Lance and Kristen Baker

(Lance writing)

I’ve added another aspect to my photography site.  In addition to displaying some of my photos, I’ve also now made it possible to purchase photos, cards, postcards, stamps, mousepads and even iphone/ipad cases featuring photos that I have taken.

While purchases are not tax-deductible, the proceeds will help provide a supplementary income for Kristen and I as we live and volunteer in Vietnam.  If you have any special requests or would like something you don’t see on the site, let me know and I will be glad to put it together for you.

I will continue to add more products and expand the number of photos available in the near future.  If you have any questions, just contact me and I’ll be in touch with you.  Thanks for you interest!

Click below to visit the store or click here.

The two Christmas parties at the orphanages had already made this Christmas season really special for us. However, with the planning and partying finished, we were excited to have some R&R over Christmas.

Christmas Eve

During the day on Christmas eve, Kristen and I took 4 of the Brewer girls shopping so they could buy gifts for their parents and sisters. Since we can only take a total of three people on the motorbike we had to make three trips (Cindy helped us with the last one). It took us 2-3 hours to take the girls to the different stores they wanted to so they could buy presents for their family. We had fun taking them around and helping them pick out gifts. I always like driving the twins (Faith and Joy are both eight years old) because they always sing on the motorbike. It’s like having my own radio! Sometimes I start a song for Joy (to the tune of “I’ve the the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” and I say “I’ve got Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy riding on my bike. Where? Riding on my bike. Where? Riding on my bike…” I think you can picture the rest of the song. She gets a kick out of it.

In the evening we had a special candlelit story-time with the children at Promise House. When we arrived we had all of the children go up to their rooms while we decorated one of the rooms. Once all the candles were lit, we had the children come down in groups of two and three while I played some Christmas songs on guitar. We wanted to create a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Once everyone was in the room together, Cindy told a story. She explained to the children how special they each are and how deeply we love and care for them. Normally our time at Promise House is lively and exciting, so this quiet time of reflection was a very unique and special time for everyone. We hugged all the children goodnight and wished them a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Day

This was the second Christmas that was just the two of us without the rest of our family to celebrate with. We each got one or two very small gifts for each other so we’d have something to open on Christmas morning.

Even our cat was feeling the joy of Christmas morning.

We also made a wonderful Christmas breakfast together. Kristen made potato pancakes and I made a scrambled egg omelet with a side of beef. After breakfast we watched a few classes Christmas movies (A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch Stole Christmas and Garfield Christmas).

Normally the only two options for a Christmas tree are fake or real. This year we made a new category: make your own. Charlie Brown would be proud.

In the afternoon, Kristen went over to the Brewer’s house to get her nails done with some of the Brewer girls (for a whopping 75 cents!) I don’t think Kristen will ever be able to get her nails done in the U.S. again knowing that she used to pay so little in Vietnam.

At 5:00pm about 25 people met at the Brewer’s house to celebrate a Christmas meal and gift exchange together. I think I’ve said this before, but I think all of us foreigners who are studying or working here are so thankful for one another. I don’t think many of us expected to find a like-minded community of people when we came to Vietnam. Some of us may know each other better than others, but it still feels special when we can get together on special occasions. They are our family away from home.

I know we are a little late on this post but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The other day we had Nga and her girls over again. About a week before they came Nga sent me a text message asking if she could come over. My Vietnamese language skills are still not amazing, so I couldn’t really understand why. They came in so excitedly and happy. Nga ran over to me and opened a bag. Inside was a beautiful pink scarf. I’m not really a pink person (despite what you saw in our Thanksgiving football photo), but this scarf is more than just a pink scarf. A few weeks ago I saw another scarf she made and commented on how beautiful it was and asking her about how she made it. Then, that evening she came in with one just for me. I know she worked on it hard too because she works 8 hours a day (6am – 2pm), goes to the market, cooks and cleans at her house, and cares for 3 young girls. When did she find the time to knit me a scarf? It really blessed me!

After I tried on my scarf and took a picture in it Nga began cooking dinner. She is my age, but can cook 100 times better than me. She really knows her way around the kitchen. I’m usually behind her wringing my hands wondering how I can help and trying to guess her next move to get a pot, pan or spices. I try to watch to learn how she makes the dishes (they’re always so delicious) but she’s so fast! After she did some prep work we sat down on the floor to begin the main dish. The only thing I could think of when I saw it was “Vietnamese pierogies” (she told me later they’re called “bánh bột lọc” ) We took a small piece of shrimp and tucked it in the dough and pinched in closed. For every one I made, Nga made 3. I think I can make it again, now it’s just a matter of finding the ingredients in the market…

While we were cooking Lance and the girls were making Christmas ornaments in the other room. An Thu was pretty good at it. As soon as Lance taught her to make one she had caught on and made 3-4 more within a matter of 10 minutes!

I don’t know what it is about our time with Nga and her girls but it is always really special.  Nga’s family is extremely poor but her happiness and positivity is so contagious!  It’s so weird to think that all of our time together and the special friendship we have is all because Lance and I decided to talk to the lady who cleaned and mopped the floors at our school last year.  (If you don’t remember, we first met Nga at our school last year.  She worked for the cleaning company that cleaned our school building.  She seemed friendly and both Lance and I tried to talk to her on separate occasions.  Eventually, I offered to help teach her English and she would come over to our house a few times a month with her girls to study.)  Here we are 6-months later!  Just goes to show, you never know what may come from a simple conversation or hello to someone.

We never really know what to expect going into the holidays. Thankfully, we had a wonderful thanksgiving with friends this past week. Our day started off with a game of football on the beach–because it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without some American football right? It was the Seahawks (we have some Washington people here) verses the Hello Pandas (I [Kristen] happened to be wearing a Hello Panda shirt). At the last minute of the game the Hello Pandas managed to score one more touchdown to win the game! 21-14!

For our Thanksgiving meal, we were invited to the Brewer’s house. There ended up being 30 of us all together! We ate some amazing turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn pudding, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, salad, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread, apple cider, and probably more that I can’t even think of. To all you Americans, that sounds normal, but for us living overseas it was a small slice of heaven.

It was a restful Thanksgiving holiday. We had Thursday and Friday off of work since a majority of us are American. On Friday afternoon we were around our house all morning (usually we’re at the office) so my neighbor asked me why we weren’t at work. At the time I hadn’t learned the Vietnamese word for “holiday,” so I just said “we don’t work today” (which was already obvious since we were at home). That evening we had three of the Brewer girls over for a sleepover. We spent the evening walking along the beach and went back for more fun the next morning. Overall, it was a beautiful holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American Friends.

The other day we attended our first Vietnamese wedding! Well, we actually didn’t get to go to the actual ceremony, that was for close friends and family. However, we did get to attend the reception. There were 500-600 people there. It was so beautiful. The wedding was on a Monday, not typical for Americans, but common here in Vietnam. At first we weren’t sure we could make it.  A Monday?  What about work? Well, it turns out the reception was during the lunch hour, that way everyone could make it! We got there around 11:30 and got back to work right on time, 1:30pm.

There were so many courses served. This is a picture of some tasty duck (or was it chicken?) that we had with one course.

A beautiful dish of duck with heart-shaped rice and a red-pepper flower

The bride, our former co-worker at school last year, was so beautiful.  There were so many people at the reception that I didn’t think we would get to see her to talk to her, but after everyone finished eating she came outside and took some pictures with us.

The newly married couple!

Dung and the girls

I miss our VATC friends. Here are some of the girls we got to see again.

Me and some of the VATC girls-- I miss them!

Alice, another good friend. She was recently married this past summer.