What's Up With the Inmans

We haven't posted much that's really very informative about what we are up to lately.

If you are wondering, I can assure you, we are busy! Josh is currently juggling work responsibilities for three different very worthwhile organizations in addition to trying to get our long-term visas squared away, and recently resuming his Thai language study. He's traveled a few times since we got back to Chiang Mai but for now is staying put until after this baby comes.

For Josh's work permit he has to submit pictures of the work he is doing. It's sort of funny but actually a nice excuse to get some pictures of Josh with his teammates doing what he does as he usually is pretty bad about taking pictures. I will include some of these photos at the bottom.

Medical Stuff
What else is going on? It seems like we are spending all our time at doctor's offices and hospitals. Of course I am in that stage of frequent prenatal visits. Five days from now I'll be having a cesarean section at a hospital here. We thought we had settled on which hospital it would be but are re-thinking that decision as we found out they no longer allow the father to be present in the operating room. We are writing a letter requesting an exception to this rule, but it's unlikely to be granted as I don't think they want to set a precedent. While other hospitals don't allow it either, some are nicer overall. 

Also Josh has been in the E.R. twice since we got back to Chiang Mai. First because he gave himself a stiff electrical shock and needed to be checked out, he's fine by the way. And next because he, being a very tall person in a small person's world, sliced his head open on a sharp corrugated metal overhang at a gas station. Actually I suppose he and Bella have this injury in common. Josh had a lot of gushing blood, but just a few stitches fixed him up. Bella, our dog needed more than 50 stitches and 3 surgeries to put herself back together after her run-in with corrugated metal during our furlough.....I think Thailand might be a dangerous place to be!

We have also been catching the kids up on their immunizations before Little Baby Boy arrives. (At this rate Little Baby Boy is what his birth certificate is going to say as we are 5 days from delivery and still undecided) There are several things we have to vaccinate against here that are not standard in the U.S. like Japanese Encephalitis and Tuberculosis. Three out of four of the last days we have been at doctors offices and hospitals getting this taken care of. If I'm being honest, nothing makes me think about packing it up and moving back to the U.S. more than children's medical stuff in Thailand. Holding my kids down and watching them get painful shots (that will literally scar them for life) that they wouldn't need in the U.S. really is hard. Plus the medical system here is highly unorganized and I'm constantly questioning the level of care my kids are getting.

Around the Homestead
As for me, I am trying somewhat unsuccessfully to NOT be busy. I know that life is going to get a lot harder next week when Baby #3 arrives so I am laying off of Thai language study and other major responsibilities. I also have a history of swelling and blood pressure spikes towards the end of pregnancy. It makes my doctors and husband get all worried so I am trying to spend a decent amount of time with my feet up sipping lemon-water. :-) Of course this is only during those brief time periods where my kids do not need me for something.

Project Restore
So one of Josh's newest responsibilities involves partnering with another organization/team here called Project Restore. So far he is learning about some of their sustainable agricultural projects in the hopes that Global Hope Network can come alongside them and do some work together in impoverished villages in northern Thailand. That's the short version of what he's been doing. Hopefully soon he will write up a better explanation. Here are some pictures from his trips and work.

 This is Bala, the village where Project Restore has helped Witoon in starting some sustainable agricultural projects. When Josh visited he slept in the house on the right front. Definitely rustic and 8 months pregnant me was glad to not be sleeping there! He wants to take Colby back next time. 

Cutting some hands of bananas with Witoon. One of the perks of getting involved with sustainable agricultural work- free bananas! :-) 

Witoon showing Josh his plantation.

Meeting with Jonathan, one of his new friends and co-workers. Changing the world over a cup of coffee. 

Josh and Witoon at the banana market after unloading bananas. 

And that's a lot of bananas. 

Working with Tim on a new video project. 

Cows that regularly commute through our neighborhood unattended to get to their pasture. 

And just for good measure here is some cuteness to round out this blog post. 

