Lately

A few things going on around here lately... I have all of these random pictures so I'm going to put them throughout the post - even though they are entirely unrelated. Most of them the kids took while we wait four our car AC to be fixed. Orin also took a bunch of pictures in the songthaew. :-)

(I can't believe how old she looks!)

A couple of weeks ago Damien finished his 6 months of Thai and was given the OK to start working. He was very happy about that! The first two weeks of work were unusual. The first week he started on a Tuesday (Monday, July 4th was a holiday) but we left to go to Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon; a trip which we had already planned before knowing when he would start work. The second week, we came back from Bangkok on Monday so we went into work on Tuesday. But Friday was a Thai holiday so he didn't go in then either. So finally last week was his first full week back!

In April 2008 Damien quit his job so we could raise the rest of our support full time. In September '08 he start working but we lived on the grounds where he worked and he would walk home pretty much every day for lunch. About a year ago he stopped working full time when we had to do some training and prepare to move to Thailand. So this is the first time in over 3 years that we won't see home at all for 8 or 9 hours each day.

(I think those cows were going to join those kids in their soccer practice any minute)

Micaiah was 1 1/2 when Damien stopped working full time. Since then half of the time Damien has been home full time and the other half he would come home at least for lunch. The second or third day Damien was back at work I told Micaiah we needed to leave to go pick him up. Micaiah said, "But he didn't come home and eat lunch." I don't think he has any concept of the fact that Damien will actually stay at work ALL day long.

Orin decided that when he grows up he wants to be a "Regular dad." Not a police man, or astronaut, or doctor. Just a stay-at-home-dad. He says he wants to stay at home an play with his kids all day. :-)

(This is what they like to do in restaurants - you'd think they could find lighter books to bring though!)

Last week, Damien's first full week back was rough. I was so confused why Orin and Micaiah were fighting more than usually and way more emotional too. It wasn't until Saturday that I realized that Damien had worked 5 days in a row and it was the first time he had done that in over a year.

(For about 4 days we couldn't find Orin's Crocs. So he claimed my flip flops as his own and wore them around town. It wont be long until he fits into them!)

I realized that Micaiah has lived in 8 houses since he was born! And another probably 4 months of his life living in hotels or training centers or with family/friends - one week here, two weeks there... That seems like a whole lot of moving for a 4 year old.

(Micaiah took these pictures. Can you tell?)

It's sad for me too to have Damien back at work. But I was so surprised at how normal it felt. Even though it's been so long since he worked full time on the first day he was back at work it felt like old hat. I think it was the first time things felt truly normal since we moved here.

We only have one car so I've been taking/picking up Damien from work every day. Wow, not my idea of fun...or good time management! We're still trying to buy a (cheap) scooter so that I can use it to get to Thai classes. That way I only have to bring him on days that I need the car to go somewhere with the kids.

I'm still doing Thai lessons three days a week. I really enjoy it. I am in no rush and that's how I not only learn better, but also enjoy learning. I'm at the point that it's actually fun in class because I know enough to have pretty decent conversations with my tutor. Some days I leave feeling exhilarated and other days I feel so discouraged. But mostly I think I'm moving forward...slowly but surely!

(She actually is laughing here...I think)

When we started with our new tutor in April we finally had to get a babysitter for the kids. The first tutor was coming to our house each day which was hard with the kids just sort of running around interrupting us. Our new tutor and her husband pastor a Thai church so she knows plenty of people who need a job. The new babysitter, C, was so sweet and Micaiah and Sora really liked her. She has the cutest little one year old girl. Unfortunately the baby got sick quite a bit. She ended up in the hospital and they decided C should just stay home and take care of her and only work part time. So our tutor got us another babysitter, N. She has an incredible life story's amazing to see how God brought her to where she is today. The kids love her and she is an amazingly hard worker. She comes three mornings per week while I'm at Thai and takes care of the kids and also helps around the house. C & N both are from hill tribe villages so Thai is actually their second language too! Of course, they both speak better than I do, but it's always fun trying to communicate as best we can. It's also helped me to better understand people speaking Thai with accents!

(I think it's funny that Orin took pictures of the TV. But I also think what was on the TV was funny too!)

Sora still struggles with separation anxiety (and stranger anxiety) as well as some other adoption-related issues. But I think having the babysitter come has been a HUGE help for Sora.

Before, if we would leave her with anyone, which we seldom did, she was cry the entire time. She would be in a terrible mood the rest of the day. But I think having N come has helped her to realize that it's ok for other people to take care of her some. That it doesn't mean we're "rejecting" her. And that we always come back. It used to take her a month to warm up to someone (it took a month before she would stay with C without crying and the same with N). But now we can have a new person watch her and she does amazing well.

