Sometimes life just rolls by, and I’m so glad I have some photos to look back on and be reminded of the joys that are filling each day. That is the only thing that all these photos have in common: they are pieces of the joy that God continues to send into our lives.

I realize this might not bring such joy to everyone, but we bought a Braun thermometer while we were in England, and I absolutely love it! Its easy to use, especially with the littler kiddos. We knew we needed a different thermometer–something better than the $9 one we were using and cleaning off with alcohol swabs each time. This one is accurate, easy to use, and has probe covers to be more sanitary. (Well, until I found one little boy sucking on the probe cover I had used with another little kid…whoops. Still working on don’t-pick-up-trash-and-eat-it.)

Anyway, we are in the middle of flu season with lots of sick children and parents, and I am really thankful for this! I’m also really thankful to just be here to help with so many sick ones.

With all the sickness, some have stayed back from school. We took the opportunity to watch a little Beauty & the Beast. 

They got comfortable quickly.

This heart-shaped Disney Princess puzzle (with 3D princesses!) is the new favorite.

She is so tiny and adorable; and since Christmas, she is no longer scared of us! She just learned my name and likes to test it repeatedly to see if I’ll still answer.

One morning there was quite an argument/fight outside between a couple of the mothers and grandmothers. A couple kids, particularly the ones whose parents and grandparents were involved, quietly came over to the house trying to avoid it all. It was pretty loud and awkward, so I invited the kids into play and hopefully distract them. We ended up playing music loudly and getting lost into puzzles and toy cars.

While I sat there with Yuh Meh Oo, whose English is getting amazing, I drew these three faces. I pointed to the first and asked her if she understood “feeling happy;” she said yes. I then pointed to the next and asked if she understood feeling sad, which she did. Then I pointed to the next one and asked, “Do you understand scared?” She looked a little confused, so I continued, “Sometimes, when the police come, everyone comes to Stephen & Kelli’s…(I made a scared face and hiding motion)…and we feel a little scared.” She nodded her head that she understood, so I asked, “When mothers and fathers and grandmothers fight, do you feel scared?” She nodded an emphatic yes, and then curled up into my arms.

I’m not sure how to describe how I felt at this conversation–in some ways, its heartbreaking. In other ways, I felt such deep joy to be able to communicate about how she felt. I’m so thankful to give her a place to feel safe playing with puzzles and have worship music fill her ears instead of anger.

I’ll admit to having him pose, but he chose the shorts and necklace. It just reminded me of Rex Kwan Do on Napoleon Dynamite, “Take a look at what I’m wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I’m wearing these bad boys? Forget about it!”

…And sometimes footballs do, too.

I play football with a group of girls once or twice a week. I’m not great, but its a fun way to get some exercise and meet new people in town.

After a scored goal last night, the goalie kicked the ball toward the middle. It came short, right to me, so I reached down to catch it and throw it toward the middle. Somehow very unfortunately, my left ring finger jammed in between the ball and the ground. It hurt, but I started walking back with the ball and just glanced down at my finger.

As I got into my position, I tried to wiggle my finger, and it didn’t budge. I swapped out with another player, and a doctor that plays with us came to check it out. It seemed like a sprain, so I pushed myself to bend it through the pain. She suggested I ice it and keep it moving.

I’m glad I switched my wedding ring over to my right hand quickly, because it was swollen by the time I got home, and I slept with it raised. I woke up this morning to find it even bigger and blue all the way down into my palm. My finger looked like it was about to burst. We thought we should head to the clinic and get an X-ray, so for just $10 we could know it wasn’t broken.

Oh, but it was.

I now have a plaster cast wrapped with gauze on my hand and arm for two weeks.

In addition to proving that I’m so horrible at football I managed to break a finger, it’s proving to make life a little difficult. This post is taking me twice as long to peck out the letters, and cooking with one hand is a challenge. I haven’t sorted out if I can drive the motorbike yet, but we’re pretty sure I can’t do dishes or laundry without getting the cast wet. Stephen’s to-do list got quite a bit longer in just a few minutes.

