Happy 1st Birthday Z & K

Last week we celebrated the 1st year of our adorable twin daughters, Zarah & Keziah.  Since the moment the ultra sound tech said out loud "there are 2" until this day we have had the joy of learning all the normal & quirks of having twins.  During my pregnancy at one of my many appointments, a nurse told me that even though I was experiencing one pregnancy, there were 2 different pregnancy's going on inside.  And this has continued on through the growth of these twins during the last year.  They will always be twins, but my little Zarah & Keziah are so very different...even down to their poop.  Yup, I said it!  But isn't that weird?  They eat the exact same food, and have 2 completely different "outcomes" (if you will).  My mom & I joked during the pregnancy that one would be light skinned & one would be dark skinned, and well that is even true.  Zarah is a bit darker than Keziah.

1st to pull to standing: Keziah

1st to figure out how to get down from standing: Zarah

Eating Chicken & Rice:

Keziah likes the Rice

Zarah likes the Chicken

Keziah is a little taller, and she is VERY cautious about getting  up & down.

1st to stand without support: Zarah

Zarah will try any food I give her, while Keziah

can be very picky.

1st to get teeth on bottom: Zarah

  and she has had 2 top teeth for a month before 

  Keziah just started her top.

Zarah is smaller, but she is "scrappy".

She has no fear of moving around, getting up & down.

And here is the funniest difference, eating their cake at their birthday party...

Keziah devoured her cupcake, while Zarah barely would touch it!

And here is a snapshot of their mood swings, Zarah is not good around large groups of people.  She becomes very clingy to mommy.  But Keziah, also has these fussy moments when we are alone.

There are probably more differences that I am forgetting, but I think you get the idea.  

But a couple things they do have in common are 

                                        every new toy went straight into their mouth for chewing....

...And they LOVE their Big Sister, Hope!

Enjoy getting to know our little angels, we have been so blessed as a family by these 2!

This is the life of a traveling mother!

Jennifer

Hair Part 2: There's more to the story

My last post felt a little unfinished in my mind, and on my head.  After 2 days of trying to make-it-work with my new hair cut, on Tuesday I was able to find another salon and get my uneven-ness fixed.

And the reason my post felt unfinished was because as much peace as I felt sitting in that chair watching my hair get chopped off, and YES I do completely trust God with my hair...that doesn't mean that the outcome was a good one.  This is the path that I walk by living my life following the Lord.  The extreme true life story that comes to mind is the about Joseph in the book of Genesis of the bible.  He had a dream from the Lord about his future and he completely trusted God to do HUGE things in his life, but what was the next step?  His own brothers sold him into slavery!  Then after being sold by his brothers, living in prison, and being accused of adultery; Joseph says this to his brothers: "But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance." (Genesis 45 v.7)

Yea, I would say that's a bit more dramatic than getting a choppy hair cut. But a similar lesson, that even when we trust in God for our life path that doesn't mean challenging situations won't happen.  It is the peace, love, and joy that I have from God that brings me through my life journey as I put my trust & faith in Jesus.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is a day that we celebrate Mother's in America (and a few other countries, but NOT all countries).  As a mom I do get to be appreciated by my wonderful husband (who doesn't appreciate me calling him cheap in my last post) and 3 beautiful daughters!  Here's a little look at my day:

Swingin' in the hammock with my girl :-)

And of course I think of my mom & my husbands mom on this day of appreciation.  Most of you know that Sheraz's mother has passed away, but today I took time to reflect on the mom that raised a wonderful son.  She did an amazing job of bringing up 4 very successful children who know the Lord in a country where you are less of a citizen because of your faith in Jesus.  Because of her persistence for Sheraz to attend a bible school in Cyprus 10 years ago, God blessed me.

And a very Happy Mother's Day to my M.O.M.!!!  The one thing I want to share about my mom is that throughout my life there have been many ups and downs that were hard for me to go through, and I'm sure hard for her to watch me go through.  But through it all, she was by my side giving me encouragement and emotional support.  The one thing I am eternally grateful for my mom is inviting me to a bible study 15 years ago.  I was at a time in my life of a huge down, but of course my mom was there for me.  Not only was she there for me, but she was praying for my salvation.  Thank you mom for all your prayers for me and our family.  I miss you every day and look forward to welcoming you to Thailand someday!  

