I have had a lot of people asking me what is happening now…how many kids do I have anyway??? Well, at last count I can say that I have three, but not the same three I thought that I was going to have.

On Sunday, I got my first two students. Kinthegee is 19 years old, and will be in the 10^th grade this year. She is already very accomplished at English, and therefore will be my translator. I will be teaching her how to do translation work also. She is a lot like Jason, in other words she loves to tease people. It is not unusual to see people chasing her around the field with a broom in hand to give corrective measures! (laughing all the while) She is also the head cook around here at the moment, since Jason is gone. But I am thinking that Jason might want to relinquish his cooking duties once he tastes her excellent cooking. She goes out in the morning and picks foliage and adds it to the rice, with amazing results. She is really a culinary genius.

Pawkuhmooeydee is a 13 year old girl who came to me from the refugee camp. She is not a Christian, but is very interested in becoming one. She LOVES to study, and is making progress in her English by leaps and bounds so far. She is always smiling and wants to help in any way she can. Hannah loved her at first sight. (the only problem I had with her was her name, which I have been practicing on for two days in order to pronounce it right. Ben says that it means “another visitor”) She has finished the 6^th grade in the refugee camp, but we are trying to decide what to do with her this year. If she goes to a Thai school, then she can get Thai papers and be legal in Thailand, but they would make her start over again in the 1^st grade! If she studies with me instead, she would not be legal here and would get no credit for her work. So, she might be stuck going back to first grade. She is willing to do whatever it takes to get her education though.  ( shocking to us Americans, huh?)

Last night the two girls went to their room to go to bed, and after a few minutes of quietly whispered consultation, they stuck their heads out of the room and said “good night mommy!” with big grins on their faces. They are really sweet and I am sure that I will love having them here. They did say that there are a lot of other kids asking to come already, but they are waiting for my approval, which I am a little slow in giving. I have to be sure that I can feed the ones that I have. When I sign them up for school, I sign that I am their parent and will be responsible for them, which is a lot of responsibility!

I was really impressed with both of the girls from the start. They sure are not like boys! When they got here and we were getting acquainted, I told them that the quickest way to make me feel grumpy is for my house to be a mess. I don’t know if they are afraid to see me grumpy or what, but they are the neatest cleanest girls I ever saw! I never have to ask them to clean their room, or any other chore. They sweep and clean and wash and scrub and are generally just wonderful!

I am a little afraid to say anything more about the girls that I was supposed to be given. When the 3 year old and the 18 year old left, I thought that it was permanent. Then, the next day, I was told that they would come back when I got my addition built. But, my addition is built, and they have not come back. So, I have no idea of what will happen with them. I am not saying anything about it, since I have my hands full with Hannah right now. She is learning to obey, which she had never even heard of before. The Karen do not cross the will of their children as far as I can tell, ever! They just let them do whatever they want. Babies that can barely walk are seen toddling all over the village by themselves, or with a slightly older sibling. This is normal for them, and so being told that you have to stay with Mommy, and you cannot dump the distilled water all over the floor, and you cannot play in the fire, are new and frustrating things to my little one year old. Especially since she is hearing all these commands in a new language! She is learning remarkably fast though, and I have great hopes that soon I can expect perfect obedience. I have had quite a bit of trouble with the father though, and so I am still not certain of how things will turn out. We are just praying that God’s will would be done.

So, my family is growing quickly. I am really hoping that soon Roy can join me here so that he can help me! It is pretty tough trying to learn the language and raise a new little daughter and teach school all at the same time. ( all this during the HOT season when even sitting quietly in the house makes sweat pour down your body continuously…that is until you get dehydrated because your precious one year old dumped out all the water!) Life sure is full of adventure!