Valentine’s Day 2014 will be a day I will not soon forget.
It was the day when I realized that I was going to be a mom (for a weekend).
The news was first received with confusion. I was in Big C (think mini-mall
with a Target attached), when I received a phone call from Lily, our Chinese
roommate who can speak Thai and English really well. She asked me if I had
invited any of the children to spend the weekend with her. I told her that I
hadn’t, and I asked Terri, and she said that she hadn’t as well. Lily who was
in route to Bangkok at the time, told me that Bo, a girl who works in the
office at the school , had called her and said that there was a student waiting
for us, and that she was going to spend the night. Lily said that she told Bo
that we were in Phitsanulok and that we would be home later on in the
afternoon. That was the first of many phone calls I had that day wondering when
we would get back so that this girl would spend the weekend with us.
I wanted to know who this student was. The last few weekends
we had spent at the school teaching students a song and dance for a program on
the 21st of February. Were the students confused and thought that we
were practicing this weekend as well? Then it hit me, the previous Sunday,
Pastor Wachin had asked us if it would
be okay if our student could stay the weekend with us, so that she could learn
English. Her grandmother thought it would be a great idea as well. However
BaToei didn’t seem so sure of the idea when Pastor Wachin was talking about it,
and at the time we didn’t agree to anything and thought it would be something
that would happen in the future.
By the time we got back home to Nakhonthai, we were even
further confused because there was no one at our house, and the last I had
talked to Lily was that they were waiting there. Was this some practical joke?
I informed Lily that they was no one at the house. A few minutes later she
called saying that they would return in a few minutes. Around 5:30 we see
BaToei arrive on a motorbike with her grandmother. I apologized to the
grandmother for the confusion and tried to explain what had happened. What
later transpired was broken English/Thai conversations and moments of
awkwardness. Soon after the grandmother left some of the other children from
the neighborhood came over. We played
badminton until I could no longer stand getting eaten by mosquitos. The other
children went home and we enjoyed a dinner of peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches and then I taught her how to play Uno. Terri joined us for a few
rounds of Uno had we had a lot of fun! When it was time to go to bed Terri and
I prayed with her, and went to bed wondering what the next day would hold.
Saturday, oh how do you spend a whole day entertaining a
child and yet, still wanting to accomplish everything on your never ending
to-do list. When we first woke up she
wasn’t hungry, so I let her play a game on my iPod, while I read and caught up
on emails. Then I made her and Terri breakfast (scrambled eggs with tomato).
After she helped us clean up, I did the dishes, Terri wiped the stove-top area
and she wiped down the table. Terri found a coloring book so that helped her
occupy her time as we did some of our household chores. For lunch I made
Teriyaki chicken, one of my specialties, this ended up being a failure. I have
made this dish so many times, but this time around I had too much salt in the
rice. Also one of the major ingredients in this dish is pineapple, and guess
who doesn’t like pineapple- BaToei. Also, I thought I had bought chicken strips
but instead I had bought chicken legs. So Terri’s chicken wasn’t cooked all the
way. I felt horrible. We cleaned up some
more and Terri headed out to go to a coffee shop so that she could upload a
video and send it to her church, as well as to get a back massage. So that just
left me and BaToei. We played Badminton for a little while but it was so hot we
went back inside. I tried to teach her the card game “War” but after a while
she decided to switch to Uno. This now leads to a proud mom moment- I taught her
how to shuffle! By the end of her stay she was shuffling the whole Uno deck and
we know that’s a lot of cards! We also did some formal Thai/English practicing.
A few years ago my brother gave me a Thai book for Christmas. So we used that
book to learn. We learned phrases such as “Nice to meet you” and words such as
“watch, book, and newspaper”. Later I let her borrow my computer to watch some
cartoons on Youtube. Something I learned about motherhood this weekend is that
a good mother is very selfless. I needed to use my computer to work on lesson
plans, but instead I let her use it. Looking back I can see how selfless my own
mother has been, putting our needs before her own, and it is something that I
truly appreciate and hope that I will be willing to apply when I’m a mom for
real.
Early Saturday evening, the same children came over from
yesterday, and they saw that our Christmas tree was still up. So we had an
impromptu English lesson teaching them what each ornament was. For example,
that’s an angel, that’s a star. Soon, Terri came home with dinner- food from
our favorite restaurant. We had fried fish and chicken and cashew nut dish. We
enjoyed a lovely meal together with the children and once they had their fill
the other children went home. We cleaned up and Terri, BaToei and I watched
Despicable Me 2. Terri bought it in Thailand so we were able to watch it in
Thai and have English subtitles. It’s so fun watching movies with children. I
loved hearing her laugh and enjoy herself. Terri was tired so she went to bed
halfway through the movie. After Terri had been gone for a few minutes BaToei
said in English “Terri, sleep?” This was the first time she had spoken English
without being prompted. I was so proud!! After the movie I prayed with her in
broken Thai before going to bed. And she said with a big smile on her face that
she understood my prayer! Yay!
The next morning I made rice and eggs and then we went to
church where she was reunited with her grandmother. I think we both had a good
time and learned a little of each other’s languages. She’s a really sweet girl
and was always eager to help; she even did her homework without us even asking
her to. I wonder if this will happen again and am excited to see how the Lord
will use it.
