A Day Trip

We had to travel into Bangkok today for a scholarship ceremony. Over 150 Thailand children are awarded scholarships from ExxonMobil every year to assist with primary, secondary and university studies. The financial assistance is given to those children that have applied with a certain academic excellence and financial need. Every year the recipients and their families are treated to a day of fun, food and presentation. It was like a work fun fair in the states, with popcorn and drinks, lots of games for the children that included prizes, some vendors promoting health...Then we were escorted into the auditorium for the scholarship presentations where Mark presented the winners a certificate, after a ton of pictures everyone was treated to a sit down dinner. It was a day of meeting lots of new people, many of which were Exxon employees that helped organize the annual event. We wanted the boys to participate and meet some of these special children. It can feel uncomfortable when you stick out like a sore thumb-we're white and we can't speak their language but we tried, participating in the games and smiling a lot. Dustin commented,"I feel out of place, like I'm in a foreign country or something!!" That made us laugh, we are out of place in a foreign country. As each recipient came to the stage they all waid Mark and he returned the wai, I asked one of the Thai managers if that was okay, he stated that it isn't expected but it will go a long way in forming relationships. Mark and I decided that universally all children are alike-they acted timid, shy and wanted to scuttle across the stage as quickly as possible!

After the returning to our hotel, the boys stayed in the hotel while Mark and I ventured out. Mark had his first Thai haircut and then he and I both enjoyed an hour Thai foot massage. All for 600 Baht. The ladies and I chuckled watching Mark, his eyes were closed and he had a smile on his face. I'm glad that he was able to relax some after listening to him share some of the struggles he faces at work, his first week really opened his eyes to the challenges ahead of him at work, he's got his work cut out for him. I'm also including a picture of his office building.

We ordered pizza out this evening and didn't want to leave the hotel again. We ordered from the Pizza Company, the pizza is really pretty tasty. It's delivered via motorbike and comes with lots of ketchup, for our 3 medium pizzas they sent about 40 packages of ketchup which went to waste on us!

A New Car

Our new car was delivered yesterday to our hotel. Remember, we aren't allowed to drive? It is a very strange feeling to have a new car just setting in a parking lot, it doesn't feel as exciting when you know that you will most likely never even drive that new car! There is an outside chance that Mark may ask permission to obtain an International driver license to drive some, perhaps to church on Sunday, out to the soccer field on Saturdays...I'll believe it when I see it because I can't imagine that Mark is going to have any spare time to pursue that. It is very restricting not to be able to drive. Last night we were invited to the Clarkson's for Drew's birthday and it was hard to relax knowing that Songkran our temporary driver was setting in the car just waiting to drive us back to the hotel. Yesterday, he picked me up to drive me to my Bible study and we had to return two times to the hotel because I had forgotten my passport, then I remembered I needed some additional paperwork. In the states, when something is forgotten it's not big deal you just turn around and go back. Forgetting something here feels embarrassing and like you are putting someone else out, even though you are paying them. Wait till he sees how many groceries I buy a week. I really believe that the no driving policy may be one of our biggest adjustments. In Bangkok there are lots of transportation options but in Pattaya our only other choice for transportation is the Baht bus. We are considering giving our permanent driver, whoever that may be, Sundays off. That would require me riding to church in the back of a pick-up truck in my skirts, we still have to get all this driver stuff worked out. We are interviewing our second applicant this afternoon, we interviewed our first one Monday evening, he has been a limousine driver in Bangkok for 30 years and speaks fairly good English but he just couldn't imagine anyone that would need to go to church every Sunday. Twice he said, "You go church EVERY Sunday?" like he was in total disbelief. Anyway our new car that we purchased for someone else to drive while we are in Thailand is a silver, Toyota, Fortuner-I can't ever remember seeing one in the states but it's the closest thing to a Suburban we could find here!

Another interesting thing about owning a car in Thailand is the collision insurance. The first year is covered by Toyota, it comes with insurance! If you don't have any accidents the second year it costs about $20,000 Baht, remember my conversion trick? That's about $600. Anyway, I think that's how it all works! I had to sign my name to a lot of paperwork that I couldn't read a word of, now that is a weird feeling. It was also an interesting experience getting the cashier check from the bank. We conquered having the money wired from the states to our Thailand account fairly easily. Mark had the for thought to have the password and stipulations in place prior to us leaving Virginia, that was a huge help. Just a call over the Skype computer system and presto the money is in Thailand in our account in about 24 hours! It was frighteningly easy, hope we never lose our passwords. At the bank, even though they can see that the money is in your account, you can not cash a check for an amount greater than $9,000, so I had to write a few checks to obtain 1 cashier check-it's just a different way to do things. We will pay all of our phone, Internet, cable, utility bills at 7-11 with cash. This is a cash society, most places do not accept credit cards. Anyway, our new car looks really shiny and nice in the hotel parking lot.

Answered Prayer

It seems like there is so much to post and now my life is getting busier and I'm having a hard time keeping up with it all. I have to tell you about the Clarkson family, I really think of them as answered prayer. The first time we visited the International Church of Pattaya, when we pulled into the parking lot, a family with three boys were getting out of their vehicle. We instantly had a connection, they have just moved here about 5 weeks ago from Fredricksburg, VA with GM. Their three boys are Drew-14, Ethan-10 and Carter-7 and all the guys became fast friends. Right away she invited us over for grilled hamburgers and then we had them over for a swim date. We quickly found an amazing connection, a God thing!! She mentioned that her Dad has travelled to Thailand 33 times in his job with a corn seed company. He lives in North Carolina. I told her that we were raised in TX where a lot of corn is grown and she said her Dad grew up in a couple of small towns in TX-Littlefield and Hereford!! That is our old stomping ground. In less than 24 hours one of her aunts was calling my mother to ask if she had a daughter in Thailand, I think they were checking us out! I just love connections like that, man, it is a small world and God is so good to send us just the right friends, answered prayer! Today, we went to lunch to celebrate her birthday. Not only has she become a fast friend she seems to have been instrumental to our finding 'the' house for us. I don't want to say too much because we are waiting to sign the contract, hopefully tomorrow. God just wasn't opening the door to that golf-course home by the boys school, it just seemed to be stalling, it boiled down to our realtor having a history with the home owner, he used to be the previous manager of the property. Once I called the owner directly and she conveyed to me that she wanted to deal with us without our particular realtor it seemed to speed things up a tad but there had continued to be a lot of back and forth tag about the security system. Mark really has stuck to his guns concerning a security system since day one because he has to be gone a good deal of time. Last week while the owner was still waffling about the security system, Mark and I just decided to start looking again. Molly, my new friend had told me about some houses near her. The Clarkson's have a beautiful property with a nice, new home, 2 bedroom guest house, pool house, tropical garden...you get the picture. So we began the home search anew and I think we finally have a home!! I will tell you all about it in future postings if the deal goes through but suffice it to say The Clarkson family has been such an answer to prayer.

Morning Musings

About once a week I walk on the beachfront road after I see Mark and the boys off. I thought I might just share with you some of my observations, sights that are so foreign to us as Americans. Did you realize that not only do people drive on the left side of the road here, they also walk on the left. Some things that seem so natural are different here. Someone told us you can tell who the Americans are in Thailand, they are the ones walking entirely around the car before they get in. That has already happened to me a couple of times, I go to get into the car and realize I'm getting in on the driver's side. We heard rumors that dogs are eaten in Thailand, I don't think that's true, there are lots of stray dogs on the sidewalks, beach, benches...they appear friendly and occasionally you will see one with strings tied around its neck to denote ownership I assume? In Pattaya you can call 1112 for 24 hour Burger King delivery. Our phone numbers here have ten digits but you can call 4 numbers for Burger King, Pizza Hut...I haven't learned the emergency number here, I doubt it's 911.

