A YEAR AGO TODAY...

... we arrived at the Chiang Mai airport with a lot of baggage! In addition to our suitcases we were also carrying the emotions that came from separating ourselves from all that was familiar to us, a life we ‘knew’, a family as great as they came and friendships that had taken decades to develop.
It was these ‘heavy’ thoughts that really weighed on me as I looked at my three small children’s tear streaked faces, heard their broken hearts and noticed just how much they stood out amongst the Thai people. Would everything be okay?
I remember how it took every muscle in my body to lift our luggage, but it was nothing in comparison to the ‘inner’ strength that it had taken to get our family to where we are now.
I give all the thanks to God for this strength. I personally could not have survived a month if it had not been for His comfort and peace this past year. Many of you know that we have all wept many tears, we have felt so far away (especially on the “special” days) and we have missed our friends and family like crazy.
God is so good though and he is faithful.
He has provided wonderful teachers for our children, a lovely house for us to to live in and a safe car to drive. He has protected us from injury, answered our prayers and supplied every thing we have needed and more. We feel so overwhelmed and blessed.
We wanted to make you a little video and post it today but we’ve actually all been sick this past week and so the kids pretty much stayed in their pajamas all day... we thought we’d wait a few more days till we’re looking a bit better otherwise it’d really seem like Thailand had taken a toll on us!!!
Anyway, I thought I’d dig out some old photos from our first week here and see how much we’d changed in the past year. I had to laugh today when I looked over and noticed that Dave was wearing the exact same burnt orange coloured t-shirt he was wearing in the photo below, a year ago!!!

THEN                                     NOW

Thank you for sharing the past 12 months with us through this blog. By visiting our site and sharing your comments, we feel like we get to be a part of your life also. If you’re visiting for the first time, we hope that our journey can bring you a few laughs as well as some encouragement.

With love from Andie and the Cross Family :)