Grat No. 12: God's Promises

I am grateful for God's promises. I am so glad that when trouble strikes and panic wants to set in; I am never alone through these challenges. I am thankful that God helps me to patiently endure frustrating and difficult situations. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Number 8: Forgiveness

I am grateful for God's forgiveness. When I have to deal with forgiving others I am reminded about how extremely glad I am that he forgives me.

Number 6: Communication

I am grateful for the time spent talking on the phone to my mum and sister today. It was so wonderful to hear their voices and get up to date with their news.

I am so thankful for the technology available to me to email, send photos, call someone in another country, Skype and Facebook.

Number 4: A new friend!

I made a new friend today. A lovely, inspiring lady named Laura. Her and her husband and their 3 young children moved to Chiang Mai about 5 months ago and work in a children's home.

Today I am thankful that we could meet and have coffee. I am grateful for our similar experiences, sense of humor and the opportunity to share. Here's her blog. http://www.lauraleighparker.com/

Number 3: Psalm 65

I am so grateful for the new bible study group I started last week. Ironically this week's study is all about Psalm 65... a psalm of gratitude!

I am starting to feel the 'community' life now and making friends and venturing out... I am glad for these things!

1000 Gratitude Challenge

We're thinking about following the lead set by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience.

But we're going to work together to make a list of 1000 Gratitudes!

Do you want to join us as we reach our goal and begin to feel more joy, less stress, better health and more connected? Email us at:

melhynes@mac.com

Cool Relief

As I spoke to my sister on an international call this afternoon I could hear a strange noise.

I didn't think much of it as there are a lot of weird and wonderful things that happen here in Thailand but as the afternoon wore on I heard it more.

By the time I was putting my eldest two children to bed, I exclaimed "I think that sounds like thunder but surely not...".

It's the dry- burning off season here and the air quality is currently horrendous. Rain isn't due for another month or so I thought, but sure enough it was thunder!

Standing out on our upstairs balcony, the three of us said a prayer for some rain- despite the odds.

The children have been kept inside at kinder the last three days because the air is so bad so once I explained that the rain would hep clear the air, they started proclaiming rain too ... in faith!

Well, they snuggled down to read some books waiting for my husband to get home, who'd been working late, and as we heard him coming up the driveway we peered out the upstairs windows... low and behold there was spits of rain!!

We were all so excited and the children loved it that God heard their request.

I am so grateful to now be sitting here in my study with the windows all open, a coolish breeze blowing into the house and the sound of rain still hitting the roof and ground.

We have had our curtains closed and windows shut for the past couple of weeks due to the air quality, soaring temperatures and bugs so it's a wonderful, miraculous surprise and I am extremely thankful! Yay!

PS Mel, we cancelled our Thai lesson earlier too so after all that, we can enjoy this beautiful evening! I'm off to dance in the rain...like this picture LOL

Shine!

Since arriving in Thailand, it has been a whirlwind of experiences and emotions.

Discovering where to shop, how to connect mobiles and home phone, get licenses, learn the language... the list goes on.

In particular, deciding on a church is a decision that we are currently making that takes considerable time, planning and energy. It's quite difficult to take 3 small children with us to a different church each week, not knowing what to expect or even if the service will be in English! How I miss those Sundays of familiar surroundings and people.

A time where the children were excited to attend their church program and looked forward to seeing their teachers and friends.

My grat today is for the wonderful, refreshing, challenging women's conference (Shine) I attended last weekend. It was so great to be able to get away by myself and have plenty of time to listen to the messages, sing uninterrupted, "fill up" with lots of encouragement and go back to my family feeling refreshed and ready for the next stint. This was really special for me and a time that I feel particularly grateful to have had.

Settling in Thailand

Since arriving in Thailand we have been so wonderfully blessed by those around us.

I am grateful for all the help we've received: things picked up, being driven around for 2 and a half weeks, meals made for us, household items and toys leant to us and just general assistance with getting our family organised.

Today my husband is off securing a car so finally we'll have our own transportation to get around AND on Thursday our shipment of boxes will be delivered to our house. This is so exciting as we've sent over saucepans, towels, children's bedroom items and much more and I am hanging out to properly set up home.

There is a lot to feel thankful for today....

Since

A slower pace...

I am so grateful that my husband has had some time off since Christmas. We've actually managed a few sleep-ins, lots of fun with the children as well as some really great progress with our sorting and packing. I feel a lot more relaxed within myself and a little less 'edgy'.

Vaccines!

Over the past few weeks, in preparation for our move to Thailand, our family has had a LOT of injections. My little one-year-old had seven in one go and then another two in the following couple of weeks with two still to go.

The other children have had lots too as well as my husband and I.

I am grateful that even though this has been one of the more traumatic experiences pre-travel, it has been made easier by having caring family members like my father-in-law and mother come with me to the Royal Children's Hospital to help out with the children on these days. It's a big trip in to the city and a pretty stressful situation so I am so glad to have not had to go it alone. I am also grateful for the clever people who create these vaccines and make them available to us to help make traveling to a foreign country with children a little less worrisome.

Seeing Clearly Grat

A couple of weeks ago I had laser eye surgery done on my eyes. It's an amazing procedure that's for sure. I'd heard the testimonies of many others who had had it done but until experiencing it first hand, I couldn't fully understand.

I am grateful to be able to watch my children's swimming lessons without my glasses fogging up.

I am grateful to not have to wear glasses while driving.

I am grateful to be able to wear ANY sunglasses that I want- not just prescription.

I am grateful that one of my eyes has above 20/20 vision (the other eye has been slower to reach its full potential)

I am grateful that I can see my children across the room when they want to hold up what they're doing and show me something...

AMAZING STUFF!