(Another TV shot)

I took Sora to see the ENT specialist today. It was as suspected. Not incredibly helpful. The clinic is at a hospital about 10 minutes away. But the hospital has NO parking so we always just take a Songthaew when we go. The Songthaew always takes about 20 minutes because they like to drive the "slow" route to try to pick up other passengers. I had called to ask about the clinic and was told it was from 8am to 4pm. Well, when I got there I found out the clinic I wanted was actually an evening clinic. Not sure whose fault that misinformation was, but we were speaking Thai on the phone and that doesn't always end in success. After going to a few different floors and people I finally get an appointment for 4:30pm. It was about 2:15pm and Sora needed a nap. I decided just to go home. The boys swam, Sora napped and I got dinner ready. We left to go back at 4. It was only a 45 minute wait for the Doctor which was pretty good. We saw him for less than 5 minutes. He was VERY nice but again, not incredibly helpful. Apparently, in Thailand if you're deaf in one ear you're completely on your own. No hearing aid, even for school age children. He got me an appointment for the audiology clinic on Thursday. We got home at 6 and about 5 minutes later Damien called for me to pick him up. Crazy day and not much to show for it. If this audiology clinic isn't helpful I think I'm giving up...at least in this country.

(Random pictures Orin took as we drove around the city)

I decided to take a "test run" with potty training Sora. She eats a ton and poops a million times a day so I just figured I'd try. She's doing really well. We have two problems: Since she can't really talk she just goes and sits on the potty when she needs to. Unfortunately, she still hasn't gotten the concept that you should wait until you really need to go. She just ends up going 15 - 20 times a day. It's fine at home (she's getting really good at putting her underwear on) but I don't know what to do when we leave the house. There is no way I'm taking her to the bathroom 3 or 4 times during a 1 hour shopping trip. The second problem is that she can't talk. I try to get her to say "pee pee" but it's not going that well. But we've got a little signing thing going that seems to be working good. So here's hoping we figured things out!

The government gives a really neat tax credit when you adopt. It's a HUGE help. Supposedly this year they decided to be extra thorough and just audit us. We sent in all of the paperwork, receipts, credit card statements from the entire adoption. So we're still waiting for our refund. It's been interesting to have to "deal" with the IRS for the first time. And although we've found that every time they send us a letter it has a different phone number and contact person and that no one really knows exactly what is going on, everyone has at least been really nice and has tried to be helpful.

These are the words Sora uses consistently: "Yes", "Naw" (No) "Mama", "Aw-iii" (Orin), "I-yah" (Micaiah), "Nana" (dadda, which we've corrected her a MILLION times on but she still insists on saying Nana), "Ize" (which can mean either eyes or ice), "Zzzzz" (please), and her most recent word whih is also a new favorite of hers, "Mice" which means "mine".

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Bangkok Part 2

So our main reason for going to Bangkok was to take Sora to a Pediatric audiologist. Supposedly, per the hospitals website, she is the only one in the country. Of course, when we get there she tells us that she isn't. But, I don't think anyone really knows what is going on. We were hoping we could talk to her about getting a hearing aid for Sora. But the whole trip was pretty much a waste of time. The Doctor was very nice but didn't speak English very well. This is a huge disadvantage. It's really hard to have a detailed medical conversion. She also wanted to do another ABR, which is the test where they put her to sleep. I just don't know if this is necessary. She also said that here they usually don't aid a child with single-sided deafness (SSD). This USED to be the stance in the US too, but it's had changed a lot and now it is becoming more of the norm to give the kids hearing aids. Many adults with SSD choose not to have a hearing aid and do fine, but they are finding that it's much more important for kids than they realized. Not just for developing speech but for developing many things. Plus, kids with SSD who do not have an aid are 25% more likely to repeat a grade in elementary school. So, with Sora's speech delay we definitely want to get the ball rolling. The only thing that came out of the appointment was that the Doctor gave us the name of an ENT (not as good as an audiologist but still in the same field) in Chiang Mai. We'll take her to see him next week. If that doesn't work out we'll have to figure out what to do next....

While we were down in Bangkok we wanted to try to do some things we can't do in Chiang Mai. We went to Siam Park City which the kids absolutely loved. It is an amusement part/water park but we mostly stayed in the water park area. They boys had never been to one before and they LOVED it. They were able to go on a few slides that they weren't quite tall enough for (especially Micaiah) but this is Thailand so we figured they wouldn't be too strict about it. It was so much fun. I also enjoy "people watching" at these places. It's a lot of people from the Middle East and Muslim areas, so they are covered from head to toe. Then there are plenty of Europeans who aren't usually covered from head to toe. Such an opposite combination. Bathing suites are pretty expensive here (at least to Thai standards). The ones I've seen cost between $15 and $35 dollars. Most people don't have them...so the water park actually RENTS them! Eeewwww. I'm sure they are washed between use, but I don't think I could do it. We were so confused at first because a majority of the people there were all wearing the same bathing suit. :-)

The boys coming down the side!

