Brothers and Sisters

Shingles!

We have had two weeks of spring break. During that time for 4 days we visited the country next door. If you are standing facing a map, this country is the one to the right of us. I'm not going to put the name because some folks search with country names and I don't want lots of strangers reading my blog. We took lots of pictures. The next few days I will upload different portions of it. The pic above this writing is from a picture in our house. I think one of my kids must have taken this picture. It is from the country V which is two countries over.

Now everyone is back at school except for Sage--who has shingles! At least we know that he has had chicken pox in the past since it is a form of the chicken pox virus. Many folks are telling us that people only get shingles if they are under high stress. Well, ok, maybe that means that Sage is under high stress? He had a cold type virus just before and we were traveling when he came down with it. This is just "normal" stress. I'll try to take a picture of it later today so you can see what it looks like.

Kel is home for ONE day. Then he leaves again this afternoon. We have two other children staying with us while their parents are traveling.

It was a wet night last night. Yay! We continue to hope that means the rains are here to stay. We're not counting on it, though.

Our countdown is on before we return to the States. 23 days to go! I have unexpected time this week that I wasn't counting on since Sage is unable to go to school. I have had some major cleaning projects underway.

I need a massage! This is one of our favorite massage ladies. This happened to be her last day at work. She was able to move back to the countryside to be with her child. Don't you know what a relief that must be to be able to live with and take care of your child? We hope to visit her sometime.

Sage's track meet: discus throwing

Well, I've really been negligent in writing and I haven't been taking many pictures. Sorry about that. Last week Kel and I had a nice week away of meetings and then celebrating our anniversary. I have begun the cleaning out process related to going back to the states in a few months. I hope to go through everything in the next couple of months. I finally have enough storage space and places to put things! Yes!

Malia has changed so much these last few months. The first picture that I am going to show is one of the newest ones of her with her braces!

There will be weeks like these! Weeks where I forget to take out the camera! It's just not a habit yet. I hope it becomes one. We have been busy! We had two parties this week and then regular life. Two grown up parties which is almost unheard of. We have months that we never have a grown up party! My friend, San, had a birthday. We had a very nice relaxing evening celebrating that event with several other couples. Then on Friday night the adults in our small group got together and played The Newlywed Game. How Fun! We didn't win but we had a good time with all our friends. None of us are Newlyweds! The most recently wed was 16 yrs and we were 17 yrs, so we were the 2nd youngest wedded of the gang. Kelly also wrote a couple of things for the occassion. Here is the first poem. The 2nd I will have to type and send later. It reads kind of like Dr. Suess poem:

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Both: House ants and love-contradictory thoughts?
Kelly: Not to my wife, she’s tied them both up

Jamie: I hate to see ants in the sink, in the house
I hate to see ants just as much as a mouse
On doors, in the halls
On floors, on the walls
I hate to see ants and I want them wiped out!

If husband was wary and truly in tune.
Then he would do something to stop these red goons
If husband still loved me and followed his vows
Then he would attack them, and rid them right NOW!

Both: House ants and love-contradictory thoughts?
Kelly: Not to my wife, she’s tied them both up

Kelly: Such joy and relief would swell in her breast
Watching her lover spray hundreds to death
Wife would be happy, so happy she’d be
She’d make lover happy, as happy as she.

Jamie I certainly know what my husband does like
What makes husband smile, what makes him feel right.

Both: House ants and love- contradictory thoughts?
Kelly: Not to this husband, he’s tied them both up.

L is home!

Our sweet friend who has been so sick went to be with Lord this morning. K has left for the big city where she was to comfort the husband and others that were around her. I think they will hold a small memorial service for her there. I'm not real sure of all the other details yet. Please pr for her grown children, grandchildren, husband and all those she related to where she lived. Pr that God will pour out his grace and love on them and they will experience him in new ways.

Thanks!

Valentine Flowers

These are the flowers my hubby bought me for Valentine's Day. He actually bought them yesterday. 17 red ones for the number of yrs we've been married and 4 white ones for our 4 children. Today we went to one of our favorite middle eastern restaurants called, "Jerusalem Falafel." He had to leave so we weren't able to go to dance class tonight or out to dinner as planned. I'll write more about that in another post. Happy Valentine's Day!

Positives for living here:
3. We can afford to eat out weekly and have many options of ethnic food to choose from.
4. We don't have to deal with blizzards, snowstorms or tornado's!

Book: Lord I Want To Be Whole

By Stormie Omartian
I picked up this book because I LOVED her book, “The Power of a Praying Wife.” I copied the prayers and still like to pray them for my hubby. I haven’t read much lately. Haven’t had much of an attention span. I’m delving into this, though. As well as trying to keep up with my read through the bible in a year plan.
Her definition of emotional health: “having total peace about who you are, what you’re doing, and where you’re going, both individually and in relationship to those around you.” She goes on to say, “It’s knowing you’re in line with God’s ultimate purpose for you and being fulfilled in that. When you have that kind of peace and you no longer live in emotional agony, then you are a success.”
Whoa! She equates emotional health as attainable as physical health. Then she has seven steps to emotional health. They do not seem that different than other books I have read.
Now emotions are very important to me and always have been—they are part of what led me to my career path—and my Masters in Counseling. I have counseled many wounded soldiers and just considered myself one of the wounded. Is her definition of emotional health obtainable this side of heaven? It is what I long for…..

Not gone away! Hiding!

Kittens!

