God's generosity

I am sitting in our air-conditioned hotel room in Bangkok (it's blistering hot outside, so we're thankful for AC), while our precious baby naps next to me in his little cot... he is such a good boy!  Such a trooper while traveling, and an absolute hit with all the Thai people.  He stops traffic!  They all love to stop and smile at him and call him "da'ee" (cute), and ask "boy? lady?" and "how many mun?"  The receptionists downstairs have learned his name-- "Wil-lee-yum"-- and love to shake his hand or tug his little, chubby foot when we push him by in his stroller.  It'd adorable!  Even cuter is his response: he squinches up his face in his cheesy "Aren't I cute?  So...whaddaya gonna give me?" smile, and milks it for all it's worth.  I hate to think what life will be like in another few months when he figures out the concept of manipulation! 

We arrived safely in Bangkok on Saturday night, having already seen God's generosity at work.  We asked the Thai Airways desk in Auckland whether we could have aisle and window seats (leaving a seat in between), but she said it was a really full flight and there weren't any window seats left.  So, I resigned myself to 11 hrs 40 min in a middle seat with a 24lb 10-month-old on my lap, James on one side and a stranger on the other.  ::sigh::  But then, when we got to our gate and were waiting to board, the desk attendant came over to us with 3 new boarding passes in her hand and said, "Broughton?  I have a seat change for you-- 45 A and C."  My hopes began to rise, but we weren't sure what that mean until we got on the plane and found ourselves sitting in...aisle and window seats, with a seat in between!  We held our breath while everyone else boarded the plane-- and no one else sat down!!  What a gift.  So, Will got two good catnaps and a 4-5 hr sleep on his own seat, and James and I got to sit next to each other in our own private movie theater!  (Jealous yet?  Well, long overnight flights do have a few perks-- not many, but a few.)  

When we arrived in the Bangkok airport, at 2:30am our time, here's our son in perfectly happy spirits, smiling away and making friends with the 5 Thai cleaning ladies next to our baggage carousel.  He let them take turns holding him, pinch his chubby legs, exclaim over how cute he was, and take pictures of his squinchy smile on their cell phones.  (Yes, apparently even Thai cleaning ladies have cell phones.  I think every Thai has a cell phone, actually.  It's the 21st century, after all.)  What a little "mish kid"!  "Who cares what time it is or how much sleep I've had-- there's people around!  Let's party!"  This little guy is amazing.  He definitely was made to be in our family.

All in all, a very successful beginning to this big trip.  Thank you Lord!  And thank you to everyone who prayed for that extra seat... God said yes!