The House Collective

happenings.

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Our recent happenings, in photos.

Sojourn Studios officially moved out of our home and into their new studio. To end this well, we celebrated!

After their last day in our house, we took the ladies out to purchase bicycles, so they could bike to work the following week. They each bought these out of their savings (win!), and we also had fun.

My son loves these ladies so very much, and they love him.

We also took their families out to dinner that night to a local favorite, where everyone gathers around and cooks the meal together at the table over a fire. It was fun; it was crazy. Our biggest win was convincing all the husbands to join, and we are so excited for how far these relationships have come in that way.

It also meant Oak’s two best friends in the community came along, and because the car was full, they were all in the back with me. He was LOVING it.

As a present, we had this digital artwork made by a friend in Vietnam and had it framed for each of them.

A non-profit circus organization, Spark! Circus, tours Mae Sot every year around this time, and they offered their annual public performance. We took some of the community to join us, and Oak absolutely loved it.

He is still talking about the man who blew fire out of his mouth, and how it was hot and he got wet, because…well, it’s a small town, and we were on the front row.

The kids are still in our house many days of every week, and we are still surprised at all the shenanigans.

At Christmas, one of the gifts we gave was a waffle maker. It came with an evening of teaching, which we only got to this month! But we brought the works and taught the whole family a few different ways to make waffles.

Another local non-profit was offering a cake baking & decorating course last week, and Thida and I signed up to join! Thida makes all our community cakes now–often a few a week, for about seventy kids! We have been using the depression cake recipe, but we’ve decided to make smaller-sized, better-tasting, more special cakes now.

She and I went on Tuesday to bake our cakes, and returned on Wednesday to make icing and decorate them.

And last, Oak’s fancy stage. His two favorite outfits lately are: his jeans, with Mom & Dad both wearing them, too (so far the 100 degree weather doesn’t phase him); and his longyi. It’s a traditional Burmese outfit; a casual cotton one would be worn daily, but this is more wedding-appropriate. He chooses it weekly, at least.

It’s also worth noting: his longyi is maroon with gold patterning, and his shirt is pink silk with a fake diamond at the top.
WOW.

He’s the best-dressed wherever we go, and it’s very popular!

That’s us; our best happenings!

something i’m sad about.

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While I’ve mentioned this in our newsletter, I don’t believe I’ve officially stated it here: Sojourn Studios, who we’ve been partnering with for over two years, will be moving out of our home next month.

I’m sad about it.

In short, Sojourn Studios is a project of another local organization here in Mae Sot. They make porcelain jewelry, and recently have begun a partnership with Noonday Collection. They’re successfully making it!

For the past two years, three of their primary artisans have been working out of our house. They hired some of our favorite friends from our neighborhood and set up shop three days a week in our humble Housewares room and make tiny piece after tiny piece.

It is quite the process to do in two locations. The clay is formed and glazed before being sent to their studio to be fired. It then is brought back to be gold painted, and again sent for another firing. It then comes back for assembly and packaging.

All of this is done by three of my favorite friends, often while they are singing loudly, chatting about their families, and showering Oak with kisses.

So I’m really sad it’s all about to change.

I feel like we’re closing the door on a really unique, sweet season that brought out some incredible conversations and great friendships. I really love all three of these women, and I have loved seeing them so often through the week.

I have loved that they were here as we welcomed in Oak. I love the things they’ve taught him, and how he calls for his aunties when they arrive each morning. I love the things they’ve taught me day in and day out. I love their patience and kindness to us.

But most things do change, and often it isn’t up to us. So this isn’t anything new. Growth brings new seasons, and these ladies will be growing, too.

All three ladies are purchasing bicycles with their savings next week.
They’ll be biking together to work a few days a week, and working in a much more official studio space. And with a more official studio space, there might be less singing. I’m not sure.
There will be less of Oak.
There will be less free tea, which San Aye is particularly sad about!
There will be less leftover pancakes and coconuts for them to enjoy when they arrive in the morning.

This hasn’t been the easiest process on many of us involved. Growth usually involves growing pains, too. But we’ve known for about six months, and they are officially moving out in two weeks. So I’m searching how to say something.

I’m really, truly sad for the end of this season and the shift of this. But I’m also really thankful it happened.

2019: in review.

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I don’t want to attempt to quantify a year, but sometimes I look back on these numbers in awe. It’s incredible to see what God has done.

Long-awaited and quite miraculously, we adopted one little boy.

We spent 230 days as a family in 2019.
It was a good year. 🥰

We celebrated ten years of marriage!

