Today marks two months of life in Thailand for the Pound’s! In some ways time is flying, but then again it feels like ages ago that we boarded that plane in snowy Denver. Matt & I just feel blessed (and shocked) that we’re actually here, doing this work! So exciting & humbling.

^^^The 31st of March was my 27th birthday—maybe the 1st of many we spend in Thailand :) Matt & the Callahan's took me out to this great restaurant…Organic Coffee Bus (don’t ask about the name, I have no idea) & Matt even found me a DQ ice-cream cake! (he’s one of the best!)

^^^Tiida had a major English speech coming up—tough assignment! If you asked me to give a speech in Thai, all you’d get is my deer-in-the-headlights look, haha :)

^^^So, here we have a few things happening. As you know, Matt is trying hard to get this aquaponics system up and running. He finally received his AliExpress order of the kiddie pools (for the fish, of course!) and the pumps for the system. Then, the weather got real, real hot. And that’s when he realized that it’d be a great idea to cover the project to protect it from the heat & the rain (could totally throw off his water levels)—thus, a new project arose! Roof building. He and Gawley are almost finished!

^^^(left) That bread tastes as good as it looks. We’ve got Matt on a bi-weekly bread making routine :) (Right) Our new college student, Pring, moved in this week! She rode down from our Mae Chaem dorm (3 hour ride) on public transit, and got dropped in the middle of Chiang Mai—Tiida went out on her motorbike to find Pring. We were so glad to see them ride in with smile on their faces.

^^^The bulk of the last few weeks we’ve all been working on creating sessions for a house parent retreat that we’re hosting on site. For the outdoor sessions we put up a large tent and Matt and Gawley installed a misting spray hose (it’s blazing hot in the afternoon!). All of the house parents will come for 3 days in a row & the staff members (Matt & I included!) will teach sessions (and have assessments) on life-application topics. The sessions we have are: computer skills, map reading, marriage assessment, budgeting, English, child discipline, physical fitness, family nutrition, spiritual gifts, first aid, Thai, and vehicle maintenance. We’ll also have times of fun team building activities, as well as time for worship & prayer!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the first day of the retreat! It’ll be a busy few days,  but we’re looking forward to getting to know the house parents better.

Thanks for keeping up with us!

All our love,

Audrey & Matt