I did visit the hospital of Pattaya yesterday and registered in the case that we ever need hospital services. The hospital lobby feels exactly like a 5 star hotel lobby. A grand foyer with greeters. I gave them my passport and filled out a questionaire and was given a patient card. You don't need an appointment for care, you show up and they enter you in to the system asking what kind of services you require and escort you up to that particular area to see the Dr. You are escorted by a 'nurse' that is all dressed in white and has that old fashioned nurses cap on. Everyone has told me that they have been very happy with the medical care here. You do the same procedure for dental care as well in the same hospital. When you leave you are sent out with the medicine in hand if need be. The language barrier is still an issue at the hospital too. One new friend at church said she was going to be tested for mono because she was so tired and had been previously exposed. It wasn't until she was in the Dr's office that she understood there was some confusion, he thought she was there with a menopause problem!!

As I was walking I realize that we have lost the sense of community in America, I passed many groups of people sharing their breakfast under the palm trees beside the water which always involves something with sticky rice from what I have observed. I had read that Thai people are known to be able to sleep anywhere. I've seen that on the beachfront, lots of people are sleeping on the busy beachfront on benches. I saw two men just laid out in the sand, sound asleep. I actually saw a man sleeping on his motorbike on his back, his head was resting on the handlebars and he was snoozing. Last week, I saw two young boys (maybe 8) sleeping on the side of the walkway. It made me sad and wondered where their parents are. Pattaya has a high population of orphaned children, I'm supposed to participate in a food drop to the slums of the city on Friday.

I saw the Buddhist priests making their alms rounds in their golden orange robes and shaven heads. I've read that every morning usually around 7 am the priests travel a route through the city holding their alm bowls in front of them depending on the people for their breakfast and lunch. Whatever is placed in their bowls are taken back for breakfast and any leftovers are saved for lunch, the priests do not eat again after lunch until the following morning. The people that place food in their alm bowls are making merit. It's really an unusual sight. As are the spirit houses, there are several on my route. The business of selling flowers, incense and food to appease the idols is big business, the vendors are out early setting up shop. I've already noticed how what was so new to me 3 weeks ago is now becoming common. Well, that's some morning musings from Thailand, I'm off to look at two more houses today.

Church Day

We had planned on visiting Grace Bible Church of Pattaya today, we had scoped the church out and located it two Saturdays ago, it really is the last on our list.Sadly, for a city this size, estimated at 1.5 million with the huge ex-pat population, we have only found 3 Protestant churches. Two of those churches are easily less than 100 attendees. It's been difficult to find information about this church but the lady we had spoke to that lived beside the church assured us that the services were conducted in English. We had planned for our new friends the Clarkson's to meet us there. We were disappointed upon arrival to learn that the services are in Thai only and the pastor who was Thai but spoke impeccable English directed us back to the International Church of Pattaya that we attended last Sunday. So all 10 of us walked in late at the International Church, I did a head count, there were 39 people there this morning. So one fourth of the congregation was late this morning! It's always good to be in the house of the Lord. Isn't it amazing how so many times you feel like the message has been especially tailored for you? That was the case this morning, the pastor spoke from 1 Peter 5:6 & 7 and casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you and he combined that with Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." I needed that word from God this morning. One night this week, late at night this indescribable spirit of fear came over me. It felt almost palpable and a little overwhelming really. Mark was gone and I was trying to go to sleep and suddenly I felt this oppression of fear upon me. Fear that I was so far from family and friends, that I really don't know too many people here, that I don't know the language, that we are amongst so much wickedness,worry about what the boys are facing...It was weird, I don't have any idea where it came from. I had to cry out to God and just cast all that fear upon Him. I confessed the fear as sin, knowing that no matter where on earth I may be, the Lord is right there with me. Psalms 55 brought me comfort, "Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove. I would fly away and be at rest-I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm. Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets v.16 But I call to God and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my voice. He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. v.22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. v.23 But as for me, I trust in You." After some time and comfort from Psalms I was able to rest, the heaviness was gone and the spirit of fear gone. So you can see why the message was for me today. The pastor also quoted Charles Spurgeon that we trust God with our eternal soul, can't we trust Him with this physical body?

I met more of the congregants today, there are 5 people that fellowship there from the Philippines, that are here teaching at a Thai school. I initially thought they were Thai, I think there is only one Thai family that attends this church. A Ladies Bible study will begin in one week, they will be studying Beth Moore's study of Daniel. It will be great to participate in that, it has been years since I've been able to attend a Bible study during the day. Did I tell you all that I attended another Bible study that meets near the boy's school, they are studying, 'The Power of a Praying Parent.' There were 17 ladies in attendance, it was so encouraging and what a pleasure to study with so many different nationalities, about 9 different countries represented-Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada, Thailand, China, Peru and America. I couldn't understand some of what was being said but would just pray for the person sharing if that was the case. They meet every Friday. I'll close for now in peace as I am continually casting my cares on Him.

The Daddy's Back

We are so excited Mark is back! Many weeks ago we found out that Mark would have to be gone for an entire week after we had only been here a week and a half, I had been dreading it and now am so grateful that it's behind us. He had to attend a course in Singapore, which ironically was being taught by a Baton Rouge friend that retired from Exxon when we lived there and now is a consultant. He returned last night not greeting me with roses but rollers!! He was so sweet to make it his mission to try to find me some hair rollers while he was away. (Now that I think about it maybe it wasn't sweetness driving him but the way my hair looks perhaps?) I've posted earlier that we have been unable to find any since arriving in Thailand, my old set burned up after three uses plugged into 220V. Mark had a wife of one of his Singapore contacts buy me some-$60, a little pricey but ohh so thoughtful. He can be sooo romantic! It brought me much happiness!

Where did the week go, my goodness we were busy. We had two invites out for dinner made from new church friends, we had the Clarkson family here to swim at the hotel. Okay, for all of you moms of teenagers here's a story. My new friend Molly and her three boys came over to swim Wednesday after school. On Wednesdays the boys are released from school at 1pm, it's great and they feel like they have a break in the middle of the week. The thinking behind it is-piano lessons, dance tutoring, Dr. appointments...are to be done that afternoon. Or in our case, new friends invited over to swim. Molly and I are setting by the pool and all of a sudden she has the most horrified look on her face, I can't even imagine. I turn to see a lady totally topless and practically bottomless with the size of that bikini bottom, strolling to get into the pool. Thankfully, we are so relieved that the boys are totally distracted wrestling and scuffling in the pool, we think! Shortly there after we all head into the hotel for an afternoon snack. The next evening the boys and I were discussing some of the challenges they are facing-the language at school, not the Thai language-the cursing, Dustin has already confronted one boy that stole a baked good from the Student Council sale, friends that don't even know what prayer is...and I mentioned, "Boys yesterday there was a lady at the pool that didn't even have a top on." To which Ethan replies, "Yea, I saw her she was setting behind you all afternoon!!!" Dustin and Nathan chime in, "Yea, that's why we decided we better go in and get a snack." They don't miss a beat or a half-naked woman walking around! I went to the hotel front desk and asked if they were okay with that, "I don't know if that is okay in Thailand?" She assured me that no, that is not okay in Thailand and she would check into it. You know when I tell you that I talked to the front desk a lot of the conversation is in sign-language. You can imagine me motioning with my hands-my three boys, lady naked, covering their eyes, the horror on my face...you get the picture. I'm so glad this blog is closed now and I don't have to worry about someone thinking I'm prudish and Cleaverish and that I can again remind you, PRAY FOR US! PRAY FOR THESE BOYS-PLEASE!

