The Jungle - Thailand Edition

Loy Kratong

2009-10-28T17:18:00.009+07:00

Thai people have been celebrating Loy Kratong lately. It's a festival of light, and all through out this month you can see these paper lanterns floating into the sky. A couple weeks ago, our family went to an event here where they release hundreds of these into the sky all at once! It was really amazing and beautiful! Buddhist people believe that their cares or sins float away with these lanterns. It was interesting to see the Buddhist ceremony, but we were praying for all these people to know the one way that sin is truly taken away, the blood of Jesus. Here's Evie and WInnie buying us a lantern. These women are making loy kratong boats to sell. These are floated down the river with a candle on it. This barbeque was one of the many food options while walking to the festival. Cotton candy & balloons for sale, some things aren't so different. This is the group of friends we went with. The front "stage" area had a huge buddha idol and monks sitting all around it. When entering the gate, they made all foreigners register at a table and then wear these "Foreigner Guest" stickers. We thought they were pretty hilarious. Like you can't already tell we're foreigners! Getting the lantern ready The girls holding the lit lantern waiting for the order to release them. Off they go! The girls loved the evening, but we were still getting over jet lag, so they crashed as soon as we were in the car, and left Mommy and Daddy to handle the traffic getting out of there.

Winnie's Birthday

2009-06-02T19:27:00.005+07:00

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts to Winnie for her birthday. She felt very special! She also got a new haircut!

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T19:45:00.004+07:00

We had a such a nice day celebrating Easter. Earlier this weekend, we had friends over to decorate eggs. We actually emptied the shells before we dyed them, so we could turn them into little ornaments. So after church, we hung our easter eggs on my favorite tree outside. It's been bare ever since we moved into this house in November, until the last few weeks. Now, it has beautiful pink flowers on it, perfect to remind us of the new life we have because Jesus conquered the grave.

Here's a glimpse into our Easter celebrations:

We also spent part of the afternoon making a red, white, and blue paper chain to count down the days until we come back to America! We bought plane tickets, and will be flying out on June 16th! The girls and I had fun making it, singing songs like The Star-Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle, Grand Old Flag, and God Bless America, the whole time! It's funny how patriotic you become when you live outside the US.

Our Family now has 16 eyes

2009-03-03T14:25:00.003+07:00

If you refer to a person with glasses as four-eyed, than our family is now complete with 16 eyes. Winnie became like the rest of us today when she got glasses! She was very excited because she's been asking us to take her to the eye doctor for months and it finally happened.

Valentine's Day Party

2009-03-03T13:42:00.009+07:00

Our homeschool co-op put on a Valentine's Day party for the kids from an orphanage and foster kids in the neighborhood. It was a great experience for the girls to play with and show love for these kids. The kids from the orphanage are all special needs children, and I think it's great for the girls to feel comfortable around people who God made different than them. I was proud of the kindness Evie and Winnie showed. (This was at a private park that a Thai pastor built for these kids. It even has a trampoline and two ponies!)

Winnie helping a little boy make a valentine

Evie playing with a couple kids

Evie & Winnie bouncing on the trampoline. They would lay some of the disabled children on the trampoline one at a time and as the other kids bounced around, the child would just laugh and love it!

Winnie by one of the ponies

All of the children were play fighting with these balloons on sticks. This little guy would hold the sticks between his toes and swing them around. If someone took them away, he'd start to cry! He was having such a good time!

The park

These kids were so precious. It breaks my heart to think of how many children in this world don't have parents to take care of them.

Got your tickets?

2009-03-03T13:25:00.002+07:00

Planes, Umbrellas, and Worms

2009-01-22T09:32:00.009+07:00

Yesterday we went on another field trip with the co-op group. This one was to the Chiang Mai International Airport where we "followed the luggage." Evie found it interesting, and was excited to wear the special security badge that let us go behind the scenes. I thought there was a little too much standing and waiting around the airport, which we've had plenty of in our travels! I didn't want to miss the opportunity though, because I know you could never do this at a US airport anymore!

