Babies at the Border

For our little family of three, we were looking forward to May with much anticipation! You may ask why, but the answer is quite simple: the humidity was sure to kick in full force. 🙂 OK, besides looking forward to the humidity (the sooner it comes, the sooner it leaves – right??) we were waiting for our little “Nutmeg” to join our family. Ellen Nicole (“Ellie”) showed up on a sunny Monday morning in early May and won over the staff at the hospital with her hair and size. Apparently 7 lbs 5 oz is worthy of falling under the “bigger than usual” category for babies born in Thailand. Even now people will ask us how big she was and will be very surprised by our answer.

One of the smartest things we did in preparing for our daughter’s birth was beg, plead, persuade (or otherwise ask!) my in-laws to send my sister-in-law to Thailand for a month. Allison arrived on May 1st with just enough time to get over jet-lag before jumping in on Paul duty. I honestly don’t know what we would’ve done without Allison coming to help; she has been a perfect fit! Now I have just a few days before reality sets in as Allison is returning to Texas on June 4th.

Nat and I are always up for an adventure so we jumped in the truck last weekend and headed to the border with our two little ones joining in on the ride. Thankfully they were pretty good sports about it and slept away the kilometers! Our purpose for being on the border never materialized because of a situation beyond our control, but we did enjoy visiting the border town! We both spent time there as singles, but this was our first time as a family; wow, what a difference! Wanting to visit all of our favorite places became a slight challenge with two kids under two in tow. Plans are in the works to return to this border town soon, so at least we’ll have a better idea of what to expect!

Since our original reason for going was disrupted, we decided to turn the trip into a min-survey trip of the town. This town is one of four towns we are considering moving to in the future, so it was good to get reacquainted with the place again. I’m trying not to be swayed by the fact there are lots of yummy restaurants in town, but it does help knowing that a good burger is readily available!

One of the perks of living in Southeast Asia is things are fairly inexpensive (unless we’re talking about cheese, of course). So on our border town trip we stayed at a no-frills hotel for $9.00 a night. Emphasis on no-frills, but we had a bed and a hot shower and that’s all that matters, right? It would help if the light switches were a little higher than a 20-month old could reach. 🙂

Just outside of town we were surprised to see a brand-new shopping mall including a Tesco (similar to Target), an ice cream parlor called Swensens, The Pizza Company, and even a Dunkin’ Donuts! This particular town also has a mixture of various people groups, as evidenced by the sign above in four languages: Thai, English, Burmese, and sign language (haha, haha…. ha ha).

Wild building colors, hanging wires, and chaotic traffic sum up this bustling little town!

Hmmm, I wonder what repairs are being made at this little shop?!? The tire fence is so creative. 🙂

I found this little guy hanging around the restroom at one of the gas station stops on the way home. I’ve never seen such a colorful lizard before!

There’s plenty more that I could share and will share in the future, but that’s enough for now! My ministry of studying the Thai language is calling my name… and times to study are few and far between, so I better take advantage of the quiet while I can!

Until next time…