while mike's been gone....

"...your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

- Jesus (Matthew 6:8)

maybe i should have posted these prayer requests (see below in blue) on the blog sooner, but for those of you who got the email, thanks for praying for us while Mike's been in Ohio the past week...


as i reread my prayer requests, i laughed & thought maybe i should have been more specific, especially with the last request:

• For Caryn & Hudson in Orlando while he’s gone… safety, rest, health, & a good time together while Mike is gone.

safety.... at 5:30am on saturday morning, my mom, Hudson & I woke up to the alarms blaring & smoke filling our bedrooms... yes, we were all SAFE (for which we are very thankful)... it was just the backup heater trying to keep up with the "cold" down here (yes, only 30s, as opposed to -20s where mike was) & burning up all the dust that had accumulated on the coil since last winter... of course, we thought the place was burning down at the time.
maybe i should have said to pray for a "safe & non-eventful" time while mike was gone.

rest & health.... a few short hours after our little alarm incident, my stomach started cramping up.... assuming it was something i ate that didn't agree with me, i figured the rest of the household was safe as the cramps got worse & i spent most of the next 20 hours alternating between the bathroom & my bed*. just when it seemed we were in the clear, & i was feeling better, i hear from my mom who had since left, but was an hour away with similar symptoms... hudson was next, overflowing his diapers like a pro, though in much better spirits than either my mom or me was while he was doing it. (*special thanks to debbie, my hero through the worst of it, taking Hudson on errands with her while i was detained - and who is not yet feeling any ill effects... AND thanks a ton for the groceries, faith :)
maybe i should have said to pray for a "a lot of rest & GOOD health" while mike was gone.


a good time together.... of course, in God's loving sovereignty, He knows what we need even before we ask, & takes care of us even when our prayers (& prayer requests) are imperfect... i was just telling mike that i actually enjoyed the time i spent with Hudson when (bc i was so weak & tired from lack of sleep & food) i didn't have energy to do anything but just sit on the floor with him & try to make him giggle between dirty diapers.

maybe God knew just what i needed while mike was gone.



mike still isn't home (until wednesday night), so feel free to revise your prayer requests as you see fit :).

Mike leaves tomorrow (Wednesday, January 14) for a support trip in Ohio for a week!

Please pray:

• For opportunities for Mike to speak about our work at 2 churches & 1 small dinner party, where couples interested in our ministry will have a chance to hear more about how they can partner with us.
• That Mike would have wisdom & hear God’s leading on what to share & how to encourage those who attend.
• That God would meet our need for new ministry partners… that many would want to be a part of our team through their prayers & financial giving (especially commitments to give monthly), to help reach people around the world for Christ.
• That the weather would cooperate as Mike travels & as people travel to hear him share – it’s going to be COLD!
• For Caryn & Hudson in Orlando while he’s gone… safety, rest, health, & a good time together while Mike is gone.

Thanks!! Your prayers are so important to us!

walker boy

hudson is SO excited to be walking... here's a pic of him early last month when it was still very new :)...

update

a HUGE thanks to Matt, Deb, & Emma for taking some awesome family pics of us during our visit!

to catch you up, we moved into a townhouse about a mile from work in july, Hudson turned 1 on August 26th, walked about 2 weeks before that & got his first tooth about 2 weeks later...

we're back to work with the JESUS film, but we've been assigned to full-time support-raising due to our low monthly income... we had the chance to reconnect with a supporting church & lots of current supporters in the Ohio area, but we're looking for more! we're trying to make up a lot of lost support & to raise additional to cover increases in health care, cost of living, ministry expenses & various other increases related to having a baby :). we are praying we'll be back on the field by early next year!

mike primarily works from home, but is going into the office once or twice a week -- mostly to work on support -- but also to keep abreast of what's happening in his new position -- he'll be taking over the production of new JESUS film translations & recordings for Europe (including Eastern Europe & Russia), the Americas (north, south & central), and an area called "Oceania", which includes Australia & New Zealand... so we're anxious to get back to work! A big push right now in JESUS film is the translation & recording of a new tool targeting women called "Magdalena"... to learn more about this film, which focuses on Jesus' interaction with women during his time on earth, go to http://www.magdalenamovie.com/.
caryn is also looking into ways she can be involved with the ministry... she's been helping a bit with an event at headquarters & is doing research for a writing project related to Magdalena when she's not chasing Hudson around or going to the free Jazzercise classes at headquarters - the doc says she's got osteopenia in her hips, so she's committed to weight-bearing exercise!
in mike's free time, he's gotten back into his kempo classes, volunteering doing handyman stuff at church, and is currently helping a friend get a roof on his house.

birthday boy... a little late

6 months!

hudson had his 6 month check up today... 17 pounds, 4 ounces & 26 inches makes him an exactly average baby. of course we think he's 99th percentile for cuteness, smartness & all the categories that matter :). he's healthy & only cried a few seconds after getting 4 "swords" (as our friends, the dolsons, like to call them) stuck into his legs. the vaccinations are always much worse on mama.



here's our 50th percentile boy sitting up!

