The House Collective

something new.

by Filed Under: kelli, photos, schoolhouse 1 Comment

We started something new. Again!

It’s practically a disease, but with great results 😃

While we have loads of toys and games, there is a point where the kids get uninterested in trains and CandyLand. And when these kids get into teenage years, that’s really when we most want to be there for them. We want to provide them with one-on-one attention and opportunities to talk to us. We also want to give them skills, a chance to be set apart. It’s hard to instill the idea of dreaming, of opportunities, in migrant students, but we want to try.

Toward the end of last year, Stephen had an idea of how we could continue to reach this group of teenagers and youth in the community.

It also provided a way to use his gifts aptly: he loves technology and enjoys learning with it. So, we applied for a grant with Kingdom Mission Fund and we were granted it earlier this year! Per anything with just the two of us, it takes time for us to get things going. We’re generally operating a bit over our heads, if we haven’t mentioned that yet. But, it’s officially up and running!

Four days a week after school, while our house is also open for play, we have two iPads available to the older kids. We’ve chosen a select group we know well and want to further invest in. They have an hour per week that the iPads are reserved to them, for them to learn different skills through apps and lessons with Stephen and I.

We gave them options of what to learn: English, coding, math, guitar, cajon, and art. They almost all chose guitar initially. Some have since changed their minds, but we do have six students studying guitar for an hour per week. We also have three learning English, one on coding, and another on art.

We have set it up to be self-guided but with help and assistance from us. I help more with English and art; Stephen helps more with guitar and coding. They are also given the freedom to “study” their class for 40 minutes, and take the last 20 to play educational games or puzzles. This week I taught Mwei Mwei how to play solitaire, and she loved it. And honestly, it teaches some great deduction and problem-solving skills that aren’t utilized in schools here. We played together, and I had the most fun I’ve ever had playing Solitaire!

The oldest three kids are actually given two hours per week. Mwei Mwei is learning both guitar and math; one of The Reinforcers does English one day per week and guitar the following. The other Reinforcer is really loving coding, and he does that twice per week.

The two new iPads focused on the youth has opened up our older iPad for a younger group. We were also given an older iMac that Stephen has set up with some basic games and activities. All of them have different schedules to give different age groups opportunities to learn technology, strategy, creativity, and more. It’s been really fun to see the kids learning new skills and exploring new worlds their community hasn’t previously had access to.

We’ve been introducing the idea of a schedule: they are each given a time on the iPads each week, and it’s their responsibility to show up to attend. We were laughing at the irony of the first few weeks, as we’d be encouraging people inside to sit in front of a screen. We’d be puling them out of groups and pushing them into work by themselves.

One of our goals is that this creates an individual activity for them to work toward and succeed at. We don’t want friends helping or taking over; we want them to get an individualized, focused opportunity to both teach themselves and get one-on-one help from us.

It means that we are constantly saying, “This is a one-person activity.” Or, “Stop playing outside and come work on the iPad!”

The difference is striking between their lives here and so many kids’ lives in the States.  They spend so many hours outside; they are constantly walking to school, to the showers, to do laundry, to the shop. Everything is communal, so that they are always with people and in groups. There are often three or four people crowded around the computer to play Minecraft together. Even our retro video games: there are usually 8-10 kids taking turns playing Mario Kart, standing up, jumping around. As the two folks working extremely hard to get them fed every morning, I just want to tell them, Sit down! Let those calories stay with you! I want to give them a ride everywhere and get them seated playing a game; I want them to experience doing something on their own successfully.

It’s meant that this is fairly counter-cultural, but I think a good balance. Couldn’t we all use learning from our differences?

Overall, we’re so excited for the opportunities this has opened up and how smoothly we’ve been able to provide this for the community teenagers. We’re also going to do a test run of some English learning with two adult mothers next week.

We want to send out a special thanks to Kingdom Mission Fund, who makes projects like this possible! So many ideas just take a spark to make them happen, and we’re excited to be able to partner so that this could spark!

not to be neglected.

by Filed Under: kelli, photos, playhouse, schoolhouse 2 Comments

There has been good, too; I don’t want to neglect that.

