Just Two Weeks Ago...

Last night Dave and I had a little chuckle together as we made school lunches and cleaned up from dinner at how just two weeks ago we'd come and looked through this house and now we were well and truly at home here and living in it.
We smiled as we reminisced at how we'd liked it in its primitive, unkept, half finished state but how in just 10 or so days, the landlord had cleaned it all up, installed a kitchen, had it painted, put down a lawn ... and we'd moved in.  It still amazes me!
Well, the transition went well and we are all enjoying the new surroundings.  
Apparently the garbage gets collected at 2am here... well it happened that way last night anyway- Dave heard noises and looked out our window to see our bin being emptied by someone!! Hahahaha.
Our children are enjoying having other kids in the street to play with and already, on the first day here, Eliana ditched her training wheels to ride Tobi's old two-wheeler and keep up the pace with her brother and our landlord's two children.  

Serving up food seems to be about the only enticement to get our children to actually come indoors since we've moved.  
The excitement of playing outside either on their bikes, soccer or imaginary games with the used packing boxes has made it very easy to get all the unpacking done and keep the house reasonably tidy.
We have met several of our neighbors now and everyone seems very friendly as well as a little bit intrigued.  One lady brought her friend over tonight just to stop and watch our "farang" family (foreigners are called farangs).
David definitely wins the award for 'Most Popular Parent' this week.  Our decision to rent a motorbike for him has definitely made him much more appealing. 

Let's just say that the bike is by far the most-preferred mode of transport where the Cross kids are concerned! (Even in the rain!)

On the work front, we have just welcomed a new field worker to the ZOE family.  Elizabeth has just joined the team and we look forward to getting to know her more over the coming months.

A short-term team from America arrives tonight.  
Dave is currently napping on the couch before heading off to greet their flight at 10:50pm.
And my added role of teaching English as part of the home-schooling program for the children (at ZOE) unable to attend regular school has been super fun!  
I love being able to teach on a regular basis again but in such a different context.  
I am also enjoying getting to help some of the ZOE parents, rostered on to assist in translating, who desire to improve their English skills too.
Lastly, please pray for our Child Rescue Team.  
They are dealing with so many important cases right now and need to be covered in prayer.  
Please ask God to give them the wisdom they need in making crucial decisions, for break throughs and especially for the victims still waiting to be rescued.  
It's been a busy and exciting couple of weeks.  We thank you so much for being a part of our lives... I'm excited to see what the next two weeks have in store!!! 

A Precious Gift

I nodded and smiled at the young mother as I walked to our car after the drop-off on Wednesday morning.

She was one of the other kindergarten mums who was preparing to pull out into the traffic on her motorcycle.

About a minute later, I noticed someone out of the corner of my eye, in the farthest lane, come off their motorbike and land lifelessly in the middle of the road.  

I gasped and my heart skipped a beat as I automatically thought about that mum and her little three year old daughter that she had just dropped off.  

My thoughts raced. Was it her?  

From the right-hand lane, I slowed down and craned to look back and I realized that... it wasn't.

It wasn't her.

But it was somebody.

Somebody's son... and maybe father... brother... uncle... cousin... friend.

With my hands shakily gripping tightly to the steering wheel, I completed the short drive home; my thoughts quickly racing with feelings about just how short life can be and how each day is a day worth celebrating.

LIFE is worth celebrating!

I'm 34 today!  Some days I feel it... and other days I'm left wondering where all those years actually went.

But I am glad!  And so happy to have lived for 34 years.  I am grateful that I've had the privilege of being a mum for almost 6 years, a wife for 12 and half years and that I grew up in a wonderful family, surrounded by love and care for as far back as I can remember.  

Thank you for my birthday messages!  I felt very special as I read through each and every one of them ... and they all made me smile.

I'm smiling also at the thought of my wonderful husband who set his alarm clock early this morning just to bring me a coffee before I went walking at 6.

I'm smiling because Tobi wrote in his birthday card to me that I was his "bestest buddy".

I'm smiling because Spencer tells me each night when it's time to go to bed that, he'll miss me.

