Sweet Treat

There's a tradition in Thailand of bringing a gift to one's neighbors when returning from a trip. We've enjoyed this little custom for a couple of reasons. (1) You get to catch up with your neighbors and hear about their latest adventure and (2) You get all sorts of goodies. One of our neighbors just returned from a business trip to Shanghai and brought these for us. A little taste of the U.S.A. (from China)

Music to My Ears

There's a small Christian church near my language school and I ducked in for a few minutes on my way to class a week before Christmas. I slipped off my shoes at the door, took a seat and listened to a few Thai musicians as they practiced for an upcoming worship service. This instrument is called a Ranaat Eek. It resembles a xylophone or marimba and sounds beautiful at the hands of a skilled musician. My favorite part of the experience was realizing what he was playing... "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Bangkok! We've been enjoying beautiful weather here for the last week. The high today was in the upper 80's, and the break from the heat has been such a relief and has made the holiday time seem more special. How incredible to have all the windows open and no air conditioning on!

We've had some ups and downs emotionally as the holiday season has progressed, but we had a wonderful Christmas day today and are thankful for the many gifts God has given us. Although we missed our families at home very much, we enjoyed a morning as a family and the afternoon and evening with our team, who is much like family. It is a privilege to celebrate Christmas here, and we rejoice today in the birth of our Savior!

Long Live the King

On Tuesday, the King of Thailand turned 79 years old. As he is such a beloved king, his birthday is always a big event (and it's the Thai Father's Day), but it was even more so this year because it is the 60th anniversary of his reign. So Thailand really celebrated! Tim had the day off of school, so in the afternoon, we donned our yellow (the king's color) and headed over to Suan Luang, the nearby park that was built in the king's honor. In this picture, you can see the large picture of the king in the background, along with the Thai flags (red, white and blue) and the king's flags (yellow). These flags and pictures of both the king and queen are everywhere.


We're always a minority here, but on this day we REALLY felt our minority status. We saw maybe two other farang (foreigners) there at the park, and there were a gazillion people there. It is a huge park, and it was packed. People walked by us and we could hear them saying "farang". But the funniest thing was the way they reacted to Emmy. As people walked by her, they stroked her hair, rubbed her face, called her "dtukada" (doll), and she had quite a few pictures taken with various strangers! It was like walking around with a rock star!

Asa is about to lose it in this picture.

The traffic in Bangkok is always an issue, but this day it was hard to get near the park. Our taxi driver actually stopped a few blocks away and asked us to get out and walk. Which afforded us the fun opportunity of making our way through the crowds on the sidewalk as we passed vendors selling everything from noodles to octopus tentacles!


There are always gorgeous flowers in this park, but they were absolutely everywhere on this special day. There are a number of ponds, and they had these long-tailed boats filled with flowers...and those are poinsettias in the middle!


This is the structure that houses artifacts and pictures from the king's life (schoolbooks, army uniform, some of the many instruments he plays, other hobby items, etc.). It's circular, and you walk around the outside to view all of the artifacts.

And 99% of the people were wearing yellow. Long live the king!

Giving Thanks

A week later...better late than never...

All in all, we had a good first Thanksgiving far from home. Tim had language school as usual, and the dinner we had planned for our neighbors had to be postponed, so there was not much special in the day and I found myself with a case of the blues Thanksgiving morning. I pulled myself together, secured the appropriate items and helped Emmy make her thankful tree, shown here. It was a blessing to me to hear her name the people and things for which she is thankful, and to hear both loved ones from home and friends and neighbors here named.

We opted to head downtown for Thanksgiving dinner. There's an American-owned restaurant there called "Bourbon Street" that puts out quite a feast for lonely Americans far from home on Thanksgiving (and makes them pay dearly for it!). They had every imagineable Thanksgiving delight, and we ate delicious tastes of home to our heart's content. We let Emmy loose and she had two pieces of pumpkin pie, one piece of apple pie, and ice cream. In this picture she looks like she may be experiencing the after-effects of pie overload!

Although he did not partake directly of the culinary delights, Asa nonetheless enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

Emmy with her cheeks full of pie and ice cream. She ate enough for both of them!