Back in November, we went to the silk and umbrella factories that are right next door to each other. This was much more fascinating to me. At the umbrella factory, we were able to see how the make "sa" paper (mulberry paper). And then how they actually make the thai umbrellas and fans. Then the people that work there paint incredible pictures on them! The girls each got to paint their own little umbrellas too.

Then we walked next door to the silk factory. This was my favorite! We were able to see the whole process of how silk is made from the eggs, to the live silkworms, to the cocoon. Each cocoon is wound from a single continuous strand, and It takes 50 cocoons to make one silk thread! We also saw silk moths. They make sure to only harvest a certain percentage of the cocoons, so that the silk moth will never die out.

Next we saw how they die the thread different colors, how it is wound onto spools, and then how they weave it into silk cloth. There were many women working at weaving looms all packed into this factory. Some made solid color cloth and could go pretty fast. Others wove very elaborate designs with the silk and only made a few inches of cloth in a day! No wonder silk is so expensive! They had many beautiful items available in there showroom, but none that we could afford!

Turning the big 3-0

2009-01-15T20:39:00.009+07:00

On November 7th, I turned 30. I was kind of dreading it.

Cory was very sweet in throwing me a surprise party at the Centre. I thought I was showing up for a Disney themed Friday night party, but it turned out to be a "Kim's Birthday" theme. The students had to decorate cakes and make me presents, while I was the judge. Like I said it was nice of Cory to do, but as I was already missing home and wishing I could celebrate with family and friends, having a surprise party where I only knew a few of the 30+ people gathered, made me even more sad.

I decided to celebrate my birthday in my own way. I wanted to give myself a mini-makeover, so I got my hair chopped. I also asked a couple friends to come shopping with me and bought some new clothes and make-up. I spent 5 hours at the mall that day, and felt much better about turning 30! (Now if I can just make it to 40 without any gray hairs!)

BEFORE

AFTER

Everybody's Got a Water Buffalo

2009-01-15T17:54:00.013+07:00

One of the moms at the homeschool co-op we go to has decided to plan field trips for us this year. The first one was a trip to the buffalo farm on October 9th. The buffalo farm is where you get to learn about growing rice and how water buffalo used to be used before modern day machinery.

This day was MESSY and so much fun! We were able to push the plow behind the buffalo in the rice paddy, plant rice, and mount a buffalo. (Check out the video, it's harder than it looks!) The girls were too squeamish to get into the mud much, which is understandable considering it was up to my knees! Here's a bunch of pictures, I'm not going to take the time to worry about layout.

Back on the Blog wagon

2009-01-15T17:19:00.002+07:00

So some of you have been asking why I haven't posted anything in so long. Sorry! Here's my list of excuses:

We moved in November. It was extremely easy compared to moving around the world a year ago, but it took us over a month to get internet hooked up and actually working.

Then in December, not only were we busy with Christmas, but I was sick. Actually still sick. I have been sick since December 8th! No joke. I've been through three rounds of antibiotics along with a mixture of about 6 other medications. It seems like as soon as one problem is getting better, another one pops up. This illness has really wiped me out and I've had to prioritize getting some rest because my immune system just doesn't seem able to kick it.

I finally feel up to writing, so I'm going to try to make a lot of posts in the next week or so. Thanks for checking in with us!

Tiger Kingdom, Take 2

2008-10-05T15:04:00.008+07:00

So, we finally got Evie back out to Tiger Kingdom. It was a birthday present from Aunt Jeni and Uncle Dwayne, but it's been over two months since her birthday! Better late than never.

We bought the tickets for Evie and I, and were taken out to the cage. The Tiger cubs Cory and Winnie played with back in July were much bigger now! One look and I was scared! There was no way Evie and I were going into that cage without Cory there to protect us! So, we apologized and asked if we could go back to the desk and pay the extra money to play with the newborn tigers instead. These little cubs were more what we had in mind.