2 months

...mom's a bit late, but i'm 2 months old now!see how big i am getting? up to 11 lbs 14 oz at my 2 month check up :) (i was born at 7lb10oz, but went down to 6lb13oz by the 2nd day, so i've gained a lot since then!)
my first 2 girlfriends, juliet & olivia... with their dad, paul

my first pair of shades

my room... see the sweet blanket grandma made me?

here's where i sleep

up to...

we are slowly adjusting back to life in the States.... the sheer pace of it all is shocking at times, but i'd say we are enjoying it... above you can see how we get around -- a great find mike came across & worked really hard for (long, cool story).

part of this is "reentry"stuff -- we're meeting with a great couple with overseas life experience, who is helping us with our personal and ministry transition back to the states. there's also plenty of financial organization & decision-making mike has been working hard to reserach & get into place.

baby stuff keeps us busy, too, of course... visiting the midwife, choosing doctors, birthing classes, registering**, etc. has kept us both on our toes, of course. it's all such a huge new experience!

OH! and just this last weekend, we finally joined our church here in Orlando. Summit Church has been a fantastic place for us -- we actually attended for about 2 years before moving to Thailand, but were never in town to join, so it was great to finally do that.

**we're registered at www.babiesrus.com & www.target.com .... please me know if you're going to be in Orlando on Sunday, August 12 & can come to my shower... i'll send you an invite if you haven't received one!

7 months

here we are...

caryn is quickly growing out of her maternity clothes* & mike is sporting a sweet soccer -- er, sorry -- football jersey courtesy of our good friend Dirk in UK.

*so much for "buy your pre-pregnancy size"... this only works if you haven't already gained 30 pounds with 2 months left to go.

in O-town

Mike joined me in the States after a week.... here's a short update of our whereabouts since then:

we spent a few days with my parents in Fort Lauderdale, then headed up to Orlando for some meetings... after that we took one last pre-baby road trip which brought us to Caryn's Grandmother's in Louisiana for a real crawfish boil, a short stop south of Memphis, then to Branson MO to meet Mike's family & surprise his Grandma on her 90th, stopping-off in Nashville for some real BBQ & a stay in a historic home on the way to Athens GA to visit with dear friends - the Curtis family...

i didn't drive a mile... Mike is a bit tired.
got back to Orlando a couple days ago just in time for a baby appt -- Caryn & baby are doing fine... gaining plenty of weight (as predicted) on all this great American food. we're getting settled in the home where we'll be housesitting this summer right now... Mike's having a blast mowing the lawn, & we had the very American experience today of club warehouse shopping.

pictures of our journeys to come!

may 7

mike got back safely over the weekend with all kinds of neat stories about his time down south... look forward to sharing about those soon!

can't believe i am going to be back in the states in like 11 days!!?? even more incredible when i think these next 11 days will include a trip to bangkok to meet carly, a trip down phuket & back then sightseeing & shopping in chiang mai with her, packing the rest of my stuff & most of the house, 2 goodbye parties, the long flight home, & who knows what else...
guess you can pray for energy.

i get into orlando May 18...
mike gets into Fort Lauderdale on May 27th (we'll stay with my parents for a bit down there).

looking forward to seeing all of you US residents soon!

saying goodbye

we've been doing a lot of it lately... it's so strange to visit with friends & realize that it's the last time you'll see them -- if not forever, for a very long time.


here I am with some girlfriends & their babies... i met Khun M through our work here in Chiang Mai -- she worked in the office we used to share. Christy & I met through mutual friends... Mike & her husband used to work together in Orlando. Both are busy with babies these days, as you can see!


here we are with the Rutledges & their growing & extended family... you can read about their story & ministry here.

these days...

mike called the other night absolutely ecstatic..."we got to put on some roofs & even hand over keys!!!"

since before we moved here, he has been wanting to go down south to help with tsunami relief work done by our ministry... something always came up - recording trips, visitors, pollution crisis (when he didn't want to leave me alone at the guest house in hua hin)... so this trip came up, & we were both really excited for him to go.

