Rumblings in the Attic

I was awakened at 0230 this morning by some varmit stuck in one of our bedroom walls, never a good thing! I woke Mark (my hero) up but he wasn't too impressed and went back to sleep. Who can sleep with such a strange noise in your walls and of course my mind is going crazy wondering what it might be. Let me just say I have never seen a squirrel in Thailand...ewww!

So what to do while I'm awake trying to ignore the rumblings in the attic... perhaps blog some. I have been busy living again!! So, what fills up my days here in Thailand you might wonder? On Mondays, I attend a Bible Study with about 20 other women and we have just begun a new study on marriage, I haven't done a marriage study in a while and it's good to refresh my thinking on the subject. Last week our leader had us share how many years we have been married, I was #3 in terms of longevity, it made me feel really old, Mark and I will have been married 28 years this May which also marks the 30th anniversay of our High School graduation! Time flies!

Every Tuesday I read at a nearby Thai preschool trying to introduce English to the dek poo yings and dek poo chais. There are 8 classes that I read to. It's very rewarding for me and the children have been teaching me lots of Thai. I'm not sure how much English they are learning! This last week I had read a story about a Frog on a Log, afterwards I had brought along some flash cards to review some of the animals from the book. While reading through the book I had probably said frog twenty times along with pointing to the picture. I held up the first flashcard of a frog and the children in every class quickly shouted out "Gob" and I responded "English?" and invariably they would shout out, "English! English!" They thought the frog was called an English!! Too funny!

I have renewed my efforts to learn the Thai language and have acquired a new teacher that comes to our home every Tuesday afternoon. She assures me after thirty hours(sohm seap chooa mongs) I should be able to converse some. So far I continue to be the cause of laughter among most Thai speakers when I attempt to speak like I know what I'm talking about. I did learn a new word yesterday-taco ti ka-ticklish! I had a pedicure with a friend and she is extremely ticklish, I liked the new word and wondered how I might work it in to my limited vocabulary so I said to my nail assistant, "Mi taco ti ka-no ticklish!!" It's no wonder why a Thai speaking persons' grammar is so bad because the translation is really no ticklish. Mi ow ka is no want. mi chai ka-no yes. You say ka A LOT! It is a way to be kinder and show respect. Lots of ka, ka, ka and na ka is very polite. My brain feels very old at times. I practice with Songkran(my driver) all the time, I told him he would have to start charging us more because of his tutoring while he drives. Last week I asked him how to say dumb, he had no idea what that meant, so I asked about stupid, he's looking bewildered repeating, "Stoopeed? Stoopeed? Don't know!" I often wonder what he really thinks about this crazy Farang!

Wednesdays are my bakery days. After dropping the boys at school around 0825, we drive 40 minutes to the Rayong Ladies Prison where we pick up the baked goods to be delivered to 4 area schools, the pick-up points for our weekly customers, not returning home most Wednesdays until around 1pm.

Thursdays fluctuate between cooking lessons at the prison and other activities. Since Christmas we have added pizza, pineapple upside-down cake and American brownies to our cooking repitoire. Thai people for the most part do not like really sweet things, after baking the chocolate brownies with the girls most of them commented. "aung-too sweet!" Remember they eat fruit for dessert here!

This past Thursday I was asked to speak at the Pattaya Christian Women's club, a group that began monthly meetings in September, I had attended two previous meetings before speaking. I was asked to speak for 20 minutes on parenting, the hardest part was deciding how to narrow such a broad subject down. I spent much time in prayer and felt the Lord just wanted me to share the three scriptures that Mark and I chose years ago as our parenting mission statement or parenting mantra and why. The three verses that we painted on the nursery walls as we awaited the triplets arrival. We printed one of them on our birth announcement. The scriptures that have transcended 15 years of parenting so far and have been applicable to each age. The three verses are:

1Samuel 1:27-28
I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.

After 12 years of waiting for children we KNEW that God granted us these children, that He is the one that opens and closes the womb. He gave them to us to be given back to Him. It makes a huge difference in your parenting when you realize that these are Gods' treasures that are just on loan. That verse is also on Abbie's tombstone, a precious treasure that was only lent to us for a short time. I remember early in the deep, deep sorrow Mark reminding me that we had given her back to the Lord when she was born and she wasn't ours to begin with. We forget that when we are in the trenches of every day living don't we?

Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.

So if God has loaned them to us we better get busy training them for Him and His service. Training our boys now looks much different than it did 15 years ago. The first thing that we wanted to impart to our children when they were small was that they were a welcome addition to our family. That the Northcutt family was not a child-centered home but a God-centered home.

The other crucial thing during the early years is teaching obedience. "Obedience is the gateway for knowledge to enter the heart and mind." a quote from The Miracle Worker. They must learn obedience in those young years so that you will produce a receptive child who can listen and will respect you later when you begin to impart the gospel to them as they grow older. They have to learn to obey their parents so they will know how to obey God.

I talked about Deut.11:18-23 and the importance of knowing His Word so you can teach it to your children all the time-when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down...As my prayerful friend April reminded me. Continually spreading the Word like seeds, praying that they will sprout and take root in the minds and hearts of our children.

