Tales of Mr. Kittipot and other stories from vacation

Hello from Northern Thailand! The city of Chiang Rai is where our family has been for the past four days. Today we took the kids on a trip out of town- and what a time it was! It started at a local waterfall- which we did not know took about an hour hike (we all had flip flops on and Joab had Salome on his back) up to see the falls. Here is the steam on the path.



It was so fun to see Asa and Mei so excited when we finally got there!

The spray was so strong we all got covered with mist at the bottom!

From the falls we headed to a local hot springs. I have been looking for a natural hot springs for 16 long years. This is because in college I took with some friends into the mountains of Arizona to look in vain for any natural hot springs to stop at with our little car packed with five girls!
Oh that trip was so fun and so crazy! This trip to the hot springs was a lot calmer- but I
had no idea it would basically be a huge hot tub and that my kids would not really like how hot it was! Joab was a huge sport to help the kids play while I held Salome who put it well when she just said "HOT" every time she went in!


Feeling hot hot hot. And happy that 16 years later I was able to take my three kids to the springs! Love you Laura Lynn, Kori and Laura! These are some of the girls who went on that car adventure so many years ago!

You may be asking how did you get to the falls and springs? And who in the world is Mr. Kittipot? Well this delightful and full of energy man was our driver to these places. We hired him to take us around on his huge motorcycle. Joab had reserved a van for the day but we learned in the morning we could only have Mr. Kittipot (this is what the sign on his bike said and what he answered to when I called out to him above the drone of the bike). This guy likes to party! He liked to play the music loud and drive fast and make us laugh with all the American music he put on. He also liked to stop along the way!

Once we all got situated on his bike (which is not very easy with three kids, a picnic , swimming stuff and a baby backpack) he stops about ten minutes after leaving our hotel at a hospital. I thought perhaps he was getting sick, having a heart attack , or thought we were sick! He parks and then take a plastic bag full of cooked rice and meat from somewhere in the bike and says "five minutes". And he races off to only come back two minutes later to get something else in the bike. We are now really confused when he comes back and zooms off fast until he stops in about five minutes on the side of the road. He turns the bike off and from under his seat takes out a huge water bottle filled with gasoline. He then "fills her up" and we zoom off again. Only to stop in about twenty minutes at a gas station (did we not just do this with whatever was in the water bottle?!). While he tops off the bike he explains that his wife just had a baby and he needed to bring some food to his wife at the hospital! With that we zoom off with music blaring. Another twenty minutes and we stop for some water for him. Our last unscheduled stop with Mr.Kittipot was after the falls hike when we see this sign all in Thai writing with a cement fish in front of a shop. He pulls in, shuts off the bike and says "come". Joab and the kids "come" and he gets some fish food and shows Joab how to feed the fish that live in the nearby river we are passing. Were we suppose to catch fish or just feed them? We are unsure and in the middle of eating our lunch on the bike (while we zoom off to the hot springs).

We enjoyed many laughs, singing old songs and a memorable picnic on the back of Mr.Kittipot's bike today! One of my favorite things in the world is to look over at Joab as we zoom around the mountains of Thailand on the back of Mr. Kittipot's bike ; thinking I love him even more than I did when we first came to visit Thailand over twelve years ago.

Our very hot children at the hot springs next to the bike that got us there!

Chinese New Year haircuts

Salome did not like the look of the barber coming our way! But since she was now two I decided it was time for a short trim. Salome did great sitting on my lap and watching Miriam get her hair cut at the same time.


I know I am biased. But this is gorgeous hair for a two year old.

The place was a zoo! I guess in China it is very important to get your hair cut before Chinese New Year (which starts Jan 23). So every chair in the shop was packed! I was thankful we got in.
Since most Chinese do not have naturally curly hair (not to mention red hair!) I have them wash and then blow dry Miriam's hair straight before they cut it. The cut is a lot more even and Miriam loves the straight hair look!

Miriam- the final product. She looks about 19 with her hair straightened! She has been so cute all week "checking" herself out in the mirror to make sure it is really her hair!

Party Party Party

My blog is not letting me upload pictures very fast today! So sorry these are the only ones! We hosted Miriam's class Christmas party again this year. We squeezed about 18 of her classmates into our house. Above are the kids hearing the Christmas story.


