Christmas in Thailand-2016

So many photos!

So many fun and memorable times!

So little time to share!

This December has been one of my best.  Having my sister come visit for 2 weeks for  the first time since 1993 was such a treat and dream come true.  Lori arrived the day that she left and they overlapped for just a few hours in Bangkok.  We've been going non stop all month, with both Sarah and Lori- but when you have such a short time for a visit in a foreign country, you have to squeeze in as much as possible.

Yesterday, the family all left town in the early morning hours (on my birthday) and then I crashed. After weeks and months of anticipation and time together, it's now over!  I am settling back into life alone in this big house with just Mike and I, and just as there are seasons for everything, it is bittersweet and feels good to get reorganized again.  

I'll be sharing more, but here are a few highlights of our month of December...

While Sarah was here, I had all of our northern TCCC staff girls over for a Christmas party.  We had dinner and Christmas cookies together.   After the meal I talked about  how our families have influenced us, and we shared photos with each other of our childhood. We ended the evening by teaching them how to make 'yarn angels'.  They turned out so cute and it gave them a new Christmas decoration to remember from our evening.

We were cozy with 25+ packed into our living room, but they enjoyed the sharing together so much.

It was also fun to have Sarah here for our northern TCCC staff Christmas party. This gang really knows how to party, and we had such a fun evening with games, dinner, singing, and gift exchanges. The theme this year was "Winter Wonderland". 

Mike shared with our staff a bit of the history of TCCC in Chiang Mai.  Our first years, the Christmas party was always at our home- until the numbers out grew our space.  How encouraging it was to reflect over the growth in those beginning years.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our home for 17.  Jon's parents and sister and family are here this year, so our grand-kids got to have their holiday meal with both grandparents.  That doesn't happen very often. We enjoyed having Sam, a teacher at GIS and Austin (of course) join us, too. 

Along with Christmas every year, is my birthday celebration.  Since the Foltz's and Lori left in the wee early morning hours of the 27th, we had lunch together on the 26th.

 It was special this year to have two of four daughters here with me. Yay for mother/daughter matchy tops! 

We sure do love our tropical  fresh fruit shakes and Hayley photo bombs! Happy Holidays to all! 

Celebrating America in Thailand

Who say's that American's can't celebrate July 4th in another country?  We certainly had a fun day being patriotic today here in Thailand!

We started the celebrating with what seemed to us an "American fun activity" floating at the quarry, paddle boarding, and cliff jumping (for the kids) with three other families.

Mike and Nathan got in a little target shooting at our house.

We ended tonight being as American as possible in Thailand:
-Marisa decorated her house with all Americana- so so fun!
-Four families shared the meal
-We wore red,white,and blue
-Grilled hamburgers, brats, potato salad, baked beans, sweet tea, brownies, patriotic decorated cake, etc. (sorry that I have no picture of that beauty)
-Said the Pledge of Allegiance, sang "God bless America"
-Front yard fireworks and sparklers.

We are thankful tonight for America, for friends who feel like family, and for real family (the Foltz's) here to celebrate holidays with.  Thanks Jon and Marisa for a fun day!

Father's Day- 2016

Being in the smack middle of operating a conference for over 3000 pastors- Father's Day fell at a busy time this year.  However since Mike had two of his daughters here with him, it was a year worth celebrating for us.   It was special to have lunch together and the kids and moms made the daddies a DIY gift.

Just take a plain white t-shirt and let the kids draw a road track  around the back of it.  Mike put his on as soon as we got back to our room, and said it actually did feel good as Nathan and Hayley gently massaged his back while playing with their cars.

I recommend this as an easy DIY gifts for the daddies out there.  It is fun for the kids to make, and fun for the dad's to enjoy!  Happy Father's Day to Mike, Jon, Michael, and Ben!