I spent most of the daytime while the boys were away at school looking for a vehicle and another day of house hunting. Our company is different from most foreign companies working here in that they give money directly to us for house, utilities, driver, maid, vehicle...They do pay the boys tuition and school transportation directly, otherwise they give us the money to do with as we want. There seems to be pros and cons to that. Most of the ladies I have met so far are provided with their car and driver, because the company contracts that out and they don't have to worry with insurance, interviewing...that seems nice when you can't communicate but I do think that in the end it may be more profitable for us because we can sell our vehicle, spend less on utilities, or perhaps only have part-time maid, you see? But up-front it seems like a little more work. So Songkran, our temporary driver, and I were out everyday visiting all kinds of car dealerships and such. It is difficult to drive around with another man in the car all day in total silence. He is so nice and I really like how he is always smiling except when he is smiling and saying yes and he means no, but oh well. (Interesting side note, I was told this week that there is not a word in Thai that means No, the word they use actually means, Not Yes! they don't even have No in their language!)It is so great because he doesn't smoke, he keeps the car immaculate and when he understands. he is prompt and efficient. This is how the day goes, you know me the being quiet is so hard, so occasionally I will attempt to make some small talk. I have learned-I think! that he has a 10 year old son and his wife cleans at a hotel! One day last week as we were looking for cars I was trying to tell him that Mr. Northcutt doesn't want a diesel car but a gasoline car, the next thing I know we are whizzing into a gas station to fill up the car and he is smiling and saying, "Yes?" AND he was not at an ESSO station! I then tried to explain to him that we have to get gas at ESSO because they are the ones that write Mr. Northcutt's check?? Do you get a sense of how frustrating and comical it can all be? and exhausting. You really can't make small talk so I spend a lot of time in the back seat praying, mostly for my safety while I'm in the car!!! The traffic is something else!

We still don't have a house and that's a whole other blog and I'm tired of typing. I really do have so much to tell you about. Thanks for joining me on this adventure! I did forget to say a special thanks to Susan Matthews earlier. I so appreciate you taking the boys the day Ethan had his tonsils out and then the time you let them spend playing with Kelly and the girls before we moved. Love you girlie!

Friends and Family

A few weeks before leaving VA we drove down to TX to say our good-byes to family. I'm posting some pictures from our farewells. Then I happened to take some pictures of some of our wonderful friends that helped in the final stages of moving, I didn't take pictures of everyone that helped in one way or other but I did get some. I've been meaning to get some thank you notes in the mail but I'll take the chance now to publicly thank some of you. I want to thank The Harrells, The Torberts, The Fultzs and The DiAntonios for the meals you provided, the help sorting through books, the taking of the boys for diversion, the offers to help paint,the tea breaks, the airplane goody bags...you guys are the best! I also included a couple of pictures of the neighbor ladies night out, what fun! Thanks to Mary and Annette for the fun farewell lunches. A special thanks to Miss Turner and her send-off packages. I can't believe I don't have a picture of the Fultz family who were loading and hauling stuff out of our house at 11pm the night before we left. Somehow there is not one picture of them at their house hosting our Grace going away party either-unbelievable! Thanks to Kristy Shepherd for meeting us at the airport the day we departed to take the pick-up and everything that was in the back of it too!! We love you all, thank you for all your acts of kindness and dear friendships.

Tips for Thailand

One of the early tips we received about getting along in Thailand is "Watch where you're going." A while ago when one of us would stumble, (some more than others if you know our family, clumsiness seems to come from the Northcutt side!!) I would take a picture to help all of you appreciate your tax dollars at work when you are enjoying nice sidewalks. This morning, after seeing the boys off to school, I was again reminded to watch my step as I was taking a stroll on the beach side. The sidewalks are really uneven at times. Not only that but all bathrooms have a ledge you have to step over to enter, as well as a 3 inch ledge going onto the patio, I assume these are to prevent flooding, the maids just hose down the patio and bathroom, makes cleaning a lot easier since there is a drain in the floor. We have all had our toes stubbed several times and Dustin has fallen down a couple of times, you just can't walk without paying attention to where you're going.

Thai Hello

Thai Hello

Besides smiling most people greet you with a graceful wai, the Thai gesture of both greeting and respect in which the palms are held together as if in prayer, and the fingertips are brought up level with the nose and they say, "Sawadee Ka" to females and "Sawadee Krap" to males, it is a form of greeting like hello, good morning. Apparently the higher you hold your hands the more respect that is being shown. To the king you would place your palms as high as possible. Mark was told by his predecessor that he should never be the first to offer the wai at work and wai only in return and should hold his palms at his chest level. It is a nice tradition of humbling oneself to another. In a days time I might here "Sawadee Ka" 30 times or so in the hotel. I have also learned how to say, thank you-Kob khun ka and good bye is Lakon. The Thai alphabet has 44 letters with 15 vowel sounds. Thai is a tonal language with five different tones. I read that it is difficult for foreigners or farangs because of all the tonal differences for example suea with a rising tone, suea with a low tone and suea with a falling tone mean tiger, a mat and clothes respectively. It's hard for this TX girl with just a 'twangy' tone!! I hope that the Thai people can appreciate I'm trying. I wanted to post this funny picture outside of McDonalds of Rondald Wai-ing, it made me laugh. I'm also posting a picture (I have no pride!) of the momentous occasion of my first Thai facial. Three ladies from the school invited me out for lunch last week and a facial. The ladies were from FL,MS and one lady had arrived two weeks ago from Michigan. I felt very pampered and kinda guilty (especially when my homeschool friends read this!) to be enjoying such a frivolous thing-to anyone that actually makes the trip over I will treat you to a 60 minute facial just no talking during it, it's all about the relaxing!!

The Search Continues

We visited the International Church of Pattaya this morning. They meet in a leased home, so the 40 people or so meet in the living/kitchen area. The smaller children attend SS during the service upstairs in a bedroom. The pastor is from South Africa with Dutch heritage and has been here for over 8 years. He pastors this small congregation and has planted a Thai church on a nearby island. It felt familiar in that they conduct the whole service in English, sing songs we are accustomed to and preach the Word of God. There were about 10 Thai people and the rest of the congregation were Ex-Pats. We met two other families that have all moved here within the last month. One family has relocated from Fredicksburg, VA with GM. They have 3 boys!! Ages 14,11,9-perfect. The mother, Molly, commented that they had been praying for a friend for their oldest and God was so good to provide two!! They were so sweet to invite us over for dinner on Thursday. Mark is flying out this afternoon for a week in Singapore and that will really help the week pass faster. We also met another couple that are relocating from Houston (I asked him where his boots were?) all three of their children are in college and he works for Dow Chemical, she commented that they once had a neighbor in South Carolina named Mark Northcutt! Is that wild or what? She is wanting to start a ladies Bible study/prayer group. Also they had a piano in the corner with no one to play it-maybe it's a sign? The message was from Ephesians 4 and walking worthy of the call, it was a great message and an encouragement to be,live,and walk differently from the world because of the Spirit that lives within us. It was a good Lord's day!

