How are we already in the third week of March?
One of our most important events of the last weeks was of course the birthday of my only son!
Zach is now 11 years old, which seems totally improbably since he was just a sweet baby.

Zach asked for a cookie cake this year instead of regular cake. I think Ema wants some!
He had a great birthday party last week, Greg took him and some friends paintballing at a field just down the ringroad from us. As surprising as it sounds, it was less expensive than taking him bowling like we did last year! Everyone had a blast and Zach had a great time connecting with his friends from Grace that he does not get to see as often now that we are homeschooling.
We love you very Zach and are so thankful for your 11 years, and pray that God will be your leading influence this year and every year as you grow into a man of God.
Last week both Ema and Zach played in futsal tournaments as well. Futsal was a new sport to us here in Thailand and it is very popular. It is somewhat like indoor soccer, but played on a basketball court with a smaller and harder ball.
Zach was goalie and did a great job. Goalie is not a position I would like to play, but he seems to enjoy it.
Ema is a defense player. She has not had as much experience as the other girls on her team, but she played her best and came away smiling, that is a good sign.

That is Ema with the bright blue socks, always easy to spot her!
Ema’s team did well in the tournament, and came away with third place, but only gave up two goals the whole day. Since they did so well, they were invited to go back last Saturday and play in the JV tournament as they needed one more team. That was a lot of futsal for us last week. (which translates to not too much school
)
This past Saturday Leah and I were invited on an outing with the girl who sold ice at our neighborhood store. Since we buy a bag of ice every day, Leah saw this girl alot. She invited us to go to a waterfall and the temple with her. What I did not know was that she was sneaking off of work to go, and now does not work at the store anymore. Yikes! This young lady is only 17 years old and has clearly been on her own for a while. She seems interested in developing a relationship with us, and so we would ask your prayers as we interact with her and get to know her better.

Leah and A on the trail down to the waterfall
Whew! The month is not even half over. But something good is coming up for me at the end of this month, our anniversary! We have already conspired, er, I mean arranged to have the kids stay with some friends for the night. Definitely looking forward to that.

