Adventures in Thailand: The Journey

Well, I've decided to do my posts about Thailand in parts because I want to document our trip there. I'm starting from the very beginning, beginning with our long plane ride all the way to Phayao. I feel like that is just as much part of the memory as well so here we go. If you could care less about this than feel free to exit out now but since my brain and abilities can't handle scrapbooking and I rarely print pictures this is how I want to document our fun times. :)

Rick and I have been saving our air miles for oh...the past eight years! I'm not kidding. So, all four of our tickets were bought with air miles so all we had to pay for were the processing fees! Unbelievable, we were so excited that after eight years of saving it actually worked to redeem them because there was a small fear that it might not work. So great! Alright, so we left for DFW airport on May 6th, veeerrrry early in the morning. We somehow made it from remote parking onto the shuttle to our terminal with just Rick and I, the girls and all seven of our bags. Ridiculous. Now, Rick and I both admit neither one of us are known to be light packers but don't think that all of these bags were just for us. We only had two bags for our family and the other 5 and every little space, pocket and crevice was jammed packed with goodies for The Reese's and their team. I'm telling you we had everything from Ranch dressing, Dr. Peppers and Cheetos to cooking utensils, ipod speakers, homeschool curriculum and a carseat base. You name it we had it tucked into a suitcase somewhere. We were packed to the gills and just hoping the nice people at the American Airlines counter were in a good mood early in the morning to let a couple of L-beez slide on the scale. Each bag by the way weighed around 50 pounds and a few were a little over the weight limit. So that's what? Around 350 pounds we were taking? Yeah, so our luggage pretty much took up most of the shuttle getting us to the terminal but there were some nice people on the shuttle who helped us with our luggage. Really I think they just felt sorry for us struggling with two small children, carry-ons and 7 huge pieces of luggage at 5 am. They jokingly at one point offered to pray for us. Really? Did we look that wheels off?

Anyway, we got checked in and they even let us go to the front of the line to go through security which was awesome because the line was a mile long! We had plenty of time to get to our gate, eat some breakfast and just let the girls play.

Waiting at our gate at DFW to head to San Francisco

Watching for our plane

Awww, sweet Rick entertaining the troops. Mom is not so fun early in the morning so Rick gets to be the one fun one. For the record, I am not a morning person. I really want to be and I thought that once I became an adult I would automatically like coffee and getting up early but that has yet to happen. I am better though than I used to be and I can say that I don't have quite the foul attitude I used to have when having to get up early but I am still sllooow to wake up.

So, we had a 3 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco then a 3 hour lay over there. Enough time to once again eat and play. And, Rick got us some fabulous neck pillows that saved our life on our 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. He looked like a pack mule walking around the airport with his backpack, carrying Eva's backpack and the two neck pillows clipped to his pants. Hysterical, he has no shame. Why didn't I get a picture?? Oh, yeah, probably because I was still trying to wake up.

I mean, look at my eyes...hello, am I sleep walking? Tired eyes!

Eva and Ella waiting to board our HUGE Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. I'm telling you this plane was enormous, one of those ones with an upstairs!

Yeah, in case you glossed over that gem of info back there, 14 HOURS! Wow, it was long folks. BUT, I have to say that the girls did exceptionally well! Eva and Ella are very laid back and flexible anyway but this is just the ultimate test and they did great! I cannot complain at all. They watched movies, colored, took several trips back and forth to the bathroom to play in the sink and Ella played with her seatbelt for a good 45 minutes so that helped. :) Plus, our sweet, thoughtful and amazing friend Suzanne packed the girls a super fun bag FULL of crafts, stickers, books, magnetic stuff, finger puppets, etc. She tried to think of 28 things for our 28 hour flight! Is that the best or what?? The girls loved their goodies and it helped to pass the time, thank you Suzanne!! And really, they also slept alot. I slept alot. I didn't watch one movie or read one book. I don't know, it's like when I get on an airplane I suddenly feel very tired. I don't know if they were blowing something through the air vents into the cabin to make me sleepy but all I wanted to do was sleep. Good thing I had my incredible neck pillow eh? Thanks babe!