Asa

Here's our Asa boy, whom we also refer to as "the boy". He's 11 weeks old, and as sweet as he can be. He's also BIG, as you can see. At his two month appointment, he weighed 15.4 pounds and measured 25.4 inches. His Thai doctor thinks he's enormous, but pronounces him perfect and healthy. We praise God for this! Asa's favorite things are: smiling at his grown ups and big sister, eating, playing in his gym (see below) and sleeping. He does all of these things quite well. His nemesis is tummy time. It makes him very angry and ruins his sunny disposition for quite some time afterward. I keep telling him that it's necessary if he's ever to lift that sizeable head of his, but he won't listen to reason.

Couldn't you just squeeze him? He loves to sleep, and has slept all night long except for feeding since the day we brought him home. Thankfully, these days he goes all night without eating, so we usually get plenty of rest.

A happy boy playing in his gym. He loves this thing, bats the toys and smiles up at them. It's a great workout for him!

Emmy

Emmalynn is a busy, busy girl these days. At 3 years old, her imagination is HUGE. Most days she's a dog, occasionally a fish, and every once in a while another animal. If you call her something else, like "little girl", she will fix you with a stern stare and say, "I am not a little girl. I am a little doggie. " And you stand corrected. She's also very rough and tumble now. This week alone, she busted her lip and skinned both of her knees. She loves to play outside with her friends on our street, and she has learned in the last few months to pedal so she tears up the road on the little green "Ultraman" (Asian superhero) bicycle that was loaned to her by our next-door neighbor. She also loves to swim and play with her babies. She's quite motherly, especially with the addition of Asa to the household. We're so thankful to report that, as of yet, she has shown no animosity toward Asa. She showers him with love, saying "swee-eet baa-be", and "little Asa bo-oy".

She also surprised us in the last couple of weeks by writing both her name and Asa's. On seperate occasions, she said, "Look, Mommy", and, out of the blue, she had written first her name, and then Asa's. We were blown away by this, as it's not something we've worked on, but she's put the pieces together little by little. God gave children such incredible minds. Emmy just makes us laugh with the way she talks and the things she says. She often narrates her activities in third person. For instance, she'll say, ""Hi, Mommy", Emmy said, as she took a drink of milk." Then she'll take a drink of milk. So our days are like one long storybook.


Dress-up is a favorite activity these days. Here, she was initially wearing a "winter skating outfit". It morphed into a "winter ballerina" with the addition of the tutu. Then it all got to be too much activity for her and she had to take a break to eat some swiss cheese.


Here's Emmy with her friend PJ riding the racecar ride at Yoyo Land. Yoyo Land is this big kiddie fun park at a local mall. Emmy was pretty scared of the rides at first, but had fun after she warmed up. This ride really zoomed! You can see the look of mixed excitement and fear on her face, while PJ is all concentration.

The Kids are Asleep

We love it when the kids are asleep, and we love this time of day. It still amazes us that we have children, plural. It's one thing to be a young family with a first new baby, but it seems that having children catapults us into this whole new, very grown-up category. It's tiring, but we love it. These kids could not be greater, and we are truly blessed. In the next few days, we're going to give a little update on each of them, for the benefit of grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested parties. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago before church. Doesn't Asa look dashing in his little shoes and "My First Khakis"?

Loi Krathong

Last weekend, Thailand celebrated Loi Krathong, a festival traditionally held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, in the western calendar this usually falls in early November. Loi” means “to float”. “Krathong” is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions often use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river or other body of water. The act has been explained to us as both a way of asking forgiveness of the water for taking care of it poorly and as a floating away of one's sins.

Crystal made krathongs with PJ and Emmy, and Tim and Emmy went with several of our neighbors to the pond in our neighborhood. They floated Emmy's krathong and prayed to God, thanking Him for this place and these people. Here's Emmy in her Thai hilltribe costume that our neighbor brought for her to wear for this occasion.

Trick or Treat

We had not expected to trick-or-treat this year, as Halloween is not much of a holiday in Thailand. There was some interest among a few neighbors, though, so we threw together some costumes and joined in. It was a new experience...everyone met together at one house and traveled en masse to each home (5 homes participated), standing at the gate and yelling, "trick or treat!" all together. Emmy's most interesting treat was a bag of seaweed-flavored Lay's potato chips. You know you're in Asia when...

Here's the whole group...