And I'm smiling because Eliana wrapped up one of her favourite things and gave it me this morning as a present.

So, you know, gifts don't have to be expensive or even "things".  

Special gifts reflect thoughtfulness, time, encouraging words and sacrifice.

And the most important reminder, for me this week, was just how each and every day (hour... and minute) spent here on earth can not be taken for granted.

None of us are promised another year, another month or another day. I believe that each day is a gift from God.  The shortness of our lives is compared in the Bible to vapor, grass and flowers that wither but thankfully God provides eternal life (in heaven) to all those who by faith accept what Jesus did for them on the cross.

And so I am determined to make this year one that counts, to make a difference here in Thailand and to be the best that I can be.

What's impacted you this week?  Please share!

On Our Way To Becoming Locals

Okay so we established back in the ‘Odd One Out’ blog post that our family is never going to blend in based on our physical appearances however there are a few signs that indicate to us that our kids are becoming more like the locals day by day.  Especially Spencer, (who has now lived more of his life in Thailand than he did in Australia) really has become accustomed to this way of life.  

Let me explain by running through this list: 

Signs To Indicate that Your Child Is Settling in To Thai Culture.

~ When given a choice between using a western toilet and a squatty potty, your child prefers the squatty!

~ When asked what they want from the menu at a local restaurant, your child listens to the options, (pancakes, hotdogs, fries etc) and chooses rice soup!

~ When discussing their favourite fruits with a friend, your child stops to ask you what the name is in English because they only know it in Thai.

~ When faced with a choice between Vegemite toast and muu ping (pork skewers and sticky rice) for breakfast, they would choose the latter EVERY time.

~ When putting socks on your child causes wild excitement (because they can’t remember the last time they wore socks).

~ When you are horrified to discover that your child hasn’t been wearing a seat belt for the entire trip and they can’t understand why that’s such a big issue!

~ When they point to the picture book asking “What’s that?” at a platypus but seeing an elephant walking down the main road is no biggy!

Well, they are just a few examples, but it has left us wondering whether we need to pack some sachets of Spencer’s favourite rice soup with us for the trip back to Australia!  And funnily enough, our kids are really looking forward to being cold and getting to wear a jumper!  Go figure.

Have a great week,

Andie :) 

photos from the i-phone

Back in September when my sister visited, she gave me her old i-phone. I have so much fun taking photos on it while being out and about here in Chiangmai. I even find myself grabbing it from my handbag to try to capture interesting things while I am in the car.
Click here for a few of the photos that I want to share with you this week.

Cars, Trucks and Ice-cream Carts

Moving cars that are “double parked” out of the way 

is a common occurrence in Thailand!!

A large crowd of people streaming in to our street on Tuesday at 4pm 

had us all very curious.

It was the beginning of a huge soccer tournament between Grace International School (where Tobi goes) and some of the other Chiangmai international schools, along with a team from the Philippines and Taiwan. It was the start of a 5 days event, which ended last night with an exciting 3-1 win to Grace!!

When we weren’t over watching the action, our children loved climbing our front gate and yelling hello to the many familiar faces walking by. The event drew out crowds from everywhere and the atmosphere was electric! 

Our street has been so congested with cars, buses and pedestrians and finding a car park has been difficult for spectators at times. One of the days, I went to pull out of our driveway and noticed a car parked right across the end and totally blocking my exit. Thankfully by the time I had started my engine and opened the gate, the owner ran over very apologetically and found somewhere else to park, but I was getting worried for a moment there!

Last night as Dave, Tobi and Eli walked across with their dinner to watch the grand final, some international students stopped Dave and the kids as they came out of our house and wanted to take their photos. Eli was most willing and obliging to smile politely for a few photos, however Tobi, who dislikes that type of attention, was much more keen to just make it across the street uninterrupted and meet up with his friends. And fair enough too!!

When Spencer and I arrived later, Dave was the only one out of the three of them still actually watching the match as Tobi and Eli had hooked up with all the other children from the neighborhood and were happily playing their own games. It was so nice to see them running and playing so freely. It really was a wonderful atmosphere.

