On the "Home" front...

Recently I felt God impressing on my heart that we were to come back to Australia for a season. I prayed and felt that God wanted me to go ahead and make some plans. It is quite nerve racking this planning business!

Plans have now been made and we would be happy to tell you where we will be if you email us.    ;-)

It was cold last time when we were in Oz. Really, it was!

 

Jordy LOVED seeing his brother Jai.

Jai, Sam's parents and the lovely Helen and Melissa.

 

 

We get to spend time with our sons.

How cute is this?

 

 

We will be able to celebrate our son Jesse’s engagement to Nikita. Yay!

 

And see our precious No. 1 son, Benj.

Benj and the lovely Malinda.  Can't wait to see them!

Jai, Jordan and Benj making me nervous!

 

It has been an eleven year journey of “living by faith.” Trusting God to meet all our needs. Some needs have been financial, some, staff needs.

Every single time we have left the Children’s Home it has been very “difficult” and we knew that we had to have people in place to oversee the running of the home.

In order for Jordy not to miss too much school, we needed to get him into school in  our home town of Geelong and another school in Port Macquarie.

We heard today that Jordy was accepted into his brothers’ old school (Christian College, Geelong) for the fourth term.
We are thrilled with this development! They have been very kind to us and have offered discounted fees for the term.

We will need to outfit him with a uniform and school shoes. Jordy is shocked that he has to wear shoes having lived most of his life in sandals, thongs or best of all...bare feet!

Shoes are removed before entering any classroom in Thailand.
 
After we leave Geelong we will be in Port Macqurie.

The leadership team at Heritage Christian School in Port Macquarie have waived all fees to allow Jordy to attend Jai and Jesse’s old school! How amazing! Thankyou to all at Heritage.

We are in awe of all that God is doing in the necessary planning to come ‘home’.

Jordy is very excited to be able to attend school in the town where he was born.

Last time we were in Port Macquarie, Jordy and "Jump" were able to attend Heritage school for a week. The other students were wonderful to them, even outfitting Jump in her Chef's gear!

 

 

 

This is WAY different to the clothes she is normally comfortable in!

Here she is in her tribal outfit. Much more like "her"...

We have a car for our use in Port Macquarie. Again - answered prayer!
 Our dear friend will deliver it to Port Macquarie for us. Wow! Thanks so much Sandie!!

Sandie pictured with our "Pippiliscious" as Sandie calls her.

 

We have had TWO offers of accommodation and a car in Brisbane so we are very blessed. Thank you to Josh and Bon Olyslagers. You guys always bless us and we know we don’t deserve the amazing way you love on us!

Bonnie and family with us at Dreamworld, QLD.

Josh building at our Children's Home.

 

Thank you to the lovely David and Chris Fairhurst who always lift our spirits and humble us by their kindness and interest in our lives and Ministry.

The lovely David and Chris at their home in Brisbane.

 

Before we went to Australia, Jordan had asked God if he could go to the beach, pat a kangaroo, see his brothers and Grandparents, spend time with his friend Kiel and to see a Monster Truck!

I encouraged him that all were do-able... but that we would probably not be able to see a Monster truck.

He laughed and said "oh, yes I will because God knows it is important to me and I asked Him!"

We didn't know but our church friends in Chuwar, QLD had organised for Jordan to be chosen to have a ride on (yes that's right... "on" not "in!") a Monster Truck during their church Fair.

They did not know about Jordan's prayer - but God did!

He literally sat high up on the bonnet, hung on for dear life and just about went deaf from the roar of the engine. The driver drove the truck around a circuit, revving the engine along the way. All this was done in front of thousands of people. Jordy was thrilled. A bit deaf afterwards (kidding!), but thrilled!

We were humbled and reminded that nothing is too hard for God.

