Learning Thai

Well I think I can say that today was the first time I ever went to church and came home with a fish (and a fish tank no less!). Our family returned to the small Thai church near our neighborhood for the second time this morning. We were blessed again by the family feel of the church and everyone's kindness toward us. Someone had a birthday so we had cake and the birthday lady gave little bags of presents to all the children. The congregation always eats together after church so we joined in and ate noodles with the pastor. In the process we discovered that he would like to take English lessons from us, so he and his wife and two children will be coming to our house two evenings this week to begin English practice. We are glad for the opportunity. Now, back to the fish! Claire and Eliza were admiring the fish in two tanks in the pastor's office, and before we knew it, he was offering one to us. They got the quite large fish into a bag and began dipping water from the tank and we realized they planned to give us the whole setup! It was amazing and we are all thrilled with "Dr. Dorothy" (she is a "doctor" fish and Claire picked "Dorothy" like Elmo's fish). The pastor even brought us home along with two guys who helped us set it all up. This afternoon Tom went out for food and came home with frozen blood worms, dry food to "make it's head grow" and a bag of teeny shrimps that she is currently gobbling up.

The church this morning had santas and a little tree with colored lights and it seemed totally incongruous with the weather! It's hard to feel that the holidays are actually approaching when the temparture feels like mid- August. The last two days have been absolutely sweltering although we had a refreshing breeze and short rain last night. I've been thinking about how I can make it "feel" like Thanksgiving and Christmas around here. I think more than ever we will just need to focus on the reality of what this season means, without all the trappings. We are so thankful for so many new expereiences and people in our lives this year!
-Candice