The look on Evie's face says it all. She was not convinced that this was a smart idea! We had fifteen minutes to be in the room, but Evie lasted about 5. After that she stood outside the door while I stayed in with the tigers. There were 6 tiger cubs in the room. I liked the sleeping ones, not the playful ones that were nipping at clothes and hands.

I have to admit, I look calm and snuggly in this picture, but my heart was racing a bit!

Carnival

2008-09-13T20:34:00.009+07:00

This week the Centre had a carnival for its Friday Night Party. It was so much fun! They had many booths to spend your tickets at. One of the booths was the equivalent of a dunk tank, but was rigged to dump a bucket of water over the person's head. The students had a chance to get the staff wet, including Cory!

Winnie at the "Frost Bite" booth. You had to find marbles in a cooler of melting ice. It was a lot harder than it looks, and poor Winnie didn't know if it was OK to quit before the time was up. Her hands were so cold! At the end of the carnival, they even had a magic show, where they shared about Jesus dying to take away our sins through different magic tricks.

Loosing Teeth

2008-09-13T19:54:00.003+07:00

Evie's top two teeth have been growing in behind her baby teeth, and I have been anxiously nagging her to let someone pull the baby ones out. Well, thanks to Winnie giving her a head-butt in the car last night, 2 of her 3 loose teeth fell out finally! It was a little stressful trying to park the car and toss her something to stop the bleeding, but I am now very thankful they came out. Her smile will look a little awkward for awhile, but we've all been through that stage, right?

Teddy Bear Day

2008-09-10T15:06:00.005+07:00

On Monday, one of the International schools here invited any 4-6 year olds to join their Kindergarten class for a celebration of Teddy Bear day. They had snacks, songs, stories, rhymes, and even a man dressed up as a Teddy Bear! Winnie and Beary had a lot of fun!

Mr. Teddy stamping Winnie's hand.

9 years and counting

2008-08-24T08:01:00.003+07:00

Friday was our 9th anniversary. So yesterday we were able to get a babysitter and go out and celebrate. We went to a botanical garden that is just gorgeous. The weather was great, and we went swimming, rode on a paddle boat, and ate a nice dinner. We were hoping to go horse back riding too, but apparently they are only offering actual courses right now, not just letting anyone ride. That was a little disappointing, but we had such a nice relaxing time anyways.

Tea for Two

2008-07-28T19:35:00.008+07:00

Last Sunday, Evie turned 7 years old! To celebrate we threw a tea party for not just two, but 10 little girls. They all wore fancy hats and white gloves and drank apple juice out of crystal tea cups. Evie and all the girls loved being little ladies for the day. Here's some pictures:

Tiger Kingdom

2008-07-10T15:29:00.003+07:00

Here's Winnie to tell you all about Tiger Kingdom and her adventure there: "Well, it's so fun. And I got to play with the tigers. The baby ones and maybe you should too! But you got to clean your hands at the end. That's all." (Evie was too scared to do it this time, but quickly regretted her decision when she saw how much fun Winnie was having, so we're hoping to take her back for her birthday so she can play with them too.)

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-05T17:07:00.007+07:00

The US Consulate here in Chiang Mai had a special celebration for July 4th. We were able to go celebrate with all the other Americans living here right now. They had all-american food, music , and fireworks. Cory was especially excited to get some Mountain Dew, which is not sold in Thailand and is imported specifically for this event. The girls had a grand old time running all over with friends and new found friends. Here's a picture of them with Caleb and Hannah, friends from the homeschool co-op. It was a great night and we enjoyed it with Cory's mom, Penny, and Bob, his step-dad, who are visiting right now. We're having fun showing them around Chaing Mai. Today Cory took them on a trek to see the hill tribes, ride elephants, and go bamboo rafting.

The Centre

2008-06-16T21:14:00.003+07:00

Cory just put together this promotional video for The Centre. Sorry the quality is low, but blogspot wouldn't let us post the higher quality videos that are this long.

