And that's how I got into online dating...

Day 46:

Well, this Momma is still pretty tired, but my outlook on life has improved since yesterday.  Today was the first day we've been able to try out our schedule with me doing my language session first and then Doug doing the last two hours.  I was a bit grumbly this morning, but I am most definitely not a morning person.  I took a longer than usual shower because we've agreed that I don't take over mom duties until 9 am, that way I don't feel torn about getting my language time in.  It was nice to not feel like I had to squeeze my shower in and it helped get me going. Very thankful we have hot water for showers, that's not always the case for people in our line of work, so I am appreciative for those small things that make a huge difference sometimes.

I am finishing up stage 2 of language and I feel like somehow I've missed getting good question asking, totally an oversight on my part.  Since my evaluation will tell me what steps I need to take next, I am taking a few weeks to work on areas I feel need improvement.  So today's lesson included 10 different places along with 10 people/animals and 10 action words.  We spent the full hour asking back and forth where a person or animal was or what they were doing.  My teacher would give me instructions about where to move the people, then ask where the were.  Not gonna lie, it was fun, kind of like playing doll house in another language.  I drew 10 extremely crude drawings of the places we'd use, I took pictures for you.  Kruu Jeab guessed all of them right away and I think we'd make an excellent pictionary team, except for one, the last one I drew threw her off, see if you can guess it...

Recording the questions so I can listen and practice.

Okay, top left: gas station, top right: playground, bottom left: post office, bottom right: bank.  The "little people" are children and the Scooby Doo characters are adults.

Can you figure this one out?  I'll give the answer at the very bottom, the picture is supposed to represent a place.

Here's where the day gets really good.  After my session, Doug had fed, showered, and dressed the kids, so all I had to do was take them to "school" (our home school room).  Kora read books, while Kees built roads. Then they both did art.  We opened our hoarded Color Wonder markers, the ones that only write on special paper.  They both had a blast.  I had a large poster sized sheet that we hung on the wall. They drew on that one, and thought it was so cool.  Kora mostly took the lids of the markers and tried to figure out how to put them back on.

Doing our Mix and Match Bears.

Kees was excited that he found grumpy daddy bear

With Kora, there are always casualties.

Drawing!

Something amazing happened today and I 100% believe God sent me a special "message" through Kees.  While the kids were drawing on the poster paper, I knealt down and wrote "Kees and Kora", then put the date.  Today's date is one I will never forget.  On this day, 5 years ago, the Friday before Mother's day, my heart was shattered and my world came crashing down.  That's the day we lost our first baby, before we ever held him or her in our arms. That's the day my faith in God was tested in a way I'd never known.  My papaw had died just 5 months before, the thought of this new baby had given me such excitement and I had planned so much already. During that time, I cried a lot and spent time alone with God, begging for an answer. I had a very special teacher at that time, Verne Johnson, who was experiencing hard times with his ailing mother.  He shared with our class from Philippians 4.

Here is verses 4-7: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  When the threat of losing the baby was looming, I prayed that God would deal quickly with our situation.  If the baby was going to stay put, then I prayed all signs of trouble would pass, if we were going to lose the baby, I prayed he would make that happen quickly.  He answered, and I experienced a wave of peace I cannot describe.  I was devastated, but at peace.  I took time to thank God in that moment for the time I was given with that little one and prayed he would stay by my side through the hard days to come.  He was faithful and he gave me a renewed fervor for sharing his love with others.  When pain and hard times come, and they will, for all of us, what hope do we have?  If we cling to Christ, we can face these things boldly knowing this world is temporary and fading. Our eternal home is secure and my little one is there.  I was comforted by the thought of my Papaw having a great grandbaby in heaven, and my Uncle Mike teaching him or her the true meaning of a corny joke, "you know what I mean Verne?" (That's a joke, by the way, I think from an old Braum's commercial...)

So today, as I wrote that date, and tears filled my eyes, I stepped into the bathroom to take a minute.  My little ones here with me didn't notice a thing.  I said a silent prayer and thanked God that today I am spending a normal fabulous day with my babies.  Five years ago, I don't think I would have believed that we'd actually be here, it was always the goal we were working toward, but it seemed so impossible. Now here we are, 5 years later, and God has been faithful through many more hard times, which you've all heard about before.  As I came out of the bathroom Kees had drawn a picture and he said, "Momma look, I drew a Momma with a baby in her tummy, see, there's the baby!"  Things like this cannot be ignored, I feel like God took this opportunity to remember that day.  To remind me that he cares.

Kees showing me the baby in the Mommy's tummy. (We saw friends yesterday, and the wife is pregnant, so that might be what got him thinking about it, but I know God had his hand in the timing and the placement just below the date).

Okay, so then we played in our yard and Pi Tone and Pa Nam came to play with the kiddos, we had lunch and now those sweet babies are napping.  I am getting a head start on blogging so I can hopefully go to bed early. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and then we are volunteering at the school in our neighborhood for kids with special needs.  Later in the day, Doug is heading out of town and won't be back until Saturday evening, so I am hoping to get some good rest to prepare for the weekend.
 

Silly girl

Drinking Mommy's juice

Jumping!

Pi Tone's here!

Waiting for Pi Tone to come back.

Just so...

Pa Nam came!

Little Sass

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands, except in Thailand.

In the ice bucket

Pi Tone trying not to get hit.

Look out

They let me have a turn!

I'll just get right back in here.

"Did I do that?" (Urkel reference)

Saying bye-bye

After nap time, I thought we'd have a quiet evening, but my friend Pi Eiw stopped by just as we were getting home from a family walk to get bottled water refills. She was wanting some help to edit her profile on various online dating websites, I enjoyed doing that a lot more than I should have. While I was finishing her profile on the third website, we got a skype call from Gramee and Grampa because we got a package from them today and they wanted to see Kees open his present. When we finished with them, we finally ate some dinner, Doug made us some macaroni and cheese we got in the package.  We also got some more pecans, so thankful, we were almost out! Perfect timing! Then we skyped Grandma Sheryl because we got a package from her today too.  After I finished cleaning everything up, it was already 9 pm.  I'm glad I blogged earlier today because there is no way I would have been able to do it justice if I'd waited. 

Waking up

He was less than thrilled with the attention.

Kora thinks it's her birthday again!

Not to be confused with "Mike and Ike"

Please mommy?!?

Look I found some Mikes, but no Ikes

Refilling our water bottles since the water truck still hasn't come.  We're already down to our last bottle, Doug's gonna have to go back for us in the morning :)

Trying to get a picture of how Kora slouches when you hold her...she doesn't carry any of her own wait...such a princess.

She has a house to rent in our neighborhood for 5,000 baht if anyone is interested.

Pa Eiw!!! She's looking for a husband, 55 or older...tell your friends or get online and visit her profile. ;)

The truck from Grandma, he played for about 2 hours!

Skyping Gramee, he played her a song. At one point Kora came over and danced to his music, fun times.

Hope you all are having a great Thursday, God bless, we love you all!

ANSWER: The picture is supposed to be a temple, that's a statue of Buddha.