Happy to be here

that's the general feeling I have right now. In dealing with all the emotion and reality of our tsunami experience, I really am just happy to be here, with my family - my wonderful loving, caring and understanding husband and my beautiful, happy, sweet little girls. I am so blessed to have such a family and to all be here, safe and sound. My youngest, Liz, is playing in our sandbox on our deck right now and it feels so good. It's a gorgeous sunny day out, bright blue skies, around 70 degrees, slight breeze on my face. The sand reminds me of the beach, which reminds me of our trip and the tsunami, the dirty sandy water that surrounded our resort. I'm not as anxious thinking of it right now as I was weeks ago. I just feel a profound loss and sadness, not for me or my family, but for everyone living in the affected areas. I can sit here at our house, on our deck, enjoying a beautiful day, knowing that others are cleaning up, grieving, starting over, trying to come to terms with losing loved ones, friends. I pray for them all, hoping that they can find some peace and joy again. I've been reading websites, checking for updates of the areas affected, looking at pictures of the cleanup, the rebuilding. The tourists are starting to go back, which is good, it's a beautiful country (Thailand), that relies on the tourism industry. Although I don't think we'll go back anytime soon, I do still highly recommend Thailand as a place to go visit. The people are amazingly friendly and the place is beautiful. Many resorts were untouched or relatively untouched and will be back in operation quite soon. I've seen pictures of our resort, Merlin Beach, being cleaned up. It's pretty amazing - where you weren't able to view the resort from the beach due to trees and bushes, well, it's a clear view now. Just amazing. http://www.phuket-photos.com/frameme.php?page=phuket-tidal-wave-thursday6.htm (there are pics of Merlin Beach Resort on this page).

Elizabeth's 18 month appointment went well. She's back to normal on her growth chart and is doing great on her development. A little on the slow side for speech, although our doctor said that is quite normal with her hearing two different languages and having an older sibling who speaks for her and gets her what she wants (and a mom who lets her get away with pointing and saying UH, UH). She's getting so big and is very fond of dogs and babies. We've visited with a few friends with babies and Liz is just mesmorized by them (the babies, that is). She's got a cold right now, so her nose is quite nasty and raw, but she's still in good spirits the majority of the time.

Ashley is doing great. I keep trying to talk to her about our trip, about the tsunami, to see how she's feeling and what she's thinking. She seems to be dealing with it very well and I've talked with my therapist on ways to talk with her about it. She tends to talk about how she ran - too fast that her daddy had to pick her up. She's also still startled by unexpected or different noises and a bit clingy at times, but that is completely understandable. One of my friends commented how hard it is to see her startled response to things and it is hard, it breaks my heart, but she's such a trooper.

We're eating out a lot, at most of our favorite restaurants, trying to get to them all before we have to leave. Mexican food is number one, of course, along with real burgers, good fast food and yummy ice cream. We've had Italian a few times too - notably The Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill. Plus, the Outback - mmm, their basic ranch salad is my all time favorite side salad and Victoria's filet is so good (guess you can tell I'm definitely no vegetarian).

We're attempting to get our passports renewed also, but found out today that we had to have the girls birth certificates, so had to go get new ones of those. We've been meaning to get them renewed since we got here, but we're such procrastinators - although I was glad to learn today that even if we'd renewed them the day we got here, we'd still have to pay for expedited processing, since it takes 6-8 weeks for regular processing. Hopefully we'll get them ordered in the next day or two though and that will be one more to do off our list.

Our photo website - the album of the after tsunami photos - has been viewed almost 50,000 times. I find that utterly amazing. Thanks to everyone who has forwarded on our blog and our photo site to others.

Speech on Donating to Tsunami Relief Efforts

I have a friend who currently lives in France. Her and her husband were visiting Thailand weeks before the tsunami hit - although luckily, they had already gone home when it did hit. My friend, Carmen, has written and given a speech to one of her group meetings in France. She forwarded it on to me and I found it to be a great speech on the people of Thailand, how they live and how they need international relief aid. Please take the time to read this if you get a chance.

