Pictures finally posted!

I didn't think Snapfish would ever cooperate, but here we are! Pictures from our Thailand adventure are now available at:

SnapFish

Enjoy!

Scrappy can answer the phone!

I kid you not. Thursday night, the phone rang. Scrappy hopped up on the table, knocked the phone handset off the base, and meowed into the phone!! Now I know why I keep coming home and finding the phone off the hook...

If I have nothing to say...

Should I say anything at all? I guess someone may find it interesting to know what's going on today, but it's really not much. This weekend will be very busy getting the house cleaned up again (we won't say what the cats did to my carpet in my absence) and preparing for the church Hallelujah Party on Monday. I'm baking brownies for the cake walk, which I'm running for the fourth year.

See? Not much to say. I think I'd be doing better with the jet lag if I stopped staying out until 11pm each night. But, I did finally get caught up on my America's Next Top Model, which was fun. I'm told by the youth they do have that in Thailand, just a season behind.

My SUV is trail-rated

It's a really good thing my Jeep Grand Cherokee is trail-rated. I was driving home from work last night and as part of that route I'll sometimes go down a road that's not completed yet, and turn off of it at the last second. Well, last night I left work after dark and was really zonked. I was going down that road, lost in thought, and noticed "gee, the road's awful dark ahead!" and turned on my brights. The next second, I went airborne and flew right off the pavement onto the dirt where they're extending the road! Needless to say I bounced a lot and practically stood on my brakes until I stopped.

Now, what makes me realize that I was way too tired was this didn't rattle me in the slightest. I just turned around and drove back to the road. I did stop and re-right the carpet shampooer in the backseat that toppled, but that's about it. After that, I made Matthew drive us when we ran out for a quick bite and groceries, since I figured at that point I was a danger to myself and others.

So, that was my adventure last night!

So quiet!

Two days since we got home, and I'm still stuck on Bangkok time. I keep oversleeping! I'll wake up real early, say 5 am or so (after I sleep off being tired) then crash around 8am when it nears bedtime in Bangkok. Then I sleep through the alarm. Gotta stop doing that!

Matthew's presenting some of our pictures tonight to the kids at church. Hopefully after that I'll get them uploaded and labeled so everyone can see!

Matthew was formally given an offer to come to ECB. We're trying to recover a bit from jet lag and family issues before we make our decision. Right now, we can hardly think let alone pray about it. We'll likely decide by Friday.

I found a great link today to a 60 Minutes article on Bumrungrad International Hospital, the hospital in Bangkok near the church. It's here on CBS's webiste if anyone would like to take a look.

Infertility Etiquette

This is the best article I've seen yet on Infertility Etiquette - that is, how to relate to an infertile person.

Infertility Etiquette article from RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association

Everywhere I go, it's Monday!

We made that observation on the way home yesterday. Everywhere we went, it was Monday!!

We took off from Bangkok at 6:45am on MONDAY, took off from Tokyo at 4:45 on MONDAY, and took off from Chicago for Raleigh/Durham at 8pm on MONDAY! We finally set foot at home at 11pm on, you guessed it, MONDAY! It was starting to feel like that Groundhog Day movie or something - living the same day over and over.

I'm still not entirely convinced it's Tuesday.

Adventures with the Squatty Potty

For those of you who have been in this part of the world, you know what that is. I mentioned before that the Thai don't use TP much when going to the restroom. The thing is, they don't usually use western style toilets either, especially when you get out of the city. The ones I saw were more like porcelain sinks with a drain on a raised platform. So, when we traveled today to the church's young professionals retreat in Saraburi, we had to stop at a couple of gas stations on the way to potty and eat. I learned after the first trip to roll my pant legs up - as part of using the squatty potty Thai keep a basin of water next to it to "flush" and clean the floor. So, it's wet, and since I'm not entirely convinced it's just water I rolled my pant legs! I'm also very grateful for the TP Matthew purchased a few days ago - the first stop had some on the wall before you entered the stall, but the second one didn't. I would have taken a picture, but somehow it just seemed rude to take a picture of the inside of a bathroom.

And that was just one of my adventures today! While I learned early on in Bangkok that the lines on the freeway are just a suggestion (it's perfectly accepted to drive in the shoulder like another lane), I did not know that backwards on the freeway was OK. But, lo and behold the driver today missed our exit and rather than continue on and come back like we would in the States, he just stopped and drove in reverse. I fully expected to be squashed in seconds, but nope! People just drove around us. Truly amazing!

The youth told us last night that Red Bull was originally a Thai drink. I don't know if that's true, but they do have an energy drink that has two red bulls on it here. Matthew decided to try it, and said, and I quote, "it makes Red Bull seem like water." The dude is totally wired. He feels like he drank a brick, but he's wired!

