Kid's settling into Life in Thailand

Our daughter with one her good friends. They are in the same class at school and we used to live quite close to each other.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a missionary is that we move around a lot and that can be quite unsettling for young children (and adds to the stress of the parents). They are called “Third Culture Kids” because although they may be born into one culture and live in another, they feel home in neither. They are stuck in a “third” culture never truly fitting into their parent’s home culture or the one they are living in now.

We have been thankful to God that our children have settled in to life in Thailand really well. They have friends, they can speak Thai (and English) and in general don’t have any serious problems with living here. They are pretty happy being here. Yesterday I couldn’t stop smiling as my middle son was taking turns having bites from his friend’s ice block at school and eventually taking it from him and giving a bite to his little sister.

Sadly some kids never get to this level of integration into the culture they are living in and it’s so hard for the kids and their parents.