And then we had the opportunity to experience France–which was followed by a chaotic community Christmas, hence the long pause between posts! But France was incredible. Surreal, but incredibly, amazingly nice.

I mentioned briefly before, but will say again: Restored & Renewed Ministry, Sherry, Graham & Heather, their kids–the whole crew welcomed us in with such kindness. Warmth, grace, love. All the good things in the world: they filled their little French countryside home with them and then welcomed us and others to come on in.

I doubt I’ll ever have the words to thank them or describe it to you, but I can show you the surreal photos. It was just as surreal as it seems.

Here we are in front of the lovely chateau.

• 

• 

In this lovely little village.

• 

This is where we went for walks and runs, sometimes freezing and shivering, surrounded by beautiful countryside.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This is where we sat by the fire, read books, did puzzles, and played games.
This is where we celebrated a beautiful Thanksgiving.

• 

• 

It’s funny the things that can make anywhere feel like home. For me, party mix. (And Jif peanut butter is probably on that list, too.)

• 

• 

They also took us on adventures, to beautiful cities like Troyes. And to have delicious, liquified Lindt hot chocolate. (Best ever.)

• 

And to Doremy, Joan of Arc’s hometown! And her cathedral. So many beautiful cathedrals.

• 

And to Strasbourg, in the loveliest day! My family is from the Alsace-Lorraine region, and of my immediate family, I was the first to go visit! It was so fun to see the culture and history, and to feel a connection to it.

• 

• 

• 

We were also there for the first weekend of Christmas markets, and got to visit the traditional Strasbourg Christmas Market! All the heart eyes. 😍

• 

A few other special notes that were particularly surreal, but particularly nice. 

• 

This was our first autumn to be back in America in a very, very long time. Eight years, in fact. 

Honestly, I’d forgotten what it was like. There would be times driving down tree-lined roads in Thailand, with dead leaves falling from trees, I’d note that it felt like fall.  But it isn’t really about the falling, it’s the colors. It’s beyond description!

I found myself practicing conversations in Burmese with our neighbors, trying to explain to them the incredible vibrancy of the colors: the reds and yellows and oranges, so bright, so bold, and then they just fall! I found myself picking up leaves and gluing them into my notebook, just trying to capture it. 

I am so glad we were there for a fall this year. 

• 

We were married in the fall, and thus celebrated our anniversary  among the fall colors this year!

While we limited our travel as much as possible, we had some really sweet friends make drives to see us. In most cases, it was a significant sacrifice of money and time to do that, and we are really, really thankful. 

• 

I–and really, we–were able to work with these guys with The Spero Project for just a year in OKC. It was a short year, but it has sparked a great friendship. We are thankful for the moments we get with them.

• 

And for the time we get with their incredible, spunky kids!

• 

• 

• 

This friend also came through town (and her amazing family, but didn’t snap that group photo, so…) for a job interview for her husband, and I am so thankful for the time we had!

• 

These guys drove their family of six a long twelve hours for a weekend together! We loved it.

After meeting and doing life together in Mae Sot, it was fun to catch up and chat stateside. People who know you on both continents are few and far between. 

• 

This mentor and hero of ours met with us faithfully twice a week, starting some early mornings over coffee and bagels. The hours of wise words, advice, counsel, and truth he pours over us are hard to capture. We’re just honored to know him and thankful he has walked this road with us since before we were married. Paul, you’re a faithful friend and we thank the Lord for you and the moments we get together.

• 

The two most popular questions about living overseas:
What are the toilets like?
What foods do you miss most? 

I miss Zaza’s House Salad: spinach and greens, pecans, blueberries, strawberries, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette.  The BEST. And lots of things we don’t often get here. 

But we did get to enjoy a date out for salads 😍

• 

And last, one of the things Stephen loves to do in big cities is visit the Apple store. Some of them are “flagship stores” that offer different classes or trainings, have unique designs…I’m not sure. But we go. And since we don’t buy anything, it’s a cheap activity! We’re both winning 😂

This was in Chicago, in the huge store of glass they have there. And–spoiler!–we also visited the newest flagship store in Paris and there’s another photo of that coming! 😁😂  
#thethingsyoudoforpeopleyoulove

And those surreal, but nice moments with the Bluniers!

• 

Meal times are one of my favorite things to come back for. Thankfully, they happen all year 😄

I love being gathered around a table, often with laughter, often with better food than I’m used to! This company is what I miss most, and thus, what feels the most surreal and the most nice.

• 

We limited our travel on this trip, since it was already so full; but so many people traveled to see us! One of those was my grandmother and her husband, which meant so much to us. 

