We're back!! (after the traveling experience of a lifetime...)

Well, we're finally home. Our last few days in the States afforded us with some very special memories with family and friends, and Friday we headed to the airport. Five days, five flights, and aloooot of hassle later, we arrived here at our apartment! It's quite a story, really--definitely our greatest traveling adventure so far...

It all started Friday morning at 3:30 am. We were scheduled to leave Atlanta at 8 AM and fly to New Jersey, where we would get a connecting flight to Asia, and then one more flight, arriving home late Saturday night (Asia time). We decided to check our flight to NJ before we left for the airport, to make sure it was on time. Good thing we checked--it had been cancelled! After a while on the phone, we rearranged our flight plans--the fastest they could get us there would mean 4 flights for us instead of 3. We would leave Friday at 4 for Cleveland, connect to New York, get a taxi to the NJ airport 25 miles away, spend the night, and make our flight to Asia on Saturday, finally arriving on Sunday night (Asia time). Unfortunately, David's mom had made a special flight to see us off, and because of our flight changes, we weren't able to see her.

So, we got a little extra sleep and went to Atlanta where my (Gracy's) parents saw us off. The flights to Cleveland and then to New York were fairly short, and the kids did very well, though we were all tired when we arrived at 9 pm. Then the luggage craziness began--we were responsible for transporting our 9 checked bags, 5 carry- ons, a guitar and a stroller to NJ; it wasn't cheap, but we were able to hire a van to take us to our hotel near the NJ airport. Aahhh! The kids, again, did great though, and we had a nice conversation with our van driver as we enjoyed our drive across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Manhattan, to our hotel. After a few hours of sleep, we were up and at 'em, ready with aaaallll of our luggage (now we know why it's called LUGgage!) for our shuttle to the airport, where we re-checked our bags and departed for Asia at 3 PM.

Armed with enough snacks, diapers, formula, toys, and entertainment to make it through a 13 1/2 hour flight with two kids, we were all set for a smooth-as-possible flight. All was going pretty well when after a few hours, the flight crew asked if there was a doctor on board. Uh-oh. We were hoping nothing was amiss, but our fears were confirmed when almost halfway into the flight (when we were pretty much over the North Pole in the middle of nowhere), the captain informed us that due a medical emergency we would be turning around and heading to the nearest airport--in Canada, 4 hours away--where the passenger could then get immediate medical care.

Just wait--it gets better. Two hours after we turned around, the captain announced that the woman was okay and that there was no longer an emergency. However, we didn't have enough fuel left to make it to Asia, so we would be turning again and going all the way back to New Jersey. While we were very glad the lady was okay (it turned out to be a panic attack brought on by stress), you can imagine how we felt after flying for 12 ½ hours, only to arrive where we started!

SOOOO, we arrived around midnight and four hours later we checked into the hotel that the airlines had provided for us, after rearranging our flight plans (again!), picking up our LUGgage and re-checking it for our flight out to Asia the next afternoon.

This is Caleb around 2:30 that morning, while we were waiting for the agents to work out our flight...

And here is Susanna, the Energizer baby. I don't know what she was going on (she only slept a total of an hour on the 12 1/2 hour flight!), but she was happy--crawling and smiling and exploring like crazy!

