Often, it gets worse before it gets better. But we’re on the upswing.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the hospital. One of the little boys woke up with a fever and quick breathing, so we took him to the hospital. The poor little kiddo had pneumonia, but he did get to experience an elevator, x-ray, and breathing machine out of the ordeal.

Yesterday afternoon, our water turned back on. Unfortunately, with everyone re-filling their tanks, the water pressure was too low to get into our tank. It could only manage a slow drip into the smaller pool. Thus, Stephen began to take buckets from the smaller tank and refill our bigger tank.

As you can tell, he was thrilled at the opportunity 🙂

And it was about halfway through this process that we realized the inside of our tank had molded over the past few days of being empty and damp. Gorgeous. Now we had half a tank of very, very brown water.

Out came the mop, and Stephen proceeded to mop the inside of our water tank and drain out all the water he had just put in.

I was too short to help too much, and photos didn’t seem worth it.  By this point, both of us were too frustrated and exhausted to appreciate whatever lesson we were learning.

To be honest, it wasn’t when there were thirty people in my home on Friday that I wanted to flee. I was thankful to be here for that, however stressful it may have been. It was last night–with a sink full of dishes, a washer full of mildewing wet clothes, no water to flush the toilet, and unshowered–that a one-way ticket really began to tempt me…

Stephen re-filled the tank again with the bucket method, but was oh-so-thankful to have the water gain pressure last night about 8pm. It was a small dribble that made it into the tank, but it was enough to convince ourselves it would fill up overnight.

And this morning, when I turned on the faucet to brush my teeth? I was more thankful than I could say. There is something very beautiful about water coming out of your faucet right into your home. There is something very freeing about finishing that load of laundry that you started on Saturday evening.

We are telling ourselves we’re on the upswing. It has to get easier, right?  We can shower in our own home, do our dishes, and eventually do all six loads of laundry that await us!

Maybe that lesson was gratitude for the things we are tempted to take for granted!

And today, we recover.

We woke up this morning as the kids crept out of our house. We shared the last of the rice and curry from yesterday and enjoyed one last movie together. The parents started moving belongings back across the street, but have continued to cook under our driveway awning. Partners brought plenty of rice and noodles yesterday, so there is a little extra for the community this weekend.

Stephen also saw that one of the families had a charcoal cooker that cracked yesterday while being used by everyone. He thought it would be nice to replace it, particularly since they had already had so much stress on them. Sometimes you can just sense the small things that might be the last straw, and this was it. He went down the road and bought a new charcoal cooker with two bags of charcoal for $2; he said she was so surprised and grateful, she just kept repeating “thank you” in Burmese.

Sometimes I think its more important that we watch for little opportunities to bless them rather than look for things we can keep up. For instance, I can’t really provide jobs for them right now or cook a meal for all the kids once a week. But, I can look for the little girl that needs a hug today, or the mother that just needs her stove to work–or something to work.

Andrew, the Partners volunteer that came out to help us yesterday, graciously showed up at 7:30am on his Saturday off. He helped us clean our house–dishes, sorting toys, sweeping, and more. Really, it was so kind of him, and our house was much improved by mid-morning. I’ll probably be catching up on laundry–washing all my sweaters (or at least the ones returned…), the blankets and sleeping bags, sheets, all of our towels, and the couch covers that got a bowl of soup spilled on them–for days, perhaps even weeks since we don’t have a dryer!

So, now, we recover. We spent more time with the community this week than we have in a long time, with about seventeen hours spent at the hospital before Thursday, and all day Friday with everyone. We might need another vacation; or perhaps our vacation was more perfectly orchestrated than we thought!

Thank you for all your prayers and support of our work here. Everyone has been very encouraging, and it’s so welcomed. It looks glorious, but my selfishness shines through it all. I did cringe when the soup was spilled on my lovely couch, and I am washing all the pillow covers for fear of lice. I’m a little sad when I see scratched paint areas and water rings on our tables; or the three used Q-tips I found shoved in our couch and one stuck to the wall. I think they were really excited to have found our Q-tip stash in the bathroom.

I know what I should do, but I’m still growing in the love to actually do it.  And really, there are so many people that keep us here, from regular support for rent and food to sweet packages full of toys for the kids, kind words sent to us over email, and faithful prayers.

Thank you. And please don’t stop praying 🙂

…And then a day went by.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

This is what they woke up to this morning.

Ours was one of the few dry areas on the road, so we opened up the gate, and treasures began to fill up our yard: bicycles, chickens, clothes, blankets, pots, and televisions.

Stephen and a volunteer with Partners, Andrew, helped to carry items over. The kids were also sent over pretty quickly and our house became the play zone, complete with sweaters and blankets to warm up all the wet kiddos. The young ones were too small to stand in the depth and current of the water, so Stephen helped to carry some to our yard.

