A Thailand Reunion

Yeah, yeah.  It's barely been a month since we got home from Thailand, but if you've been following along with this blog for the last few weeks, you may have gotten the impression that that trip was pretty life-changing for Ellie and I.  

And I honestly just can't stop thinking about it.   

 Not only was what we did pretty epic (the sight-seeing, the long days on the worksite, and the time we spent with locals), but  we also went with some pretty incredible people.   Those 21 young people were exactly the jolt I needed to wake up, shake me out of my comfort zone,  and give me hope for  the future of this world! They are a generation on the cusp of adulthood who gave up a huge chunk of their summer to be a part of something bigger than themselves.    The experience cracked open my heart and I feel like I have 20 new honorary sons and daughters (-1 from the total number, because one of those 21 actually is my daughter) that I want to keep in touch with! 

Since I've been home, I've had a deep desire to...

1) continue to foster friendships among the kids
2)  be a loving, supportive presence in their lives
3)  help them keep alive the spiritual nudgings they felt on the trip
4) continue fostering the feeling of relevancy I gained on the trip (#midlifeproblems)

I've floundered a bit in knowing how to pursue those desires and to redefine my role since coming home, but I'm here to share that I've successfully done two things so far: 

We hosted a Thailand reunion at our house (hopefully helping with desire #1)!  

We had a great turn-out--especially considering that 9 of those 21 people were from out-of state and 2 of them actually flew in for the occasion.

Hosting things at our house is often stressful for me (though not near as stressful as it was in Virginia), but I honestly loved every second of it.   I loved the chance to see their faces again...

And welcome them into our home...even if they all ended up gathering in Ellie's room, which she had not only not cleaned for the occasion, but she had not even made sure the corners of the fitted sheets were in place on her bed!

Haha.  Bare mattress aside,  I love these great kids.  Though they're more like young adults than kids.   Ten of them are high school graduates, two already have mission calls, another one started his papers right after the trip, and all of them were good-hearted and seeking to share their light.    

I love that they even Facetimed Jacob (our Thai friend and worksite interpreter) during the reunion.   It was great to see his face and remember what brought us all together in the first place. 

Right before  the reunion, I found out about an amazing Shutterfly coupon and decided to attempt to make a photo book for everyone before it expired.   Paul (the trip Dad) had offered to chip in half if I made a photo book and though creating photo books kind of stress me out, I went for it.   I knocked myself out for  a few days straight and created this....a hundred pages of memories! 

Design-wise it ended up being a bit of a disappointment, but it's done and that is an accomplishment itself for me, since I usually second-guess myself too much on these types of projects and never finish them.   Unfortunately they were delivered right AFTER the reunion, which meant I had to mail them to the people who live far away and hand-deliver them to anyone within about 20 miles of me.  

All but one of the books have now been delivered and I'm hoping, in some small way, that they're helping to accomplish desires #2,3, & 4 that I mentioned above.   I haven't heard much from anyone since receiving them, but, if nothing else, it was  a meaningful project for me. 💗

What's next to keep those desires alive?   I've got a few ideas, but we shall see.  

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