Nang Tawng Lahpai’s Story
Nang belongs to a loving family with 2 other siblings and father Zau Latt Lahpai and mother, Jara Lahpai.  The family lives in Catonsville, Maryland. She is one of the twins and was born on 13th August 2016.  She has a brother, Zau Ja Li Lahpai who is 3 years older than her twin sister, Ja Bang Lahpai and her.  Nang started to get sick when she was 4 years old, she was hospitalized at the University of Maryland Medical Center on 17th June 2021.  She has experienced several complications with her digestive system as well as other organs such as the kidneys. She has been in and out of the hospital for more than 10 times within 2 years period and gone through multiple major operations with issues on her digestive system installing ileostomy and removing it after almost 2 years.  Her kidney situation got worse over the course of 2 years and was under kidney dialysis until she received a new kidney from her mother.

The kidney transplant was done on 21st August 2023 at the University of Maryland Medical Center.  She was discharged from the hospital on the 8th September 2023.  She is recovering well and working very hard trying to eat a variety of food by mouth and weaning off the G-tube feeding completely.  Mom, dad, brother and sister also work hard alongside Nang and they are almost getting there. 
Nang is at grade two and has been having Home and Hospital Service for her education with her home teacher from Hillcrest Elementary School.  Nang is very energetic; fun loving and loves to spend time with friends.  She loves to jump on the trampoline with her siblings but she still needs to wait a little while more to be able to do so. She looks forward to going back to school and so excited to catch up with her old friends and finally meet new friends that joined the class whom her teacher talked about.  
Her father works for Amazon warehouse and her mother is a stay home mom taking care of Nang and her siblings, full time.   The family is a member of Maryland Kachin Baptist Church community. Going to church and spending time with friends from the community, after the Sunday services, is one of the favorite activities for the family. Nang always looks forward to joining the family on Sunday, as this is her only chance to meet and interact with others.