Big Miracles come in small packages

So yesterday was the worst day of my life and I was just a bystander......My friend Pascale was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning after her routine pre natal exam showed she had high blood pressure. The next day they said that the baby might not make it if the baby remained inside Pascale so the doctors ordered an emergancy c-section for that afternoon. Pascale was only 31 weeks along, so needless to say, I was not very focused on my first graders nor on anything else during the day for that matter. I was waiting to hear if everything was okay, praying hard all day long. Finally, Kevin called me and said that they were doing as fine as could be....they had a baby girl, Kathryn Noelle....born only 970 grams which is just under 2 pounds. I still am not sure how long she is, first Kevin told me 8 inches, then it was about 11....so I'm not sure, but that's still so small. Kevin and Pascale are two of the most amazing people I have met here and I am so amazed at how they are doing in all of this. I am so thankful for such wonderful hospitals and facitilities in Bangkok, it is seriously like the Hilton Hospital where Pascale is recovering. Hopefully I will get to see the little one today. I'm bagging the Trick or Treating because I want to see this little one so desperately and help Pascale in any way I can.

My Class

My students are F A N T A S T I C!!!!! I am VERY blessed!

"our" new oven

Friday night I went over to Pascale's because there is a new addition in their family. Yes, she is pregnant, but that is not the new addition I am talking about. "We" are the proud owner of a brand new wonderful OVEN!!!! I say "we" because every time I talk about Pascale's oven, I unknowingly use the words "we" and "our"....I didn't realize how the simple and wonderful addition of a friend's oven would completely combat homesickness. But it is WONDERFUL!!!! We created the most wonderful gooey and chocolately brownies on Friday night. Just a little bit of heaven! Here are some pictures of my wonderful friends, the Thomas's. Kevin and Pascale are such great friends, and their little mini me's are super fun too! Etienne and Natalie help me when I need my Wyatt fix.

Flooding in the KORN!!!!

Well, every day my friend Kelli states that the rainy season is over. And every day the rains keep on comin'. Yesterday after school was the worst flooding I've seen it so far, and the rainy season was officially over on Saturday. We were soaked just trying to hail a taxi from our school's main street. We had to try three different taxis before one would even attempt to head in our Moo Baan (village, like a suburb) called Summakorn because it was rumored that flooding was very bad there, and taxi drivers do not like driving in the rain here. It would be equivilant to driving in 3 feet of snow in Seattle. Some people try to avoid it and others seek it out. When we finally got to the Korn, our nickname for the village, sure enough it was flooded! We thought for a minute that we would just hang out in the bar until the rain stopped, but we really had no idea how long that would be, and so we decided to brave the waters and try to find a way home. The taxi stopped to let us out and it was all the way up the door! We jumped out into the flooding waters, and in some parts, it was up to my calfs. I was rapidly praying that this would NOT be the time to see a new critter or two floating along in the water and hurriedly jumped up onto the side walk with my dear friend Kelli....same friend who has been saying the rainy season is over for the past two months. We were able to jump onto a Songtao, which is a covered truck/bus type thing. The songtao driver agreed to take us home, so I was able to see out the back into our flooded village. It was very interesting, the flooding in places. Here are some pictures of that night, and the morning after as I rode my bike in the early morning darkness to pick up a taxi on the main road.

Cockroaches and Hair Clips

This morning I tumbled out of bed, groggy and fumbling around in the dark. I am blind as a bat in the morning until I put my contacts in, and as I plopped my feet on the ground, I felt something cool and smooth and round scurry under my foot. I jumped back up on my bed, and tried to peer down to see what I might have felt. Fearing the worst, I thought it was a cockroach! I started laughing at myself because I leaped off the bed and ran into the other room to get my contacts. After coming back in the room, turning the lights on and peering down by the side of the bed, I realize the cool and smooth and round thing that gave me a start was only a hair clip. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and started getting ready for work.

Amidst the Busy-ness

Today in a matter of 30 minutes I have riden my bike to the Pak Soi (main street), jumped in a taxi towards school, checked in, scheduled two parent conferences for next week, checked about 15 emails and just looked out the window to realize that the rain has stopped after three solid days and the sun shines gloriously down upon me. I am so thankful for small moments like this, when I take a deeper look into myself and smile. I love the rain, but just as more, the sun lifts my spirits and I said a prayer of thanksgiving this morning for God's beautiful and wonderful creation here in Thailand. I am so blessed!