Thailand Red Cross Southeast Asia Effort

In trying to think how I can tell you in 5 minutes why it's so important to me that people donate to the Red Cross Southeast Asian Relief Effort, I can only think about the Thai people and how it transformed me to be around them. You instantly notice their kind, gentle hospitable nature as soon as you step off the plane. This fact was pleasantly unfolding for me but really started to sink in the longer I stayed.

Our first two nights in Bangkok we took slowly and spent working through the logistics of the beach parts and the mainland parts of our trip. After discovering beach accommodations skyrocket starting Dec. 21, we decided the beach part must be done first... Since it's also supposed to be part of the experience of going to Thailand to get fitted by the Thai tailors for outstandingly priced suits, we did that before parting to the beach, so they would have time to complete them when we got back to Bangkok. Once on the plane to the beach I saw an advertisement in the a magazine showing that we could have gotten twice the volume of product for what we paid and was chewing my husband's ear about it all the way until we got off the plane and started heading toward our beach resort. As we traveled through the rain forest, we started noticing the very modest, poor-looking bungalows of the locals, many which looked half-finished and somewhat "makeshift" in construction. The doors and undressed windows were all wide open. As it was heavily dusk by that time, you could see into many of the homes -- as a tourist I am somewhat of a voyeur. You could see 3, 4 or 5 people milling around in small living areas with very little furniture, some sleeping fully clothed straight on bare concrete floors -- chickens on the porch, and a few mangy looking dogs and cats lying about. I turned to my husband and exclaimed, "My GOD I have GOT to get a grip on what's important in life.” The overpriced tailor no longer seemed so villainous. This feeling did not change the entire time we were there. From the makeshift food stands along side the roads, to the tiny rental business spaces selling goods and services to tourists, to the massage huts along the beach to the longtail boat drivers that fairy you from beach to beach -- these people seem somehow deprived by western standards, but just about every one of them are very enterprising, hard-working, dignified, polite and seemingly happy people.

The people working in the hotels bend over backwards to be polite and accommodating, providing little thoughtful details that I have not experienced in any other country. But who I think about more are the everyday people doing what they can to survive off the tourists: the ladies working the makeshift food stands attach a cage-like mechanism to their mopeds, complete with a flip-out grill attachment, flip-out countertop and attachable awning. They set up small fruit and beverage cases. They grill chicken quarters and corn-on-the-cob, and have little plastic chairs and tables set up behind their rows of food stands where they can serve you your food complete with silverware and sauces, mostly under a Euro. They bring in buckets of water for cleaning, and while the whole operation appears filthy by western standards, we ate at these stands half the time we were there and never got sick once. The longtail boat drivers who taxi you around the beaches, at first annoyed me because of the noise and fuel pollution, but you get used to it after a while and start to block it out. Plus, they are more than willing to find you a nice beach which isn't so crowded if you go at the right times. And, you can't get to many beaches without them.

One person really sticks in my mind the most and that was little NA. She was so adorable walking around selling her beverages and peeled pineapples on the beach to sunbathers with her little black bobbed hair and skin the color of the outside of a coconut. She couldn't have weighed more than 20 kilos, hauling around her giant sac of beers and sodas. Our first encounter she wanted to double charge me for a peeled pineapple. She wanted 50 baht and I knew they were typically 20 to 30 baht -- mind you, 50 baht is still less than a Euro. We haggled: "20 baht!" "40 baht!" "30 baht!" "40 baht!" By gosh, she was so darned cute she was going to get that 40 baht from me. When she came back by, planted herself firmly in front of me and exclaimed "40 baht,” I had the money ready, handed it to her and my husband and I enjoyed our deliciously peeled pineapple and beer lunch.

The next day we went to the same beach. We had chosen to kayak there this time and were nursing our sore arms by the time she came over to sell us a much-desired beer. She asked me probably one of the few English things she knew how to say: "How old are you?" I told her I was thirty-five and asked how old she was as she looked about 6. "Eight years old," she exclaimed. I said, well “in the country where I come from, you are what we call a business woman, and a very young one at that." She seemed to have no idea what I was talking about, and went off to sell more canned beverages to tourists, but this time she was joined by a very small child who seemed to be her little brother. He would probably be doing her job in another couple of years, as soon as he was grown enough to carry a big sacs of beverages. He was in nothing but a diaper and still had that very fluffy, spiky hair that babies have. He squatted and watched as she transacted. Since I was totally infatuated with her by this time, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Dad (or maybe Uncle), was walking around selling his sac of beverages about 100 meters in the other direction, probably with the 2 children in the corner of his eye the whole time. The 3 of them would periodically join together back at the tree-line, I imagine so he could give some sort of instructions. I would have taken Na home with me THAT day if the legal opportunity had presented itself.

