I’m just going to cut to the chase: we’re coming to America for a visit, and soon!
We had different plans, all based around a required course we need to take for the adoption; and the agency changed it on us. Because of the ins and outs of what’s ahead in the coming years, we had a choice:
Option 1: Go to America before the course and before placement, which is NOW.
Option 2: Go to America after the course, while you are being placed, and potentially miss an opportunity for a child.
Option 3: Don’t go to America at all for 2-3 more years, not seeing family or friends at all. This also includes the significant practical challenge of getting a number of visas from other nearby countries for the next 2-3 years.
So we chose #1, and bought tickets three weeks out from leaving. This has also left us scrambling for what exactly we are going to do with the community while we are away.
I distinctly remember the afternoon we sat down with sticky notes all over our table, with the categories of things that needed to be done or continue while we were away–Flour & Flowers, worship nights, the neighbors going to church, medical needs, Playhouse after school, the sewing project, paying our bills…and then each sticky note had names on it, of who we’d ask first and in what order.
It’s a list of how many ridiculous favors you can ask of your friends in the shortest window of time and hope they’ll still be your friends at the end of doing said favor for you for three months.
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Yesterday we had meetings in the community for three hours. The kids came to play from 4-6, and then we had a community meeting–with a translator, just to be sure everything was clear! We met with everyone together over cookies, telling them about adoption and our trip back to States. We turned down the babies we were offered, again, and tried to explain about papers and processes. We tried to assuage their disappointments that we won’t be having a snow-white baby that they all wish to hold and dote on.
We have arranged for a friend to come once a week to give rides to the clinic; the church will come each week to pick up everyone to go.
We met with Thida, and sorted out how she’ll continue with Playhouse while we’re away, so the kids can use the computers and have a safe place to play. We met with San Aye to talk about how she’ll continue sewing and how we’ll get her salary to her.
We met with the Flour & Flower ladies, to talk about how we’ll do deliveries one more week and then they’ll be setting up shop in our house each week for people to come get their orders. We reviewed hand-washing and cleaning up to prevent ants. We sorted out how I’ll get the order forms to them from around the world and who in the community has Facebook so they can write us messages in Burmese.
Somewhere in the middle of these meetings our translator turned to us and asked, “So does everyone have a key to your house?”
{Sort of, well–yes.}
Our house will be opened to the community for someone to work or play six of seven days a week the entire time we’re gone. So I’m not really sure it’s a house anymore. Welcome to The House Collective!
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And that brings us to another big change this month! Our neighbors, Kelvin & Laura, have decided to move out into a different house in Mae Sot and focus on their ministry in a local children’s home. We have decided to start renting their house, which connects to ours as a duplex. Our hope is to put a door in the wall between the two when we return, at which point we’ll start living on one side and devote this entire side to the community.
This is incredible in so many ways!
First–we have felt a bit over-crowded as of late. Our house being open six of seven days a week has been happening while we’re here, too, and it’s just getting full. Bread continues to grow; sewing has taken off; the kids are loving the playtime. But it’s full!
Particularly with a baby on the way and the Thai government looking into our home on a regular basis, we feel like it will really help to have a “family” side and a “community” side. It will allow us to have a baby room.
Really, we have so many details to sort, and this wouldn’t be the ideal time we’d choose. But we are so thankful for the room to expand. The landlords have also been so, so gracious. They love us and love that we have stayed so long, so they’ve agreed to rent us both houses with a $45 per month discount. At the current exchange rate, our rent is $140 per month, and we’ll be able to get both houses for $240.
We have dreams of a sewing room; of space for bread! We have ideas of a computer corner for the older kids and a table for homework help.
Since we arrived, it has felt like God has asked how much we’re willing to share and trust him with. First it was just our yard and porch. Then the kids starting moving inside, and we gave up an area at the front. Then we felt like God was asking us to share the kitchen for bread (this was a tough one for me!); and then the space in between. Then sewing joined a few months ago…
Each time, we felt like it was right. We felt like God was asking us to share and to really open our lives to trust our neighbors as friends. It’s opened doors for conversations about respecting our space and things, but also about trusting each other and sharing openly what God’s given us.
And after six years of always moving in the direction of sharing more, we feel like God has provided a space of our own. It’s making it easier to leave our house for 3 months of being community-run. It’s making it easier to think of finding space for a baby bed!
There are so many decisions to be made, and we just aren’t really sure how it will all play out yet. But we do know that we are so thankful that God has opened the doors for this, and America, too–even if its creating a very full month and a few full months ahead!
Full of good things, good people, and–we hope–good rest.