Here, There and Everywhere!

Hey Everyone!  We are coming to the close of our time in the US.  It has been very good in many ways and challenging in many others.

We have enjoyed so much having the opportunity to visit our family.  We were able to spend time with my Mom and Dad.  Tony and the kids were able to visit with his Mom, Sister and some extended family.  We spent a few days with each of our daughters and their families.  What fun to spend time with the grand kids!!

Besides that, we were able to re-connect with some great friends and supporters.

A big challenge for all of us was that we all got the Type B flu, which is an upper respiratory bug.  It is really nasty stuff, and hangs on forever.  We are thankful that we are finally about over it. Appreciate your prayers for complete healing.  

Carla had her follow-up Cardio check this week.  We got an excellent report!!  We are praising the Lord that at this time the doctors do not expect her to have any more trouble with her heart.  If at some time her pulmonary stenosis worsens, they feel that it will be able to be opened up with a balloon cath procedure!!!  What incredible news to hear that she is not looking at any more major surgeries in the in the future!!  Of course we understand that this is not guaranteed and things may change, BUT for now, this is GREAT news!!!  Also they told us that because she is doing so well they don't need to see her for 2 years!!!!!  WOW!

We are all excited to be heading back to Ecuador on Wednesday.  It has been so great to see everyone as I mentioned above, but we are ready to get home! :)  Tony and I are excited about the ministry opportunities that God is opening up for us.  We really appreciate your prayers as we pursue these open doors and move FORWARD.

Blessings to you and yours,
Joy

Plans Change...

1:00pm, August 27th, we took Carla into see Dr. Battle.  Teddy and Matthew stayed with Miss Lori.  Pastor Tim drove us to Dr. Battle's office.  We were still really "clueless" at this point in understanding who exactly Dr. Battle was, and his influence and what it meant to have him "on our team".

A funny thing happened when we first arrived at the office.  They didn't realize that we spoke English, and so they had asked for a translator to be present.  He was excused, as soon as they figured out we or Carla either one were in need of a translator.  ;)

We didn't have to wait very long, to be called back to an exam room.  We met Adrienne, who was Dr. Battle's nurse.  They also came in and did an EKG.  After that, Dr. Battle came in.  Tony and I were so impressed with his attitude.  He was so compassionate.  He not only talked to us, but was sure to always include Carla in his conversation.  I honestly don't remember a lot of our conversation with him, because he gave us the news that Carla was going to have to have open-heart surgery to repair the hole in her heart, and that was so much "bigger" than what we were anticipating that it was all just a little bit overwhelming.  He did take the time to explain to us the reasons... the rim of the hole in Carla's heart was not stable.  Basically it was very thin and flimsy.  The fear being that when the 2 umbrella like devices that would go in at each side of the hole and them clamp together, the rim of the hole would not be strong enough to hold them in place and that that would tear away and then be floating around in her heart... not a good idea!  We asked a little bit about time table... how long would she need to stay in the hospital, how long were we talking about for recovery.  Basically she could be in the hospital about a week... recovery time was normally 6 weeks.   After spending time talking to us, he asked us if Tim was in the waiting area, and if he had our permission to explain the situation to him, and we said yes, please do.

A couple things I remember from his conversation with Tim was that 1) this was going to be a bigger deal, and he wanted Tim to understand the kind of support we were going to be needing.  2) he mentioned that this was the best time of year for Carla to have surgery, because school was just starting and there would not be a lot of children in the hospital having "elective surgeries", so the chance of infection from others was down.   He said, you should thank those visa people who held things up!  We were able to say, it was God who had everything under control and his timing was perfect.

Nurse Adrienne had told us that we would be getting a call the next day from Dr. Gangemi's nurse, to schedule the surgery.  Dr. Gangemi was the pediatric surgeon on Dr. Battle's team.

When we got the call the next day, we had the date.  Carla's open heart surgery would be on Oct. 8.  We had a little over a month to get ready.  During that time she would have a MRI, a pediatric visit, dental exam, and we would meet with the surgeon.

This also meant that the traveling schedule Tony had set up for the fall, was going to have to be altered.  He went to work, trying to change a few meetings around.  One he had to cancel altogether, as it was a conference that was to start the day after her surgery.

I can say that the next month, was full of many unknowns and many blessings.  But, that is all for the next post. :)

Settling in...

On Monday, August 12, Carla had her first Echo at UVA.  The boys stayed with Miss Lori, and Pastor Tim drove us to the hospital.  I remember that it seemed to take a long time to get to the hospital.  It is amazing how over time and multiple trips the distance shortened! ;)

At UVA, for the clinics you must go in and register.  These ladies are very nice and very efficient.  They make sure all the forms are filled out the "t's are crossed and the i's dotted".  Once through that step, we headed upstairs to the pediatric clinic.  When you get off of the elevators, you can either head to the cardio side or the normal pediatric side.  Our first visit was to the Cardio side.  We only had a few minutes wait and were called back, for her echo.  Tony and I have no understanding of the echo, but that being said, the hole in Carla's heart was obvious even to us.