One of our lost girls is back from Burma. Most of the family is together, living back in Mae Sot. She’s boarding at our pastor’s house and attending school. We get to see her on Sundays, and that is a joy.

We saw one of Thida’s daughters off to study in Burma for a year. We sent her off with photos and all the love & encouragement we could muster. We love her to bits.

Sometimes we come home to things like this, to both horrify and humor us.

I started a toddler class with Mwei Mwei on Thursday mornings. The kids call it “school” and often come with little backpacks that are empty.

I teach them English for thirty minutes or so, and then Mwei Mwei teaches them some Burmese. We sing songs while Stephen plays the guitar. It has brought me so much laughter over the past few weeks, and I love it.

We started a new after school program for the older kids–the full story which requires another post–but it’s going really well. The kids are loving it, and it’s manageable for us, so we’re thankful.

This team found a basketball game on the computer they love (and they are learning about angles while they play!) He vocally cheers for himself when he makes a shot. 😍

We’re still celebrating birthdays, and that’s fun.

We took one of our sweet friends out to snacks and ice cream with a small group of her friends, and it really was a beautiful afternoon smack in the midst of some of the messes mentioned above. We laughed and loved it.

And we put birthday candles into chicken nuggets. 🤷🏼‍♀️

On the way, the birthday girl was laughing at Stephen & I, saying, “Kelli always says, ‘Uhhmm-hmm, uhhmm-hmm.’ Stephen always says, ‘Yep! Yep! Yep!'” Oh, they know us so well.

Sometimes, we make cakes and attempt to decorate them with jelly filling for little at-home parties. And we laugh and love those, too.

We have this little fellow who likes to be drawn on and a babysitter that enjoys it even more.

We have this little girl, who came to the door last week to tell us she was going to get a snack with her mom. To this I asked, “And when you mom gives you your snack, what are you going to tell her?”
“Thank you.”
Her mom, in awe, “Who taught you that?!”
“Auntie Kelli.”
I mean, could I be more proud?! (Admittedly, we’ve become quite well-known for the fact we counter-culturally require thank yous and hand washing to the extreme.)

We still have Thida and her whole family. And that is such a gift.

And we’re making it together. We’re still discovering new places in Mae Sot, one of which serves up delicious soft serve (or soft sever..). They let us bring in our own little parties as you saw above, and one of the staff also works at the hotel where we swim often. So now she sees us all the time for either ice cream or a swim! At least we’re attempting to balance it out 😊

Stephen is gearing up for the OneHouse worship night this come week, and he’s managed to work with local students and worship leaders to have songs available in English, Thai, Burmese, and Karen; with a variety of musicians. It is not a small feat, but it’s really beautiful how God is pulling it together.

That could be said of a lot of things in our lives. Many little things, but no small feats. Many hard things, but many beautiful things.
None to be neglected.

semi-sensible.

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Some seasons I just seem to run out of words. And then I attempt to purge them out in a semi-sensible way. {See below.}

After my sisters’ visit, we sort of hit a whirlwind. We got new visas and work permits under high-stress circumstances. I had dengue fever.

This was followed by a domestic dispute incidence in our community that was quite scary, quite messy, and honestly, is still on replay in my head. And then school started in the community, surrounded by a series of dramas, trying to help families who couldn’t afford fees and creating job opportunities and small loan opportunities. One of the job opportunities we provided created all sorts of community drama, requiring us to address that with other community members working in our house, conversations about loving each other and how we are equals. (Oh, and do that in your second language. It makes me tired reliving it.)

School fees also required us to address manipulation and blatant lying with one family; turning into them claiming a “spirit” was involved and blindness. The church was involved, and it was close to home, and it involved kids; and it was just really, really messy. (Oh, and do that in your second language, too. Go ahead imagine all of this in elementary-level language capacity.)