The few hours of sleep we got at the hotel that night (that morning, rather!) were just not enough at this point, but the kids were still doing great in spite of it all. So we left (I don't even remember what day it was...!) at 3 for a 15 1/2 hour flight to Asia. I was not so sure about the kids this time, because we had already played with all of the toys, read all the books, gone through all of the entertainment we'd brought by this point--AND we didn't have the bulkhead seat this time, or the baby bassinet. I guess the lack of sleep paid off, though, because the kids slept ALOT on the flight, and we had on demand movies for each seat, which helped alot too. Our arms were a bit tired after holding Susanna the whole way (but we weren't complaining--it's never a chore to hold her!), and legs a bit cramped, but we did successfully arrive in Asia 9 PM Monday night Asia time (8 AM Monday Georgia time). Though the LUGgage craziness began again, the Asian hotel staff was very helpful, and accompanied us to the airport hotel (which was very nice and provided by our airline). We were in bed by 10 and up at 3 with the kids (still on Georgia time!). But we had a really great time relaxing, eating a huge, luxurious, complimentary buffet breakfast, and playing with the kids before going back to the airport.
So finally, we departed around noon on our last flight (last!! Can I get an AMEN!) and arrived here in our home city at 2:30 , where we received a very warm welcome from our friends. We could not be any more thrilled to be DONE flying for a while!!!!

All in all, it was a grand adventure. Though it was inconvenient, we really had alot of blessings along the way. For the most part, we had what we needed when we needed it. We got to enjoy our kids, and see others enjoy them as well. We got to spend time together before the rush of being back. We learned that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger! And most of all, we are really learning to enjoy every moment of life--even the ones that are unexpected.

Susanna's Journey

Most of you know about our emergency return to the States on November 31st to seek healthcare for Susanna. Since then it’s been quite a ride, and because of all the craziness, I wasn’t able to write any entries about it. But now that she’s better I thought I’d catch you up on her journey…
…So there we were in Asia, settling in, making friends, learning the language. Two happy kids who were adjusting well. And then one started being not-so-happy. At first it was just ever so often, and then it was more and more—fussing, wanting to be held, not wanting to play… Teething, I thought. Or gas. Or something I ate that didn’t agree with her (and man, that could have been anything over there!). You know how it goes. It could be a thousand things with a baby, so you just go through the list in your mind. And you give Tyelnol. Or you give gas drops. Or you just chalk it up to a bad day and hope tomorrow’s better. But as time went on, and there were fewer and fewer “better” days, I grew more and more concerned. We felt how tiny she was, and in light of all her other symptoms we decided it was time to have her checked out.
So we took her to the one resource we had—a clinic run by American doctors as a charity to the locals. She was 8 months old exactly, and weighed 12 lbs. 10 oz. fully clothed—had gained only 2 oz. in the last month. The doctor ordered some blood work, and I took her to a local hospital—quite an experience—thankfully an Asian friend was able to go with me and translate. The doctor at the clinic analyzed the test results and said she’d possibly had a bout of Hepatitis A. Made sense to me, all things considered. I felt relieved and hopeful that she would gain weight as we followed doctor’s orders to increase her food intake, just as we wrote in our last November entry.
But over the next couple of weeks, as she ate more, her symptoms worsened. She was so lethargic and cried sooo much. She had no desire to play and was smaller than ever. I held her all the time (the only thing that seemed to ease her) and my arms never got tired. When we would change her diapers or put her clothes on, we would just break down in tears as we looked at her. She was so pale and pitiful—you could see every little bone. She looked like a baby on the Save the Children commercials, literally. My heart breaks even now as I remember her—so precious, so sick—and the overwhelming feelings of fear, frustration and dread, not knowing what was wrong, not knowing what to do, and not having the resources to help her get better.
So I did the only thing I knew to do and took her back to the clinic. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach as the doctor weighed her; in spite of eating more she had lost weight—1 ½ pounds in 2 weeks. He ran a couple more tests, and then he advised us to seek aggressive medical care either in another part of Asia or back in the States. We were more than willing to do whatever we needed for our precious little girl, and so the whirlwind began… Emotions, decisions, arrangements, sorting, packing, saying goodbye, traveling, traveling, traveling, and then there we were in the ER of the children’s hospital, only 2 days later.

