Cultivating Childhood

Some things take a long time to happen around here.  We are still working on getting our paperwork and money in the right order for getting our work permits and even buying a car.   But then other times you casually mention that you might like to see a house to live in temporarily and suddenly you find yourself handed keys to the house (sight unseen!). This has led us to living in our temporary house in the village.  For the next two next months, we are living just a short walk from where we were before.  It's a one-bedroom, Thai-style house. Here's the short tour: Taken from right outside our front door, you can see the shop and noodle restaurant where we get most of our food right now. As you can see, we are still working on getting set up.  We don't have a refrigerator or table yet, and we spend a lot of time sitting on the ground.  There are a couple of little shops within walking distance that sell eggs and rice and some vegetables....

Anyone who reads my blog probably already knows that this second half of January we moved to Thailand to work with The Charis Project in Maesot.  It has been an interesting couple of weeks. On January 15th, my parents rented a big 12-passenger van for us all to fit in along with almost all our worldly possessions.  We took 8 bags and 4 carry-ons.  A few more boxes will come across the ocean over the course of the next year, but this was the bulk of it. The boys were excited to go.  The loved their neck pillows they got from grandma and grandpa from Christmas. One last selfie at home before leaving for the airport.  Love my parents! Thankfully, the boys had gotten a rare nap that day, so they were able to stay awake until we got on the plane at LAX near almost midnight. About 20 hours later, we made it to Bangkok!  Z slept off and on during the flights.  N though stayed up for about 21 hours straight. In Bangkok, we...