A Medical Update- Miracles from the Father

This post is well overdue since so many have been asking for an update on how everything has gone with all of our testing/medical appointments over the last two months. We are hopeful that you can excuse the lateness, as we just might have had our hands just a little full the last several weeks settling into life as a family of three, juggling new schedules, numerous medical appointments, and work schedules.  We know that so many have been asking the results of everything with our little one, so we’d like to take a few minutes to share some moments that we’ve had in the last 8 weeks.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a one and done type of appointment, so much of this has been ongoing.

Upon coming home from China, there were many medical appointments and processes we had to go through for Little Miss.  We just finished one of our last ones a few weeks ago, and will at least get a short respite for a little bit.  A child that is adopted internationally has to be examined for a multitude of things, not just the medical needs that we knew our little one had. We had to go through rounds of blood work and testing for infectious diseases (it’s standard, even though this has been tested in China, it gets re-tested stateside), parasites, thyroid issues, standard blood panel, TB (tuberculosis), hearing tests (which is coming up in May), lead levels (since often buildings in China may have higher lead levels which can be very dangerous to a young child)  all the while meeting with our pediatric cardiologist, international adoption pediatrician, and an occupational therapist for evaluations and next steps in a treatment plan for our daughter.  Whew—makes me tired just remembering all of the back and forth to these appointments and re-reading this list.

During all of this, we quickly learned that “B” doesn’t have exposed veins from which nurses can draw blood, which they said is in part due to her heart condition and the way her blood pumps throughout her body, as it makes her veins very restricted and difficult to access. All of her blood draws were the most difficult thing to watch as the first round they probably pricked her about 6 times in one arm trying to get blood before they realized the issue they were dealing with, tried the other arm and then realized they had to get additional assistance to come in and try to figure out where to draw it from, which ended up being from a vein they had to “push up” in her hand. It was painful for us to watch and hold her and know that it’s for her good, but that she was traumatized a bit by this whole process.

After our initial consultations and testing which was about 4 weeks after we returned home from China, we were given the news that our cardiologist wanted to continue to wait and watch her heart for the next few months and see if she could continue to gain weight and grow. She’s still a tiny little thing at right under 20 pounds (which she’s thankfully gained about 3 pounds since Gotcha Day in China on February 2) We will go back to cardiology in June for a re-evaluation and to see how things are going.  Her cardiologist was very positive and is hoping for continued progress with hopes that we may avoid surgery.  Time will tell.

During all of these weeks of testing, we did come across a concern and some results that came up regarding her liver, which was a bit frightening, so the doctors wanted to do some further testing. We are so thankful to report that after further testing, everything appears to have checked out just fine and all of her other tests came back with wonderful results as well. She did test positive and was diagnosed with a parasite that generally would make a child her age sick, but God protected her and she didn't and hasn't had any symptoms which surprised doctors. God is good. There were even some initial concerns about some things we knew could be possibilities once we got her home, but God took care of those entirely and there are currently no additional issues at all. 

Since coming home about 10 weeks ago, we have learned a bit more about our little one thanks to two wonderful non-profits that provided care for our daughter in her orphanage care center. Oftentimes when an organization is working with orphans in China, they do not have the ability to share all of their information in advance to parents until the family finalizes their adoption.  It’s a hard dynamic to explain as to why this is the way it is, but we knew that once we returned from China, we were going to receive a lot more information on “B” than what we had received when we said “Yes” and she became ours.  We just weren’t sure how much info or what exactly we would receive, other than we knew we would receive some additional photos they had taken since the time she came into the orphanage at a month old.

We will still never forget that moment when we visited her orphanage...

...the medical staff handed us a piece of paper with New Hope Foundation letterhead on it and shared some notes and provided us with the name of the doctor and his contact information that had treated our daughter while in China. I literally almost fell in the floor as that sort of thing just doesn’t normally happen in international adoption. This one piece of paper held so much value as they shared that our specialists in the U.S. were welcome to communicate with this doctor at any time with questions. 

