Four Years Here In Thailand!

Four years in Thailand, today.

Today marks our four year anniversary of arriving in Thailand.  Four years has flown by, in some respects.  Real perspective comes when I start looking at the facts:

In four years...

...we have added two kids to the family (our baby girl, Kyla and our other baby waiting in the womb).

...we have lived in three completely different cities (one in a big city in the South, one in a country town, and one in a BIG city in the North).

...we have said goodbye to two members of our crew and welcomed on four more (these two, this one and C, who Instagrams like a mad-woman).

...we have encountered more Asian wildlife than we were expecting.  National Geographic specials have to originate from somewhere, right?

...we have had the privilege of travelling to Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia for visa purposes, conferences or family vacations.  If we didn't live here, I couldn't imagine us ever getting to visit those countries unless we were on the Amazing Race or something.

...we have learned Thai.  OK, to be honest, I am nowhere near fluency...but for living life using the Thai language I have acquired, I can get by just fine.  Just don't ask me about any words higher than a 2nd grade level and you can stand to be impressed.  :)  Or, unimpressed.  Whatever.

...we have endured the grief of four grandparents passing away while living here, one uncle's sudden passing, and my father's bout with throat cancer.  Death and sickness wait for no overseas experience.  We are so thankful to be able to cry out to God from anywhere in the world and know that He hears us and sees us in our sadness and petitions.

...we have seen flooding in two cities we were in, and just missed our first home being flooded (after we moved two weeks prior).  Maybe we should invest in a rowboat?

...our two oldest boys chose to follow Jesus and accept the gift of salvation!  We baptized them and they are moving forward in the big things God has in store for them.  We are super proud!

...we have seen countless lives restored, encouraged and lit on fire for Jesus. 

I am sure I am leaving a million things out, but nap time is almost over, people.

Thank you for being a part of our wild journey here.  Rejoice with us today that God still has us here for a purpose greater than we know.  We're just going to enjoy the ride!  Keep coming back to read and enjoy it with us!

Alina

Hit Like With a Mack Truck

photo credit

Since my last post announcing our newest bun in the oven...I have had the tar kicked out of me every day by my Little Lentil.  (Side note: the boys have been calling our baby according to its size every week...Johnny Apple Seed, Little Lentil...you get the idea.  I love it!)  How can something so small (literally) eat my lunch every day?!  I feel like I have been hit over and over again by a Mack truck every day, people.  Every day.

I am head-over-heels thrilled about our fourth child...and this is a dream fulfilled that I have had for about a year now...

But, I tell ya.

I think I had pregnancy amnesia or something.  Was I really this wiped out with the other three?  How did I LIVE every day through it?  OK, I might be being a little over-dramatic.  Hey, blame it on my "condition."

Before baby, I had tons of energy and felt like I got a million things done in a day.  Naps?  Those were for wimps who couldn't make it through the afternoon!  Naps, schmaps.

Now?

6:30-7am: Hit my snooze a few times.  Look at the clock and realize that it actually IS a decent time to wake up, not some horrible pre-dawn hour that causes me to shrink back in fear.  Stumble downstairs.  Inhale a cup of coffee.  Attempt to stay awake for an hour during my time with Jesus (oh, You are merciful, Lord) and finally rise out of my sleepy stupor to greet the kids at 8am.

8am-noon: Family Devotional, breakfast, chores, home school, yada yada yada.  Once story time on the couch comes, if I sit for more than 10 minutes, I'm a goner.  Do something to wake up...pace the floor, water the plants, call a "snack time"...anything to not fall asleep sitting up like a crazy fatigued woman.  Sometimes, actually, I close my eyes and drift off a little bit.  The boys are like, "MOM!  What are you DOING?"  Then, they shake me awake and laugh like little goofballs.  I wish I were kidding that they have to do this almost every day.

Lunchtime: I have my energy for about .2 seconds until morning sickness hits and I don't want to finish my plate anymore.  At this point, it doesn't matter what I am eating...Thai food, American food...I suddenly can't handle it anymore and just want to curl up for a nap to ignore my weak stomach.  Ugh.  I am so glad this part will pass in a few months.

Nap time: It doesn't matter who feels tired or not tired that day...all of the kids are gonna have to rest because Momma just can't make it anymore.  Gone are the afternoons of home school where I would read aloud to the boys for almost two hours and love every minute of it.  I can't get through two minutes anymore, let alone two hours.  That part is just going to have to suffer until I feel like a normal person again.  Gone are the afternoons of blogging, washing dishes (oh, I am soooo sad), or reading up on something.  Some things just have to wait for sleep.