Here we are on our own row at the VERY back of the plane ready for a fun 14 hour journey!

Finally, we arrived in Hong Kong and had annnoother 3 hour lay over there. I did not get any pictures there for some reason. Oh yeah, I was pretty much asleep for most of that time. Ok, I know it sounds like I'm sleeping alot and you're probably wondering if poor Rick was left alone to watch the girls. It does sound like that! Ha! I WAS very helpful and was taking care of my children but I also was able to sleep. Anyway, so quick random and funny Hong Kong airport story for you besides the one where as soon as we deplaned in Hong Kong a security agent wearing a mask pointed her thermometer gun at Ella's head to take her temperature before letting us to our gate. Besides that, here's the other funny story and again, I wish I would've taken a picture of our "friends" we made but I was not functional. Ok, so picture this. I am layed out on a bench, I mean LAYED out, with my trusty neck pillow, Eva's blanket, shoes off asleep. ASLEEP. Next thing I know Rick is waking me up with this weird smile on his face and is saying, "We're going to take a picture." I could not figure out what he was saying or doing but he was helping me sit up and telling me we were going to take a picture. What in the world? I'm doing the whole one-eye-open-half-asleep thing still and out of my open eye I see two little chinese ladies, one is holding Ella and the other is ready with her camera and is nodding and smiling at me. I was soooo confused! Rick is still looking at me with his weird smile that says "I have no idea what's going on" while I am literally rubbing my eyes and trying to smooth my hair for a picture with our "friends." Oh man, hilarious! These two sweet ladies did not speak English and of course we do not speak Chinese but apparently they both had daughters around Eva and Ella's ages and they wanted a picture of us to show their families. They wanted to video tape the girls speaking in English but after being held, pinched and having their tummies rubbed(not kidding) by two strangers speaking a different language I think a video was just too much to ask. So, somewhere floating around Hong Kong are pictures of the Carder family with me doing my one-eye-open-half-asleep bit and two nice little Chinese ladies. Love it! Sorry I don't have a picture to show you, I'm kicking myself, the whole scenario was hilarious.

From there we got on our flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok which was I think maybe an hour and half to two hours. We arrived in Bangkok at around 10:30 pm or so I think, went through immigration, got all our bags and went to find our shuttle to the hotel.

Happy to be off the plane and finally be in Thailand!

Heading to go find our other 7 bags


We stayed at The Grand Convenience Hotel in Bangkok, don't you love that name? I think it's so funny especially because it's not like it's super convenient to the airport. It was a 20 minute shuttle ride away. Love it! But, I will say that other than that it was great, the hotel was nice and the shuttle service was on time and it was a great place to just spend the night if you're needing to get up the next morning to catch a flight.

All of our bags at The Grand Convenience...after they smashed them in the elevator a few times trying to get them all in. Only a few things broke on the suitcases but hey, at least they got them all to our room in one trip right? Good grief.

We all slept great and got up the next morning, headed back to the airport and got on our flight to Chiang Rai where Ann and Derran would pick us up.

Mother's Day picture with my girls in the Bangkok airport waiting to board our last flight

We made it to Chiang Rai and after days of traveling finally got to see our sweet Brynn and Meg!



The girls were so excited to see their cousins! They held hands all the way to the car.


Derran loading our bags into their truck and covering them with a tarp for the hour long trip to Phayao

We stopped for lunch in Chiang Rai and then drove an hour to Phayao to Ann and Derran's house. It was so fun to FINALLY be in Phayao in person and see where they live.

Ann and Derran's house

Ann and I's Mother's Day flowers waiting at their house for us when we got there. Sooo sweet!!
That night we went to their house church at the Fikes house (one of their teammates) where they did a lesson for the kids, shared a meal together and then had a lesson for the adults. It was all in Thai and it was so neat to even see the kids singing and reading the Bible in Thai. They are doing such an amazing job!


