i've been flipping through culture shock! thailand - secretly believing i really don't need this book because i'm so very adaptable - and i came across this...

"thais have a great sense of humour but they don't like sarcasm."

i'm not sure i can survive in a culture that doesn't embrace sarcasm. weird food - no problem, no daisy dukes and bikinis - piece of cake, don't wear my little black dress to a party - can do, but no sarcasm - i won't be able to open my mouth for fear of what might fall out. i have yet to find this in the book, but i'm betting they don't go in for passive aggressiveness, either. this doesn't bode well.

however, i have found something else in the book that gives me a small glimmer of hope.

"one of the most pleasant aspects of thai small talk is the zest for flattery. try to keep your ego within limits when everything about you is being praised."

this doesn't quite make up for the no sarcasm thing, but it's a start...

we are now pretty sure where we are going - chiang mai, thailand. today i took the kids so we could get our passport pictures - bh already has his. it's forward motion. i can cross it off my list, just like this get passport photos. that feels good.

now that we know the when - next summer; the where - chiang mai; the how - well we're still figuring that out (that's going to take some time) i'll share the why. bh has gotten a job with compassion international. he is the area/regional learning and support director for asia and when he first applied he assumed that he would be located here. he was wrong. he knew before the first interview that it was in asia and after some discussion and prayer we figured he should at least follow through - find out where this might lead. he had just walked in the front door after his first interview when they called back to see if he could return for another interview. he did. he had a total of 5 interviews and felt very confident about each of them. when they called to offer the job we discussed it with the kids, spent time discussing it ourselves and prayed. we really feel this is where God wants us. we're excited, scared, worried, unsure and many other of those nagging feelings, but above all that we feel at peace. we can worry all we want or we can take comfort in knowing that we're where God wants us. i'm sure that as the time goes by we'll come up with all kinds of things to worry about, luckily for now there is a ton to keep us busy. and how long have we had to think about this? bh applied for the job on august 2. i think that is amazing. others are sure it's crazy.

in 9 months my family is being transplanted to asia. we don't have an exact location. i have no idea how to even begin to plan for something like this. so i googled how to transplant a tree - you know, just to see if any of the steps might be similar. and of course, it's nothing the same - we won't need sphagnum moss for this move. (i'm sure someone more imaginative than me could come up with how all the steps at ehow are very similar to the process of moving 1/2 way around the world) but there did seem to be two things that apply - the introduction and the warning. the introduction says

moving an established tree or shrub is not something to be done on a whim. it takes about a year's worth of preparation...

this makes me feel good. not on a whim and about a year... seems we're getting a good start. then there is the one and only warning... and it does not make me feel good. it is my greatest concern - i'm sure more will come once i really understand this move thing. anyway, the one warning is this -

for the sake of it's health and your own, don't even try to move a large tree or very large shrub; that's a job best left to a pro. as for how big is too big, if there is any question in your mind at all, it's too big.

people in asia are small - that may be a generalization - and I am not. not asian small. from my internet searches it seems that if i need to buy clothes once i'm there it will be moo-moos for me.