July 2017 Update: Sawadee!

Sawadee! (Thai greeting)

We finally made it to Chiang Mai…and didn’t lose Molly, our toy poodle, in the process!  We are here, although getting here sure was exciting.  We give thanks to God, He moved mountains and did amazing things in our circumstances to help us arrive safely.

One incident that gave us more than a bit of excitement was when Lori’s passport was lost or taken on its way to a Visa Expeditor in Dallas.  We strongly suspect it was taken.  Simpson’s passport and the rest of our documents made it okay but her passport had disappeared.  The expeditor sent us a picture of the package they received and it looked like it was tampered with.  We were now 14 days before our departure date!

So Lori quickly applied for a replacement passport and had it expedited. Never having done this before, we were hoping that she’d be able to walk out with her new passport that same day.  Nope.  Pick-up in two days.  As soon as Lori had the new passport in hand, she drove to the closest FedEx to get it to the waiting expeditor with a return label.  Some kind of delay in FedEx’s system made her miss that day’s shipment.  The package would not leave until the next day and not arrive in Dallas for another 3 days!  (Because of our distance from the Mainland, FedEx in Hawaii is more like “FedEx, Jr.” but that’s true for all shippers)  The visa expeditor confirmed receipt but our visas but would not get shipped out until July 21.  Our flight to Chiang Mai was July 25–thank the Lord, passports and visas arrived on July 22. Talk about a nail biter!

The flight to Chiang Mai was without incident.  We were a little concerned that if there was a major delay in our flight, especially while we were in Korea for our connecting flight, we might not have a place to stay overnight because most places are not dog friendly.  Thankfully, no delays!   We were welcomed at the Chiang Mai airport by our ZOE family (see photo).  This is only about half of them because many of the missionary families were on break.

Since our arrival it’s been a whirlwind of activity. Our first priorities were to find our new home and purchase a new (used) car.  Without a home address one cannot open a bank account, purchase a car, obtain a driver’s license or work permit, etc.  We stayed with another missionary family who graciously housed us while we looked for our home.  Another missionary family generously lent us their car.  Each of the missionaries who were available volunteered time to help us with the transition, run errands and provide us with a meal or two.  That time with them was so invaluable because they have helped us with so many details that we would NEVER have been able to figure out ourselves, and it was a great opportunity to get to know each of them better.  Molly seems to be adjusting well, too, we are so grateful with how things have turned out so far.

We are learning so much about this new place and the people and the culture here.  This experience is also teaching us about ourselves and that if we lean into God we can push past what we think our limitations are. There is a different pace and cadence to doing things here, we pray that God gives us wisdom and graciousness as we try to get things accomplished in our host country.  But we are reassured that God is with us in all that we do.

We miss our friends and family in Hawaii but God has lavished us with love by the welcome and hospitality of our ZOE family, and the kindness of the Thai people.  You continue to be in our thoughts and prayers!