Swimming Like Fish

2008-06-11T20:26:00.008+07:00

Being able to swim year round definitely helps kids get used to the water and learn to swim. Evie and Winnie like to "swim" but would not put their face in the water or go under. After swimming with friends, who could all swim like fish, for a couple hours on Friday and Saturday, they both all of a sudden decided to go underwater! And they loved it! Today I took them swimming again and they were trying to stay under for as long as they could! What a drastic change to not wanting water to touch their face. Living in Thailand is definitely helping them get over some of their fears. Here's a video of Evie:

Somewhere over the Rainbow

2008-05-05T19:15:00.017+07:00

Winnie turned 5 years old on Thursday! She got some special gifts from family back home, like an elephant ride, gymnastics classes, and a calico critter house! On Saturday we threw a birthday party for her and invited all the friends she has made from the homeschool co-op we go to. It was a Wizard of Oz theme and Winnie was Dorothy. We had it at the Centre, where Cory works, and decked it out with a lifesize tinman, a big emerald city, and a 30-ft yellow brick road! We even threw water balloons at the wicked witch (drawn with sidewalk chalk) to make her melt. Winnie had a lot of fun and is excited to be a big 5-year-old now! Cory has been busy at the Centre. There was a team from the Philippines in to help for one week. They did a lot of special things with the students during this week and saw three accept Jesus into their lives! It is exciting to see God working in the hearts of the students at the Centre.

Songkran

2008-04-17T10:21:00.000+07:00

This week was Songkran, the Thai New Year, and they celebrate with lots of water! They see it as a time to clean everything and have a fresh start for the new year, but it has evolved into a country-wide water fight! You can't drive down the street without kids throwing buckets of water at you, and that's just outside the city. Down by the moat, people ride around in trucks with ice water in huge barrels and things get crazy! Unfortunately our car broke down this week, and we were unable to get it fixed until after the holiday is over, so Cory has had to ride his motorbike out places and get wet, wet, wet! He didn't seem to mind though. It has been so hot! April is the hottest month because temperatures are around and over 100 degrees everyday and it never rains to cool things off. We've been spending a lot of time in our bedroom, which is the only air-conditioned place in our house. We'll eat meals up here, do school, and we've even had the girls sleep in here for the past few nights. Our family celebrated songkran by having family water fights everyday for the past 5 days. The kids got really cool water guns as early birthday presents from their Aunt Jeni. They are Winnie-the-Pooh backpacks filled with water connected to water guns. When the kids would put them down to go in the kiddy pool, Cory and I would grab them and ambush them! We've also been relaxing in our "hot tub"! Cory and I are both missing food from home apparently, because last night I had a dream that they had Eggo waffles here at the grocery store. When I told Cory this morning, he said he dreamt we were back home and he was eating good cereal, like Golden Grahams which is over $8 a box when you can find it here, so needless to say we don't buy it!

Our first visitors ...

2008-03-25T09:34:00.000+07:00

My parents arrived in Chiang Mai on March 7th, and we have been busy everyday showing them around town.

The first weekend we went to the Chiang Mai International Heritage Festival, where they had a show at night with 14 hot air balloons on a field, lit up in time to music that a band was playing. It was a pretty cool sight, and I enjoyed the 80's music that they were playing! Evie and Winnie learned to "walk like an egyptian"!

The next few days we hit "walking street" and "night bazaar", a couple of outdoor markets where people sell handicrafts, food, t-shirts, and all sorts of things. Of course, my mom loved the shopping and the cheap prices! We also went to a Khantoke dinner, where you sit on floor cushions outside and eat a traditional thai meal while you watch a thai dancing show. It was really nice, and one of Cory's students was a dancer in the show. We even tried sugarcane, which we discovered you don't actually eat, just chew to get the sweet juice and then spit out the rest. (I don't recommend it.)

