Just a Tiny Bit more Help and Love

I want to update the situation: there is an apparent need for vaccinations. I was unaware due to how fast international law changes. They have an opportunity to get their second vaccine, and would like to do so, but it’s 2000 baht per person. That 8+ family (10 I personally know, they had some sweet babies since) members I personally know. We helped with what we had to to get the first shots. 

Now I know there has been some sort of a war about vaccinations, get one don’t get not… that fight ain’t happening here. The point, is they have have already had 10 people die on their tiny island from COVID. Now they believe and feel they need the vaccines and I support them. If you have just a bit more to give…thank you and your donation is literally the opportunity to save lives. 

This isn’t about who should or shouldn’t take the vaccine, this family has decided to do so for the the sake of their small children. 

Thank you everyone for listening. 

With love and peace. 

****Below is the original post that the community so graciously gave to and has kept giving****

Welcome to each one of you who has taken a moment to read this. I appreciate your taking this moment. 

Long story short (they’re never short) four years ago, around 30 years old, life broke down in such a way, that I had my first early “mid-life” crisis. When you work yourself to what feels like the path to death, because that’s what “needs to be done” right?!…whether that be your career, your relationships, parenting, sobering up, handling your own, handling life’s challenges, etc...point, putting in everything your present and future. 

That was me…I made it! I did that and I made it. You are so happy, you got it, it’s right there. To the top of my career, relationships, family, salary, location, expenses taken care of in a city even my own folks couldn’t afford. I was proud I could do it successfully. But then….it was all gone…all have it taken away. Blah blah, it’s not about me. We’ve all been in that moment, right…it hurts, deep! 

I decided it was time to make change. So…I went home to live with my folks and save….JK…I packed my things (not understanding what I was getting myself into) and left to a country I knew nothing about. For over half a year I lived on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. I didn’t know it was popular place and honestly didn’t care, knew one person. Pretty drastic move…everyone at home thought I had lost it. And I had. In a way. No expectations and all alone. But…inside, it did not feel wrong! No matter how much beating down! 

Etc. Somehow  I found a boat crew that took me in. No reason. No experience. Did not give them money. Did not provide them anything of value to do something so kind. Nothing. I was given the opportunity to be a tour guide trainee with a boat crew of wonderful men. Who respected me as a human. Working daily. Never taking their tips.

Light bulb, why did none of this feel like work? There were no Sunday's or Monday's…this hasn’t felt like work, not once. What?!

Daily, your job is to keep 12 lives, all cultures and ages, safe on a speedboat on the Andaman Sea through seven islands, with nature is in full control of your tour…to getting gritty, deep under a boat, sanding the nasty bits from top to bottom. And I love it. 

How? 12 years in business, did this place become freedom, despite working daily, not knowing the language?! On top of that, from the crew becoming my family, I was taken in by the captains family. Until this day, four years + despite not speaking the same language, using a translating app, regular facetime’s… I get sent hearts, hugs, misses and kisses and videos and calls from my now second mother….she calls me daughter, I call her mama. How blessed can you be to have two beautiful mothers who love you this much?! 

The love can be felt thousands of miles away.

When the pandemic hit the world, we had sort of forgotten everything and yet everything was on our mind. We had our first son, but kept in touch daily with my Thai family…the captain also had his first son. Beautiful. Always asking how they are doing….currently, they are in quarantine again and stuck in monsoon season. They work all night, every night to chop rubber trees for sap…yes, the rubber we use, that silly little rubber and…and we don’t know how much it takes to get that tiny piece. No tourists, but they always joylessly saying the land is flourishing. The water is cleaner, the islands are coming back to their  natural state. 

Point, they've kept forgetting to mention that they live off of $14 a month. And here I am, buying little extra’s, sunglasses at target (target, let’s not go there, you can sponsor a baby elephant whose food cost less than a T-shirt), plants, chips, etc. and my Thai family has been living on $14 for one month, with a baby and 8 people in a small bungalow.and trying to build a second cheap bungalow glow, can you imagine living with 8 in your personal space…8 is too much. I slept in there. I realized I’m too 1st world. Couldn’t believe it. Thought I could do this. I couldn’t. But they do it everyday. With a smile on their face. 

I don’t expect much from this. I only hope it reaches someone. All I ask is to help us, continue helping them. Help us, to continue helping the ones in real need.

They are stuck in monsoon season (can’t work at all basically - was there during monsoon season, it’s truly hard) and going out, every night, alllll night, cutting rubber trees in hopes to get enough sap that they can sell, hoping it will be able to cover food, diapers, formula and even gas for the scooter to get to any available job there is.

If you’re like me, and consider….dang….how many times have I bought a $14 sweater and wore it four times. How many times did I buy junk food to make myself feel good for a moment, all the while they are chopping trees in the middle of the night. Quarantined to their homes, AGAIN, due to COVID being a higher risk there. So no money. No work. No food. No diapers or formula.

If you are willing, any donation would assist. Even $5.

It is our time to give back to those beautiful islands we so desperately hope to go to (or have been too) and the people that serve us when we are there.

You are appreciated.