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.