 

A policeman spoke to the organisers and said that they were not allowed to let him ride on the bonnet (it was amazing to see and terrifying for me to watch!) and that they would get into trouble if they allowed it.           The pastor's wife laughed and said that Jordan was used to riding in the back of ute's and other open vehicles in Thailand and that it would be alright.

Amazingly the older Policeman laughed and said "ok" and the show went on!

A love for "speed" runs in the family!!

And on the "Home" front…

Amy, our 12 month volunteer, has happily agreed to oversee the running of the home for her last three months in Thailand. We are ever grateful to this young and capable lady.

 

Allan and Amy

We still needed someone to fill in from January when Amy leaves until May. I was praying as it is virtually impossible to even know where to start to find someone who can fill in for us. God knew of course of our need but He is delighted when we pray and while I was talking to Him about it - I received an SMS from our “hands and feet” on the ground in Australia, Sandie Stirgess.

Sandie said that she would like to come and stay at our Children’s Home while we are in Australia and would I like her to come in November or January? Oh -  January please!! We are grateful for this special friend of ours and how God is using her in our lives. Thank you Sandie!

We are in need of housing and a vehicle in Geelong so if you are aware of available housing any time from October to the end of January, please let us know. We would be very grateful.

Thank you,

In His care,

The Smiddys.

 

Memee- A little girl and God's miracle!

Memee* is a special little girl!
Abandoned by her family but not by God! He clearly has His hand on her precious life!

Here is Meme the day we went to bring her to our Children's Home.

 

First she had to have a bath.

 

She was very scared... as you can well imagine...

 

 Memee is so needy. She requires supervision and needs one on one care. She needs a small family.
I started to pray, “Lord, Memee needs a family. Would you please provide this little girl with a family who will love her and help her to be all that you intended her to be.”

So I presented my list to God -all that I believed Memee would need. 
 
Top of that list -two doting parents - with only one other little one in their care. A girl would be great but not a necessity!!

Why? Because Memee needs to feel special and because a new mum and dad would need to keep a close eye on her and have a special understanding of special little girls!

One or both of her parents would need to speak Thai.

If they spoke English as well that would be good!

It would be perfect if one is a school teacher.

Memee's mum and dad would need to understand the needs of ‘adopted’ children, or at least children who grow up in a family other than their birth family.

Oh, and please Lord, could they be Christians - we would love them to be of like minded faith.

So I advertised in our newsletter.

Not one reply.
 
Then the doubts - and questions - came.

How would we find the right family? What authority do we have to find an adoptive/foster family for this precious child?

How would we get her grandfather’s permission to place her into a family?

His phone number was lost and we actually didn't know where he is! How could we track him down?

One day I was praying and God spoke quietly to my heart that I was not believing that He would find a family for Memee.

 A couple of days later we went out to a restaurant in Chiang Mai. I was very tired and not feeling like talking to anyone. Actually I was feeling like quite a failure.

We had had our long term helper leave, 42 (forty two!) referrals of children that we couldn’t help had recently come in, and I couldn’t find this little girl a home!

A man at the next table smiled and said hello. He was American. Feeling as I was, I simply didn’t want to go through the polite talk, and all the other usual questions one asks when you meet a stranger here.

I actually whispered “Lord, I am tired, defeated. I don’t even want to be nice to the man. I know that is not pleasing to you. Please help me.”

The man's wife smiled at me and I returned her smile and said “hello”. She was chatty and friendly and thankfully didn’t ask us very many questions at all! After a while she slid along the bench seat, stood up and came and sat with us.

Her husband is “oriental looking” and I wondered about his background, as he had no accent so clearly wasn’t Thai.  

After a long conversation she mentioned that they would love to adopt another child.

I asked “Oh, you want a boy?”

And she replied, “No, we’d love a little girl. One who is about six years old would be perfect.”

Can I refer you back to my prayer to the Lord?!

This woman is American and speaks only English.

Her husband IS Thai and yet spoke only English for the first 12 years of his life. His English is perfect AND he speaks fluent Thai!

