Lots of birthday cheer

Summer time means... birthdays for everyone!!

At least in our little family of 4. :)

Marek started us off by turning 1 on May 15th!  Seeing as Grandma & Grandpa Esau were set to visit at the beginning of June, we put off having a party until they got here.  By then, it was time to celebrate Jon's 31st birthday (June 10th) so we turned it into one big celebration.  Grandpa E also had his birthday on the 6th so it became a 3 generation Esau men's birthday party! :)

Marek turning 1 was definitely the biggest "deal," so the cake was more for him than anyone.  He LOVES the movie "Despicable Me" so it only seemed right to have our extremely talented teammate, Jason (cake maker extraordinaire), make a minion cake.  

It looked AMAZING!!

And tasted great too!  

Marek double-fisted that cake down in less than a minute flat!  

(I have video footage to prove it :) )

Lots of awesome presents...

Even Jon got spoiled by our teammates!

Next up was Callie turning 4 on June 30th!

We were able to have a little party for her at her school the Friday before her birthday.  

I took cupcakes, icing and sprinkles and the kids had a blast decorating their own little cupcake.

Callie was pretty excited about celebrating her birthday with her friends. :)

Callie with some of her preschool friends... hard at work.

Patty, the little girl to her left is one of her "best friends."

Class picture with her amazing teachers, Jessica & Pam.

Our dear friends, the Nikkels, came to visit us from Singapore on the weekend of Callie's birthday so we held another big party with them and our teammates.  Callie got absolutely spoiled!  

Thanks again everyone for lavishing her with your love and lots of fun gifts!!

And once again, Jason amazed us with his cake-making talents!

Callie and her long-dreamed-about Cinderella castle cake...

And last weekend, I had my 29th birthday (July 21st).  We weren't able to celebrate as it was the annual Thai MB Church Family Camp but I DID get baby-powdered and everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to me on the beach (which was very sweet)! :)

And that's it for another year of birthdays!  

Thanks to everyone who sent each of us emails, cards & messages of happy wishes.  

We truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

Our neighbourhood...

I've had a couple of requests for pictures of our neighbourhood, so without further ado, here is our street in our muubaan (community). 

We live on Soi (lane) 15...

Our house is where the short white fence is on the left.  

This is facing our street from the 4 way intersection of Soi 15. As you can see, the neighbours across the street from us looooove yellow and green.

Here's Callie walking up to our house...

The neighbours to the left have the corner lot, so we're the next house in on the left.

And behold, the "work of art" we look at every time we step out our front door :)

The neighbours to our right aren't too much better.  Thai people love bright colours when it comes to homes.  There's never a shortage of blue, green, peach and even pink houses in any given neighbourhood.  The sky is the limit!

And lastly, one of the front of our house.  I love the frangipani trees that grow in the front "yard."  They're in full bloom right now... one is bright fuschia and the other white (as you can see in the picture above).  

Its probably good for me to post this so that I can remember this house, our first home in Chonburi.  We're actually currently on the hunt for another house to rent.  We like the house but this location has proven to be a bit too "out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" for us and we find that we do a lot of driving into Chonburi city (about 20-25 min. away) and would like to try to rent a house somewhere between Chonburi city and the community we're trying to plant a church in, Tha Rua Phlii.  

So, if you think of it, we'd definitely appreciate your prayers for a new home!  Its incredibly tough to find rentals down here in Chonburi province so we'll take all the help we can get! :)

Using my skillz...

It was a couple of months ago when Ricky, our team leader (as well as country leader for Thailand) asked Corina and I to team up and transform the head office here in Chonburi.  Corina is great with purging and organizing and I have the eye for design so we knew that between the two of us, we could work some magic on a space that desperately needed some help.

It all started with my very favourite thing to do...

drafting up the floor plan for the new layout.  

I didn't realize just how much I missed this until I got busy doing it again...

... such satisfaction. :)

Then it was time to make it all come together.

Corina and I had the help of two ladies on the MB Mission ACTION team that was working here in Chonburi, as well as Corina's dear friend, Jessica, who was here visiting.  It was a full 2-day affair for the 4 of us (plus some help from my sweet hubby too!) but by the end, I'd say it was worth the work!