The neighbors keep asking if I had a motorbike accident. I might be getting a bad reputation for this, and I’m not really sure why they are still willing to ride with me.

I’m am pretty sure a cast in a hot, sweaty country is going to smell bad really, really fast…

Oh, well. Life keeps coming!

Remember Aung Moo? We took him to the hospital, thinking he was detoxing from alcohol; learned he had meningoencephalitis. He then spent three weeks in the hospital, which included: the doctors assuming he would die and wanting to know which level of cremation we wanted, many miracles, a wee bit of laughter, dealing with his belligerent spitting-on-people behavior, and a bill for $2,724 upon his discharge!

Either way, here’s where we are now, through too many miracles to count: He is cared for by many members of the community, collectively bringing him food and needs & helping with hygiene. And he can walk!

Unfortunately, he still can’t see. His eyesight has improved, and he now knows when the sun rises and sets. While we were away in England, he asked his friends to ask us about going to the clinic in town. We have been working toward it, and made it this Tuesday.

The eye clinic is the busiest part of Mae Tao Clinic. Five of us went–Stephen & I (we were worried his belligerent nature might rear its head), Aung Moo, Mo Bya (for Karen-Burmese translation), and another friend to help with walking.  We waited for over an hour, when a nurse evaluated him and determined he didn’t need glasses, but a further eye exam by the doctor. We actually know the doctor, Frank, a man from Scotland who goes to our home church. He is an incredible eye surgeon and performs surgeries all day, every day.

About 11am, Stephen had to head off to his Burmese lesson, and the rest of us were promoted to the interior waiting room. Here we sat with a few people awaiting advanced eye exams, like Aung Moo, and quite a few people prepped for surgery, with a permanent marker arrow above one eye.  Two of the ladies were older, nearing deaf, and very, very chatty. They sat with their heads wrapped in towels, just talking and talking. They were Karen, so I got a mini-lesson while I tried to eavesdrop into their shouted conversation.

{unknown woman, two chatty Kathys, Mo Bya, and Aung Moo}

We were seen just before lunch, and then asked to come back again at 1pm. In the end, we learned that his eyes are functioning perfectly. Instead, the damage is likely in the connectors from his brain to his eyes.

See how I don’t know the words for that? Yeah, I don’t know it in Karen either, especially if I don’t know it in English. I ended up translating to Mo Bya that you have your brain and your eyes, and in between, there are things that look like worms that talk to each other; those are not working in Aung Moo. A really accurate anatomy lesson, I’m sure.

For the future, I now know the word for that in Karen. Obviously still lacking it in English, though, if anyone wants to help with that.

We also did some research and learned this is a common condition called cortical blindness. It often comes from meningitis & encephalitis, but vision can be reacquired.

We are now pursuing other options: we have contacted a blind center in Mae Sot that was established just last year. We are hoping they might have a staff member that would be willing to meet with Aung Moo once or twice a week to help him learn to care for himself, walk, and function with blindness.

We are hopeful. So many miracles have occurred already for this man! It is amazing just to see how different situations provide different opportunities within the community, for new relationships and new conversations and new evidence of God’s goodness. I feel like I have ended so many posts with this as of late, but do keep praying with us for him, too!

I know I have biases.  And when it comes to the kiddos in the neighborhood, it’s no different.

I really love this girl.

She very nearly spends every day at our house. She likes to come by before school if we’re up and at ’em. She loves to cook with me and helps me do dishes. She likes to sit and be held while I read or while other kids play. She is willing to do anything that involves her sitting next to Stephen or I. She is becoming a puzzle genius and a memory mastermind.

Love her.

