I'm finally arrived

I am finally in Thailand! The flight was borderline horrendous (we were delayed almost four hours leaving LA). A nearly seven hour layover is always a bad thing; an almost seven hour layover in the middle of the night is a worse thing; throw a toddler into the mix and you're just begging for punishment.

But, we made it. Not without some tears and meltdowns and we probably annoyed other passengers on occasion, but oh well. By the time I was 13 hours into the flight I couldn't have cared less if I was annoying anyone else, I just wanted to make my child less distraught at being cooped up STILL. This whole move has been really rough for her. I mean, first we go to a wedding, where we traveled at least an hour a day for six days and lots of strangers talked to her and her sleep schedule was disrupted. Then we got to an entirely new country where she has incredible jetlag and new food and EVERYBODY touches her. It's like she's on display at a petting zoo. On the one hand it's kind of funny, even enjoyable, for her to be so special that people want to talk to her and hold her. But after the fifteenth complete stranger of the day strokes her arm and gets in her face while jabbering in some unintelligible (to her) language . . . she's done. She does seem to be adjusting time-wise so hopefully that will help. And she is acquiring words at a very rapid pace, so I'm sure Thai will come easily for her.

She was completely thrilled to see John; she spotted him before I did and started chanting "Daddy, Daddy." And in the taxi she just kept point to him in amazement and saying "Daddy!" like "he's back!" It was really cute. And John, of course, was thrilled to see us. We stayed the night in a hotel in Bangkok and then flew to Khon Kaen the following day. We went to a town about an hour away Saturday evening for a church area conference. Here we are in this dinky Thai town, and it's a beautiful hotel. I wish we'd had a camera. Staff everywhere to help us, beautiful artwork in the rooms, free movies, free drinks and snacks, breakfast included the next morning. . .and it was $20 a night. Sweet.

There's a lot more to tell but it's getting late and I'm getting tired. Oh, one last thing: Chantrea has a new nickname. Apparently the sound of her name is similar to the words for "short elephant," so that's her new Thai nickname from John's students. Lovely. Hopefully that's just a play on words and has nothing to do with her size! I think I preferred Shoo-shoo!

Comments

suprbacana said…
Yay! You made it!! I bet John was so excited to have his family back. I think meltdowns were to be expected on such an experience. :-) Have a blast in your new home!

We are in meltdown here....it's going to be 101 today. I am going to go find a puddle and crawl in it! :)
Anonymous said…
Natural birth and flying halfway around the world alone with a toddler. You keep doing things that prove you are a stronger woman than I! I can live with that =) love you!
Anonymous said…
I love your writing. Keep us informed.

Mom Jeffery

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