Wow. Just wow. There were no words...and trust me, neither of us are usually speechless very often.

Here is a short video that highlights the work of New Hope Foundation:

https://vimeo.com/115624870

We will forever be indebted to the wonderful work of New Hope Foundation in Beijing and Show Hope in Nashville for the wonderful work and financial support that made it possible for our daughter to be cared for in a way that far exceeded anything we could have imagined.  In partnership together, they provided specialized medical staffing and care for our daughter’s Special Care Center that was housed in her orphanage.  As you may know, Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth Chapman founded Show Hope.  The Chapmans saw the needs in China a number of years ago and adopted several children from China and then expanded to create an amazing non-profit that now has care centers in China for medical/special needs children, provides adoption grants to Christian families, provides foster care/adoption conferences and training for foster/adoptive families and more.

About a month after we had come home from China, we received an email from Show Hope that said they had finalized all of the additional items from China for “B” and were sending us that information. About five minutes later we were both staring at our computer, mouths wide open, looking at a screen which now held file after file of new information and additional photos.

• Almost 150 new photos from each month she was living there
• Photos of our daughter from the very day she came into the orphanage at 26   days old

•       Photos of her “ayi” (nanny) and other nannies that worked with her

•       Photos of the children that were her “crib mates” in her room

•       Photos of her with her little friends
•       Photos of their version of Christmas (which they did have Santa hats & cake-LOL) 

As if the photos weren’t a blessing enough, we then received a large excel document that were medical charts on our daughter with notes from almost every day or every other day or so where they charted her progress, her medical issues, each/every sickness she had, every medication she was given and more. We were blessed to receive important growth measurements for every month she was there, which was an incredible asset to her physicians here in the states. Our International Adoption Clinic and doctors were all stunned, as they had never seen anything like this provided on a child they had cared for upon returning from overseas. We had told them that they weren’t going to believe it until they saw it.

Through this amazing information, we learned a great deal more about our daughter’s health needs, medical issues she had experienced during certain months while in China, and also learned about some additional medical needs that we were weren’t aware of when we first reviewed her file and made the decision to adopt her. All of these wonderful notes just helped us piece together some of the missing pieces that were helpful to doctors and to us in general and will hopefully help us to continue on the best path of treatment for her in the days to come.

We know that the dynamic surrounding our daughter’s situation is unique and not what is commonly seen in China. It was without question- God ordained.  The prayers of many were answered in a way that is “Above and Beyond” anything we could have asked for on our own.

We realize many a parent adopting internationally would give anything to receive the kind of information God so graciously bestowed upon our family.  We know without a doubt that God ordained the exact place where she would be born, where she would be found, where she would be taken for care and placed her in a special care center where she would receive more one on one care and medical attention to help her survive her current circumstances and better grow and develop.  As if this wasn’t enough, to think that both of these organizations that helped provide treatment and care for our daughter were Christian organizations.  If that’s not the cherry on top, I’m not sure what else could be?

We want to thank each of you who have prayed for many months for our daughter, for her care, for her medical appointments/tests and for this entire process in general.  This very post would not be possible without numerous prayers from so many and we want you to know that it is because of the power of prayer that we are able to sit here and write this incredible praise report of all that God has done and is continuing to do in the life of our little one. She still has a ways to go in many areas and there are still more medical appointments ahead, but we are thankful for where things are right now and how God has truly had His hand on her life.  

If we learned anything out of the new information we received, we learned that this little one is quite a fighter and the outcome could have looked a lot different had God not intervened. As her doctor in China noted to us several weeks after we returned home, “You have a very special daughter.  After seeing so many other children in China not recover from some of the issues your daughter experienced early on, we do not take that for granted and we tried to optimize her chances to do well…” We know without a doubt that our little one is thriving and doing as well as she is today thanks to the wonderful care she received in her care center.