I know many of you reading this may be wondering about avian flu here in Thailand. So far, none of the infections have been here in Bangkok that I'm aware of, and in fact historically there are more in Vietnam, it's just I think the first death has been here (a chicken farmer). There are brands of chicken herewho keep themselves flu free by only having sequestered chickens, and that's usually the brand the restaurants use as well being sold in grocery stores. I did some research today since I know others are concerned, and found that bird flu is not food borne anyway. It is contracted by handling infected chickens. The only risk would be if it mutates and goes person to person. That would be scary. But, in the mean time I figure the chances were greater I would catch anthrax from my mail in 2001 than I would catch bird flu right now. We've talked about it and decided to get scared when there's real reason to do so, like confirmed mutation or human-human transmission. Granted, makes you not want to eat chicken!

Just a day and a half until we leave for home. My goodness my world is bigger now! I think we'd be happy here, but it will be nice to return to the familiar!

I miss my cats!

I just want to go on record that I miss my kitties!! The pastor has two Soi kitties (translation - street kitties or strays) that are just little dolls. I love the Siamese eyes on these kitties (even though they're tabby and orange, not regular Siamese). After we move onto church grounds, I think we'll have to add one to our family. If we can get Queen Tinkerbell's approval, of course!

I crack myself up every time with this - so, when our cats move to Bangkok, does that make them Siamese cats? ;-) Funny!!!! :-D

I saw this at the NaNa SkyTrain station and thought of my kids (although, the idea of waxing would probably make them shudder):


Matthew riding the SkyTrain:

Sleepy Day

I swear it feels like I'll NEVER get over this jet lag! I'm so sleepy all the time. :-( Of course, I'll probably adjust on Sunday, then we leave on Monday!

It's been a quiet day today, relatively speaking. I went to the church's Women's Day this morning then out to lunch with two lovely ladies who had both adopted here in Thailand. The church is really coming behind us on our desire to adopt here. It won't be easy (what things are, really) but at least I know better what to expect. We also talked some about the unique challenges parenting a child as a foreigner in his home country, and then what he'd face as we move on from Thailand (if we ever do - you just never know where ministry will go!).

I'm a little under the weather today, along with the associate pastor's wife and their son. We all have a mild lower respiratory thing going on. It feels like the same stuff I had before we left, so maybe I'll get over it as quickly as I did then. Pray I do! It's too hot here to be sick! :-)

Seriously, this is one hot place. It's the COOL season and it's well into the 90's with about 95% humidity. It really feels a LOT like the Caribbean, really, as you might expect - we're at about the same latitude. We're adjusting to it, and growing up in Florida sure helps.

Tonight is also going to be quiet - it's Wednesday night prayer meeting, but a few youth usually tag along with their parents, so we're just going to hang out with the youth.

We should know in the next couple of days if a call will formally be extended to us to come here. Please be in prayer for us as we finish this week!

American Breakfast in Thailand

Good afternoon from Bangkok!! Today was our "off" day. We didn't do anything really until 11am! Granted, we keep waking up at 6:00 in the morning, so we did have an early breakfast and then took a nap. I wanted to stop a moment and comment on the hotel's "American Breakfast." You see, breakfast is included but there's only one choice. I have no idea what Thai guests get, but basically you just sit down and they bring it to you, no ordering or questions asked. Breakfast is some toast with a neat citrus marmalade, mandarin juice, eggs over medium, and ham lunch meat and a hot dog! That's what cracks me up every morning - a hot dog for breakfast. It's good though, so we don't mind. And it's free - even better!

We went with the Eckrote's on the SkyTrain to our first mall today, and it looks remarkably similar to what you see in the US, except the clothes are smaller. Everything looks like the Junior's department! Definitely catoring to those smaller Thai sizes. Anyway, they must have had the nicest food court I've ever seen! They have all kinds of food - Thai, Italian, Chinese, etc. and you select what you want and they prepare it fresh and scan a card that is essentially 1000 baht credit (you pay when you leave). The seating area was bright and airy with a gorgeous fountain, and of course squeaky clean. I had my first Italian food in Bangkok since my tummy's not doing so well - it was shrimp fettucine alfredo with a side of fresh fruit and some tea, all for about 250 baht ($6.25 US). So yummy! Matthew took advantage of the chance to eat Indian food, since I generally don't like it so don't go to Indian restaurants. Up until now all we've eaten is Thai (which is very yummy, don't get me wrong) so it was a nice change.

