Ok, so I bit the dust on my new ride today. It started out with Elijah being a little punk and stopping or slamming on his breaks. So I put him in the back of the line (Chris, Hailley, Elijah and me were riding to the park). You have to ride in a line because there are taxis and mopeds flying around like maniacs and you can't ride side by side. So Elijah kept asking if he could get in front of me and I kept telling him no! Chris slowed down and asked me what he did and instead of using my words like I always tell Elijah and Hailley, I tried to show him. My handlebars came loose, slid down, and I did a beautiful flip and landed on my shoulders and hips. Nice. I just laid there in the dirt, the garbage and whatever else was in the street and heard Chris say, "OH MY GOSH, ARE YOU OKAY?" I looked up and saw a little boy peeking out of his mom's shop and I yelled, "SAWADEE KHA!" which means "hello!" I jumped up and laughed and poor Elijah kept asking and asking if I was okay. I said to him, "See? God really does have built in punishments!" I shouldn't have kept him in the back, I shouldn't have tried to be a smarty pants and showed Chris what he was doing, and I should have listened to Chris and stopped to get my handle bars fixed. So, the lesson is, that even for mom, God has built in punishments.
As I lay here on the couch, my children keep looking over to see if I'm really okay, especially Elijah. I guess the sight of his ginormous mother doing a flip over the handle bar was traumatic. So, even though I have bruises already coming up on leg and shoulder, and Chris has made me ice and take 800 mg of motrin, I tell you, my pride is bruised more than my body. The only good thing out of this is that my kids will see that it's okay to fall, you just have to get back up and ride again. Not only your bike, but in everything. I laughed and had a great attitude after my lesson, and I hope my kids learned from it too. Maybe I will pay more attention to the things I say and the way I speak to Hailley and Elijah. In any case, I heard you God! Lots of love and many more adventures to come!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
God has built in punishments
Ok, so I bit the dust on my new ride today. It started out with Elijah being a little punk and stopping or slamming on his breaks. So I put him in the back of the line (Chris, Hailley, Elijah and me were riding to the
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Celebration Adventures!
On August 3, 2011 Chris and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary. Our first celebration in Thailand! We had a lady in our neighborhood keep Hailley and Elijah while we went out, so that was great. Chris scheduled messages at a place called Pyroma Spa for an hour and a half. It was absolutely fabulous-so fabulous that I fell asleep and woke myself up by grunting and scared the lady half to death. Chris heard me in the adjoining room and I am pretty sure it woke him up too. After getting messaged for that long, it is common to feel a little "drunk" from the toxins being released in your body. So, instead of calling for a taxi, we walked, and walked, and walked. We thought our restaurant was a few blocks down, and evidently we were wrong. A taxi obviously knew we were lost and pulled over and beeped for us to get in. We ran and jumped in and just told him to go straight. He laughed and took off. So, we finally found our restaurant but the taxi driver flew right past it. We ended up eating at a place in Tesco Lotus, the Walmart-like store that has fast food in it. We went to KFC, which was absolutely fabulous and then took another taxi to get our bikes from the school(which we just remembered we had left them). Then we rode back home on our bikes. It was a relaxing, fun night with my wonderful husband who I would obviously follow into the fiery pits of hell/or across the entire world and through the hood to find our way home! Yay 15 years of marriage! It has been so much fun, and I have to say that I love being Chris Irvin Wolski's wife.
