Brittan Family Easter Morning
The Brittan family has been very busy lately. I wanted to share with you a bit about each family member. I have included some pictures, and more pictures to come. Let's start with the youngest this time:
Nellie is now 20 months old, and she is speaking both English and Thai. She also understands both languages. We never know if she is going to respond with English or Thai. Right now if you ask her what her name is, she will respond with "Nong Nong". Nong is what you would put in front of a child's name when you speak to them. This tells them that they are younger than you. Often we just call Nellie "Nong" because it is short. She does know her name is Nellie, but her response is just so cute. Also, our favorite English word is "Bananananananananana" (imagine her tongue flopping outside her mouth). She loves playing with her older siblings, and she also loves playing with any child she meets. There are no strangers to Nellie (especially children). Nellie's day starts with Bible time (with the family). She loves singing praises to our Lord!! Then she has some special time with mom before she is off with BaTip to play with a neighborhood friend until lunch time. Each day our helper, BaTip takes Nellie while I teach the other children. They usually go for a walk and play with friends here in our neighborhood. After we eat lunch, Nellie goes down for a nap. Whew!! After nap, she plays with her older siblings until dinner time. She is busy all day long!!
Nellie in her Easter Dress
Little Harry is growing up fast. He will be four years old in May. He really likes playing like he is Darth Vader. I sewed him a cape, so he wears it around the house. He also loves to play pirates. He dresses up, and plays with his sword. He doesn't have a light saber yet, but his sword is a good substitute. He also plays with cars all the time. He loves to get ALL his cars out and play. Harry also loves going to the training center to play with his friend Zeric. Zeric is the youngest child of our Philippino partner at the training center. They play swords, cars, and who knows what else. It is fun to see them play together. Each day Harry and I spend about 1 hour doing his "schoolwork". Harry can write his numbers 1-9, and he can really do well on matching pictures. He also loves to cut and paste. He really treasures his time with mom each day. He loves to learn, and I think he is going to do really well in learning at home. Whew!! (No picture of him yet, so stay tuned)
Emma is really blossoming. She is growing tall and beautiful. Her hair is getting long, and so are her legs!! Emma is taking Thai dancing lessons right now, and she is just beautiful. She is the only foreigner in the class, but no one seems to mind. Her beautiful moves really help her to fit right in with everyone. She has made some friends in the class that come to our house to play with her. They practice their dancing, and then they play together. Emma also loves to play with Zerah, our partner's oldest child. Both Emma and Zerah are very shy, so they do great together. They play dress-up, put on make-up, paint their nails, and dance together. It is really a great friendship that is blossoming. Zerah came over by herself for the first time this past week. Her parents think this is great! Usually she won't go anywhere without her mom. It is great to see our children starting to bond together! Praise the Lord!! I am sorry I don't have pictures of Emma and Zerah. Come back soon for more pictures of Emma.
Hattie is our soccer player. She has found a soccer club that is coached by a former Thailand Soccer Team member. He seems to be great coach. There are about 40 children come everyday of the week to learn new skills and play soccer together. Hattie really loves soccer. When she started going there were no girls, but now there are more girls that have come to play soccer each day. Hattie also loves playing with our newest family member, Lukema or Luke. Lukema means "puppy" in Thai, and that is what he is...a puppy. Luke is a border collie. He is the same breed of dog that we had in the states. Border Collies are working dogs, and we are hoping that Luke will be able to help us with the animals at the farm. Anyway, Hattie is loving having a dog. She plays with him everyday. Her morning begins by feeding Luke, and then they have some playtime together. Luke loves Hattie. When Hattie takes a shower in the evening, Luke sits outside the door with his nose under the door waiting for her to get done. Then he gives her a bath of his own. (snicker snicker) It is a match made in heaven. Luke is very energetic, and he loves to play soccer with Hattie. He also loves to play with other dogs. Hattie and Harry are working on training Luke in some basic obedience, and they are hoping to train him in agility also.
Hattie and Luke Easter morning
As for me, I have been blessed to spend time with my children everyday. The Lord has provided me two people to help run the house so that I may focus on the children. One helper is named BaTip, and she helps us with doing the basic household functions (cleaning the house, laundry, dishes, and getting the food ready to cook). She also watches Nellie for me part of the day. She is great! She really enables me to focus my efforts on the children. Whew!! Our other helper is named Koi (pronounces "Goy"). She is our family language teacher, and she helps me with the children. She prepares the girls' homeschool folders each day with the correct supplies that we need, and she puts away all the completed work. She is also great at playing with the children. She takes them to the park, and she helps them to meet and play with other children. As far me, I am able to focus on the kids individually which is really needed each day. I know many of you are probably thinking that "WoW!! This should make it easy to just focus on the kids" The real challenge comes with having so many children. I am so blessed to have so much help here at the house, and I am so thankful. I try really hard to spend time with each child each day. Somedays I just get sidetracked with other tasks, and the children let me know quickly. I am really enjoying my role as "mom". I am also enjoying the Women's Bible Study that we started last year. It is a real blessing to meet each week and study His word. There are some real friendships coming out of the group, and our "M" community is blossoming and growing all the time. Our fellowship time has truly been blessed by enabling us share with each other the work we are all doing here. I am also enjoying an old hobby of mine. I bought a sewing machine a few weeks ago, and I have been preparing to do some projects. Yesterday I finished my second project, and you can see it on Nellie above. Yep, I sewed that!! I don't really know much about sewing, but I can sew some basic stuff. My first project was a cape for little Harry so he could pretend to be Darth Vader. It is fun to create things for my children, and I am hoping that I can spend a few hours each week sewing things for others. There are no patterns here in Thailand, so I have had to buy a few on the Internet. Fun!! I am so blessed with a sewing machine. I can't wait to see what I might do next. Praise the Lord I reached a level 3 in language this month. What's level 3? Well, I can function in society without to much trouble, but I cannot hold an indepth conversation. I do have some vocabulary that I could use to have a meaningful conversation, but most of the time I probably sound like a Kindergarten or first grader in my vocabulary.
Praise the Lord that Harry also reached a level 3 this month. Actually he is really close to a level 4. His vocabulary is more developed, and he can hold indepth conversations about some topics. We will continue to study Thai for a while so that our vocabulary will be sufficient for our work here. Each morning Harry translate our Bible story time for our helpers. We are learning alot of Bible vocabulary this way. I tell the story in English, and Harry translates it in Thai. It has been a good exercise for us each day. He is doing great! I am so impressed with his vocabulary. Harry will be writing about our 2nd training session very soon. I will make sure!!
Ok, I know this is long, but I wanted to update everyone on our family. We are so grateful for all your prayers for us. We could not be here without you lifting us up. Thank you!!
No comments:
Post a Comment