The Thai massage ladies were lovely goddess saviors after a long afternoon of kayaking. The fabulous sunsets were healing, and the whole experience enchanting. Even though their simple life style by western standards appears "makeshift, less than organized and somewhat unsanitary" it is simply different from ours, and for them it works. OF COURSE they want a more comfortable life and better life for themselves and their children. And believe me, they are working on it in the way they know how. But this terrible disaster has caused some of them an unimaginable setback. No one, not any of us could have stood up to this. But you know what their are doing? They are trying to clean up and go back to work and they need some help to do it. I believe it is in as much the rest of the world's interest for them to be able to do this as it is in their own. We need them to go on DOING what they DO, LIVING the way they LIVE, and BEING the way they ARE. It helps us to understand who we are. It teaches us that life can be different from how it is for us, but at the same time wonderful… but not against these types of forces.

I just think about Na and her little brother and pray they were not there when the tsunami came around 10:30 that morning. On that particular beach, Laile, there would have been no where to escape. It was barricaded on each side by sheer rock-faced cliffs, and the forest behind the beach was about 300 maybe 400 meters deep, on the other side of which was another beach. That small area of forest was being completely filled up with bungalows, and the water would have rushed straight through all of it to the beach on the other side.
With that said, I am extremely fortunate to have enough money to be able to give the Red Cross 200 euros. As I have mentioned to some of you, other than tourism, Thailand relies on its agricultural resources. A majority of Thai people make and live on about 200 baht per day, which is about 4 euros... PER DAY! They need as much help as people have the means to give.

Update

I haven't had much time to post while we are here in the States. We've been staying pretty busy during the time we are here. We've seen lots of family and friends and have been having a good time. The visiting family part is wonderful. It's so great to see Ashley and Liz with their grandparents - their little faces just brighten up whenever they see grandad, grandmom, grandma or grandpa, it's just so neat to see.

I have started writing about our Thailand trip, but haven't quite finished it. We did so much on the trip that there is a lot to write about. I'll try to finish it soon and get it posted.

Ashley has seen an orthopedic doctor about her legs. Ashley wasn't in such a great mood, so the doctor only had a chance to see her walk and touch her legs for about 3 seconds. She was able to determine that Ashley's calf muscles aren't as stretched out as they should be and one leg is worse than the other. So we are doing exercises every night and every morning which are helping to stretch them out. Ashley actually enjoys doing the exercises, so that is good.
Today is Elizabeth's 18 month appointment, I'll post later about what the doc says. I'm assuming everything will be good and normal. She'll get a shot or two, so we aren't looking forward to that at all.

I have been to a psychiatrist and a therapist for my anxiety after the tsunami. They both are helping greatly. After some exercises the therapist gave me, I'm able to calm my anxiety and relax a bit. I'm able to think of what happened or what could have happened without the fear and shakiness that I experienced before. So that is good. Everyday seems to be getting better too. Ashley is talking about waves, beaches and trees falling over - but she doesn't seem upset by it - just talks normal about it, like it's a normal occurrence. She even said she wanted to go to the beach yesterday, although Anthony and I definitely don't share in that sentiment. Anthony is doing good, working a lot of hours, visiting people for lunch and scheduling dinners with coworkers and friends.

It's been great being in our house again - I think that really helps in the healing process. We are so glad that things worked out where our house is currently free from "tenants".

I still think everyday of all those affected by the tsunami and hope that they are getting the relief aid that so many people have generously donated. If you still haven't had a chance to donate, please do so - there are so many people that need help over in the affected areas. I can't imagine those who lost their homes, their families and their livelihoods, how hard it would be to recover from that. I've heard that even $1 donated to UNICEF can provide a necessary medical shot for a child. It all adds up.

Lots of good news...

