Thinking of good times during crazy times

Since we are still trying to play blog catch up, I thought now was a nice time to reflect on special memories from December and January...(and then on to Corona virus at the end...)

(Christmas activities with our medical patients from Burma)

Quick visit from Gia and Papa in Chiang Mai!

In December our office closed for two weeks for the Christmas holiday and since we didn't do a relief mission this year we decided to seize the opportunity to go "home" for Christmas. In two short weeks, we were able to enjoy a jet-lagged visit with my grandparents in Tacoma, Wa, Christmas in Oregon with Adam's family, and New Year's in California with my side of the family. I was even able to spend a day with a couple of my closest girlfriends and celebrate some significant life events coming up for us all this year (more below). We did learn our lesson though that 2 weeks is too short; We were basically jet-lagged the whole trip!

Hanging with Eden's great-grandparents in Washington.

So much jet lag in...

Christmas fun with Grandma Jo

Special moments with cousins...

And lots to celebrate this year with my girlfriends in California: 2020 is the year where we'll have 3 babies and a wedding :)

See, lots of good news and good memories!

And now on to the Corona Virus...it feels like that's all anyone talks about these days but I just wanted to quickly update you on how we are doing here in Thailand. So far there hasn't been a big panic. Most people wear masks, but that's not so unusual this time of year when our city shoots to #1 in the world for worst air quality :( We are already trying to stay inside with our air filters just for that reason alone. Our grocery stores seem to be pretty well stocked and so far we haven't wanted for anything. I think the price of masks has shot up to about $1 a piece and you can only buy one bottle of hand sanitizer at a time, but its available. Government building and hospitals meet you at the door to give you some before you enter and do seem a bit wary to have foreigners amongst themselves. Schools have just recently closed (though most are on "summer break" anyway) and other businesses like gyms and massage parlors have shut down for a few weeks. I imagine more things will change soon as the last few days have shown an increased number of cases here in Thailand (though I've only heard of 2 in our city).

People have a lot of opinions on what we should do as foreigners living abroad, but our plan is to stay put, not panic, help our community, and ride this out together. We aren't worried and have great support systems here in case the problem grows.

Our only wonder for the future is if we will make it back to the USA by mid June for my friend's wedding and before I hit the "no fly" period for pregnancy. We do hope to return this summer to have baby #2 in America, due first week of August. We also aren't worried though if we get stuck for the summer in Thailand since Eden was born here and we already have good prenatal care and understand the system. Only time will tell and we trust God's plan.

Thank you for your prayers for our community here and we also are praying every day for those suffering and going through hardships in the USA! It is a complicated time but its nice to hear stories of people standing together to help one another and be a larger global community that offers kindness and support.