On an Easter egg hunt

Back in Chiang Mai

So an update is definitely overdue. We made it back to Chiang Mai two weeks ago. It was honestly one of the smoothest international journeys with kids we have made. We had great seats, well-behaved kids who slept a lot and didn't fuss, and no delays. Plus all of our bags made it! And we had a lot of bags.....

Leaving was hard. Our kids had gotten very attached to their grandparents on this trip. We know that it is a great sacrifice for them and for our parents to be separated. Thankfully, Josh's parents will be here in Thailand in less than 3 months! Our baby is scheduled to be born May 9th and they are hoping to be here for the birth and a few weeks afterwards to help us adjust.

I'm sure my parents will come not long after that. Nothing gets our parents on a plane like the birth of a new grandbaby! Knowing they would be coming so soon makes the goodbye a little easier.

Right before we said goodbye at the O'hare Airport. 

Watching airplanes out the window. That's our plane in the background. We love Korean Air.

Look at all that legroom. Thank you Korean Air for letting families with small children sit in the bulkhead! 

We didn't buy a seat for Hailey but there were extra seats in our row so she didn't have to sit on our lap at all. 

My feet could barely touch the wall. 

It's definitely good to be home. Our house was clean and ready for us thanks to our wonderful house helper. We had subletters while we were gone and we were relieved to see they didn't totally destroy any of our stuff- although the oven door is broken and our toaster and a few other small things are missing. Annoying but not a big deal....we got our new (used) car the day after arriving. One of our friends runs a business helping expats to buy and sell vehicles and he had sold our truck while we were on furlough. It wasn't going to have space for a third kid in a car seat so we have upgraded to a 7-seater MPV.

Here's a picture of the car parked in our carport. It's no minivan (what I would really love to have) but it is the most practical and affordable 7-seater available in Thailand so a lot of familes have them. Minivan equivalents can cost around $30,000 used so we will settle for an MPV. 

What the seat configuration looks like. Not a lot of cargo space and it's going to be tricky to get into the back row with 3 car seats installed, but we'll make it work. 

I love getting pictures of the kids napping while jet-lagged. :-) 

Our first weekend in Chiang Mai was Valentine's Day. Our kids were in no shape to handle having a babysitter so we went out for a family breakfast to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Less than a week after getting back, Colby started preschool at an English-speaking international school in Chiang Mai. He's only going part-time for now. 

Here is a picture of a common sight in our neighborhood. Our neighbor is giving food (alms) to a local monk in exchange for a sort of blessing. Local monks walk the street receiving alms from people every morning. Alms giving is one of the most common practices in Thai Buddhism for making merit. 

The monk smiling at Josh and the kids on their bikes. 

Just a little girl and her daddy.

Colby on his new strider bike that he got for Christmas. We put it in our checked luggage to bring to Thailand. 

Hailey on the local playground. 

Josh has been busy at the office with Media stuff and getting oriented to another new role he will be taking on for visa purposes. Honestly his new role with GHNI hasn't really gotten rolling yet, but next month he will be traveling to Indonesia for meetings about both media stuff and GHNI. A lot of people asked how much Josh would be traveling with his new role. Well it's going to look different every month, but for the month of March he will be gone 10 out of 31 days. And then in April and May he might not travel at all....partially because we are having our baby on May 9th and have requested to not travel close to the birth on either end.

Josh is working on a newsletter which will have a lot more details about the work he has been doing. Hopefully we will get that out soon.

GHNI TCD Water Project, Indonesia

As we've been meeting with people we've often shared a story about a village in Indonesia that lacked enough clean water through the dry season. Josh visited the village last year and we recently found this video about the water project in that village. It shows some of the locals and how they worked together to build a cistern at each house in the village so now they all have clean water year round. GHNI continues to work on other projects in the village. Additionally, some of the villagers are now teaching people in the neighboring village how to build the same cisterns at their homes. Enjoy!







We now have 93% of our monthly support pledged and 99% of our one time support. We are so excited to get back to southeast Asia to be a part of more projects like this one.