This is just the beginning and I'm impressed if you made it to the end. I have lots more to share so get ready!

We're Back!

What a month it has been! So much has happened since my last post and there is much to blog about. I have a lot of catching up to do! Aaaah! Since my last post our life has been a tad crazy! The end of April Rick and I spent 5 days in Atlanta at a conference, came home and three days later put our house on the market on May 5th and the next morning, May 6th the Carder fam got up at 4:30 am to head to the airport to go to Thailand. So, there ya have it, that's my excuse for not blogging for over a month. Wowsers, I would say that this is just the way we roll but in fact this is not the way we like to roll. It has been crazy and we much prefer things to be a little more calm but it's all exciting and good things so it's ok.

So, backing up, yes, our house is officially on the market so if you or anyone you know is looking for a great 3 bedroom/two bathroom house with a neighborhood pool and two parks nearby let me know! We love this house, the location and neighborhood but we are wanting to move closer to Rick's work so we'll see what happens. You can be praying about this for us! Anyway, our plan was to put the house on the market the day before we left for Thailand in hopes that while we were gone for two weeks it would be ready for people to look at. Great plan right? Sure, well wouldn't you know that for two weeks it was spotless and no one came and the day after we got back from Thailand when our suitcases were spilling out and covering our dining room, laundry was hanging up everywhere, STUFF was out everywhere, THIS was the time someone decided to come. Lovely. We didn't get the courtesy call in time so some sweet family came and looked at our messy house. Nothing says "Welcome to our Home" quite like wet clothes hanging in the entry hall and suitcases all over the floor. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Anyway, we got home this past Friday, May 20th from Thailand and just had the most amazing time! Wow, what an incredible trip we had and it was such a special and blessed time being with Derran, Ann, Brynn and Meg. Everything went so smoothly, the girls did great on the flights, no one got sick and Eva and Ella didn't skip a beat being in a new culture where everything is different. Eva even readily wanted to use squatty potty's so I would say culture shock was not a problem! I can't wait to share about our adventures so get ready for several posts on Thailand. I took over 500 pictures so I'm just giving you a heads up that you're going to get an earful. :) We are still getting adjusted to the time change since it is 12 hours difference and I would say that we are almost 100% functional. I'm telling you, this jet-lag business is for the birds! Brrruutal! The first day back Eva and Ella were up at 3:30am...for the day. I don't think I even need to say that this is not cool but I will anyway. Not cool. The next day it was 5 am which is better. The next day was 6:30 and today Eva was up at 6 and Ella got up a little after 7 am so we are definitely moving in the right direction. Keep pushing it back girls, push it back! I will say though that I am so thankful we are struggling with jet-lag on this end instead of while we were in Thailand. We were only there for 11 days and one of my prayers was that we wouldn't waste time with sleep issues/jet-lag and that prayer was answered. The girls got up the first day we were there at 5 am but after that they did great. That seems like a small thing but I really wanted to be able to make the most of our time there and we did so I'm so thankful.

There is much to share so when I get my act together I'll post more about our trip. I can already feel myself slipping into a little bit of a funk and we've been back less than a week. I miss my sister and neices SO much already. My heart hurts and longs for more time with them. I'm so grateful, blessed and thankful that we got to spend 11 days with them. I feel like now that I've experienced their life in Thailand first-hand I know better how to pray. We love you Ann, Derran, Brynn and Meg and miss you like crazy! We're so proud of you and your commitment to the people in Phayao. We can't wait to see you again and for our next trip to Thailand. Love you, love you!!

Stay tuned, more to come from our Thailand trip involving elephant rides, motorcycle chase, amazing food, and lots and lots of cousin time!