We prayed from the beginning of this process that God would use her life and story to reflect praise to her Heavenly Father…that her life and story would bring honor to God and point to moments and details that only an all-wise loving Father could orchestrate. It’s not at all about us, but ALL about Him.  May God continue to write her story in a way that only He can write.

“To Him who is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we ask or think…

to Him be the glory…forever and ever.”

– Ephesians 3:20-21

We're Leaving To Go To Another Country

A year ago today, we woke up in the morning and that is exactly what we said, "We're leaving to go to another country".  After almost 5 months of prepping our team for a mission trip to Guatemala and

preparing them for the very few things you can be prepared for when traveling abroad, we stood together a year ago today in our church office in a circle, praying together as a team one last time before leaving the U.S., asking God to do "great and mighty things". 

Then, while everyone else we knew were still sleeping, we boarded a bus, then later boarded several planes...

landed in Guatemala later that afternoon only to take another four hour journey over the winding mountains to our destination.

This blog post will begin to unfold a recap of our journey for you, but also what God has been allowing our church to be a part of throughout the last year in Guatemala. It may help to read our other previous posts about 'The Village Project' to better understand how this project works and where God led us. You can read those HERE, where a video link is included, and HERE.
 

I can remember it like yesterday, the excitement that had built within our team as we met together for training sessions each month and got to know each other, weighed our supply bags to make sure they weren't overweight...

Yes, this is how we weighed many of our bags- don't judge!

only to have it culminate in this very moment- leaving the U.S. and heading to another country to serve a people we did not yet know; 

all the while knowing that the 22 people leaving the church office that night would not return the same.  Mission trips have a way of doing that. God puts together a group that otherwise would most likely never get together to serve. As teams get to know one another and begin to share very personal experiences, they begin to share spiritual highs and lows in ways that only happen when serving in this type of context.

THIS is what I absolutely love about mission trips and global ministry. You cannot return the same- it's impossible. You can fight it and try oh so hard to pretend as though what you are seeing and experiencing isn't affecting you, but it does and it grips your heart in ways that some people find uncomfortable, ways they want to ignore, only hoping that the feeling deep down inside will just go away- but it doesn't.  God created this passion for people deep inside of us and as Jeremiah says in the book of Lamentations, "My eye has affected my heart." Much like Jeremiah wept over what he saw in the city, we often leave a mission trip with much the same experience, with a heart broken over what we experienced "in the city".

It may sound odd, but this is also what I love to watch happen for the first time in those who have never experienced an international mission trip.  It is truly beautiful to watch some individuals, who serve overseas for the first time, go from a shy, nervous caterpillar only to emerge into a beautiful butterfly spreading wings that they didn't even realize they had.  To see someone work through the frustrations of a language barrier and yet somehow share the gospel in ways without words, yet still piercing the heart. To see the joy in someone's eyes...

when they know they have met a tangible, physical, or spiritual need of another individual living in another part of world...

To see an introvert suddenly become the star in a game of soccer against children whose shoeless feet run across the rocky ground... 

To see someone's life transformed by the gospel, when they've never heard the name of Jesus before...

Village Leader-Rosario

Maybe you've never been overseas to serve or maybe you've been afraid to go because you just aren't sure what will happen to you. You are afraid of what "life change" it might stir in your heart or what your eyes might see. Well, it might not be what you want to hear, but.....

This- IS my story. 

              THIS- was OUR story. 

                        Mission trips WILL change you.

There are some moments you won't forget in life and your first mission trip is one of them. My trip to Guatemala wouldn't have likely occurred had it not been for my first mission trip to India. You will always hear me go back and talk about that trip more than any other trip I've taken to date. Though Guatemala in some small ways had moments reminiscent of my first trip to India, India rocked my world and shaped my worldview in ways that no other trip around the world has done. Serving in the 10/40 window, driving through a leper colony (and yes, they do still exist), holding the hands of lepers, seeing over 600 orphans singing out to the top of their lungs, watching children eat out of metal pans with their hands...