New Friends

New Friends

Yesterday after the boys had worked an hour or so on their homework, they asked if they could invite a new friend from school over to swim. Willy rides the bus to school with them from the city of Pattaya and has been friendly to them. Willy and his 9 year old neighbor came over to visit after catching a ride to our hotel on a motorbike with a friend. What a nice young man, who has grown up in this city his entire 15 years of life. His mother is Thai and his father is from Oklahoma, but hasn't returned there in over 30 years. Willy has never been to the states and lives with his father as his parents are divorced. He speaks fluent Thai and English, how great it was to have him around to translate and explain some things to us. Nathan had asked why the bus driver is always tooting his horn, Willy explained that it is thought to be good luck if while you are passing a spirit house you honk your horn three times, there are a lot of spirit houses between the hotel and the school. Our realtor had explained the presence of so many spirit houses outside businesses, if someone who is associated with the business dies it is believed to be bad luck if you don't construct a spirit house on the premises and then sacrifices of fruit and flower decorations are left in the spirit house to appease their idol. Flower decorations are sold on every corner for sacrifices.We have so much to learn.

We enjoyed our time with Willy and appreciate his friendliness. He said that he transferred to the ISE school after 3 years at a Thai public school and remembers how hard it is to be new. He has much to learn from us as well. Nathan had commented that on the bus they were talking about a kid at school and Nathan said, "Yea, but he cusses a lot." Willy responded, "Is swearing bad?" to which Nathan explained that we don't use that kind of language in our family and don't say God's name in vain.

We took all the boys out for dinner to Willy's favorite place which wasn't too far from our hotel. We had our first 'American' meal since being in Thailand and it was really good. We enjoyed some nachos, hot dogs, BBQ and some live music. Music from the 80's seems to be all the rage here, isn't it strange how you just don't forget the words to that music you grew up with? It's amazing how a Thai person who knows very little English can sing in English? At one point last night we were trying to figure out what language they were singing in and it was Spanish!

Before we started eating we told Willy and Johnny that we like to pray before our meals and Willy said, "How do you do that?" Mark explained that we just like to pause and thank God for the food that He has provided for us and for new friends. We all held hands and Mark prayed. "Wow! that was weird!" replied Willy. He didn't seem to be too traumatized the rest of the evening and hopefully he will still be friendly towards the boys next week. It is going to be lonely here I'm afraid. Mark and I were talking about that last night and he reminded me that David grew to love the Lord more when he was alone with the sheep as a boy and Mark feels like he grew more spiritually when he was all alone in Forsan, TX in that little camper trailer one summer working for Mobil than any other time of his life. He's assuring me that feeling lonely isn't always a bad thing and hopefully it causes us to cling more to God.

Homeless

We are officially homeless. Our Loth Lorian house has been sold in Virginia! We hope and pray that our old neighbors have a nice, new neighbor. Now if we can just get a signed lease agreement on the house in Chon Buri, Thailand, near the boys school. The landlord will hopefully return from her vacation this weekend and we will have a contract early next week and the contractors can begin the needed work on the house soon. We would like to be in the house in two weeks. We love the Dusit Resort but want to start getting settled soon. Our air-shipment has already arrived and is waiting somewhere, not quite sure where? Hopefully our sea shipment will arrive in a month or so. Most rental properties here are fully furnished, we are negotiating a cheaper price to lease without furnishings. Thankfully, we brought quite a lot of our own furniture hoping that it would make the transition a little easier for the boys. The furniture that is currently in the house, which consists of two living room sets, is very cheapo. What we don't have we will just purchase here. I'm posting a few pictures of the house, when you look at the pictures pray for us that we would get a signed contract soon and that it would be a happy home, a light on the hillside, a place of hospitality where God will be glorified!

Thai-taxi

In the evenings if we have need to go outside of our resort we catch the Thai-taxi or the Baht-bus (The Baht is Thailand money, presently I think it's about 33 Baht/US dollar. Mark has taught me an easy way to convert Baht to US dollars-divide by 100 then multiply by 3, a quick reference.) Every day we are still being flooded with new sights, smells and tastes. The Thai-taxi is one of those new experiences. It amazes me in the states we are so safety conscious and here we pay to ride in the back of a pick-up truck. I'm posting some pictures for you all to see. On Wednesday to celebrate the boys first day of school we went to a Thai jazz restaurant for more delicious Thai food and a nice relaxing evening. I still wonder if we will ever tire of the wonderful food and all the fruity drinks with fresh pineapple and fresh flower decorations? As we were leaving the restaurant a downpour of rain hit, usually the taxis don't have plastic around the periphery, their just open to the air. Speaking of rain, I was worried when I was reading about Thailand before coming that we would be transferring right at the start of the rainy season. I had images of long, grey days but that hasn't been the case at all. Nearly every day around 5pm a cloud starts to build up, the pool staff quickly puts up all the umbrellas and seat cushions away and a deluge of rain hits, after 15 minutes or so, it's gone. I've been told that is the extent of rainy season, I can handle that! By the way, it costs about 150 Baht for our Thai-taxi ride home, you convert that.

The World We Live In

Well, I finally had to close my blog to everyone and make it invitation only, I had been contemplating it for a while because of some sites I had noticed were tapping into my blog. It caught a lot of people's attention when I addressed Pattaya's open sin issue, with all the blatant prostitution. After reading a comment left yesterday from a stranger I decided I better finally bite the bullet and just do it. I didn't want to do that in case I'm leaving someone out. Because of the opportunities we have had to live a lot of different places we have lots of dear friends, I can only invite 100 people to read along. I know that I've left someone out and left some spots for those I've forgotten, some I don't have your email addresses. Mom, can you send me Aunt Sara's email address. June, please get me Shannon B's email address, I know she had been reading. Crystal, please get me Becca's so I can invite her to join in. Well, poo! I guess it's just the world we live in. I am writing this to share all the wonderful experiences we are having in Thailand and to keep in touch with all of you. I've sent a special invite to each of you now receiving this because of what you mean to us, how you have touched our lives in some way along this life journey and because I know you are a praying people and will pray for us as we live so far away from you all. You all are so dear to us and we love you much!

First Day of School

Well, the first day of 'real' school for us has arrived, I don't know who was more nervous me or the boys. It didn't get off to the start I had dreamed about, another driver episode for the books!! Mark says you just have to laugh as I watch my worry lines getting even more pronounced. We were all up at 6am, bright and early to get a good start. We're right on schedule after getting dressed, devotional time and breakfast. Our driver is to pick us up at 7am to assure that we get to the school early enough to get pictures, orient the boys, meet their teachers, purchase meal tickets...At 7:10 we finally call our driver who is no where in sight. He says, "Car broke. Be there 7:30." I'm wondering if he would have ever called us to notify us? Also wondering if perhaps he enjoyed the Queen's birthday too much yesterday? Mark said that was mean-sorry. Now we are all getting a little stressed because school starts at 8 am, so much for the leisurely transition to school. Thankfully, he does arrive at 7:30 in a Honda accord with bucket seats requiring that we all pile on top of each other. Ethan didn't think it was too cool to have to be sitting in his mom's lap when we arrived at his new school-oh well. So we're off and only 20 minutes from the school, we'll be okay you would think. Mark tells our driver to take us to the school. He smiles and says, "Yes." After about 10 minutes I comment to Mark that I'm confused this doesn't seem like the way to the school, Mark is confident that perhaps the driver knows a new, shorter way. After another 5 minutes Mark asks driver, "You're taking us to school right?" "OOOH! No work?" the driver replies. You should of heard the groans in the car at that point, I'm sure the driver could translate the exasperation in all the moans. It's now 7:50 and we are finally headed to the school. We arrive at 8:20, there were no tearful hugs, pictures...just the boys running trying to locate their classes. I took the pictures after D & N were in their general assembly and Ethan was deposited into the care of his new teacher, he had to take a seat on the very back row but is sitting by the Principal's son, I'll have to get pictures later of Ethan's class, I didn't want to embarrass him anymore than he already was by being late. He has 20 other students in his class, large in comparison to D & N classes.

