the many faces of madison grace

Everyone keeps asking for pics of Madison, so here's a little gallery for your perusal :) Enjoy!

I don't think she likes this...

Deep thoughts during the b-day party??

Shopping with my little cowgirl

 Trying to sneak past me when she's supposed to be in bed. Nice try, Mads, but I see you!

Fashion show sporting mommy's purses

 
Gifts from Ryan's office. Mads couldn't wait to tear into all that delicious fruit!

Eating an egg sandwich like her daddy, ha

Our Church

We really like our church. It's called International Church @ Mont Kiara (IC@MK), and located about 8 minutes from our home which is especially nice. IC@MK is a small church of about 100 people, which just started up in the fall of 2011.

The pastors previously lived in Myanmar, but are American, and the church is supported by Brentwood Baptist church in Tennessee. They have 4 biological kids, and just adopted a precious newborn girl from here. The story is really amazing..

The adoption agency called them on Easter and said they had a baby for them, and they picked her up that evening. I can't imagine what they must have been feeling. We had over 175 people at church that day (barely enough chairs!), and a huge lunch afterwards. So they spent most of the day there, then raced home to change and drop off the kids with a friend, then went to pick up the baby. Their world must have been spinning! The baby's mother didn't want anything to do with the baby, in fact she hid the entire pregnancy (how is that even possible??!) so all she wanted to do was have the baby and forget about her (in the mother's words). I saw the baby one week later and I was astonished. She was the smallest child I've ever seen - born under 5 lbs! She just didn't look real - flawless dark skin, a ton of black hair, fingers so skinny they looked like blades of grass. 

(on a side note..

I'm told the adoption process here is not at all what we are used to in America. For instance, the adoption agencies will tell you during the first visit with them to get physically/emotionally/mentally prepared, because they could call within the next few days to give you a baby. On average, the quickest adoptions happen in a few days, and the longest waiting time is 6 months, although that is rare. Unbelievable!)

We just had a baby shower for the family this past Sunday after church. The ladies were asked to cook something, and when I asked the pastor's wife what she wanted she said MEXICAN! .. being a fellow American and all, haha. I combed every grocery story and market for the "right" ingredients, and ended up making fajitas because it was impossible to find cilantro. I assumed just the women would stay after church for the lunch & shower, but no - the entire church came to the lunch and I started to get a little worried there wasn't going to be enough food. The fajitas were gone in a flash! I hope that means they were good... or maybe everyone wanted to try them because it was such a peculiar dish. I never thought I'd have to explain to so many people how you assemble and wrap up a fajita - hilarious! It was a really fun afternoon, and the baby was showered with lovely gifts and tons of love.

For being such a young church (they had their first service in Nov 2011), IC@MK has done a great job of establishing programs/support/activities/etc.. for every age group. I attend a women's Bible study on Tuesdays, which I'm really enjoying, and making new friends in the process. Ryan goes to men's breakfasts once a month on Saturday mornings. There are also various home groups throughout the week; we attend the Thursday night group near our house. Since Ryan is never in town on Thursdays I have been "adopted" by my Japanese friend and her husband (smile), so they pick Mads & I up and we all ride together. Mainly because they don't want me driving alone at night with the baby, and although I'm very independent this is not the place to be too proud to accept a friend's generosity.  

I have to say though.. my favorite aspect of this church is the emphasis on children. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you nearly HALF the congregation is kids! It's so funny when the pastor excuses the kids after worship to go back to their sunday school classes, and the entire place feels like it empties out, ha! There is a family vibe here that I've definitely been missing at our church in TX .. kids are just welcome .. everyone holds everyone else's baby, the babies can makes noises without being told shhhh constantly or put in a glass room to watch the service, and kids are encouraged to be involved with the aspects of the service like music and ushering, etc..

The children performed a song in front of the church on Mother's Day, and Madison was right in the middle near the front. She was singing along for a few minutes then decided she didn't want to be up there anymore, and crawled her way out of the pack and down the stage. Everyone was doubled over in laughter. I was standing at the back holding my friend's baby, while Ryan snapped a few shots of her "getaway" on his phone.  (I'll add the pics to this post when I get them from him this weekend)

I remember when Ryan called me and said he knew that he had just found our church. I was still in TX packing up our things and so excited to hear about it. There are a few Nigerian men in the church, and of course Ryan gravitated toward them (growing up in South Africa and all!). They took Ryan to lunch at McDonalds after church. They probably thought that's the only thing he would like since he just arrived from America :) LOL!