Meanwhile, the government decided to turn off the water supply to the city, and we received about 500 liters in 12 days. That’s difficult to feed 50 kids on every morning; or to make and deliver bread around town weekly. That’s also difficult to mop the floor after the chaos of sewing projects, jewelry projects, bread baking, and breakfast serving; and kids running in and out. It is also difficult to do laundry; so that showering and dressing became quite the challenge. We finally found the bottom of our laundry basket (and the floor around it!) after nearly a month. 

This past weekend found me at the hospital for two very long days with our friend who had an emergency C-section before her husband returned from the US, and their baby was admitted the the NICU under scary circumstance. They were just transferred to another hospital for specialized care, and it just all been…heavy.

I’m still working through it all, while it just keeps coming.

A friend asked me this weekend how I was feeling and if I was getting back to normal, and I actually responded, “Was I sick?” He meant dengue, which feels like ages ago. We have been handed so many crises since then.

__________

Since the domestic dispute a few weeks ago, I’ve struggled to move past it. I’ve replayed bits of it in my mind, over and over.

It’s probably the most scared I’ve been, mostly for Stephen. There is something I can’t quite reconcile between the fear, and the natural inclination to avoid that fear ever again; and the assurance that it was and is still the right thing to do. Those aren’t always exclusive.

I’m told this is normal; that its part of traumatic events. That’s what I’ve been taught by books and theories and counselors.

But it’s not true here, really. The mother; the sister; the little boy.  The ones who came to our house bloody. They moved on. The next day they waved to us, they showed up for work, they headed off to school. It was like nothing had happened; like they hadn’t spent the night in our house. Like we hadn’t sat for a few hours together on the floor, all of us wet and muddy, waiting to see how it would play out, trying to find the words, trying to distract the kids.

While we sat on the floor together, I felt our camaraderie. We’d feared the same fears; we’d sought safety together. We’d communicated amidst the stress.

The next day, as I carried the weight of the previous evening with me, they didn’t.

I dialogued with a friend about this; how my education, my culture, my experiences, my privilege–it allows for struggle and traumatic recovery and time. We give ourselves breaks and self-care.

Meanwhile so many of my neighbors don’t have this privilege. They have to eat and survive another day; and perhaps this trauma is experienced so regularly. Perhaps you don’t have the privilege to give it time or struggle or care.

But then perhaps that isn’t a privilege, either.  Suddenly my “privilege” of education and mental health feels like a stumbling block that has me stuck on a replay from last month, while life carries on for those around me.

Sometimes I wish I could carry on more easily. Or carry more, easily.

__________

We don’t know how long we’ll be here living this life on this street. There are about a million factors at play, not the least of which are the adoption process we started in a developing country, the visas and paperwork that permit us to stay, and sheer capacity.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the choices ahead.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the choices that got me here.

What if this has been too hard (and ruined me)? What if it becomes too hard (and ruins me)? And how do I not know which side of that I am currently sitting on? And why am I so concerned with my ruin?

Sometimes I am overwhelmed how much their choices affect my trajectory. While living as we do in this community, they determine so much of this. What if they don’t choose Christ|savings|education|fill-in-the-blank-with-anything-I-value-enough-to-choose? Is it worth it?

What if the loss we experience is greater than the benefit we leave behind? Is it worth it?

What if I am ruined? Is it worth it?

Who makes that call?

__________

I chatted with another friend about the questions we as a Church are often asking each other. “Are you ____?”

Are you practicing self-care? Are you being selfish?
Are you being safe? Are you taking risks?
Are you setting boundaries? Are you too comfortable?
Are you following your heart|desires|calling? Are you following wisdom of counselors?

From our perspective here: Are you making this sustainable?
Are you making friends with locals? Are you making friends with expatriates?
Are you in community? Are you taking time to yourself?
Are you taking risks? Are you taking breaks?
Are you [insert whatever particular theory is deemed “right” by the speaker]?

We tend to ask questions that we are asking ourselves or avoiding ourselves; we ask according to what we value. I personally think that all these questions could be right for one person and wrong for the next. Honestly, I hate the questions. I hate the questions I can’t answer that I’m not sure are even questions I should be asking.

