Year of the Tiger

Well, we've had a woeful lack of snow around here. You just can't expect it in 90-something degree weather. The hot season is upon us and it is HOT. Makes me tremble to think what April, the hottest month, will hold. While we've had no snow, we have had tigers...

and lions...

...and, less glamorously, lots of germs.

But first things first. We had the opportunity to go up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to help with a conference for people working in south Asia, mainly for Tim to lead worship. So we had a lovely time getting to know some lovely people and the kids got to do a VBS led by some really great folks who came from Atlanta for that purpose. What a blessing for us. Emmy now has new friends who live elsewhere in Asia and is part of a 'girls club' that wears water bottle cap rings and has plans to keep in communication via email. We took her out of school for a few days for our trip, but as it turned out, her grade was closed for the week because of a number of H1N1 cases.

We had done elephants, monkeys and snakes before, so we decided to enjoy some tigers this time around, which was a treat.

Isn't he beautiful? I just wanted to show you that they were, in fact, alive. They were very docile, but they insist that they don't drug them; they're just trained to be around people and apparently are naturally lethargic in the heat of the day. I do hope that's true. The visits are also highly supervised. They don't allow children in with the adult tigers (seems like a good precaution), so we enjoyed the 4 month olds, and they were indeed beautiful. Just look at those paws- it was fun to touch them!

Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine's Day weekend this year, and we were invited to celebrate with some friends who had quite a party. Tim was working and missed the fun, but I'm glad we went ahead. I have a vivid memory of being at Epcot as a child, in the China area, watching dancing dragons, and it was amazing to stand in a friend's yard and watching dancing lions as an adult! I wonder if our children will remember it? Perhaps Emmy will; probably she'll remember that she held her hands over her ears the whole time as the accompanying drums were quite loud!

Emmy receiving her 'red envelope' at the end of the party. These are traditionally given (with money inside) to celebrate the New Year.

Valentine's Day was quiet. We had a little fun with breakfast, and then I had a small scavenger hunt for the kiddos. Unfortunately, the Wretched Stomach Bug of 2010 had hit Asa by then, so only Emmy really enjoyed this activity. Still, it was sweet...

finding a clue

treasure!

This book was part of their treasure, and I highly recommend it, especially for adventure loving boys like ours. We didn't know until we read it that one of the characters is named Asa! Bonus!

(As an aside, we ordered books for the holidays from betterworldbooks.com, and I highly recommend them because a) they raise funds for global literacy, b) they save books from landfills by specializing in used books (almost all of the ones we ordered were used and former library books from around the States, but we have ordered new from them too and have been pleased with everything) and c) they ship anywhere in the world (free in the U.S.!). That's my little plug.

This is what most of Valentine's Day looked like, an on the couch, watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sort of day. Delightful movie, by the way. Asa was the only one suffering at this point, but Julian began reminding us what he'd had for breakfast about lunchtime and Tim joined in the fun later that afternoon. The girls remained well, amazingly. Girl power!

Just for fun, because I love the expressiveness of this child!

Dancer, Artist, Warrior

Any day (and week and month) that begins with an overflowing (cloth) diaper, oozing its murky contents on to every available crib surface, causes one to enter with a certain level of caution and suspicion. This wasn't our most stellar day. But Julian cheered me considerably after lunch with his enthusiasm for dance, which I captured on video. I wanted to post it, but, alas, he was scantily clad, and we're a little funny about that. I'm going to mail it to grandparents, but if you'd like a good laugh, let me know and I'll send it your way.

A few recent things:

Emmy's first art show, displaying her work from the first semester of first grade.

Khaw Meow is doing just fine, and becoming an integral part of the family.

He's cute with clothes on, too...

Sometimes, on Tim's day off, he'll take Asa on a boys' adventure outing, often riding the soeng taew to the King's Park for some treehouse/paddleboat fun. If we time it just right, they go during Ju's nap, and it's amazingly great for me. They come back all hot and sweaty and sometimes bring somtam, chicken and sticky rice for lunch...yummy.