I have become an Aunt! I'm so thrilled about this and can not wait to visit my little niece in a few weeks at the end of our stay here in the States. I was so excited for my brother and his wife before the tsunami and even more so afterwards, now that I think life is that much more precious. I know how much having children has changed my life and how wonderful it is to be a parent and watch your children grow and learn and develop personalitites - I am just so thrilled that my brother gets to share in the same journey now.

We are in contact with the couple who so wonderfully shared their 4th story room with us for a few hours after the tsunami hit at Merlin Beach. When we had been staying at the Merlin Phuket, I briefly ran into the woman who'd been so kind, we exchanged a few words, but I barely remember the encounter, as it was when Anthony had gone back to Merlin Beach and the girls were upset and I was not in a good frame of mind. I had posted a note asking them to contact us in our room on a window in the lobby area of the Merlin Phuket. I felt silly putting it up there, since it was a little note, next to other notes asking for information on lost and missing people. Nonetheless, I had wanted to try and get their contact information, but never did. I have often thought of them both, wanting to know how they were doing. Apparently, they remembered what company Anthony worked for, that we were living in Taiwan and all of our names. They contacted Anthony's work who then put him in contact with them. Anthony called me this afternoon and told me the news, we are both rather stunned and amazed that they were able to contact us and also really happy! Those cute little sandals that Ashley had on the morning of the tsunami - we didn't really have a place to carry them when we left the resort, so we left them in their room. Apparently, when they went back to get their luggage, they picked up the shoes and still have them. They are going to send them to us, Ashley will be so thrilled! She loved those shoes - as did Liz.

We sold our car in the States. We've had it listed for sale and have been trying to sell it since June of last year. Although the timing could have been better - someone offered to buy it the day before we got here for our visit - it is so great that we will not have to keep making payments on a vehicle we don't use, that just sits there.

I had more dreams last night, nothing as bad as the last ones, but all having to do with water and waves. None of these dreams involved the children though - all were just me or me and Anthony. I haven't been sleeping well, mix in jet lag with kiddos who keep waking up and bad dreams, that doesn't make for good sleeping conditions. Hopefully, the kids will start sleeping more hours at night, which will help Anthony and I in sleeping longer too. I am really tired and drained right now. I did have lunch today with friends, which was very nice! The girls actually sat and ate and were good for the whole meal, which is a rarity.

I posted some of information on an Asian travel website that has a forum where people are discussing the tsunami and requesting information on different hotels, people, etc. There was a post on Merlin Beach Resort, so I added our story and links to pics and blog. There have been a few people who also posted saying they survived from there or who had relatives who were there and some who've thanked me for sharing our pictures. I really never thought that so many people would actually see our photos and read our blog. I am continually amazed at the numbers and that so many people are getting what I had hoped they would get out of it, a more personal look into the tsunami and how it's affected so many different people from all over the world. I can not believe that it's been 2 weeks since the tsunami. It is such a strange feeling, knowing that we were there, that we were a part of this huge horrible massive natural disaster, and that we survived and are halfway across the world now.

To the States!

We are home in the States! It feels so good to be here and the girls are so happy. When we landed yesterday in California on our way to Texas, I cried tears of relief, just to be on US soil. I was a mess on the plane ride over. My anxiety level was so high. I don't normally really enjoy plane flights, but I also don't usually have the kind of high anxiety that I had on these flights. I became teary-eyed very often whenever the plane had turbulence or if the girls were crying or upset. I was unable to sleep at all and couldn't eat that much. I watched two movies and read my book for the majority of the flight. The girls actually did pretty well on the flights. A bit of crying and crankiness, but we've come to expect that on long flights now. Ashley had some foot pain and we couldn't seem to console her. In the San Jose airport, I was able to get some anti-anxiety medication out of my suitcase, before it went through customs, so the flight from CA to TX was so much better for me. My anxiety level was so much less and I enjoyed the flight and was able to sleep a bit. Both girls also slept on that flight, so that was very nice.

We are staying at my parents house for a bit until we get things ready to stay at our own house. It's been great being here with family, and the girls have absolutely LOVED it (although getting their way everytime helps that) . It's been neat to see how happy the girls have been enjoying their grandparents company. Ashley already been to the park with them and Anthony and I have already spent quite a bit of money at Target - not even 24 hours after arriving here!
I appreciate all the comments and emails we've received about our blog, about our pictures and asking about us in general. It is so nice to hear from those who've been touched by our lives.

