This post may contain affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I am sitting at a desk, looking out the window at a very LARGE city, eating popcorn and drinking a diet coke. Life doesn’t get much better than this. 🙂 “Who packs microwave popcorn to take to Thailand?”, you might ask… this girl. We are here! We are most likely in the room where we will meet our son for the first time, just a few days away. He will take his first steps into our lives through the door behind me. We will spend a week together here, learning what it is like to stumble through life as a family for the first time. The fact that the room has a fridge to keep my beverage cold and a microwave to make my favorite snack in the world are just side perks. 🙂
Today wasn’t really an eventful day for us, but I am feeling so refreshed. Our day started out at 5:35 (slept 5 minutes extra this morning – woo), so we were up and ready for breakfast in the courtyard right at 7:00 again for one last time. The most fantastic thing about our morning was being able to connect with a couple of different people from home. We were able to facetime with Tim (and the “youth group”) from our old church and got to catch up on our journey and then they prayed for us… from the other side of the world. That still is crazy to us. I went upstairs to start packing up and Aaron was able to check in with his family as well. It’s just so good seeing familiar faces when you’re far from home.
Checkout was at 12:00, so we had a really lazy time, getting ourselves and our things together to leave Ayutthaya. It is a place that we will never forget as long as we live and we hope to tell our son all about it as he grows up – the city that he first called home. I got a little teary-eyed as we left the lobby. I get so attached to people and places and it leaves a lump in my throat when we have to say goodbye. At that point though, we were loaded up in a van and on to Bangkok and after about an hour and a half of crazy driving, we made it to the Pantip. It is beautiful! So not at all what I was expecting, even though I’ve stalked every Thai adoption blog known to mankind. The lobby feels really luxurious (to us at least), the staff is super friendly, and the grounds create a private little oasis even though we are in the middle of a huge city. The room is HUGE with our own living room, kitchen, and separate bedroom and bath. I’d say the room leaves a little bit to be desired in the way of cleanliness, but the space makes up for it.
My one goal today was to find “the laundry lady” and after quite a trek in a few different wrong directions, we finally found her. Having succeeded in our endeavor, we came back to the hotel to unpack and settle in, grab some photos of the hotel, and ate dinner here in the restaurant. Aaron got some kind of amazing soup and pad thai. I went for spaghetti and garlic bread, just because I could. Everything was wonderful. It feels good to be settled in and know that we aren’t going anywhere for a while.
Since we really did nothing today, I thought I would write about some of the things that we’ve learned on our journey thus far. Again, a lot of this is just for us to remember, so please don’t feel like you have to read it all. 🙂
1. Bangkok has the biggest billboards I’ve ever seen. Just massive…
2. In Ayutthaya, there seemed to be no rules of the road. Traffic signals were missing almost entirely and I don’t recall ever having seen a stop sign. Everyone just seems to push and shove their way through traffic and it seems really chaotic, but it works. We didn’t see any accidents and only saw one traffic policeman who was in the road directing. Speed limits – also not observed. In spite of the chaos, there hasn’t really been a time where we have felt unsafe… other than our time on top of the elephant.
3. There are pictures of the king and queen EVERYWHERE… homes, temples, road signs… everywhere. The king is the longest reigning monarch in the world, I believe, even longer than Queen Elizabeth. As a family, they are held in the highest esteem and are respected greatly. We found out that the king loves photography and boating. The royal family has almost a different language that is used to talk about them, and a different way to wai (bow) to them.
4. Thai has to be one of the hardest languages to learn. It has a completely different alphabet and there are 5 different tones, so one word that looks like it is spelled the same, could mean a whole lot of different things. Like ordering a bottle of water (which I am doing better at – thank you for asking) for example – “kuad naam”. I had the right words in my head, but with the tone, I was apparently asking for a bottle of to be led. Pretty sure we have no hope of communicating with Ty. 🙂
5. Scooters are the main mode of transportation and they are crazy. Remember that there don’t seem to be traffic laws (at least observed) and there are hoards of them. You can get a scooter taxi, and you often see 2 – 4 people on each one.
6. Spirit houses are everywhere. Apparently according to Thai’s, each home, business, etc. has a spirit that resides there. The spirit house is this decorative little house that sits on the property for the spirit to dwell in. The home owner then tries to appease the spirit by leaving it gifts so that it doesn’t cause trouble for the home. Huh.
Today’s prayer request was for Aaron and I as a couple as we spend our last few days together of just us. We are really having such a wonderful time together here. The fact that we are about to become a family of 3 hasn’t overwhelmed us and we are just enjoying ourselves. Thank you so much for your prayers and all of the encouragement we are receiving along the way. We are hearing from lots of you that you love to wake up to reading about our days. We love waking up to read your messages. Thank you for letting us know that we aren’t alone in this endeavor. Even from half way around the world, we feel loved.
