Mess

Greetings!! What a week it's been! I can't even remember what all has happened these past two weeks.

Let's see....I completed two exams, four assignments, two group projects, and hit my 500th prenatal. Tim has written proposals, been in crazy exciting meetings, met with his staff, and continues to work hard on the water project. Promise has been busy eating mashed bananas, kalabasa, carrots, and potatoes, is still trying to cut some teeth, is now rolling all over the place, can almost sit up all by herself and stay up, has discovered her "singing" voice, is now over 17 pounds, can hold her bottle all by herself, and has discovered that she likes the taste of her feet. I think Promise is the winner for the most accomplished!

Thank you all for praying for Promise's ears the last month. She had a doctor's visit yesterday after completing a course of antibiotics and she received a glowing report...as well as giggles and coos from all the patients in the waiting room. Me, however, did not get such a happy review. After having some smelly gunk come from my good ear (for those of you who don't know, I am deaf in my right ear and have been since I was 14 months) for the past year or so. Thinking it would go away on its own and just not having the time to deal with it, I ignored the itchiness and the soreness and moved on. It was not until last week when I realized my hearing was a little impaired. Actually, Tim realized it first....my constant, "WHAT?" was getting a little annoying. Needless to say, I finally had Promise's pediatrician (an awesome blessing of a man!) just look inside my deaf ear first....hole in the eardrum and no bones- normal, then he looked in my good ear....hole in the eardrum, discharge and redness. Apparently I ruptured my eardrum. He was quite alarmed and concerned that I had left the infection for so long and was surprised I had not felt more pain in the ear. He said it didn't seem to be healing, as the hole was quite large and quickly referred me to the ear, nose and throat specialist at the hospital.

Now, to be honest, I've had SOOO much ear trouble in the past, so I tend to not get my undies in a bundle over these things, but his alarmed response kinda got me nervous. Well, I have an appointment with a Dutch doc on Tuesday. I can think of 1001 things I'd rather do, especially with my schedule so insane, but I feel pretty convicted that I need to go. So if you could be praying for me, as a bad report would be pretty devastating as it's the last ear I have! :) With a hole permanently in the ear drum, I am more susceptible to chronic infections, not to mention deafness, and as our pediatrician said, meningitis. Lovely.

As for the current adventure, we are still about $500 away from our tuition payment!!! PRAISE GOD! And thank you all for your incredible support, prayers and generosity! We're almost there and once again, God has shown Himself faithful! It has been a humbling experience...waiting, praying, watching, and feeling His grace cover our fears.

We've been having a pretty cold (like 80 degrees instead of 95), rainy, and windy couple of days making laundry impossible to dry and giving everyone colds....just like wintertime at home!! It makes walking to work an adventure....no use for an umbrella...the wind just blows it inside out, no use for closed-toe shoes or long pants to keep warm..there's flooding everywhere...on my way this afternoon to class, I made the mistake of wearing long pants and real shoes only to have to hike them up to my thighs and remove the shoes to walk to the clinic from our apartment. I think I may need to deworm after that experience. But it does feel like a form of winter and I am thankful for that!!

I'll leave the rest to Chuckles....

Oi. Not much to say. I'm coming down with a cold. Had a nice time with the worship team at our practice tonight. I've enjoyed getting to know the guys a bit more. It sure gets hot in there when we practice though because we don't turn on the aircon and there isn't a fan on my side of the stage. I'm always dripping wet by the time we're done.

I've had a super busy week of work, though today was much slower because I was just too tired. Promise fell asleep on my chest, which was the best part of my day. I've got a bunch of snapshots hanging around my hard drive, so I'll post a few here. We had 'swimming' time on the porch this week.

Cheerio!