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May 25, 2011

Lan's Baptism

We hosted a joyful celebration meeting at our place this past Sunday. Lan, our friend from Laos who has been working in Bangkok since January, was baptized. He was introduced to Jesus by Pon and has rapidly matured in faith. It's been a blessing to study the Bible with him and see how convinced he has become that God cares about him and has a plan for his life. Pon was visiting during his college break and as they started talking about baptism it became evident that Lan was ready and that it would be a good idea to do it while Pon was still around. Since we didn't have much time to plan we decided to just do it in our kiddie pool. We had a good discussion about baptism ahead of time and several not-yet believers were able to hear some exciting testimonies about God's love and grace. After the baptism we did a string-tying ceremony as a way of welcoming Lan into God's family and then we shared a delicious meal of grilled chicken, catfish, somtam and sticky rice.

Here are a few pictures...
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Pon blesses Lan while tying a string around his wrist. We use the strings as tangible demonstrations of God's love for us and our bond to each other.

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-Tom

May 19, 2011

Family Happenings

After seeing the farm on the roof in Meknes, we got inspired to get some new pets of our own....

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Luk Baht (the third- one died, one flew away, so we're trying again for a friend for Luk Gaew).

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Buttercup. Sadly, Claire's cutie pie birthday guinea pig got an infection when we were on a trip to Laos and died. It was a very sad day for Claire. We took some time and now she's ready for a new pet. She's attempting to get this one nice and tame before she gets all big and hard to catch!
Plus, we got some pretty new fish!

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Reading his love notes.
Tom turned 36 this weekend! We love you!! Celebrations: Limoncello and a movie, big brunch, love notes, souvenirs from Morocco and Laos as gifts, cheesecake.

The girls started school this week and guess who else is trying it out??
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Silas might go to preschool a couple of days a week to learn a little Thai and socialize with kids his age. Today is his first full day so we'll see how this goes! :)

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Abby and Eliza both loved their first day.

-C


May 16, 2011

Back to Normal

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We are slowly getting back to normal back at home. It was a hard adjustment coming back to very high temps and extreme humidity after all those cool days of Spring in Morocco!! The rains are starting though, so we are happy for that relief although the floods can complicate life and traffic. We spent the week doing a lot of catch up- from team meetings and catching up with Thai friends to getting through piles of laundry.

Tom is back to work on getting our family's visas through the foundation. This week, we have a meeting on Wednesday (along with our lawyer) at the office of the governor of Samut Prakan. They have to write a letter approving our attempt to apply for a one year visa. Oh, the red tape! Unfortunately, this meeting coincides with Claire and Eliza's first day of school!

You can pray for the girls this week if they come to your mind. We are praying that Claire will have understanding new teachers (especially for Thai and Chinese) and that she will be in class with some of her familiar buddies. Pray that Eliza will not be too nervous and that she will like her new teacher. Claire will be in third grade at Assumption College and Eliza will take the third year of kindergarten at Butsayamaat as well as simultaneously taking first grade with me in homeschool (Sonlight curriculum).

It feels good to see things happening with the foundation. Our friend Chaweewan is our office manager and she is there every weekday morning until noon. Tom is working on organizing and advertising his first group class (found curriculum this week) and hopes for 8 students to meet twice a week starting in early June. We are also working on setting up a conversation group to help people practice their English once a week.
This Sunday we'll be having a Bible study at our house- we are attempting to have smaller celebration meetings with people mainly from our neighborhood who are interested. Tom will also be meeting for study this week with Piak and Pon (who are in BKK temporarily on school breaks) and Lan. He is looking forward to reconnecting and learning with them. I also had a good time getting caught up with my student Sao this week. She has been working hard to pass English tests and filling out applications to enroll in a master's program in business in the Boston area.

It was refreshing to be away and good to be home and readjusting to a more normal life and routine after lots of travel!

-C

Turning 6 in Meknes

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Eliza turned six during our big trip! She had a very memorable birthday in Morocco, exploring the medina in a horse and cart and having her birthday party on the roof of C and J's apartment.

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Eliza the princess in her carriage.

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Beautiful displays of olives and lemons in the market.

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Birthday rose and birthday svej (donut).

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Wandering in the medina. Eliza got a special bracelet with silver work that is unique to Meknes.

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Birthday on the roof.

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Birthday feast- first time (in memory) eating lasagna!

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First taste of artichokes too!

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Opening L's gift.

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Eliza's favorite fruit, strawberries were in season, so we had to have a strawberry cake.

At six years old, Eliza.....
*Is an amazing reader. Her current favorite books to read are Greek Myths, The Boxcar Children, Junie B. Jones.
*is good at memorizing the words to songs quickly and singing all the time.
*loves dressing up fancy
*reads to her brother to help out
*plays imagination games with Claire
*loves swinging, riding bike, swimming
*loves sticky rice and papaya salad and pizza
*likes to feed the fish
*is growing her hair long
*loves Friday nights watching movies on the ipod in bed with Claire.
*is a sweet, kind, smart girl!

Happy Birthday, Eliza!! We love you!!

Morocco

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Five pairs of slippers was our welcome in Morocco.

A two week vacation in Morocco is hard to sum up on one blog entry, so we'll just give you a little taste of our adventures. We loved Morocco and we loved time with family! It was so special to have sister/cousin time again.
Because this is just a peek, I'm sending you to Facebook to see more pictures if you are interested and haven't seen them already....

Facebook pictures here
More Facebook pictures

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Although this was the first time that all four of our girls have played together, they clicked as though they had known each other and played often. They loved all sleeping in the same room, staying up late talking and giving each other French/Arabic/Thai lessons, and reading books aloud. They spent hours off playing dress up or house or school up on the roof. They learned new songs from each other and learned all about each other's lives. Claire was able to attend class with D and Eliza with L. After so much bonding, good-byes were difficult, but it is special for the girls to have so many great memories and I know that their bond will stay strong because of how much these kids have in common.

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The boys on the other hand! :) There were plenty of fights and squabbles and lots of hilarious arguments (Silas usually did more than his fair share in the argument department)..."The train is fast! No, the train is slow! The food is spicy. No, the food is not spicy! That's a kitty cat. No, that's a kitten! Yes! No! Yes! No!" Still it was great to get to know L. and to see our two boys together finally.

We had some really amazing new experiences. Moroccan culture was fascinating to us, the food was amazing, and Spring was a beautiful time to be there- mountains, olive trees, wildflowers, goats and sheep, donkeys, etc. We got to explore their hometown of Meknes as well as Rabat and Fez. We particularly loved the old walled parts of these three cities and the markets.

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Cold, rainy, interesting visit to a souk in the mountains.

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Gorgeous poppies!

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Tannery in Fez market

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We were lucky enough to be hosted by a Moroccan family for a wonderful couscous meal. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into a home and meet a very kind and hospitable family. (pictured with tajine and couscous and traditional drum).

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C. gave me a cooking class as a gift and it we took Claire and Eliza too- so much fun! We learned how to make lemon and olive chicken tajine and lentil soup. C. is a great cook and made us so many fantastic Moroccan meals- including several delicious tajines. So delicious!

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C. in her doorway.

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I loved our sister time!

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J, helped us have lots of new experiences. Here we are eating snails with safety pins (yum!). He also made us sweet Moroccan tea almost every night (we became addicts) and explored with Tom and the boys. The other three patiently taught me to play Rook (finally). Thank you again for the ride to the airpor, J.!!


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Thank you again to J and C for hosting us and caring for us and teaching us so many things. We loved the time with you and loved learning about your lives. We love you!
-Candice