Here's the FB page for IC@MK if you want to check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/ICatMK

B-Day Parties & Cooking Class

We went to our first baby birthday party for Madison's friend, Masato. His mom is Japanese, and his dad is Australian, and they have been so incredibly nice and welcoming to us since we've been here. Ryan met them at our church before I actually arrived, and he knew we'd all be good friends. They've taken us to lunch & bought special things for Madison... just really thoughtful things like that. We're blessed to have them in our lives and I know we'll be lifelong friends.

Masato just turned one and had his b-day party at Gymboree (which is new to KL, so a bit of a big deal). Mads had a great time of course.. anything having to do with gymnastics she loves, and she's good at it! After the playtime we went to a restaurant nearby and had dinner together while the kids played. A lot of the restaurants here have kids play areas in them, which is so nice when you're trying to have dinner and the kids are feisty. And if they don't have play areas then you can count on the waiters to entertain the kiddos for you - it's great!

Masato and his mommy, Kana

  Madison hiding from Masato

A race to the finish!

Bubbles!

Hiding from daddy.. notice a theme?

Showing Masato how the gift bag toys work, ha

A butterfly in my cappuccino at the restaurant - impressive

The organization I work for, IBU Family Resource Group, hosts a large annual bazaar every year. The week leading up to the bazaar is filled with events and activities daily for kids and parents. Today I took Madison to the cooking demonstration by Young Chef's Academy. All the events are taking place at the mall we're holding the bazaar at, so this isn't at the cooking school, but I'm sure that's easy to spot : )

Mads was in her element since she cooks with me almost every night, so she didn't need much instruction. And if you've ever heard the "egg story" about how we woke up one morning in Dallas to her beating eggs in the kitchen all by herself.. then you know why! Today the kids made frittata, and Mads did everything herself. I was very proud!

Choosing their ingredients...

  Beating the eggs...

  Chopping her veggies...

Now it's time to put it all together (with the help of the aid of course)...

She ate it too fast for me to get a picture, ha. I think this day was very successful! I might have to actually enroll her in the Young Chef's Academy cooking school...

Practicing Patience

I don't know about you, but it drives me nuts to be on hold. The cable company, water company, phone company, bank, etc...  It's like they KNOW I live overseas and are in cahoots with the long distance provider to ensure I spend a fortune. Even locally, I'm always on hold.. and most of the time when I do get to the right department, we can't understand each other.

I usually only have a 10 second question, that requires a 30 second answer.. however, I have to key through a series of prompts, only to get to the wrong person (even if you keyed in right!), then hold again while transferring to talk to that person as they are experiencing "usually high call volumes." Is anyone else frustrated by this? I feel like the entire world is slowly being replaced by an automated system.

For example. right now I'm on hold with HSBC in the States. I only need to link my US and Malaysia accounts, which they require you do over the phone. I've been listening to their lovely hold music, mixed with static, for 33 minutes now. Ryan's going to love this month's phone bill. Wait a minute, my phone just died. Wonderful.. that was all for nothing.

If you call somewhere in Malaysia and they can't understand you they just hang up on you. It's actually pretty funny. At first I was furious - "did he just hang up on me?!" I'd yell, but after time you just get used to it and hope someone else who speaks english answers when you call back.

I've been trying to set up our house phone for two weeks. I've called numerous times, and was told the documents would be emailed to me that day.. but nope. In Malaysia you have to apply for a home phone account, then they come install it, then it takes another few days to activate it. And really, there's no guarantee it will work. If I didn't just laugh at this stuff I would be going insane.

Another example of stellar customer service is our water delivery company. The day our first order was  supposed to arrive, it didn't. I called their office, and they had to call the driver. The driver confirmed he delivered it. So I'm standing in the service entrance (tempted to take a picture of the empty hallway for the lady on the phone who's telling me it's there), and telling her there is no water in sight.  After a few rounds of this, which took hours, no one could figure out where the water was. It's not like it could've been misplaced easily.. we're talking about 10 (5-gallon) bottles, and a large dispenser. The buildings in our condo development can be a bit confusing, there's block A1, A2, and A3, then it goes to B1, B2, B3, and so on...  we're in block B3. After two days of no water I took matters into my own hands and went to the connecting buildings to see if they dropped it off in the wrong building. Yep, there it was in B2. The security guys moved it for me and we finally have water. holy moly...

Deep breath.. trying to remember I'm not in America where things appear at the snap of a finger, but as you can tell today it was hard to forget : )

Trip to Farmer's Market

I've been wanting to check out the local farmer's market for a while now, just never got the chance while settling into our new place. So a group of girlfriends arranged a morning trip and I tagged alone. 

