Settling In

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll recognize that downsizing, selling, storing, giving away, and packing up was the recurring story of the past year.  It was a hard season, yet interwoven with joy.  Dismantling our family’s life as we knew it wasn’t easy.

But seasons change…and now we are rebuilding, settling in, making a home for our family again.  What does that look like?  The first week we were in Thailand doesn’t really count, because we stayed at a guest house and worked hard not to accumulate anything.  We would only have more to transport to our eventual home.  We did buy a large basin, since Joshy is afraid of showers and was looking filthier by the day.  And we bought a few bowls and spoons, because our severely jet-lagged kids were waking up at 3:00 AM wanting to start their day with breakfast cereal.

We moved into our furnished apartment on a Wednesday afternoon.  It didn’t take long to unpack our 12 suitcases of clothes, books, toys, and other items.  We realized that a trip to the store was in order, since we needed the absolute essentials of toilet paper (OK, so there is a spray nozzle mounted beside the toilet, so apparently t.p. is optional.  But we aren’t there yet), towels, and trash bags.  We managed to choose the worst time of day to ride the sky train, and the worst time of day to shop at Lotus.  It was a fiasco we will always remember as a blur of hungry, over-tired kids, three shopping carts crammed with pillows, sheets, dishes, a broom, and all the other necessities we remembered once we got there, and then standing in the rain trying to find a taxi that would tackle a load like that! 

Since that first day, we’ve gotten wiser.  We divide-and-conquer when we go shopping.  For example, today Keith went to the market for fruits and veggies.  I walked down the street to Mini-C to pick up milk, yogurt, and bread.  We only buy what we can manage to carry or haul easily in one trip, although the day Keith brought the kids’ bikes home was a hilarious exception!  It helps that we now have our basic household supplies and just need to maintain our supply of toilet paper and trash bags! 

“Settling in” means that we have what we need to function, at least for the most part.  We still keep a running list of things to look for the next time we are out and about.  Tonight, we realized that we have no way to light candles on a birthday cake, so we added matches to our list.

When we first came, we ate out almost every meal.  We had to.  Four growing kids got hungry three times a day and didn’t understand that it takes a bit of time to figure out what is available here, where to buy it, and then how to prepare it. 

“Settling in” means that we are eating at home more frequently.  I still think that a rice cooker and a convection oven would greatly improve things around my kitchen, but a toaster and a microwave were first on the list! 

We left behind many of our favorite traditions.  In a third-floor apartment, there is no possibility of a campfire.  No hiking, either, unless you count walking on uneven sidewalks.  So “settling in” means we are keeping the traditions we can, like game nights and going out for ice cream.  We are creating new ones, like “memory nights,” where everyone shares memories of times past (it’s amazing, the random things they remember so fondly!). 

We’ve tried to listen to our kids’ hearts, taking note of the things and activities they miss the most. Some of them we really can’t do anything about except listen; we certainly can’t transport their American friends here!  But we invested in bikes, so they have an outdoor outlet for their energy as well as a venue for making friends on our street.  They all missed our “family music nights,” so we bought a few small instruments to replace the ones we sold in the States (all we need is a keyboard to round out our little band). 

I guess you could say that “settling in” means that we are building a life for our family here in Thailand.  The suitcases are packed away out of sight in the suitcase closet.  Clothes are hanging out to dry on our balcony, just like our Thai neighbors.  Fans make the heat semi-bearable (we still turn on the AC at night; a good night’s sleep is invaluable right now).  As much as possible, we buy from the local shops.  We bought year passes at the Siam Aquarium (think field trips!).  We have Thai SIM cards in our phones and accounts at the local bank.  We all have Rabbit cards—30 day passes-- for the Sky Train. 

Sure, there are plenty of hard things about moving here.  I’ll write about them one of these days, so you get a well-rounded picture of our lives.  Not now.  Because tonight I’m feeling like we are “settling in.”