By now Mark is late for his job as well, in fact his secretary called just checking on him. We arrived at the workplace at 9:25. I can tell the driver thing will be one of our challenges here. We've arranged for the boys to be picked up by the school van in the mornings from now on and the driver and I will hopefully pick them up in the afternoons. I guess God spared me lamenting about this new stage in our lives and just had me rejoicing that we finally made it to the school at all. I sure hope that we get the contract signed on the house that is walking distance from the school!

First Day of School

The Hunt Begins

We have officially begun our search for a new church home. The church we attended yesterday was the only one we could be sure was bilingual. The small congregation was so welcoming and provided, "Kid" to set between us and translate prayers and announcements, all the words to the music had both Thai and English on the TV monitors.We only recognized one song, This Is The Day, it's difficult to sing with others that are singing in another language if you aren't familiar with the songs. I spent a lot of the time in prayer for this group of believers and asking God to lead us each step of the way here. Yesterday was a special Mother's Day celebration, the Queen's birthday is Tuesday and Thailand mother's are honored on that day as well. Because of upcoming Mother's Day they had a video of the congregants mothers and the pastor's wife was delivering the message. All mother's were recognized, including me and given a special present, it was nicely wrapped and from the shape I assumed it might be a candle but when I opened it later I discovered that it was canned milk. I'm not sure if it is a gift of need or symbolism. At one point the pastor's wife had talked of a woman that was in an accident in China and was critically injured. There was a toddler found by her crying, the picture shown on the monitor was of this mother, who appeared comatose and was intubated, with this toddler nursing at her breast. It was a very moving photo. The message was focused on Ephesians 6 and how children should obey and honor their mothers, a translator was on the stage the entire sermon. I met three other English speakers besides us among the 60 or so congregants. It was a very welcoming church who had lots of enthusiasm, the lady leading the music was quite talented and could lead singing and jump up and down the entire time, I was amazed that she didn't sound out of breath. I was winded just watching her. We enjoyed joining these children of God for worship and were challenged by their joyful worship when they have so little.

Later in the afternoon we ventured down the beachside road to explore some.We don't venture out of the cocoon of our hotel much because of all the open sin along the street sides. We're hoping to discover the less touristy beaches of Thailand later but wanted to check out a cheap mall and have some dinner and it feels relatively tame at 4 pm. There were lots of sights to see and I'll post some random pictures for you. We ate in a nice authentic Italian restaurant and enjoyed our dishes of seafood linguine and pizza. We took a Thai taxi back to our hotel which is essentially the back of a pick-up truck with benches and were glad to be safely 'home'. Mark's first official day back at work is today.

Church Search

We spent most of Saturday searching out our church options. It felt a little like a scavenger hunt. We pulled off every church we could find off the Internet including addresses and headed out with our rudimentary map and Thai driver. We spent a couple of hours locating all of them and trying to speak to someone or get some more information about each particular congregation. At the end of the day Mark's comment to me was, "The church thing may be harder than we thought." We will attend a bi-lingual one today, the only one we could confirm that English was spoken and we agreed with the limited amount of information that was on their web page-Hope of Pattaya Church. I'll let you know how it goes.

Afterwards we went to the Outlet Mall and largest grocery store in Pattaya. It is nice that most things you can purchase are cheaper than the states. Food is much cheaper and so tasty. We saw jeans for $8 and some dress shirts for Mark-$6. We were looking for some electric hair rollers for me. I knew I would have to buy most of our small appliances here because of the different voltage I had an old set of rollers and brought them to use as long as possible, they lasted 3 plug-ins worth and then fried! So we were searching for rollers and sugar. My sourdough starter made it all the way!!! I still use starter that I obtained from Chris Jordan over 8 years ago. I have to feed it with sugar at least once every two weeks.

We found the sugar at the Lotus which is a lot like our Wal-Mart except it really smells different. Mark and I have noted how contrasting smells can be, every now and then here you just get a whiff of something that isn't pleasant. No rollers, I'll try a curling iron/blow-dryer combo for now. Mark said he would look for me in Singapore in two weeks when he is there. I'm not holding my breath, everyone here has straight, straight black hair. I'm grateful for my naturally curly hair and may have to do the headband thing for three years.

We then perused every aisle of the large store looking at our grocery options, it's really sinking in on really what an adventure this is truly going to be!! I saw no ground beef, no Velveeta, no Tostida chips, no frozen pizza, waffles, pastries, no pop-tarts...I'm starting to figure out why you see so few obese Thai people-very little processed and packaged foods and all the packaging is about 1/3 smaller than ours-no super sized anything. The Ritz cracker boxes are small, all the candy bars are about 1/3 smaller than our regular size bars, the cereal boxes smaller, two chicken breasts per package...There were pallets of rice everywhere and lots of fresh seafood and huge amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. They seem to only like potato chips here even though we did see some small bags of Doritos. I'm glad I brought my bread starter at least something will taste familiar. I'm wondering what kind of cinnamon rolls I can make here-papaya filled perhaps? Dustin is going to have to learn to like more fruits and vegetables for sure and I'm going to have to widen my cooking abilities as well.

I'll post some pictures of the Sugar Hut we ate an early dinner at. Ethan is enjoying the good life as you'll see! It's still amazing that we are living in Thailand.

Buying School Uniforms

In the hotel, every morning we have a wonderful buffet breakfast. Can you imagine Thai food every meal? We really love Thai food (thankfully!) and we all eat some combination of it every meal. Yesterday, Ethan had pancakes and rice with fruit and salad, Dustin does an omelet/fried rice combination, Nathan ate some spicy garlic pork with toast, Mark might have some eggs over easy with some sushi...The Thai people eat with a Tablespoon in their right hand and a fork in their left. You use the fork to scoot your food unto the spoon, it's really quite efficient, I like it and we love the food here.

After breakfast we visited yet another housing development. Now this was the kind of area I had envisioned when we first learned we were being transferred here. It had a secure perimeter and tasteful fencing between all the houses not the 8 foot concrete barricades. The house we walked through was gorgeous, every room was surrounded with glass looking down unto the tropical garden and beautiful pool. It had a great maid quarters with a new Thai kitchen. (A lot of houses we have looked at have a separate kitchen outside the family living quarters for the cook, so the pungent aromas of all that delicious Thai food doesn't pervade through your house.) Finally, just what I had envisioned. It had horse facilities with several arenas, a paintball field, an archery field, great club facilities and spa...If it was just Mark and I we would have signed the contract right there but it would be a 50-60 minute bus ride to school, the backyard was a huge common area between 3 homes, as many facilities as were offered the immediate area around the homes didn't feel too kid friendly, more like a showplace. Realistically, I couldn't think how we would arrange all our furniture in so many glass rooms. We brought more furniture than some ex-pats because we could and because we thought it might help the boys adjust easier with their own 'stuff'. We would have to store some of it in the maids living area. It just really wasn't realistic, Nathan will just have to make weekend visits to the paintball field there.

Back to our original house with the terrible back yard, I'll try to swing by and take some pictures of it before they complete some renovations. The administrator of the property met us there and said a contractor has already been hired to paint the entire house, polish all the floors, clean and re grout the bathrooms and hopefully clean up the yard some. What a blessing, I feel so much better about this house, the one that is bike-riding distance from the school. It's just more livable for our family, lots of storage areas, 4 nice size bedrooms, open concept, a dishwasher- which is a rarity in homes here, ceiling fans in some of the rooms which also seems to be a rarity in Thailand. We can get it unfurnished for a much cheaper price than the showplace, saving over 1,000/month. It feels like a normal US neighborhood with kids riding bikes everywhere you just have the tropical surroundings, we will have a coconut tree, banana trees and mangoes in our yard. If we get the agreement all hammered out we won't be able to move in until the first week of September because of all the renovations to be done. Isn't it amazing how quickly a hotel can grow old, the school van will pick the boys up in the mornings at 7am for school, I'll probably be picking them up with the driver's help in the afternoons.