Easter, New Niece, Ella Before & After, and What's Next

So much to catch up on in this post! This will be my highlights of April post as you can tell from my title there is lots to talk about. We'll start first with Easter since that was today!
So, Happy Easter Everyone! I trust it's been a wonderful day celebrating our risen Lord and the hope we have in Him! What an incredible reason we have to celebrate! Every day I am blown away by the love our God has for each of us that He would send His only son to earth, Jesus, who by his choice took our sins and died for us so that we would have eternal life with him! He is alive and he lives in us and gives us everlasting life!! What a gift, thank you Lord! We had a great Easter weekend spending time with family and friends. On Saturday we went to the annual Como Easter Egg Hunt and BBQ down in Como which is an inner city community here in Fort Worth. Some of our very dear friends have partnered with the community center there to put on the Egg Hunt and BBQ for the past couple of years and more importantly just to be there to love on people and let them know Jesus loves them. It is always a blessing to be a part of it, we look forward to going every year! Much to my disappointment though we did not get pictures with the Easter Bunny this year. :( I decided to resist the urge to traumatize my children by making them get their picture made with him since Ella was hiding behind me if he was anywhere around and Eva settled for giving him a friendly high-five and that folks, was our EB experience for 2011. It was a fun day!


Lined up ready for the big Egg Hunt!

Eva hunting eggs with her friend Ellie

Ella wanted to spend most of her time in the bounce house...wasn't so into hunting eggs.
On Sunday we had another little egg hunt for the girls at my parents house. So fun!
Are these two little girls not the sweetest things you've ever seen?? My mom made them these precious Easter dresses. I just love them!! Thank you Mimi, we love you!

Kisses from my girls!

Mimi and Pawpaw


I just love this picture. They are so sweet together!

Up next, my little sister and her husband Ryan had their baby girl Carisyn Esther on April 6. I am excited to be an aunt again and the girls are SUPER excited about their new baby cousin.

I mean is she not the most beautiful little baby?? We can't get over her cuteness and we just love her to pieces!


The girls looooved seeing Carisyn, playing with her tiny hands and admiring her FULL head of gorgeous hair! Ella wanted to hold her constantly, so sweet!


We can't wait for more cousin time with our little Carisyn, we're so glad she's here!

Alright, we need an update on little Ella don't we? Thank you again for all of your prayers for her surgery and recovery. She did not miss a beat with this one! It really was amazing and we are just so thankful for a smooth surgery and an unbelievably quick recovery. We had a follow up appointment last week and all looks good. Her incision looks great and all is well! Such an answer to prayer! She's so funny because everyday after her surgery when I would get her dressed I would ask her how her tummy was feeling. Well, after about two or three days of me asking her that every morning she finally starting beating me to the punch and as soon as I would go to take her shirt off she would pipe up "My tummy feels ok." Hilarious. She knew what I was going to say before I said it! Sweet little girl!

Here's a little before and after pics for you. You know how I love before and afters.


Before. This is what the g-button site looked like after they removed it. It kind of looks like a belly button...just in the wrong spot. :) Sort of funny because Ella doesn't have a belly button (all babies with omphaloceles are born without belly buttons)but the g-button site made it look like she did but it was just way over to the side in a weird place. Awesome...just what we needed, something else a little different to add to our list. So, having to have the closure surgery was a good thing for more than one reason. Now we know for sure everything is all healed up and closed up like it should be AND instead of weird-looking misplaced belly button she has a little incision instead. I mean out of the two I would rather her have a small little scar wouldn't you?

After. Not too bad!

Here is a good picture of her "pretty belly" as I call it. I tell her everyday what a beautiful tummy she has and how thankful we are that God has healed her and helped her grow big and strong. Sweet baby has come so far and we are so thankful for all the Lord has done in her short little life. There is more to come but hopefully the next surgery is still another year away. You can see in this picture how her tummy bulges out. I've mentioned it before but this is because at her initial omphalocele repair surgery when she was two days old they had a hard time fitting all the organs back in and pulling her abdominal muscles back together over them so they only did a skin closure. Our next surgery will more than likely be to get full muscle closure over the organs which would flatten her tummy, clean up her scar and hopefully create a cute little belly button. Right now she is still too small and the hernia is too big so we just wait and let her grow which is great with us! She is doing so well, eating great, she is active and doing everything other kids her age are doing. We are so blessed and I thank God many times a day for the miracle of Ella Hope!

