| | Dear friends and family, It has been a long time since we have updated you. Things have been quite busy around here since the birth of our little Layla and the end of school. We are doing well though and would like to share a few highlights from our lives at this point. Praise: We are now credit card debt free!!!!! We are so excited. The Lord has finally allowed us to pay off our remaining credit card debt thanks to a generous gift and summer school income! This is a huge burden lifted from our shoulders. It has been a desire of ours to be debt free for years now and we are finally one step closer to that goal. Now, we just need to finish off our school and house loans. (Please pray with us that our current renters will want to buy our house at the end of this year’s lease. They expressed interest in that possibility when they moved in.) Stacy: I am busy with my two girls, but enjoying them immensely. When Layla stopped crying, due to the colic in the early months, she started smiling and she hasn’t stopped. She is a lot of fun and Kylie is really growing into a great and loving older sister. She wants to love on and play with her little sister all the time, but is still learning how to do that without hurting her. I am trying to learn how to be a patient and loving mother and working on discipline and potty training. These are the years I wish we had gotten that manual that should come with every child. I am also tutoring for the summer months and then will have to start working on my master’s degree in the fall. Please pray for me as I am still working on finding the right school with the program I want and also figuring out financing. I am hoping to find a program where I can take the six credits I need and then wait until I have a little more money and time to set aside to finish it. (I have to have six credits of graduate work completed by September of 2009 in order to keep my certification, so I really have to take those first six credits.) I have found a school that I think has all I am looking for, I just have to apply, and therefore be accepted, and make sure Ohio will accept credits from that university. I am looking forward to working on this degree, though. I am going to be working on a degree in Exceptional Education (aka Special Education). This is an area that God has given me a burden for since High School. I resisted majoring in it in College, but God placed me in a school for Special Learners any way and has also put me in a position to use my experience to help a few students here in Bangkok. It is my desire to get my master’s in Exceptional Education and help ICS develop a program for those in their midst that need individual help. George: This summer I have been teaching summer school. It has been an interesting experience because it only goes for half a day and I have my kids for 4 hours each day. The cool thing is, that I have been able to do some activities that I don’t normally get to do during PE. Last week we went bowling, and by the end of the week everyone had improved on their games. My class only has 4 students so that makes it hard to teach team sports. Once summer school is done we are looking forward to some R&R and will be going down to the beach with some friends (the Haydens) for 5 days. It will be nice to get out of Bangkok for that time and recharge for the new school year. I am eagerly waiting for next soccer season because we have a pretty good team returning and should surprise some people. But also, and more importantly, the relationships that are being built are priceless. God has already allowed me to have an impact at least two of my players lives and seeing things that they have written to me has really touched me in ways I can’t express. God has been good. I was meeting with a student 3 times a week the second half of the school year and to see how God has softened his hard exterior and allowed him to open up to me has been truly a miracle. Please pray for him as he doesn’t have a father figure in his life and, as I continue to work with him, pray that I will know what to say and how to help. On a personal note, I am loving my family. I have two beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife. I love coming home and having Kylie come running up to me saying “Daddy, Daddy!!” and giving me a big hug. Layla is growing up fast and will be crawling soon. Kids certainly are a blessing.  Kylie: I am a full fledged two and half year old. I am becoming more and more independent and am learning to use the big potty, no more diapers for me! (Well except at nap and night time) I like to help mommy cook and play with my little sister (I love to make her laugh). I am also learning more and more words. I like to surprise mommy and daddy with a new word or two every day, just to see them smile in surprise and complement my intelligence. Mommy thinks I’m brilliant since I already know most of my ABC’s and can name one or more objects that start with that letter. I love to sing the ABC song and there is a fun computer game that I play with the letters, too. My two favorite letters are “E” for Elephant, because I LOVE elephants, especially when we pass one on the road, and “M” for monkey, because I like Curious George and remember the monkeys from Monkey Island (which we visited over Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma. “Monkey . . . Here Monkey . . . .” They wouldn’t come out for our banana’s even though we called and called. We finally found them on the other side of the island.)
I have also just learned to ride my tricycle, peddling the wheels all by myself, and am riding it everywhere. I especially like to chase Toby with it. It makes me laugh, though I’m not sure he finds it so funny. I am really looking forward to having Daddy home for the next month and to my friends coming back in August. All but one of my closest friends went to America for the summer. I miss them terribly and ask mommy every day if we are going to see Simon, Asher and Noelle today. She says Noelle will be back in about four weeks but we won’t see Simon and Asher for a long time because they went back to America to live. That makes me sad but mommy says I will meet new friends when the new teachers come and there is always Kenna just down the street, and when Noelle comes back she will be living right around the corner. That makes me excited because Kenna and Noelle are my best friends. We will also be going to the beach with the Hayden girls. I have been getting to know them better recently too! Layla: I am growing really fast, at least that’s what everyone tells me, but I’m pretty sure, that’s what I’m  supposed to do. I am almost sitting up on my own, I just get a little tipsy if I don’t have something to keep me from falling side ways, and I love to jump in my Jolly Jumper, which a good friend loaned us. My favorite thing to do though is to smile and I do it almost constantly. I really draw a lot of attention from the Thai’s. Mommy sometimes gets frustrated because she can’t just walk through a store and get things accomplished as fast as she would like, sometimes she can’t even reach what she needs on the shelves, because I’m always stopping traffic. Thai people like white skinned babies any way, but I really make them break out the cameras when I smile at them like I do. Everywhere we walk you can hear, “Ahhhh, baby!! Ohhh, yim, yim, gang!!!” (Yim means smile and gang means good in Thai.) Mommy says it won’t be long and I will be able to keep up with my big sister, but I can hardly wait. When Kylie is out running in the yard I just can’t help but kick my legs like I’m running with her and giggling, which in turn makes her giggle, which also makes mommy giggle, and we all have fun. Prayer: We really need a car. We are so thankful to our friends who have graciously allowed us to use their car while they are home on furlough. But, when they return in August we will have to give it back and we are praying that God will miraculously bring in the money for us to buy a car of our own. Yes, it is true that Taxi’s are available in Bangkok, but they are not reliable (we have had to wait over an hour for a taxi to arrive on more than one occasion and if it is raining, it’s not uncommon for them to say there are none available at all.), safe (most taxi drivers think they are driving for NASCAR and none of them have seat belts) or convenient (two kids, all their gear, groceries and one mom, hmm.), and therefore we are dreading the possibility of going back to that system of transportation. Please pray with us that the money for a vehicle (the best we have found are between the price range of 6 to 10 thousand dollars) will come in. We trust that God knows what is best for us and we are willing to wait for that, but if you feel God working in your heart to give toward this goal, please contact Debbie Jones at Shawnee Hills Baptist Church (debbie@shbcfamily.com) and she can give you donor information and forms. Or you can call the church at 937-675-4121. Thanks for all your prayers and support. In His Hands, The Webers in Thailand |
