Living in Asia is a little bit like being on a tilta-whirl…you seem like you have the hang of living in a foreign country that Bam! something else gets thrown at you and you feel like you are upside down again! Every week there are “curve balls” thrown at you and you have to be ready to duck or hit the ball. For example, we are helping to makeover the Team house(where all team trips stay) and we went to buy paint at the store and even with our little bit of Thai we ended up with the wrong primer. We needed white, they gave us…clear? They said its better to stick to concrete walls..yes but I need white primer so I don’t need to use five coats! They insisted this is what we needed. I insisted it’s not. Guess who ended up with 9 liters of clear primer?  Things like this happen all the time! We always try to let our readers feel what it’s like to live here. So we wanted to see what our readers were curious about so we asked them ” what do you want to know about life over here?” These are just some of the questions and our answers.

1. What are the toilets like..squattie potties or sitty doonies? ( not sure on what a doonie is but it’s asked by our Scottish friend..lol) BOTH! You never know sometimes but usually the places won’t have toilet paper, so you bring your own or use the napkins provided for your meal or just drip dry. Tessa HATES the squatties. The other day we went to a festival and they had sheet metal walls for each squattie and she kept saying” mommy I need help my legs are tired(from squatting)” The kids will have great leg strength!
2. Food Fails? Weird foods? Most of you know I am not an adventurous when it comes to food. At. All. However the kids have ate fried worms and crickets. They said they tasted like chips! Any market you go to there is all kinds of crazy stuff..and even on a stick! We order food in Thai and often it comes like something else…mostly because we aren’t pronouncing it correctly. We just smile and nod. Thai’s like their spice! I am thankful our kids like spice as well. They will come back to America and eat “spicy” food and it won’t even phase them I think.
3. What continues to be your biggest challenge either as a family or just in your marriage as you live life in Thailand?  Well..I don’t know if I can narrow it down…I think one of our biggest challenge has been Samm and I switching places. I think for everyone that has been the biggest impact. The kids already had a huge change in coming to a foreign land, food, house, language but then to swap mom and dad and their roles has been hard stuff. It has been the hardest part in our marriage as well. We try to keep it positive on our blog and newsletters because there is so much to be grateful for..but we have took a few slugs in being here. It has pushed us beyond limits we thought we had. After a year and half it’s gotten better and we have learned a little thing called GRACE…still learning though!
4. In what area of your faith has God radically grown and blessed you since moving to Thailand? Again..very hard to even say. For us as a family we have had to learn to rely on Him like never before obviously..but not just in the finances. To rely on Him to be our strength when we are so darn exhausted and spent. To rely on Him when I question if our kids will be glad they lived here and experienced God so closely. It’s not some fairy-tale-save-the-world-mission..it’s life just like anyone’s but with curveballs we didn’t recognize or think about. God has helped us all realize its just not about us..its about Him wanting to be in relationship so intimately with Him. He uses anything and everything to make that happen.Especially when you move across the globe!
5. Thoughts on giving your kids their 1st culture heritage in a second culture? Ooh this is a good one…and one we didn’t even think about before we left. We are SO grateful for CRICS the kids school! It has CHANGED our lives. They get to go to a school run mostly by Americans with kids in it from all over the world, that is Christian and has an American curriculum! UNREAL! It’s only 30 minutes away from our house! So this has helped us so much in keeping them tied to their original culture in so many ways while still learning about Thai culture! This school is a Godsend! We also still celebrate all the other holidays..they just look different here and much less fancy.

Thats all for now! Thanks for reading! Send us any more questions you might have!

Ever Grateful!

The Platts