Campus Crusade is one of the last groups to be doing work in areas devastated by this disaster.... most organizations have pulled out, but small groups from Crusade continue to go down to help rebuild what the waves destroyed... as Mike was saying, they are still finishing up homes in some areas & able to give house keys to displaced people who will finally have a permanent place to live so many months later.

so tonight mike is on some little island with a few other guys from the ministry, sleeping in a wooden structure on stilts that they hope "doesn't fall down"... i hope so, too!

meanwhile, i'm sorting through 18 months of accumulated life things, trying to decide what comes home, and what to give away... kind of sad when i think about how little so many people have... really close to nothing... and i am worried about fitting all our things into 4 large suitcases.

glad we can do a little something to help, though.

halfway there...

at 20 weeks, the baby is officially "half-baked"....
we just got back from the doc's where we saw Baby B floating around on the ultrasound screen sucking in amniotic fluid through its little lips & wiggling tiny fingers... B would not hold still for the camera, but was otherwise very well-behaved & growing right on schedule (though mom needs to gain some more weight).
in light of this, we celebrated with caryn's favorite mexican food... hope the baby likes it spicy.
hopefully we can figure out a way to share the ultrasound pics with you sometime soon.

heading back...

above is a resent satelite picture of Northern Thailand.
from space, you see large grey areas... where the land continues to be burned.
we've heard all kinds of interesting reasons why this happens... everything from spiritual beliefs that it causes prosperity for the next crop, to animal poachers, to people growing mushrooms that only thrive on a burnt forest floor. not to mention that the common way of getting rid of trash (everything from leaves to rubber tires) is to put it in a big pile & burn it.

though air quality levels in Chiang Mai are still not ideal, they have tapered off a bit... so we are leaving our little haven at The Pines for Bangkok tomorrow & heading back to Chiang Mai by the end of the week... we will reclaim our dog (the Haleys are getting out of town for vacation), pay our bills, and pray that the air quality will continue to prove.

here's a bit of encouraging news...
Chiang Mai exits disaster zone
Chiang Mai Governor Wichai Srikwan Friday removed the "disaster-zone" label from his province in a move that looks set to revive local tourism and relieve local people's worry. The move was now possible given the fact that the haze already stopped hovering over this northern province. In the face of smog crisis, Chiang Mai was among the northern provinces being declared "disaster zone" earlier this month. "We hope to relieve the worry of Chiang Mai residents and boost tourism in the run up to Songkran Festival," Wichai said. The festival will begin on April 13.

The Nation http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/read.php?newsid=30030090

still waiting...

we are still down south waiting to see if the improvement in air quality over the last couple of days will last... particulate count (amount of bad stuff in the air) has already risen since a sharp dip that followed unseasonal rain 2 days ago. authorities say burning (and the bad air it brings) could begin again at any time. we just spoke to a pollution-sensitive friend in CM who said it was great yesterday, but woke up this morning with a sore throat & runny nose again.

we continue to hear interesting reports of how they are trying to clean the air... the latest & greatest was to load a fire truck (in its entirety) onto a large military airplane from which it sprayed water onto the city.

in the meantime, we are working from a WI-FIed beach near Hua Hin, catching up on Veggie Tales (Sumos of the Opera gets 2 enthusiastic thumbs up), eating lots of good food, reading, & feeling baby B poke around a bit... very fun!

some people have enquired as to how Ginger is getting on without us... our friends, the Haleys (well mostly their son, Gabe, pictured), have stepped in to care for her in our absence... Mike was a little sad to see this pic -- whenever he tries to lay on Ginger this way, she looks very sad & makes a strange noise.
by the way, one of her puppies, Cebu, just had 9 puppies (3 months after running away from her owner & finding a home among the strays of a Thai park for a week or so)... maybe we'll have pictures later.

temporary home

over the weekend air quality in the North improved slightly, only to deteriorate again as officials are unable to control the burning. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/19Mar2007_news04.php


we've found a missionary guesthouse (out of the smog) to stay at until the air goes back to a less unhealthy quality... it's a bit rustic (no flushing toilets), but very peaceful & we can work from here (there IS internet)... we're just thankful for something affordable & available!
here's where we are until it's safe to breathe in chiang mai:
http://www.thailandhavens.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=29

in case you are interested, below is an excerpt from the latest message from the US Embassy regarding the air quality crisis:

Warden Message

March 15, 2007

This message alerts American citizens living in or visiting northern Thailand to the need to take appropriate health-related precautions due to the unhealthful air quality northern Thailand is currently experiencing. Air quality experts report that excessive trash burning, brush clearing, forest fires and other factors have resulted in severe air contamination in the areas surrounding Chiang Mai. According to the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, air pollution levels in Chiang Mai have exceeded the maximum acceptable level since the beginning of March. On March 14, the level of particulate matter in the air exceeded the “emergency” level. Measurements at or near the “emergency” level are expected for at least the next several days.