I didn't take many pictures because we were wet most of the time. This is outside the park as we were leaving.

The kids love breakfast at the hotel. I try to find one where it's include because it's such a treat for them. Micaiah and Orin wanted to try coffee so I gave them each a little. They loved it. :-) Probably because they felt "old" and it was new and special.

The day we were flying back we had some time to kill so we went to the one American chain restaurant we could find - Outback Steakhouse. They have KFC and McDonald's and things like that, but Outback is the only actual restaurant. It's not a place we eat at while in the States, and it's funny because it's "Australian" but it's the closest we could get to feeling at home. It was nice to have some cheese fries with Ranch dressing and Damien got meatloaf!

The view from the restaurant was really nice.

So as we were leaving the mall after eating at Outback we happened to walk past Krispy Kreme. The only one in Thailand (I think)! We maybe had KK three times before, but you know, we're American, so we figured we should get some. The kids enjoyed it but Damien and I thought it was basically the same mediocre donut we remembered. :-)

And we have got to get one of these things! Hours of entertainment!

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Bangkok: Lessons Learned

Never get into a Taxi without first making sure they will use the meter. We had read this but should have stuck to it. I think we've gotten so used to bartering for our public transportation and it was scary not knowing how much it would cost before hand. But the few times we didn't use the meter to go somewhere, when we came back it was less than half the price. Yikes! But taxi's there are still so cheap! We could go 45 minutes away and it would still cost only less than $6 dollars.

Traffic, all day, all night, every road. Seriously, it was incredible.

If a taxi driver realizes you speak a little Thai, you'd better be ready for small talk. It's good practice.

Even if you're on the 6th floor of a hotel be sure to check you candy before you eat it. Damien made the mistake of eating chocolate in the dark and realized 5 minutes later that it was infested with ants. He was still finding them in his mouth an hour later. Yuck! Kids didn't seem to mind though. :-)

Assume a place 5 Kilometers away will take an hour to get to. It might not...but it might!

Taxi's are a great way to get around. So cheap. A lot of things in Bangkok were more expensive (restaurants, etc...) but with the 5 of us Taxi's were often even cheaper than the sky train.

I have finally admitted to myself that I'm a big city girl at heart! I don't care about the pollution, traffic...I love it. I would love to live among high-rises and people...maybe I'll do it one day....and then I'll realize that I'm not actually a city girl. :-)

Even though Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand after Bangkok, it's like you're in another world. However, there are aspects to Bangkok that when you see them you KNOW you are still in Thailand.

It's hot. Really hot. I'd hate to be there during hot season.

It seems like you could easily get around Bangkok without knowing any Thai. Chiang Mai is like that for a lot of things but other things it still really helps to know some Thai.

There are many levels of ability to speak English, and just because a website says a Doctor can speak English doesn't mean it's necessarily good enough to have a good medical conversation.

When you travel to a city far away to see a Doctor, don't forget important medical records at your hotel on the day you go to the hospital.

No matter how good a hospital is, it's still not the same as at home. Different philosophies, different ways of doing things.

My kids complain too much when we have to walk a lot. Definitely need to work on that.

We could travel all over the world but as long as we have a free breakfast buffet and swim every day the kids are happy!

Planning their strategy for jumping in.

Sora found her courage and swam on her own with the ring most of the time.

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On the night train to Krung Thep

We decided it was time to take Sora to get her hearing checked. Technically, we're supposed to get it done every 6 months or so to make sure her "good" ear is still hearing like it should and that it hasn't changed from when we last tested it. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten it checked since March 2010 - about 15 months ago. There are a few places in Chiang Mai where we could get it done, but we've heard they aren't incredibly thorough, and they are pretty bad for small kids. Basically, they test kids hearing by playing a sound of a different frequency on either the right or the left. When the kid turns an animal pops out or something fun for them to look at. It doesn't work that great with very small children and when we had it done with Sora last year (around 12 months old) she actually failed it. It's not a surprise she failed on her "deaf" side, but also on the good side. But we know her hearing is better than what the test showed...just hard to know how good it is. The way the tests are done in CM would not work well for a 2 year old. After some research, we realized that there is only 1 pediatric ENT in Thailand. The Doctors in CM are ENT's but it's important to find someone who specializes in children. Another reason we decided to bring her to this doctor is that we need to get her a hearing aid. When she first had her hearing tests we got such conflicting reports on whether or not to get a hearing aid for her. Basically, audiologists are split. Some say kids can do fine with speech development without one and the other half say that it's really important to have good hearing on both sides, not only for speech development but for other types of development too. We were in the throws of planning to move to Thailand so decided to put it off and sort of wait and see. But now we definitely think she needs one. We're really looking forward to seeing what the Doctor has to say, and we're hoping she can get us a hearing aid that will work!