(the locals call it the Wet Market- I don't know why, and I think it sounds gross so I just call it the market)

I was curious about going to the market for a few reasons:

1) the grocery store produce is pricey, somewhat fresh (could be better), and the meat selection is really poor

2) I assumed living in a tropical climate I could get things that were picked that morning, or day before, so I was searching for ways to eat the freshest produce possible

3) I want to embrace the local cuisine - spices, rubs, various fruits/veggies, etc.. that I don't see in the store

So my goals were set and we headed out! The market is actually less than 10 min from our house, which is really convenient. I decided to drive our new car, rather than accept the easy way out and ride with a friend. One of my friends from Canada actually rode with me (brave girl!), so that made me feel more comfortable having two sets of eyes navigating rather than one. And she has a very calm personality so that always helps. 

We arrive easily to the market, and it's a two story open-air building, where I can park underneath. We arrived early so we could have our pick of the freshest items... and of course so the kids didn't get too hot. As we're walking up to the entrance I started to remember my hesitancies for not coming sooner..  mainly the cleanliness & smell. I have a pretty weak stomach so if this place reeks I will not be able to handle it. Of course of the many entrances, we went through the one right by the fish. And it smelled! Since no one in my group seemed interested in the fish and walked (briskly) through it, I forced myself to hustle through it as well. The good news is the smell only lasted an instant and as soon as we got to the fruits & veggies the smell of mango, pineapple, lemons, filled the air (thank God!). 

Anything you could think of could be found - it was a really good market, and very fresh. Madison had a blast b/c they handed me a basket and she took on the duty of filling it with anything she could get her hands on. I let her go to town - potatoes, string beans, even little pumpkins and squash.. an entire basket  of veggies only cost RM35, which is around $10. Awesome!

Then onto the fruits (my favorite). I've never seen such a wide variety of gorgeous fresh fruits. We loaded up on mangos, mini bananas (Mads' fave), oranges, lemons & limes, papaya, jackfruit, dragonfruit (which is magenta in color - makes beautiful smoothies), and more. The entire basket of fruit cost only RM28, which is around $9. Madison could hardly contain herself and kept trying to sneak fruits out of my basket and take a bite. All the workers were so nice - doting on Madison, giving her tastes of various things like mini bananas and fresh coconut slices.. and more importantly for me -  suggestions on what to do with everything I bought!

Now onto the spices. I was SO excited to see what they had to offer, and was pretty surprised with what I found. I took a few pics of my favorite stall (see below). This lady packages her own spices and rubs, and puts labels on the front (in English!) with how to cook with it. I loaded up! The first meal I made was a green curry with coconut puree (mild), with chicken and fresh veggies. She told me to throw it all in a big pot and set it simmer for a few hours. How easy is that?! It was so delicious. 

Overall, a great trip to the Farmer's Market - this will definitely be a bi-weekly trip! 

The "spicy lady" giving Madison a treat!

These are all the packages of spices and marinades, with instructions for what type of food to cook it with, and how to cook it. I bought a ton of these. They were about $1/piece.

She ground these entire tubs of garlic, tomato paste, curry, etc.. that morning. Now that takes muscle!

Our first mini vaca.. Pangkor Laut Island

There IS a heaven on earth! It's on a little island called Pangkor Laut, located off the northwest coast of Malaysia. And the good news is.. we are in driving distance to it!  Ryan and I both have had a rotten week (too many things gone wrong to list..) and decided we need to get away for the weekend.  Our friends suggested Pangkor Laut because it's only a 3 hour drive from KL, then a 15 min ferry to the island.  So we hopped in the car and headed north.

It's impossible to describe this place, the service, the whole experience. It really is paradise. I've never seen such a beautiful place.. and once there, I didn't want to leave. We booked our room in-route (which is a typical practice here - no one plans anything in advance), and as we arrived to the dock the butler was waiting for us with the BEST chilled fruit & flower drink I've ever had (we still don't know exactly what was in it), some chilled towels, and a snack for Madison. We are ushered to our private speedboat, and off we go!

As we arrive to the island the dock is lined with staff waiving hello, and waiting to escort us to the lobby. It was like a welcome parade, but just for us. Talk about feeling really special! They lead us down the long dock to the luxe open-air lobby where we relax on comfy couches while sipping more of that fabulous juice and are once again offered cold towels and apples. However, Madison and I couldn't sit still.. we were too excited to explore. While Ryan checked us in, Mads and I explored the grounds, gift shop (where a nice lady rubbed some aromatherapy oil on Madison's mosquito bite, which thrilled her), and found the koi pond. It was dark by this time so we decided to have dinner then go to bed so we could get up early and explore the resort.