The second weekend my parents were here, we decided to explore Thailand outside of Chiang Mai, which may have been a mistake. We drove 3 hours north to the Burma border to a mountain called Doi Angkhang. There is a beautiful resort on the mountain right by a Royal Project area where they grow tons of flowers, fruits, vegetables and even have a bonsai garden. The King started this many years ago to give the people living in these areas cash crops that would benefit them so they would stop relying on making opium. Everything on the mountain was just gorgeous, but the stress of getting there wasn't worth it to me. I guess we weren't thinking quite clearly when we made our plans to pack all six of us in our little car and drive through a mountain range. Our car barely made it up some of the steep inclines, and when we finally pulled into the parking lot of our hotel our brakes were smoking on one side! We were very thankful that we made it and didn't get stranded in the middle of nowhere, and the next day I was very anxious to get off the mountain and back to the city. The best part though, was the cool mountain air! It has been right around 100 degrees everyday here, so having it so cool that you needed an electric blanket at night was a wonderful change!

On the way up the mountain we stopped at the Chiang Dao caves. This was so cool! They have a little bit of a lighted path that the kids and my mom went on, but then you hire a guide to take you through a half-hour loop of caverns with tiny doorways to crawl through with only a gas lantern to light your way. It was really cool, except for the hundreds of bats that we saw in there. And it was only 100 baht, for the 3 of us, which is about $3!

That weekend, was the weekend of mountains. On Sunday, we went up Doi Suthep, which borders Chiang Mai on the West. This time we paid a songtaew (a covered truck taxi with two benches in the back) driver to take us up and spared our car the trip. On this mountain, we visited the large buddhist temple that overlooks Chiang Mai, the grounds of the King's winter palace, and a hill tribe that lives farther up the mountain. The girls got to dress up in hill tribe outfits and get their pictures taken by all the flowers.

Last week, Tuesday, my parents took the kids to the zoo to see the giant pandas. We cooked a special Easter meal for the students at the Centre for Wednesday's cooking night. Thursday we visited the Mae Sa Elephant Camp, which is one of the most fun things here. The elephants put on a show where they play soccer, paint pictures, play harmonicas, dance, and more! There was a baby elephant that was just born March 1st, and we fed the elephants sugarcane and bananas.

Friday morning we went on a riverboat up the Ping river, and visited Warorat market, the largest market area in Chaing Mai. Where you can see live turtles, snakes, and fish being sold, huge pig's heads sitting on ice, people butchering meat, fried insects, and all sorts of strange sights.

Friday night, we went to the Easter party at the Centre. Cory played Jesus in a skit! (After the resurrection, so he wasn't nailed to a cross.) The kids liked joining in on the easter egg hunt and other games. Evie won a jar full of M&M's for guessing the closest to the amount in there.

Saturday, my parents and I went on a day trek. We hiked up a mountain to see a hill tribe, rode elephants, visited a waterfall, and went bamboo rafting. It was a fun, but exhausting day. While we were gone, Cory took the kids swimming. When I met them at the pool, I was surprised to see Evie "swimming" in deep water for about 5 seconds before Cory would have to grab her. Being able to swim all winter has helped the girls be more comfortable in the water and they are getting braver each time we go. Evie might be swimming like a fish by the time we get home.

We had a nice Easter, the church service was a good celebration. Now we have one more week with my parents before they head off to Bangkok for a few days and then fly home. Cory's mom and stepdad are now planning on visiting us in July, so we will look forward to that!

An Anaconda in the house!