Corina and Jessica did the sorting, purging, chucking, and re-organizing, while Annelisa and I painted and Jana gave the office a thorough, much needed clean. 

Then we all started moving furniture and slowly but surely,

the office went from this...

(please note the drab white walls and nassssty-falling-apart-vertical-blinds)

To THIS...

Before...

AFTER...

More "AFTER"...

(that space between the curtains will house the King of Thailand's picture...

just haven't had a chance to re-hang it yet)

And more "AFTER"...

As you can see, the old layout didn't utilize the fact that that entire back wall is one giant mirror.  They had the filing cabinets up against it and so the room felt small and dark.

And there were pictures hung all over the office, that were just sort of "haphazardly" placed, with no real flow or order.  It all felt a bit cluttered.

... Before...

So, we changed up the space to utilize that big mirror (which makes the room feel twice as big now)... 

... and gave some order to all the great pictures that are worth showing off!

I had a very small budget to work with (which needed to include paint, paint supplies, curtains, hardware and new accessories, such as plants and a new door mat) so I tried to reuse things we already had around the office.  This giant bulletin board was one of those things.  All it took was a $2 can of black spray paint and now its ready to house the new TMBF logo and new picture collages of the ministries happening all over Thailand. 

Another "AFTER" shot...

And one more "AFTER" of the office entrance...

So there you have it!  I have to say, the pictures really don't do it justice.  Anyone who has been into the office before, and now after the transformation, will admit that it is so much warmer and more professional looking.  The space seems much more useable and hopefully more inviting as well.  It was a lot of fun to get to use my design skills again and I know Corina enjoyed getting to throw out lots of junk! :)  I hope I'll have more opportunities in the future, to express my creative side.  So good for the soul to get to do the things we love, hey!? :)

One...

Wow!  Just like that, May 15th has come and gone and this sweet boy is ONE!

This was, hands down, the fastest year of my life.  By far.  

Feels like just yesterday we were bringing our little bundle home for Phii Boh to snuggle.... 

... and now, he's a busy, BUSY little bee 

who is constantly making us laugh and bringing ridiculous amounts of joy to our home!

Marek, you were an incredible surprise...
finding out only 3 weeks before we left for Thailand, that you'd be joining our family that year, was shocking to say the least.
But...
 you're the BEST surprise we've ever received
and you haven't stopped making us smile from the instant we first laid eyes on you.

Love you, sweetness.  Happy 1st Birthday!

Precious gifts...

Having just had Mother's Day recently, I've been reflecting on the 2 amazing gifts God has given me in Callie & Marek.  I have to say, if you had asked me 5 years ago, what my life would look like today, I venture to guess that my plans wouldn't have involved 2 kids and a crazy life in Thailand.
But, that being said, the best part is that my plans never turn out as well as the ones God has in mind for me.  And I am feeling incredibly, deeply, profoundly blessed to be living this unpredictable life God has given me.

I mean, how could I not feel ridiculously blessed to have been given the job of "Mommy" for these two monkeys!?

I have to admit though, being a Mom has not been an easy job here.  Trying to raise 2 young kids in another culture, and study Thai 4 days a week, and hold outreaches with our team, and do laundry, and wash dishes, and clean the house, and attend team meetings, and..... on and on.... has made me feel as though I am losing my mind a bit.  I've thought a lot lately, about how much easier things would feel right now if I was back in North America, in my home culture, speaking my heart language, and having our support network around me.  Life would just be... easier.

But despite the fact that its been tough at times, its not to say that it hasn't been extremely rewarding.  

I feel a deep sense of pride and thankfulness when I think of the incredible changes I've seen, especially in Callie, since we got here just over a year and a half ago.  I've seen her go from being absolutely, painfully shy and afraid of anyone and everyone... to being confident at preschool and even "wai-ing" people when they say hello to her in the grocery store.  

