We Are Coming Home

 

        First, we’d like to thank everyone for your prayers and continued support of our family. We are so incredibly grateful to you all for everything that you’ve done for us and the Peruvian people. Here is an update. Please excuse the length and lack of pictures from this letter.

        As many of you have read on our recent blog, we have had some medical issues in our family, especially with Hannah and Hudson over the last number of months. Hannah had started to gain weight, but now she is starting to “plateau” again and has started sweating, complaining about abdominal pain and does not want to eat again.  We have done a number of stool studies, but continue to have negative results.

Hudson has also had some serious growth delay and even though neurologically he is meeting all milestones, he is severely underweight. We took him into the hospital a few weeks back and found that he has severe inflammation in his small intestines which explains why after just a couple of bites of food, he loses his appetite and starts to fuss. We tried to do stool cultures and an MRI, but have not come up with the cause for all of the inflammation. Due to the inflammation, he has little to no appetite and even though we give him anything that he’ll eat, he still has serious growth delay. In May, we noticed that he had dropped off the growth chart and now is even further behind the curve that he was on 4 months ago. In June, we got some limited testing done on him while we were in the US and found infections and figured that this was the cause. We treated him and he seemed to feel a little bit better…for awhile. At this point he was at the 1^st % for weight (this means 99 out of 100 babies his age weighed more than him). But then starting in the beginning of July, he again was not acting right. With weekly weights, we have now found that he had gained only 3 ounces in the last 10 weeks. This put him somewhere around the 0.1 % range (999 out of 1000 children his age weigh more than him). The most concerning part about this all was that he didn’t get better with antibiotics and he tested negative for campylobacter and C. diff that he had previously had in the US and now over the last week he has lost nearly a pound.

This of course is all very concerning to us and so we contacted Hannah’s pediatric GI doctor in Denver. He had previously been in favor of us returning to Peru, but with this new information, he is now not so comfortable. In fact, he is giving the recommendation at this point to not only return for further testing, but also to return for long enough that the kids have time for “catch-up growth.” This is more of a long-term type of treatment. Crystal and I have been praying about these recommendations and discussing them with the kids’ doctors here because of the implications of the recommendation. After much prayer and many tears, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our children to return to the US indefinitely. This has been a very tough and trying decision to make, because we really enjoy living here in Peru and because God has been using us in the ministry that is being done here at Hospital Diospi Suyana. We also have really enjoyed all of the people that we work with and feel like we are letting them down, as well as the patients that are waiting in line, by leaving. All at the same time, we know that this is the right decision and our leadership has felt the same way. We can’t with a right conscience, stay here and ignore the needs of our children that God has given to us to personally care for and to protect. We have always said that God comes first, then family, then our ministry. With that order, our kids’ needs are what we need to take care of.

Right as we were in the middle of deciding what needed to be done, we were at Bible study studying the book of James and came to James 4:13-17 that says: “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” We really felt convicted that even though God had called us to Peru, maybe the duration of time was our idea and not His. After praying about it, although we are very sad in our hearts for having to leave such wonderful people and such a great ministry, we know that God has other plans for us elsewhere and we just need to be ready and willing to leave behind our pride and listen to what He has asked us to do.”

We have talked with our leadership and have been given the okay to return home in mid-October and we will get appointments set up for the kids shortly afterward. If it is the Lord’s will, we would love to connect with each and every one of you over the next few months to talk about the great things that God has done and the ministry that will be continuing here without us.

So that being said, we just want to say thank you SO MUCH for all of you who have been such a tremendous support for us! We could really not have been able to make the impact here without each and every one of you. Since starting work at the hospital, John has been able to see over 2,000 people, of which every one of them has heard the gospel! We don’t know the eternal impact that was made during this time, but we are sure that many more people will be with Jesus in eternity because of all of your faithful support. 

Please continue to keep John in your prayers as he will be presenting an idea to the local community church leaders that will get them as well as other church members involved with talking to patients, listening to their stories, troubles and pains and also sharing the gospel with them as well. We feel that this will be an even better way for people to truly understand the gospel in their time of need, as well as to get local Christians involved in spreading the Good News of Jesus. Please pray that we will continue to stay focused over the next month so that we can finish the mission that was set out for us here in Peru.