And then one of the older kids told us that her mother had her baby, which we have been waiting for. A little boy arrived five days ago, and we thought it was best to have him a drier environment. The mother was brought over soon, and this little guy wasn’t too far behind her.

Of all days, the gas tank for our stove ran out just as I was starting the second batch of noodles for breakfast. A charcoal stove had to the do the trick until we could get a new tank for lunch and dinner.

Partners was so sweet and sent over some staff members with supplies! They loaded us up with rice, eggs, noodles, oil, and vegetables. We were able to serve lunch to everyone as well as dinner. Everyone seemed so grateful.

The kids thought it was the best day ever. They got to play in water, come into our house, and wear our warm clothes. They played all day, sat around on the couch, and watched four movies!  They loved the food, the cold water, and the freedom to use our bathroom. There was literally some child in the bathroom all day. A few of them would just go in every half hour to see if anything changed.

And now, it’s a sleepover.

There are seven or eight children (I should probably know more specifically…) and the newborn’s mother sleeping over in our house. Others in the community are sleeping on our concrete driveway out front, and still more might be coming before too long.

Not only has it been raining incessantly, but there is also a dam in Mae Sot that they open nearly every year when the floodwaters are too high. Such is today. They have already opened it for a little while earlier, at which point the already two-feet deep water rose about a foot in an hour. It crept up into our driveway and gave all of us more of a scare. Thankfully, they took a rest and let the waters go down again, but there are reports the dam will be opened again during the night.

Thus, we have left our door unlocked so that more can retreat inside if waters continue to rise. Please do continue to pray that waters will go down, and the rain will stop for even just a few days. And pray that we would love well, because my energy is fading quickly and my selfishness, well, that has always been prevalent.

And that was our day.

I have no idea what tomorrow will hold; I’m a little fearful it might look too much like today. I do know that many days to come will be spent cleaning up after a house full of twenty children eating, jumping, and playing. Oh, my.

Sometimes I am certain this blog is more for me than for you. It is a treasure to be able to look back on the faces, stories, and questions that really make all of this worth it.

And this update is just for the simple things that made me smile this week, and I don’t want to forget.

The kids discovered patterned bandages. 
There is a little two-year-old boy who is cared for by his two teenage sisters. As much as they love and care for him, working so hard to support him, he is often carried around haphazardly or left crying on our porch while they play cards with their friends. They brought him to me early one morning; he had fallen and had a few cuts on his knee. Knowing that he might just need a little extra compassion, I grabbed some antibiotic cream and an animal print bandage.
It was when I opened the bandage to a collection of oohs and ahhs that I knew I was in trouble. As could be guessed, this week has suddenly seen an influx of minor cuts and scrapes show up to our door for assistance.

The girls experienced mechanical pencils.
While coloring one afternoon, a couple older girls requested pencils. I gave them a few mechanical pencils to share between them. Within an hour, one had run out of lead and came to let me know it wasn’t working properly. I took the empty pencil and one from another girl, which received a little hesitation. I proceeded to take the eraser off one and tip out an extra piece of lead. Again, huge revelations complete with oohs and ahhs. The two girls who witnessed such an event ran outside to retell it to everyone and trade lead between them for the next few minutes.

Two little girls discovered that we do, in fact, live across the street!
To the left of our house is a two-story house shared by quite a few families. This week, two of the younger girls realized they could look out the top story windows, see over our wall, and then wave and blow kisses to us. We did that for nearly half an hour.

I really do love Mae Sot as a town. I love the diversity, the small town feel, the markets, the motorbikes and bicycles. And I have a love-hate relationship with the countless languages used in such a small space.

It’s changing quickly, actually. We can see it in all the little nuances that others likely wouldn’t notice.

Before we left town, we had a day off work. It was the perfect gloomy gray that I love and don’t see as often here.  Stephen went out to take some photos of some of our favorite details of Mae Sot.

Every town needs a little bit of graffiti, right? I just appreciate when it is in English and constructive.

…Love is a commonly used English word. I receive “I love you!” from strangers more often than I’m comfortable with.

This truck was parked down the road from Tescos about eighteen months ago. And it is now a part of the landscaping.

And these are my favorite buildings. A few years ago, they decided to expand this intersection and put a traffic light in. The buildings were simply cut off, leaving doors that open to a drastic fall and re-bar poking out over the street.  Oh, and they are still occupied.

And last, my absolute favorite:

First, for context, keep in mind that English is not the first language here. Or second or third, really. And “modify” isn’t commonly learned anyway.  And thus, it is an interesting graffiti choice.

But I love it.