Throughout the year, I’ve been in a Book Club with my niece. We’ve been reading The Giver series and Skyping to discuss it. While I was stateside, we got to meet for our Book Club in person at Starbucks!

She also chose to do her school project on Myanmar, so we met to practice a few phrases of Burmese and for me to answer some questions. 

• 

I attempted to teach her a few of the games the kids in the neighborhood play. This one requires rocks, which are surprisingly hard to find near a Starbucks parking lot…so we used the cough drops in my bag. Either way, it was hilarious; and we were throwing cough drops all over Starbucks and then chasing them down.

• 

I think I’ll love this photo forever. It’s already on my wall. 

• 

While Stephen helped my parents with an Apple purchase, I [got bored and] popped over to Anthropologie. Here I found my sister, who had left her kids with another sister during an appointment and “ran by Anthropologie” on the way to pick them up. She was caught by all of us. 

And I have just never run into my sister in a store in Thailand, so…loved that.

• 

We caught my sister’s birthday, too! A walk in the park, with kids, cake pops, and coffee for the win!

I must say, I thought cake pops were overrated. How good could they be?

This was my first cake pop ever. I got cookie dough. Folks, this was a ball of cookie dough, covered in icing, and called a cake pop!

Pretty sure I went home and told Stephen we needed to fit in as many cake pops before we left as possible. That might explain why our neighbors welcomed us back with our traditional greeting, “You’ve gotten so white and fat!”

• 

These were our last ones as we left Chicago.

• 

 We tried to take a family photo. And they wanted to stand here. 😂

• 

Since our goal for the time in America was to see our families, these are my favorite, surreal moments with the Spurlocks!

• 

The last time we left America, Kat was pregnant with twin girls. Instead of dwelling on the milestones we missed, I’ll just say I’m glad we got to meet them sooner than we thought! 

• 

• 

We celebrated Stephen’s birthday when we arrived, and later Rex’s birthday. I love the memories around this table.

• 

• 

They did a Christmas meal for us before we left, with all the traditions! 😍

• 

We all went to a Razorback football game as a family, my first one! So much fun, and one of the few they won this year. 😬

• 

• 

The sun was coming from the right side, and I hope I never forget Rex putting on his hat sideways. To be fair, Stephen & I both came home with one side of our face burnt, so kudos to the smart ones of the crew!

• 

On Rex’s birthday we went out to lunch in his Chevelle and ate at a fish restaurant that was very “Spurlock.”  One of my favorite days we had. 

• 

This is mostly a collection of what I don’t want to forget. Perhaps it was so surreal and so nice, I want to cherish and re-cherish all the details. 

• 

This is how tired we were when we left. 

We landed first into Paris, where we planned to spend a couple hours in the train station before we left on the 5am train. 

Well, the train station closes, which no one we had chatted with seemed to know! Whoops. We couldn’t find a restaurant open or a coffee shop, or really much of anything within walking distance with two large suitcases. So instead, we found a bus stop. This provided a seat and a glass wall to block the wind, making the 50 degree weather a little more bearable to us. We opened up our suitcases to change Stephen’s Chacos for Converse; and we pulled out every warm layer we brought. Every single one, which really wasn’t that much. We wore it all, then huddled down between our suitcases (also wind blockers), and waited out the three hours until our train arrived!  

• 

Once we arrived, soon-to-be-friends were waiting for us at the station and drove us out the house. It’s hard to even begin to explain how gracious and kind this family is.

Perhaps I should start with the official side of things: they’ve created an organization, Restored & Renewed Ministry.  One of the couples is two counselors, one of which we’ve been Skyping with for over a year.  Their daughter and son-in-law moved their family to France to manage a chateau that their family collectively bought to use for ministry.  The goal: to provide a place for overseas workers to stay and refresh. 

They have done this above and beyond what we could have imagined. It might help that we just really love them all, and it was so much fun getting to know them. They are also just incredibly hospitable, and so great in their roles. I love seeing how life and ministry can look different across different opportunities, but have so many things in common; and ultimately how God places us all so differently. 

Back to where we landed: we went out their chateau for about week on our way to the States. That first week, we slept a whole lot. And really, I think I might focus more on the chateau when we returned there after America. But we are still so thankful for that first week to breathe easier!

Our first stop Stateside was Chicago, and I don’t want to forget the unique opportunity to see two of my brother-in-laws run a marathon! We had so much fun cheering them on.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Stephen and I also went back through Chicago on our way out of the States (y’know, since that’s how round-trip tickets work!) and took a couple days to celebrate our 9th anniversary.  Since we love Chicago, it was pretty great. And since it was below freezing, we were really, really cold. 