...walking through dirty villages as people peeked out of their homes to see "the pale faces" for the first time, experiencing a culture 180 degrees different from my own, seeing a martyr board on the wall of a church...I still remember coming back and taking months to adjust to all that I had seen and experienced there. It was all I could think about and talk about.

I am so very grateful that God has given me the privilege of doing ministry on almost every continent and in a number of countries around the world. This allowed me to see the world we live in through a different set of lenses; therefore, changing my view of the world forever. I must admit my experiences overseas still drive a passion in me to see the world changed and to encourage others to take a trip at least one time somewhere- knowing God will change their hearts in ways that won't occur here in the states.

This also became a part of OUR story. God used a mission trip we were able to lead to China, to give us a greater heart for not only those who have never heard the name of Christ, but to give us a heart for the orphan. To see that these children were more than a "statistic we read about in articles" or just "a file I work with" at my job at an international adoption agency; rather, these are children we have held in our arms, bounced in our laps, played games with outside, or fed a bottle to. A mission trip is what fueled our desire to adopt from China and led us to where we are today, a point where a child will one day be transformed from an orphan and become "a daughter" in our family. David Platt says it well in his book 'Radical':

"...We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms, but once you do everything changes."

THAT..... was a piece of our story. Looking back at other mission trips in our past and excited about what God had in store, on January 11, 2013 God took our team to Guatemala for the first time. We knew this was going to be a long term project and commitment to our "adopted" village, but we had no idea what He would do or how He would transform us that week--but He did. We began to challenge this first team and every team since with the thought, "What do you want God to do TO you and what do you want God to do THROUGH you?" It's a sobering question to ask, but slowly we began to see God do things to and through our team that week.

Leading up to our trip departure, many of our team had fought illnesses and unfortunately, on the field it was no different. Satan was at work as usual, hoping to discourage our team, weaken our team, knock down our leaders, and prevent us from doing what God had planned for that week. Like never before, we had to rely on Him to see us through the difficult moments as we set out each day to serve in our church's adopted village of Curva del Pino.

 

In the beginning of the week, everyone in the village was just a wee bit suspicious of these crazy Americans invading their space...

What we didn't know at the time, was that by the end of the week we would see the leader of the village come to know Christ as her Savior. (pictured earlier) How amazing that God would see fit to allow it to start first with a leader and village decision maker. What a blessing that Rosario came to know the Lord and in the months that followed, as other teams went down later that summer, we started seeing this leader thirsty to learn more and to have her very own study Bible, even asking another small team that went down to have a women's Bible study while there.

Though there were many things God did during our January trip, we'll highlight just a few memorable moments...

We watched God get all of our supplies through customs without having any bags checked or questioned. However, that didn't negate the fact that the Guatemalan custom agents still chose me to search as well as our friend who is a chiropractor who was also on the trip and had his portable chiropractic table with him. (I guess all that cardboard and tape looked suspicious!) So of all people, they pulled us to search. It became the early joke of the trip.

We watched our luggage get tied to the roof of a vehicle only to travel four hours over mountain roads, and miraculously didn't lose one piece!

We watched God provide a small amount of oil and food coloring in the middle of a remote village, when we decided it would be helpful for an object lesson later that afternoon. 

This was nothing short of a miracle in and of itself that God would have our team walk past a home that had a small kitchen where they baked cakes and we were able to find this "rare commodity" pretty much in the middle of nowhere! 

Only God. 

We watched God allow one of our team members to be unable to share his testimony at a village church that Sunday due to sickness, only to realize later that his "replacement" shared his testimony that morning which pierced the heart of one of the translators we had that week and allowed him to begin questioning more about salvation since his own life story mirrored that of our team member who shared that morning.

Only God. 

We watched some team members who were the most afraid about going on this trip blossom when given the chance to minister and serve.

