summer

It's summer in Georgia. And we have the wrinkly pool fingers and popsicle stains to prove it. We're settling in well here, feeling at home. It's a time of deep feeling for us, of settling, enjoying, gratitude. We departed Thailand one month ago today, and I am amazed to think of all that month has held. Good, good time with all of our family. Moving to our Atlanta house, which was beautifully and lovingly prepared by able hands to be a home for us. The fun and big wow! of Vacation Bible School for Em and Asa. Enjoying this amazing piece of wizardry known as the dishwasher (you know all of that effort expended three times a day? It takes care of it all overnight!) Friends- the joy of our loved ones here. And before that, India! But I think that will have to have its own little spotlight, as the sheer volume of content would turn all away in exhaustion, I think. So, to catch up a bit...

We had a sweet send off from our church in Thailand; although we'll return, we'll be moving to a new place and a new work, so this was a bittersweet time for us and for our faithful team leader's family, who also departed for the U.S. in June. Our friend Ling did a beautiful dance for us...


And one last lunch at the market- our little man with his little buddy who is just about the same age.

A loving welcome at the airport

bedtime stories with big sister

Enjoying the company of loved ones...





The 4th of July was all I had hoped it would be. I dearly love this holiday and had greatly anticipated spending it in Georgia again. We started the day with a 10k 'Peach Stand Road Race' through Locust Grove, which echoes Atlanta's famous Peachtree Road Race, without the crowd and with the nostalgia of the Gardner Farms peach stand. Then we moved on to a day of family and food- we boiled peanuts and fried pickles and made peach ice cream and pie- and that was all before the cookout and fireworks in the evening. Hence the need for the run.

shucks

Second

My favorite little girl finished second grade today. We rejoiced in celebrating her all day long. We had a purple cupcake party for summer birthdays, said LOTS of goodbyes to people at school we love, had lunch with friends, went for a swim with other friends, and now we are tired and most of us are sleeping. A few pictures from today...








Oh my goodness we have a third grader!

A Little Bit of Now

Feeling just a bit discombobulated around here, with only a few weeks until major life transition- again. We've been doing lots of wrapping things up, entertaining, saying "see you later" to people we love, and planning for the time to come. A small glimpse of life lately...

a good play

I did some more field tripping with second graders recently. I love, love being with my girl and her friends, and I spent the morning exploring the Thai National Museum with these two sweet young ladies. We saw weapons, costumes, games, modes of transportation, giant elephant tusks intricately carved, and much more, sweating profusely all the time. It was a sweet reward to make it to the air conditioned gift shop at the end!

Thai dancers

with a dear friend

Speaking of dear friends, there are many that we'll pick up with again when we return, but some who will be leaving and will leave vacancies in our lives, like this family we have come to love, and whose daughter has been one of Em's closest friends. Now we'll have even more reason to visit Australia some day, as our buddies will be going back home 'Down Under'.

We wrapped up our preschool year with an alphabet graduation party- Asa has enjoyed spending every Friday morning learning his ABC's with this cute group of friends...



And a few that just make me smile...

found this one on the camera- it's not great quality, but oh so much fun.

Risen

We're at the end of what has felt like a lengthy Lenten season. Easter tends to sneak up on us, but this year we made strides to prepare our hearts- readings, candles, reflection. The season was brought to a close this morning as we sang to God in Thai with our church family, first at 6 am at the park and then again later in the morning. When I think of the last few weeks and the last few days, a number of things come to mind.

The weeks of hot walks with small children to catch a song taew, which carried us to a taxi, which then carried us to school or any other desired destination. (The van finally returned to us, at long last, yesterday. There was dancing involved.)

My efforts toward blending preparation of our hearts for Easter and traditional fun- the Easter eggs that were dropped after being dyed, the egg hunt moved to the living room during a rainstorm, the fatigue and lack of patience that can plague me, sometimes showing through my efforts and making them feel hollow to me. Yet still the children experience joy and express gratitude.


The Easter story cookies we made- I liked this activity because it was tactile- touch the ingredients, read the scripture they point to, seal those cookies into the turned off oven to stay overnight and in the morning you should find them empty like the tomb. But we forgot to consider our unrelenting, ever-present, indefatigable nemesis. When we opened the oven, we pulled out a cookie sheet swarming with ants.

Ants, ants. Ants on our toothbrushes, ants randomly walking on our necks, our arms. Ants on dirty plates, ants on clean plates. Julian recently grabbed the broom before dinner and trotted over to his chair to clean off the ants before being seated. I wonder if all 2 year olds are this helpful and well trained? When I am an old woman, I think I will absently swat myself and mutter about ants. Or perhaps mosquitoes. Or shriek in remembrance of opening kitchen drawers and cabinet doors and finding cockroaches or lizards.

In the midst of all of this, these joys and inconveniences and reminders of personal brokenness, I am more sincerely grateful and assured than I have ever been that Jesus died for this broken world, for me, and that all things will be renewed. He is risen indeed.

And I should mention the good, restful vacation with friends that we enjoyed in Chiang Mai over spring break, in spite of the fact that our mode of transportation was still out of commission and we had to make last minute travel changes...as promised to dear grandparents, pictures...

pretty accommodations

Em practices Thai

sweet 7 year olds, hailing from Thailand and Laos, tea party-ing

by the jackfruit tree

the kiddos in our group, oldest to youngest

Happy Songkran, Y'all!

Chakri

It's Chakri Day, a Thai holiday commemorating the founding of the Chakri Royal Dynasty in 1782. We seized our holiday opportunity to take our crew outside and downtown to Lumpini Park, the Central(ish) Park of Bangkok. Thus inspired by this fair city, here are a few glimpses of Bangkok and some of its inhabitants, both human and reptile...

Asa considers the monitor lizard...

and he descends to his murky lair

not so big, but prettily patterned

Julian has a little trouble with the fountain

two fair flowers

coffee or tea?

to market, to market