So, on to our second celebration. Hailley's 14th birthday was August 6th, 2011. We got up, had brownies for breakfast, got dressed and got on our first BTS train ride ever. It was awesome. We saw our first therapist since we've been in Bangkok(for those of you who don't know our children were adopted and we all go to family counseling to help with the transition). She was so nice, but we certainly miss our Dr. Coots in the US. I think the new one will be just as wonderful given time. So, after meeting her, we all were walking back to the train when Chris saw a foot massage place. Chris asked Hailley if she would like a massage for her birthday and she screamed "yes!" So, we ALL went in and got an hour foot massage. It was fabulous! Even Elijah got his first massage ever. He did giggle the whole time and was really silly, but the Thai women love him as usual. After the wonderful foot massage, we got the train back to the station, took a taxi to the mall where Chris let Hailley pick out anything she wanted. She bought a necklace with her birthstone in it and some hair clips with sparkly things in them(which I might steal). We then went to any restaurant she wanted and she picked a Thai place! Very surprised by that one. It was awesome. They bring your food to the table in a skillet and you actually grill it yourself-to your liking. The food was great and I was so excited they had veggies! Not alot of that here, mostly rice and meat, with veggies as a garnish or for flavoring. After that, we went down and got the most delicious cream puffs in the world and sang happy birthday really loud and toasted our cream puffs. It was great.
Tonight we went to the furniture store(an Ikea-type) to buy a desk. We had to wait almost an hour for help while a young man ran all over the store to find someone who speaks English. When the girl who could speak English came up, we explained we wanted to buy the desk and chair. She asked us if we needed help carrying it out and we just looked at her like she was crazy. We told her we were on bicycles and she said they only deliver if you buy 7,000baht worth of stuff($233US). So, we decided to wait until we could afford to buy that much and have it delivered and so we left without a desk----again! Oh, well. Everything is turning into an adventure here. It is fun, crazy, sad, frustrating, and yet, I still love it. We still struggle with the kids, their behavior, our behavior, being a new family and moving across the world. I have faith that God brought us all here for a reason and letting go and realizing I never had control in the first place is the hardest thing to do. Leaning on God and knowing that no matter what, He's got us in his hands, is the most peaceful feeling and I love it. Please continue to pray for us, our safety-for ourselves, the kids, and spreading the love and word of God to the Thai people through education and missions. With love from the Gypsies!
So, on to our second celebration. Hailley's 14th birthday was August 6th, 2011. We got up, had brownies for breakfast, got dressed and got on our first BTS train ride ever. It was awesome. We saw our first therapist since we've been in Bangkok(for those of you who don't know our children were adopted and we all go to family counseling to help with the transition). She was so nice, but we certainly miss our Dr. Coots in the US. I think the new one will be just as wonderful given time. So, after meeting her, we all were walking back to the train when Chris saw a foot massage place. Chris asked Hailley if she would like a massage for her birthday and she screamed "yes!" So, we ALL went in and got an hour foot massage. It was fabulous! Even Elijah got his first massage ever. He did giggle the whole time and was really silly, but the Thai women love him as usual. After the wonderful foot massage, we got the train back to the station, took a taxi to the mall where Chris let Hailley pick out anything she wanted. She bought a necklace with her birthstone in it and some hair clips with sparkly things in them(which I might steal). We then went to any restaurant she wanted and she picked a Thai place! Very surprised by that one. It was awesome. They bring your food to the table in a skillet and you actually grill it yourself-to your liking. The food was great and I was so excited they had veggies! Not alot of that here, mostly rice and meat, with veggies as a garnish or for flavoring. After that, we went down and got the most delicious cream puffs in the world and sang happy birthday really loud and toasted our cream puffs. It was great.
Tonight we went to the furniture store(an Ikea-type) to buy a desk. We had to wait almost an hour for help while a young man ran all over the store to find someone who speaks English. When the girl who could speak English came up, we explained we wanted to buy the desk and chair. She asked us if we needed help carrying it out and we just looked at her like she was crazy. We told her we were on bicycles and she said they only deliver if you buy 7,000baht worth of stuff($233US). So, we decided to wait until we could afford to buy that much and have it delivered and so we left without a desk----again! Oh, well. Everything is turning into an adventure here. It is fun, crazy, sad, frustrating, and yet, I still love it. We still struggle with the kids, their behavior, our behavior, being a new family and moving across the world. I have faith that God brought us all here for a reason and letting go and realizing I never had control in the first place is the hardest thing to do. Leaning on God and knowing that no matter what, He's got us in his hands, is the most peaceful feeling and I love it. Please continue to pray for us, our safety-for ourselves, the kids, and spreading the love and word of God to the Thai people through education and missions. With love from the Gypsies!