Throughout different projects, eleven friends were able to have regular employment opportunities in our home.

2,900 Tranquility necklaces were made in our little border town and shipped around the world to be sold through Noonday Collection. Over half of these were made by three friends in our home.

202 bouquets of flowers were sold.
1,026 loaves of bread were baked.

And thanks to a local restaurant deciding to source their tortillas through us, a whopping 7,160 tortillas were rolled out!

This year, The Reinforcers project brought in 37,600 baht, or $1,245, which was then poured back into training and weekly work opportunities for a few teenagers.

Kelli took a regular self-defense class with a small group of young women. They completed a twelve-week program, followed by six months of regular review.

Throughout the year, we managed to renew three drivers licenses in two countries, renew a passport, renew a work permit, extend a visa, and acquire a new visa. And while I think I could count the number, I’d rather not know how many days I spent in government offices to accomplish this. 

I had set some personal goals for the year, but I didn’t do incredible at reaching them or even knowing if I did. 
I read 43 books this year, not meeting my goal of 52.
I memorized 51 Bible verses, and I’m working on the last one.
I kept running.
I kept swimming.
I kept biking.
But I have no idea how far I went.
I know I took this little guy along for quite a bit of it.

It was a good year. 🥰

the collective christmas 2019: family dinner.

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Our first big event was our last Family Dinner of the year: our Christmas party!

We had a lovely meal together, and then I shared a bit of our hearts for them. This was one of the times I really felt God was asking me to be direct with our closest friends about how much we love them, as well as how much we are praying that they will see the truth of Christ.

Sometimes just saying what you really feel & hope for is very freeing, and I feel that even looking at this photo.

We then followed it with gifts, which was easily one of the highlights of the year. This group of friends are our closest friends in the community, and we know them well. I felt like I knew exactly what they’d want, and we picked out individual gifts for each person. Watching them open, exclaiming in joy; shouts of, “Thats just what I wanted!” We found affordable, locally-made cajons for the two students learning cajon with Stephen, and they were both so excited and surprised. We bought a suki set for Thida that she had been eyeing at the store each week we went together; the week before I’d actually talked her out of buying it because I already had it wrapped for her! It was just so, so much fun.

And then we played games!

We played Pin the Star on the Tree, a Jingle Bell Toss, and a jar guessing game. Really, it was just so very much fun!

the collective christmas 2019: bits & bobs.

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I had the hopes of fitting this into one post this year, but who am I kidding? It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And this, partnered with a three-year-old experiencing Christmas-in-community for the first time? There’s just too much goodness.

I’m starting with the bits and bobs of Christmas that happened throughout December, following our lovely #မိသားစုmonday of setting up our Christmas tree.

Our tree soon became a photo opp for the community, so much that one friend said in English, “It’s the most fantastical tree I have ever seen!” I also overheard another friend telling someone else, “You can come take pictures in front of Kelli & Stephen’s tree. They’ll even take the picture and send it to your phone. And it’s free!”

We did quite a lot of cookie decorating, including a gingerbread cookie evening with our friend Jason’s English class. After teaching a group in our community for nearly a year, they are heading back to the States in a few months, and I’ll be picking up teaching this class. A cookie decorating party & English lesson was their farewell.

We also took advantage of a local coffee shop offering pre-made cookie dough and icing! This was our celebration of the end of a year of self-defense, consisting of a twelve-week course and six months of regular review.

The “mall” in town also had a huge Christmas tree this year, so I took the ladies by to see it. And mostly to take photos (for free!).

This is Asia, and we’re here for it 👊

I also went back that evening to the same coffee shop offering the same pre-made dough & icing (and their own clean up!) to do this with Oak & Stephen–for very, very obvious reasons.

We had a lovely time as a family, too! 🥰

Earlier in December, we did a 5k walk/run with Sojourn Studios to benefit local migrant education. This means we woke up extremely early with two of the jewelry artisans on one of the coldest Sundays of the year and walked–with a very little bit of running–a 5k!

We also had a Sojourn Studios Christmas party at a really lovely restaurant in town, and the ladies & their kids all loved it!

Oak was excited to have two of his best friends along.

Closer to Christmas, we did two Sunday night movie nights to watch The Star & Home Alone with the community. We pulled out all the stops: we bought dozens and dozens of hotdogs for snacks!

We did a craft with the kids just before and had red & green beans for the kids (and adults) to string.

In the midst of all the Christmas excitement, we also had a new baby born into the community! Pyo Pyo, one of our bread ladies, had her third child– a healthy little girl!