2008-02-20T22:09:00.000+07:00

Today we found a 10 foot Anaconda in our house! Not a real one thankfully. Evie is studying the Amazon rainforest right now for school. One day the girls spent hours drawing monkeys, jaguars, and all sorts of animals to transform our stairway into a rainforest, so the 10 foot snake made of wire and paper completed the transformation. Last week, the girls and I went to a homeschool conference at the international school here. It was a great week, the only downside was getting up at 6 every morning, and with Cory's schedule the girls didn't get to see him much. Evie took the Iowa Basics Standardized Test in the mornings, and then her and Winnie were in Vacation Bible School type classes while I attended seminars about homeschooling. It was a great time for us to be around other families. There was a "Student Showcase" where kids could enter work into different categories for display. Winnie was too young, but Evie entered a painting and a poster on Germany for "Cultures of the World". We pinned her hair up in braids German-style and even made Apfel Strudel. She was very excited to tell others about her project and very proud of herself. She even won a gold medal! (Though she was the only one in her age group to enter that category!)

The kids each had a little performance at the awards ceremony too. There's a little video clip at the end of this post.

Other than that, the kids just continue to grow. Evie lost her second tooth a couple nights ago, and Winnie is learning to read and has read three little books by herself!

Everything is going well for us right now. We currently have our visas extended until March 20th and should receive our year long visas before they expire. My parents our coming for a visit and we're counting down the days, 15 to go! Thanks for all your prayers!

The little things in life ...

2008-02-07T10:30:00.000+07:00

make a BIG difference! Last weekend we bought thick foam floor mattresses to put on top of our hard beds and it has been wonderful! Each night I look forward to climbing into our soft bed now, and my body doesn't hurt and ache when I get up in the morning. Winnie had been saying she missed her soft bed at home so this has helped a little with homesickness for her, but it can't replace the grandparents that she is missing so much!

We also bought a bookshelf for our office/school room. Being organized gets me excited! I loved getting our stacks of books up off the floor and onto the shelves. I was also able to unpack the scrapbook supplies that I brought with me, but haven't had a chance to scrapbook yet. Hopefully soon, I can hear it calling to me from the shelves! I want to scrapbook our whole Thailand journey, starting from the first trip Cory and I took here two years ago, so we can remember all the exciting things God has done and will do.

THE BIG THINGS IN LIFE MATTER TOO!

Cory got his work permit last week and our whole family will be heading to immigration in the morning to obtain a new visa. We've been told they will give us each a one month visa while they are processing the year extension and then we will have to return to get that one. Thanks for all your prayers, God is working it out for us to stay here. Please pray that things will go smoothly at immigration tomorrow.

One final note, the kids and I went to cooking night at the Centre last night. I helped cook mashed potatoes and chicken with a bunch of the Thai students. The kids were hanging out upstairs and I found them playing magnetic dolls with a bunch of the college students! Here's a cute pic:

Stress, heat, and fire ants!

2008-01-28T19:25:00.000+07:00

The last three weeks have been busy and stressful.

Please continue to pray for our visas. We had been very anxious about it, but we have found a good lawyer and he thinks it will all get done in time. Our visas expire Feb 19th.

Also, continue to pray for our finances. We had to return the motorbike we were borrowing to our friend when she returned to Chiang Mai last week, so we had to buy one of our own. We're hoping to get an air conditioner unit for our bedroom this weekend.

Speaking of air conditioning, it has continued to be around 90 every day and poor Winnie has a recurring heat rash that makes her itch and it's hard for her to sleep well. (Which makes it hard for me to sleep well too!) On Monday we had our first rainy day since we've been here and it was glorious! It only got to 78 and with the clouds we could have our windows open and cool air blowing through! Tuesday it was back to the heat. It makes me wonder how we will survive when it hits 107 in the summer!

We've had more than the usual amount of ants in our house recently so I was out spraying the perimeter and got attacked by fireants! Luckily it was just on one foot, but if any of you have experienced this, you know it's not pleasant! My toes are still itching like crazy. Cory went out later and finished the task and hopefully got them all so this won't happen again. (I am glad it was me and not one of the kids though.)