Easter- 2016

• Easter weekend was full! We went to our churches Seder Meal, which we both really enjoyed as we ate the symbolic foods eaten at the Passover Seder meal.
• The GIS drama department performed Godspell this year.  I wasn't sure that I wanted to go, (didn't sound that interesting) but a friend highly recommended it.  I am so glad we went. It is based on the Gospel of Matthew and tells about the last days of Jesus and his well known parables.  It was funny, so well done, and perfect to reflect on over the Easter weekend.  
• Saturday was our first of some upcoming garage sales, in an attempt to down size our 20 years of collecting in this house. 
• Our Easter meal made me feel a bit guilty, and yet I need to give myself grace at times like this. I grew up with the tradition of a nice home cooked meal with family for Easter lunch and had planned to do that.  The heat here makes cooking so difficult this time of year, our home is being painted on the outside and smells strongly of varnish and paint so we ended up eating out as a family and did not even have Easter baskets for the grand kids.  Our lunch was delicious and special with 11 of us but hopefully I'll do better next year with the family traditions. 
• I finished reading "The Land Between" which was a great read and in good timing as I've also been reading through Exodus.  The author recounts the Israelite's journey wandering for years feeling lost, scared, and frustrated. This ancient story provides us a guide when we travel through our own seasons of difficulty. I've been reminded that transitions can provide our greatest opportunity for spiritual growth, and even a gift as we look back later on.   

• Missionary friends of ours  here in Thailand, Sandy and Barb Sandell have been heavy on our hearts.  He suffered with cancer this whole past year and died last month. We  got news that Barb just found out that she too has the same kind of cancer now and will start treatments. 
• And then to top it all off, good friends of ours that we have worked with ever since coming to Thailand- had a very shocking unexpected death too.  Tom Silkwood was just out mowing his lawn on Saturday afternoon (with no known medical conditions) and collapsed in his yard of sudden death.  Their kids are our kids ages, and they are close in age to us.  As fear and shock have been so real, Mike has reminded me that God is the ones who numbers each of our days. We never know if it could be our last day or one of our family members. Please pray for the entire Silkwood family.  Their three children and family have come back from the USA with grand-kids to be with Gayle and the funeral is this Tuesday.  He was a good friend, passionate missionary and movie maker, and left a big vacancy in the community here. 
• The Ranong Kids Home had a great summer camp and are now enjoying their summer break. We have heard of more children who are at risk and need a place to stay.  We need wisdom on these decisions.
• Mike is finishing a week of Leadership Team meetings in Bangkok where they also need wisdom and unity as they lead the TCCC ministry. 

Moken Summer Camp- 2016

'Twas a Merry Christmas

Arriving back in our home just two weeks before Christmas after being gone for months, and then having house guests arrive a week later- made this Christmas come on fast and strong.  It was so fun to get back in time for our four Thailand grand-kids Christmas programs and then to have Lori here with us made it especially special.

Immediately after getting off the plane we got to see Hayley's first grade program and then a few days later went out to GIS to see all three kids sing with their classes.  Collins in the back row here with his 5th grade.

Hayley is in white on left with the 1st grade and Summer is the blonde in back with her 3rd grade. 

Our first Sunday back was the church Christmas program and we got to watch the two older angels, and Nathan as Joseph.

Our northern TCCC staff party is always a highlight for us.  This year the theme was to dress like nature. There were a lot of branches flowers and trees on the staff.

There is always a lot of fun and laughter at this party and the Foltz grand-kids entertained our staff with their "whip & nae nae" dance. 

We also got to be a part of our new Leadership Led Movements (LLM) Christmas party.  This is a new ministry that BJ and Lamai are leading with business people in Chiang Mai. Christmas is a great time to have evangelistic parties because Thais are curious about the meaning of Christmas.  About 50% of those invited did not know who Jesus is. Above is the entertainment team.

We had another performance by the Foltz children at this party.

Mike ended the evening with a message and invitation to invite Jesus into their lives. 

We decorated cookies at Marisa's house and ate at our house.   Good thing we are just a few steps from each others houses. 

Christmas eve morn we all nine played golf.  Well sort of.  It took us two hours to play three holes, but we sure had a lot of laughs and fun.  This year has been unusually warm with not much of a cool season break, which has been disappointing.  It just does still not seem right to be sweating in the kitchen as you prepare the Christmas day meal. 

Christmas day we had our big holiday meal in our home with 9 of the 17 of our family.  Pretty good this year to get half of us in Thailand. There was a rare shipment of Dr. Pepper that showed up at one store in town, just in time to make it into the Foltz kid's stockings. 

The grands made Christmas so fun this year.  Ages 11, 9, 6, and 4 are very fun ages. 

Of course, we ended the party with a birthday cake for Jesus and went around the table and each told what we liked about him best.  So precious to hear all the comments. We were all thankful for a great family Christmas in spite of missing the other 8 in the USA. Hope yours was merry, too!

