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A French Press in Amazing Thailand

Another week in "Amazing Thailand". This has been a description for Thailand used by the Ministry of Tourism for atleast the last 10 years. Now, its commonly and affectionately used by most Thais and foreigners (that's us) living here. It really is a pretty amazing country. I think our sweet little house guest is loving his visit (Slade would probably prefer not being called "sweet" and "little" but since this is my blog I will proceed with overly feminine and maternal language). We love watching someone "fresh" enjoy all the things to look at and observe. The mama and baby cow travelling in the bed of a truck, and another truck loaded down with plastic chairs at least 6 ft. high with a man sitting on top calls out to a newcomer as a great photo-op, but to us feels very normal. The first couple of weeks that we were back felt like a shock to my system- culturally- but its been encouraging that all those things quickly returned to feeling familiar and normal. I'm sitting here on my bed, Sophie napping beside me, with my laptop- everything feels very normal- but then I think, "Wait, I'm in Thailand, on the other side of the globe, and I LIVE here." Strange.....but wonderful. It can only be the Lord to give this kind of peace being so far from home. We were just reminiscing today at lunch. We let ourselves dream sometimes, picturing the beautiful drive to Marc's mom's house in N. Caroline, the geraniums on the square in McDonough. The other day I was watching a video of the procession that took Sgt. Beale's body from the airport to the funeral home. The video took me down all the familiar roads from Fayetteville to McDonough. My heart did ache but still it had peace. Its been neat explaining to Sophie why Daddy and Slade go to "campus" everyday. I want to keep before us all, even Sophie, why we're here. Here's our conversation,

me: "Sophie where is Daddy and Slade?"
Sophie: "campus"
me: "Why did they go to campus?"
Sophie: "tell friends about Jejus."
me: "what do they tell them about Jesus?"
Sophie: "Jejus loves them. Jejus died on the cross."
me: "If they believe in Jesus where can they go?"
Sophie: "heaven".
Marc likes to clarify and keep us on track, "Sophie, who will be in heaven?" Sophie: "Jejus... and P'Honey (one of the staff girls whom she loves.)

Anyway, I was going to talk about our week and went off on a tangent instead. Sophie and I have had a few friends over for dinner while the guys were on campus. Marie and her boys came over on Tuesday night and I made spaghetti pie, then on Thursday night we kept little Rae Rae (Moe and Git's daughter) while Moe was in the hospital (he had nose surgery after a minor soccer accident). Sophie had fun playing with Rae, except for the few times that she couldn't quite make herself share her toys. She had to get a little discipline a couple of times but other than that they had fun together. Finally, on Friday night Sophie and I were able to attend our first ministry event on campus. She had a really good time as long as she was stuck to her Daddy's side. That was nice for me too as I was able to get to know a few students. We have a retreat in a couple of weeks that Sophie and I will go on. I'm looking forward to that so that she and I both can spend more time with everyone.

The last bit of exciting (though insignificant) news from this last week is that I got a french press coffee maker. I've been drinking instant coffee for the last three months and since its already not easy to find a good coffee maker for a decent price, I bit the bullet and bought a french press. I'm still trying to figure out how to make a good cup of coffee with it but I'm hopeful that I can master it and wow my mom and dad with a superb cup of coffee when they come to visit in September.
If there are any french press experts out there, please feel free to instruct me.

Sherry

critters and such

Misc. 6.23.09

Life is seeming to get to a "new normal" for us. Marc has been really busy since the Cross Cultural Project students have been here. We were spoiled having him home everyday when we first got here as everyone was out for summer break and the staff had "down time". Slade Adams is also staying with us this summer and we have loved it, especially Sophie. Every morning she says, "Where Daddy is? Where Slade is?". Then when they leave she always cries and says she wants to go with them. She has even referred to Slade as "my Slade", then she randomly looked at me one day and said, "I'm Slade's baby". Wow, we're going to be a mess when Slade has to leave.

Sophie and I are at home on most days. Its much different than the first time we were here. We have gone on campus a few times to eat with Marc but there's really not much opportunity for us to get around the students right now. We have three Thai staff women who are on campus everyday and I look forward to opening my home for them to bring some of the students they are ministering to. I love being at home with Sophie, she is growing so fast. She's talking a lot. She LOVES puzzles and painting. We have a little fish pond in front of our house and she always wants to go "catch the fish". We have a net and she splashes around in the water quite often, poor fish. I'm so thankful for the house that the Lord has provided, it is quickly becoming our home away from home.

One thing I've had to get reacquainted with is the abundance of "critters" that are inevitably going to find their way into your home. Ants in abundance, ginkgoes (aka. geckos), tuk-kae (lizard a little larger than a gecko), frogs, spiders, mosquitoes, roaches and occasionally snakes. I will be sure to include a picture of most of these as they have been much obliged to pose for my camera. The most disconcerting visit we had was from a friendly garden snake. Sophie and I were sitting in the living room, I was reading as she was playing. She started to walk into the dining room and I heard her say, "What's him doing?" "What's who doing???!!", was my response as I sprung from my chair. And sure enough, there's a little green snake slithering across the floor. Now, I'm not particularly scared of snakes, I kind of like them. But there's something about one crawling into your house that is quite unnerving. I scooped Sophie up and we ran upstairs to get Marc. He was able to catch it and dispose of it. Initially, I wasn't going to offer this information to my mom as I didn't want her to worry but she recently told me that she and my dad had a 5' king snake in the house, wrapped around the base of my dad's recliner. So, I figured this little garden snake would be nothing to her :-).

The only other exciting thing that has happened around the Lewis house is that Sophie was able to feed a baby elephant on the side of the road. It is very common to see a man walking an elephant down the street trying to make money. He sells small bags of sugar cane or bananas (20 baht a bag) for you to feed his elephant. Sophie (and Slade) were very happy to give the baby his breakfast. She hopes to see a mama elephant sometime soon.

I might try to take a power nap now as the princess is sure to wake up from hers any minute.

Until Next Time,
Sherry, for the Lewis'