I hate that we only ask the questions we want to ask to prove our point or to justify our action.

Do we simply need to ask, Are you being obedient? 

Perhaps sometimes that looks like all of the above, depending on who you are and where you are and what you’re doing and who God wants you to be.

Perhaps sometimes that involves the natural inclination to fear and the assurance that you should take the risk all over again.

Perhaps sometimes that involves unequal loss and benefit.

Perhaps sometimes that involves unknowns and more questions than we have answers for.

the lost girls.

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Some days I am sure this is all worth it. I am confident that we are supposed to be here; that God is for us; that good is coming. I wonder how I get to live here and do this and live my best life.

This is not one of those days. Or months.

——————

When we moved into our neighborhood over seven years ago, there was a host of little girls between the ages of five and eight. {We currently have a host of little boys at this age. Isn’t it funny how that comes in waves?}

That group of little girls is now between thirteen and sixteen, because time does that. It flies. And the little girls grow into little ladies. And even if they aren’t officially yours, if you spend enough time with them, if you stay up late enough times with them, if you cry enough tears for them; they start to feel like they are a little bit yours. You are wearing them just a little bit on your sleeve.

Spoiler alert: This doesn’t end well. I’ve lost them, as you might have guessed from the title. These little girls spent all their time on our floor and in our arms and in our kitchen–one by one, it feels like we’ve lost them.

Neh Wey was the first to go. Over three years ago now, and she still comes across our minds and our prayers.

And then Musana. I remember the night like it was yesterday, but it’s now been almost two years. She told us at Playhouse that she’d be going to Bangkok the next morning. We had plans for a friend’s birthday that evening, and I promised we’d come by the next morning to say goodbye. I didn’t really believe it would happen, as we’d be told so many times before; but we went around 6am the next day. She’d already left.

There are a million things sad things about this story: how she was pulled away from some family, placed back into others. She can’t go to school where she is now; there aren’t any kids around her. And as of last month, she started working as a nanny for a little boy that lives next to her, while the mother works full time.

There are also a million miracles about this story: we’ve found her in Bangkok–more times that I could count, because she kept moving! We get to visit her and bring her gifts and love on her family. We send her messages back and forth over Facebook.

The ups and downs keep coming; and sometimes I can’t wrap my head around how good it is that we are able to keep up with her and yet how heavy her stories are for me to hold.

They They left next. She’s still in the neighborhood, but she’s now a nanny for a little toddler down the block. She’s done with school at 14; she no longer lives at the home she’s always known, with her grandparents and cousins. The cousins are adjusting. And just like that at 14, she’s working. Just like Musana; not unlike Mwei Mwei.

Sandar Soe joined her within a few months. They nanny for families next door to each other.

Yaminoo left for the summer, and now we’ve learned she’s not coming back. Her challenging childhood became challenging teenage years. Her mom isn’t stable; we don’t know how her dad is anymore.

Honest? I don’t see a happy ending for her. I can’t write one with the pieces I can see. We’re praying, we’re waiting.

I look back on her baptism a year ago, and I’m reminded that we serve a God who is able. He can write a happy ending of any pieces set before him.

But he’s the same God that has just carried us through our third American Mother’s Day in this adoption process. (It’s significant that it’s the American Mother’s Day, because you have to re-live it all again in June for American Father’s Day, then August for Thai Mother’s Day; and then December for Thai Father’s Day.)

So being able isn’t the whole story. Sometimes I still don’t understand.

Then there is Yedi, who has watched all of her friends go off to work and is the only 14-year-old girl still in school that I know of. There is Yin Myo Thoo, who holds us at a distance. And I keep reaching, because I don’t want to lose her.

And Ei Full Tone and Bit Mu and Nyedi Ton Shwe. All looking for work; all vulnerable.

There is Mwei Mwei, who we helped get out of Bangkok and into a safe job in our home. And while I love her and I see the hope in her story, sometimes I’m not even sure why He whispered to us about her. Sometimes I’m not even sure what to do next.