And our little puppy dog. I just love this boy.

Retreat!

Last weekend, we went on a retreat with our team. It was a special time, as it included both the Thai and farang (foreigners- that's us!) staff. We went to Khao Lak beach, which is a 45- minute drive from Phuket. Kim got a great deal on a really beautiful place, so we were so blessed to be able to spend time all together, away from Bangkok, in a lovely setting. Asa had his first flight at 7 weeks old, and he did great. We were thankful it was only an hour long!

Khao Lak is one of the areas that was hardest hit by the tsunami. It was sobering to stand on the beach and contemplate the disaster that had occurred there. On a lighter note, Irene told me that Emmy had talked to her very seriously about how scary the "salami" that had happened was!

Emmy enjoys a tropical drink...

Hangs out by the pool with Gracyn...

Enjoys the water with two water wings on each arm-
she feels quite secure this way...

And we're not sure what's going on here, but it's pretty funny!

There was a great water slide, and the kids couldn't get enough of it. Out of all the water slide pictures, this on was my favorite, of Paul and PJ having a great time!

Asa is becoming so responsive, smiling and vocalizing...

Asa's first time on the beach. He slept through the whole thing!

We're Back!

Life has been full the past month! But it's been great...hosting grandmothers, being together as a family, and getting to know our little boy. Things have picked up again, as Tim has started back to language school and I'm learning how to care for two little ones on my own during the day- not a unique task by any means, but one that's a new challenge for me! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...


We love this picture of Asa! He's almost 6 weeks old here, showing his newfound smiling skills, and his dance moves, too! He's wearing a sleeper gown that was Tim's when he was a baby.

One huge blessing from this month was that Tim had some time off of language school, and he spent some great time with Emmy. It helped her so much in the transition. Here, she's getting ready to go on an "Art Walk" with her Daddy, looking pretty funky! He always thinks of the best things to do!

We celebrated Tim's birthday at the beginning of October, and we gave him the new Thai version of Monopoly. Instead of "Park Place" and "Boardwalk", it has different Sky Train stops and places around the country... I wonder how many other countries have their own editions of Monopoly? It would be interesting to find out...

This is a main street downtown on a Monday night, the night we went out for Tim's birthday. The traffic is amazing. We sat in it until we were sure we knew where we were headed, then we got out and walked. We walked a long way, but we could have been sitting in a taxi indefinitely!


We've been wanting to take a picture of this guy for a while- Ronald McDonald doing the "wai"- the traditional Thai greeting. When you say hello to someone, this is what you do to show respect. Isn't it fun that Ronald does it, too?

Eternal Summer

We've heard reports from Georgia of cool Fall days, football games, and anticipation of changing leaves...sounds lovely! Well, it's eternally Summer in Thailand, and here are a couple of recent pictures to prove it!

Pictures of our Boy

Thought you might enjoy a few new pictures...he's growing fast, and so sweet!...

This one is for you, Mrs. Henry!

Coup

We just wanted to let everyone know that we're fine...there's a lot going on in Bangkok right now but we have personally seen very little. Tim saw a military convoy with some officers stationed at a nearby intersection today, but that's it. As we're not located in the city's center, we've seen none of the scenes pictured in the news. It's been a normal day for us, full of changing diapers and rocking Asa. Much remains to be seen in regard to the outcome of the political situation, but we trust that we are safe in God's hands, and thankful that the coup has been a peaceful one. Thank you for your prayers and concern for us right now, and we'll keep you updated.

It's a boy!

We are so thankful to announce the birth of our precious son,

Asa Jeffrey Mills

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

Following are a few pictures to share
a bit of our experience with you:Ready to go into the birth unit- 2 am on Friday morning!

Tim models the required footwear for the birth unit

Next, a lot of things happened
involving contractions and such...

Welcome, Baby Boy! We are so thankful for this precious gift.

Asa with Dr. Sankiat, who helped bring him into the world.

Proud big sister Emmy

Some scenes from our hospital stay, clockwise:
1- Emmy opens a gift from Asa...
2- Play-doh...Hooray!
3- Daddy and Asa, wearing the funny chicken hat
he came back from the nursery with!
4- Rhi with her hospital lunch - Pad Thai and spring rolls!

A happy family of four

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:13-14