We also spent a little time at Anna and Leah's (pastor's daughters) school today to get an idea of what an international school here is like. Very nice. I was SO EXCITED AND AMAZED (can you tell) that people here know what IB (International Baccalaureate) is!! Many of the international schools here use it (though the girls' school doesn't). FINALLY someone will know what that means when I say IB! No more blank stares! :-)

Tonight we have the youth parent's meeting. We have no idea how many will show up but are looking forward to it!

Love from Bangkok!

p.s. this is the view from our hotel window:

Update from Bangkok

Wow! This place is amazing. We have so far been through several meetings with the church governing board and elders, plus gave our statement and testimony during both morning services on Sunday. We're fitting in remarkably well here, it's neat. Matthew is already joking like crazy with the rest of the staff, and is connecting beautifully with the youth. You can really tell he loves them already. I've expanded my Thai phrase repertoire to three now - Hello (same as goodbye), yes, and thank you.

Interesting things I've learned so far:
- I'm still no good at walking on the left! Currently I walk down the Soi (road) to the church correctly on the left, but keep walking back on the right.
- Thai taxi drivers must be part nuts. I have no idea how they fit cars through those tiny spaces!
- Light switches are backwards! I keep turning them off when I want them on, etc.
- Bring your own toilet paper when you go out (in your purse or something). Thai's
don't use it often and poor Matthew had to buy two little boxes at 5 baht a pop today!
- Guys on the street next to the palace will tell you the palace is closed as you walk one way, then tell you it's open when you walk the other way five minutes later. Guess that's why the sign on the Grand Palace says "Don't Trust Strangers!"
- Lays potato chips are ruffled like Ruffles! Except here the flavors were Cheese and Onion, Hint of Lemon, and Mexican Barbeque.
- Coke Light tastes suspiciously like Coke Zero. We had Coke Light a couple of years ago in Belize, so I know which one came first. Hmmm.

For some reason picture uploading is going really slow, so I'll have to keep trying.

Live from Tokyo!

We're not quite there yet, but close! I'm online in the Tokyo Narita airport. Two flights down, one to go! My poor body doesn't know whether to sleep or eat or what - I'm so far off my schedule! It didn't help that we only got one hour of sleep Wednesday night (RDU time) before leaving. So, I'm almost 36 hours no sleep.

A few observations so far:
- I used to think I wasn't an obnoxious American. After just 5 minutes in Japan, I sure feel like one. People here are so polite! This airport is busy but just peaceful quiet and squeaky clean!
- I have a very hard time remembering to walk on the left! On the sets of moving sidewalks, people walk on the left, not the right.
- Having a lot of fun seeing products I know in Japanese, like Diet Pepsi or Snickers. I bought some bottled water but wimped out and got the only brand with English on it to be sure of what I was buying!

We had a lovely stopover Thursday in Chicago with the Eatons (our former pastor and his wife from Braggtown). I've missed them so much! They're dong just fabulous there in Schaumburg. I hope to someday have enough time for more than 3 hours in Chicago!

Well, my 10 mins for 100 yen is almost up. I'll post more from Bangkok!

Matthew in the Japanese Massage Chair (sorry it's sideways - just turn your head!):

Our theme song of the week

Matthew and I had a very, very long drive back from South Carolina last night (he passed his accreditation interview - WOO HOO!). On the way we had spotty radio signals, so pulled out an old Mark Schultz cd. We heard this song and decided it's our current theme song of the week (and possibly longer - I like it!). It really captures how we feel about what lies before us:

Let's Go!

You gotta nice job in an office on the seventh floor,
Oh, but you're lookin' out the window and you're thinkin that there's somethin more.
You clear your head, you close your eyes, but somethin' deep inside you cries

(chorus)
Let's go Let's go to the great unknown,
Find the one that rolled away the stone.
Let's go to the foreign shore,
Find a way to givelike we never gave before.
Let's go,Going far and wide,
Pack your bags and leave it all behind.
What are we waiting for?

Let's go. Back homethrough the middle of the parking lot
You give away the car, give away the money that you've got.
Neighbors will talk, and oh they should,
Sayin somethin' ain't right in the neighborhood!

(chorus)

Of course, I'm kinda disappointed the long series of "na na na na na na..." is not in the printed lyrics, but what can you do. ;-) Captures us pretty well, don't you think?

My first post!

I figured it only fitting to put my first post up here the day before we leave for our orientation/candidating trip in Bangkok. And of course, even more fitting is to start with a cat picture! That's Jasmine on the left and Tinkerbell on the right. Scrappy (the boy) is not pictured, but just give him time!

We will depart RDU at 6-freakin-AM on Thursday Oct. 13 and arrive in Bangkok via Chicago and Tokyo 11pm on Friday Oct. 14th (local time). We will return on Oct. 24. Pray for us on our very, very long journey that we find God's will for us and this position.