She still has her shy moments but she has come SO far.  When we got here, she was terrified to go into the padded ball-pit playgrounds that are in every mall in Thailand... now, she pays the playground staff her 30 baht and strolls in as if she owns the joint. :)  

I also love listening to her try out her Thai language skills.  She's learning a lot at preschool as all of her classmates are Thai and are only learning English at preschool.  So, she teaches her friends English and they teach her Thai.  I'd say its a pretty good deal. :)  There are even times at home now when I ask her if she wants something and she responds, "mai aw" (don't want).  And has been insisting that when Marek does something that hurts or offends her, that he should have to "wai" her and say "khawtoht" (sorry).  Hilarious! :)

I'm also enjoying the fact that Callie and Marek are really starting to play together now.  Its fun to watch how much Marek adores his big sister and how much she dotes on him.  She is terribly bossy, most of the time, but he just grins at her and doesn't seem to mind at all... at least not yet. ;)

And as for Marek, well... you can tell he was born here and that he was truly created for this culture.  He absolutely loves the constant attention he gets and is a total flirt.  He will go to anyone and is happy 99% of the time, no matter how hot it is and no matter who is holding him.  He's incredibly laid back and we're so thankful for that.  Thai people love him and he loves them right back.  What a  blessing!

So as I reflect on everything that has happened over the last 19+ months here in Thailand, I really do see God's fingerprints all over it.  There have been intense struggles, triumphant successes, deep sadness, unbelievable joy... and through it all, I've had an incredibly supportive husband and two amazing children who have made life rich, no matter what.

 Thank you, Father, for the good gifts you've given me.

English Camp & Songkran style...

Some of you may remember from our last newsletter, that Thai children are on "summer holidays" right now.  Schools re-open in mid May but as for the last number of weeks, many kids are bored and often looking for something to do.
For us, this is a free ticket into new relationships in Bang Sai and so we've been holding Friday morning English camps in a small fishing village called Tha Rua Phlii.  We've had a good number of kids show up... as little as 12 and as many as 32.  But thankfully, when we arrive on Friday mornings, there are always at least some kids waiting... ready and raring to go!

We usually start our time with a quick review from the last week's lesson, led by our teammates, Moto & Mariya.  Then, we sing an English song (things like "My God is so Big" are a huge hit!), play a game and then go into our teaching time, which is led by our fearless leader, Jon.

Here's Marek with the community "gatekeeper," Puu Dtu.

I've been in charge of the craft time each week and its been fun to see just how much the kids LOVE this part!  From what I've gathered, Thai kids don't get to do a lot of 'creative' type stuff in schools but that doesn't mean the talent is lacking.  We have quite a few kids who are incredibly creative and I love seeing them enter into the craft with such excitement and joy!

Chonburi is known for their soccer team, the "Sharks,"
so that was our first craft!

Each week, we've had the help of one our Thai friends (from the Thailand MB office or from ALH orphanage) who help us tell a Bible story and then get the kids to act it out.  They also seem to LOVE this part of the camp!

We really have felt the Lord's favour as we've entered this particular area of Bang Sai.  The community leader (Puu Dtu, pictured above with Marek) seems to be so "on board" with us and even cooks lunch for all of the kids and us, every single week.  Its amazing!  Please continue to pray for the Spirit to move in this place and that we will see people come to Christ!  We have 2 more weeks left of this camp but have been invited to keep working in this community, so we hope to see lots of fruit!!  Jon has even been commissioned to do weekly English teaching at one of the municipality offices and got to meet the MP of this area at his first lesson this week.

Now, if you've ever been to Thailand or know anything about it, you'll know that the annual Songkran festival in mid-April, is like one big, nation-wide, week-long water fight to bring in the Thai New Year.  April is one of (if not THE) hottest month of the year here and so its only appropriate that people use this holiday to douce each other with buckets of freezing cold water.  Everyone dons their tacky, bright, floral shirts and spends the week having a blast with extreme water war.

So seeing as the beginning of Songkran fell on one of our English camp days, we thought it was only right that we become one of the Thais and sport our Songkran shirts. Pretty snazzy, hey!?

Ready to soak the neighbourhood!

I'll leave it at that for now.  Its taken me forever just to get this post finished.  I'll write more about our cute kiddos in my next post.  Hard to believe that Marek will be turning 1 in less than 2 weeks!?!