What we expected?

We have been asked recently, "Are you finding things to be the way you expected them to be?"

I guess to answer that, we will do a blog!  First, rewind six months.............. It became obvious God was moving us to Thailand in March, and we decided to trust Him like never before. He did the amazing and we just followed His obvious leading. We kept saying, "Well, God, you will have to make it super clear and do a bit of work if we are to get there by July!"  And boy...did He ever!

So, from the start, our expectations were really put in the Lord.  He is still the one to whom we are looking. Easy?   No way!!!!  Worth it?  Oh yeah!

As far as the school, yes, it is what we expected! GIS is a great place!  It's a very supportive and caring community, always looking for ways to encourage the teachers and staff. We'll blog more about it later, but Tim and the boys are enjoying the school environment.

 We didn't expect such a great place to live. Our neighborhood is amazing!  Affordable rent, not a lot of traffic, and the neighbors are wonderful too. Next door is an American family who is serving with SIL, and they have kids the same age as ours, two older boys and a younger girl.  On the other side our Thai landlords reside. They have nicely slipped into the role of the kids' surrogate grandparents. Complete with voicing many concerns, enjoying the 'children' sounds  from our house, and coming over with tasty treats (such as the bagged lunch pictured above--bagged then bowled).

One thing we didn't expect is the amount of familiar food items we can get here, and how relatively inexpensive they are.

 Above we have:

1/2 Gallon of milk - $2.80

 Fresh German Rye Bread - $2.30

3 Organic Cucumbers - $.80

Can of Tuna (not super fishy tasting) - $1.60

Peanut Brittle - $. 40

Coconut - free from our tree

Bag of Pretzels - $1.90

We did expect to have great tasting Thai food, and at an affordable price!  Woo hoo! 

We didn't expect to be encouraged to fight! In a mandatory Thai Culture Module we learned how to release pent up stress on each other. Or maybe this was practicing a traditional Thai fighting style...either way.

Also unexpected, the fact men must say ***minor inappropriate language warning*** "crap" (pronounced more like car-ap) at the end of almost every sentence to make it respectful and polite.  Having our boys taught this in Thai class was unexpected.  What do women say?  Its much nicer, "kah". 

Need we say more?  We didn't expect all the 7/11's everywhere; they can be right across the street from each other.  We can buy our basics there; diapers, dried squid, ramen noodles, a Slurpee. And also pay the bills, recharge our cell minutes, dodge the chickens in the parking lot, and practice our new Thai. 

All in all, we have been pleasantly surprised at how we have adjusted to life here.Of course, it's early yet, and yes, there is the language barrier, the culture stress, the kids feeling insecure at times, the price we had to pay for a used car (don't even ask!!!),  and the new school culture to get used to.  Not to simplify the depth  of difficulty for any of those, but we expected and have prepared ourselves for them. 

We also expected to have voids in our lives; the loneliness for family, the longing for the familiar faces of friends, our amazing church families, even zipping to Trader Joe's up the street.  But again, we said goodbye knowing the pain for those would come.  We serve a mighty God, and He is so faithful to stand in the gap and even provide unexpected blessings in the midst.

Thanks for the prayers and love.

-JKS-