We were able to order these Bible story books through the Internet here in China! Most of these kids had never heard the real meaning of Christmas and were excited to learn more. Times, they are a changing....

Asa and I with the twins. I love these guys.

Miriam is Nine!

Miriam was happy to celebrate her ninth year with some of her good friends this week. We painted nails (see above) clobbered a pinata and played outside! We ate apple pie, potato chips and chicken noodle soup! Fun was had by all!

When I went to the party store to buy supplies I picked out an '8' candle for Miriam. Joab looked a me and said- "Em, that was last year!" I guess I forgot she is already 9! We love you Miriam Joy Harriett Meyer. And look forward to the good things God has planned for you in 2012.

Christmas Eve and Day

WOW. What a Christmas season! Full of good things, food, friends and cookies! Christmas Eve we had some great friends over for games, the Nativity play and a gift exchange!


Miraim with her new "dog" from Christy Gma

Salome with new dolly from my Mom

Salome turned two on Dec 23rd!!!

More to come soon!!!

Orphan Christmas Outreach

Joab and I are able to lead a team from our church once a month to a local orphanage called Huge Grace (this month we had almost 20 people volunteer!). The director for this orphanage actually receives orphans that regular state run orphanages can not handle (medical problems too severe) or they basically do not want (like blind children). So Huge Grace takes them in to raise from babies until they are about 16 or 17. Going once a month to see these little guys is just wonderfully hard. They are so sweet and love LOVE when you come. But they still do not have a Mom or Dad or a real permanent family. Our church is working closely with the orphanage director and have given a lot of money to try to make life for these kids a good one.

The first picture is a little guy called Er Mao. When we first met him he could not walk at all. His spine is so twisted it has made his arms and legs unable to work properly. Our church has paid for two surgeries and now Er Mao can walk a little bit! I spent the whole morning holding on to him while Er Mao took ME for a walk. It is so great to see him get stronger.

The second picture are "Joab's girls". Every time we go Joab teaches the class a Bible story. But most of the kids (ages 7-16) are really unable to understand what is going on. But not these girls! They track with Joab and are just thrilled to learn about the Bible . We also gave them some gifts for Christmas this time and Christmas cards.

China will probably always from orphans. The orphan situation is a complex, sticky one. We are trying to be faithful to what God has called us to do- but it will be a long road.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a wonderful, fun, full of people Thanksgiving here on Saturday! Above the ladies kicking me out of my kitchen! They were busy frying up a whole fish and making corn soup.

Pies!!!

The ironing board is out! Filled with deviled eggs and muffins.

Fruit, drinks and bread

Here is some fried shrimp paper thing (really have no idea what to call it- but it is good) then some beef , tofu dish in the bowl and and in the pot some mashed potatoes. We also had all the traditional stuff, turkey, stuffing etc. But I got too busy to take any pictures of that!

Before we ate we talked about what it really means to be thankful. Also, everyone had to go around and share something they were thankful for. It was just great to hear everyone share.
Kids all decided to eat at one table!

We took all the desks out of the office to make the office into a second eating area. Here is the adult table and kids table is above. We did have two kid tables- but kids refused to eat apart! So all 10+ of them squeezed into this space! At first I thought I would not have enough room for everyone to sit. We have some amazing neighbors and with all their extra tables we were able to make it work!

Miriam playing Simon Says with the kids.

The weather was amazing this weekend! We took the kids outside post dinner to run off some steam. This is a waterfall (which they never turn on!) in our complex.

We have a friend here who translated the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving story into Chinese! We had fun with the kids telling this story again. Here are all the Native Americans and Pilgrims!

And the gifts! Our friends were so kind and gave us A LOT hostess gifts! Some are included above. From left to right they are: a case of coconut juice (which is now half gone as Asa and Salome can not get enough), homemade wine from a friend's Mom who makes this up in her kitchen, dried fruit dates and grapes, a whole bag of 'hometown' eggs that my friend swears are the freshest in town and lots and lots and lots of fruit. Also pictured (this is Joab's idea) is a Husker napkin because they beat the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend in football!

We are THANKFUL for friends to celebrate here with.