I guess the real highlight of the tournament though was the ice-cream cart that was parked right on the edge of our driveway for four days in a row!! How cool is that? Talk about easy access. Every child’s dream!

Photos: The ice cream cart... and waiting for the crowds of people to arrive.

Now, speaking of parked cars, parking etiquette in Thailand is very different than in Australia and the act of “double parking” if the car park is full, is not frowned upon at all. It is extremely common for cars to park right behind you and block you in simply leave their car in neutral for you to push it to the side if you get back and their car is still in the way!! You may remember this happened to me once when I was with friends after a women’s conference but the people forgot to leave their car in neutral… we ended up having to ask the security guards of the hotel to move the car which was a time consuming ordeal as you can imagine! 

Well on Thursday night I headed out to do some grocery shopping and discovered a very full car park. There was a carnival in full swing on the land next to the shopping centre and it was unbelievably busy. Surprisingly I found a car park relatively quickly but upon returning to my car, a little over an hour later, there was another car double-parked right behind me!! Long story but, yes, I am proud to say that I actually PUSHED my first car out of the way!! So glad the owner had left it in neutral!!

So anyway, while I am on the topic of vehicles, I also wanted to share some photos I’ve taken recently on my phone through the car window of “heavy loads”. This is one thing that fascinates me about Thailand, the variety of over- burdened cars, motorbikes, trucks and utes. I wish I’d taken more photos- I’ve seen some doozies!

Anyway there is a point! You probably know I have been feeling a little homesick, a little far away and, yes, a little sad at times over the past few weeks but whenever I see one of these heavy-loaded vehicles (I’m not sure why but…) I am always reminded of that verse from Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”.

So I am thankful that there are a lot of these heavily burdened vehicles on the road in Thailand because I am being constantly reminded of this promise!!

Thanks once again for your encouraging emails. You (and the over-loaded cars) are a great source of strength and a reminder that it is not our own efforts or our own abilities that keeps us here. It is only through God that we are able to press on. It is only through Him that we are sustained.


Love Andie.


“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall”. Psalm 55:22

Some Things are just Different in Thailand

Yay! We have completed most of the moving process!

A BIG thank you to Wep and Mimi (ZOE staff) for helping us move last week.  We have not cleaned our old house yet, but hopefully we will get that done in the next couple of days...

I love how Thailand is a real ‘can do’ nation.   If we ever ask whether we can or cannot do something, the answer is always ‘dai’ (can). 

We purchased a swing set out of the Chaingmai Classifieds  (like the Trading Post) that comes around each  week and I was a bit concerned about how we were going to move it, but not Wep or Mimi!  

We struggled on all sides as we tilted and turned the playground (that is all welded together and cannot be disassembled) as we attempted to get it into the back of the enclosed truck. But when it did not fit in the back, rather than saying we cannot do it, they boys just said ‘dai.‘  So we hoisted it up vertically and just hung it on the back... 

A couple of ropes to hold it in position and off we went, pruning every low lying branch on every tree we passed that did not have a 3 metre clearance!

Yes, I love Thailand.  I think the recent move of all the bedding and furniture to the new ZOE Children’s Home has given me a new perceptive on how to load a truck -Thai style!

We will report back on our new place in the future.... but so far it has been WONDERFUL!  We have an area outside where the kids can play as well as a deck and we have really been enjoying it.

It does seem like the greatest beneficiary of the move though is the local bugs and mosquitos!  It’s like they have been served up a fresh new menu of Tobi for entree, Eli for main and Spencer for desert!  

Yes, it appears that the local bugs have taken a particular liking to our sweet tasting little ones.  On Saturday, Spencer broke out in a horrible rash after he was bitten by something, but he appears to be fine now.  I have also suspended a net over Tobi and Eli’s beds, however, we can’t decide whether it was to keep the mosquitoes out or Tobi and Eli in ... maybe both!!

Our first meal on the back deck.  

Notice our drinks from a local shop- served in a plastic bag!