Thank you all for your incredible support of the work being done here in Peru as well as for our family. We have felt so loved through this entire process and wouldn’t have been able to be a part of God’s work here without you all! May God continue to bless you all in your own personal ministries as well!

 

Prayer requests:

· That Hudson’s weight doesn’t drop anymore and that he and Hannah will start to grow again.

· For peace with our decision, that we can find work quickly and that God will continue to do great things in Peru!

 

A Difficult Decision


Well, we just wanted to post a quick update about how our family is doing health-wise and to ask for continued prayer.

First of all, Hannah, 2 years old, seems to be doing much better. Praise the Lord! Even though she has continued to test positive for C. diff and still has foul-smelling loose stools, she no longer has signs of inflammation in her intestines on ultrasound and she is gaining a significant amount of weight. She also has had a better appetite (although it still takes a fair amount of coaxing to get a full meal in). With these results, it seems less likely that she has Celiac disease like we had once suspected and the possibilities still exist for infectious causes (although less likely due to the extended period of problems) and inflammatory bowel disease that is currently out of a flare. Please pray that we will have wisdom in how to continue her diagnostic work-up from here and please also thank the Lord for healing her body if not permanently, at least for now and putting some weight on her.

Regarding Caleb, 4 years old, he seems to be growing well now and has also put on a fair amount of weight since being home. He is benefiting from the high calorie foods that we have been serving to Hannah and we are glad to see the weight gain. We haven't had any real concerns about him, but of course is getting the normal infections that would be expected from going to school with a bunch of other 4 year-olds. Thank the Lord that he is growing.

More recently, our concern has been for Hudson (almost 14 months old). Just as Hannah dropped off the curve before a  year old, Hudson also took a dive with his weight at 8 months of age. With Celiac disease being in our extended family, we actually decided not to give him anything with gluten in it until he turned a year-old just to decrease his risk of developing a problem if he did carry a gene for it. That being said, he still dropped off of the charts at 8 months of age. We got some labs done in the US in June and found that he was iron deficient and had the same GI infections that Hannah did and so we treated him for them and he tested negative for all GI infections one month ago. That being said, he has not gained even 0.1 kg in over 7 weeks of weighing him. He has lost all of his appetite and after just a few bites, refuses to eat anything else. He is drinking fluids which is sustaining him, but a child that is barely one year old should be eating and gaining significant amounts of weight rapidly. So, about a week ago, we took him to the hospital and did an ultrasound and found that he had significant inflammation in his small intestines similar to what Hannah had but with negative stool cultures. We decided to get an MRI (Since it won't expose him to radiation like a CT would) in Cusco to see if the inflammation showed any patterns that could lead us to a diagnosis (like Crohn's disease for example which if left untreated can cause serious bowel death, fistulas and abscesses leading to multiple surgeries over a life-time). Unfortunately, the company that did the MRI was less than helpful, told us that they had no oral contrast (very useful in diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease) and when they gave us the reading, didn't make a single comment about the intestines. To top that off, the CD that they gave us of the MRI had images so small, that it was nearly impossible to see much larger organs like the liver, much less the intestines. We called and asked for a better image quality and they said it wouldn't be a problem. So, Crystal went back to Cusco (2.5 hours away on winding roads) to get them and they said that she would have to come back on Monday. After a series of blatant lies that I will not bore you with (6-8 in a row), they sent Crystal on a hunt for a very specific DVD to burn the images that apparently is not actually sold in Cusco, with directions to a street that has no stores that even sell DVD's. We assume it was just to get her to leave them alone. We are finding that the MRI has and probably will be completely useless to us in making a diagnosis and that our chances of figuring out what is going on with Hudson and/or Hannah here in Peru is getting quite slim.

That being said, we want to exhaust our options for diagnostics here before considering coming back to the US. But, we also don't want to cause permanent harm to any of our children by wasting time/money/emotional stress on things that aren't going to help either.

So this is the question of the hour. We know that God has called us to be here in Peru and we have seen great things happen already. We know that God can use us here, or anywhere for that matter as long as we are willing to follow His calling. In our Bible study we were reading James 4:13-15 that says: " Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” " We want to be sure of two things.  First, that the Lord is still calling us to be here. We know that He has given us three wonderful children and that they are our priority above outside ministry, and therefore we need to take care of their needs. If we can't do it here in Peru, than that means in the US. But second, we also want to be strong and courageous just like God commanded Joshua as he was telling him about the Promised Land. We know that God is doing great things here and that Satan will attack us in anyway that he can to try and take away our strength. So with that, we know that our God is greater and stronger and higher than any other and that if that is all this is about, we will be fine.