These girls; it feels like I’ve lost them all. It feels like I’ve failed them; like I couldn’t really change their trajectory or their story. We didn’t.

A friend told me this week, But a boulder in a river still changes it. 

So we’re still hoping.

sister, sister: part three.

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Now’s the time to throw in all the cliches: All good things must come to an end; celebrate that it happened, not that its over. Whatever. We were kind of bummed to head out of Mae Sot for our last few days in Bangkok.

Turns out we all look the same both frowning and smiling.

But we look better when we smile.

We did a bicycle tour that turned out to be pretty amazing!

We love Grasshopper Adventures, and our guide was amazing. We did a tour of the Green Lung of Bangkok–an island that is essentially a park or protected land. It was beautiful and swampy and jungly. Parts were nice sidewalks and roads, others were thin 1.5.-meter paths with drop-offs on both sides; a bit more precarious, but a fun adventure! And we only had one bike wreck and saw one snake, so…

We also visited our favorite Bangkok eateries and parks, and just enjoyed our last few days together.

And since it’s never enough adventure for us, we went out with a bang. We used Grab to get a taxi to the airport, which drove us for about 30 minutes before running out of gas on the side of a huge highway (five or six lanes of traffic going with us), just two kilometers from the airport! The driver stopped in the fast lane and put on a dramatic show about how he was so shocked and so disappointed; but our real question was simply, What exactly is your plan? He said he had no friends to call and didn’t know what to do. We could see we were further from fuel than the airport. We were also close enough to the airport that every taxi passing us would have passengers already. And since he seemed content to hit the steering wheel, we got out. We grabbed our stuff and took off walking down the side of the highway.

The real kicker is that he wanted us to pay, which we refused to do since he failed to get us to our location and put us at a much greater risk walking along a highway. He then got aggressive and we had to go quicker with all the bags in tow, and it was scary. Ultimately it resulted in us arriving sweaty to the airport, thankfully with enough time to spare; and a few more weeks of Grab contacting us for payment and us having to report him.

It’s never dull for us, so I guess it was a good picture of life here.

This was our re-enactment of our responses, because what can you do but laugh? (And capture the memory, so you can laugh about it all over again later.)

But really, so thankful. Beyond thankful!

sister, sister: part two.

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After a few lovely days at the beach, we headed off to Mae Sot! This required a few domestic flights, which are just not the most amazing experiences.

After we landed safely to The Sot, we considered it a success!

In addition to lots of fun activities with the neighbor kids, they also got to visit the market with Thida, watch Thida amaze us all with Breakfast Club; see the teenage teachers pull off the Summer Program, and see Flour & Flowers work some bread, tortilla, and cinnamon roll magic. They got to meet the ladies who sew at our house and see Sojourn Studios first hand!

And then we did some things to see the best of Mae Sot! We took a Burmese cooking class at a local restaurant.

We visited waterfalls…

…and climbed them!

And visited the coffee shop photo opps that now abound in Mae Sot.

A cake at the coffee shop!

We got pretty good at taking our selfies wherever we went.

One day, we went out to a Bible school we’ve recently been partnering with. They have a screen printing business and have been printing on canvas bags we are beginning to sell with Housewares. My sister, Jenn, designed us a few stellar designs, and we all made some t-shirts and bags and just had fun learning about the screen printing process and getting to participate in it!

 

sister, sister: part one.

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It was beyond a privilege to have my sisters here (nearly a month ago! Whoops!), and that hasn’t fallen on me lightly. I felt like I kept reveling in it throughout their trip. It is a privilege that we have made a new home here around the world, we’ve fallen in love with this community and made this little border town our normal. And then further, we have family we love that makes incredible sacrifices and efforts to jump around the globe and visit us here, in our little place. We get to vacate together to exotic places; we get to sit together around street food and share the experience. I get to introduce them to the little kids that know our names, to the women who fill our home every day; even to the pad Thai shop owner that knows our order and knows I can never remember how to say “lime” in Burmese. What fun to say, over and over again, “These are my orders sisters! All three of them! Yes, we do look the same, don’t we?”