He’s great in so many ways, but I do really love to see Stephen with the neighbor kids. It is so fun to see his love and care for them, as well as their adoration of him. They come to him to play, to be held, to help. They ask him to open the gate and fix things. They’ll ask him to make things out of a pile of trash. They come for hugs. They come for high fives and to be thrown in the air.

They really come to him for everything except trying to away with something: they know I’m the best pushover.

I love that they have a chance to see man that really loves the Lord in all he does. I’m thankful they get to see how they can have fun and be loved in a safe environment. I’m thankful they know that he’ll defend them. I’m thankful they get to see how he treats me and how he loves me. I’m thankful they get to see him play worship songs on the guitar. I’m thankful they get to see him work hard, help in the kitchen, read books, and go to church.

I was finishing up dinner while Stephen finished up at the gym. Two girls asked if they could do puzzles in the kitchen, and were followed by a little brother playing with two cars.

Stephen arrived home and we were ready to eat. He helped them finish their puzzles and we started to say our goodbyes.

But we asked first if they had eaten. Yuh Meh Oo & her little brother both said yes, but the other little girl said no. It so happened to be the same little girl that, just earlier that afternoon, Stephen had stopped from being hit by her dad in our yard.  Wanting to ensure she had dinner, we invited all three to join us.

So we pulled three extra stools around the table and all five of us climbed up to eat. I had baked fish, potatoes, & carrot soup for Stephen & I. I made some extra Mama noodles for the kids, and we started serving it all up. They tried the fish and liked it, were alright with the potatoes, and stared questioningly at the soup. They devoured the Mama noodles.

Within a few minutes another little boy showed up to join us.

….And before too long, one more girl.

We now had seven of us around a table barely meant for four, and we had eaten our way through two fish, three potatoes, seven packages of noodles, three cucumbers, five bananas, and two apples. …There was plenty of carrot soup left to spare.

We did managed to have the little three year old fall off his stool and spill at least half a bowl of soupy noodles, but otherwise, we had a lovely dinner until 9pm last night, when we said our goodbyes. It was a nice impromptu dinner party, with easy-to-please guests.

Stephen and I keep referring back to the butterfly wings.  There was something lovely about giving them to the girls and seeing their faces, but there was something even better about the following days.

It was the profound juxtaposition. The beautiful tanaka-covered faces with sparkling wings running around between trash cans and over broken bottles. They flutter by the adults with tired faces and drooping shoulders. The kids beam.

It presents the message of Romans 8:18-25 to me.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

The bondage of corruption seems so evident: the groaning, the waiting. And yet the hope is tangible. The hope of a child, the eagerness.

It’s a really beautiful juxtaposition that sometimes needs to be replayed.

Well, it seems apparent that my blogging life will end when we move back to the West.

I’m not sure if it is the time, the pressure, or what not, but it just doesn’t happen while we’re in the midst of all. It always becomes a post-trip recap, which is always more for me than for you.

Here it is all the same, starting with the understatement of the year: We had a really lovely time in England.

It was really nice to read, to rest, to watch movies. We had nice meals and even better conversations. We took walks and went for hikes. We found cute little bookshops and had delicious coffee.

Sometimes we had weird meals, too. Jenn and I were so sure this would taste great, and the photo in the cookbook looked so wonderful.  A vegetable terrine with roasted red pepper sauce. How could that go wrong?

Ours turned out to be more of a vegetarian version of meatloaf, which tasted as good as that sounds.

While Chris & Jenn were working, Stephen and I took a couple days away in Nottingham, a town an hour or so away from Sheffield. Why Nottingham? We had one significant deciding factor: we could afford the train ride and the hotel. But once we had made the decision, we learned it was an odd one. Apparently it doesn’t have the greatest reputation.

But we loved it.

It was a cute little town and had some fun little restaurants and shops. We went to Nottingham Castle–including the caves!–and enjoyed the Robin Hood themes throughout the town.