Thanksgiving- 2015

As we draw near to Christmas, our family Thanksgiving of 2015 will always be a memorable one. It will be remembered as the Thanksgiving weekend that God gave us a new baby.  It was challenging planning the logistics of the holiday, because of Jen's due date 12 days before Thanksgiving and our return to Thailand 12 days after Thanksgiving.  Being a missionary family and having to spend so many holidays separated from each other- since we were all in the same region of the country, we wanted to be together.  Jen and Ben graciously offered their home as the meeting place and we knew we all would need to be flexible with the plans.

The day before Thanksgiving, Lori and the Allen's drove from Texas and Arkansas to meet us in Oklahoma.

We enjoyed a fun evening together and 2 month old Lola Mae was the center of attention since we all had not had much time with her since her birth. 

She is one of the happiest lovable babies and was passed around the whole weekend. 

Jen was so gracious (being 11 days over due) to let us invade their home.  She set a pretty table and eagerly helped us as we all prepared the meal together. It was continually on everyone's mind, that this baby could potentially come at any time, but we had a mixture of feelings between carrying on life as usual while trying to keep attitudes of patience and contentment while waiting. 

In spite of missing the Foltz family in Thailand, we were so thankful to get the ten of us together and enjoy a meal of turkey, dressing and all the fixin's. Every single meal prayer ended with a request for labor to start and especially on this Thanksgiving day, as a testimony to the grateful hearts of the whole family after much waiting. 

We went bowling that evening and came back to play a hilarious board game at the house. Jen was such a trooper as she bowled two full games and just kept going.  Ben thinks it was all the gut wrenching laughter during the game of "Things" that finally brought on labor that Thanksgiving night.  

The next day, a relaxing morning around the house and then some "Black Friday" afternoon shopping kept the contractions consistent and a threatening ice storm that evening added some excitement to the timing of it all.  Since the hospital was 1.5 hours away in OKC, the doctor suggested she come on in that evening to avoid the storm. Off to OKC they went, checking in late that evening at 13 days overdue.  They knew that they still had a long night ahead of them and yet it was a relief knowing that baby girl would be arriving soon, making this Thanksgiving one to never be forgotten by all of us. 

Gina and Sheila

Last week, we had some visitors in town that were an absolute delight to be around.  They had come to Thailand on holiday, but wanted to use some of their time to volunteer wherever needed.  Our first choice was for them to help at the Ranong Kids Home, but the distance of travel and their limited time here just did not allow that.

Instead I set it up for them to meet our staff women and share with them.  

Two of our Thai staff shared their testimony with Gina and Sheila (in English.... which was a big deal to them) and did a great job.

Then Gina and Sheila shared some encouragement from their lives too.

They also brought some gifts for the staff girls from the USA, which were a treat.

One afternoon, while I was driving around showing them our city, we decided to stop at a temple up on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.

No matter how many times I've visited temples, I am still sobered and sense a darkness and emptiness as I see people bowing down to idols and offering them incense and flowers in a hope to make enough merit for a better life. It is a good reminder of why we are here.

Gina and Sheila's last day here happen to be Easter and Marisa's birthday, so they joined our family for a special holiday meal at a hotel.  I never got a picture of our whole group on Easter day, but got this one of the Foltz family.

Thank you Sheila and Gina for coming to visit us and the joy you brought with you!  Come back again, anytime!

nine years old!

Summer turned 9 on March 20th and I was happy to get to be with her this year.  Miss Reatha had left a bag of "cake batter" chap-sticks with us, so there were enough for her to pass out to everyone in her class along with the delicious sugar cookies that her mommy made for everyone.  It is so fun to visit her classroom.

The big surprise this year was for Summer to wear this dress of her mama's.  Marisa got this dress on her 9th birthday, and so Summer wore it out for dinner on her 9th birthday and surprised her Mama. 

I have not been able to save a lot of the girls childhood stuff so this is pretty rare.  Summer and I had been plotting this surprise for quite awhile. 

The big shoulder pads from the 80's was the funniest part.  The Italian restaurant that she chose gave her a scoop of birthday ice cream.

It was only for her so  notice what H and N thought about that. 

Her cake request this year was an ice cream cake from DQ! This girl has a lot of spunk and zeal for life and I hope she keeps it till she's 90!

Nathan turned 4 this month too!  Happy Birthday to Summer and Nathan!