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Celebrating Tallulah
4 years ago, we met our Tallulah. When she first saw us, she ran away. When it was time to take her home, she kicked and screamed. When we got “home” to the little apartment we had rented, she was determined to keep her jacket and backpack on, ready to go at a moments notice. When it was time to go to bed, I laid beside her and watched huge crocodile tears roll down her face. When I laid my hand on her in an attempt to comfort her, she lifted it off and set it down on the bed beside her. She could not yet feel our love. She was so big and brave, and yet so tiny and broken.
I think they quit shaving her hair at the orphanage when they knew she had a family coming for her, but–even though she was dressed in pink–other adoptive families asked if this was our “little guy.” So I was determined that our beautiful girl should have long hair, and kept at it for years even when we had to adjust our plans to accommodate Tallulah’s DIY haircuts.
Last week, we celebrated Tallulah’s 14th Birthday, and our teenager got a new grown-up “do.” The gentleman who cut her hair was wonderful, and made her feel so so pretty!
When we returned home, she was eager to show off her new hair and was excited by the surprises and celebration dad and her siblings had prepared while we were gone.
But it’s this video that takes the cake…wait for the moment when she knows, for sure, that this song is all about her!
Love sure looks good on her!
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แมงมุม! (SPIDER!)
Living in Thailand has its privileges but it also has its downfalls: like sharing our home with unwanted guests. We have found countless geckos and ants in our kitchen, but everyone (in my family) can agree that geckos are better than these disgusting, eight-legged fiends that trespass into our dining room.
แมงมุม was very smart and hard to kill, even with the state-of-the-art bug smasher my mother created with my father’s shoe and a broom.
Somehow we got it trapped in a container and set it outside. And, while we were still freaking out, Dad came home, shook up the box, dumped the spider on the road, and stomped on it.
P.S. Just know that if God ever calls you to Thailand you will have unwanted critters in your house. No doubt about it.
P.P.S. My mom is not sure about the factual basis of that final statement. She still has hope that it is not true.
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Sticky Falls
Yesterday, we discovered one of my favorite places in the whole entire world! We went to Sticky Falls, which is a place where you can climb up waterfalls. But think of it more like hiking. It wasn’t like you would normally picture a waterfall, it was more like a mountain of rocks with water flowing down them.
It also was not slippery like you would think that it would be, for the most part at least. It wasn’t hard to climb because it really was sticky. But not gooey sticky or gluey sticky, it was grippy sticky. Your foot wouldn’t slide, it would sort of grab on. Maybe imagine being a gecko climbing up a wall: the wall isn’t sticky and the gecko isn’t sticky, but it still sticks like a suction cup.
Sticky Falls was sooooo beautiful, and unlike anything I have ever seen or experienced before.
STICKY FALLS IS AWESOME!! If you ever come to visit me in Thailand, this is a place I will definitely want to take you to! I would go back there any day.
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Songkran
It is a tradition for Thai people to go around sprinkling a little bit of water on one another to bless them for the new year. But it isn’t always just a little sprinkle, some people get a little crazy and dump a whole bunch of water on everybody. We went to the moat in Chiang Mai for the Songkran celebration and it was the biggest water fight I have ever seen. Songkran was so fun!
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Hot Chili Squid Potato Chips
My name is Josiah Keim and I am going to do my best explaining the complex and exotic flavors in Thai Food. Everything from Pad Thai to potato chips.
Speaking of, I tried the craziest flavor of potato chips today: Hot Chili Squid. They might sound gross but I kinda like them. So does my sister Tallulah. But she likes any flavor of potato chip. I tried tricking my siblings into eating them by saying they were Mae Ploy and Potato flavored. Surprisingly, when I tried them I felt like that is actually what I think they taste like. If you don’t know, (which is normal for most Americans), Mae Ploy is a Thai sweet chili sauce. You can buy it in the states and it is amazing with sticky rice and chicken. It isn’t too spicy and the flavor is delicious. My dad even put it on pizzas at our pub before we moved. The chips taste a lot like a raw potato that someone dipped in Mae Ploy, but there is also a salty seaweed taste at the back of my tongue.
Like I said, I like them, my sister Tallulah likes them, my dad hasn’t tried them yet but I bet he likes them. The rest of my family thinks they are disgusting but that is because they expected them to be gross. If you get rid of your expectations you may really like them.