The boys had admission testing yesterday afternoon and all did very well. Dustin made a 100 on the math test, the Administrator wanted to read Nathan's composition on rain to us and said it made her "tingly", she commented that she gave him the subject and he just started writing. All those EIW helps-he had lots of ly words, strong verbs and alliterations. Ethan tested 6th grade level in math and 9th grade in reading comprehension. She was very complimentary to their teacher and asked if I would be available for substitute teaching, it was a relief to all of us to have the testing behind us. The company has some arrangement with the school that we are guaranteed admission but it's nice that they want us! We then did the whole school uniform thing-what a new experience for all of us. The boys seem excited, school begins next Wednesday after a national holiday on Tuesday to celebrate the Queen's birthday.

Birthday

14 year old man cubs

the cake

Our Boys Turn 14 in Thailand

Yesterday was the boys birthday, their first in Thailand. It's so hard to believe they are now 14 year old man-cubs and when we return to the States they could be 16 or 17!! As things tend to go with us, Mark had a meeting in Bangkok that he couldn't get out of so we started the celebrating early. At 7 am I had a cake delivered to their room and we celebrated at the hotel restaurant after breakfast. We continued our birthday tradition of each person affirming the birthday boy, it's really dear to hear them verbalize what they love about each other at least once a year!!! For Nathan I affirmed him in how concerned and cognizant he is of others and how easy it is for him to talk to others and make them feel treasured. I affirmed Dustin in that he wants to do the right thing and not just the 'right' thing but I believe 'God's' thing. Then I cried some, just a tad because their birthday is always a bittersweet time in that I miss Abbie more that day and it makes me wonder what kind of young woman she would be blossoming into? What would Abbie be like at 14 years of age? The tears always make the boys uncomfortable and I try to keep them to a minimum and just concentrate that she is present with the Lord and lay the sadness and what-ifs at His feet.

We had planned for them to go elephant riding on their birthday but when we arrived at the tropical gardens it was way too touristy. The elephants felt like circus performers and we decided to wait until we can do a more authentic ride through the jungle. The boys and I enjoyed our outing seeing all the beautiful flowers, the shows about traditional Thai dance, sword fighting, Thai boxing and elephant fighting. We also enjoyed all the elephant shows-the soccer game, the basketball game and the bowling competition, it was amazing what they have been taught to do.

We then returned home/hotel and spent the afternoon at the beautiful pool situated by the bay. The boys would walk the beach and build sand castles and then come and swim for awhile. It was a nice relaxing reprieve from all day house hunting trips. We even managed to Skype talk with Grandmamma and PappaJoe in New Mexico.

Reality Check

Yesterday was the most frustrating day I've had in Thailand so far. I'm sure that some of it stems from sleep deprivation but also facing the facts that we aren't going to get everything we want in a house. We really, really wanted a pool I don't think that is going to happen. At this stage of the game, for our family, so much of what we do is dictated by these boys and their needs. We are really trying to be cognizant of them and all the transitions they will be facing. The first order of business yesterday was to really commit to which school we would be attending. We have decided on the American International School after meeting with faculty from both schools. I remember asking my contact person from the ISE-American school months ago why they chose it over the much more aesthetically impressive British School. She commented that she liked the 'warmth' of the American school. I would agree with her but we were impressed with the academic challenges the Regent's school seems to offer. All my homeschool friends will appreciate this-while meeting with the Secondary Principal of the British school,(who we had not told him of our school background yet.)When we asked him what he saw as the differences he said, "I think the American school has more of a 'family' learning atmosphere!!!" Okay, pack up our bags, that decides it for us!!!! Mark verbalised it aptly-the British school seems to be a place of learning for boarders-which it is, and the American school appears much more nurturing and family focused. Our relocation liaison commented on the difference between the boys in the meetings, In the American conference the boys were active participants, asking lots of questions and commenting on issues, during the British interview they did not say one word! When we got in the car Dustin said, "That guy scared me." He did say some scary things for a 13 year old-"This is your work. Those who don't make it are asked to jump before they are pushed..." Both schools are International Baccalaureate programs, which that seemed to be big selling point for the British school that they are more academically stringent, but they both have that IB program, that is rare and seems to carry a lot of respect? Man, these are hard decisions. Some other things that drove the decision were the fact that we are familiar with the American system and most likely will be returning to the American system. We're Americans-no excuses!! Even though the abrasive British headmaster made us feel somewhat awkward about that point, he noted that they didn't have one American faculty member and then laughingly noted, "They couldn't make the cut!!!" This guy had us rolling in the floor!! Yea right!!

So school decision behind us, next order of business for the day was to find a house. House hunting exhausts me, doing it with three boys stuffed in the back of a small station wagon really exhausts me. Remember, we have a driver who speaks practically no English with us as well. It's amazing how sweetly and nondescript I can say, "Boys, I said settle down." I wonder if the driver can even sense that I'm upset? The driver really added to my frustration yesterday. We've seen right away that the Thai people want to be so helpful and shake their head and say, "Yes" when they have no idea what you just said. Around 6 pm when I'm at my wits end we are leaving the last house and the realtor, who is from Wisconsin, said let's stop and have a refreshing juice drink, (I'll have to devote an entire blog spot to that-the fruit is just wonderful.) on the way back to the hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip our driver speedily jets around the realtor and his driver and is booking it! I'm 'politely' asking Mark should we ask him to slow down and why did we just pass Clayton? Mark says, "He's okay." We have no idea where he is taking us, none of the territory looks close to our hotel. I hear my Mom's voice whispering in my ear, "He's kidnapping you all for ransom." We finally arrive at a very Thai market-I'm talking fresh stingray for sale, lots of raw, unidentifiable things not an English speaker in sight. He stops and is like 'da-duh we're here.!' Here where? Anyway, we get out and lumber around with all these Thai people staring at the farangs, it felt weird. What are we supposed to do here? Our realtor is no where to be seen, so we walked around for about 10 minutes, found our driver and said, "hotel". I think he understands that? When we finally return to the hotel the realtor is waiting there and says, "What happened?" We really weren't sure and there was no refreshing fruit drink to be found.

Okay, the house thing. I'll have to admit I had visions of us getting a nice Thai house with a large pool and covered porch overlooking the pool and tropical gardens. We did see a few houses like that, one was in the middle of no where, among the pineapple fields, the coconut trees and the cattle roaming around scrounging for food with a huge fence around it. One of the main 'must-haves' for Mark is safety so that was not a contender. The other ones that fit that fantasy profile were in a military type compound with houses almost stacked on each other-I noted to Clayton how 'mooshy' they were and then had to clarify 'mooshy'. You guys know what I mean when I say 'mooshy' right? Most houses are about 20-30 minutes from the school that would be a 45-60 minute bus ride for the boys. So really our only option is the golf course where the school is. The golf-course has amazing views and wide-open spaces for these West Texas people!! The only problem is that it is very popular and there are very few houses available and not one of them have a pool because you have full access to the club pool. We're just not club pool kind of people, have you seen me in a bathing suit-let's don't go there. They do have a gorgeous golf course and nice tennis courts. We looked at 3 housed there. The first one was old, it had a small refrigerator and a mini one on the kitchen counter! It was right across from the golf course condos, it felt a little mooshy on that street. The 2nd one was a possibility-it just needs fresh paint, floors polished and some badly needed landscaping. It has to have paint, obviously the previous tenants were not strict disciplinarians, in the living room there is a lot of marker art at about the 2-3 foot range. This house also had 3 teenager girls that came out to meet us from next door! (We're already missing Chris.) The third house was just the most incredible setting and had a great pond in the back yard and looked down onto the golf course but the tenant said she wasn't moving until next August even though the landlord said it would be available in 30 days, seems like some miscommunication going on there if you ask me. It also had a most depressing kitchen, very small and closed off. What is that saying, "If the mamma ain't happy...." So really it seems like only one choice, it's just not fitting our visions at all and we are having to adjust some. I met Denise next door from Brazil and she seemed so nice. I was praying as we were zooming to the market not only for our safety but also that God would continue to lead us, shut the doors to this house if this isn't where he wants us to live, maybe God wants me to live beside Denise...conform me to what He wants and not what I want or thought I was getting. Our relocation liaison-Mary is concerned that it is way tooisolated for me. I assured her that I'll be okay, lots of families live in the golf-course area and she doesn't know my background it doesn't feel too isolated to me, it is 20 minutes from Pattaya which is where I would do most of my shopping but also 20 minutes from some of the things I don't want the boys continually bombarded with. It's bike riding distance from the school though. More to come.

