Christmas in Thailand 2013

Father's Day is celebrated here in Thailand on the King's birthday which is December 5, so we celebrate David and the great Dad he is on that day as well. The kids and I went shopping for Father's Day presents and saw these shirts. They just had to have them and they wore them with much pride (in a good way). You can't see what they say that well but they say "I love my Dad" and it says it in English.

It is always interesting to celebrate Christmas in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas. Yes most people have heard of Santa but see that as a Western thing, but not many believe in Jesus to give them a reason to celebrate. Our group of new Thai believers that meets weekly decided to do an outreach this year so people could know about the real reason to celebrate Christmas.

The day before the outreach everyone came to our house to bake. This was a treat for the Thai people because they don't bake and don't know how, so it was a lot of fun teaching them. Then the next day we prayed and asked God where we should take the goodies that we had packaged. As we followed His leads we were able to share Jesus with many and we were able to pray with them.

This is Union, the son of the man in the picture above. Union is also a new believer and he went with us on the outreach. His Dad was sharing with a Thai man and I was standing with him and Union took a package of cookies to a bus driver and shared with him all by himself. Usually Union speaks with me in English because he is leaning English but after he shared with the bus driver he came back to me and quickly said, "I already told him all about it and I told him in Thai." He was quite proud of himself and his Mom and Dad were quite inspired by him.

This Christmas was so special for our family because Ja joined us this year. Ja went to school with the kids before graduating two years ago and she is now in University. Ja follows Jesus but she is the only one in her family so far. So she has never celebrated Christmas at home. This year God put it in Samantha's heart, since Ja is already a part of our family, to ask Ja to spend the Christmas season with us. Ja was so excited!

So any traditional Christmas things we did, she joined in. Such as joining us to put up the Christmas tree. Of course Naa always does this with us as well. We had a great time and Ja was thrilled as we hung many ornaments about Jesus.

They did a great job!

We also went to a Christmas service a couple of days before Christmas where they celebrated all the different people that Jesus died for by wearing their traditional dress of their particular people group.

She even spent the night with us Christmas Eve and woke up early and celebrated Jesus with us as David read the Christmas story. Yes, they were all listening as he read but we had all just woken up.

We also exchanged gifts and just had a great time all together!

And this was a very special present that Samantha presented to David and I at the end of the time. Samantha had worked hard to make this for our wall in our main room of our house. It says, "Family. Like branches on a tree we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one."

This was a perfect gift that had her Mama crying as we look to Samantha growing in a different place in August as she goes off to College. 

It was a great Christmas season and I believe it makes us focus even more on Jesus when we are here because we realize just how very thankful we are to know Him and have a relationship with God through Him.

Davis' Journey

This journey might be one we would have rather not taken but it is a journey that God has protected, provided for and carried us all through one day at a time. In May, 2013, Davis was playing basketball and the ball hit his finger and it hurt. Such as is with boys. His finger was swollen afterward and hurt but he thought he just jammed it and it would be fine. He didn't even think of telling us about it because he was not worried. Finally in July, 2013, Davis decided to let us know that he had hurt his finger. As we saw it it was very large and he couldn't use it. So immediately we took him to the Dr. here in Chiang Rai. The Dr. said when he had the accident in May he had broken it but the bone had grown back together and it was fine we just needed to exercise it daily to get the stiffness out. We did this day in and day out until October.

In October we started to notice not only was it not getting better but now it was larger and sometimes really red or even purple. So after consulting with a medical friend in the States we contacted a hospital in Bangkok and made a Dr. with a hand surgeon there.

On November 30, Davis and I showed up in Bangkok at this hospital to find out what was really going on with his finger. We had prayed and asked God what Dr. we should see and He had made it clear. We were ready!

The good part of coming to Bangkok was that our Thai daughter, Ghan, could come and spend time with us there because it is near where she lives. So Davis enjoyed getting to hang out with her and it took his mind off his finger for a while.

The Dr. did an x-ray and saw something suspicious but wanted us to come back the next morning for an MRI and CTscan. So we returned early the next day and Davis got his dye injection for his MRI.

He did great in the MRI and Ghan and I were waiting for him when he came out. With all the unknown and with all he had to go through in a foreign country, he still kept his sense of humor and good attitude and had a lot of fun modeling this lovely hospital ware for us!

As we headed back to the airport to come home, the Dr. called me and said he had looked at everything and Davis had a tumor in his finger. That was not the diagnosis we had ever considered. Apparently the tumor was there before he broke his finger and it made the bone weak and that is why it broke so easily. The Dr. said any Dr. could have missed the tumor on the x-ray because it is so hard to notice. However, since Davis' finger had changed shape he looked right in the center of that shape and saw the tumor. We know that was God showing it to him because so many were praying for that and I was sure to tell the Dr. that as well. 

So the next weekend we headed back to Bangkok for surgery to have the tumor removed. The only thing Davis thought would be good about this trip was the snack on the plane. The airline we use always has Auntie Anne's snack and Davis loves them. However this day as he opened his snack and unfolded the pretzel this is what he saw inside. This is when you know you live in a foreign country when you get an Auntie Anne's pretzel with fish! He decided to forego his but I (Sharon) really enjoyed mine.

But I made it up to him at dinner that night as I treated him to Mexican food. We don't get Mexican food where we live and he loves it. He said this was his last good meal before surgery. Of course he would be fasting the next day because of surgery.

The hospital was great on patient service. They gave us a room 3 hours before surgery so we could just relax there while waiting on them to come for him and we could wait there while he was in surgery. Yeah, no waiting rooms! See the view from the room in the picture above. Then they came and got him ready in another great hospital outfit but this time he got slippers too. He was quite pleased. Notice they are Thai sized so they didn't quite fit but he still appreciated them.

