Home Sweet Home?

Since we have arrived in Bangkok, we have been on the lookout for a place to build our home. We have taken a couple of survey trips to look at various pieces of land that Pun's dad owns. To be honest, it has been a difficult process, and I know it is only beginning. It seemed like everything we looked at was lacking something really important like a church nearby, phone lines, or was not in a safe area. Not to mention, I am learning that I have to readjust my idea about what a home will be like here. It's not necessarily bad, just different. I keep trying to picture my kids growing up American in a house like I am familiar with, and forgetting we now live in Bangkok. Things will definitely be very different, but they can be very good, too. Pun and I have alternately been encouraging each other that God already knows the perfect place for us to live and the job He wants Pun to have, and when the time is right, He will reveal it to us.

Sooo, Monday when we went out to look at land again, I tried to prepare myself with different expectations. And here is what happened.

We looked at 3 pieces of land. The first one was in a good residential area and not too crowded. When we got there it looked as though people had set up makeshift homes on the land and moved in. As we got closer, we realized they were on the access road and the land was surrounded on all sides by houses of wealth and poverty with only a tiny access road out of the property running by the little makeshift homes. I was able to picture our home there, though. The neighbors who greeted us were very friendly and although it is a residential area, the traffic did not seem to overwhelming (more on Bangkok traffic soon). The only draw backs were no public transportation, no church remotely close, and no major shopping areas nearby. Above is a picture of it.

I was even more excited about the second piece we saw. Although it was flooded and filled with banana trees (yum--I was already plotting to keep as many of those as possible), it was even less crowded with even better access in and out. It is a developing area as well.

But the third piece.... it stole our hearts. It is currently a the rice patty! But it is beautiful land, about 3 acres Pun says, and has palm trees lining one side and bamboo trees on another. We can have a phone line ( a must!), get to a major department store and grocery store within 10 minutes, and they are building a major freeway that will come right by the land. As we looked at the land, we saw a building right across the field with a red roof and a white cross on it. It was too good to be true. It really was, because it turned out not to be the kind of church we are looking for, but that's ok. Pun thinks the new freeway would get us to church quickly.

Could this be the site of our new home??
Only the Lord knows...