First Stop: Phoenix, AZ for an employment workshop at Food for the Hungry US. While there we met up with our other American Phase II trainees.

The American Phase II crew traveled together from Arizona to Bankok with a connection in Hong Kong. Here you see us after deplaning a broken plane in Hong Kong. We arrived in Bangkok at 4am their time (5pm Arizona time, 3pm South Carolina time)

We stayed in a dormatory for students attending our host school. They only had one student at the time, so the accomodations were a perfect fit for our large group.

Our babies amazed us with their versatility. In the morning they attended preschool, at noon they ate lunch with us, then they napped for two hours every day at our feet on the floor of our training classroom, then they spent the last part of the afternoon with a babysitter until dinner.

The boys' preschool classroom. It was awesome!

Their preschool classroom even had a ball pit!

Nathan and Alex hanging around in our dorm room.

The ladies taking a break in one of the many covered sitting areas in the courtyard of our host school.

We participated in training quite a bit, learning as much from each other as from our instructors.

MCDONALD'S!! The universal symbol for parents and toddlers everywhere. McD's was our saving grace a few nights when we needed a little taste of home.

We did a little sight-seeing. This is a building at the Royal Palace. It is impolite to mention the royal family in an off-handed way. Many people hang the royal family's picture in their home above eye-level to demonstrate respect.

Justin video taping the scene at the royal palace.

This is a Tuk Tuk. We rode this little bad boy our third week in Thailand in Bangkok. We were going such a short distance that taxis refused to take us, so we had a great adventure on this little contraption.

K, this picture represents a lot. We traveled a long, hard 13 hours through the night to a Southern Thailand town called Khao Lak. We were to spend the next week there. We stopped at a gas station around 2am, and this was the toilet Gillian encountered - a squat pot. This was actually a fun highlight for the bus ride. As we left this gas station the bus broke down and we had to get on a bus with other Thai travelers. The boys slept horribly, so mom and dad didn't sleep at all. It was definitely a test of our patience and flexibility.

KHAO LAK WAS WORTH THE ROUGH TRAVELS! This is our hotel room in Khao Lak. This hotel was hit by the December 26, 2004 Tsunami, but our portion, as well as the main building were on high enough ground to be spared major damage. All day we could hear construction on the bungalows down below as they hurry to be ready to reopen in November.

We hosted a game night in our room at one point during that second week. It was a blast!

Our balcony was just as big as our room! It over-looked the Andaman Sea from which the Tsunami had once ominiously rolled in and gripped this beach.

Alex and Nathan enjoyed the beach (this is a portion directly down and in front of our room).

While in Khao Lak, Alex and Nathan and the other two children had two GREAT babysitters while we and the other trainees attended more sessions. On this day Alex got in on the action. By the end of our time in Thailand Alex was with us in the classroom more and more, needing a little extra Mom and Dad time.

While in Southern Thailand we saw projects that We Love Thailand, a coalition started by Food for the Hungry, established as part of their relief efforts. This is Nathan and a little girl at a day care/preschool for tsunami survivor children whose parents were out working or looking for work.

Nathan, Alex, and Apple on our balcony. Apple was our fantastic babysitter. She's looking for a live-in nanny position in the states...any takers?

The supplies for this community building were provided by We Love Thailand.

Note the boat behind Gillian, Nathan, and Alex. The tsunami beached it 1.2 miles inland. The house on the far left is what stopped it from going further.

We visited a school that We Love Thailand is helping in various ways.

Justin is standing in front of a boat for which the supplies were donated by We Love Thailand. Providing the supplies to BUILD boats rather than the boats themselves bought time for the fishermen to recover from the tsunami and for the tourism industry to return, and with it bring back the demand for the fish.

All ABOARD! Elephants? That's right. We braved an hour long elephant excursion. It was definitely an adventure

Believe it or not, Alex is in there between Mesha and me. What isn't so clear in this picture is that this elephant is on a steep incline, and there was just a 3 inch back on the seat. Everyone's knees are level with their chests in an effort to stay upright...see it now? Yeah, that was exciting.

Our friends, Andrea and Mesha, along with others playing in the water beyond. Our last night in Khao Lak. What an amazing sunset, no?

Let us break bread together. On our last morning together we shared communion.

THEN GRADUATION FROM PHASE II TRAINING!

In the airport we had these great links to latch the double strollers together. They were a lifesaver!

Homeward Bound. Thank God for in-flight movies!