We knew there was a large Burmese community in Chicago and found a restaurant across town. Since the “L” didn’t run too close, we used the bicycle rental system and biked there.

• 

It was not our best idea in the below-freezing weather, and then the shop was closed. We were pretty disappointed, and were walking the block deciding where to warm up when we found a Burmese grocery! We popped inside and found it as warm as our home, boasting at least 80 degrees. We also got to meet the restaurant owner and chat with a few people in the shop. We both pretty much just loved the whole experience. It’s funny the things that feel like home; even some that aren’t home at all.

• 

I think surreal, but nice simply fits this whole trip perfectly.  

We’ve just returned from a whirlwind trip: Mae Sot > Bangkok > Paris > Lafauche > Paris > Chicago > Fayetteville > Little Rock > Fayetteville > Little Rock > Chicago > Paris > Lafauche + Troyes + Doremy + Strasbourg > Paris > Bangkok > …to Mae Sot on Tuesday. 

That was a lot of stops, full of faraway places and people we love and incredible cities. I’ll post the incredible photos of it all in the coming days; I’ll tell a few stories.

As I look back on the photos in the weeks before we left, I see the exhaustion on my face. I see my glasses, worn due to another eye infection. I see our travels, to and from cities trying to breathe, trying to prevent another staph infection from requiring surgery; trying to survive. I see the loaves of bread that were still baked, the birthdays that were still celebrated, the classes that were still taught, the meals that were still served. But we were so, so tired in our souls. 

This was the first time we left Mae Sot that I wasn’t sure I’d be back. I suppose I knew we’d at least come back for our stuff, but I didn’t know if we’d really return to all of this. It was so tempting to just leave it all behind. 

_______________

Fast forward to Fayetteville, just two weeks after we left. I was sitting in a Passion worship night as they played a clip for Compassion International, whom they’ve partnered with to encourage child sponsorships.

It looked a lot like this.

For all practical purposes, that was my street on the screen. Those were my friends playing with a destroyed soccer ball in the street. That was my destroyed soccer ball. The speaker challenged people to give, “Perhaps you’re in a position…”

It wasn’t until that moment I realized I was looking for a way out. I had been for sometime, hoping God would agree, giving some sort of permissive exit: You’re right! This is too much for you. You’re free to go. 

An honorable discharge, of sorts.

But perhaps I am in a position.

Perhaps I have a house already on that street; I already own the soccer ball. I already have the friends calling my name, and I know more of the language than the others in this particular room.

Perhaps my position doesn’t recommend me to give $38, but to simply use the plane ticket I already have. Perhaps I’m in a position to just stop looking for my exit strategy. 

That evening, I knew we’d be going back. I still don’t know for how long, or what our next steps are, or what surprises will show up on my doorstep this week. 

But we’ll be there for them. And we’ll have bells on for Christmas!

_______________

The best words I have for our trip are this: surreal, but nice. (Thank you, Hugh Grant.)

Surreal, because I never guessed we’d visit the French countryside, welcomed by the incredible generosity of friends who hosted us for a month. They made our meals, they gave us space to rest. They provided hours and hours of counseling. We curled up by the fire for reading and puzzles; we went for walks in freezing temperatures. 

I never guessed we’d have the privilege to see Paris, visit the Louvre and take picturesque photos by the Eiffel Tower.  All surreal. All oh-so-nice!

I didn’t guess we’d have this surprise trip back to the States. I wasn’t expecting to get to hug those necks for a few years more, and that is a beautiful surprise. I wasn’t expecting to be a part of those birthday parties or go to that Razorback game or watch my two brother-in-laws run the Chicago Marathon. So as I lived them, it just felt surreal. 

But oh-so-nice!

We’re really thankful we got to go. We’re really thankful for the timing, as we head back to Mae Sot just in time to have yet another—our eighth!—community Christmas. 

And most importantly, I’m really thankful for our community again. I looked through photos again today, remembering how much I do love them. Gosh, they are our world. That little home has so many memories for us, so many stories. And we get to be there again so soon, right where we’re supposed to be.

We live in a really beautiful place. Sometimes the heat can distract you from this; or even the snakes or street dogs or current hospital situation. But it really is stunning all around us. We are in a valley with mountains on every side, and it needs to be noted as a favorite. 

This is the view from a domestic flight, returning into Mae Sot recently.

And this was a Sabbath. On Sabbath days, one of our main objectives is to simply be away from the house—where everybody knows our names!—so we took this rainy and cool Saturday to sit beside the reservoir.

It’s pretty amazing we live here, right?!