Evening time till the kids are in bed: Thankfully, I have my husband home most nights (or we're out together) to help me wrangle the kids when I can't move very fast.  But, when bed time comes at 8pm, I want to turn in as well.  My night-owl tendencies are being put on hold lately.  The only reason why I am still awake now writing this post is because I took an almost three hour nap today.  Feeling guilty, Alina?  No...not at all. 

I guess, sometimes, life has to change a little bit (OK, a lot!) when you are preparing for another human being to enter the world, your life, your house, your heart.  Right now, I don't have to endure the sleepless nights of parenting a newborn...but, just the opposite.  I suppose it is God's way of helping me to store up? 

I'll take it.

Thanks for reading and being a part of this new journey with us.  I love you all to bits! 
And, I hope to be getting back to being a better blogger once I get more energy.  You understand!  :)  Thanks. You all are the best!

Alina

Three's A Crowd, So What's Four?

If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, then you've seen the above picture already.  If not, then, surprise!  We are, indeed, with child.  Child number FOUR to be exact.  We have already past the tipping point of an odd family size here in Thailand (most have one or two)...so why not add to the questions and stares by adding another little one to the mix?!  A generation ago, large Thai families were not uncommon.  But nowadays, with expensive school fees and high unemployment rates, people are a little less risky when it comes to upping their family size.  And, hey, let's face it: kids are a handful!  It is a fact!  :)  Lately, I have observed that most Thai kids give their parents a run for their money...figuratively and literally. 

But, children are also an enormous blessing.  Thus, our reasoning for welcoming this little sesame seed (the size of our babe right now) into our family.  God's grace is big enough for me to mother four kids, and I know there is enough love to go around (thank you for teaching me that, Michelle Duggar).  :)

Before we took a test yesterday to know for sure, I was experiencing almost every symptom in the book: fatigue, emotional breakdowns moments, nausea, aversions to smells and normal foods, and tons more things like that which you probably would rather I spare from listing out in greater detail.  You're welcome.

After finding out for sure, we had extreme joy in calling family and friends to break the news.  Even though we're at the beginning of this pregnancy, I have a feeling it is going to fly by fast with all that is already on our schedules for this year.  This must be a year for encountering God's amazing grace, because I am going to need it! 

So, for now, I am stocking up on ginger ale and crackers to ward away my constant companion, morning sickness.  BTW, morning sickness is the lamest bit of advertisement of a word, ever.  It isn't confined to the morning...OH no!  It likes to sometimes stick around all day.  Yuck. I just have to remember that I am getting another little person out of this whole thing. 

Baby, you're worth it!

How Running Brings Me Closer To Jesus

The streets I run each week.  I.e.: my "wilderness."

How does running bring me closer to Jesus?  I could have a ton of predictable (yet, quite real and valid) answers to that question...

...when I run, I bring my iPod along and exercise along to the beat of great worship music...

...yes...but that's not quite my answer.

...when I run, I observe all the beautiful things in nature around me and praise God!...

...kind of (sometimes I do, I guess)...but, no cigar.

...when I run, I am alone and can think and pray with extreme focus...

...sort of in the ballpark of my answer, but not in the super-purposeful-holy-man kind of way.

 

 ...when I run, it goes something more like this...

 

Round #1 around the neighborhood: "Look at me!  Look at me! I am running!  I bet I look like some Nike-advertisement goddess with a beautiful glow and a smile because I am so in shape and so very awesome-looking as I round each corner."

 

Round #2 around the neighborhood: "Wow!  This is getting a little tough.  Oh, no sweat.  I was born for this.  I was made for this.  I can DO this.  I am still awesome!"

 

Round #3 around the neighborhood: "(Panting and coughing) I. Can't. Breathe!  Who ever convinced me to run anyway?  What was I THINKING?  Who cares about having muscles and being able to run longer than 10 minutes anyway?  If I ever make it home, I am quitting running for good.  What a loser.  Oh, God, have a care and help this poor woman to make it!"

 

Round #4 around the neighborhood (i.e.: the final hour, the moment of truth, the nitty-gritty): "Oh, good, sweet, Heavenly Father!  (not a swear, I promise...but pleas for help!)  Have mercy on me!  I am so full of pride in myself!  I think I'm all that and clearly I am not!  Look at me!  I look like a blubberer who can't even make it 30 minutes running (ok, jogging...OK, dragging my lame feet) around the neighborhood!  I need YOU!  I obviously CAN'T do this without You!  HELP ME!  If I make it home, I will never complain again and never get prideful about my own abilities every again!  Only YOU are good, Father!  Clearly, not me!"