Day-by-day particulate matter (PM 10) and air quality statistics are available in English on the Pollution Control Department website at http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/Default.cfm and at the consulate’s website, http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/consulcm/index.htm.

American Citizen Services (ACS)
U.S. Embassy Bangkok
95 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

clearing the air

i was shocked to see a story on chiang mai air quality on cnn this morning, so this might not be news to you, but all of the north of thailand is going through a smog "crisis" brought on by a number of factors... making it unhealthy to breathe there. people are being advised to stay indoors & wear masks. levels of harmful particulates in the air are anywhere up to or well above 300 (160 is considered dangerous by most standards), depending on the source.

thankfully (i guess, for us) we returned to bangkok this week, after being out of the country for work, to reports of the deteriorating air quality & the interesting attempts to improve the situation -- anything from blowing water into the air to increase humidity & seeding the clouds for rain to telling the outdoor bbq-ers to stop cooking for a while. the government has actually called for people to start the thai water-throwing festival, sonkran, 2 weeks early in order to help. there has been little improvement, as chiang mai is in a valley (where pollution settles, accumulates, and worsens) & nothing but lots of good, constant rain (not usually predicted until may or june) will clear things out.

in my delicate situation, mike has decided to keep me in bangkok & out of the "garbage air" up north, while he goes back to get some work stuff done & gather a few things so we can work from down south until things hopefully clear (can you imagine going to bangkok for "fresh" air???). he'll be back in a day, and we'll travel to a guesthouse and pray for rain.

for more info, here's couple of articles...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/page.news.php?clid=2&id=30029266
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/page.news.php?clid=3&id=30029309
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070313/sc_afp/thailandenvironment_070313105934

Some U.S. based Air Quality listings….
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.fcsummary
Thailand's...
http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/Default.cfm

In case you haven't heard...

for interesting details on the progress of our little one, see our calendar

(you may need to go to the current month).

thoughts on crutches

When I was a little girl, I remember finding a pair of crutches (left over from some family member's unfortunate incedent) and being completely entertained the rest of the day leaping across the house with them. a few thoughts on this:
1. when you are not injured, crutches are great.
2. if you lose your balance while on said crutches, you have two good feet to land on.
3. when you get tired or your armpits hurt or the crutches are no longer convenient, you can lean them against a wall and continue regular mobility.

last weekend in bangkok, mike & i were walking back to the guesthouse from the hospital (we had our annual check ups & we are very healthy!), when i stepped onto an uneven section of sidewalk (these are plentiful throughout the kingdom)... my foot rolled outward, and i heard a loud snap. i was able to walk for a bit until the pain got too bad & mike got us a taxi for the the last 1/2 mile or so (a very well-spent dollar). i got out of the taxi & hopped into the guesthouse... then i hopped up the stairs and down the hall to our room. The next day, I hopped some more getting ready for the airport, where mike wheeled me on the luggage cart (fun!) to the airport "hospital" where a well-dressed staff person told us they did not have crutches, but could order some from a nearby hospital. After a smiling doctor examined my foot & said it was probably ligaments (only "10% chance" it's broken), my crutches arrived 30 minutes later in a flashing ambulence. Even though I gave my height in cm (165, if anyone is curious) to the hospital, and 6 well-dressed staff people attempted to make adjustments (mike ended up having to do it), as hard as everyone tried, the crutches were still too short for this giant farang (the thais call all foreigners that... it literally means "french.".. mike LOVES it). so they ordered some more crutches in a bigger size which arrived another half-hour later... they would have to do as is, because we needed to proceed to the gate. I was then escorted to my plane in a wheel chair, which was a very nice experience until i had to get out of the chair & make it down to my seat on the crutches (which were still too short). a few more thoughts on this:
1. it's hard to get around on crutches when your "good leg" is extremely sore because you've spent the last 24 hours hopping around on it.
2. it's harder to get around on crutches when one foot hurts so badly that you can't touch your toes to the ground.
3. the aisle of an airplane is not the best place to test-drive crutches, in general.
so, now i am home... resting and trying to perform the basic functions of life one must do even while "resting". it's amazing how we take for granted that our feet work & our hands don't have to contribute to the process of "getting around". more thoughts:
1. crutches are hard to get around on, and easy to lose your balance with.
2. crutches make a bad substitute for legs, but a good substitute for hands in limited situations (ex. they are good for pushing things around on the floor, but bad for carrying bowls of soup).
3. ginger seems confused, but happy in a strange way, that i now, too, have 4 legs.

very thai...

just wanted to let y'all know we've been unaffected by the political situation here... there is slightly more military presence in the city & at check points along the highway, but nothing else... for more info on current events in thailand, go to:

FOXNews.com - CountryWatch

thanks for all your notes of concern for us!