In summary, we would love to have prayer from all of you about the following things:

1. How do we need to proceed in making a diagnosis for Hannah and Hudson

2. How can we best take care of them and make sure that they have no long-term affects from these illnesses

3. Do we need to return to the US for further diagnostics, try other routes here in Peru (Lima) or wait it out?

4. Is this God's way of calling us to come home to the US or are we supposed to endure so that God can be given the glory?

5. Give thanks that Caleb and Hannah are growing

6. Pray that Hudson will start gaining weight

7. Please pray for Crystal and I as the unknown is weighing heavily on our hearts and seeing Hudson waste away is tough to watch.

Thank you all for your continued support of our family and the ministry that God has called us to here! I apologize that I haven't posted about all of the wonderful things that have gone on, but I hope to do so some day soon.

God bless!

Huds turns OnE!

What?!? Where did time go? Hard to believe our little guy is one. He is such a tough little man with a compassionate heart for others. His smile and roar always brighten up the room. We were so surprised when he came into our lives and now we could not imagine our life with out him. We feel so blessed to have our little Huds. Here are few pics from his birthday party which was a month and half late. After I recovered from the pneumonia and the kids got healthy we finally had a party. There was no way I was not going to make him a cake for his first birthday. I think most people came for the donuts though, and not the cake. I mean who can resist a party with donuts? NO ONE.


I love having kids for many reasons that I am sure would bore you but I truly enjoy celebrating their life. I LOVE birthdays. This gives me a "one time a year" - times three- opportunity to bust out the cake tips. This was my first time trying this type of cake and I was loving it. Crafting seems to be the only thing that stays perfect in my life and for a recovering perfectionist that is important. I will never forget all the awesome cakes my mom made me every year. Thanks for teaching me how to decorate cakes Mom. I appreciate your cakes even more, now that I am making them for my own kiddos.

An Interesting Sunday Call

So a couple of Sunday’s ago, I (John) had a fairly eventful day on call. I saw 6 patients throughout the day/evening/morning and here are their stories – the most interesting one is the last:

Patient #1: She was riding in the back of a dump truck, like many people here do including us at times, and across the top in the middle is a large log that had been tied on in order to keep your balance or tie a tarp onto. Many people were holding onto this log and when it suddenly broke, coming down and hitting her forcefully on the head. She said that after about 20 minutes of being unconscious, she woke up and after five hours of continued headache came to our hospital for evaluation. Thankfully, our CT scanner just arrived and has been operational for about 2 weeks. After a negative CT scan of her head with no signs of bleeding, I sent her home with meds for her headache.

Patient #2: He was an 8 year-old who came in with his parents with pain in his arm. He apparently fell with his hand behind his back. An x-ray showed that he had fractured both his ulna and radius and would likely need surgery to have it repaired. We don’t have an orthopedic surgeon, so he was referred onto Abancay after a splint was placed. My primary concern was that the story didn’t seem consistent with the fracture. I’m not an expert of fractures, but I didn’t ask the father anymore in hope that in Abancay they will find out the whole truth about how the fracture really happened (a beating?). Any thoughts based on this x-ray and the story of falling with his hand behind his back?

Patient #3: A 28 year-old woman who came in with 3 days of cough and pain in her lungs. The chest x-ray showed a pneumonia. She followed up in 3 days and was greatly improved with antibiotics!

On the x-ray you can see a faint line in the patient's right lung between the middle and lower lobes.

Patient #4: A ~75 year-old woman came with history of liver masses from a recent ultrasound in Cusco as well as labs and ascitic fluid being taken out of her abdomen and sent for analysis. When she arrived, her oxygen saturation was 75% (normal is 90% or higher). She was very dehydrated and looked terrible. I admitted her and in the morning ordered an ultrasound and labs. They showed that she had an 8-cm mass in her pancreas, cirrhosis of the liver and was in the beginnings of renal failure. Her chest x-ray showed what looked to be possible metastasis in her lungs. I talked with the family and told them of the poor prognosis and said that the only place to treat her cancer would be in Lima. I recommended that due to the severity of her disease and the extremely poor prognosis that she not get chemotherapy, radiation or surgery that would severely decrease her quality of life. Instead I recommended that she go home with pain medications. I then prayed with them that the Lord would be with her in these final days and that He would give her peace in Him. After a couple of days she was sent home feeling better, but also knowing that these would be her last days on earth.

