Birthdays- Two Big Ones

It's been about six months since I've visited this space, and that's a testament to the pace of our lives and the BIG changes that have come. I am rarely on the computer, and when I am it's only to cover the bare necessities. But I find myself with a bit of time this Sunday morning and I'm going to pick up with life right where it is. Where that has been most recently is in celebrating two big birthdays in our family. First, I celebrated 40...

Because our pace of life has been rather fast (understatement) of late, I needed a quiet night with my family. That's just what we had, and it was lovely. A phone picture is my lone remembrance. I'm so grateful to be right where I am, in the midst of these dear ones.

Asa's birthday came right on the heels of mine, and Tim whipped up this super fabulous invite...

...then we celebrated with a gaggle of boys in a good, old fashioned way- simple lunch, out to play, back for cake, out to swim. It was lovely; he has a great group of buddies. 

 

And speaking of buddies...

with a classmate on 'crazy hair day'

 Finally, a shot of everyday life near our home...

Sparking Joy

I have a myriad of things I could blog about here; I have more ideas than time. This has become a memory keeping space, so I keep coming back to it. I'm woefully behind with printing photos, but I WILL make peace with that burden eventually. In the meantime, I think a smattering of moments is in order today. Sometimes I peruse photos Tim has downloaded and just choose ones that 'spark joy' (for any of you Kondo readers) to share. These made the cut today...

3rd grade field trippers

this is a treasure- from the time I was in the U.S. with family- Julian's prayer book

Ju enters the sparring world

Happy 17 years to us!

Visiting New City Fellowship Church- we don't get there much these days, but it's special when we do.

International Day at ICS

American, Thai-Chinese and Canadian-American on the Hollywood red carpet at International Day.

Seven

Ju turned 7 last week. Seven is a big boy age. Seven is first grade, where he has taken root and flowered like a healthy vine. I still look at him and think, and sometimes say, "What a gift you are. We could not have planned you, so perfect for us." Ju coming into the world those seven years ago so gigantic and tumbling through his first two years with horrible rashes, worrisome weight loss and infectious smiles, giving us no end of worry, doctor visits, and joy. His skin is so good now, he's becoming so sturdy and stout, you almost wouldn't know eczema and allergies were such a dreadful part of all those years. He still has small issues, and we deal with them as they come. But the joy, the smiles, the affectionate nature that gives us so much love and makes him a friend to so many, those things have endured.

One thing I like about Julian is that he is very decisive. He was given a rather sizeable amount of money to spend on Lego as a birthday gift, and I took him to the store where he accomplished the task in less than 5 minutes, no long deliberation or second guessing (of course, Lego is so expensive here that it doesn't take long to spend a lot of money!) For his birthday, he told us clearly what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to Phra Pradaeng, Bangkok's 'Green Lung', to ride bikes and visit the Bangkok Tree House, an eco-resort we also visited on his fourth birthday. So we did. We rode and rode and rode and enjoyed our candlelit dinner and cake reward at the end!

good morning, birthday ninja!

He wanted a 'craft cake' to reflect his love for creating things (budding artist, I think). After a lot of thought, I decided we'd each make him an origami crane, as origami is one of the things he enjoys and cranes are considered symbols of blessing.

I think he likes it!

This taxi driver took us to the pier to catch the ferry for Phra Padaeng, and he was a treasure. He had spent many years as  a professional Thai boxer (a sport called Muay Thai), and he enjoyed showing us his 'back in the day' photographs. So special to reflect on his long and full life as we celebrated Julian, a life so much at its beginning, brimming with future and possibility.

A tree on Phra Padaeng hung with traditional Thai dress as an offering to spirits.

A day of adventure and a day of rejoicing in what God has given in this very special life. May the Lord bless you and keep you, dear Julian, may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may He give you peace, now and always.

Christmas Past

Here we are on the evening of Julian's birthday- these special occasions pile up furiously for our family during these last/first weeks of the year. We had a wonderful day celebrating our little man. But before I chronicle that, so as not to be behind on too many things at once- Christmas.

I felt pretty icky on Christmas Eve and day- headache and nausea and a low fever. I wasn't pushing for pictures, so we don't have a great many. We actually had about 30 people in our home on Christmas afternoon, and we don't have one picture from that gathering. I was just trying to feel well enough to make it through with some measure of enjoyment. 

'twas a Tolkien Christmas

A few days after Christmas we headed down to southern Thailand to visit our dear friends/colleagues that have lived there for about a year. It was a really amazing time, just the right balance of sitting in the Henry home talking and drinking coffee, sitting at various interesting breakfast venues, and heading out on adventures. We explored a rushing waterfall and a rustic beach, and we walked literally through the treetops in a botanical garden. Mostly it was a joy to be with our loved ones there and to mutually encourage one another while laughing a great deal...

To be very honest, these short hops on budget airlines are not enjoyable to contemplate or to experience. They're kind of a necessary evil. Tim likes to joke that their slogan 'Now Everyone Can Fly' means that any Joe Schmo might be flying the plane...

But we made it and made lots of fun memories, too...

two of my dearest- Catherine spent nearly 3 weeks with us over Christmas and it was fun to do this trip together...and Crystal was a loving and generous hostess as we all invaded their space for those days!

the vehicle that drove all 12 of us all around Trang- lots of lap sitting and not much in the way of seat belting- we were grateful for safe conveyance!

this waterfall was truly awesome and lovely, and it was explored to the fullest by these adventurous kiddos!

the whole crew- Paul was such a trooper dealing with a neck injury during our visit...the scarf was to help with stabilization and I think he looks very Euro chic!

these adorable little tuk tuks are Trang's method of public transport

Asa ponders the jungle walk

and finally this lovely fellow gets a mention...he was waiting for us at the end of our botanical garden tour- this was taken before he attacked poor Catherine- those beady eyes and sharp claws took on a dark aspect after he lunged at her...thankfully she escaped unscathed! And I'm ashamed that I could not stop laughing about this event for some time afterward...