About Donating to Relief Organizations

I just wanted to add that if you do decide to donate to a relief organization, please check with your employer to see if they do matching contributions. I meant to mention this earlier, but completely forgot. Many major companies will match employee donations to major charities. Anthony's company matches 100% of employee contributions to approved charities (up to a certain amount per year). If possible, it's a great way to make your donation mean even more.

Emotional Toll of Tsunami

This morning was a hard morning. I don’t know why or what spurred it, except that I had some pretty vivid dreams before waking up, two in particular. One was that we (Anthony, Ashley, Liz and I) were at a beach, near some hotel, when a wave came up and pulled us out to sea. I don’t remember all the details of the dream, just that we all ended up lying on a sandy beach, completely battered and tired, but alive, with debris all around us. I don’t remember any other parts than that. Just the emotions, the fear, the pain (not physical pain), the despair.

The next was more of a “what if” scenario…what if the wave had of come at the time the earthquake happened. This has played through my mind, over and over again, perhaps why it’s actually become a dream. I had eaten breakfast with Liz in the pool side restaurant that morning, letting Ashley and Anthony sleep in. At the exact time of the quake, Liz and I were walking back to our room to wake them up. In my dream, I see the wave coming from the pool area and I grab Liz and start running, but there are two choices, run to the room (to the right) to try and warn Anthony or run up the stairs to the left. I choose to run up the stairs, to save myself and Elizabeth, hoping that Anthony will hear the noise and get Ashley and go to safety. But in my dream, he doesn’t, he and Ashley do not make it. I see them in the room, I see what happens to them in the room and I see them later and am devastated. It’s so hard for me to write this and it might be upsetting to some. But I feel that I really need to get this out, to write about what I’m experiencing emotionally throughout all of this. I was so upset this morning after these dreams and thoughts. I just hugged Anthony and cried, not able to voice why I was crying. It’s hard to believe that I can even imagine either of those scenarios, that I've been through something that would even put these thoughts into my head. I’ve heard stories of people who had to make the choice – survival stories of parents who had to let their children go and children whose parents rescued them only to be swept away. I can’t imagine what they must be going through.

While we were staying at our “sanctuary” place, there was a woman there who happened to work in a news station in Australia – I don’t remember her name or what station. She was going around talking to people, asking people if they were ok. I remember her coming up to me, looking me straight in the eyes and saying “are you ok?”. When I told her yes, we were all safe, she moved on to the next family/individual. We saw and spoke with her several times that day. She told us about a couple with a down syndrome teenage boy who’d been missing since the tsunami. One of the parents had a hold of the boy, but he/she got knocked out by furniture with the wave and had to let go of him. The parents were in the hospital, alive, but looking for him. This news lady was asking anyone and everyone to keep an eye out for him, to try and find him. (I saw a news article today about this and they had not found him) She also spent hours on the phone, calling every hospital, every outlet she could think of to try and find a missing wife of a man who was up with us at the “sanctuary” resort. She got a photocopy of the wife’s picture and was faxing it to the various hospitals to try and find her. She did so much, as much as she could possibly do, trying to help others find any information they could on relatives and friends – and she was on her honeymoon.

Sometimes I feel guilty, like I shouldn’t be having these feelings, I shouldn’t be this upset. We are all uninjured, we are all safe, it doesn’t matter what belongings we lost, they are all replaceable. We didn’t lose the irreplaceable, the loss of life, of a loved one. We have so much to be thankful for, yet, at times, I still feel such a profound sense of loss, of what, I’m not yet sure. I know that I will never look at another beach the same. My place of peace was a beach, whenever I was stressed, I would picture myself lying on a beach, drinking a cool frozen drink, or snorkeling at some wonderful coral reef, with thousands of colorful fish swimming all around me. But that place of refuge for me is gone. I have to find a new place to find peace, which is hard, because every time I try to picture serenity and peace, I see a big wave crashing up onto my beach.

Someone asked for the link to our picture site - here is it:
http://community.webshots.com/user/akaearmstrong

Visitors!