And still amidst the chaos, we saw Phway Phway off to university! The university system in Myanmar is a force to be reckoned with: they decide the university you’ll attend, what you’ll study, and when you’ll go. But they don’t tell you until just days before! It was a whirlwind for us walking through this with her through November and December, trying to maneuver the logistics while she also maneuvered health issues and a surgery the first week of school. She’s now healthy and attending class!

And, drum roll, please:
She’s the first in her family to graduate high school.
She’s the first in her family pass Myanmar’s infamously difficult matriculation.
She’s the first in her family to attend university.
She’s the first in our community attend university!
She’s the first recipient of The House Scholarship Fund!

More on that to come.
For now, we couldn’t be prouder. Really, I feel oddly parental-proud and we both nearly cried sending her off!

Stephen and I went to see the new Star Wars, because somehow they’ve managed to become a Christmas tradition?! Not sure how I feel about that, but an oversized Star Wars sweatshirt? I’m here for that.

And last, of course we started shopping for the community! Oak did surprisingly well at purchasing hundreds of toys that weren’t for him!

And then we started wrapping.

That was quite a few bits and bobs to fill the holiday season, but the main events are still to come! 😊

with thanks!

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I have quite a lot of backtracking to do here, even just to catch major highlights. But I wanted to try to catch up before the holidays overtake us.

Thanksgiving was pretty incredible. Considering I was the one directing the cooking with more than a few substitutes: chicken for turkey, white sweet potatoes for orange, green bean casserole from scratch, stuffing from scratch…with some prepping assistance from Thida, it turned out alright!

On Thursday we had a family day & a family meal. We made turkeys with handprints. We wrote down the things we are thankful for on leaves, including elephants three times per Oak’s request. We’re really thankful there are elephants in the world.

Friday, following our usual Flour & Flowers day and Playhouse, we had Family Dinner with an American Thanksgiving twist. We set out tables and chairs; we used tablecloths and flowers. We purchased rotisserie chickens in lieu of $60 turkeys, and they were likely the biggest hit. It directed the table seating.

Thida and I worked together to make green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, wheat dinner rolls, stuffing, & pumpkin pie. Everyone tried it all, with the stuffing & scalloped corn topping the favorites list.

It felt so nice.

We then played a Spoons Tournament, a great option for various ages and literacy levels. It made for lots of laughs, and again, brought in family traditions and a bit of my culture. This is how we celebrated holidays in my family: meals and games together.

My favorite moment was when Thida ended up in a group with three of her kids; they’d beat her each time, and they were all rolling with laughter.

While we haven’t done a Western holiday quite so successfully before, it feels like we are finally figuring out how to invite our friends into our culture as well. For so long we really worked to know theirs and embrace it; and now we’re figuring out how to introduce them to ours.

It’s a really beautiful dance. And we’re thankful for that–and elephants!

timetables.

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Often when we leave for awhile, I’ll make a weekly or monthly calendar noting the things that might be different. I’ll give one to Thida, noting the extra work she’s filling in for us.

And for The Reinforcers, I give them new calendars, what they call timetables, quite often. This is in part because they have special events each month where they’ve been hired, so their work days or hours are often changing. They also have changing schedules with school, so we might work more or different times of day when they are on holiday. And we simply change their schedules pretty often; and since they are 15 and 18, I try to make sure I’ve communicated when they are to come in hopes of them showing up on time.

Well, it’s become a bit of a joke, as I hand them another piece of paper week after week or month after month. They laugh because I explain it yet again. (To be fair, they forgot again this Wednesday, on their normal day of work every week, to come until I reminded them!) Each time Stephen makes a joke about them throwing it away, or perhaps about the thirty timetables tacked to their wall.

This week, Stephen and I have yet again re-worked our own schedules, as we try to work around each other’s schedules and make sure one of us has Oak, we can both get to our Burmese lessons, we both have some down time in the week, and someone is free to get people to the hospital. And after our plans were made, he requested a chart of “Who has Oak?” for different chunks of time that we are separate. So I made a weekly layout of when he is primarily working and when I am primarily working; and then when our family times are.

The Reinforcers arrived to work last night and saw it posted on the wall, to which they asked, “Stephen, is that your, uh…timetable?”

Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.

makro: reprise.

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I’ve been going to Makro with Thida most every week for awhile now. And she’s still singing the song.

Now, Oak joins us every week for our market & Makro trips. She’s already taught him the song, so that on the way they are singing it together.