So that was the long intro to my post! We decided to all come down because Damien and I both waned to meet the doctor. It's about half priced to ride the train than to fly so we decided to do the train down and fly back. It's an overnight train. We rode it once in October coming back from Bangkok and the kids really loved it. It's not the best night's sleep I've ever had, but we survived. Unfortunately, this time, we had little problem. We ride in the first class train, because you can get a room that converts into a bunk bed and has connecting door to the next room. The three boys each get a bed and Sora sleeps with me. But somehow we ended up getting a train that I didn't even know existed. The first class cars are single rooms...with just one bed. Ugh, so we get there, we have the two rooms with a nice connecting door, but instead of 4 beds we get 2. I have no idea how that happened. And I could have sworn I talked to the lady about the beds when I bought the ticket but, who knows, I still miss things some times when I'm speaking Thai. :- ) I just can't imagine that she would think 5 people with two beds would work. We had no time to fix the ticket because the train was leaving. Thankfully the guy in charge of our car felt bad for us and let us buy a ticket for half price for another room. I'm still not convinced that he just didn't keep the money and give us the room. :-) The boys slept together and Sora (who is like a sleeping jumping bean) slept with me. I slept bad and woke up a million times, but I still LOVE riding on it. I don't know why but it's just relaxing.

The boys also think it's pretty cool! We packed dinner instead of ordering the ridiculously overpriced Thai food ... and when we were able to get the kids settle down and contain their excitement we had a relaxing night.

Sora didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.

Damien bought some Thai children's books and he has been practicing reading.

Not the best picture of me, but Micaiah was so proud of it. It only took a couple of tries of him getting just our legs. :-)

So this was a first - EVERYTHING was in Japaneses. Nothing was in Thai. Not only that but the plugs didn't work. Well, they didn't work for some things but worked with our computers. Than we realized that they were working for things using 120V but not the 240V (which is standard in Thailand). They must have bought the train from Japan and not changed a thing. Not even the plugs. There was even a tiny TV/VCR in each room which didn't work. So funny.

The lights and A/C control. We never quite got this figured out. :-)

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Another visa run behind us!

We did our third visa run in June! We had really wanted to go to Laos to visit some friends but Damien was taking his Thai reading/writing class and couldn't miss a day. And since it's about 11 hours to drive each way, we figured that was just too far to go for a weekend visit. So we just went back to Mae Sai and crossed the border up north.

I can't get over how GREEN Thailand is. I've never seen so much green. When you're driving in the mountains it's especially amazing because it's all around you. I wish I had a nicer camera because I would love to capture it. I actually do think this picture came out pretty cool though!

We stopped at our favorite pie place of course!

Orin's favorite drink here is Manao Soda. Manao is the Thai lemon/lime. It's similar but different from a US lemon or lime. He would drink it every day if I let him!

I can't imagine driving out these windy mountain roads for hours, sometimes in the rain, on the back (or top) of a Songthaew! I love that they've also stuffed two motorbikes on it too!

Ok, I think this is hilarious. See those piles of leaves and branches in the middle of the road?No traffic cones here! The branches are covering newly filled pot holes that haven't completely dried. They just put down the leaves and people don't drive over them.

I love agoda.com! We can get amazing deals for hotels here. We stayed in a beautiful resort for so cheap in the middle of the mountains. The only problem is that it's low season here and the place was a ghost town! We literally saw two other people there the entire time. The pool was a little dirty and they would actually turn the lights on in the restaurant when we went there to eat...no one else was there both nights. We lost water in the middle of the first night for about 12 hours and our electricity was going on and off because of thunderstorms. But our view was amazing!

Farmers burning their rice fields.

Another view from the room.

The market right on the other side of the border. The guys with the baskets are selling cigarettes and pornography and they have no problem showing it to Damien and trying to get him to buy it even with me standing right there.

I love that you can see the farmer out there working in the field.

Damien was brave and went swimming with the boys. It wasn't terribly dirty but enough to make it not very relaxing for me. Orin got his rash a few days later and we still wonder if something in the water caused the rash???

We bought some cereal (which we usually don't have) and the kids ate on the balcony in the morning. Cereal and pomelo made for the perfect breakfast in their eyes.

Photo's just can't do it justice!

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