Now that our boys are teenagers(Ethan is only 11 but is starting to really act like a teenager!) and we can't MAKE them obey, how are we training them? I explained that we try to always have a gospel-centered approach. What does gospel-centered parenting look like, here were some of my thoughts:

1. Loving our children because we were first loved by God that sent His son for me and them. A God who didn't spare His Son but gave Him up for us all.
2.Loving them with a love that never ends regardless of their performance or how they disappoint us or embarass us. (Yak maek maek-very, very difficult!)
3.Forgiving our children because of how we've been forgiven.
4.Realizing that He didn't leave me here alone but left the Holy Spirit in me to guide me, lead me and help me with parenting and the ability to resist sin.
5.Disciplining in a way to show them their need of a Saviour-explaining that Christ went to the cross for their sin and mine. Helping them realize the grievousness of sin.
6.Parenting out of gratefulness and humbleness because of the grace that has been imparted to us through the gospel.

Just some of the ways that you can practice gospel-centered parenting. I'm thankful to my dear, praying, friend Cecilia who reminded me to just impart to my audience the importance of the gospel when raising children. Years ago we were impacted greatly by CJ Mahaney's small book, The Cross Centered Life
6. an easy, quick read if you're interested.

One other note about Proverbs 22:6. I am claiming that as a promise from God for our boys. With God's help we are trying to faithfully train them and He said they won't depart from it when they are old. (I often wonder how old He is was implying?)But I'm holding on to that promise.

Finally #3
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Aw, I like this one and I keep repeating it over and over. Early on when the triplets were so critically ill I held on to this verse tightly. Now that they are teenagers it takes on a different meaning for me. Like I said earlier I can no longer MAKE them act like I want. When I feel frustrated and defeated in this marathon of parenting I remind myself that Dustin, Nathan and Ethan are God's work and HE will complete the work HE began in them.

You didn't know you were going to get a small sermon as you checked into my blog today! Pray for us as we continue this journey of parenting. Living in Thailand has its own specific struggles-no Corey Shepherd(our previous youth leader at Grace Church) in fact at our small church it is just our 3 boys and one other 12 yr. old boy (our current pastors' son)it can feel lonely for them. The blatant sin we are surrounded by. The few fellow Christians here in Pattaya...on top of all the other normal challenges of raising teenagers. Thank you for standing in the gap for us and praying for us.

Man! I've rambled on and it all began with the rumbling in the attic! I'll have to tell you about my Fridays-Wan Tit, Saturdays-Wan Sook and Sundays-Wan Sows another day!

Thailand Esso Management Team

Friday night we played host to Mark's Esso Thailand Management Team at one of the newest hotels in Pattaya, it was a very beautiful venue with a cool breeze off of the water and most delicious food followed by the obligatory Karaoke!! EVERYONE had to participate. I think a fun time was had by all and hopefully they felt appreciated!

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New Year in Thailand

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Last night was Esso Thailand's Safari Family Night to celebrate the New Year. We definitely aren't in Kansas anymore!! So many things feel so 'foreign' to us still after 1 1/2 years. You just don't see dried squid and a whole pig on the menu at a family day in the states! The funniest part though was their introduction of Mark at the event, they made him come out behind a safari drape and they said a lot of stuff in Thai about having a 'special' surprise!! That was Mark-what a hoot!! They wanted him to do some posing with the 'tigers' but he kindly refused, said a few words through an interpreter, wished everyone "Swadee Bee Nai or Happy New Year" did a couple of 'lucky draws' (that's what they call raffles in Thailand) and enjoyed some roasted pig with Ethan and I.

(Is that better Crystal? Go read a good book!!!!)

Life on the Cruise Ship

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Life on board the ship:

This was our first cruise vacation and overall we really enjoyed it. We found it to be very restful to let someone else do all the ‘driving’, not having to haul all our luggage to a different location every night or two, not worrying about transportation, not having to search out good restaurants and not worrying about the costs of the meals because we had already paid that weeks before embarking. We also liked that the ship gave the boys lots of contained freedom. They could go play basketball, go to the game room, leave early from dinner if we were taking too long…
The nightly shows were also very enjoyable, a couple of nights the dancers were too immodestly dressed for a family cruise show and we noted that in our comments. We all enjoyed the magician, juggler and gymnasts very much. The meals were all five-course set down affairs unless you were interested in the offered buffet meal. We ate most breakfasts at the buffet offering but it was the very same food every morning and after 10 days we were tired of it. There were three gala nights that required really dressing up-the boys didn’t enjoy that too much, in fact Ethan and Dustin opted to stay in their room and not eat one night rather than deal with the hassle of dressing up!