There has been a YWAM team from Oregon helping at the Centre the past few weeks, so Cory has been working extra. Today he'll be working over 12 hours, but it's the last day. This is hard on our family, but ministry at the Centre has continued to be fruitful. 3 more students came to accept Jesus recently, including one high school guy named Bird. There has been a handful of high school students lately and it seems to be spreading by word of mouth. This is really exciting to reach more young people with the gospel and maybe it can even help prevent some of the dumb mistakes kids tend to make when they first leave for college!

Each week we are feeling more settled. I've started teaching an arts & crafts class to the 4 & 5 year olds at the homeschool co-op, so that has been really fun for me to plan. I'm tying it in with Winnie's kindergarten curriculum we already use, so we made bird projects the first week and talked about how God takes good care of us just like a mama bird builds a nest, feeds her babies, etc. Last week we learned how God has made us wonderful and did thumbprint art and friendship hand wreaths, and this week we made caterpillars and butterflies and talked about how when we accept Jesus we become a new creation.

Here's a couple pictures of the kids swimming, I think they look cute in their swimcaps!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T09:55:00.001+07:00

We had a nice relaxing Christmas. Very different from what we're used to though, as the kids got to ride their new bikes to the park and play in the kiddy pool we got for our yard! Although we missed seeing all of our family, we didn't miss all the hours of driving around Michigan in bad weather! The kids were only expecting one gift each, and we had a lot of fun surprising them with a bunch of presents. They were very excited to get some new toys after having to sell, give away, or leave behind most of their toys at home. Cory's desire to bless our kids with a big Christmas reminded me of how our Heavenly Father desires to bless us and give us good gifts, not because of anything we do, just because He loves us.

Christmas isn't widely celebrated here, but New Year's is a big deal! At midnight there were huge fireworks all over the city. Cory and I watched them out our window, while the kids amazingly enough slept through all the noise! There was a carnival too, so we took the kids there on New Year's Eve.

As for the Centre, after hearing the gospel many times, and lastly from his History professor at CMU, a student named Golf accepted Christ. Pray that he would grow in his new relationship with God and that he would grasp more and more the grace that God has offered us through Jesus. Cory got a few days off for the holidays and not many students have been around, but Cory has been busy preparing for a short-term team from Oregon who will arrive on Monday.

We are getting settled more and more. The girls are plugging along in school and will start Thai, gym, and art classes with the homeschool co-op here on Monday. They've also been playing with Pay-Ping a few days a week when she gets home from school.

A couple weeks ago we had our first incident with the car. I managed to drive into the craziness of downtown for the first time to a Christmas lunch the Centre was having for the staff. I made it all the way to the underground parking structure and went to pull into a parking spot and rammed the corner of our car right into a concrete pole! Sitting on the other side of the car throws off your perspective! Luckily no other people or cars were involved and amazingly the headlight still works so we will get it fixed whenever we find the time. (Also, Cory has gotten 2 flat tires on the motorbike, but has made it home safe both times)

Some things to pray for us currently:

-Visas - Before we left we could only get 90 day visas, and were told we would have to apply for an extension when we got here. So we are trying to figure that out right now, but have heard some real horror stories from other missionaries that have left me feeling really anxious about the whole situation. So pray that we are able to get an extension processed before our 90 days are up so that we can just make a "border run" to Burma instead of having to pay a lot more to leave the country to Singapore.

-Finances- It's been a little stressful getting our finances situated. We are still trying to figure out the best way to get money from our bank in the US to our bank here. We've had a lot of one time expenses as we have been getting all the household items (dishes, pots, oven, cleaning supplies, etc.) we need and are constantly having to judge and prioritize what we can afford to get next. Added to that we need to buy a motorbike soon, as our friend Jen will be coming back to Chiang Mai in a couple weeks and we will no longer be able to borrow her bike. Pray we will find a motorbike in the next two weeks for around $500. (The cheapest we've seen was $900, but God provided us a car in our budget, and we know he can provide us with a motorbike too.)

Thanks for all your prayers, emails, packages, messages, etc! We appreciate the encouragement!