I have no idea how people get things done with 2 kids, when they are young. Today, our cleaning lady was supposed to come and my such luck, she wasn’t able to make it. Our floors were a mess, despite the constant vacuuming. I had to clean them. So, I tried. Liz spilled a bucket of water on the floor (oh well, at least she got it wet for me), got herself soaked in cleaning solution and water from the bucket, ate a whole tube of chapstick, dumped out the drawers in the bathroom and in our room, pulled ½ the stuff off of our desk area where computer sits and after eating her pasta – threw enough on the ground that I had to remop that area again! Oh, the joys. Now, she’s finally taking a nap, and I’m trying to get Ashley to take one, but she is flat out refusing, and I’m so tired, I don’t think I can clean anymore. I’ve only done the living room. Being a mother is such hard work! It’s so much easier to just vacuum with kids around, but to have to mop, that’s so much more difficult. And once it’s wet, here you have to get on your hands and knees to dry it, otherwise they get footprints everywhere and slip and fall because it takes forever to dry on its own. UGH!

I did manage to get the living room done finally. Angie came over this afternoon with Joseph and it was so good just to sit and visit (although there wasn’t much sitting, more running around like crazy keeping the kiddos from injuring themselves). I really am so glad that I’ve made such a good friend here and will really miss her when we’re home (and she’s probably going to have her baby girl while we’re home too!!!). Joseph and the girls had fun playing, even though there was lots of fighting too.
After Angie left, Lili came over for dinner. She’s a Taiwanese that we met through some friends of our back home – she was over for Thanksgiving dinner here also. It was nice having company today. I made chicken parmesan with spaghetti for dinner. I had also made some Lemon Poppyseed bread for dessert (thanks to G-mom Armstrong for the bread mix – it made your son very happy) in the breadmaker – I just love that thing now, it’s so easy.

I did loads of laundry today too – we haven’t started packing yet, even though we leave in two days. I guess we just figure we’ll throw stuff in the suitcases and whatever we miss, we can buy there, no biggie anymore. We can travel pretty light now.

Our picture website has had over 9000 hits on it – I find that so utterly amazing! And our blog now has over 2000 hits on it, with new people everyday. I am so fascinated with the counter stat, Anthony says he hopes it doesn’t continue to climb because he thinks it odd so many people out there are reading about our lives and looking at pictures of us. For some reason, I don’t find it weird, just interesting.

Dreams, Apartment Issues and Care Packages

Today, I was trying to get Ashley to take a nap (no such luck!) and I asked her if she’s had any dreams lately. She told me she hadn’t had any dreams. So I told her that I had a dream about a tree. Her reply – “did the tree get knocked over by the big wave?”. My heart just sank and I wanted to cry. She didn’t seem upset by it at all, just asked me. I told her that in my dream, the tree had lots of birds in it and an owl and it was big and round with lots of leaves. She then proceeded to tell me about a “dream” of hers with monsters in it, but they seemed to be good monsters.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned our apartment heating problem we had once we returned home to Taiwan. We arrived late at night/early in the morning (around 1 am) to our apartment in Taipei on Dec. 29th. We have a central air/heating unit, which is not very common here in Taipei, it’s rare for an apartment to have central heat. It was about 15 degrees Celsius in the apartment (that’s around 59 degrees Fahrenheit). We switched the air conditioning unit from cold to heat, and then turned on the thermostats in the rooms. After about 10 minutes, I heard this loud sound. It scared me, since I was already on edge. I asked Anthony what it was; he didn’t hear it since he was blowing his nose at the exact same time as the noise I heard. We walked around trying to find the source of the noise and outside (in the laundry area) where the air conditioning unit is, there was water pouring out from a pipe attached to the unit. Great! Just what we needed, more water. Anthony went and got the security guy, who came up and tried to tell us it was no big deal, it could wait until morning and he’d have someone come look at it, no one was awake to come fix it or look at it at that moment. Thank goodness Anthony was a little adamant that they do something NOW – that we spend enough in management fees that they should take care of this. They guy finally agreed to get someone to look at it, he left, then brought back another security guy (UGH!). They looked, talked, looked, talked, then finally agreed to turn off our water. So, here we are, back from Thailand, tired, dirty, cold with no heat and no water. The next day, one of the ladies from Anthony’s work got a contractor to come look at it. They got our water turned back on and the heat was fixed a few days later (they had to find parts, etc). Luckily, we have some friends here who loaned us some space heaters, which work really well here, so we weren’t left completely in the cold. Today, they finished the last of the repairs (replacing the thermostats in Liz’s and Ashley’s room) and it is so nice to have heat in the apartment.