I've been telling Kelly we needed to get rid of the stray cats that seem to be living outside our house--there are several that sleep there on a regular basis. This morning when the children went outside to go to school, they found two kittens. A black one with white socks and and this one above. Of course, Savannah had them up immediately and was begging to keep them. Malia and I are both very allergic to them so there will be no keeping them. After they left for school, I went back outside to take the pictures. The mama was gone and so was the black one, she must have taken her somewhere else. The other one was still here. She will probably be gone soon. I hope she takes them somewhere else and takes good care of them, so we can have more stray cats! :> LOL!

I am fine and need to find my camera so I can post some pics! :> All my tests came back normal so I don't have to worry about this shortness of breath that I have been feeling. The kids had a two day holiday last week for Chinese New Year. They went back to school today.

Kel called me and told me he has been invited to a function where he will meet one of the princesses and needs a black suit. (Thursday) He does not have a black suit, so we went ran into town to a tailor to have one made. We found some beautiful black cashmere from Italy that we will have a classic black suit made. It should be ready for the fitting for it tomorrow. I will try to take pictures of it. The royal family is in mourning from the death of the King's sister and so everyone must wear black.

This week my school schedule will be a little different since this is the IOWA testing week at school. I will not see my elementary students, only my high school student. Then, on Wed. and Friday, I will go and help with testing for a couple of hours.

I found the camera so I took a picture of some jewelry that a friend of a friend makes. I gave each of the women in our house group one pair for Christmas and was thrilled when she made some more because I didn't have a pair. Now I have several pairs!

This morning I spent at the hospital again. I've been going there a lot lately. We are finally trying to get to the bottom of the breathless-asthma type symptoms that I have had that seem to be worsening. So far, my blood work is normal, my echocardiagram is normal, also, so most likely it is not my heart. My chest xray shows some slight enlargement that the Dr. most likely thinks is lymph nodes but he doesn't seem too concerned about them. However, I am seeing a pulmunary specialist on Wed. and he should know more about that. There is a possibility .....that is is.....ummm......how did the dr. say it? That this is a result of "deconditioning....." which made Kel and I burst into hysterical laughter after I asked him to define deconditioning and he said "being out of shape." Well, if that is what this is....I will definetly begin a work out routine as soon as i am given clearance to do so from the Dr. I have never heard of someone being 20 pounds overweight (not considered obese) having extreme breathlessness, esp. when speaking but if that's what it takes for God to get my attention to get into shape--well then, I will listen! Another thought I had after getting home this afternoon was that maybe this is in some way related to my paralyzed vocal chord which I have neglected to mention to the Dr.

I will post pictures from today at the hosptial.
1. One says cashier....this is the dressing room where I changed.
2. A picture of me laying on the table that eerily looks like my sister is there instead of me!
3. A picture of the area where the procedure was done.
4. A picture of the machine, nurse and me before the procedure bagan.

I have been trying to take notice of positive things about living here. Things that they don't have in the U.S. (or where I was from)....trying to keep my focus on the positives. I will begin to list them when I think of them:

1. At gas stations they pump your gas for you as well as give you a bottle of water.
2. At hospitals there is always someone coming around selling fresh fruit in little bags....a much nicer snack than what is often found in those vending machines in the U.S. I am not aware of vending machines here.

Sage’s story

This is a story written by Sage. He is our sweet son that we adopted from Ukraine almost three years ago. I am so proud of him. Even though he is 9 years old, developmentally and educationally, he is a little bit behind. He is in 3rd grade but has special resource classes. He wrote this story in his resource class. I believe that he will catch up, eventually.

It rained!

Yesterday, we received a sweet gift from God. It rained! The picture is from my front porch. Can you see the wet street? In Chiangmai, there is a dry season and a wet season. In the dry season it is usually dry (that means no rain) in the wet season it is usually wet (rains daily). This is the dry season. It hasn’t rained since November. What a sweet gift of rain today. You remember how I said it was smoky? It was not smoke. OR if it was the rain made it all go away. Maybe I can see the mountain. (Chiangmai is surrounded by mountains) What a sweet gift from God! RAIN!!!

Monday....today it is very smoky out side....it kind of looks like a cool winter day. Many folks burn fires during this time of year. However, it's not winter. We have not turned the a/c on downstairs but we have to have the fan on and we can tell that hot weather is just around the corner.

Today has been one of those nice grounding days. One of the days when the house is picked up, and I am able to have a long time with the Lord. It was mainly spent in prayer and listening. Now, I have a friend headed over to spend time praying. Our friend, Linda, had to be put on a ventalator this morning. She and Cyd are still very heavy on our hearts.

I want to lose weight so I have also been talking to the Lord about that. I have never ever really tried to lose weight. Not even the baby weight....and it stayed on. About 4-5 years ago, I got braces on my teeth (a quick painful 6 months process) and couldn't eat anything for about 3 weeks and it kind of jump started me on a weight loss program. I lost about 20 pounds. Somehow, in the last yr and a half, those twenty pounds have come back and I need to get them off again. Mainly because my body does not feel good with them on. I seem to have all kinds of gastritis type issues that I don't have when I don't have that extra weight on. I'm also more easily fatigued. So, I must try to do something intentional about this weight.

Those who know me, know that I tend to be the type person that doesn't want to try something like a diet because I don't want to fail. (where did I get these perfectionistic tendancies?) Or I would rather just NOT eat at all--rather than limit my intake. I know that is not healthy and is not the way to do it. So, this morning, after having a long chat about it with the Lord, I ate a salad for lunch. It had dressing on it, and ham....BUT, it was not bread and that is one of the main things I am going to be cutting out. My husband promises I can lose quickly if I drastically cut the carbs and gradually add some back in making healthier choices.

Some men are here now putting together Malia's new closet and my friend has arrived so I will close. The picture is a flower in our garden.