Update.

Greetings! Thank you all for the thoughtful and deeply encouraging words in response to last post. Each one made me cry...I felt so supported even from strangers! Thank you for reading and for sharing your heart, too. It means a lot to us and each comment makes things feel less far away.

This week has been another doozy. Not horrible...just hard. Tuesday...First Tim had to get a complete blood count test and a urine analysis because he has not been feeling well. Upon retrieval of the results, we found that his white blood cell count was terribly low. TERRIBLY. Wondering was could be sending them so dangerously low, I called my dear friends Heidi and Kate (who are nurse practitioners) to inquire possibilities....we discussed a whole whack of things from hernias to HIV to leukemia! What a way to start the day! We decided that a doctor's visit was in order, but couldn't go until Wednesday, so instead we took off to our awesome friends, Darrell and Shannon's place for dinner. We needed a break...we needed some solace. We got it. What a wondering evening....while there, I received a text from May-May.

May-May was saying that her mother had water coming out her nose, eyes, and mouth and that she was having more trouble breathing. She said that her skin was white, but that her underside was purple with blood. She was dying....in pain. The hospital gave May-May's father a hand pump to manually suck out the liquid and mucous filling up her fragile lungs. He spent three hours pumping until his hands were so sore he passed the job to his kids.

May-May was nervous because her neighbors, who had been watching her baby, could not care for her baby through the night so May-May was asking me if I could take her baby for a few days. Because I needed to take Tim to the doctor the following day and had shift the following day, I knew it was impossible to take the baby for few days, but we could take the baby for the night. May-May, excited and thankful, agreed to meet me at a gas station to direct me to her house where the baby was.

At 9pm, Tim, Promise and I arrived to pick up the baby. May-May ran to greet me in tears saying that she didn't think her mother would last night. We prayed that she would pass quickly. She also shared with me that her family was so surprised that her mother spoke to me and answered my questions when An-An and I had visited. Apparently, she had not spoken in over a week! Mmmm.

I followed her through muddy back alleys and down small sand corridors, through a tiny neighborhood to her plywood home. Her family had suffered a severe fire in 2008 and had no money to repair the house, so the inside was filled with smoke damage, a leaky ceiling and the back half of the house was completely gone where the fire had ripped through. The back was piled with destroyed possessions and furniture still rotting from 2008. The few possessions they had were carefully displayed in their front room. They had done a magnificent job making their home appear welcoming and whole.

May-May raced to put a baby bag together and we quickly ran to her neighbor's place to pick up her baby....asleep. May-May thanked me again, kissed her baby, waved to Promise and off we went....home to put two babies to bed.

Promise THOROUGHLY enjoyed watching, poking and discovering this tiny baby boy and every time he would cry, Promise would cry harder.....it was rather humorous. I knew we could not have these two together in the same room for the whole night! So while I put Promise to bed, Tim fed the baby a bottle and rocked him to sleep.

I headed to the guest room to get some sleep before the baby's next feed and Tim put the baby in our makeshift co-sleeper and Tim headed to bed in our bedroom with Promise. The baby was out until midnight. Next feed....I lumbered to him and picked him up....he was very wet...and decided that he would prefer to cry until 3 am. Despite rocking, feeding, changing, burping, cuddling, walking, he just would not sleep and every time I put him down, shrill cries resonated. He had horrible gas from the formula. Finally at 3 am, I placed him on his side supported by pillows and he felt comfortable enough to sleep.

I was ready to get Tim for his next shift. We traded and thankfully Promise slept through the night (this is the first in over a year!!) and the baby slept for a few hours. I woke up to find Tim with the baby on his chest humming and singing to the wee boy. Tim is so great. I could not have done the night without him. Our sleepy and achy bodies were exhausted. But we managed to bathe two babies, feed the two and head out the door to drop him off with his mom and head to the doctor for Tim.

The doc was fantastic and basically said Tim's blood tests must be a mistake and to go get it retaken. Sure enough, the lab that had done the first sample had screwed up....a BIG screw up. Tim's count was normal, although we are still not sure why he is having such abdominal discomfort.

This morning, May-May texted saying her mother is still alive! But has now been transferred to ICU. They are not expecting her to last much longer as all her organs are failing, but the longer she stays alive, the more suffering she endures. Intense.

Please continue to pray for May-May and her family. They have been through so many trials and yet, their faith in Jesus stays strong.

Thank you again for all your encouragement and support. I am still trying to find some time to study for my exam, but very rarely do I have a free hour these days. I know God will be faithful, but I also know that I still have so much to learn.
Blessings to you all.