Elizabeth doesn’t seem to be doing much better, her fever is down, but she’s refusing to eat, drink or sleep. I spent all day trying to get her to do any of the three. She cried a ton today and I felt so awful for her. I am really hoping that she is better tomorrow – I don’t know how I can handle another day of her being that upset. And since she’s sick, we haven’t been able to visit with any of our friends, which makes it even harder. We (Ashley, Liz and I) are all stuck in the apartment all day long. I haven’t taken Ashley to school in case she’s also carrying some sort of virus – plus, she doesn’t want me to leave her at school, she just wants to visit. Her teacher called today to find out how she was doing. I told her that Ashley probably wouldn’t be back to school until the end of February when we get back from the States. She seemed disappointed, but understood.

We got a care package from my parents last night – sent out right after we got home from Thailand. It was so nice to receive and really brightened our spirits. They sent some Junior Mints (mmm, my favorite) along with some chocolate for Anthony, some p’jammas for the girls, a few stuffed animals (Liz lost her favorite puppy and blankie in the tsunami) and some other little treats. Ashley was very excited to get to open more presents and she immediately named her white stuffed doggie – Noodle. It’s a poodle, so I don’t know if she is confused on the name, or if she just randomly picked noodle out?! Pretty cute though...

Please donate to the Tsunami Relief Efforts

Thanks to everyone for their support and words of encouragement for us, it really has meant a lot to hear from all our friends and family. I would still like to encourage anyone that hasn’t done so – please donate anything you can to the relief efforts going on right now for this horrible disaster. I can not stress enough how much the people affected by this tsunami have lost. I know you see it on the news and you are probably hearing about it constantly, and it really is that horrible. There are so many people that need help right now. Please take a look at: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.aidsites/index.html
This is CNN’s list of places you can donate to. I’m not kidding when I say that even a measly $5 would help.

I can not believe that it’s been over a week since the tsunami hit. We are still just trying to catch up on sleep and get back into daily life. Ashley was sick, running fever with cough at end of last week. She still has cough, but fever is gone. Liz is sick, had very high temperature yesterday (103.5 F) that wasn’t being brought down by Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen. We took her to the doctor last night, she has an enterovirus – which is a common childhood illness, second to cold’s, I think. They gave her suppository, which helped break fever about 2 hours later. She slept on and off last night, and seems to be doing better today, just cranky, but no fever. I was running a fever last week too, I think from exhaustion, but it’s finally gone now too. Anthony went back to work, for a full day, today. The girls did good with him leaving, Liz cried a bit and was really clingy right before he left, but she was fine after he was gone.

We are making arrangements to come home to Texas for our visit. We leave this Saturday, the 8th, will be in Texas until early Feb, then we’ll go over to Arizona and visit more family, then back here to Taipei in mid February. I am excited to be going home, can’t wait to give everyone big hugs!

Soon I will post about how great our trip to Thailand was before the tsunami. I have posted pics up on our Webshots site, and you can pretty much see everything we did. We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the country and activities. The girls did awesome. We had no idea how well they would do when we were planning our trip. Anthony was a bit nervous about the whole sleeping in one room with them, but it worked great. There were usually so tired from their day out and about, they feel asleep fairly easily. We even had a babysitter (“See”) who watched them twice for us, once while we went out to dinner and another time while we had massages. See actually found us on the fourth floor after the tsunami and gave the girls a HUGE hug and lots of smiles. She spoke little English, but was able to convey her happiness at seeing all of us unhurt and we were happy to see her too.

We haven’t really celebrated New Years yet. We did buy a bottle of champagne, but have been so tired every night; we just haven’t bothered to open it. Don’t know if we will before we even go back to States, but that’s ok. We are just so happy to be here, with our family intact and safe.