Christmas Program Video

2007-12-18T11:32:00.000+07:00

Here's the kids in their Christmas program at church. (It's only few minutes long)

Feels like Christmas in July

2007-12-18T08:34:00.000+07:00

Sunday night was the Christmas program at the church we are attending here. Winnie dressed up as an angel and sang "Away in a Manger" in English and German. (Her teacher is German, everything is truly an international affair here.) Evie performed a jazz dance with the 1st - 6th grade girls. I'm going to try to make another post right after this with a video clip if you'd like to watch.

Winnie and I went to a new friend's house to decorate christmas cookies yesterday too. She had invited over two friends that she's reaching out to, one from Thailand and one from Australia. It was really nice to hang out with some other moms!

Thursday night was exciting! During an evening program at the Centre, Cory along with a few Thai staff were able to share their testimonies about accepting Jesus and talk about God's love for us. Two students decided to place their faith in Jesus and begin a relationship with the one

true God! While Cory was at work, the girls and I met our neighbors. They made a new friend, a little Thai girl named Pay-Ping (Or something that sounds like that). She's 6 years old and lives just across the street. It was so neat to see how much fun Evie and Winnie had playing with her even though they couldn't speak the same language!

Cory went up the mountain this week with some students from the Centre and the team that's here from Australia. Here's some pictures of the temple and what the people here worship:

We've all still been healthy (except I was sick one night, but it only lasted 4 hours), so we are very thankful for that. Thanks for checking into our lives!

We made it!

2007-12-12T12:42:00.000+07:00

We arrived in Chiang Mai 3 weeks ago. We are fully adjusted to the 12 hour time difference and we're getting settled quickly. We found a great house and moved in almost 2 weeks ago. The neighborhood has a nice park for the kids and a great swimming pool! We managed to lock ourselves out of the house twice in the first week though! We've been learning from our mistakes and now know exactly where to find a locksmith at the local market when we need one.

We also bought a car, an old 96 Honda Accord. The bad thing though is that it's a stick shift and we had to add that complication into learning how to drive on the left side of the road. Cory has had no problem driving around and even tries to blend in with the crazy drivers out there on the road! I just got up the nerve to drive on the main roads on Saturday. Not so bad, but my legs were shaking every time I had to stop at a light, afraid I'd stall when the light turned green. Since Saturday, Cory's been riding our friend's motorbike back and forth to work. It saves a lot on gas money, but I've been praying a lot for his safety!

Everyday has been a learning experience and we are always exhausted by the time we fall into our rock-hard beds! It's amazing how many little things are different that you have to figure out on a day to day basis. We've managed to get most of what we need now though. In order to start cooking at home, we had to go to the store and buy a small stove/oven to be delivered, then we had to figure out where to get a tank of gas from, then we had to figure out how to turn the oven on (You have to turn the gas on and then actually light the oven), now I'm figuring out how to control the oven flame to keep it around the temperature I want (But the oven is in Celsius!). (Also, there's no sink in our kitchen, it's in the backyard!) So, we rejoice in every small victory, like my being able to go grocery shopping by myself on Saturday, and we try not to get too frustrated by our failures, but readily accept God's grace that He has been pouring out on us!

Evie and Winnie started school last Monday. We bought little school desks for them and it has been exciting to finally get them in a routine again. They also like the church we're going to, and have met some friends in their Sunday School classes. This Sunday there will be a Christmas program at church. Evie's class will be doing a dance, which she is soooo excited about, and Winnie's class will be dressing up as angels and singing a christmas carol.

It definitely does not feel like Christmas around here though, it's in the upper 80s and without a single fan in our house, we get pretty hot! (Sorry to all of you who are dealing with snow and ice right now!)

Cory's been working a lot of hours at the Centre, because a short-term team came in from Australia on Saturday and he is helping a lot with them. Sunday they had baptisms too. (We've included a short video of two of the students from the Centre getting baptized.)

We'll try to update this blog frequently now that we've got it figured out, and we'd love to hear your comments too!