It was a gift beyond so many gifts.

Round 1 arrived first!

And when Round 2 arrived, we hopped ourselves right into a taxi!

And we skipped across town to another airport to catch a flight to the beach at 3am, because why not?

And we started out this epic trip with the extravagance of a few days on the beach! Again, it’s all just beyond words.

We were on the beach for my birthday, which was just the best day ever. We had a slow breakfast at our AirBnB before heading out to my favorite beach. They brought huge 3-0 balloons from the US, and my sweet hubs managed to drive an hour to the nearest place to get helium 🙂 So of course we spent the day snapping photos and carting huge balloons across the island in our little rental car.

We spent a few days exploring the different beaches, and decided that might be the best place to get over jet lag!

And we did a puzzles, because #nurtureovernature is a thing. I laughed when one sister pulled a puzzle out of her bag; and then the next day as two of us sat down giddy to do a puzzle on our holiday.

One of the things I looked forward to most with my sisters coming was to run with my sister, Keri. She’s my favorite running partner: probably because we’re the same height and build–scarily similar–so we run at the exact same pace. I love the conversation and ease of running with her, and I’ve been dreaming of it in anticipation of this visit.

She graciously got up with me at 6am on my birthday (with jet lag!) so I could start my birthday early and with running outside (the way all good days begin!). And for our last day we ended our run at the beach, where the others met us with Starbucks.

We certainly know how to holiday, since we all come from crazy lives (theirs for kids and careers chaos; me for my friendly neighborhood chaos!).

And honestly? I had a drastically awful birthday a few years back; it ended in the ER with a community stabbing, and it was a rough recovery. It had some lasting traumatic effects, where I’ve dreaded my birthday the past few years. This was the best, and I so thoroughly enjoyed the rest, the waves, the swimming and running and being outside. My sisters and husband! That’s a lot of favorite people in this extravagantly beautiful place.

It was really redemptive. And I’m not sure what more you could ask for on your 30th birthday 😊

(Okay, well, maybe for your adoption agency to place you; for your favorite neighborhood to grow and thrive and break cycles, but hey–one miracle at a time!)

when things work.

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When we started the Summer Program this year, I had an inkling it was going to be a hit.

We knew we individually didn’t have the capacity, but we also knew the summer is wide open for the kids to sink or swim. Sinking looks like: boredom, that generally drives us crazy or ends in risky games and medical accidents. Swimming looks like: opportunities to learn and play safely that wear them out, that are organized enough to maintain parental & neighborhod sanity.

The kids were still reckless. They would come for breakfast every day, and in between a bowl of rice and whatever activity started at 8, we had screaming and wall climbing and stunts and what not.

But inevitably, by 8am, we had something to wrangle the chaos.

The four teachers we “hired” for Monday & Wednesday did absolutely amazing. They organized and taught about 40 kids from 8am to 11am. The littlest group went home then, and about 20 stayed on to study Geography & Science until 12pm.

We loved seeing the teenagers step into their roles, be challenged in their skills, and ultimately find their place. We were like proud sideline parents, and I loved it.

The teachers also helped pull off a little celebration ceremony, handing out certificates and small prizes for perfect attendance and the “best in” for each subject.

On Tuesday & Thursday we had play times. Sometimes we had our usual games and activities, but we also had friends who came with soccer games, sidewalk chalk, crafts, and relay races.

This was a relay, where the kids had to put on a swimming floatie, a pair of glasses, and a headband/crown. It was one of the funniest things we did all summer!

My sister’s also brought some fun little treasures! We did water colors one day, and they gave a drawing lesson to the teacher crew.

And water beads? So fun! The kids played in them, and the last day we also added some toys and small eggs filled with coins. They got to keep what they found and loved it! We even let the parents have a go, which left smiling parents and, uh, a few scratches! 😳

They brought a collection of egg dying kits from post-Easter sales, and Thida helped us hard boil over 150 eggs.

Adults and kids alike were pretty impressed with the dying process.

And some just wanted to eat their egg.

