Party of Five

So today is our last day at the ministry site. Last year, one of our team said that he knew we were all tired, ready to be done, and just pretty much used up, but he encouraged us to "finish strong." So with those words of encouragement, we are going to finish strong. We can all hope for one day without rain, calm spirits and stomachs, and lots of people reached. But even if none of that happens, we are going to do our best and FINISH!! Anyway, we leave tomorrow at 3AM to make it to our 7AM flight, please pray that our flight is on time, that there is no fog, and that we have an easy trip home. Thanks for your prayers, I will let you know how it goes!

Ok, so I will consider today a success, but only because all 32 are still alive, but that is really the best I can come up with for the day. It started out great, we slept in a bit, the sun was shining, we were all ready to conquer the day. That is the end of the good news....Two of our team members had to be taken to the hospital for severe dehydration and bacterial intestinal infections (don't you all wish you were here?). The bus also had to stop halfway up the hill to drop off a member who didn't think he could make it anymore, a taxi came and got him and took him back to the hotel. When we finally did make it up the hill, we were greeted by 300 kids who had been standing outside for 3 hours waiting for us to get there. Chaos ensued, and I am not sure what all transpired after that, but I do know that the sun that greeted us was short lived. We had the mother of all storms up there, complete with thunder, lightning, hail, rain,mud sliding down the hills, really Kate, we can use you next time, please come with us and help us dress appropriately for the typhoon that is approaching. It really was an exhausting day. My dad made the comment that this is the closest thing to being a battle that he has ever been a part of. We have people wounded, incapacitated, and the rest of us sent out to continue marching on. It was a success, but not like we pictured it. Tomorrow is our last day, and then home again!! Please pray for us for safety, energy, and health.

OK, so my dad says that no one will believe it if I lay this all out, but here goes. Waiting to get on the airplane, we had to call an ambulance because one of our team members was having an irregular heartbeat, they fixed it (by stopping his heart, not kidding), and a couple hours later he got on a plane to a third world country. Day one, another person fell down the marble stairs at the mall and probably disrupted some of the supporting structures of his knees. Day two, our team member who had brain surgery two months ago almost passed out when walking to dinner and had to sit down for a little bit. Our second day at the site, one of our translators who is 15 began having neurologic events like loss of vision, numbness in his mouth, and problems speaking. Then two of our team members fell at the site, one in a deep cement hole in the building, and the other in a pile of dog poo by dental van. So today rolls around and we wake up to a member with a migraine, one with extraordinarily high blood pressure, one with the stomach flu, one with an ankle effusion, one with a fever........and then to top it all off, tonight while we were at worship, one of our members began having an irregular heartbeat and some "cardiac" symptoms. Now I'm no doctor, but all that is pretty bad. What the heck is going on. OK, so minus being on the verge of a medical emergency at every moment of the day, things are going very well. We had a day off today and went to the Indian market to go shopping. We started at a leather market and had plenty to look at, then went to the outdoor market, where I became, "Erin, master bargainer." Chris is laughing right now I am sure, but really, I got some good deals!! It is easy when you don't really want anything, and you can just walk away if they don't come down to your price, you say no, they chase you through the market, and you get cool stuff for like $2. Anyway, pray for our team that is dropping like flies, and pray for our day tomorrow that many people will hear about the Lord, and please pray that we could have one day of sun, the rain is really keeping people away. So that is it, talk to you soon!

Yesterday was incredible. We started with a church service at Santos Pamba. Last year, our group quadrupled the size of the church, yesterday, we were just the group standing in the back with all of the seats filled with people from the community. After the church service, the ladies in the church cooked a meal for our group (ok, I was a little scared to eat it, I will admit), but it was really good, and it gave them so much pride to allow them to do something for us. After lunch we got right to work. We saw about 120 patients in 4 hours. Those of you who know about the trip last year know that our operation was great, but very primitive. We in the pharmacy were outside with chickens in our meds, and dogs looking for food. This year, we had a room inside with shelves to put out all of our meds and all the suitcases went back to storage. It was amazing. We saw old friends from last year, who were just as excited as we were to see them. So, if everything continues at this pace, it will be amazing, but I believe we will continue to get better every day, so I can't wait to see what happens in the rest of the week. Thanks again for your prayers. I will post more pictures later!

Ok, I have hesitated to post anything because the situation changes from day to day, and I am not kidding at all. Let me give you a little wrap up of the week. Monday, the department of state of the US government posted a "warning" to prospective adoptive parents considering Vietnam to be very cautious. The agreement they have in place to process adoptions with the US, will likely not be renewed as everyone thought that it would. So what does that mean? Well, a lot of speculation and heresay on the internet turns into no new dossiers in country, don't even try. So as of Monday, it was looking pretty bleak for us. Fast forward to Tuesday, so all is not so bleak anymore, more rumors that things will be processed as long as your dossier is in country by the expiration of the current agreement (Sept. 1). So we corresponded with our agency, I sounded like a complete lunatic to our agency, and finally we get the answer, well, proceed at your own risk, but we aren't really supportive of the idea. OK, Wednesday and Thursday morning, more of the same, from the agency, do what you want, but we are not supportive. So here are Chris and I trying to decide if we are the kind of people who just buck the system and venture off on our own in this whole thing, and if you know us, the answer is no, we are not, we like to make people happy, so the idea of our agency just giving in and saying, do what you want, is not very comforting to us. So then Thursday afternoon comes along, and low and behold, our agency has changed it's tune and is now willing to support families sending their dossiers in. What?? This whole adoption thing, I never know what to tell people anymore because the situation literally changes minute by minute.

So what does all of that mumbo jumbo mean that I just typed??? Well, it means we can now send our dossier in to Vietnam!! We must accept that we could possibly lose our agency fee, which is a significant amount of money, but we are ready to go forward. We tried to go this morning to get our background checks, but the lady was out today, so maybe this afternoon at another office or maybe Monday. We can get everything else we need this weekend, and then next week drive to Austin for state certification. I feel like a rush to do everything, because who knows what tomorrow will bring, maybe Vietnam will be crushed by a giant rabid unicorn, who knows with the way things have been going, nothing would surprise me anymore, but for today, we are hopeful.

Chris and I had a discussion this morning that maybe all this craziness and the background check lady being out were part of God's way of telling us not to proceed. I don't think that God's plan is necessarily easy, and delays don't mean that you are outside of his will. As a friend told me, we never get to see God work if we don't take some risks. So here we are, about to take a huge risk, stepping out in faith that God will be with us as we go...I can't wait to see where he takes us, and where the story ends. Because as my dad says, it is all part of the story, even if it is more difficult, it just makes that much better of a story. We will have one heck of a story to tell our sweet daughter someday.