Apple Pies and Accidents

Well, first I want to apologize for the lateness of this blog post. We've been going out every day doing wedding stuff and once I get home and take a shower, I just want to sit. SORRY!

We had an interesting day earlier this week. FIRST, we introduced Arm to my mom's apple crumb pie. We even recruited him to help! He's a natural :D.



That night we also invited Ting over and we made cheese burgers and apple pie. How much more American can you get? Okay, okay, no hot dogs, but hamburgers are better anyway.



Here is our finished apple pie. Looks good, huh? :D. It tasted good too. Warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream is hard to beat. There are some things that make being American so nice :D. hahaha






And now. . . after the visual, I bet you're all wondering about my mom's accident. Well, let me begin by telling you that I had NOTHING to do with it. She wanted to go get a drink at a mini mart near my house and I took ALL of our bags home. Now. . .for the story. She went and got her drink and a full cup of ice. She was so excited about her cup of ice. As she was walking home and almost to my apartment, a car was coming down the street. Since our back streets are very narrow, she had to move to the side of the street. Rather than wait for the car to pass, she thought she could keep walking straight in the dark without looking too closely at the road right in front of her. There lies her mistake. She took one step and WHOOSH. . .down she went into a sewer hole. She obviously didn't fall the WHOLE way in, but half of her body (as you can see from the visual) was black. What was funnier is I was in the shower when she knocked on my door, so she had to wait outside my door for about 5 minutes while I got out of the shower. When I opened the door, I saw she was okay and started laughing. Then, I took a picture while listening to her story and before telling her to take off her shoes before coming into my room. Ah. . .the joys of having my mom here. You might not get her back ;). Dad. . . could you move to Thailand?

Wedding Shower!!!!!!!!

The girls from church threw me a wedding shower! It was so sweet of them and so much fun! This is going to be a picture blog so all of you can enjoy it as well. Have a wonderful day and God bless!



The food was great! .. . and a little random hahaha. We had Mexican dip, sushi, coffee ice cream punch (YUM), chocolate chocolate dessert, American casserole, chocolate chip cookie pie, bean dip, and brucetta. haha. It all tasted great!



I'm so glad we waited until my mom could be here too. It has been great to have her being an active part of getting ready for the wedding. Beats wedding planning over skype anyday!



These are some of the girls from church who came to the shower.



4 out of the 5 bride's maids! TRISHA! HURRY UP! :D



All the mothers at my shower. They got put on their own exclusive team for the game.



One half of the room. . .



The other half of the room. We had about 25 people in all.



They sang a song that Arm sent me a long time ago and this was my reaction when I realized what they were singing. My fiance is such a sweetie :D. Ting and her mom and sister came too. Don't ask me why she didn't sit next to me on the couch instead of on the floor hahaha.



They all prayed for Arm and I and our future together. This is a meaningful time because Thais don't pray silently. They all pray outloud together, so you can hear all of these people and what they're saying and the confidence and earnestness in their voices. It makes it so special :D.



It was also nice that my mom was tightly holding my hand the whole time we were praying.



This is my small group giving me my shower present. We're an all girls small group and 1 is married and I'm getting married. YEAH! Let's see if the trend continues ;) haha. Kidding.



This is Ting with her mom and sis and me. They also brought me a gift. It was beautiful plates and bowls. YEAH!!!!!!

This was a really speical day with my mom and everyone from church and with Ting's family. I'll always remember it and wanted to share it with y'all too. May God bless and be with you all.

Mother of the Bride has Entered the Building!!!!!

My mom has arrived and suddenly it feels real that Arm and I are getting married! I guess we've just been talking about things for so long, but now my mom's here and it feels like things are in motion! YEAH! She's been great. On the way home from the airport, we took her to the church and the reception hall. Then, the next day, she and I went to try on my wedding dress. FUN FUN FUN! After that, she got her first street meal of this trip and tried some "Phad Thai" (below) and loved it!



That night we ordered pizza, but the next night, Arm and I cooked Thai food for her. I cooked a dish that Arm had taught me before, and then he cooked something news. I cooked beef with green vegetables in garlic and oyster sauce and he cooked another kind of green vegetable in egg. Yum yum yum.



You can see how we cook right now. We're cooking in front of the door so that the smell doesn't fill our room. It's okay for now, but both of us want a kitchen in our next house. Doesn't have to be a big kitchen, just a kitchen :D. haha.



Our plans got changed for Friday because of the mobs in Bangkok, so we decided to have a fun day. Mom got a pedicure (with fire engine red nail polish!) and I got a manicure to get my nails stronger and start getting them ready for the wedding day. Well, we got more than we bargained for and we were very happy! Massaging chairs, hand or foot massage, lotion, etc. Talk about the royal treatment! Just another reason I love Thailand.



