December

So, I was just realizing that last year I updated about once a week, and now I am down to once a month. Most days I just feel as if they are normal and figure that no one want to hear about those things. I have done some fun things since I last wrote... 

In October I had a week off and headed south to Koh Chang (Elephant Island) with my roommate Kelly Crocker and then my other friend Kelly Newton came and met us there a few days later. We took a train down that took 17 hours -- it was overnight so we slept on it which added to the fun.  The Island is basically a giant mountain, with beautiful beaches along the edge. We stayed in some tiny little huts for $10 a night. The food at the hotel had great food so we really had no reason to leave our little section of the Island. It was a wonderful time just to sit and do absolutely nothing on the beach with two of my best friends. 

November lent itself to some great moments.  At the beginning of the month I took my fourth graders on an overnight trip to a Lahu hill tribe

 village about 5 hours north of Chiang Mai. It was the village where my teaching partner's husband was from so his family took great care of us. It

 was amazing getting the kids away from their parents and out in the hills of Thailand. They planted vegetables, pounded rice, rode water buffalos, picked fresh oranges, learned

 traditional Lahu dances, and got to attend their Thanksgiving celebration. A few times I wanted to pull my hair out just being with 30 10-year-olds can get quite overwhelming. My highlight was blending in an American tradition by teaching the kids how to make s'mores. It was so fun to watch them eat their first one. Something I did forget though, is that 10 year olds are too young to enjoy sleeping in, and think that it will be really fun to wake up at 5:30 and run around and scream... yea that wasn't so fun. I miss hanging out with high schoolers who you have to drag them out of bed by noon. If you ever want to see what I am doing in the classroom here is the classroom blog, which I also don't update as much as I'd like to! http://sarasclassroom.blogspot.com/

November was also wonderful because my long-time friend Hannah came and moved to Chiang Mai for a little while.  She and her sister got here just in time for loy Krathong which is the festival of lights here in Thailand.  It was so fun watching the lanterns fill up the sky like stars, and not so fun trying not to

 get hit by fireworks. Right

 when we walked out of their hotel there was a kid who couldn't have been older than 3 shooting off roman candles, yea thats how the fireworks can be a bit dangerous.

Thanksgiving was probably the highlight 

of November though.  Being away from family, I have found that friends quickly feel like family here. So, we decided to have our own thanksgiving together.

 Kelly and I hosted at our house, and its was so fun decorating with all sorts of fresh roses and sunflowers since flowers are so cheap here. Everyone brought their favorite dishes and our dinner was a feast ranging from a turkey to green bean casserole to pumpkin pie. I have to say that it was my first attempt at homemade stuffing and it was quite good. We stuffed ourselves and just enjoyed one another. I am so blessed to have these friends in my life. 

At the end of November my school had a silent Auction to raise money

for our school. Each classroom was required to create one piece of artwork to be auctioned off. Well since we were learning about Thailand, I decided that I was going to have my kids make a map of Thailand where they each painted one square of the map. The map turned out pretty incredible, and once it was framed it looked like a true piece of art. My kids were super proud of their artwork, and it became the talk of the auction. It was bid on up to the last moment and ended up going for 4,500 baht which was one of the top items of the auction. I loved that it ended up going home with one of the sweetest little girls in my class. 

December has been a whirlwind, and I am 

shocked that I am halfway finished with this second school year. After year and a half of living here this city has become such a sweet place to me. I love my friends, my home, my job, my class, this beautiful place to live.  I never thought that I would love it so much that it would be a debate in my mind to if I want to leave or not.  I mean why would you leave a place that you love and enjoy, a place where your boss asks you, "How can I get you to stay here." Leave all of this, with no plan, no definite place in my mind to where I want to be -- or where I am supposed to be.  At the end of January I have to say yes or no to my job here, and my life here.  It's crazy to find your self in a place again where you have no clue where you are supposed to be. My roommate reminded me the other night though, how faithful God has been to me in my life.  That he has laid out all of the steps, perfectly.  And why would be stop now. I do love life here, but I also have a great family and a new nephew on the way -- and a great guy in California.  But I don't know. I wish somedays that this place was completely terrible so I would be dying to leave, but that is far from the case. I guess it puts me back in the place again to trust the Lord with what he has in store. To step out of the land of familiar out into the unknown all over again. A place to learn new things, a place to be humbled, a place where I am forced to depend on him all over again. 

Another great thing about December is that my Mom and Dad are coming on Thursday, Jared on Friday, and Anna, Andrew and Daniel next Tuesday. I just feel so loved that they would all travel to the other side of the world just to spend Christmas with me.  If I cross your mind over these next weeks if you could just pray for the time I get to spend with my family and Jared, that it would just be full of his joy and that we would give all of our expectations to him and have his agenda instead. Also for the Lord just to be clear to me where he wants me to be come June of 2009, that I would have a peace about where he wants me to be. 

Thank you for reading, I should really write more often so I don't ramble on and on...