On the x-ray there are some questionable nodule behind the heart concerning for metastases.

Patient #5: This was a 50 year old woman who came with three days of pain her belly. An ultrasound showed that she had an infected gallbladder and she was admitted with antibiotics and will have surgery to take out her gallbladder.

Patient #6: This is likely the most interesting case of the day. He was an ~80 year-old man who lives high in the Andes mountains with his wife. Over the last 3-4 months he’s had more and more troubles with swallowing and eventually it got so bad that he could hardly get anything down for the last 3 weeks. His daughter came to visit him and his wife 3 weeks ago (with her 1 year-old son) and realized how sick he was and immediately took him to the health post in Cusco. They checked a couple of labs and gave him some medicine for pain and sent him home. He wasn’t improving so she took him back and they checked his urine and gave him some medicine for a urinary tract infection (UTI) and sent him home. He still wasn’t better and so upon the recommendation of a friend, brought him to see me at Diospi Suyana. Looking at him, he looked like one of those people you see in Africa that is starving to death or dying from AIDS. Just looking at him, I knew it was more than a UTI. His mouth was so dry that there was some dried mucous attaching his tongue and palate that he couldn’t remove because it had dried that way. He also had spots of blood under his mucosa throughout his mouth and throat. I gave him some fluids and unlocked the lab and ran a lab test finding that his platelets were only 29,000 (Normal 150,000-450,000). He also had signs of infection. I admitted him and did some tests in the morning finding that his kidneys were quite stressed from the dehydration and that his lungs looked terrible! See the picture below. The following day, Dr. Klaus John did an endoscopy and found that he had thrush from his mouth to the bottom of his esophagus and found tuberculosis in aspirates of his gastric fluid like we expected based on the x-ray. Even after just one day of fluids, he already looked SO much better and he and his family were extremely thankful for the treatment that he’d received. After a few days of care by Dr. Martina John (She saw all of my patients for a few days while I was stuck in bed sick) he was sent to the local health post now with a diagnosis of tuberculosis which they typically treat very well. We pray that he will not only find physically healing through this process, but also spiritual healing as well!

Thanks for your continued prayer for our family as well as all of the people that we are coming into contact with! God is working in their hearts and lives and every day we have more and more people coming saying that they know that they will get healing here because this is where God is working! We know that we may not be able to find physically healing for everyone that comes, but we do know that God is offering spiritual healing to everyone of them through Jesus Christ if they are willing to accept it. This is the most important healing that anyone can receive!

Pictures and Cakes

I am a little behind on pictures and cakes. Here is a little shot from Hannah's birthday session with me that was in April. I still have not gotten around to making Huddy's first birthday cake or taking his or Caleb's birthday pictures?!!? So terrible but my excuse was that I had pneumonia. That is a pretty good excuse after all. I cannot believe how fast they are all growing up.

Another Update on Hannah

It is hard to figure out where to start with this update but I suppose I should start by thanking everyone for their prayers and support. So many people helped make our quick stay back home go much smoother than anticipated. I am sorry for the huge delay in getting this information out to everyone but life seems to be going in one great blur right now.

Our trip flight back was pretty uneventful considering how young our children are and the flight length/layovers. We actually had a layover in Fort Lauderdale for 14 hours so my mom drove 5 hours and got a hotel just to see us. I am sure it was a five hour drive well worth it for her because I KNOW it was for us. It was great getting to see her even if for a short time. She picked us up at the airport and took us out to breakfast at the closest IHOP. The kids were super excited about eating but I think Caleb was more impressed with the bathrooms as he came out saying, “ MOM! That bathroom had toilet paper and toilet seats!” – He then looked at the waitress and told her she had a really nice bathroom and he liked it a lot – WHICH IS HILARIOUS since it was a rundown IHOP at that. Oh, I could go on and on about the ridiculously funny stories we have about the kids experiencing the U.S. for the first time in a year…which feels like forever to a three (or now four) year old.  