It’s challenging, but subtly. It doesn’t ask you change the world, to revolt, or anything else that graffiti typically yells at you. That is exactly it: graffiti yells. But this simply states. Modify something.

In a very odd way, this sign is a comfort to me. It keeps me thinking. What can I modify? How can I better serve someone else or help our neighbors or be more like Christ?  But just through modification, not drastic changes or turn-around sacrifices. Just a simple change to make the world a better place.

I love it. And this town.

At risk of being self-absorbed, I have one more picture post.

We took the tourist route one day and organized to go on a boating adventure to some remote islands. We took a speedboat out and passed more islands than we could count. It was absolutely beautiful.

Stephen loved the opportunity to use a GPS and somehow plans to link our photos to the GPS point, but I’m not sure how that works.

We stopped and explored James Bond Island, where a scene from The Man with the Golden Gun was shot in 1974.

We took the speedboat out to some cove areas, where we went sea canoeing! This was absolutely amazing. We had a guide to row for us, so we felt a little lazy, but it was beautiful.

The guide took us into some amazing caves, caverns, and particularly tight places. He would instruct us to lay flat in the canoe and take us through places that barely cleared our knees and foreheads.

He also took this photo of us through a leaf with a heart cut-out 🙂

And then we spent the rest of the afternoon on a private island beach before taking the speedboat back to Phuket. Due to the high tides of monsoon season, the boat could also jump waves on the way back, which was incredibly fun.

It was spectacular.

Too spectacular to take the time to post about it along the way, but now worth noting as we head back to normal life.

We spent most of our time at the beach: swimming, walking, running, watching, reading. We visited during low tourist season, which is monsoon season, so the waves were really strong and signs sometimes advised us not to swim. We–and most others–took this as “don’t go deeper than you can touch” advice. In all, it rained one morning and one evening, otherwise providing absolutely beautiful weather.

One day we drove out to the pier, simply because we thought it sounded interesting. I won’t say it was uninteresting, but I don’t think they get a lot of tourists. The guards let us through but looked at us oddly enough. I think the area primarily sees buses bringing in people to load up cruise ships rather than two random people on a motorbike.

So we took a photo in front of the current cruise ship!

Stephen loved the photography opportunities and took advantage at every turn.

I suppose there is an obvious difference between Stephen and I’s photography skills, and clearly this is mine. But one of the things we really loved about Phuket was that it was a little more Westernized than Mae Sot, and we recognized a few logos of some favorite restaurants.  Au Bon Pain is quickly becoming a favorite, but we tried quite a few local places that were pretty amazing, too. It was great to have the variety of Indian, fresh seafood, Italian, Greek, Mexican, and such.

We went for fresh seafood one night, and I went for the crab. I’ve never had it before, and I’m not much of a meat person; but I loved the whole experience of crushing the shells and picking all the meat out. We forgot to bring the camera with us that night, but I wanted a photo of the crab; the waiter did give me a great look when I asked to keep it off my plate.

And there was a Starbucks! We did love this.

Oh, and some fire baton swinging on a beach walk.

We visited Old Phuket Town one day, which had some lovely architecture and colors.

We passed this mirror every time we left our guesthouse. No idea why it was sitting outside of this person’s house.

For our last night, we watched the sunset on the beach and went out for a nice dinner.

And our idea of a nice meal out?  Fancy cheese, fresh bread, and a Caesar salad.

At risk of being self-absorbed, one more picture post to come.

Phuket was a good choice. This was all a very good choice.

It’s like we’re royalty, with great wallpaper and swan towels! The extra $9 for the superior room seems worth it.

And a jungle shower with warm water! We even have warm water in our bathroom sink. Luxury.

We jumped into vacation in full swing: Mexican for dinner and a late night walk on the beach.

And then a long morning under a beach umbrella and chasing waves.

Again, we are feeling like this was all a very good choice.

We left!

And now we’re sitting at the Bangkok airport. We took the bus from Mae Sot and arrived around 4:30am, with intentions to take a taxi to the airport and fly out by 1:30pm.

Our flight has been delayed to 3:30pm, so we have some extra time at the airport. And really, we’re only here this early because my husband is sweet and agreed to take the bus. We could have flown from Mae Sot this morning and caught the next plane to Phuket…but it was expensive.  I hate spending money.

We compromised. We took the bus on the way there and we’ll fly the whole way back. So we’re sitting in the airport now. I’m enjoying a book, and he’s sleeping on our baggage.

He’s good to me.

I’ll be the first to admit we don’t need packages: we have more than enough to thrive here and access to more than necessary.

That said, there is something so wonderful about familiarity, and we love packages.

A childhood friend sent us four boxes of cereal this week, complete with logos we recognize, flavors we miss, and back-of-the-box activities we can read!