We watched a man healed in an amazing way through chiropractic work that week 

alongside prayers from both the doctor and the team.

Only God.

During this trip we all fell in love with the people of Curva del Pino. What else did we do while we were in Guatemala? We ministered and fed hungry families who live in the dump...

and watched barefooted children leave with their food sacks, walk back into the smoke where the smell of burning trash envelopes the area...

and where broken glass that many children collect daily to earn a dollar, covers the ground they walk upon.

It was in these moments, that many of our team members felt helpless, asked God "why?" and could do nothing but pray.

We served children and mother's through a VBS program...

where Play-doh became the instant ice breaker- that is of course once we showed the children what to do with it...

We learned that many of the children were malnourished due to parasites they had acquired from unclean water in the village...

We shared Christ with women while some of their children were at VBS...

We began building a home for the Village Leader, Rosario, who had recently lost her home...

battled the heat and took breaks from hard work when we needed to...

 Learned a lot about construction from the local villagers...

 Painted the home once construction was completed...

and at the end of the week- dedicated this one room home we built Rosario's family ...

We loved on children, including those with special needs...

 

...and learned the story of our little buddy, Diego (who took a liking to Nate) who was found abandoned in a cardboard box at the dump and rescued and brought to the baby rescue center where they were able to provide nourishment and care. 

Our team had the privilege of providing, packing and distributing several hundred bags of food from US Aid to families in our village...each bag providing rice, beans, and other supplements to help provide around 100 meals to a family per bag.

As pictured above, we learned that many of the children were coming to our "program", as they called it, dressed in their best clothing since they considered us their special guests from the United States. This was the first time a team had ever gone into this village, shared a VBS or any programs, given out school supplies, sports equipment, or shared the gospel in any way.

We also had opportunities to minister to the elderly and hold a service with the residents of the senior home...

This man shared with us that this was the only outfit he owned and how thankful he was that our team had come to visit him and his friends at the senior center.

We were given so many different opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ while serving in Guatemala.

There was so much we learned from each and every team member we served alongside. We love that our sweet friend, Rich, showed us all that ANYONE can go on a mission trip and serve the Lord, regardless of age or physical limitations. 

We are excited that God allowed two additional teams to follow us later in August and September of 2013, to continue the work that was started in January. God has blessed us by seeing 47 people answer the call to take a "short term" mission trip through our church.

Since January God has:

• Brought a church planter to our village & allowed us to support his work
• Allowed our church to provide discipleship materials for the pastor to use with his leaders
• Given us the ability, through donations, to purchase multi-media equipment designed for use in rural areas overseas without electricity. Through this we have been able to show to the Jesus Film in Spanish for the first time in our village and several came to know the Lord that night. We were also able to use it for showing several other programs for children
• Allowed us to see lives changed and come to know the Lord
• Enabled us to provide clean water for our village
• Equipped two more teams to come down and run VBS programs
• Given us the opportunity to host two pre-natal clinics and one medical clinic
• Allowed us to paint the school until it can be rebuilt
• Allowed two additional teams to plant fruit trees which will provide both food and financial support for families in our village
• Allowed us to prayer walk our village numerous times
• Provided food bags twice for our village
• Allowed teams to distribute clothing to our village
• Given us the opportunity to distribute Christmas boxes, that our church collected, to the children in our village

As we head into 2014 we are excited to see how God will begin using this year's June 7-14 team and our October team. As we start off this new year, you may want to ask yourself, "Is God leading me to consider going on a short term mission trip?"  I promise it will be life-changing if you answer the call to go.

Oswald Chambers said it best "God's command is "now" not later. We try to find excuses. When God spoke to Abraham- he obeyed. Don't confer with your own thoughts, insights, understanding...Abraham didn't get to choose what his "sacrifice" would be. Don't delay or protest, but obey."

Have you ever been on an overseas mission trip and if so, what did God show you through your trip?  In what new ways might God be calling you to serve locally as well as globally in 2014?