We spent the day eating food we had not had in a while – I think we hit up several fast food places. My mom did come prepared though with a fridge FULL of goodies. The kids were in heaven and so was I with my ice cold Dr. Pepper. I am not even a pop drinker but after a year I was grateful to see some DP. We had a fabulous time at the beach and the kids did not want to leave. My Mom is AMAZING and I am so glad we had the layovers on both ends of our trip. Our time in Florida made for the perfect beginning and perfect ending to our trip. Love you Mom – you are an amazing woman.

We got into Denver late Sunday night, having left Friday morning we were happy to be at our final destination. Just was we were getting into the elevator to meet our family Caleb got sick all over the place – you know just the “perfect” ending to our trip. Really, though it was no big deal seeing as everything else went so well – prayers appreciated here because it could have been much worse.  

We got in on Sunday and had our appointment on Tuesday to meet with the GI doctor for Hannah. From Tuesday on most of our time was spent driving to Denver, which was about one and a half hours from our home base, going to appointments and waiting for results. To make a long and emotional story severely short we are still not exactly sure what is going on with Hannah. We had wonderful doctors who expedited us through the system getting us all types of appointments and running all kinds of tests. Hannah did have a colonoscopy and endoscopy where they did find some swelling in her colon. This coupled with other tests is leading the docs to think we are dealing with some sort of inflammatory bowel disease such as crohns. Since it is really abnormal to have this at such a young age (age of normal diagnosis is between 15-30 years of age) the docs wanted us to see an immunologist just to make sure there were no other autoimmune things going on. As we were waiting to see the immunologist Hannah’s stool cultures returned positive for campylobacter bacteria. This bacterium can also give the same results on a colonoscopy as inflammatory bowel disease. So at this point we do not know whether her results were tainted by the bacteria or there is something else going on. This was incredibly frustrating. It is technically in the realm of possibility that Hannah has had campylobacter since before we left to come to Peru last year but it is not probable as campylobacter usually resolves itself after a short period of time. Hannah has had a few rounds of antibiotics since being in Peru as well and we think this should have taken care of this type of infection, but this would be a good reason as to why she is not growing. Results from the immunologist suggest that Hannah does not have any underlying autoimmune problems and we are thankful for this.

 In the middle of all this we wanted to get Hudson some shots to keep him up to date and we decided to go ahead and do stool samples for the all the kids since campylobacter is highly contagious. Hudson came back positive and Caleb came back negative. This made total sense because Huddy was having such a tough time while we were home. I won’t go into details but campylobacter means I changed A LOT of diapers – enough said. So Hannah and Huddy were on antibiotics for a while and then we stool checked them again and they had Clostridium Discophiles (or C-diff). This is kinda common to have after exposure to antibiotics, but totally not something you want to have while you are traveling with small children.

Up until the day we left we were chatting with docs about whether or not it was safe for us to come back to Peru and even though both the kiddos were really sick they said it was okay to return. At this point they cannot do much more for us as there is no straight up test for inflammatory bowel or crohns. So here is what our future looks like right now. Hannah has to gain weight. She does not have to be in the 90 percentile but she has to have an upward curve. The docs want us to really get Hannah eating well for the next two months. We do weight checks every week and stool cultures every two weeks to make sure she is not getting re-infected with ANYTHING. This sounds well and dandy but it is much harder than it sounds. Hannah has no appetite – which I consider strange for a two year old. You can put candy or whatever you want in front of that girl and she will not eat it. Even at the IHOP, after not eating on the plane, when pancakes with strawberries and ice-cream were put in front of her she never even touch it. Gratefully, her appetite appears to be slightly better this week but still I have to sit with her and feed her EVERY bite – yes, every single one- just so she will eat.  Our meals take hours because I am also doing this for Huddy too since he is still a baby. In addition to this, while we were in the States we found out that Hudson has started to take a dive off of the growth curve as well (this could be due to travel, teething or a variety of things) at just the same age Hannah did and he also appears to be iron deficient.  He is iron deficient but not iron deficient anemic which is worse and often at his age means cancer. So we are grateful, at least at this point no cancer for any of our kids.

