After a few more days of lovely meals, motorbike adventures, market shopping, and playing with the neighborhood kids, they’re off. We loved having them here, and really loved that we could say “see you soon”–less than a month!–rather than honest goodbyes.

We had a surprise text message from the airline telling us their flight from Mae Sot to Chiang Mai was cancelled, a lovely mess for us to sort out. In the end, we put them on a bus by themselves and sent them off! It was literally just the two of them,  the driver & stewardess leaving the first stop in Mae Sot.

Thankfully they survived and a sweet friend from Partners picked them up and let them rest at her house until they flew out that night. As for Stephen & I–after a series of changing events–we’re off this afternoon to Rangoon for a few days. We were scheduled to be gone two weeks for a relief project, but after a few unexpected events, this was changed. Holding two visas and two tickets paid for, we decided to invest a little of our own budgets to visit Rangoon for just a few days. Since we are always seeing Burma from the perspective of the rural areas, ethnic groups, migrants and refugees, I think the opportunity will be helpful. We’ll be meeting with some community-based organizations and hopefully discussing improvements in my curriculum and projects.

One of our favorite activities in Mae Sot is the Burmese cooking class.We started off with a visit to the market and a little tea shop.

Our utensils.

We made four dishes, the first being Karen Pumpkin Curry.

And then samosas, which were so fun.

And Mandalay Noodle Salad, complete with mixing the noodles, chopped veggies, and dressing with our hands.

And then Lime Basil drink, which we should make for all of you because it’s delicious and oddly foamy.

We enjoyed an early dinner of way too much food!

We had so much left over, and thankfully we have a whole host of kiddos always anxious for a snack.

…And when you give a mouse a snack, he’ll want to play for hours, too.

The boys showing off their muscles!

In 2006, I came to Thailand on a short-term missions trip.

I have a love-hate relationship with short-term missions, but my whole life is a product of one.

During this trip, part of our team took a day trip to Mae La refugee camp to visit a home of Partners. Kris Allen was among the group and gave away his Takamine guitar to the family that ran the home. And I met Luke.

Luke was an elderly man living in the camp. He told us stories of his life in Burma and how he wanted to go home. He told us that he couldn’t see any longer, and was unable to read his Bible, but he could pray. He prayed for America at five specific times of the day.

I, on the other hand, did not know Burma was a country, nor that they had been at war for sixty years with over 100,000 refugees and over 100,000 internally displaced people.

And Luke, he changed my life, really.

That’s where it all started, and turned into raising funds for Partners’ work in Burma; changing my university major to political science and writing every research paper on some aspect of Burma; starting a weekly prayer group to pray for Burma; doing an internship with Partners; Stephen & I both falling in love with the people of Burma; working with refugees in Tennessee, then Oklahoma; working for The Spero Project; learning Karen and eventually moving to the spectacular town of Mae Sot. God used Luke to shape my entire world as of 2013.

It was sometime last year that we were in Mae La for a Partners’ event and saw Kris Allen’s guitar on stage. It all came flooding back–this is where I’d been, these are the people I’d met; this is where so much of my life changed.  I asked about Luke that day, but he was home and sick.

Since then, Stephen has pushed me to try to go back and see him, and to tell him the influence he had on my life and Burma.

Kerrine, who works with us at Partners and coordinates all of the children’s homes, worked out all the details for us to meet Luke on Tuesday.

It was so lovely.

I’m not sure I could express it all to him; and at 81, I’m not sure he grasped all that we were saying or how thankful I was. But it was such a good day. It was such a beautiful reminder of God’s big plans, and how little of them we can grasp from where we stand.

We also had a chance to visit each of the six dorms the kids were in, letting them ask questions and learning a little bit of their lives. We were so thankful for the opportunity to visit, especially with Gena & Karen there to join us!

Gena & Karen have braved the motorbikes with us! We borrowed an extra motorbike from a friend, and we are all enjoying scooting around town.

This is our favorite breakfast shop.

And of course, amidst markets and restaurants and such, there is plenty of time to spend with the neighbor kids.

We headed out early this morning to visit two waterfalls outside of Mae Sot.
It was cool out and made for a fun day of hiking around the falls and wading our feet in the cold water.

How cute are they?!

While spending the day at an elephant conservation center sponsored by the royal family, we attended a show. Being young and attractive, they chose Stephen & I out of the crowd and asked us to come participate!

The elephants were trained to throw small balls into the baskets we were holding. Stephen’s elephant wasn’t stellar with his aim, so Stephen got a little workout running in circles!

My elephant, on the other hand, was a cheater. She took each ball, walked it to me, and put it into the basket. I stood there and smiled.

And elephants can paint. Really impressively.

And then we went for an elephant ride! This was so much fun.

You can’t really tell, but we’re sitting on top of an elephant here.

We also went to see how paper was made from elephant dung, which was pretty amazing.

Peace and a death stare.

Peace and despair.

These kids are still hilarious.