Mwei Mwei also kept up studying math & photography; The Reinforcers did some extra study of Burmese typing and learning Keynote.

And we just soaked up the time having fun with happy kids. It just worked! Thankful for a great community summer.

sisters, visas & fevers.

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And just like that, a month has flown by!

High: My sisters came to visit! My three older sisters came to celebrate my 30th birthday, which is just as ideal and unbelievable as it sounds! Epic enough, in fact, to require a number of posts on its own, as soon as I can sort myself to post them. Better late than never, or so I keep telling myself.

Low: We found out in April that our one-year visa for Thailand couldn’t be renewed due to a law change. It also expired right as Stephen’s work permit expired–which, I’ll save you the details–just makes things complicated. We had a narrow window to go, and wanting to wait until my sisters left, the window became even narrower. We were back in Mae Sot for four days before turning around for a visa run.

High: In this four days turnaround, we finished up the Summer Program, including a little ceremony for certificates and gifts!

Low: Due to some law changes within ASEAN, it was unlikely (many said impossible) to get another one-year visa within Asia. We could return to the US for a one-year visa, or settle for a 3-month visa from a regional Thai embassy. All this plays into the adoption process, timing and tickets; and just unknowns. We decided to go for Yangon, where there was a very small chance we could get a year visa. They were the only embassy willing to say it was a possibility, albeit just that.

Low: We found out they changed even more laws, and now Stephen’s work permit would be linked to his visa. If he received only a three-month visa, he would only get a three-month work permit. Again, to simplify the details, it was starting to look like we’d be spending about a week every three months doing paperwork and at government offices. This is not fun for us, for our budget, or for our organization doing all the paperwork.

Low: We bought a flight out of Mae Sot to Yangon, and then planned to take a car back through some of our friends’ villages and towns. We thought we could visit friends and make the trip a bit cheaper. We learned in the airport that (perhaps more law changes?) they weren’t going to let us do that. We ended up purchasing flights back in the airport, in order for them to let us check in and go through immigration. This was both #stressful and #expensive.

Low: The first day we arrived to the Embassy to find it closed.

Low: The first day I got sick. After just an afternoon of a blinding headache and the achiest body I can remember since last July, I was pretty sure it was dengue fever. Again.

Low: It was dengue fever. Even if it took some convincing of a number of doctors. The tests still came back positive, and it is just as miserable as I remembered.

High: You can only get it four times, and I’m at two. In ten months.

Low: It gets more dangerous and potentially fatal each time, so, uhh..#fingerscrossed?

High: We got one year visas! This is an incredible high, and still feels like a miracle! I’m not sure why we got it; and I’m not sure why it was so easy. Other then perhaps God knew we might just throw in the towel? I hope I never forget Stephen’s smile as he turned away from the desk.

Low: I had to fly with dengue.

Low: I had to go back to the doctor two more long days for blood tests.

High: I’m feeling good enough to write this blog; I’m sorting photos; generally I’m sitting up! And the school year is kicking off, including Year 2 of The Breakfast Club!

sojourn studio.

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Earlier this year we began a partnership with Sojourn Studio, a project of a local non-profit. They are training women and teen girls in jewelry making, and providing them part-time jobs. Two of these ladies are our very own!

They work here in our house two days a week, hand-making necklaces and earrings from start to finish. This includes working with clay, hand-painting designs, attaching metalwork, and they are beginning to learn packaging.

Their work with Sojourn also helps to fund further education for both them–Mwei Mwei is taking Thai classes and San Aye is taking Burmese literacy classes. Sojourn also creates a savings plan for them.

The work is absolutely beautiful, and we are so thankful for this partnership that allows us to keep building into these two ladies. If you didn’t see this last time, watch this short video explaining the project.

You can also learn more about them on the Sojourn Studio website. And, what we are most excited about–you can now purchase a few items online at Etsy!

The world feels exceptionally small when you can hop online to see a pair of earrings that was made by our sweet friends in our house, and have it delivered to your door. We’ve loved partnering with Sojourn Studio and we hope you do, too!