There is nothing more terrifying than holding your sick child and wondering how much longer they will be there to hold. Fear, anguish, panic, helplessness—words can’t really describe it. We’d spent the last 48 hours nearly numb with shock as we said goodbye to our new home, our friends, our lives, not knowing whether we'd be coming back. But as they placed Susanna—our 8 and a half month old precious joy, who should have rolls of fat and boundless energy to crawl and play and explore the world—on the scales and she weighed only 10 lbs and 12 oz, an overwhelming dread came over us. She was starving, right before our eyes. Our once smiling, plump, contented little girl was now terribly gaunt, pale, lethargic, and so very, very fragile. Yes, it was absolutely terrifying.
That night in the ER was so long. Soooooo long. Especially for Susanna. It took three nurses, four blown veins, and over an hour to finally end the excruciating quest to draw blood; and after several more hours of poking and prodding, x-rays and ultrasounds, she was admitted to a room at 5 am, where we tried to get a bit of rest between visits from doctors and nurses.

That room was home to Susanna and I for a week. I treasured the time I was able to spend there with her, rocking, nurturing, and holding her ever so closely.

They ran test after test, and as the days passed, I began to feel more confident that we were closing in on a diagnosis.

Wednesday and Thursday, however, were difficult days. Though Susanna had shown some improvement, the doctors were not satisfied with her weight gain, so Thursday she had an endoscopy and was put on a feeding tube.

But Friday brought good news—a diagnosis that was easily treatable and most likely temporary. The preliminary results of the endoscopy showed that she had an allergy to dairy protein—that it was damaging her intestines so that she could not absorb the nutrition that she was taking in. Just a simple change of diet would send her on her way to health. What an incredible relief!

It was surprising how quickly things progressed from there. She responded very well to the feeding tube and the new formula, and Friday evening they released her from the hospital.

The tube took some getting used to for all of us—she had to adjust to having something in her nose constantly, and we had to adjust to feeding her around the clock—mixing formula, running the pump, managing her feeding schedule, cleaning up leaks, and putting the tube back in when she pulled it out (not fun!). It was quite a job, and a time-consuming one at that—we pretty much arranged our lives around her feedings for that month.

But week by week she gained more and more, and her strength and energy returned. On January 5th the doctor said she no longer needed the tube. She was eating enough on her own, her system had recovered well, and she was doing great. Wooooo hooooo!!!

Susanna is now a totally different baby than when we left. We never imagined that not even three months later we would be returning to Asia with a 16 ½ pound, totally normal, energetic, healthy baby in our arms. We will never, ever take that for granted.

9 days and counting ...

The countdown has begun. Today Caleb spent the morning playing with some friends and Susanna spent the morning playing with some of the final items we purchased in preparation for departure. Since we are awaiting some final test results for Susanna, we have moved our departure from the 14th to the 22nd. We will arrive on the 24th and classes for me begin on the 25th. So, after we step off the plane, I will have approximately 7 hrs before the semester begins (talk about cutting it close!). Thank you for all that you have done for us during this time. Your support and encouragement has been precious to us.

Rest

There are times in life when the path seems so clear. You are motivated, prepared, and ready to take the next step. That's when the bottom falls out on your plans. It during these times of uncertainty that you begin to wonder about whoever is pulling the strings up there! Then you have a moment of clarity when you are reminded of what you believe to be true.

I was riding in the car the other day and a song came on the radio about a parent's response to his child. As he came home one day and was confronted with his child's handwriting on the wall, he had to stifle a laugh in order to maintain his parental presence. Yet he could not contain the joy that welled up inside him at the sight of his vulnerable child. He opened his arms and embraced her with a smile that came from deep inside.

I thought about my children, and immediately a broad smile came to my face and tears to my eyes as my love for them threatened to burst out of my chest. And I thought, if He loves me like I love them, then I can finally lay down my fears and my frustration and rest.

Still breathing ...

Just a post to let you know we are still breathing. We are currently in MO for some meetings and are looking forward to heading back to Asia on or about February 14th! Thanks for all your thoughts and encouragement over the last couple of months. You have made a huge difference in our lives. Love to all!

David and Gracy