 Getting him hooked up ready to go to surgery!

About 3 hours later he came back from surgery and was surprisingly very lively for just having had surgery and the fact it was 11:30PM now. Now is when he realized he can't use his right hand anymore, so I had to help him brush his teeth. I will say this is the only time he let me do this. He figured out how to do all things with his left hand really quickly.

The next morning the Dr. came to check Davis' finger and teach me how to change the bandage daily with having the splint there for protection. He told us that he felt sure the tumor was benign but it had really done some damage. The tumor was a part of the bone and then had eaten a hole through the bone as well. He said to be able to get it all out he had to make quite a large hole in his bone so the recovery process should be a lot longer and a lot more risky. The bone was so fragile with the large hole that it could break instantly if hit.

So we got back home and the daily adventure of changing the bandage and cleaning the wound began, but the wound looked great if you have to have one. Yes, 7 stitches!

Remember the picture above of his finger before we went to Bangkok, this is about a week after surgery. It looks so much better. So currently we are still on this journey with Davis. Davis and I fly to Bangkok once a month to have an
x-ray and see the Dr. to see what to do next while we are waiting for the hole in the bone to fill in. This Dr. has never had a case quite like this with such a big hole so we are all learning as we go. God has definitely protected this finger for him and he had a great pathology report. The tumor was benign, praise God! Now it is just a time for healing. As we feel like this healing is coming so slowly and it is sometimes painful, it reminds me of healing in our lives. Sometimes we are not willing to walk that long hard road of healing so instead we try to get a quick fix healing and it is really only putting a bandaid on it, not actually getting the wound to fill in and heal. As we ask you to continue to pray for Davis' complete healing also know that if you are in need of healing (emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc.) we would love to pray for you as you choose to walk the significant and sometimes hard path of healing with God. It is worth it for the end result and the intimacy with God that is developed along the way.

God is always faithful!

Here comes the cold, yes in Thailand!

So December and January is usually our cold season in Thailand and this year it has really been cold in deed. Now I know most of you probably think, cold, in Thailand, really? Well this year it has been colder than it has been in 20 years. So yes, it is cold.

This is Naa, part of our family here, and Samantha warming their hands over the gas stove. Yes it is to be used for cooking but sometimes the cold moments call for desperate measures. Of course you can't do this long, it might be dangerous.

Here is an example of how we dress around the house during cold season. Actually he would not have his pants legs up except for I made him show the long socks we wear. You see when it is cold in Thailand, it is even colder inside your house than it is outside. So if it is 40 degrees outside, it could be 35 inside and there is no heat source in your house, it is just a concrete block.  (Notice the hat with the ear flaps, came in handy)
So the reality is, once cold season starts, you never warm up anywhere until it is over. Even the shower is cold because the pipes run from outside and are not insulated so they just can't get the water warm.

Thanksgiving in Thailand, 2013

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays as a family but from year to year we never know how we will celebrate it because things are always changing.

David began this season by surprising everyone with a display outside of our home. (The big water bottles were not to be a part of the display, it was just water bottle pick-up day.) Anyway, the sign he wrote said it was Thank you God day! Since obviously they don't celebrate Thanksgiving from the States the believers in Thailand say "wan kap kun Prajao", that basically means Thank you God day. So that is what we did as well. You should have heard the talk around our neighborhood as David gathered supplies for this display for 3 weeks before. They had never seen hay sitting around someone's house in the city and they were all very curious why it was there. David would not tell anyone, even his family, because he wanted it to be a surprise. I think they all enjoyed looking at it but didn't necessarily understand it all.

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated at our kid's school. We had a time of worship and praising God for all His goodness and then we had a big feast. It was not exactly traditional Thanksgiving food but it was delicious and fun!

November, 2013, happenings!

We kicked off the month with fun as we celebrated Davis' 14th birthday. Wow, he is getting older quickly.

It began with Lynn traditional birthday muffins on his birthday then...

he celebrated his birthday with a party with friends at our home.

He enjoyed his Thai decorations, which are always interesting!

Then we celebrated as a family by going to the Chiang Rai United soccer game. Davis had gotten a gift of these Chiang Rai United soccer socks from our teammates so he decided he needed to be supportive of the team by wearing them.

Also in November we had a great time going to a local, beautiful place called Doi Tung to spend the day with our team. It was beautiful and much fun just enjoying spending time with each other.

David realized soon after getting there that he forgot his hat and the sun was out bright, so he found one for cheap at a vender on the side of the road and bought it. He looked kind of like a cowboy in Thailand!

Really cool swing!

Davis and Brent doing the typical Thai pose that every other Thai person was doing in the Gardens.

It was a fun day for all!

Another fun event we were able to participate in this year was the Akha New Rice Festival.

So every year in November when the rice is harvested this hilltribe comes together in their church building to give thanks to God for all the food He has provided for them. You can see how they lay their food on the altar showing what they are thankful for.

Notice in the baskets they have even brought live chickens as a symbol of what God has provided for them.

Each group that comes sings or dances in worship and praise to God.

This is us in our vehicle headed back down through the hills from the New Rice Festival. it is quite a trek going up and kind of scary coming back down.

Samantha's recital, September, 2013

God has given Samantha such a deep love to dance and she does it regularly. She is a part of a local dance school and September 1, 2013, they had their annual recital.

We had some sweet, precious Thai friends join us for Samantha's recital

Here is Samantha (far left) and 2 of the girls from her dance school and the director of the dance school

Samantha received highest honors on her annual exam she is required to take at the dance school and here she is with others who received honors as well.

Here is her class and teacher!

The rest are just them having fun as they do the poses our Thai friends were telling them to do. Thai people are all about taking pictures so they have a lot of fun with it.

Two proud Dads