We Love You Mom Gayle & Mom Akhtar!

Breakfast with the family

Do you trust Him with your hair?

I've had the same head of hair for 37 years now.  And probably just like you, have had hairstyles long, short, mid, layers, curly, straight, and probably more.  Recently I've been growing my hair long, but with the heat here in Thailand I just had to cut it. After some debating in my mind about if I should (and a little nudge from my husband) we went to the mall today with the kids to play & probably look for a hair salon.  Being that we are in Thailand & I don't speak more than a few sentences in the Thai language, I told Sheraz I wasn't going to get it cut unless the hairdresser understood English and I could explain exactly what  I wanted done with my hair.  Well, that was MY plan.

After walking away from Sheraz and the girls, I was headed to find a good salon with an English speaking hairdresser.  Knowing that I have a very "resourceful" (a.k.a. cheap) husband, I found a place that cost less than another that we had seen.  After sitting down, a few minutes later the shampoo lady took me to the back....but wait I hadn't talked to anyone in English about how I would like my hair cut.  As I was getting my hair washed, my mind was still debating whether to cut it all off or just get a trim & thin out the long hair.  Now I'm sitting in the chair to get my hair cut, my hairdresser walks up and I say, "'Do you speak English?",  she replies, "No" very sternly....my heart sinks & I think 'is this really happening?'.

As I point to a picture in a binder of how I would like my hair cut short in the back with some length in the front, her eyes grow about 10x.  She looks at my long hair & the picture with her BIG eyes (and still no smiling) and then starts yelling in Thai to one of the other hairdressers who apparently does speak English.  He talks to me about cutting my hair, then speaks to her in Thai and gradually her eyes return to the normal size.

While I'm sitting there watching her literally chop my hair, I begin to pray and talk to God about how I was feeling...a little nervous to say the least.  But this overwhelming peace came over me as God said to me, "Don't you trust me with your hair?"  It seems like such a small thing in the big picture of life (especially living life by faith).  Most of you women reading this can understand how much importance we get from our hair, and a bad cut can make a huge impact.  How many of you have cried after a haircut?  Me too, but thankfully not today.  I put a smile on my face and took the time to pray for the woman who stood behind me without a smile.  God had brought me to that place to sit in that chair and meet this woman, and I trust Him.

End of the haircut, and it's not exactly what I had in mind...but it's okay.  And after a few simple Thai & English words we were able to share, I'm hoping some of the Lord's Joy has rubbed off into her life from the smile and peace He gave me instead of fear and frustration that could have erupted.  I'm so thankful for GOD's plan :-).

After all that I figure you want to see my new hair cut, so here's a little peek

I am SO looking forward to having a cooler head of hair in this 100 degree weather!

This is the life of a Traveling Mother!
Jennifer

Moving Into A Sublet

First off, let me assure you that we have moved on from Thailand's burning season and into the HOT season.  Thankfully the sky's are much clearer these days, but the temperature has reached well over 100F degrees every day.  You know it's super hot out when you are sweating and turning on the air conditioning when you are first waking up in the morning.

This week our family moved into a sublet home here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  We will be in this home for the next 3 months while the family that actually lives here is visiting their family in America.  Subletting a house here is a pretty "normal" practice for families on both sides of the sublet.  Many families live here for years & will return "home" (wherever that may be) up to 1 year, during that time they usually sublet their home to us "short-termers" as not to loose their lease & have to move out their belongings.  Ever since meeting the family that lives in this house, we have been blessed by the relationship.  They are a truly amazing Godly family, and will be celebrating 20 years of marriage during their time away!

One of the perks of this house is that we now have 2 new members of our family, well 4 if you count the 2 turtles.  Here they are!

Sarah

&

Bella

Sheraz really enjoys having dogs, but we just haven't been stable enough to take on the task of having a pet. So having these 2 beautiful dogs have been great for all of us.  They are wonderfully trained and great around the kids, so an easy fit into our family.