This guy is our little warrior. He emerges from his bedroom each morning, clad in next to nothing, with a sword in each hand. He directs me to be nefarious characters and dragons all day long so that he can defeat me. He only wants to read books with battles (hard to come by in appropriate form for a 3 year old), and scours every book carefully for any picture of swords, shields, spears, even guns. He'll take shovels and machinery if no pictures of weaponry are available. I often coerce him to read Beatrix Potter, Robert McCloskey and Winnie the Pooh, and he enjoys them once we're into them. He also loves fairy tales, because he loves the princes with swords.

After some recent, ahem, incidents, I'm really trying to develop his sense of knightly honor and valor to extend to love for his siblings. Our recent drill has gone like this:

Me: "What is your duty?"
Asa (standing at attention): "To protect Julian!"

It's working, too. He still occasionally bops him on the head with a sword, but he's becoming quite aware of the need to close doors so our little bottom scootcher doesn't head for the hills (or the stairs), and that sort of thing.

And this was fun...our friend Catherine brought us polynesian sauce from her trip home over Christmas, so we had a taste of home!

I just found this on the computer, much to my amusement.
I think this is what he does when I'm sleeping.

Reasons to Rejoice

There are so many, all around us. Here are a few. This past Sunday we received new members into our church with professions of faith and baptism. What a joyful time; how privileged we are to have seen God knit this church together from the very first strand and to sing songs and hear (and try to understand!) teaching in this fascinating and challenging language each week.


Jane is a college student and has become a friend. We're going to bake together this week, as she is a big fan of my brownies. We're so thankful for her belief in Christ!


And here are three more incredible reasons to rejoice:

This captures him perfectly. Full of life and so dear I'm sometimes taken aback.

His first year photo. He really is that precious.

And she is lovely, is she not? Such an in-between age; sometimes she astonishes us with her maturity and at other times she's all little girl, basking in attention and full of silliness. I'm trying to savor every day.

Thank you, God.

Another New Year...

Our family likes to concentrate lots of celebration around the turn of the year...yesterday Tim and I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss...which seems like quite a long time on one hand, yet seems very natural on the other. Tim began the day by delivering breakfast in bed, which was amazingly thoughtful and kind. Asa had made his way into our bed during the night, so he soon woke up and started taking bites...alas. We had planned to go out that evening together, but our little guy had a difficult time staying asleep the night before, and we feared it might be an unpleasant evening for everyone if we left, so we stayed put. We had a candlelight family dinner and had a really great time talking about when we were dating, engaged and married. Emmy had some sweet questions: "When did you first see each other?", "Why did you want to get married?", and she's convinced she wants to wear my wedding dress after looking at pictures...we'll see how she feels in 20 years!

While we would have loved to go out just the two of us, I know that, Lord willing, there will be anniversaries down the road for which we'll have the freedom to celebrate any way we choose, all by ourselves. And we'll likely be missing our children:). So for now we'll just thank God for the joy of the constraints He's given us.

After the kids were in bed, we spent the rest of the evening with Harry Potter, which we missed during the summer. How romantic! ;)

A New Year

A Year in Numerical Review:

- 11 pounds plus of baby born one year ago today
- 1 happy mommy to hold said baby on outside rather than inside
- 2.5 months to enjoy family and friends in GA
- more incredible post baby meals than I can count!
- 1 LONG trip across the world, with some adventurous stops on the way
- 1 trip up the Eiffel Tower
- 1 homecoming in Bangkok
- 1 horrible rash begins
- TOO many doctor visits!
- 0 dairy products for Mommy
- 1 hospital stay when Mommy had mastitis
- 1 persistent cheek rash
- 5 teeth
- 1 dimple
- 3 words- peekaboo, uh-oh and Dad-DY!
- 1 crazy crawl that just recently brought on mobility:

"What is that, Mommy?"

Eyes on the prize

Enjoying a birthday spaghetti dinner

Fun on the beach- much sand was consumed!

Loving the ocean

Our first pacifier baby- when he sleeps- I've always been paci-phobic, but he took to it strongly and there was no turning back! I'll admit it has had both advantages and drawbacks.

Julian's first year has shown me clearly, if there was ever any doubt, that I do NOT have this mommy thing figured out. He's kept me guessing, kept me praying, kept me humble, kept me awake, kept me laughing, made me trust God in new ways, and given us all so much joy that we can't imagine our lives without him.

Happy birthday baby boy. We love you endlessly.