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Crazy Bike Adventure
We have been walking everywhere for the last few weeks and have been planning on getting new bikes before school starts so Chris, Hailley and Elijah don't have to walk or taxi to school. We actually had a guy take Chris to buy Hailley and Elijah's last week but couldn't work out a time when he could take us to buy ours. Chris actually couldn't ride any of the bikes in the regular stores because of his height, so we had to go to the mall the furthest from us and ride the bikes home. After making many excuses (saying I'm too fat, I haven't been on a bike in 10 years,etc.) all of which are true, I made up my mind to do it. When we came to Thailand I promised myself I would enjoy it to the fullest and not be scared to do things. I don't want Hailley and Elijah to say I can't or quit before they try something, so I quit making excuses and told Chris I would do it.
We took a taxi to the Paradise Park Mall. I don't know how many miles it is, but with traffic, in the taxi it took us about 20 minutes to get there. We went in, picked out our bikes, got them serviced and started off on our trek home. Someone had told Chris about a back way to get home but not any specifics. So, in our adventurous state, we rode through the hood of Bangkok, through neighborhoods, through construction sites, over bridges, through towns, shops and many places I believe no foreigners have ever been. I say that because all the Thai people were coming out of their houses, shops and their jaws would drop when they drove by. A few people were yelling LUK FARONG! Which I'm pretty sure is crazy foreigner! It was great. I knew Chris did not have an exact knowledge of where we were, but I know he has good insticts and good directions, so I just followed and prayed that God would guide him and help us get home safely. After about an hour and a half, Chris said, "I know exactly where we are! We're on market street!" We turned left and were home in less than 3 minutes. I'm telling you, the girl who was too fat, who hadn't been on a bike in 10 years, who said she couldn't and wouldn't------DID! I rode that cute, bright orange bike with basket and bell through the hood of Bangna, Bangkok, following the love of my life and trusting God completely. It was the most exhilerating, fun adventure we have had in a while. I know I made it with God's grace and love and that if I can ride that bike for an hour and a half, I can just about ride it anywhere in Bangkok, even if I do look like Nanny McFee! So, THAT is the funnest story I have had so far and there is no way my words could do it justice. I just know that I proved that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything through Jesus Christ. AND........we made some Thai people's week. I'm sure they will talk about that sight for weeks! Love you all and until the next adventure..........Love!
We took a taxi to the Paradise Park Mall. I don't know how many miles it is, but with traffic, in the taxi it took us about 20 minutes to get there. We went in, picked out our bikes, got them serviced and started off on our trek home. Someone had told Chris about a back way to get home but not any specifics. So, in our adventurous state, we rode through the hood of Bangkok, through neighborhoods, through construction sites, over bridges, through towns, shops and many places I believe no foreigners have ever been. I say that because all the Thai people were coming out of their houses, shops and their jaws would drop when they drove by. A few people were yelling LUK FARONG! Which I'm pretty sure is crazy foreigner! It was great. I knew Chris did not have an exact knowledge of where we were, but I know he has good insticts and good directions, so I just followed and prayed that God would guide him and help us get home safely. After about an hour and a half, Chris said, "I know exactly where we are! We're on market street!" We turned left and were home in less than 3 minutes. I'm telling you, the girl who was too fat, who hadn't been on a bike in 10 years, who said she couldn't and wouldn't------DID! I rode that cute, bright orange bike with basket and bell through the hood of Bangna, Bangkok, following the love of my life and trusting God completely. It was the most exhilerating, fun adventure we have had in a while. I know I made it with God's grace and love and that if I can ride that bike for an hour and a half, I can just about ride it anywhere in Bangkok, even if I do look like Nanny McFee! So, THAT is the funnest story I have had so far and there is no way my words could do it justice. I just know that I proved that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything through Jesus Christ. AND........we made some Thai people's week. I'm sure they will talk about that sight for weeks! Love you all and until the next adventure..........Love!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)