A Bunch of Burts

My son is 12 now. My baby. The youngest. Not so much of a little one anymore.
The reality that we do not have small children anymore is plain to see by contrasting our lives with our partners.
No nap times, no board books, beginning readers, everyone takes their own showers, and can actually be left home by themselves.

And now Zachary turns twelve!

And such a gentleman as you can tell!

We love him so much. He is a joy to have for a son. Of course, there are times when we are less than cheerful with each other, and yes, he does get in trouble and have consequences, (can we say no computer time?), but we are very proud of him.

He is a boy that loves people. He enjoys being around others and is compassionate and kind. Even to his sisters!

Each year we can see more and more of the man he is growing into. And we pray for him that Zach would continue to allow the Lord to form him into that man and that he would want to be who God wants him to be.

Since moving to the village, Zach has had the chance to work for another family in the area, general yard work and such. He is proving himself to be a diligent worker as well, which we are proud to see.

We love you Zach, you are a joy and blessing and we are glad you are our son!

P.S. here is a peek at a couple of his presents. Snacks are perfectly appropriate to give as birthday presents. Probably the most common present in fact. Perfect for a boy who wants something to eat every 15 minutes.

Zach’s Thai name is Tawan. That is the product line name of these Lay’s chips, so they are especially appropriate! And yes, the flavor is sweet and sour shrimp soup.

These tidbits are shrimp sticks with ketchup for dipping. They are still in the cupboard.

Mate, one of the girls brought this cute box. Of course the acronym stands for Happy Birthday.

Wanna see the cute note that Met attached to the present?

Isn’t that sweet?

Warning Martha W!! This post contains snake pictures!

This past week we were up at our co-workers house for a birthday party, meeting members of their church visiting from the States, and a trip to the new village to move forward in getting the rental houses figured out.

One morning, an unexpected visitor was found in the yard.

You can see it moving off the edge of the patio, and the spot of blood where it used to lie. eek.

A neighbor smashed it in the head, but then generously left it right there on the patio. By the time Greg and I arrived from an errand, the kids had largely wandered away, the excitement gone.
Then, as I watched it, it began moving. Escaping. It was supposed to be dead.

You will never guess who came to the rescue.

Guess again.

Give up?

Who would believe that Ema would be the one to mercilessly crush the head of this serpent, bravely, without being asked or forced?

Ema of the Great Spider Incident of Jungle Camp, involving bloodcurdling screams, neighbors running to her rescue with knives and guns, and one tiny spider. Or Ema who after watching half of Ben Hur could not sleep at night for fear of leprosy? Who sat on a bucket all day when we went to the beach so that the tiny little sand crabs would not touch her.

We prayed that Ema would overcome this fear of crawly things, knowing we would surely encounter a wider variety here in Thailand, and God is faithful!!! She is our best tick picker, cockroach killer and now snake destroyer. You go Ema!

Since our new village is nearly surrounded by rice fields, it is not a stretch to think we will find more of these in our yard and yikes! maybe house. Glad you live with me Ema.

Ema is not the only one who has done some growing and changing these past years.

Where is the little boy I brought to Thailand with me? Ready to go fishing Thai style!

Yes, that is a gun for fishing. A long nail is attached to fishing line and triggered by a slingshot action. Water, mud, fish and gun. What could be more fun than that?

And Leah, whose years left at home with us I can count on one hand, (we will not think of that now) is growing daily into a young lady.

She measures often to see if she has passed me up. Last night Greg declared she is as tall as I am and maaaaybe, a hair taller. I must have been slouching.

Thank you God for these three kids! I can’t wait to see what Your plans for them hold, and how You will continue to use Greg and I in their lives.
We know You have good things to come for those who love You and follow You! Life with the Lord is never boring.

Rainy season seems to be upon us. Cooler nights, awesome thunderstorms, perpetually damp laundry, and mud.

Ema’s watering can is a bit superfluous, don’t you think?

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.

Last week was Zach’s swim meet, and although the day started off with a rousing thunderstorm and pouring rain, it turned out to be a great day of swimming.

This year he was swimming in the 10 and 11 y/o age group so he was on the smaller end of the scale. The rules state that as long as a child is 11 by the first day of school, he/she can compete in that age group all school year. I think some of these boys just snuck in! Not only were they much bigger than Zach, but oooh, they were fast in the water! Good competition that day.

We were really proud of Zach, he gave each race his all, even when he was dog tired and two of his races were nearly back to back.

That is Zach in lane 5 racing to the finish. He took first in his heat in this individual event, but lost to some other boys in subsequent heats. They were fast!

He ended up with 2nd overall in the 25m butterfly and his 100 Free Relay team took third. I think those are pretty good results!

Here he is anchor for his teams 100 Free relay. Go Zach, go!

Part of the fun of the day was listening to the kids cheer each other on, and encourage kids from the other schools who were clearly beginner swimmers, and lagging a bit shall we say?

This has been one of the big and unexpected blessing of our time in Chiang Mai, having a school like Grace that exists to serve missionary families and also provides the kids with opportunities for sports that otherwise would not exist. Each year Grace needs teachers, and staff members to be able to adequately serve all the families who would like to send their kids. Next year, might it be you? Check out their website Grace International School to see if God has been preparing you to meet one of the needs.