The most recent thing we've done is go back to Arm's parents house. It's Songkran (Thai New Year and Nationwide water war), so it's traditional to go back to your parents house. I wanted to go so that my mom could really experience Songkran, but so far we've been completely dry! We got there too late the first day we arrived and the second day we had too much to do. Plus, with all of the mobs and things (that are now over) Songkran was kind of ruined for most Thais this year. If that wasn't enough, it rained the second day we were there too. However, my mom got to enjoy some real authentic Thai cooking, be asked to dance Thai style (she refused as did I and Arm), eat amazing fish, and pick mangos using a 15 foot bamboo pole with a knife and small net attached. I figured the 15 foot pole would be the hardest one to believe, so I pictured it below :D.



It has been great having her here and it makes getting married more exciting (as if that was a possibility) than before with my mom here to help me plan. She's eaten a lot of rice, but still likes it and is always up for more rice :D. We'll sprinkle in some American food too for her, but right now she's enjoying herself. She even says it's not that hot. Talk about a sweet mom!

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts for her. All of her flights went well and she's definitely adjusted well. I love my mom!

Major Prayer Request

Wow! 2 times in one week! I know you're all thinking that, but when it rains it definitely pours in Thailand.

Arm and I went to a Christian youth conference (1,500 youth from all over Thailand)and heard some great speakers. Arm obviously understood more than I did, but I was able to get the jist of most of the speakers. Since the camp was in his province close to his parents house, we decided to go spend some time with them and I'm glad we did!

At first, it was only his mom there and Arm got another chance to share with her about Christ. Arm did most of the talking and told her about Christ's protection, assurance of salvation, the father-child relationship we have with Christ, etc. and she sat and listened! She said she had prayed before and God answered her prayers very quickly, which really surprised her and we knew she prayed to God. She told me once that she felt she could pray to God and still be Buddhist. I told her she could a little, but everyone at church believes God is the only one and you can only love Him (the Thai way of saying "No, you can't do that" haha). Arm told her even more clearly that she couldn't do both last night. He even asked her why she would go to the temple to make merit if she already had Jesus and His 100% assurance of salvation. She didn't know what to say. We gave her a Bible we had gotten from the camp and marked John for her and she promised she'd read it. She also said she would give us her answer by our wedding day (May 9). To give a deadline by which you would choose to follow Christ or not is a HUGE step for any Thai person. We finished by praying for her and she said she felt peace after we prayed.

I am asking everyone to PLEASE keep Arm's mom in your prayers. She is at a pivitol point and this is obviously really important to Arm as right now he's the only Christian in his ENTIRE family. I can't imagine what it would be like for him to know that he could be the only one in his family praising God in Heaven one day. I also ask you to pray for Arm's sister as she is worrying her mom and not calling her mom. I think she's being a normal teenager (even though she's in college. Thai students mature slower than Americans), but her mom is concerned about her and would love for her daughter to call her. His mom's legs also hurt a lot (every evening she complains about her legs hurting) because she's worked hard her whole life. Please pray God will bring her comfort in her legs as well. These are all things she asked us to pray for on Monday night. We would really appreciate this.

I have attached a picture of me with Arm's family during his graduation celebration July '08. This way you'll have a face to put with your prayers. Thank you so much

God is working

Hello to all! It has been an exciting time in Bangkok. Life has been kept busy with wedding planning and running errands. It has also been a good time to relax and get ready to get married. My mom will be here in 6 days. She will be leaving on April 2 and will be spending time being Nana with 2 of her grandchildren before coming to Bangkok in April 8. I'm SO EXCITED for her to get here. We will be busy, but it will be so nice to plan the rest of the wedding with her here. We'll start by going and trying on my dress the day after she gets here. So exciting!! Please pray for her to adjust to the heat. It's pretty much 90-110 everyday here. Since we're closer to the equator, it feels hotter and I don't have a car either, which means walking. Also pray for all the little details to come together.

Now for the really exciting stuff :D. My student Jan has expressed interest in studying the Bible. Hopefully we'll be able to study on Thursdays since she has a class at the university. Her mother is still not liking the idea of going to church because she is very Buddhist, so Thursday is the only day we could meet. Jan can only go to church if her mom is somewhere else so she can get out of the house. Please pray for her mom to be more open to the idea. Her mother will be coming to our wedding and it will be an opportunity for her to hear the gospel. Please pray for everyone who is coming to our wedding who is not a Christian. Pray that their hearts will be open to the gospel.

I have also been building a stronger relationship with one of the teachers. Her boyfriend is Catholic and she is Buddhist. When she was in the states, her host family gave her a Bible. She sent me an e-mail today saying she was lonely and missed her boyfriend, so she opened the Bible and started reading. I sent her a verse to encourage her. Pray that this relationship will grow as well. She will also be coming to our wedding.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I really really really appreciate them! May God bless you.