She is a teacher and runs a school!!!

He is home a lot and also travels.

I gave them my business card and went home incredulous at how this was all panning out!

Then an email arrived from this couple saying,  'We have really committed this to the Lord and believe He would have this little girl join our family!'

Even though this is clearly from the hand of God – the story gets better and more amazing!

A few days before our senior staff member left, I asked her to come into the office, showed her Memee’s file and said, “Why don’t we have contact details of the grandfather? We have no way of contacting him.”

So she searched for the district in which Memee was born, rang the “town hall” and spoke to a man who knows “District 10” and asked him if he knew the village leader (who is always an important man).

He said, “Yes, I have his phone number!”

So he called the village leader and asked if he remembered a little girl being given to a children’s home nearly two years ago.

He did.

Did he remember who the grandfather was?

He did.

Could he talk to him about Memee being adopted?

He could.

Subsequently we have been informed that Grandfather has given his consent for Memee's adoption, with the small proviso of his being able to see his precious granddaughter one more time.

He also needed to contact some cousins to see if there was any objection. 

Grandfather managed to contact the relatives and there was no objection lodged so he has consented to Memee being adopted!

Bless God and thank you to all who prayed.
 

A miracle was had that day for one of God’s precious children.

And did I mention… they have a beautiful 2 year old Thai girl whom they have raised since birth?!

We are handing over this precious child to her new family. It is of course with mixed emotions but we dearly want the 'best' for this little girl.

On “gotcha day” (the day Memee left with her new family), Memee and her new sister Rosie sat side by side in their little car seats, drinking from their sippy cups and talking secret little girls talk, while their parents beamed in the front seat.

We all marvel at God’s hand in this little girl's life.

In her new bedroom with her little sister.

 

Sisters on bikes 

 

 

 

My first visit with Memee after she had gone to her new family. It was a very wonderful reunion!

 

 And...she has started ballet lessons!

 

Until next time,

with love,

Sam.

Post script from Memee's new Mum...

Isn't it weird how the Lord works??? After leaving the restraunt that night her name just kept playing in my head. When I mentioned it to Rory* he said he couldn't get the name out of his head either! It was like the Lord was NOT going to let this one get by us.  We prayed right away and then I ran to email you.  I had no idea what would happen, but I knew we had to met this girl. 

Three months later and it's like she has always been with us!  I cried at her first ballet lesson, and Rory beams with pride as she yells "Daddy watch me!!!!" during swimming lessons.  We can't ever thank you and Allan enough for making our little family complete!
*Name changed to maintain privacy.

Life with Lu

Lu is a wonderful child. Big dimples, easy laugh, pretty features. She loves talking to people and getting to know what they are like. Lu loves it when we host visitors, quietly watches them and interacts shyly until she gets to know them - then everyone notices her lovely demenour, her easy laugh and of course...those dimples!

Early days with us - she was so cute...still is as a matter of fact!

Lu with a Christmas gift from Australia.

She is a very artistic little left hander and delights in her creations whether it be cooking or craft or music.

Lu plays a Thai instrument at school. I marvelled at her talent as she was so deft at moving the instrument and drawing the bow across and made some intersting sounds - she did it with such ease I have to admit to being a little surprised. Now if only we had a live in music teacher!

Lu tries playing the ukelele which she of course found quite easy!



Lu making a "monkey." She loved seeing her creation come to life.

Being such a generous soul, she gave her hand made toy to a little girl at school. When asked why she did this, she looked shocked that I didn't understand. "This little girl -she doesn't have much Mummy. I wanted her to have a little friend (her precious home-made toy)."

She loves cooking and will mix, stir, shred, grate along with the best of them.

Lu loves our youngest member of the household and is always ready to teach him things and to just love on him.

She is also quite a complicated soul. Today was a sad day. She stayed close by me all day today.