On a side note!

I just thought I would post a video of the baby lions we saw at the Night Safari.  We went there a few weeks ago.  Let’s just say that while I enjoyed getting so up close and personal with the animals, I did get extremely nervous having our little kid’s fingers so close to the wire.

Thankfully they had thought about the safety risk and posted a sign ‘Please do not put your finger in!’

Now there’s some good advice!

That’s Thailand for you!  Some things are just different!  

Cheers, 

Dave.

APRIL RAMBLINGS

I must say it does seem rather quiet with all the Songkran festivities now finished.

Tobi and Eliana were back at kinder yesterday to begin what is Term 4 here.  Their “summer” break is from mid June.  The new school year begins in mid August. I’m still trying to get my head around that!

Both children are VERY excited about doing swimming this term and have been asking continuously whether it’s their swimming day yet!  Tomorrow (Wednesday) I look forward to being able to answer, “YES!”

So I have been reflecting lately on some of the vast differences between living here and back in Australia and I just thought I’d share a few.

1. 1.Firstly something like ‘fake tanning lotion’ is an item that CANNOT be found here!  In fact it’s the complete opposite.  Browse the aisles of any pharmacy or supermarket and all you will find is ‘whitening’ cream and skin bleaching lotions in a multitude of brands.  They’re all designed to make the skin paler!  Talcom powder can also be used to whiten the skin.

2.Back home, I did my best to cut out all artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and additives from our diet and it was hard but not impossible, right? Well here I can’t even read the ingredients labels so I have no idea what we’re eating when we buy anything packaged.  And I have to giggle every time I walk past the big 20kg bags of MSG for sale at Makro!! That’s just too funny. 

3.Well, we shipped our kid’s car seats over but almost went crazy in those three weeks before they arrived.  Driving ‘Thai’ style is definitely a lot quicker when getting in and out of the car but it is crazy dangerous too.  I still remember Spencer crawling under the seats, flopping on top of every other person in the car, trying to climb to the front seat… the list goes on.  I am still amazed here when I see from new born babies, and every other age of child, riding on motorbikes with their parents- no helmets on either or standing up on the front seat of the car without even a belt on.

4.What also surprises me is the price differences I see.  Last night at Big C, (our local supermarket- Coles/K mart) there were racks of new kid’s clothes for $1.30 a piece and yet to buy cream, margarine or cheese it was (and always is) ridiculously expensive.

5.Every Thursday we put our big, empty bottles out the front to be filled with drinking water. Last week though, no one came and filled them and we are presuming it was due to the Songkran public holidays so we went to a filling station and did it ourselves.  Another new experience for us!

6. 6.When a car park is full, it’s no deterrent in Thailand!  People simply park their car perpendicularly behind another car.  All you need to do is leave your car in neutral, lock the doors and walk away! When the owner of the correctly parked car wants to get out he/she simply pushes your car (left in neutral) out of the way and backs out! I have seen this first hand.  The only problem was, the car parked behind us (I was with Joyce at the time) didn’t leave their car in neutral!! We had to get some security officers to jack the car up and move it, which was quite a process!

Okay, so I didn’t take this photo!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now, but be assured there are many more!

I’ll leave you with a photo from “camp” (ZOE holiday program).

Take care,

Andie 

A Week of Firsts!

It’s been a week of “firsts”.  

It’s my parent’s first trip to Thailand… and overseas in fact!

We had our first “Thai” themed birthday party for Dad, our first flat tyre over here, we’ve fed elephants, Tobi and Eli held a snake around their necks and we’ve even eaten traditional Thai style, cross-legged on the floor! 

Other news: 

Two new children arrived at the children’s home this week.  They seem to be settling in well.  

The new ZOE buildings were a buzz of activity when we visited yesterday.  The deadline to have them ready is getting closer!

Dave’s learning curve steepens as the ‘camp’ he’s helping to organise also draws nearer.  He is feeling the excitement build as more people start to get involved and take on tasks.  Walls are going up and being painted to create the different spaces I explained about in the last blog. 