***Sigh of relief*** We had lots of appointments at Children’s and after seeing the little kids with chest tubes and no hair I am feeling really grateful and blessed. Yup, I shed lots of tears this trip…

Back to eating for Hannah – so she must eat LOTS of food and if after two months if there is minimal to no weight gain we will be starting her on meds for inflammatory bowel disease. We really did not want to jump into these meds as this is not always easy on small children and basically she will take them for the rest of her life. We will try these meds for two months – that is, if we get this far in the plan- and if she is not responding well we may have to come home on a more permanent basis.  Good news is - we did have a positive weight gain this week !!– which I am so grateful for since this is really my whole life right now. The trick will be seeing weight gain over the next few weeks as she has just gone off of the antibiotics. Hannah seems to have a pattern of eating well while she is on antibiotics and then taking a dive in weight after she finishes.  This pattern is consistent with inflammatory bowel disease. We will be doing a stool sample over the next couple of weeks to make sure she is not getting re-infected with anything and then we will also get an MRI done in Cusco, if she has a clean stool sample. We are now washing/rinsing every dish in clean water, and bathing the kids in clean water too. Other families do not have to do this, but we will do what needs to be done. That being said my kids do not get bathed that often because it is quite the chore to heat up water and fill a tub. We also have to be extra careful with ALWAYS washing our hands and at this point- Hannah is having minimal contact with the outside world. We need to make sure she stays healthy to get accurate results – living in a 2^nd world country makes this incredibly difficult. I mean how many families can say they have a favorite antibiotic? – We can because we are constantly sick here. I never imagined how sick we would be and how often we would be sick – just thinking of it makes me SICK J - NO, but seriously I am sick right now – but with a chest cold – which for us is actually abnormal here.

What does inflammatory bowel disease mean for Hannah? Well, if she indeed has this it will be hard to tell whether she has ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease for a while. We will have to see as things develop but one of the most common risks for someone with these diagnosis’ at such a young age is that she will lose her colon/ and or have a much higher risk for cancer. Not exactly the news you want to hear about your two year old. It is hard to imagine my playful little girl with a colostomy bag. I pray this is not what our future looks like, but we are taking things day by day. We are still not sure what is going on. We are frustrated we do not have answers but we also know that no one can give us those answers right now. Even the doctors told us it just takes time and that at this point it is fine to continue to work on things from Peru.

We had really hoped to come back with answers, but we do not have them unfortunately. This month has been exhausting physically and emotionally. We are so humbled by all of the help from everyone during this difficult time for us. We are so sorry we had to come home right in the middle of everyone’s super busy schedule and we appreciate everyone’s flexibility while we were home. I also just want to say a special thanks to my Dad for making our hospital stays much more comfy – we are so grateful.

We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful team of doctors working with us over this last month. I am overcome with gratefulness that we could return to the States and get such excellent care for Hannah. The medical system in the States is incredible. Truly it is. I cannot help but thinking of so many little kids John sees in his office who have a terrible prognosis and nothing can be done for them because the medical systems here. The world we live in here is so different from our world back home.

Please pray for us as we embark on our two months of trying to get Hannah to eat. Pray that God gives me patience for this difficult task and pray that God gives us wisdom to figure out what is going on. If she only had a bacterium all this time we are so grateful but if this is not the case we would like to figure out what is truly going on.

I think your prayers are what kept us going the last month – so please, do not stop. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful team of supporters always lifting our family up in prayer.  We love you guys!

April 2014 Newsletter

A Few Photos of the Boys

 

Hudson, or Elias as he is called here because no one can pronounce his first name, is quite the go getter. I think that is just natural since he has to catch up to his older siblings. He is wasting no time though. We went from army crawling to crawling up on top of things. He has definitely already had his share of faceplants to our tile floors, and for this reason I hope he starts walking soon. Enjoy a few picks of our little Huds.

 

 

Oh, and check out Caleb on his first day of school a few weeks ago. What a HANDSOME guy in his little uniform - minus the slacks. We are so grateful to have this new Christian school here in Curahuasi. It has been such a blessing for us and Caleb.

