We had unexpected guests at the close of the year. One of the hazards of working cross culturally is that you sometimes often find yourself grossly misunderstood. Like this one time, when Aaron reconnected with an old friend from his first few trips to Thailand. The friend said he wanted […]
Read MoreThe I’m not perfect club
Delegation
You guys, I have a confession to make. I’m a little embarrassed about it, to tell the truth. I’m worried you won’t understand. Plus, I feel like I should be able to do it all myself. It’s my mid-western, self reliant, up bringing I suppose. But it’s time to come […]
Read MoreHelp wanted
I didn’t realize, until I put up that last post about Dek, that it had been a full month since I last posted anything here in this space. Time really moves differently here. Days move slowly, and less happens in them, which I think ends to the melding of all […]
Read MoreConfessions of Recovering Control Freak
Want to know how to make me fall apart? Give me a bunch of things I can’t do all by myself, that have to be done in a set amount of time, thereby forcing me to ask other people for help, and rely on them and work around their schedules, […]
Read MoreIf only…
I lost a paycheck, the one dated for January 1st that he handed me, along with a bunch of receipts as I drove him to the train station a week and a half ago. Sometimes it’s the little/big things that make you feel like a failure. The person who needs […]
Read Morethe Not Fake Holiday Letter – 2011
[Every year about this time I start to get daily hits for the Not Fake Christmas Letter post I wrote in 2006. I think it’s about time for another one.] Dear Family, Friends, and people who won’t even open this when it hits your inbox. It should come as no […]
Read MoreWhat to do with failure, counting blessings
He comes to me in the evening as teeth are being brushed and baths are drawn. “Could I talk to you in private, after people are in bed?” The mystery hangs over the nighttime singing the girls tucked into bed with dollies slumbering in toy cradles on either side of […]
Read MoreAdornment
All morning, whenever I sit still for her, Little is making me a princess. She inserts hair pins at random, and brushes and pulls. Bangles and bracelets pile up on my wrists, necklaces stack up under my chin.”You look so beautiful mommy”, she says. “You have to keep your princess […]
Read MoreAn Embarrassment of Riches
They are all very loud, standing on the outside edge of the window sill, just behind this couch I sit in. There are bird sounds and many characters acting out voices and I wonder if today is another failure. Should I be letting them just run wild now, at 2:42pm […]
Read MoreMaybe I AM a Hypocrite
He makes me wonder these days if I’m a hypocrite. We’re standing there in the dining room, his face flushed and his voice urgent, “But mom, didn’t you say that there are kids who don’t have any toys that would be happy to have these?” For years I have fed […]
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