Makro, Makro, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Makro, Makro, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

And all through the store. And on the way home. And in my dreams.

😆😆😆😆😆


safety.

by Filed Under: house calls, house church, housewares, kelli, on the house, photos, stephen 1 Comment

We got a new lock for our front door.

This might not seem significant, but I love what it represents. For years we have had the same lock on our front door, and we’ve slowly been sharing keys. I’m not sure how many we’ve printed now: too many to count. Not only do all our employees have keys, but we also have provided keys to women in challenging domestic situations so that they are able to leave and find a safe place when necessary. Because of this, we also lock it from the outside every night, ensuring people can get in even if we’re asleep or away.

As we worked through our self-defense class earlier this year and dealt with a few different situations, Stephen wasn’t sure it was a great plan, though. It’s hard to flee a situation and remember to grab your key and papers; it’s also fairly easy to take a key from someone or lose it. There were times some friends didn’t have access to a key and thus didn’t come when we were away.

So Stephen started researching. As he loves technology anyway, it was a new challenge. Within a few months, he found a new lock technology that reads fingerprints, storing up to fifty. It also connects to our phones, telling us when the door is both unlocked and locked.

And so, this week we replaced the old lock with this new one, fully equipped with a number of fingers: the bread ladies, The Reinforcers, the jewelry & sewing ladies, the Sojourn Studio staff, our house manager, the girls in our self-defense class, & the two teenagers who are responsible for the community soccer ball! Stephen made sure all the fingerprints were saved and working; everyone was duly impressed.

And best of all, women can escape to our house without finding a key first. They always have their finger with them, and it’s ready and waiting. It’s also helpful that we know a bit of what’s going on when we’re away, seeing as people come and go. If anything goes wrong, we can even remote-access open it, which just blows my mind.

We were pretty excited about this for many reasons.

And then we headed off to Bangkok. It opened one night pretty late, and we wondered a bit about the kids putting the ball away so late and made a note to follow up with them. (We had told them it needed to be in by 9pm, it was a bit after that.)

But instead it was one of our staff members, a dear friend. She told us she and her son had stayed at the house two nights while we were away because of some problems with she & her husband.

And while this isn’t great to hear, it also is. It’s times like this we are thankful we are here, or at least our house is: for such a time as this! And we’re thankful for a place we can share with friends freely, for work and play and safety.

So a new lock is sort of a big deal around here.

welcome to the chaos, buddy.

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We’ve wondered for years–literally!–how it would work to bring a child, particularly through adoption, into the bilingual, communal lifestyle that we live. It’s an odd life we live anyway, but this would be a whole new curveball.

There are days it really hasn’t worked: you can ask a few English students who really didn’t get a lesson at all a few times! There are days I think we just can’t do it, with so many people in and out of the house while trying to create a safe place for attachment. There are days we are struggling to make a schedule that will flex enough for a toddler, but allow us to continue all that we’ve started.

But there are other days that it works beautifully. And today was one of those.

Since every morning is an early morning, we had breakfast outside in our camp chairs.

We shared our eggs and yogurt with a few friends and then said our goodbyes when the “bus” came to get them for school.

He loves that two or three ladies come to work every day, and he runs to the door to greet them. This morning, as they began their day of jewelry making and I sat in on the starting instructions, they helped him to roll out clay and cut out a few pieces.

He rode with me to drop off our friend at work, and we had a day as a family, including a bike ride with dad, cooking with mom, puzzles, and Hot Wheels.

At 4pm, our friends showed up to play. He loves greeting Thida at the door, loves the hat she lets him wear, and loves that she will sharpen every colored pencil that he asks her to. (He really loves this. I run out of both steam and pencils. Thida goes for the second end.)

While he eats his papaya for a snack, all the toddlers line up for their bites. It’s a bit of an assembly line.

Tonight, Stephen taught The Reinforcers about sound. After Oak & I went for a run, he wanted to watch dad while he ate. So dinner and show!

He enjoyed his very locally, neighbor-made tortilla wrap.

Dad’s hilarious to watch with a microphone apparently, and both Reinforcers are pretty fond of O, too.

Today, I just rejoiced that he has so many lovely people in his life, and they are in and out of our home every day. I love that he is learning sharing in a unique way. I love that he’s absorbing this chaotic blend of Burmese, Thai, and American culture. I love that he’s hearing two and three languages every single day, and speaking all three in bits and pieces through the days, too! And I love that we’re learning how to live here as a family. God’s been really gracious to us in this season of shifting, and today was a beautiful picture of that.