Random Pictures of Bangkok

Up Early Again

I can't seem to sleep past that 3am mark, I seem to be functioning okay on 5 or 6 hours of sleep but I keep waiting for it to catch up with me. Every other family member seems to be adjusting better to the time zone than me. Ethan told me he wants to take a 6am walk on the beach and that he would wake up on his own-yet to be seen!

Mark is officially 'legal' to work in Thailand now. Monday we started out at 8am to the US Embassy to get a visa-which made no sense at all to us since we had already obtained a 1 year visa in DC but Mark's Thai liaison said, "Things are different here, must go to Embassy for other visa." Anyway, it only took 3 hours to sort out the confusion and figure out what they really needed, thankfully the boys had brought books, I didn't sadly, but had lots of opportunities to visit with all the other people waiting in the lobby. I sat by this man from Tennessee, an older man who had a strong Southern drawl (I know-pot calling the kettle black!) whose passport and wallet had been pick pocketed the day before at a street market. It's a good thing I sat by him-he needed me!! After 30 minutes or so I noticed that he had no paperwork and obviously didn't see the stolen passport paperwork on the wall. I helped him fill it out before his number was called. He was flustered and a little more than ready to get back to the States. After finally getting the all important piece of paperwork we went to another place of bureaucracy to get the official work permit, we had to sign a lot of papers and the liaison sent us on our ways without our passports and will finish the procedure for us and deliver our passports and work permit on Thursday. We are very grateful that step is behind us as yesterday we ran into a British 'fellow' and family, at a school visit, who ironically is one of Mark's new employees, and they have had a glitch in their paperwork and don't know how long it will take to sort it out and until then he will continue to be unable to work here. We finally returned to our hotel around 2 pm and ate lunch there. We had some nice wraps and sandwiches and a Starbucks treat-to our dismay the coffee concoctions are exactly the same prices as the US prices, it really makes it seem ridiculous when you are comparing it to coffee down the street for 1/4 of the price.We then started out for Pattaya. I'll put some pictures up of Bangkok, as you can see I only have learned how to do a slide show!

Random Pictures of Tokyo

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Path to Pattaya

Hi all, we made it "home". We drove about 1 1/2 hours south of Bangkok today to the area we will be living. It was nice to get out of the city, and the boys were relieved to not be living in such a big city. We traveled down on a 8-lane tollway that was surrounded with palm trees, banana trees, pineapple orchards and beautiful blooming trees and flowers. We passed a field of water-buffalo, that was a sight! If you have ever been to Cairnes, it reminded us of that area, a little hilly. It was a pleasant drive. As you get close to the town of Pattaya you start to get a feel of how 'touristy' it is-billboards, hotel high-rises...We are staying at a hotel right on the water, I think it's the Sea of Thailand. It is a very beautiful locale for a hotel and the staff treated us as royalty with leis and a refreshing drink upon our arrival with cute little bunny wrapped folded washcloths. They already knew our names, as Mark had stayed here a month ago and his new position seems to carry some status here? Truthfully, it was a little uncomfortable and awkward. I think we will have to spend a lot of time in our hotel area because the area is swarming with older white men walking around with much, much younger beautiful Thai women, it kinda feels gross. There's no getting around it and Dustin and Nathan are at the age that they notice, so we have had to talk about it-Mark said, "Call it what it is-sin." It has caused me to cry out to God this morning asking him to provide in a big way our new home, it has to be a distance from all of this so we aren't continually bombarded with the sad fact of prostitution. Today, we will be visiting the International Schools, setting up a bank account and perhaps getting new cell phones. We want to hit the road running because Mark starts his job on Monday. I hope we can find a home pretty quickly because until then this is our temporary living. I don't enjoy living out of a suitcase even though the $300 Baht/week laundry service (about $10) is a nice perk!

It was such a comfort as we were leaving Bangkok to know that we already have contact people and friends in the area. On Sunday evening,we picked up our VA friend, Chris at his hotel who is in Bangkok on the Presidential advance team and is preparing for the President's visit to Thailand tomorrow (we were so grateful to get out of town before that-the security at the Embassy appeared heightened, traffic is already atrocious.) It was so weird to see Chris here! I just couldn't get over the fact that he was here-strange. We met our first Thai friends at their apartment and walked through Lampini Park to a Thai eating establishment. We are all loving the Thai food, it really isn't too different from American Thai food. The Phad Thai noodles taste just like the dish we used to enjoy so in Clear Lake. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with our new friends the Beckwith's, it was so relaxing to have someone that could speak the language fluently, it took some of the frustration out of the evening. They were so kind to invite us back to their apartment and we had a wonderful, scrumptious, chocolate, 'baby' cake. What a help they were in being available, encouraging and so hospitable-it was very helpful to talk with them about some of the Thai customs. It is highly offensive to touch someone on the head, you shouldn't point with a finger-they use their palm to direct you, you shouldn't point your feet at anyone, never talk badly about the King-in fact you can be arrested for that. The Thai people love their King and he has done some great things for Thailand-there are pictures of him and the Queen everywhere. Thanks to the Beckwith's for a wonderful evening. We sadly parted with Chris at their apartment after Chris provided us with people and their numbers at the US embassy to help if we ever find ourselves in a crisis, what a blessing!! Thanks Chris-we will really miss you, we love you, JoAnna and the girls very much, hopefully he will get to come again while we are here. More to come...

Our First Thailand Day

What a day of amazing sights, sounds and tastes. I really enjoyed our first day here. We started with breakfast on the 40th floor of our hotel, our table was facing the city with a total glass front, for quite the panaromic view of Bangkok. It's a huge city, #28 on the world population list vs. Tokyo that is #1, just lots of people in both cities. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't have much smog, I had heard that it was a dirty city. I didn't find that to be true at all yesterday, we drove around and walked around quite a bit and I would say in the areas we visted that NYC was dirtier. The sidewalks are old and uneven causing one to have to really watch their step, it's older than NYC but seemed cleaner in the parts we toured. I hadn't spent much time studying up on Bangkok prior to us leaving, knowing that we would be living here,so really can't speak to everything we saw yesterday. I was just trying to take it all in. It feels different than Japan in that there are a ton of tourists, in Japan we saw very, very few Caucasian people, you could almost feel like you were the only ones walking the streets of Tokyo. We did meet a couple from PA in our hotel who were there for their son's wedding to a Japanese woman. Bangkok is so international, my goodness, a plethora of nationalities! I was surprised by the Muslim presence, lots of women in burkas. I knew that there was a strong Muslim contingency in South Thailand but not here, some M's that we met with yesterday said that is new thing they have seen in the past few years-wealthy middle Eastern Muslims here for the shopping. Shopping you might ask, in a third-world country? They have some amazing, large, modern, luxury shopping malls. I told the boys that if they ever missed the states we could come to Bangkok and go to a mall and eat at McDonald's! We've been told that McDonald's, KFC, and Wendy's are much different than in the states(even though they look they same from the outside-Ronald is waving and inviting you in here too!) but that Pizza Hut is pretty much the same as stateside. I saw lots of Starbucks and higher-end designer stores like Prada and Tiffany's. The contrasts though are still striking, a block away from the mall very likely has a debilitated,old building missing a door with trash piled inside. It's just a surprising contrast.