After the echo, we headed back to pick up the boys.  During these days our contact cardiologist, who was Dr. Robert Battle, head of cardiology at UVA, was on vacation,  he had ordered the echo and he got the results and was even in contact with Pastor Tim, while on vacation!!  That impressed us.  That he cared enough to take time out of his vacation to think about Carla and her case.

Our girls had left  early Monday morning, and on Tuesday, my Mom and Dad arrived for a few days.  It was great to see them and the kids were very excited to have Grandma and Grandpa there.

These days were filled with settling in, and enjoying our time with Grandma and Grandpa.  We introduced Carla and Matthew to one of the great American culture treats... the buffet!  They were a little overwhelmed but loved it!  We also picked up some much needed clothes for the kids as we had been holding off on purchasing anything in Ecuador, and Teddy especially was down to very little clothes that actually fit him.  :)  We were very grateful for all the "back to school" sales that were going on!!

Here's a photo of the kids playing
with Grandpa.  We were really
enjoying having all this wide open
space!  I have to say that "country
life" definitely was agreeing with us.
:)  Although, I wasn't crazy about all
the "stink bugs" we had to deal with!
That was a first for me.

Another place we took the kids too, which actually became a favorite place to go for a treat, while we were in VA, was "Sweet Frogs" frozen yogurt.  Here is a photo of the kids on our very first visit.

Tony, Teddy and Grandpa went on a day trip to visit some of the Civil War Battlefields that were near our home.  Teddy had really enjoyed our study of the Civil War in 4th grade, and had been excited to learn that we would be living in the middle of some great battlefields.

Here's a photo of him and grandpa,  on this trip.

Teddy decided to go home with Grandpa and Grandma for a couple weeks.   It was the first time that he had ever had the opportunity to do this, and it was a great experience for him.  

Our first doctor's appointment wasn't scheduled until August 27th, so for these couple of weeks, we were just enjoying life and all the blessings that God had bestowed upon us.  It was a great time to rest a little and take a deep breath.  Pastor Tim had received a few messages from Dr. Battle, that indicated things were a little more complicated than first thought, BUT, we will still pretty much oblivious to all of that.  We were still thinking this was going to be a "simple" device procedure, requiring a day or 2 max in the hospital.  So thankful, that God gave us these days to rest, and to see his hand of grace on our lives in the form of such wonderful caring friends at MVC.  

What's Been Happening in our Life?

It’s been a long time since I posted on here.  Life has thrown us a lot of curve balls during the last 6 months.  I am planning to write a series of posts to catch everyone up on what has been going on in our lives… I hope you will pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and enjoy the “visit.”   

On August 8, 2013, we arrived in Washington, DC, at Reagan National.  As we exited the gate area, and passed the security lines, we were surprised to see 2 of our daughters and 4 of our 7 grandkids waiting for us!!  We were thrilled to have them greet us.  I was quite impressed that they had braved the 7 hour trip without their husbands and with 4 children, ages, 4, 3, 2 and 9 months!!  Not long after getting lots of hugs from them, we were met by Pastor Tim, his daughter Megan and one of the men on their leadership team, Tom.  

We gathered luggage, got to the cars, decided how everyone would travel, and then headed out of the airport for the trip to Ruckersville.  I will admit to being very excited BUT also exhausted, as we had traveled on one of the overnight flights out of Ecuador.  

We stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-A. That was a nice treat for us.  The rest of the trip went really slow.  I will admit to a little bit of impatience, as I was really tired and I was just hoping to get to the house we would be staying at and being able to rest…  What I didn’t know, is that people from the church were planning to gather at the house around 5:00pm, to welcome us and so the trip was being “delayed” to give everyone time to get in place. :)

When we pulled into the house, it was AMAZING!!  There were balloons on the mailbox.  People were holding balloons and pom-poms.  There were signs welcoming us “home”.   Lots of hugs and laughter.  They showed us through a house, totally furnished, even with toys and books on the shelves.  The kitchen was stocked the refrigerator full, and there was a deep freeze in the garage full of hamburger and beef!  Before everyone left, Pastor Tim gathered everyone in the “family room” and we held hands and prayed together.  

That first week-end is pretty much a blur in my mind.  In fact, Tony and I had lost a day, as we were going around on Saturday, thinking it was Friday! Thankfully we realized our confusion before we actually missed Church on Sunday. :)  

We spent the week-end hugging on our girls and grandbabies.  Settling in to the house.  We were blessed to be able to be at Sunday Services at Mountain View Chapel.  They loved on us and prayed for us.  Everyone was so excited that we were finally here!!  

I have to say at this point, that we were also very blessed and relieved to just finally be in the States.  It had been a long time in the coming and it was just a relief to have finally gotten the visas and to have made the trip “home”.