We Have Arrived!!!

WOW!!! So much has happened in the last few days. We arrived in Thailand with no problems. Caleb had a hard time traveling due to teething which he is still suffering from. Other than that, we were pretty much wiped out the first two days. The Salmon family, who has been such a tremendous help to us, picked us up (and our 23 suitcases/trunks) at the airport. We stayed with them the rest of that night. Our first day in Bangkok (Thursday) pretty much was all about getting our bodies switched over to their time. We had a light breakfast of cereal and fruit. We tried a new fruit called pomelo, which looks like grapefruit but is not quite as juicy and is much sweeter. After that, we went to look at our house. What a surprise of space! I loooovvveee my huge kitchen! There were several hidden cabinets and several surprises inside them. On either side of the refrigerator, there is a floor to ceiling pull-out cabinet with 5 or 6 shelves! To the right under the sink, the cabinet "door" pulls open to reveal a built-in dish drainer! The downstairs consists of a kitchen, dining room, 2 living rooms and a maid's quarters with a bathroom. The floors are tiled. A beautiful wooden staircase leads to the upstairs which has all hardwood floors. There are three bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one of which has a bathtub!), another huge living room and a walk-in closet. We have all been thrilled with this tremendous blessing from God. The bedrooms all have their own air conditioner. In our yard, we have 2 mango trees, a jackfruit tree, pomegranate tree and a guava tree! We are looking forward to getting the fruit from these trees. After getting acquainted with our new house, we went shopping!!!!!!!! We bought the bare necessities like sheets, pillows and baby food (which we found Heinz IN ENGLISH!!!). We returned to the Salmon's house and began washing sheets. We all went to bed early as we were totally exhausted. Friday morning, we woke up ready to jump into the day. After breakfast, we headed to the mall. It was the first time for the children really to be out in Bangkok. It was so much fun to hear their reactions. They are loving Bangkok but trying to get adjusted to the humidity. Yesterday, it was 102 degrees and 73% humidity!!! The children were amazed at the size of the mall. It was four stories tall! While the adults split up to shop, the Salmon's son took the children to basically an indoor amuzement park. Of course, they had a blast. Randy got both of us a cell phone, while I went shopping for pans, cooking utensils, plates, bowls, diapers, an iron and various other things. I even found Enfamil formula! We bought a crib for William which he thoroughly enjoyed last night! The stores I went shopping in would be equivalent to Walmart and Sears. I have been pleasantly surprised at the different brands that I recognize as things that we had in the U.S. and in Mexico.

Lee asked me yesterday what culture shock was. I asked him why and he said a lady at one of the last churches we were in had told him she would be praying for us as we went through culture shock. I explained to him that that was what Americans called it when someone went to another country and everything was different and unusual and hard to get used to. He replied, "Everything is so much like Mexico. I don't think we have culture shock here!" What a blessing to watch our children make an easy transition to another country. Lee told me later that he thought really the only difference here was the language. Living in Mexico has helped the children tremendously. It truly is amazing how many things are so similar to life in Mexico. Yesterday afternoon, I heard Cynthia and Lee talking about how much the people reminded them of the Mexican people. I know we all have rough days ahead but, for now, all is well on this side of the world with our family.

Please continue to pray for us as there is still much to do. We are working on getting an internet connection at our house hopefully by sometime next week. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him here and we are looking forward to how He is going to use us here for His glory. As soon as we get our internet, I will post pictures!