So, what is next for the Carders you ask? Weeeelll, we have some exciting plans in May! I'll give you a hint...we are going on a trip, it starts with a T, it's really, really, really far away. We are going to THAILAND!! I know, I'll give you a minute to pick your jaw up off the floor. The Carder fam is headed to Thailand in a just a few weeks to go visit Ann, Derran and the girls! We are SOOOO excited as if you couldn't tell from all of my exclamation points. :) Yes, we are all going, Eva and Ella too. Eva packed her bag in January so she's good to go! We cannot wait to get to see and be a part of the Reeses work in Phayao as well as have some great cousin time. The girls love their cousins Brynn and Meg and talk about them everyday so getting to go to Thailand will be such an adventure. I know some people may think we are crazy for going with two small children, one being Ella, but we just feel incredibly blessed that we are at a place now where this is even possible. We thought it would be yeeaaarrs before we would ever be able to go visit and I was pretty sure when we did get to go we would be buying a plane ticket for all of Ella's medical supplies to go with us. Every time I think about getting on the plane in a matter of weeks I can't help but thank God over and over for what He has done and for what He is doing in our family. My heart just wants to burst with thanksgiving!

We're so excited and will have lots of fun stories and pictures to share soon! You can follow the Reeses blog and learn more about their life and ministry in Phayao, Thailand by clicking on my link Reeses in Thailand at the top of my blog. That pretty much sums it up for now, looking forward to what's to come! I'm sure I'll have some great Thailand stories for ya so stay tuned!

Update on Ella's Surgery

Ella is home and doing great!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers today for Ella and our family. What a blessing to have friends and family praying, thank you!
Ella did great today! We got to Cook's at 7:30 this morning and were home by 12:30! Can you believe that? I was amazed. The surgery went well, her surgeon said she did great and everything went smoothly. Thank you Lord! She was a little grumpy waking up in recovery and on the ride home but once we got home it didn't take long before she already wanted to get down and play with Eva. Children and their resilience just blows me away!

Honestly, today has been a good day. I'm glad this is behind us but today was good. As much as I dread surgeries and having to let my baby go, the Lord gave me His peace today just as He has always done before with every other procedure and surgery so today was no different. We are so amazed and thankful for the level of care that Ella received. The Lord has put incredible people in our hospitals!

On Friday we had an unplanned, last minute pre-op consult in preparation for today mainly because when you look on paper at Ella's medical history she ummm, well..."looks bad" as they told me. Cook's called to see if we could come in for this reason. Lovely. That sounds mean to say but I agree, she has alot going on and is one complicated little girl when you look at it all written out. I have learned to laugh at moments like this when I have to go down the list and explain the congenital anomalies, the heart defects, the spine defects, the shoulder problems, tummy issues, why we needed a feeding tube, and "No, she doesn't have a syndrome" and please stop listing off ones YOU think she might have and the list goes on. Now, I don't mind having to explain it all like I used to because I see it as one more opportunity to give Ella's testimony about what an incredible God we serve. I love that they needed to see Ella in person because she "looks bad" on paper and were blown away at what they saw because what she looks like on paper is far from who she is or what she looks like in person. The Lord has done mighty things with her despite her differences and she is a living, breathing, walking miracle and there is no denying it. She is, just like the meaning of her name, "a bright light." I could go on and on.

Anyway, so Ella and I took a quick trip up to Cook's on Friday and the nurse that was taking care of us was a nurse we had before for a different procedure which was so reassuring and while we were there another nurse came in just because she heard Ella was there and she remembered her from 2 years ago and just wanted to see her. Crazy you might say, but I just looked at it as little ways God was showing me He was right beside me and is taking care of us. SAME THING happened today. The nurse that took Ella into surgery today was the same sweet nurse that took care of her during her omphalocele repair surgery when she was 2 days old. I want to say unbelievable, but it's not. The Lord is just so sweet that way to give us his peace in supernatural ways as well as in ways we can see with our physical eyes like putting familiar faces in front of you when you're feeling fragile.