We went to three plays in the last two weeks: Oliver! & Blink in Sheffield, and The Lion King in London. They were all so much fun in different ways. Oliver! was off Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist; a good story and great performance. Blink was an odd and hilarious one-act play in a small little theatre, while The Lion King was incredibly elaborate. The costumes were just stellar, in addition to the music, incredible sets, and beautiful lighting. It was really stunning.

We also enjoyed the rest of London, including a visit to the gorgeous St. Paul’s Cathedral. We couldn’t take photos inside, but it was absolutely stunning.

This photo doesn’t do justice to the view down this little window. After climbing some 500 steps inside the cathedral, you could see down through this window into the dome of the cathedral. 

So as not to dwell on goodbyes, I’ll leave it at that. It was filled with lovely places, people, and memories–and we are thankful!

It was bitterly cold, but other than that, our 10.5 mile hike today was beautiful!

Although we have eaten quite a lot of chocolate, I promise we aren’t as fat {or as manly} as these puffy jackets are making us appear.

I’m not sure of a better title for the past week. We have been so spoiled in a really wonderful, refreshing way.

We arrived into London early on Saturday after some nice flights full of sleeping, reading, and watching movies. Our flights went well, until the last five minutes as we were landing into Heathrow–a man at the back of the plane got up and started shouting, “Help! Help!” and claiming he was being attacked. He was quite feisty with the stewardesses and ultimately they just let him run up and down the aisles while the plane landed. I’m sure he would have been arrested on an American airline, but since we were in Asia, they didn’t seem interested in the confrontation.

My only other complaint was that in fulfilling my request for a vegetarian meal it was dangerously assumed I didn’t want dessert. Being vegetarian in no way makes me less interested in sweets. Thankfully, Chris and Jenn have an affinity for chocolate and had some waiting for us in the car at 9am.

We arrived back to Chris and Jenn’s house to find a box full of treats waiting for us: chapstick, creamy lotion, slippers, socks, new earrings, and of course, more chocolate! They had warm pajamas and sweaters and boots waiting for us.

The week has been full of Christmas-y activities, including ice skating, a Christmas photo scavenger hunt, and some shopping. It’s always a holiday when sisters can try on the same clothes at great stores like Gap.

We visited Chatsworth, a lovely home outside of Sheffield that is probably best known to Americans for being Pemberly–Mr. Darcy’s estate–in the newest version of Pride & Prejudice. Despite being bitterly cold and muddy, it was fun to visit and see the Christmas decor; and then to see it a few days later while watching Death Comes to Pemberly, a BBC special we’ve been watching.

We have spent quite a bit of time with Chris’ family and celebrated Christmas with them. We opened packages from our family and his family, packages from the States and England. All of this has been enjoyed over some delicious meals, a variety of cheeses, chocolates of all kinds, and eggnog; we’ve had some nice walks and enjoyed the bitterly cold air. We have had warm showers every morning and spend every day under many layers of clothing.

I have been knitting and reading, already through two books. We take naps when we want and drink tea to stay warm.

I’m not sure we could ask for more.

Before we left Mae Sot, I was talking with a friend over Skype and telling her of our hopes for England; how much we just hoped for really deep rest in the midst of so many difficult things. I found myself reassuring her–we do love our lives here, we do see God working, and we do find such joy in our community. But I wanted rest.

She wisely replied, “I think you find plenty of joy in your neighborhood, but I don’t think you find a lot of peace.”

Precisely. This year has lacked peace, and we are just looking for a peaceful rest. We are praying for it. And I can honestly say I feel rested in a way I haven’t in such a very long time.

We went to a carol service last week, and they ended with this blessing:

May the joy of the angels
the eagerness of the shepherds
the perseverance of the wise men
the obedience of Joseph and Mary
and the peace of the Christ child be yours this Christmas

And the blessing of God almighty
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
be upon you and remain with you always

This has been my prayer over this Christmas. My prayer for us; my prayer for our family scattered around the world; my prayer for our friends back in Mae Sot.