 

An Update on our Little Princess

We have been sparse with sharing our information on what is going on with Hannah mainly because we just do not know exactly what is going on with Hannah. We started running a myriad of tests on her in October but we still do not have any concrete answers. We ran a bunch of tests here at Diospi last week and we are currently consulting with a German Pediatrician here to plan our next move. We have done blood tests, urine tests, stool tests, and ultrasounds. At this point I cannot tell you much but it looks like we are not dealing with Leukemia types of cancer, celiac, heart problems, or kidney problems. We will continue stool sampling this week and will go in for an x-ray and abdominal ultrasound as well.  Her stool samples both here and in Arequipa show she has white blood cells in her stool but no blood. Unfortunately, her blood tests are also consistently showing elevated platelets at 750 with normal being under 400 I believe. Hannah is ranking in at less than the 3^rd percentile for weight and actually they cannot measure below the 3^rd percentile so we really do not know where she fits on the charts. Charts are not all that important since John and I are small people but we noticed a huge dive in her weight after she started on solid foods. Her height has also started to drop off and her head circumference remains okay right now which we are grateful for as developmentally she seems fine. That girl is super smart, and quite frankly she has a hilarious little personality. More concerning than the lack of being on the “charts” is her night sweats. She consistently wakes up from naps and nights with her pillow soaked within a 10-15 inch radius. Having cancer on my side of the family, this symptom kinda makes my skin crawl. It’s also really hard to look at Hannah and then look at Hudson because right now they could be wearing the same clothes – that is if I really wanted to dress Hudson in pink. I am sure Hudson is passing her in weight but in all honesty I have not checked lately because I really do not want to know. She is still wearing the same clothes that we came to Peru in almost a year ago next month.

This is hard on the heart especially being so far away from home.  I think we both feel a little helpless. Especially John is he is the doctor – who can heal everything, right? – WRONG. This is a constant reminder to us that God is our healer and ultimately he is in charge. I have started asking myself questions that make me a little sick. What if this time next year Hannah is not with us (and I might be being incredibly rash here) but what if that is true? Would I be okay with it? Would I be bitter about being here in Peru and not being able to find the answers? Would I be angry with God that we have come all the way to Peru only to have God not show up in some miraculous way? Really, when I think about these things my heart aches, but my answer is no. No, I would not be bitter or angry because I know that my children were given to me. They are a gift, and they are not really mine. I am grateful for all three of my gifts, and I would miss them terribly if they were taken away from me. I also know that God’s heart would break to watch me go through such a terrible ordeal, but I know that in this world there is sin and therefore our bodies do not always work as they should. I am not bitter about it; it just is what it is. My eyes tear up even now writing this as I watch her dancing around the house knowing that things are so unpredictable in life be it disease, car accidents, whatever it may be we only have so much time here in this world – and in life, disease and death our God will be exalted.  In all honesty, I am at peace with everything, whatever it is. I do not even worry about it anymore, as I know ultimately my worrying will not change anything (except how many gray hairs I have J ).

Currently, we think the tests we need to run are not available here and we are trying to get an appointment at Children’s Hospital in Denver which has proven quite difficult. We were planning on returning in August to visit family for the annual fantasy football draft, but with things being the way they are we are hoping to return earlier sometime in May if we can get an appointment at Children’s. We will see what the results from this week are, try to get an appointment at Children’s and then we will make the decision on whether John goes back with just Hannah for a while or whether we all go back for a short time to try and figure out what is going on with our little Hannita.

All this being said we would really appreciate your prayers this week. We really need to get an appointment at Children’s Hospital ASAP, and we would love to find some economical tickets so that we can all go back together. Right now the prices are not bad but the longer we wait to figure things out the tougher the details get. Pray also that Hannah continues to eat well. We have had a terrible time getting her to eat, and she really cannot afford to lose any weight.  As always thank you so much for your prayers and support!

A Few Months In Curahuasi

No I have not died – although from the lack of communication you might have thought that I had. My lack of sleep and our lack of internet have put our blog on hold for a while. We are doing okay here in Curahuasi. We have been here for an entire month now. The kids and I have “settled” into the house and John started working at the hospital last week. His days are filled with interesting stories and many sad ones. Unfortunately a handful of people have passed away at the hospital over the last couple of weeks, including a newborn. John’s job is tough intellectually always having to translate in his mind from Spanish to English what is going on, learning the new meds that are available in the hospital (which are often not the same meds we use in the States), and just learning how to work with new people but none of these things are as tough as losing a patient. Medicine is tough on the heart. If only we had done this – If only they had come in sooner – If only we had had this type of equipment – horrible questions that plague the mind. The most terrifying question of all really is “Do they know their maker”? The only person in this entire world who can cure the most deadliest disease – sin. The hospital has a great system going and all the patients get to see the Jesus film while they are waiting for their appointment. Speaking of waiting- can you imagine waiting in line for days just to see a doctor? We would flip if we had to wait outside IN THE RAIN just to get an appointment the next day, and this is common practice here. Every day there is a line of about 150 people just waiting to be seen. I remember waiting for 3 hours once to see my OB in the States. I was a “little bit” frustrated,  but seeing the line everyday kinda puts that in perspective now.

