It’s in the DNA

We have been looking at Isaac and talking about who he looks like, me or Jennifer?  Then we opened up some pictures of Katherine when she was a newborn to see if there were any similarities.  Here is what we saw:

They look almost exactly the same!  Same chin, mouth, nose, eyes.  So we concluded that they must have the same mommy and daddy! 8-)

Things are going well here.  We are enjoying the cool weather here in Chiang Mai.  Last night it was 61 degrees at night which felt downright cold to us.  In Cambodia it feels cool if it gets to 75 at night. 

Isaac is still learning how to play during the day and sleep at night!  We hope he learns quickly so we can sleep at night too.

Take Care,

Bill

The Man Cub!

It is with great joy and thankfulness to God that I tell you, "Isaac has been safely born into the world." Jennifer went into labor this morning at 4:00 am. We went to the hospital and little Isaac was born at 8:30 AM on his due date. He weighs 7lbs 13oz and is 19" tall. He is healthy and doing well. Jennifer did great too and she is also doing well. We left the hospital the next afternoon and are now resting in our guest house. Thanks for all your prayers...the delivery went very smoothly.

The next step is to get his birth certificate translated into English, establish his USA citizenship, then apply for his passport.  We are hoping to get all this done by Dec 15th so that we can return to Cambodia ASAP.  Please pray that all the required steps would get completed, according to the will of God.  We are so thankful for your interest and prayers, both for our family and the ministry in Cambodia.  May God bless you and keep you!

 

Bill

We’re All Here!

We arrived safely on the 12th and Jennifer’s mom, Martha, arrived yesterday, safe and sound as well.  We are enjoying the reunion and the comfortable setting.  We have met with our doctor and seen the hospital and both are going to work out well.  Isaac is officially due to come on the 24th and it is an exciting time.  Thank you for your prayers!

I told the ladies that we need to have a man child around here to help out with the hormonal imbalance of our apartment.  8-)

Here are a couple pictures of the Juniper Tree:

The Lord Jesus Reigns,

Bill

Traveling Across Asia

Hello again!  We are making our way across Asia and have one more leg to go in our trip.  We successfully drove from Prek Ambel to Koh Kong on the edge of the Cambodia – Thailand border.  It was some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in Cambodia.

We arrived in Koh Kong around 5:00 PM.  We stayed in the home of some missionaries who are currently on furlough in the USA.  Here are a few pictures of their home.

 

We had a restful night of sleep and in the morning we headed out to cross the border into Thailand.  The border paperwork was very easy and we had crossed the border which is right next to the Gulf of Thailand by 9:00 am.

Here are some pictures of the border crossing:

Next we headed on to Bangkok to drop of our friend Kara and her son Noah.  She is planning to have her baby in Bangkok two days after Jennifer.  Our taxi driver was great and we stopped two or three times over the course of the trip to get snacks and use the bathroom which made the women happy!  We arrived in Bangkok at 3:00 PM and had a few hours to rest before our train left for Chiang Mai. 

 

Here is Kara and Noah along with Jennifer and Katherine at her service apartment.

When we arrived at the train station to board the train which we thought was leaving at 7:00 PM we found out that it actually left at 6:00 PM and that we were too late to take it.  So we stayed the night in Bangkok and are planning to take today’s 6:00 PM train.  So we will be arriving a day later than we expected but that’s just fine.  We were a bit wiped out from travelling and the extra rest was good.  Our hotel is right next door to the train station and is very convenient.  Neither one of us has ever ridden on a train before and we both think the train station is a cool place.

Please pray for us to successfully complete the last leg of our trip and arrive safely in Chiang Mai.  The train ride is 14 hours.

 

God bless,

Bill

We're Going to Thailand!!!

Hello you guys! We are doing well here. Things are good in the church and we are at peace which is a good thing. Katherine recently celebrated her birthday and she is now two years old. It's hard to believe possible. Here are a couple pictures of her little party.







We are leaving for Thailand tomorrow morning for the birth of our second child, Isaac. We are going to a city called Chiang Mai. Last time we went to Bangkok but it was too big and busy for our tastes. Chiang Mai is supposed to be more quiet.

Please pray for our travel and the delivery to go smoothly according to God's will. The trip will be in three parts. The first part I will drive our car to a town called Koh Kong which is on the Thai border (approx 5 hours). We will stay the night there at a team of missionaries' home. They are working with Mission to the World. We will leave our car with them and cross the border on foot the next morning. The next part will be a taxi ride from the border to Bangkok (5 hours). Then the third part is a train ride. The train is a sleeper train. It leaves Bangkok at 7:00 PM and you travel while you sleep. This part of the trip is like 11 hours! The train goes pretty slowly I think. And God willing we will reverse the order on the way home.

In case you are wondering, we didn't fly because 1)The cost and 2)The airlines have changed their rules regarding pregnant women flying. They have to be earlier than 34 weeks to fly. That was just too early for us. We both teach at the PATC and have many responsibilities around here and we didn't want to be gone for over two months. So we decided to go over land.

Also, please pray for the Thai Government to process the paperwork needed for Isaac to come back with us to Cambodia quickly. This can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to get his birth certificate and citizenship processed. We are hoping for the 2 week version. 8-)

Finally, please pray for things in Cambodia to go smoothly in our absence. We have many people setup to help out and we are thankful. Please pray for, Daniel, my substitute for the first two weeks. He is a PATC student who is ready to graduate in 6 months. Pray for Soda and Allison Chheng. Soda is pastor Chheng's son and he and his wife are coming for a visit from November 20th to December 10th. Pray for the Kris Pate family. The whole family is coming for a visit; Kris, his wife Julie, and their four kids. They plan to stay a month from December 10th to January 10th. Pray they would be effective and enjoy their stays!



Peace,
Bill