Welcome Rachael to our family. She is three years old and has been living at our friends orphanage since she was three days old. It was intended for her to be adopted by our friend who in the end wasn’t able to. He has given her to us and she has been with us for three weeks now. We aren’t too sure about being able to adopt her either. It is a very complicated process. She will always be our daughter but it may not be able to happen on paper. Everyone is still adjusting but most everything seems positive with the new change in her and our life. Abby is enjoying being a new big sister.
Eli is amazing. He is beginning to walk and will be one year on the ninth of this month.
The house is pretty much finished. I just finished the bathroom last week. We brought the girls up a couple of weeks ago while Lisa Gavin was here and they had a great time staining the outside.
We are looking forward to B-ma and almost all the Blues coming here in the next couple of weeks. We will spend time in the village doing everything from painting, teaching, soap making, cooking, and working in the coffee field. People in the village are excited and wont stop asking for B-ma.
The coffee is looking great and after a couple set backs with the locals most things seem to be doing well. In one area we were forced to take out our banana trees because they believe there is an evil spirit attached to the tree that makes them sick. We refused for awhile and even used the opportunity to speak to them about God. But after they released cows in our field and threatened my brother in laws life. We were forced to remove the banana trees. Since then we have planted a new fast growing, nitrogen fixate, shade tree to replace the banana trees.
Prang is doing well and is busy with the weaving project in the village and even some free lance translation. We are brain storming and researching many new business opportunities for her. We are in the process of buying and selling avocado and coffee. This could some day turn into a business or a company here in Thailand. We will be driving up to Chiang Rai tomorrow to meet with farmers and with local buyers. Prang will also be starting school here next term in December. She will be studying on Saturdays and Sundays to some day become a teacher as well.
The next month is packed with many trips to the village, B-ma and the Blues, soap making, buying and selling avocado’s, taking care of coffee trees, and hopefully at some point having some sort of a vacation. We have yet to have had a vacation since we first got married four years ago.
Please check out our pictures link. I have many recent photos uploaded