Making a Home

Your home is where your heart is.  Through my expedite sojourn through life, I have heard that saying many times.  Taken literal, it seems obvious since your heart is wherever you are.  You cannot live without a heart, so if you are living you are at home.  Or at least you should be.  However, I know that it is an expression and cannot be taken literal.  But isn’t it true, as followers of the Way, our heart should already be at home in the Kingdom, safe beyond the reach of change, decay, destruction, and death.  Our hearts are kept safe with our hope, and our hope is in Him.

Being only a week into our new place of habitation, it is natural to desire to get settled.  We want to make it our home, but it is difficult since we really do not own anything.  From our couch to our refrigerator, nearly everything in our apartment is borrowed.  I think that is a good lesson for us to learn.  Even the stuff we think we own, we really don’t own.  It is all borrowed for the time while we are on earth. 

We are only here out of obedience.  The greatest obedience is leaving our heart in His presence and making that home.  When we do that, nothing can steal our happiness.

In the meantime, we have a new temporary abode.  So far, we do love it.  We are grateful to have a really beautiful view.  In American standards the place is adequate.  It is kind of small, just one bedroom  (technically, we do have a second room, but it is occupied with the former tenets stuff), but the location and view make up for its slenderness.  The uncertainties of not knowing the duration of our stay is perhaps the most troubling.  We hope to live here longer than two weeks, but there are still some things up in the air.  It is difficult getting attached and unpacked because of the obvious issue of repacking and moving for the seventh time in six months.

Here is the rundown of our apartment.  We live on the fourth floor of a building off of a bustling street.  It is really a touristy area, so we are definitely not the only farang (foreigner).  We have shops, boutiques, massage places, Starbucks, etc. just outside our door.  It is convenient!  Our view is impeccable.  The mountains greet us every morning.

shopping area and living room view

      

Burger joint 10 steps out our door and a massage spa

Our bedroom is a cozy place with a queen-size bed, petite balcony, and a large desk (hopefully we can move the desk into our other room someday).

The bathroom is equipped with a sink, toilet, and bathtub with a shower about chest high.  The water pressure is suitable and the hot water is warm (which is okay since L hates hot showers).

We have a big living area with another small balcony.  The living area also contains a dining nook and is attached to the kitchen.  Everyone needs a teal refrigerator and teal cabinets in their apartment.  We make fun of the color, but the performance is wonderful.  It froze our food in no time (however, usually that is the job of the freezer, not the refrigerator).  

It has two bathrooms (one is a normal bathroom and the other is a maid’s room).  The maid’s room contains a squatty potty and no sink. 

We do have a truck now.  Motor scooters and pedestrians beware!!!

Since this post is so lengthy, we will post again in a couple of days how we spent our first week.