Thailand

We recently spent almost 3 weeks in Thailand...oh, how we love this place! It's such a special place for me and Brett as it's where he first asked me to be his girlfriend in 2003, and in 2004 it's the place where he asked me to be his wife! Every other year we have a conference here for all the staff working in our country. This year it was in Bangkok, which is, in my opinion, a fabulous city, although extremely interesting. We spent about 10 days in Bangkok partly for our conference, partly to get caught up on doctor's appointments (the healthcare is great there). We really enjoyed our conference, and although I can't write much about it on this public blog for security reasons, I will say that one of my favorite things was how different it was from years ago. In 2003 and 2004, at these staff conferences, there were mostly Americans there. Americans who longed to see more East Asian staff raised up to serve here. That is why I wanted to be here. Now, 7 years later, this conference was made up of mostly East Asian staff with our company who love and serve their people no matter the cost. The meetings were mostly in Chinese and we sang more than half of our worship songs in Chinese. It brought so many tears to my eyes to get to see what I longed for and prayed for so many years ago come to fruition.

A downside was that we all got sick...it seems it might be a habit for us to get sick while out of town this year. I got plagued with a stomach bug that was being passed around childcare. Thankfully Harrison did not get it, but I got it bad. I could not even keep gatorade down! Brett got a mild form of the bug, but he got bronchitis as well, which he passed to H, which doubled into laryngitis for our poor little man...his voice was GONE....again, we were so thankful to have a wonderful doctor to take him to to put him on meds ASAP. We all got better to enjoy our vacation after the conference! Phew!

And while there, we got to check on the Dooley Babe...which was SO FUN. We got an ultrasound and it was probably the nicest one I've ever had. It was very extensive, and she asked "Do you want to know the sex of your baby?" I was only 15 weeks, 4 days, so I didn't even know if she could tell. However, we said "no", because we are crazy like that and don't want to know (we let ourselves be surprised with H and it was truly the best surprise of my life, although I know it's not for everyone). And not even 45 seconds later, she said (in a very singsong voice), "I just saaaaaaaw, I know what your baby iiiiissssss!" I grabbed Brett's wrist and was like, "do you wanna know? we could find out right this second!" However, my planner husband stuck to the plan and told me to stay strong, but it was SO tempting! That makes a lot of our friends here think it's a boy...thoughts??

So, here are just a very few pics of our time there. They don't really do the beach justice...It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been for sure!

Brett and his little twin chasing the birds...this was Harrison's favorite thing to do!

We found a local aquarium with a singing mermaid...she obviously did not want us to touch her! I was still recovering at this point so I look rough, but my belly is about 16 weeks in this pic.

Brett's little helper in the airport (I need to calculate how many airplanes H has been on for my records...I think it's close to 40 now...he's quite the little flyer).

We spent some time vacationing at the beach in Phuket...during that time we checked email a couple times at an internet cafe. We paid for H to use his own computer so he wouldn't be pressing all of our buttons...he loved it!

Paradise

One night a bunch of us got baby-sitters and celebrated this guy below. Nate and Lori are such a fun couple to be around and I am SO glad to live near them and get to know them. This night was his birthday and we all went to a cocktail party on the beach and had a great dinner.

Then we lit traditional Thai lanterns and flew them off into the sky. I think this is actually a Buddhist New Year's tradition and they wish away their sins with each lantern in hopes of a fresh start in the new year (I think). I would probably need to light one every 5 minutes in that case!

H loved feeding the fishies (or foo-eys, as he likes to call them).

We entered a sand-building contest. And although there were only 8 families competing and 5 prizes given out, our not-so-stellar crab did not place. I can't imagine why...and just between you and me, the man in the middle was a bit bummed about it.

And here we are all bundled up for the flight back to COLD China just in time for Chinese New Year. There have been fireworks every night for 2 weeks! It's nuts!

More soon!