So, things are good. We're so thankful that things went well and that this is behind us. We are so proud of both of our girls and how they love each other and support each other even though they are four and 2. Sweet sisters! Again, thank you all once again for your prayers, encouragement, and support. It is such a blessing to our family! Here are some pictures from today!



If this doesn't make you smile I don't know what will. Eva, Eva, and her "loud" clothes. This is what she wanted to wear today and it was good medicine for the soul to just look over at her in her crazy outfit. Makes me laugh!

Starting to feel a little loopy after some pre-medication. Ella was so funny, several minutes after she got some Versed a nurse walked in the room and Ella said, "I'm sleeping" even though she was wide awake. The nurse asked her if she was sleeping with her eyes open and she shook her head yes with a big smile on her face. Hilarious.

Saying good-bye :(

Sweet baby in recovery

Playing "Surgery" once we got home. Now instead of always playing "going to church or to the doctor" like they do I can bet this is going to be our new play scenario...surgery. I'm not sure where the hot pink feather boa comes in but wouldn't real life surgery be much more pleasant if everyone wore feather boas? I think so. Notice Eva with her heels and clipboard with her "paperwork and stickers" for Ella. Awesome.

Nurse Eva and her patient. I love these two...and didn't I say in my last post that this surgery wasn't going to slow her down much? I'm pretty sure I did. Keep praying for smooth, quick recovery!

Thanks for praying, we are so blessed!

Surgery on Monday for Ella

Well friends, it is surgery time again for Miss Ella Hope. It's been a little over a month since she had her G-button removed and it was our hope and prayer that everything would close up on it's own but that is unfortunately not the case. Her G-button site has continued to leak and after talking with her surgeon they have said that at this point surgery is required.

So, Ella will have surgery this coming Monday morning, March 28 at 9:15. We would covet your prayers once again for her for a smooth surgery, quick recovery and for no infection. They will do what's called a gastrocutaneous fistula closure which in "Amy's Terms" means they will go layer by layer and close off the stomach first and work back up to the skin closing everything off. As much as I had hoped that things would just naturally heal up there was a large part of me prepared for this outcome so we are at peace about it and feel confident in this decision. Ella is a trooper so I have no worries that this is just a minor hiccup and isn't going to slow her down much at all.

Thanks for loving and praying for our sweet Ella, keep those prayers coming!!

Now you see it...

And this Thursday at 3:00 you won't!! That's right folks, GI gave us the go-ahead to get Ella's feeding tube removed so we aren't wasting any time. We're going to Ella's surgeon this Thursday afternoon to get it taken out. Bye-Bye G-button! WOOOOHOOOO!

This is MONUMENTAL and when I really think about it I get a big lump in my throat. I can't believe this day is here NOW. My heart is overwhelmed with thankfulness at what the Lord has done for our sweet Ella Hope. Thank you for your continued prayers for her, what a blessing they have been! We would love your prayers this Thursday and the remainder of the week for quick healing for her G-button site. We have been warned that after it is removed it's possible that it won't close up on it's own which means that surgery would be required to go in and close off the stomach etc. Please just start praying now that this isn't the case for Ella and that everything will heal quickly and like it's supposed to. Ella's GI doctor said that we should know within a week of her G-button being removed if it's going to close up on it's own or not. We'll keep you updated, until then keep the prayers coming!


"Dr. Black"

Ella loves to pretend that she is Dr. Black, her tummy surgeon. Don't you love the stethoscope around the neck? Very doctor-like isn't it? Very observant this little girl. I think the glasses are my fave. Hope she still likes Dr. Black after Thursday and the ol' taking the G-button out drama is over. Lord, have mercy! Pray, friends!