We had to make the bitter sweet decision to move out of our first house.  As much as we have really liked living in that house, we decided to move due to our landlords’ failure to hold up his end of our lease by fixing household items.  Without going into too much of the details, the main appliance to not work (and we realized that he had no plan to replace for us) is the washing machine.  It is an old machine and worked okay for about the first month, worked with much hesitation for the second through fourth month, and after a little flooding episode…I had to take the laundry to go to a laundry facility.  As most of you know we use cloth diapers, so add this with a family of 5 having a washing machine is a necessity of everyday life.  


Also, the upside to subletting is that we know have a stove & oven, closets to unpack into, kitchen full of utensils for cooking / baking / everyday life, and of course...a Washing Machine!

Smog Blog

I have shared a few posts on Facebook about the smog here in Chiang Mai, Thailand and I believe that this subject has even made international news that some of you may have seen.  So, I really just wanted to share about how it effects our family and how we are handling the situation.

This is quite new for me to learn about serious air pollution; why it happens, what it all means, how it effects us, and how to deal with it.  Here is a chart that explains the air pollution levels:

The recent levels have been in the mid to high 200's!  As you can see this level is "Very Unhealthy"! In the last couple of days the levels have come down into the 100's

We have learned that the reason for this high level air pollution is mostly due to burning.  Thai residents burn garbage, harvested fields, and even start forest fires to clear land.  Without rain (which we are very used to having in the Pacific Northwest) the smoke from all this burning just "sits" over the city and surrounding areas.  I guess we all know the dangers of breathing in smoke.

Then comes the question of how it effects us and how we deal with it as a family.  Mostly we try to keep the kids inside and not spend too much time outside.  Hope still goes to school and they are kept inside, and thankfully her school has a wonderful facility where the kids can run around and get some exercise.  I try to keep the babies inside the house for most of the time, with the occasional trip to a store.  Hope has had some nauseous episodes this week, which could be due to the air or a bug.  The babies have had some little coughs, which if they continue we will probably take them to see a doctor this week.

But to be honest, even though we try to hide from the smog there really is no escaping the AIR.  Our next step is to probably purchase an air purifier.

We appreciate all your prayers for the Thai people & our family's health during this unhealthy season.  We look forward to end of burning season and moving into a new adventure of our first Thailand rainy season starting in the next few weeks.

God Bless!

Life Isn't Fair

So many times after hearing someone else say "that's not fair", I just want to yell (usually at the television) "LIFE ISN'T FAIR!"  Because I know this statement is truth in my head.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say "Thou life shall be fair"...nope, not going to find it.

Then when life's "unfairness" happens directly to me (or my little family),it's hard to take it in with my heart.  This week we endured some of life being unfair.  It's a very long story that would probably just sound confusing and ultimately put you into a good sleep, so I won't bore you with the details.  But just wanted to share what we have taken away from this lesson.

Like I mentioned, the Bible doesn't talk anything about this world being fair.  In fact the Bible says:

"Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you" (1 John 3v13).   

AND

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1 v.2-4)

And that is truth.  These words are so easy to read through, but to really take it in as truth in our everyday life is hard.  According to this world, we should want people to "love" us and we should everything to work out easily, but God's Word spells out what to really expect from this world.

The brighter side?  With our faith God is there to walk with us through the hatred, trials, and testing!  In fact the Bible also says:

"For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous" (Psalm 1 v.6)


"But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head." (Psalm 3 v.3)


"the Lord will hear when I call to him." (Psalm 4 v.3)


"But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand....  You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." (Psalm 10 v.14 &17-18)


Etc, etc, etc!  

So, when (NOT IF) life's unfair situations happen to you, be comforted to know that God is always there to help!  AMEN!

Date Night in Chiang Mai...

Starting with a motor bike ride at sunset <3

Steak Salad

Dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Dukes.

Fish & Chips with 1/2 onion rings

Enjoying a wonderful 1 hour Thai message.

Foot, Head, Neck, & Back = Awesomeness!

And the ride home on the back of the motor bike.

Cost of CM Date Night = $30.00

Love and Memories of our time here together = Priceless