There are street vendors everywhere, the sidewalks are covered with people selling their wares, most of them setting up a small sidewalk cafe. The smells are overwhelming at times with all the different concoctions simmering and cooking. The chefs have all they need in their small spot on the sidewalk-the kitchen, the dining area (the curb) and the clean-up area. We do know some people that have no qualms in eating at these establishments but I would be wary after watching the women wash all their supplies in a small bowl of water situated by their location. We came home at 10ish last night and business still seemed strong, I wonder if some of these people sleep at their vendor locations, it sure didn't feel like the Sabbath, the sidewalks were busy, banks open, malls with a steady stream of people...

We finally found the Evangelical Church of Bangkok, we left 45 minutes early with directions in hand and our driver waiting patiently outside. Let me just tell you, I already see one way God is going to use this experience in my life, he is going to be cultivating patience in me. In the states, I like to drive, Mark likes me to drive, the boys like me to drive, there is just more peace in the vehicle when I'm driving and Mark is an excellent map reader. I struggled some yesterday trying to sit quietly in the back sit while Mark struggled in the front sit trying to communicate with our driver that speaks English (?). Finally, after 45 minutes I started praying for the Lord to help us find this place that we had been told was only minutes from our hotel. At one point, Nathan (if you know Nathan he has an innate sense of direction.) commented, "Hey, there's our hotel again." When I started praying I was asking God to help our driver who was starting to say, "I'm so sorry." He so wanted to get us there, he kept looking at the directions and saying, "soi 10, soi 10?" Soi means street in Thai. Finally we happened to all see a sign that said Evangelical Church of Bangkok with an arrow, a sign from above!!!! We were only a few minutes late. What a great time of worship we had, I think we only missed a couple of songs. The times that we have fellowshipped with believers in Africa, Dominican Republic and other foreign countries I have always been surprised in how much more they sing than churches do in the states. The Northcutt's love singing. We sang a favorite song from Grace-He is Holy. Afterwards talking with the music leader we commented how great it was to sing that, he has talked with Z.Jones who wrote it. Guess what? We know Z.Jones (small world!), he led music a couple of times at our church in VA and spent a little time with Dustin trying to help him with playing the piano with the worship team. God really used the service to confirm to us that He is in all of this-this move to Thailand. The music made us instantly feel right at home, the message was from Ecclesiastes 3 and he was specifically addressing God's work through your work, he also referenced what is becoming our 'theme' verse, "A man can plan his course but the Lord directs his steps."

It was a very multi-cultural mix of people, people from every tongue and nation. About 300 people in the second service. What a wonderful time of worship. The pastor encouraged us in that there is a small international church in the Pattaya area, confirming that there are always a remnant of God's people wherever you may go. We returned 5 minutes after the service to our hotel for an afternoon of swimming and rest. I'll try to post later after we return from our trip to the Embassy this morning before we head out to Southern Thailand. I can't wait to tell you about our dinner out with Chris from Va and meeting our first friends in Thailand. This is time consuming, but you all encourage me on. Thank you so much for your comments and encouragement. (Dorinda, Kristy, Janette,Sally,Heather and Lavon forgive me that I never comment on your blogs, mostly because I never seem to be able to remember my google account information, I now see how helpful it is to continue on if you think someone might be reading.)

We're Here

We arrived safely to Bangkok around midnight last night. I must tell you my first impression of Thailand was-it's hot!! Thailand-the land of smiles (their official motto) feels more like the land of sweat! The boys commented on the sweat glistening on my face, okay, Dustin's exact words were, "Man mom, you are sweating!" The middle of the night and it was hot! Bringing back some uncomfortable memories of living in Houston. The weather in Japan was hot during the day but at night, while we were there, it was so nice and cool. We felt so safe to walk the streets of Tokyo, I asked one of our tour guides about all the many, many bikes that line the streets that are not secured. He said, with great pride, that you don't worry about someone stealing in his country. The only thing to cause any worry is that someone that has had too much saki (sp) might take it out for a joy ride! By the way, some pictures of Tokyo will be coming soon, that were taken the last day we were there.

You may wonder how I've had so much time to blog while we have been traveling-it's the time change and the waiting in the airports!! Don't expect this much information once my body adjusts. We didn't arrive to our hotel room until 1 am and then it took a while to unwind and check out our wonderful 3 bedroom suite, there are 4 TV's and they all have cable-all of you really don't feel so far after all. We have listened to more about the upcoming election in the states in the last 5 days than we ever did in Virginia! We went to sleep about 2am and then my internal clock had me up at 6am or perhaps it was the excitement of getting my first peak out our window at Thailand. After our drive last night and looking out our beautiful hotels' 33rd floor window, I would sum it up with one word-contrasts. The airport was really beautiful and the 4-lane interstate was so nice and new, there were many familiar sights, a Sanyo billboard, a modern, large gas station, we passed a Marriot...but then right beside the beautiful, modern hotels was extreme poverty. At one red light-remember it was after midnight, a boy probably around 7 was running from vehicle to vehicle to wash people's car window. Ethan's 'tiredness' paled in comparison to seeing this small boy working in the middle of the night. It initially reminds me some of the Dominican Republic-hot,(did I already mention that? but our hotel room is very cool) tropical-with lots of palm trees sprinkled across the city along with a generous number of poverty houses. Right outside of our luxury hotel, from our lofty perch,I was just watching a woman hanging her laundry on her roof which is partially missing and a tarp is being used as roofing. Bangkok is a big city but I would say initially I would describe it to you as a city of contrasts.

I'm excited, Cecilia my dear friend that now lives in St.Louis, had put me in contact with a friend of hers from her new church, that had just moved from living in Thailand. Her husband was the US attache' to Thailand. She has been so helpful (Mary) in getting me hooked up right away with some missionaries that live in Bangkok. They have been very friendly and helpful so far, we hope to be having dinner with a couple of them tonight along with Chris (our Secret Service friend from VA that is here preparing for President Bush's upcoming visit to Thailand before he takes part in the Olympics. I told you. You all don't seem too far away!)We will be attending Mary's old church this morning, that is actually very close to our hotel. One of the missionaries, Gayle's daughter, used to teach violin at the British International School we are considering for the boys. I tell you that to stress how good God is to prepare our paths ahead of us, to provide a remnant of His people in Thailand-He does provide in amazing, supernatural ways, that is so comforting! In fact, Gayle has already offered to come and have lunch with me while Mark is gone in a couple of weeks to Singapore. One of the other missionaries has an active rescue mission to young ladies in the Pattaya area that are wanting to leave their profession of prostitution, they teach them sewing and baking skills. How cool would that be if I could help out with some cooking classes? It's exciting to see how God sees fit to use us in this country and how He will change us and mold us through our experiences here. Pray as we ask our driver this morning to attend the worship service with us.

Grace Good-Bye Party