we've now been in thailand coming up on 2 and 1/2 years. and i'm finally ready to invest in something. i've spent the last 18 months being the christian ed. chair at our church. which means i've taken care of children's ministry. in a very mediocre way. it was something i got into spur of the moment like. with no thought given. and seeing as it's an 18 month commitment and i very clearly said "no" when asked if i'd be interested in another term - i'm wrapping that one up and not looking back. so, now it's time for something new. i would love for the next thing to be something i really want to do - you know be a little more intentional about it and less spur of the moment.

i want to be more involved at the kids' school. in the states i was extremely involved and i miss that terribly. i've taken care of this one. i'm going to be the ptg secretary next year. this involved an election - i was unapposed, but still people had to raise their hands and all.

another thing i know i want to do is become more familiar with the local compassion office. i've sent a tentative email to see if there are things i can do there. if we were in the states i would offer to do administrative type things - but here there's the whole language thing. i know they would like me to teach english, but i've given that a try on two occasions and i'm really, really bad at it. i really hope this one works out.

and there is one other thing i'd like to do. there are several orphanages in the area. i'd like to get involved with one. i'd like for the kids to be able to be involved, too. at least #1 and #2. not that i wouldn't like for #3 to be involved, but it's likely that he's too young. so i've put some feelers out on that one, too.

and as i think about this, i'm a little worried. i know three separate things at one time seems alot, in my head i have it all working out. no problems. but it involves setting boundaries. that might be a problem. i'm not good with boundaries. (that's how come we have three dogs.) i have just emailed the ptg president to see exactly what kind of commitment i'm looking at. i don't really think it's too scary, a few meetings and such. in my tentative email to compassion i almost mentioned that i was available 1 morning a week. wishing i had done that. and i've told the orphanage 2 days a week. we're gonna have to work out times and days and such. and seeing as they do have a schedule that the kids are on it might not be too hard to keep it to two days. so, see, it all works out perfectly.