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!

last night with small group girls

i'm going to miss these ladies....

thursdays we get together with these gals & their husbands (except koshara who is a LOVELY single gal) to eat, laugh, and talk about the important (and not so important :) things in life.

left to right... evie, michelle, lonna, & koshara (missed you jen, elissa, marisa, & nancy!)

had one last chic night together...

great conversation & fabulous food, as always! lonna made her out-of-this-world homemade bread, evie brought tasty meats & cheeses, michelle fruit & a super salad, koshara chocolate cake, & i tried a new french onion soup recipe on them.

they are as fun as they look!

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.

yummy dinner

During her visit our sis-in-love, Mindy, very slyly got us a gift certificate for dinner at one of most amazing places in Chiang Mai, the Chedi. Before last week, we'd only heard about eating dinner there! (Though they do have a very reasonable High Tea which I have had the delight to experience!)
Here we are, drinking in the atmosphere & about to eat an incredible meal. I had the 2nd best steak of my life (the best was one Mike cooked over a campfire at Moss Park when we went camping with Matt & Deb) & Mike had a really nice duck curry.... thanks Mark & Mindy!!



In their lovely open air lobby...
Looking preggo, huh?

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.

new mailing address

Please note that, due to our move, we will no longer be able to receive mail in Chiang Mai.

Contact us if you would like to receive our summer mailing address in Orlando... our phone number will remain the same for now.

We will not be able to receive your mail at the new address until late May when we return to Orlando, but due to the slow & irregular mail service here, it will be unlikely that we would receive any mail sent to us here from the States at this point.

Thanks so much for your prayers & warm encouragement during this transition time!

predictions, etc...

"i will tell you right now, it's a boy... i have 50% accuracy."
-OBGYN in Bangkok (trying to be a comedian after we told him we did NOT want to know)

"girl."
-2 thai girlfriends

"I think it's a boy you've got in there!!! ...boys kick harder and earlier than girls do."
-kristine in CA

"it may be hard to avoid 'the area'... but i will keep my word and not tell you."
-Ultrasound reader in Chiang Mai

we really don't want to know, but it's still fun to guess!
what do you think baby B will be? i know there are some experts out there....

five months

So this is Caryn at 5 months. I know what you are thinking, it is the same thing everyone here is saying..."she doesn't even look pregnant!" She is though. The proof is inside...this baby is active and is destined for the World Cup! Not sure what Caryn thinks about it...but she is so pretty pregnant that we may have to have at least one more...

adventures.... elsewhere

So, you may have heard by now that we are heading back to the States this summer! Though we originally were going back in November, we decided that transitioning back before baby B came would be all around better timing... we appreciate your prayers as we (& HR) make decisions on what we will do next!

All that's left to do now (after we sell, give away, & pack up our "Thai" life) is to find a new name for the blog... any suggestions?

The winner gets their picture posted.

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.

the dean's watch

i was so delighted to see a couple of elizabeth goudge books in the guesthouse library last month, as they are hard to find... many of them out of print...
i had read the scent of water some years ago at the suggestion of a friend, so i decided to crack open the dean's watch. goudge did not disappoint, introducing me to lovely people who were imperfect, struggling, yet made me want to be a better person... loving people better & living in each moment for better reasons.

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