We didn’t like the way they ‘nickel and dime’ you over every coke and water you drink on board. We purchased coke and water coupons before boarding but it was a hassle and we would rather the cost of the cruise be all-inclusive. We liked that this particular cruise line took out a designated amount for tips so we didn’t have to worry with all the calculating and figuring of tips for all the service people.
The service was really amazing. I left a comment that I would have really enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship. How in the world do they feed that many people (about 4500-counting all the staff) three times a day, five course meals? Just thinking about the number of dishes that had to be washed, the linen that was washed, the food that had to be stored on board somewhere, really it was quite the well-oiled machine from our perspective. Someone was always polishing the glass, vacuuming and serving with a smile. Most of our staff were from Indonesia in fact our dinner waiter has worked with MSC for 12 years and is retiring in April. He has an 8 year old daughter and wife who he sees about every 6 months. He gave us his contact information because he will be a tour guide after his retirement in April in Bali-we hope to visit there in April for a scuba diving trip and he seemed excited that he could see us again and be our guide of the island. He should have an excellent future as a tour guide-he speaks five languages and has serving tourists down to an art. (Most staff at a minimum spoke three languages-not only the head staff but even the housekeepers and busboys!)

It seems like it would be a grueling job serving that many customers, nonstop. When we disembarked on Tuesday at 10 a.m. they were set to sail with a new boat-load of people that afternoon. There was entertainment from 8:30 a.m.-after 2 a.m. every night! We played bingo one day, the boys entered a basketball tournament, there was trivia, language lessons, board games, dance contests, full time day-care…We would usually attend the 9 p.m. cruise show and be in bed by 10:15, we were exhausted after a full day of excursions and sight-seeing.

We specifically chose this cruise because of the location of the stops and the timing. We’re not sure we would enjoy a cruise that you just lounge and sun on. Some cruisers chose to stay on board rather than take advantage of the stops that were made. We hit it hard every day and very much enjoyed coming into our familiar room that had been so nicely cleaned and our 6 p.m. standing dinner reservation. We really had a great time-thanks to Janette Nash, our wonderful travel agent and all her assistance in making sure all the details were taken care of-let me know if you need a good agent, she lives in VA and took care of planning our trip long distance. Many, many thanks Janette and much love!

We arrived home last night to the heat of Thailand after a 10 hour layover in Doha, Qatar-MAN! We’re glad to be home, to shower and be in our beds!!

Wrapping Up Our Holiday:
On days 7 & 8 we docked at the island of Crete and Sicily for a few hours of sight-seeing at each port. We visited Crete with our new Texas friends that we met on board the Splendida. Since it was December 25th and 26th and the 26th being Sunday few businesses were open for shopping. We ventured to each of the town centers or piazzas, the weather was sunny and the company pleasant. We enjoyed some gelatto and cappuccino, meandering into some old churches. All the museums were also closed for the holidays.
On day 9 we arrived on the outskirts of Rome. We were met by our driver/tour guide, Duoma for a full day of sight-seeing. Only having one day meant that we had a lot to see in short amount of time. Our first stop was the Colosseum . An interesting fact that I learned this trip was that the Colosseum was originally built in AD 80 for boat races, the floor was full of water and small warships were sailed in front of thousands of spectators, it was many years before Christians were fed to lions for entertainment. We then toured the Pantheon so impressive as it is still the largest unenforced concrete roof ever built over 1,800 years ago which was once covered with copper to reflect the sunlight. We visited the Fontana di Trevi where it is believed if you throw in one coin over your left shoulder you will return to Rome someday, 2 coins will guarantee you will be married in Rome-I don’t remember if I threw a coin into the fountain over 20 years ago when Mark and I first visited Rome but I’m glad that I have returned.
We climbed the Spanish steps and first saw St. Peter’s through a keyhole-yes-many years ago the country of Malta was given some land for their embassy between the city of Rome and the country of the Vatican on the grounds that they wouldn’t taint the view of the St. Peter’s. The pope was disturbed when he saw all the building that had occurred on the site but they had creatively left a keyhole view of St. Peter’s. It was special to be at the Vatican during Christmas and view the nativity in St. Peter’s square before viewing St. Peter’s itself, the largest cathedral in the world. As part of the Vatican tour everyone has to visit the Sistine Chapel and see the amazing work of Michelangelo. Our tour guide informed us that the Vatican is the richest country in the world, bringing in $650,000 a day in visitors to the Sistine Chapel alone which took four years to paint.
We disembarked Tuesday morning and picked up a rental car in Genova before driving to Florence where we spent two nights. Florence was just great!! So clean yet so old, so beautiful and everything was enhanced by all the lights that were strung across the narrow streets. We saw some more churches!! We also saw Michelangelo’s statue of David-something that Mark has always regretted that we missed our first trip to Italy and the site he is buried. A perfect finish for a most amazing trip!
The boys have been in more cathedrals and museums and seen more naked sculptures in the last few days than they have in their entire life so far! More than once they have commented, “Another church?” Not once have they said, “More Italian food?” though! We enjoyed a really great meal in Rome and had to stop for a cup of hot chocolate on the way home. Can you ever get tired of good Italian food? Well, I can tell you that the boys are ready for some good Thai food! I guess it’s getting close to time to go home! Until Thursday we continue our quest for the best cup of hot chocolate in all of Italy before we leave. So far Milan holds that title- but we forge on!

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