(Photos: Mum and Dad ride an elephant, flat tyre... wondering what to do when our key to the spare is at home!, Tobi and Eli bravely let a real snake hang around their necks...ewwww!)

It’s been a real treat having my mum and dad stay with us this week.  You wouldn’t know that they hadn’t been here before with their adventurous spirits and “ready for anything” attitudes.   

We still have a few more fun things planned to do before they go back to Australia and saying goodbye is not something I want to think about right now.

It’s not the first time we’ve done that and I just don’t know how I’ll be able to do it again.  

For today though, I will enjoy the time we have, appreciate every moment and be glad for their “first” trip … hopefully there’ll be many more to come!

Blessings,

Andie

Life is Good!

“So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good”.  Helen Keller

 

Yes! Life is good.  Not only do we have the beautiful memories of our friends back home but we have received some lovely, encouraging emails this week that have really touched our hearts.  

Thank you!

I really enjoy reading quotes from Helen Keller.  If there’s a ever a day to start feeling sorry for myself, all I need to do is to read the words she spoke and it reminds me of not just the the adversity she faced but also what she overcame.  I then see much I must be able to contribute also.

 

I am feeling like a taxi service at the moment… dropping Dave at work… picking him up… driving to kindergarten and back… you get the idea!

But I must say, it brings me great pleasure to arrive at kindergarten and see the huge smiles on the faces of my children.  They are both so happy there and have made some wonderful friends this term.  Their teachers have welcomed them warmly, cared for them tremendously and I am so grateful for the environment in which they have to learn and play. 

I am equally as moved when I pick up Dave from ZOE and he too has a massive smile and eagerly explains all in the ins and outs of his day.  

It’s a noisy ride home as everyone tries to get out “their” stories but I love to hear them all, each and every one.

Some days we just pick up Dave and go but on the days when the children get to go in to "daddy's work" they get VERY excited.  It makes us both so proud to see them laughing and chasing the ZOE children and using their Thai to swap names and communicate as best as possible.  Eli, in particular, is picking up the language quickly and often speaks in "made up" Thai as she plays with her toys. 

 

Tobi has really begun to talk more and more about the things he is learning. Yesterday as he climbed high on some play equipment, and then landed on the ground, he explained what he knew about gravity.  He also shared some of his private feelings at dinner the other night about his little friend Jai-Jai (a gorgeous Japanese girl in his class that he’s great friends with). 

“I want to marry Jai-Jai when I grow up” he announced.  Mind you it was followed by, “… because she gives me smarshmallows (marshmallows) and draws me pictures”.  Nice!

 

I had an information session in Eliana’s class this morning to learn about her theme for next term called ‘Once Upon a Time’ and is all about favorite stories.  Eli’s teacher has asked Dave and I to come in and do a puppet show for the students which I am looking forward to.  To conclude their theme from this term on 'Water', the children got to participate in water activities in their PE class to celebrate Songkron (Thai New Years festival).  Eli very much enjoyed getting to wear her bathers to school and going in the pool… finally! 

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of sneaking in the back row and watching Dave and Jessica present their ideas for the 4 week camp to 45 of the staff and students.  Their pitch was so engaging and vibrant that it left everyone wanting to sign up as helpers.  Dressed as tourists and entering loaded up with their luggage spilling out all over the stage, the presentation captivated the audience and portrayed the theme of 'Journeying with Jesus' really well.  As camp rapidly approaches, they are now working double-time to try and transform various parts of the children's home into a huge airplane, oasis, bustling market place and middle eastern tent.  In each area different activities/teaching occurs in the evenings.  Passports will be issued and tickets distributed for the journey of their lives!  

The morning program includes games, games and games (the more water involved, the better) as well as creative snacks and elective classes for an hour.  Each Wednesday the children have an excursion day.  It's shaping up to be a LOT of fun! 

So again I wish to thank you for YOUR encouragement to us to do the best we can.

Once again, in the words of the inspiring Helen Keller,  "When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another".

Spencer learning about crayons.

Blessings,

Andie