Itsara

I believe I’ve only mentioned once here that we have a dog. Actually, between the two houses, we have three dogs.

Actually, now we have 10.

If you look at the categories on the sidebar, you’ll notice I hardly ever talk about politics here. It’s not because I have nothing to say on the subject. Rather it’s because I have too much to say, and I can never think of a nice way to say it.

So I’ll keep this short. Vote for who you believe is the better man – who you think will lead the country the way you want it to be led – but don’t, DON’T hate your brothers and sisters for believing in the other guy. Stop judging, stop yelling, stop condemning, STOP FIGHTING!

We’re supposed to love each other for Christ’s sake.

We were all hoping that Sean and his family could visit the States for the next two or three months. It turns out that’s not going to happen because the United States government thinks Prang is a flight risk (or whatever the equivalent term is for someone who might get in on a tourist visa and stay illegally). On his blog, Sean talks about how they’re handling it.

“Wait, didn’t Prang already get turned down for a visa? Like two years ago?”

Yes, yes she did. I don’t have anything new to say about it, so here’s the gist of (and link to) what I said last time:

[Unlike citizens of non-Western countries], it is easy for Americans to visit, and even live and work, in most other countries. In much of the world we are well liked, and even the most middle class of us is a rich man when we leave our borders.

On top of that, our nation is one of the few founded on, and continuing in (more or less), a tradition of Christianity. All of this makes citizens of the United States uniquely suited to take the gospel into all the world. (more…)

So, seemingly out of the blue, Alaypa has been showing up in our lives again. I saw him first at church on Sunday, where he’d asked Prang if he could come over to our houses. He hung out here all day Sunday, usually with Matt, but not exclusively. In particular, he was actually friendly with me, whereas before he’d typically pretend he didn’t see or hear me.

I saw him again on Monday. This is usually my day off, and I was just sitting down to watch The Fugitive when Alaypa rings our doorbell. “Nobody’s here,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I’ve got these movies for Matt. Is he here?”

“No, but I’ll give them to him. Thanks.” Bit of an awkward silence. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Sure, I guess.”

He stayed for the movie, and hung out on the land for a while until Matt came home. He was here again Tuesday. And everytime he’s been… nice, actually. Like the old Alaypa.

I don’t think he’s going to change his mind and come back. I think he’s happy where he is (though I get conflicting reports on that, but I think he’s staying in kind of a guest house where nobody really tells him what to do). And I guess if he’s happy and staying out of trouble and getting an education, then that’s pretty good. Makes it easier for me to be content, anyway.

And I could always be wrong about him changing his mind. I mean only a week ago I thought I’d never see him again. Who knows?

Some of the blog’s files got hacked recently, so I had to do an upgrade Old West style.* Everything looks okay to me, but if you notice something not working the way it should, please let me know.

* A euphemism meant to imply that upgrading WordPress without making a backup or deactivating plugins increases my worth as a man to that of, say, Wyatt Earp or Davy Crockett. See also, hyperbole.**

** On the other hand, I had no choice, and I very nearly lost everything in the process, so I do feel pretty proud of myself.

Like last time, a lot of these are of Isaac. He’s still that awesome. I mean, he is why you come here, right?

So that you know where and with whom the pictures were taken, we started by visiting our friends, the Wyatts, in Napa. Then Wyatts and Heines drove down to San Diego where we stayed with the Barons and Herreras.* The Wyatts left us, and we traveled to Orange County to visit Cindy’s family. Finally we flew down to Mexico for my sister’s wedding (about half the pictures are of the wedding day, I think because I had less to do that day).

* If you don’t know who these people are, just ignore them and look for the pictures of Isaac.

Some of what Sean’s been doing and plans for the near future here on his blog.

On this trip, there were a handful of questions that we got asked repeatedly. I figured it’d be a good idea to address them here, in no particular order.

What are your kids ages/names/genders/how many kids do you have?
Because our family is large and often-changing, we keep a list here and try to update it whenever necessary.

What’s your typical day look like?
On a typical day (meaning a weekday in which all the kids are at school – this happens less often than you’d think), we get Pan and Lutiya to their schools really early (6 and 7, respectively). Matt gets himself to school around 7:30, and then we homeschool Sandra and take care of Isaac until the afternoon when the other kids start coming back. During the day we also take care of the house, shop, blog, go to worship practice (Cindy), teach dance (Cindy), and write (Adam).

How do you get kids?
We’ve never sought them out. Cindy’s cousin called us about Matt and Sandra. Pan, Alaypa, and Lutiya came through a friend of a friend. In both cases, it was only because people knew what we were here to do. We’re fully convinced that God brought them to us. We are not actively seeking out children at the moment either.

How are you doing financially? Where does your support come from?
In general, we’re okay. God has always provided and we have no doubt he will continue to do so. About half of our support comes from friends and family through Coast Vineyard. The other half currently comes from Matt and Sandra’s mom. If at any time you feel led to help out, see this page for how. We are also working on things during the day that help bring in a little income, but we cannot do anything fulltime at the moment so this income is minor.

Where do you go to church?
We go to an international church called House of Praise. It’s perfect for our family as it has both an international and Thai service, and an international and Thai youth group. Sunday evenings our two families meet with another one and do a sort of home group thing too.

How’s your Thai?
We’re not fluent, but we’re good. We can communicate most things we need to and can understand basic conversations. Watching TV or listening to sermons is difficult (maybe 60-80% comprehension). We can read and write enough to help the kids with their homework or read letters from their schools, but we’re not fast. Reading Thai subtitles, we can only catch about 2 or 3 words before it changes.

(For Adam) How’s the book coming?
The story most people know about (Travelers) is finished, and I’m querying agents to see if they’re interested. The querying is not going so well, but I’m learning a lot and writing another story in the meantime. You can find out a lot more at my other blog.

So what other questions do you have? What have we been neglecting to make clear on this blog? It doesn’t have to be frequently asked for us to answer.