 

That's more like it.

 

THAT'S how running brings me closer to Jesus.

 

"...he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else... ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’"

Acts 17:25, 28 NIV

 

 

Comfort Food For Wimps Who Shiver at 60 Degrees

Red Beans and Rice a l'Alina

For several days now, we have woken up in the early morn' and experienced the most blessed of all of Thailand's seasons: the cold season.  Cold, depending on where you live, is a relative term.  For us, not having to sleep with the air conditioner on all night is cold.  Wearing socks in one's house means you are cold.  Anything below 70 degrees is...cold.  The 60 degrees I have woken up to every morning for the past week feels like a different kind of Heaven.  I simply cannot imagine how we survived for almost three years in the never ending, sticky heat of Southern Thailand.  It must have been God, or I would have gone insane.

We have sipped hot tea during home school, read our read-alouds under blankets and I have been craving hot comfort foods for lunch each day.  Today, I made a nostalgic favorite: red beans and rice.

Why is it nostalgic?  No, I didn't eat it at Grandma's, live in Louisiana (or some other very southern state with it's own genre of comfort foods...oh wait, I grew up in Texas...does Tex-mex count?), or have some sweet date with Treavor while eating it.  It is nostalgic because it is what we ate about 6 times a week when we had barely enough money to get through each day.  About two years into our marriage, while living in Waco, we had a hard time financially.  Thankfully, we always had enough and were always able to pay our bills.  God showed us miraculous provision at every turn.  Those days were hard, but good.  Good; because we learned to truly rely on Him. 

I tried to get creative with making nutritious, cheap foods that we could enjoy...but after a while, beans and rice was an easy meal to throw together.  Alas, it got old.  Really old.  It took a few years after that season for me to really enjoy eating this dish again.  Now, when I get it, I just get thankful and nostalgic while thinking over all the ways God has been faithful to us over the years.  He is good, all the time.

If you're ever looking for something relatively quick to throw together, but you don't want to drag yourself to the store again for the umpteenth time, make this:

Red Beans and Rice a l'Alina

 

1 can of red kidney beans (extra points for those of you who prepared them from dried beans...cheap!) - juice included!

1 can of seasoned diced tomatoes (we don't have those here, so I just threw in 3/4 cup chopped onions and 3/4 cup diced tomatoes that I had waiting patiently in my freezer)

4/5 cloves of fresh (or jarred, or powdered, whatever!) garlic, minced

Spices to taste (follow your heart and put in however much you like...I won't tell on you): parsley, ground cumin, oregano, salt and black pepper.

 

I simmered these all together for 1.5 hours while I was homeschooling, but probably bringing them to a medium boil for 10-15 minutes would do the trick if you're kids are yankin' on your skinny jeans to feed them something. 

 

I poured the beans over 2 cups (uncooked measurement) brown rice that I cooked in my rice cooker.  Use a rice cooker like me if you tend to burn things due to a short attention span.

 

Finally, I shredded a lonely chunk of cheddar cheese that was in my fridge and topped the beans/rice with this and some sour cream I had from last week's baked potatoes. 

 

It fed myself and my three kids perfectly, but if you have a bigger family or teenage boys, I would make more!

Thanks for taking a walk with me down memory lane.  Now, I am going to find my scarf and fuzzy socks while I try to stay warm in our frigid weather.  You think I'm kidding you?  Living here changes things...

Back From An Unintended Hiatus

"Seriously, Mom?! Hijacked by life?  What kind of human are you?"

Seriously, three weeks since I last wrote to you all?  I must have, in the words of Pioneer Woman, "been hijacked by life."  Yes.  Hijacked by life.  That is exactly it.  Over the past three weeks:

:: Huy's 5th birthday happened. I planned my 5-year-old's Superhero Party and Birthday Baptism Bash.  Seriously, a mouthful of a theme, I know.  It sure felt like it, since I basically dreamed and shopped and googled and planned and copied and crafted my way through a week before the 21st (Huy's birthday!)...and despite all of that, I still needed Tan and Koh, Megan and Cassie to save my tail by helping me with the last projects.  It was a blast for everyone, and I was thankful that after all the work of a little kid's b-day party, the end result was fun and celebration.  It was all soooo worth it!