Kindergarten grat

I am so thankful for the wonderful year my son had at 3 year old kinder this year. He has now officially graduated... well until we move to Thailand anyway and he has to do second semester again (as their school year is different to ours) LOL!

But I am so grateful he had a great last day, for his lovely teacher who sent us a beautiful personal email and for his gorgeous little friends. His best friend Eddie's dad told me they were definitely coming to visit us in the school holidays next year!

It's been so amazing to see how one year has helped develop his confidence and abilities so much.

Catching up....

I have missed writing down my grats for a week or so now and the "list" that I was storing up in my head is getting long. I won't write them all down but here's just a few:

My son has a little 'bestie' at kinder named Eddie. The other day at kinder I was able to share with Eddie's dad about what we were going to do in Thailand and we ended up having a really great conversation. It turns out that Eddie's dad was raised in Singapore in a really poor family where missionaries helped them get through. He sees this as one of the turning points in his life and now, after migrating to Australia, and setting himself up financially he attends church and supports other missionaries in their work. This was an amazing chat and one that left me feeling such a buzz. We have agreed to keep in contact while we're away.

Also while waiting at kinder another day, I began chatting to a friend (also in my mother's group). She was talking about her upcoming holiday when I asked the usual questions, "where are you going?" "what date?" etc.

Funnily enough we discovered that we're traveling on the same day, same airline, same destination AND same flight!! How funny is that? I am grateful for this coincidence and to have other people we know (and one of the children's friends) on the same flight as us.

Finally I am thankful for the health and wellness that has been restored to our family. After a couple of months of infections, viruses and gastro; it seems this morning that we are all well! Yay!!

CAR grat

I have a few grats about our car. First of all, my husband took it and filled it up for me the other day when he went out so that I wouldn't have to do it during the week.

Secondly, my mother-in-law not only organised it to be serviced (at a time she knew wouldn't put me out) but drove it there and brought it back too.

Then the next day, my father-in-law grabbed my keys off me and went and washed my car for me!!! How blessed am I? A clean, serviced and fully tanked car. Yay!!!

The smell of roses!

This is a photo of one of the beautiful roses outside my in-law's house (where we are living at the moment). There is a row of about ten rose bushes of all different colours.

For the past couple of weeks I have had a cough/cold thing and I've had no sense of smell but my grat today is for the delightful aroma I was able to enjoy last night as I stepped out the front door. It was incredible. Each rose has a different scent and put together was the most amazing combination.

I must admit, I haven't minded having no smell during the times of changing dirty nappies LOL but it was so refreshing to be able to enjoy "smelling" once again!

So very grateful!

I am so thankful for this little boy. My youngest son just turned one this week. A year ago I was just meeting him for the first time and now it feels like he's been with us for ever. I am so grateful for the sense of "fun" my son brings to our family, for his funny ways and loads of giggles. I am so glad he made his way in to my life and 'completed' our family. He is a wonderful little treasure that brings me so much joy ahhhhh.....

Windows By the Bay

I am grateful for the lovely dinner I shared with 3 of my 'mother's group' friends last night. We got to sit right by the window and watch the sun set over the water as we chatted. The food was delicious, the company lovely and it was an all-round wonderful night out.

145th post!

Sometimes I catch myself thinking that “it’s only easy to find things to be grateful for on the ‘good’ days” but so often I am reminded about how many things there are to be glad about on the hard days too.

Yesterday was one example where despite things totally not going to plan; I was clearly able to see acts of kindness, helpfulness and provision amongst it all.

I had to do the kinder run leaving at 8:10am, rush back to get the passports witnessed then go to the passport interview… that’s all but getting through all this was more of a challenge than I thought.

It started in the night with my almost one-year-old having a high temperature and vomiting on me by about 7am. Thankfully my precious father-in-law was able to drop my other son at kinder, which meant my little one could have an extra sleep. This made all the difference in him being able to sit through all the waiting of the next couple of hours. The passport lady was really kind and thankfully didn’t find fault in any of the forms (this was a huge load off my mind). The old lady at the bakery took a fancy to the children and gave us some free bread rolls. The doctor’s surgery near our temporary home is free/bulk billed for children, which is so different to our old one. They are really lovely there too and were so understanding as my little boy vomited again and was so unsettled. My husband then swapped around his day and took my daughter with him to do the kinder pick up and attend a parent-teacher interview. He then stayed out later and played with the two eldest at a park and brought dinner home with him!

So amongst the tears and sadness from my baby (I can call him that for another week!) there was also so much to be thankful for.

Andie

So much love in the room...

On Friday, my wonderful, long-time friend (who I've known since I was about 4 years old) came over for a play with her three children. We started the morning by celebrating her daughter's 4th birthday with a little party and then giving her a present. She is a huge "Angelina" fan (and 'no' that's not Brad and Angelina... Angelina Ballerina).

I'd found a DVD of the actual ballet, which she's been to see at the beginning of the year. She was so excited and asked to put it on immediately. This was great because my children had been asking to watch it too but I kept telling them they'd have to wait. So we put on the DVD and four eldest children sat mesmerized watching the ballet for about two hours. Occasionally they would call us to tell us what was happening in the story which I was impressed about because there was no dialogue to help them understand. They just had to watch really carefully.

I am grateful for this opportunity to sit and chat with my friend while the four big kids snuggled on the couches and the two little ones slept. It was a lovely morning and when the DVD was over my daughter kept lovingly trying to kiss my friend's son who she been snuggled next to on the couch and then later my friend's daughter was caught kissing my son and chasing him around for a bit more affection after they'd been together on the other couch. Ohhh there was so much love in the room. It was a very funny time watching them all - especially seeing the eldest two and realising that that's how old my friend and I were when we became friends and life had gone a full cycle.