To summarize our first month: the transition went so smoothly! People kept commenting on how easy we made it look and how quickly we were on our feet! We told them, "Many, many people are praying for us, so we know it is God walking us through this."
DAY 1 and 2: we explored the city on foot and introduced the kids to Thailand!
Trying new fruit!
New plants...
The view from our hotel room.
On day 3 we moved into our home! We spent that week cleaning and unpacking. Max was happy to have his toys back!
4 days after arriving "school" was back in session!
Shopping can be exhausting, but we needed a fridge and cleaning products...
We found these little coin machines in the food court at the grocery store. After you put your money in, the child steers and can literally drive it around the food court! Very fun:)
A sweet couple (new friends) took us to church and the kids played afterwards.
Our sweaty little boy with the water jugs. (We can't drink the tap water)
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Jack loves to catch the lizards (they live in our house...it's just the way it is here:)
Taking public transportation was fun....
..but after a week we were soooo excited to get our vehicle.
Max had the hardest transition. The Thai people love babies and wanted to touch, hold, and play with him but he wanted nothing to do with it. However, within 4 weeks he was smiling at people! Even though we prepared for Callie a lot of attention, it caught her off-guard. "Why do they want to play with my hair; why are they hugging me?" She is used to it now. When she greets the people in Thai it melts my heart.
Max didn't get the memo that he is supposed to sleep through the night in his own bed...so, we're struggling through that. He gets up at least 3x/ night, even if he's in our room. The 11 hour time change was most difficult for him. Keeping a 14 month old entertained at 4am before you've unpacked wasn't easy!
The kids watch Thai cartoons on Saturday morning and never complain that they cant understand it. I watch the news a few mornings a week but I don't understand much either:) The language is so difficult that we're told we won't just pick it up. We've arranged to have a tutor come to the house for the kids...still working on a tutor for us.
Thank you to everyone who prays for and encourages our family. Thank you also to everyone who supports us financially. We appreciate all of you:) Here are 2 exciting moments:
- We sat with a man from the UK in the food court and got to share the gospel with him! I love that the Lord gave us someone we could communicate with to proclaim His name.
- While out buying laundry baskets, after a long day, Callie (our middle child) told us, "I wish I could get this sin out of me right now!" So, we sat down on the display furniture in the store and talked about sin and the Savior! She prayed and my daughter became my sister in Christ! She was so excited and wrote a song about it and then began telling people that she is a Christian now because she prayed to the Lord and Jesus took away her sin.
! I'll leave you with this picture: our first month was exhausting:)
I can't believe we are finally here, in Thailand! Thank you, Lord for your faithfulness!! Let your glory fill the Earth!!!
