Week ONE

Well, its been quite the first week here in Thailand!  Since my last post, I've been deathly ill and ended up in hospital for a night.  They diagnosed it as gastroenteritis, and let me just say that it was AWFUL.  Don't think I've EVER been that sick in all my life.

After an entire day of sickness, Karen came and took me to one of the private hospitals here in Chonburi.  I was so dehydrated that it took 4 tries for them to get my IV in, during which I kept passing out.  It definitely got worse before it could get better.

But they did finally get my IV in and started both saline as well as antibiotics.  Karen was incredible and stayed the whole night in hospital with me (seeing as Jon needed to stay back to take care of Callie)!  Thank-you again Karen... you're the BEST!

It was amazing what a day on the IV did for me, and I was released the next afternoon.  I'm still not feeling 100% (a bit weak still and taking it slowly with food) but am definitely feeling infinitely better than I was.  Thank-you to everyone who has been/is praying for me!  Your prayers have been evident and God has been gracious.  So far Jon and Callie have been OK but you can definitely keep praying that they'll stay healthy.  I don't want either of them to have to experience that!

Other than recovering, we've been doing some orientation with Ricky & Karen.  Yesterday we had a day at the TMBF office (Thailand Mennonite Brethren Foundation) and each had an hour language lesson.  The office overlooks a beautiful pool so Jon and I tag-teamed and took turns taking Callie in the pool while the other one had their language lesson.  Callie absolutely LOVED it!  The pool had two different slides and a kiddie area that was shallow enough for her to stand on her own.  I can imagine we'll probably visit that pool again someday in the future... it was a huge hit!

Jon is busy getting paperwork done today for a work permit.  I'm not exactly sure all that's involved but it is a pretty lengthy process so we're hoping/praying it will go smoothly.  We also have to extend our visas at some point as the Thailand consulate in Vancouver would only give us 90 day visas.  If you think of it, this is all stuff we could use prayer for.

We have a little less than a week left here in Chonburi before we fly up to Chiang Mai (next Thursday, Oct. 27th) and settle in for the year.  Our friends & fellow missionaries, Andy & Carmen, are currently busy trying to find us a place to live in Chiang Mai.  Language school is set to start on Nov. 7th so that leaves us just over a week to get settled in before classes start.  We're REALLY hoping they are able to find something before we get there so we can unpack and get settled.  Living out of suitcases has been a bit exhausting these days :)

Well... that's all for now.  I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I've taken on the iPod over the last week.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Flying into Bangkok... just a small glimpse of some of the flooding that has been happening.
The scary part is that it has gotten SO much worse since we got here.
Please remember to pray for the people of Thailand that are being affected!

Riding in "Uncle" Ricky's car

The evening sky from our hotel balcony

This kid continues to be the epitome of flexibility...
sleeping in her make-shift bed in our hotel room :)

Callie got to enjoy a day at the aquarium with Daddy while Mommy was sick...

... they saw tons of cool fish...

... and even got to "ride" one :)