:: Christmas happened.  We tried to keep the gift-giving to ourselves to a minimum (and steering clear from toys...which our kids always seem to have a never-ending supply of).  We stuck to giving worship music, a National Geographic Kids magazine subscription, new clothes (my 7-year old is growing like a weed sprayed with Miracle Grow), and JellyTelly videos (don't you just LOVE them?).  Oh yeah, and we decorated together, made holiday treats together, went to Christmas feasts (American and Thai style, both at the S-clan's house), had a time of bible studies and worship times together...and tried to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus rather than on ourselves.  It is funny how Christmas-time can so easily make us into stressed-out, overfed, unabashedly covetous people.  The point of Christmas is to basically be the antithesis of that!  *off my soapbox...returning to my post*  You're welcome.

:: Vacation happened.  Or, rather, stay-cation happened for a few days and then we left to visit our friend's mountain village about 4 hours away.  After I pried my fingers from the hand-rail near my front seat (those mountain turns almost killed me.  I. Am. Not. A. Fan.)...we enjoyed ourselves for three days as we had our first experience staying with Hill Tribe people here in Northern Thailand.  The whole village believes in Jesus and it was absolutely beautiful to ring in the New Year of 2013 with them. 

:: Homeschool happened.  Run and Huy started Second Grade and Kindergarten today.  Though my school-room is still a gigantic wreck, we started today and the kids were as excited as I was to crack open our new books and dive into this new year.  I promise you, they were actually thrilled.  It is odd.  I am hoping this phenomenon continues through college and I will relish that I spawned kids who actually still like to learn as they grow up.  Did I just type "spawned?"  Ok, maybe they aren't the only odd ones.

:: Lots of other things happened.  Lots of things.  Lots of things that I can't remember right now because I am thinking about all the other things that I need to finish today before the sun sets.  But, now that I have bit the proverbial bullet and written this post to open us all up into 2013 here at Ordinary Life In The Wild...I will leave you all to your resolution list (no, I don't have one this year! freeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!) and hope to write you soon to keep you up with our crazy little fam. 

Here's to 2013! 

I leave you with Jude 1:2, the Message Version that sounds like you're talking to your Buddy...

"Relax, everything’s going to be all right; rest, everything’s coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!"

Giveaway Winner For What's On My Bookshelf - Parenting Books

WE HAVE A WINNER for this month's book giveaway!

I posted a few weeks ago about what's on my parenting bookshelf...you can read that post by clicking here...and I asked my readers to comment with the titles they wanted to read and any other books that I didn't mention.  The response was encouraging!  Thank you, all of you who read and all that entered the giveaway!  I hope to have more like it in the future...so keep coming back to check for them! 

I counted up all the entries and entered my number in the random number generator and discovered that Katie was our winner for this giveaway!  Read her winning comment below:

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Katie Friesen

 

I've read 'Raising Godly Tomatoes' by Elizabeth Krueger (it's cheapest on her website... http://www.raisinggodlytomatoe... ) and appreciate her approach to discipline, especially when it comes to the littlest ones and their new-found independence. Her advice in the book has helped make transitions through the "terrible two's" not so terrible and she's given Godly advice in other areas of training children (how to sit quietly in church, etc).

You mentioned Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp. He also does a audio series along with Todd Friel (http://www.wretchedradio.com/s... called Drive By Parenting. It's fabulous. They are 31 lectures, each lecture being around 15 mins, giving a good overview of various topics, answered Biblically. Our family has really benefited from them. I go back to these audio clips over and over again.

'Creative Family Times: Practical Activities for Building Character' by Allen Hadidian and Will Wilson. Some things they suggest borderline "cheesy" :) but 90% of what's in there has been very useful! One thing I really like is how they instill a verse of scripture to go along with every life choice "Wisdom" has a verse, "Obeying your parents" has a verse, etc, so children are taught to think of Scripture when they encounter daily choices.

And while this isn't a parenting book (as in helping train your child) I have really appreciated "Shopping for Time" by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw. Instead of it being a book about child-training, it's more about mom-training...and I've seen what I've learned and are now modeling to be influencing my boys too.

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Congratulations, Katie!  Email me your mailing address or email address (if you choose your book to be in e-book form) so I can send your book right away!  Oh yeah, what book did you mention you wanted to read?  In your other comment, you listed A Love That Multiplies by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar.

Happy reading!

And, thanks again to all of you who stop by here to read and connect a bit with our sometimes wild, sometimes ordinary life here in the wild of Thailand!

Love, Alina