Family for Christmas!

I got a pretty good Christmas present this year … my family came to Chiang Mai for Christmas and New Years!!  After spending a significant amount of time here, it was great to finally have them come visit. To see my city firsthand, to meet my co-workers and friends, to finally begin to understand the things I’ve been telling them for months.

It was a short 2 weeks, but we kept busy visiting almost every tourist attraction in the area. We went to an elephant camp, the “sticky falls”, Wat Doi Suthep, San Kampaeng Hot Springs, Night Bazaar, Flight of the Gibbon, Royal Flora Ratachapruek Gardens, the cultural center, Kad Luang, Wiang Kum Kam, Walking Street, moo-ga-ta … we did all this and more.

While it was fun to be a tourist in my own city, it did take a lot out of me.  So many people flock to Chiang Mai during New Years for the cool weather, meaning traffic around the city is much crazier (slower) than usual.  Of course, I was the one driving my family around to all these locations in a beast of a vehicle – talk about draining!

But it was good.  I loved being able to hang out and joke with my brother.  The dork brought a string of lights that he uses camping so that we could “rave.”

We did have to take an unexpected trip to the hospital for him.  Poor Nate. This was the first time since his transplant surgery that he had to spend a night in the hospital.  Because he is on so many anti-rejection and other medications he has a weak immune system.  As a result, dinner from the market one night didn’t sit too well with him.  After spending part of the night and most of a morning in the bathroom, and not keeping anything down, it was time to take him to the hospital.

Dehydration puts a lot of strain on the kidneys, and with his one kidney being a transplant, we had to make sure that he was hydrated and more stable.  He received excellent care at the newest hospital in town and was released after about 24 hours … just in time to attend the afternoon church service.

The hospital visit hardly put a damper on our time together and I am so glad that they were able to visit at this time.  The whole thing worked out so well … I was house sitting for a family so there was more space and better/more Christmas decorations than my house.  They allowed me to use their car as well.

Days after my family left, the people I was house sitting for return, so I returned to my house for a few weeks before completely moving out to house sit for the youth pastor.  Since I’m filling in for him this spring while he’s on furlough, he asked if it would be financially helpful for me to live in his house (the church provides a stipend to cover rent and utilities).  Since I don’t know what I’m doing after May, it made more financial sense for me to give up the house I’ve been renting the past 2 years to house sit. But more on what’s been happening in following posts …