Category Archives: Expat With A Kid

Answering The Call

“Uncertainty is everywhere. But I am living in the midst of the uncertainty and risk, amid things that can and do bring physical destruction, because I am running from things that can destroy my soul: complacency, comfort, and ignorance. I am much more terrified of living a comfortable life in a self-serving society and failing to follow Jesus than I am of any illness or tragedy. Jesus called His… followers to be a lot of things, but I have yet to find where He warned us to be safe. We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger, God is right there with us. And there is no better place to be than in His hands.”

Excerpt From: Katie J. Davis & Beth Clark. “Kisses from Katie.” Howard Books. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.

This is an excerpt from the book “Kisses from Katie,” which I am currently reading thanks to a dear friend that heard “the call” to send it to me.  I am only in the first fifty pages but WOW is this young woman an inspiration to me.  She heard the call and answered without hesitation.  If only all Christians could respond in the way that she has done.  Katie is a young girl and at the age of 18 heard Gods call to help the orphans in Uganda.  She decided against her wonderful life back in the states, left her friends, and a college education to go care for the sick and needy.

Continue reading →

“Thailand looks good on you Beck!”

My sweet friend told me this last week and I think she is right. A first is was nervous about coming to a new place not knowing a soul but after a month of being here and really trying to immerse myself in our new routine and the Thai culture I am starting to believe that this is a great fit for me.

Continue reading →

An addition to my job description

As Chief Mommy Officer, CMO, I have added a new bullet point to my resume.
I am now officially Killian’s Personal Assistant. As you have read before I am trying to “make it happen” with the different play dates just to make sure we get out of the house and so I can meet some new friends. I am so thankful to God that His plan involved coming to Bangkok with a child, otherwise I have no idea how I would make any friends, kids are the icebreaker for every single conversation. With that being said I search the Internet daily at nap time to find us activities to do during the week. I think I have just about planned out our week for the most part, which is needed to keep Master Horace on a schedule to prevent any meltdowns.

Continue reading →

Our New Theme

20130121-123818.jpg

Chris wanted me to share this with everyone, most of our close friends know us as having a theme each year. As some of you recall our wedding year was called “winging it” 2008. This was because we didn’t know what we were doing but decided instead of me becoming a bridezilla we would just “wing it”. It’s more fun that way anyway.

Continue reading →

Update on our living situation

We are currently living in a service apartment, which is our halfway house, until we find our permanent home. It is a nice place with a nice view, as you have seen from some of the pictures. Today we went apartment hunting again and we found the place that we will call home for our time here in Bangkok! Our new home will not be available until February 15th but it is worth the wait. It is bigger than our home in Greenville with 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms, and a balcony overlooking the city. The view is from the 8th floor, we would have liked to have been higher up but the great part about this location is a huge home was just built right in front of the building, which means there is no way a skyscraper is going to block our perfect view, in addition we get to see a beautiful house on the ground floor instead of the slums.

Continue reading →

Play dates aren’t just for our kids

I’m learning making friends in Bangkok isn’t so hard. I have always been outgoing, never to shy, and genuinely enjoy talking to others. This is a skill that has been honed and I believe made better from my time campaigning and I am very grateful for that skill. The other day I was looking on the moms group website and I found another (soon to be) mom on the website that said she was new to the area so I decided I would throw myself out there and I gave her my number and said if she wanted to get together to just give me a call! Not 30 minutes later she did! Later she told me she was telling her husband that she a worried she was to “keen” calling so soon! Come to find out, we expat moms who are home while our husbands are working, are all in the same boat!

Continue reading →

What’s going on with Chris?

20130115-195722.jpg

Chris is working on the 15th floor of the Michelin building, which is a 25 minute commute by cattle car (BTS). When he takes the BTS in the morning it is packed and he has to force himself into the car but he says once he is on his way everyone plays on their iPhones. After a few stops the crowd dwindles on the train and he continues his journey to work. Once at work he is greeted by the maid with a hot black coffee and a water, this continues throughout the day, one after lunch and one in the afternoon at some point. He works with a group of very friendly Thais, they are welcoming, show him around, and include him in their going out to lunch everyday. Chris gets to go out to eat everyday at lunch because it only costs about $1 US, this is cheaper than the cost of PB&J!

Continue reading →

Mission Impossible?

(Insert mission impossible theme music)
Becky your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to go out and make a friend.
Today we got up and I was determined to find my playgroup of this moms group that I have joined. I find where it is and have written out my directions to give to the cab driver and then I think I will call to confirm that there is a meeting at the preschool before I make the trip. First I email, no response, then I call the coordinator of the play group, no response, I then call the preschool and she says she never heard from the group coordinator to know if they were meeting there or not… Great… To be honest I was a little upset. I was really looking forward to doing something today on our own. Then I decide we are going to the park!

Continue reading →

Overwhelmed

Yesterday was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even write about it when I got home.

The night before I try to do laundry in the washer dryer combo machine that really can only hold about 3 pieces of clothing at a time and boy that was an adventure in and of itself. First I run one load of clothes and I don’t know how to work the machine so no soap gets to the clothes to actually wash them. I ask Chris to get me the manual to figure it out and he shouts from the kitchen “would you like the Thai or Japanese version”. Awesome. So then Chris takes a crack at it and finally there is soap in the mix now. Now it’s time to dry the clothes, who knew how long this would take! It took all night of the machine beeping and then I took some clothes out to make it dry faster and nope that didn’t work… So I just took all the clothes out and hung them up around the condo. Blah. I miss my washing machine and dryer and especially them being 2 separate machines…

Continue reading →

No sleep…

“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one. ”
~Leo J. Burke

To say that Killian is adjusting to bedtime would be a lie. My son is so confused on his days and nights he took a 4 hour nap last night to where we thought it was bed time and decided to party until 1 am and then he slept until 4 am when we started our day (trying to keep your baby to sleep without a crib is ridiculous)! I have been running on 3 hours of sleep a day for 3 days now and I’m starting to have a hard time seeing straight. Today we tried to keep him to his normal nap time and bedtime and boy was he pissed when we woke him up at 1 pm (which would be like me waking him up in the states at 1 am). He cried and screamed and had his eyes rolling back in his head for about an hour and then he stopped and just looked like a zombie. In addition to not sleeping he hasn’t been eating but finally today he ate some pork on a stick, a hot dog and corn. (Insert sigh of relief)

Continue reading →