John and I have moved  A LOT in our lives. My dad was in the military and John’s med school took him all over the place. Every time you move you find your “new normal” – your new normal food, your new normal routine – everything just settles into the new normal. John is working again – and is finding his new normal in his job. Which I think can be kind of dangerous. It is easy to develop a new routine, and really it becomes just like living in the States (minus lots of stuff). I cook, clean and watch the kids, and John works. It is so easy to just work a job and forget why we have really come. John has not come to just “see” patients but to show them Jesus. Not always as easy as it seems. John usually goes to work at 7:30 and returns between 6:00 and 6:30pm unless he is on call. He is usually exhausted from his day/night on shift, and then he walks 20 minutes each way home (and the hill up to the hospital is KILLER). John then watches the kids so I can finish up dinner.  We get the kids ready for bed. I spend the night making food for the next day/week, cleaning the dishes, and doing the laundry or just unpacking. The day is pretty much consumed for John and I. So what does ministry look like for John, or for me? Well we are trying to figure that out. Pray for us as we try to determine what things outside of the hospital/house that God wants us to be involved in.

Yesterday was the first day I made it out of the house with all three kids alone –quite the challenging task. I will not be doing that often, at the ages the kids are at now 3, 1, and 7 months. For me this means I pretty much stay in the house all day, every day. Thank goodness we have a small yard for the kids to play in, even so my life looks so different than it did in the States. It is tough not being able to get out of the house. By the time John gets of work and the kids are in bed nothing is even open here! I am finding that at least at this moment, my ministry will be my children and making sure that John can serve his best at the hospital. You would think that coming over to Peru would give me more time to spend with my family but sadly I spend most of my time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. EVERYTHING is from scratch. You cannot even find a loaf of sliced bread here! I actually really enjoy cooking but all day, every day is tough.  For the first time in a month I could actually sit on my couch at least for a few hours until another load of laundry finished drying on the line and then ended up on my couch. The laundry and cleaning never end. Three kids three and under is physically/mentally exhausting – and I have not even mentioned bugs yet! Yes, bugs – they are EVERYWHERE! I found a LARGE centipede in the house the second week we were here but that was put into perspective the day Caleb found a black widow in his pale outside (and let’s not forget the scorpions we have found in the house including in Caleb’s toys). Yup, I think I was screaming- and by the time I got done with it, it was definitely dead. That prompted me to make some door snakes – long, thin bags of fabric filled with rice to put at the bottom of the door so the bugs cannot get in. This was a great idea until the rain came through the back door – soggy, rice, in a bag- not good. The ants are always in my kitchen even if I clean it every night. At this point I have given up and now I know we will never be bug free. However, after putting up the door snakes now in the middle of the night when I wake up to feed Hudson there is not a constant crackling under my feet of rollie pollies. There are still bugs in the house but less of them. You see if I am going camping I know that there are bugs but for a short time – there is an end in sight – no end in sight here. Roaches, flees, spiders, worms – you name it we probably have it (including black widows and a scorpion that I found in Caleb’s legos). Just kill ‘em.

On another note,  after two weeks of sanding, putting chemicals and varnish on all of our furniture it looks like we have not gotten rid of all the mold which is kind of a bummer since I appear to be allergic to it. Unfortunately, our dresser which is molding is still sitting in our room, because John has not had time to resand, rechemical, and revarnish it. Needless to say we are not having fun with this…

And a few weeks ago I found BEETLES in my beans!?! They were in a bag from the vendor in the market – no such thing as pre-packaged beans here. Oh America! How I miss your pre-packaged goodness! That morning I was going to pull my hair out at the sight of beetles in the beans – but I couldn’t pull my hair out because I cannot afford to lose any more of the brown ones!

 

** I have attached a few pics of the outside of our house. We are incredibly grateful to have this home - made of cement - not mud.**