The Malay-themed restaurant was awesome! Ryan & I both ordered a tasting of various Malay dishes, and they were presented on this beautiful wooden board with carvings and "pockets" for all the tapas to sit in. It was delicious. Madison ordered spaghetti but was too excited to actually eat anything and opted to be chased around by the waiters while we ate. The restaurant is an open-air building, with just a roof, and right in front of the beach so we could hear the waves cracking as we ate. The kitchen is enormous, an open design, so we watched the chef's prepare our meal.

After dinner we were escorted to our villa. There are various types of villas here - hillside (highest, most private and quiet), garden (central to main building, and surrounded by lovely gardens), ocean (nearest to ocean, by pools), and sea (on stilts over the water).  We chose the hillside villa for the privacy and for the best views. It was perfect.

The next day we woke up early and went down to breakfast. Madison enjoyed making friends with other kids running around, and the wait staff enjoyed given the kids buckets of fish food so they could feed the koi. Everyone in Malaysia is always mesmerized by Madison - she's SO blond, and has such BLUE eyes, and is just SO different from them..  so they just follow her around and giggle at her when she talks to them. It's really cute. The best part of breakfast was when she saw the peacocks (they just roam around the resort), and started shrieking "I'm going to catch it" - ha!

We then headed to the beach. I'm not kidding when I say I could just stay there forever. Enormous old trees line the beach, and the comfy lounge chairs are parked perfectly under them to provide natural shade. The water is crystal clear, and flanked on each side but huge rocks and forest. Monkeys are playing in the trees to the left of me, and a waiter is walking towards me with a bucket of ice cold water and fresh fruit plate. Like I said, heaven.

I'll let the pictures explain the rest of our adventure on Pangkor Laut... but stayed tuned because I know we'll be back again in the not so distant future!  Oh and by the way - if YOU come visit us we'll take you to experience it for yourself. So whatcha waiting for???


The "Elevator Treehouse" to the Hillside Villas  (view from our villa)

Breakfast the first day - view of Koi Pond, Massage Huts, and Hillside Villas in the distance

Enjoying a scrumptious Malaysia breakfast!

Mads "suggesting" he share his bowl of fish food... how do you think that turned out??

The friendly staff.. they were suckers for Madison, and she ate it up

 Peacocks! Get it!!!

Emerald Bay beach - aka: heaven

Life is rough...

Monkeys!!!

Feeding the monkeys pineapple - watch out, they're quick!

baby monkey

Beautiful Hornbill in a tree by the pool. They are everywhere here, and can grow to be enormous!

View from my pool chair. This is the large pool, with the Sea Villas in the distance.

The staff brought all the kids fresh squeezed juice freezes. A HIT!

Running along the step below the pool. I like this shot, it looks like she's running on the water.

Our Villa balcony - breathtaking views

Madison couldn't spent the whole trip in our bathtub, ha!

Morning view of the main buildings from our Hillside Villa

A Hornbill trying to steal my pear! (look close, he's on the planter)

Dusk view from the villa - so relaxing

This treehouse-type restaurant was built around the huge rocks on the beach. The rocks come up through the floors. Nice entertainment for kids while waiting for our meal : )

Daddy & Madison at dinner

Enjoying a Malay feast on a wooden "plate"! It was too delicious for words!

We came back to find a rose petal-filled bath, candles, and fruit plate waiting for us in our villa after dinner. Quick, put the baby to bed! haha

My view - clear water ahead, large tree shading me from above.. no better place to be

Nap time in the lounge chair on the beach. She slept so peacefully listening to the waves crash

Is that..could it be.. james bond?? hehe

Fresh coconut water anyone?

Momma peacock and babies strutting around the restaurant

The BAT TREE! I thought it was gross. All the boys liked it. There were hundreds of bats, and they were huge! No thank you...

Our Hillside Villa

Sea Villas (adults only)

Our spiffy ride  (the furthest boat) - Mads loved the boat ride to/from the island

Spa Village - view from boat

Goodbye Pangkor Laut - see ya again (very) soon!

This one is a bit out of order, but this was the nice welcome building at the dock. When we got back to the dock after our visit we were again greeted with juice, towels, and a snack for the road. Really great service.