited to have such easy access to a playmate. They have even been able to join the soccer team Elias is on. Isaac made it to practice this Saturday but Oscar slept right through it. He is hoping to join in next week.

Tomorrow we will be getting a better picture of what our roles will be while we are serving here in Thailand. We are really excited to start getting to work and see how God will use our family as we give our time, talents, and hearts in service to the people we encounter here.

Goodbye Chiang Mai

After a few days of settling in to Thailand in Chiang Mai we are more than ready to head to our base in Chiang Rai. We look forward to reconnecting with the mission leaders and we are excited to serve where we holidayed 4 years ago and less a couple of boys.

That being said there were a few notables from our stay in Chiang Mai.
1) The boys love affair with Songthaew is deep. Everytime one goes past Emmett shouts out Songthaew! If one is parked the boys will jump in to do a quick sweep and make sure everything is in proper order.

2) We bought a truck! Which is kinda unbelievable. One of the first things I felt called to do was buy and leave a truck for the mission. However, the reality was, vehicles in Thailand are very expensive even more so for the kind that can handle 3 car seats in the back row. But with God nothing is impossible. One of our supporting families wanted to help us out with transportation; and we had talked about buying a vehicle just before leaving. We found something suitable but it was quite a bit more than we had budgeted but after praying about it they decided they would cover all the costs. Not only does this exceed our needs and give us some freedoms here, the truck is something the mission has been praying for 10 years! Check it out ;) And if you are ever in Chiang Mai and need wheels I'd highly recommend ExpatAuto. The only downside, if you ask the boys, is less songthaew rides. I'm hoping we can pick it up on Tuesday next week. There is a lot of paperwork to do when you buy a truck in Thailand.

3) Slightly less excellent news. The renters we'd lined up from December to April bailed on us so we are once again scrambling to find new renters.

4) It's the cool dry season but since we got here its been hot and at times, rainy.

5)The boys got serious about working out.

6) We met our first elephant. Oscar says it might be a little bigger than he thought. Sorry Grandma you might not get one after all.

We are doing a bit of catch up so we will post our arrival tomorrow ;)

And we're off!

Sometime the best way to figure out how it is all going to work is just by starting. Now if you have 3 small children and the something is moving them to Thailand for six months that might not always be the case. However, here we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand about 8 weeks after we felt God's call for us to come and serve. We haven't got it figured out but we know its going to be amazing.

With just a brief look back the weeks leading up to today have been so encouraging. I want to thank our family, friends and church for the support and encouragement that we have received; and for their continuing prayers. We've blessed practically; the renting of our apartment days before we were to leave was a huge relief. We were lifted up at our send off at Westside. And have been encouraged and supported in tiny and big ways by our families and dear friends.

So Chiang Mai is our beachhead;  we'll be staying here for 5 days while we adjust to timezone changes (14hrs ahead), dietary changes (mostly for our kids) and in general life in Asia. We will be pressing North to Chiang Rai on November 10. Move to our new home. And start serving alongside our Missionary friends Rob & Cy Wiebe on the Sharebibles campaign. If you click on the Chiang Mai link you'll get a sense of where we are (if you thought we'd be at the beach a lot you will see that's not the case).

The boys deserve a ton of credit. They were real troopers getting here, Isaac pretty much stayed up 24hrs before crashing on the last flight. He was also the fastest of us to adjust, he's already on Thai time. Emmett on the other hand wakes at 3AM so I best get to bed.

Here are a few photos of the trip so far...

Arrival at YVR, Thanks Aunty Mandy! At the airport we drilled for hours for this moment.

Ready for takeoff! Every seat has its own TV!

Everyone got way too much screen time

Everyone got too much screen time

Flights were delayed in Beijing 2 hrs. They said fog but fog doesn't taste funny. Luckily there is a Panda themed play area.

All the boys like the Red Trucks (like taxis here)

Emmetts new word is Panda

As always exit through the gift shop

No loud noises, you would want to meet an angry Panda

We spent Monday doing something the boys would enjoy a little more.

First blog post ever so I'm sure I'll get better at this stuff.

We had an outing to the zoo that was a bit more fun for the boys.