“Mum, can I get you a drink”? “You look tired” she says as she rubs my back. What is going on in that pretty little head of hers? She insisted on rubbing my feet and said "oh Mum. You (your) feet very dirty." I just thought that went with the territory of walking around in bare feet but the Thai's don't seem to get dirty feet! She quickly got a wet cloth and cleaned my feet for me. "There (you) are Mum" she declared. "All clean now. You want (a) massage? Oh, I get you a cup of tea first."

Gee - am I overwhelmed with this child at times. I tell her constantly that she doesn't have to please me all the time. She roars with laughter. Mummy does tell the funniest of stories!

Of course, ALL Thai children are told to respect and honour their parents. She classes me as her "Falang Mummy" and says quietly "When I am with my mummy, I miss you Mum." "Do you Lu? Thankfully that's only once a year then." She says "Oh, is OK Mummy. When I stay with you I miss my (birth) Mummy too. Funny isn't it Mum?" she says with a far away look in her eyes.

We hug and it's my turn to rub HER back. What a precious little girl.

Thanks for supporting us to "do what we do" and to love on these precious little children.

We are indeed blessed.

With love, until next time.

Sam.

Food, glorious (Thai) food!

I love good Thai food. 

I say "good' because i have certainly tasted some food that would not fall into that catergory!

 

Most Thai food is... seriously delicious!

We had to laugh though when the dish pictured below was put on the table for our visitor. We thought "oh, isn't that nice of our staff to be so caring to our visitor. How lovely of them." But after seeing the look of shock on our friend's face, we realised that this was not "normal" where she was from. We had to assure her that she didn't have to actually EAT the fish head- even though the children didn't understand why she wasn't thrilled to be given this tasty morsel!

 

 

The Thais are famous for the four" s's" - sweet, salty, sour and spicy!

 

Green curry chicken aka "Gaeng Kiew wan gai."

Satay pork and peanut sauce. The chillies are mixed with the cucumber and vinegar.

 

Fish sauce is served at the table along with chillies in vinegar, dried chilli and sugar so you can add your own flavourings to taste.

Having fish sauce with our meal is now as natural as having salt and pepper on the table!

This is a common sight in Thai restaurants in Thailand. Sugar, fish sauce, vinegar and of course -chilli!
I had to laugh recently when I carefully 'held back' the chillies and scooped out a little vinegar to put on my noodle dish. Afterwards, the Thai man next to me carefully scooped out some chilli to put on his dish, leaving the vinegar to fall back into the jar!

Surprisingly many dishes are not spicy.

Of course you can add the chilli later!

 

The children enjoyed a visit to our staff member's village. Even the little one pictured had a ball - even though this is not her 'best shot!'

 

 

On of our favourite things to do with visitors is have a "muu khataa" - a lovely way to sit and eat and cook your own food. Dr Warwick and our lovely Jojo enjoyed eating our special Thai feast!

 

A famous dish of Northern Thailand is "Khaow soy" which is a noodle dish with curry. Yummm!

Our volunteer Amy asked what the khaow soy tasted like. "Is it spicy?" she asked? "No, but it's very flavoursome" was my reply. Amy believes I have lost my taste buds...or my mind! She found it to be VERY spicy!

This is another much loved Thai meal. In fact our kids salivate at the sight of grilled chicken, sticky rice and mango salad (don't ask for it to be a 'little spicy' as the Thai's will only add 3 or 4 chillies instead of the quarter of a chilli that you would like!

 

 

Thai's LOVE sweet food. Here is our sweet Jump, our oldest girl enjoying a tiny cake.

They love their fruit too - many of which we have not grown up with.

 

 

And the Thai's are quite famous for their fruit carving.

I haven't quite mastered the art yet!

 

Jump with the skin of a Thai fruit - som oh.

As you would... lol

 

And here is Jo and Mia getting in on the act... 



Jo helped us to care for little Mia who needed some specialised medical help.

More about this special little girl another time.

Hope you have enjoyed reading.

Until next time,

With love from Sam