Extended Stay

Many of you have kept up to date with the saga of Sara's illness. I have good news! We do not have a cause or diagnosis yet for Sara's illness...but we do have drastic improvement and it is all without the assistance of medicine, which to me is great.


It has been wonderful to see Sara over the past 10 days flourish. I do not exaggerate when I say for 6 weeks we were ecstatic if Sara would crawl four steps or smile without us forcing her to. She was so week and we really realize it even more now that we see her so active again.




Now, she is back and with a vengence! She today decided she really wasn't that interested in crawling...she just wants to walk. She walked all over our house today (holding onto furniture or us), she climbed all the way to the top of the stairs, and besides that she knows that we think that she is pretty cute and is totally willing to play that! It has been a blast to enjoy her and see her progress.



There are definately still things to work through...for example the fact that she has been on primarily a hypo-allergenic formula diet for the past few weeks...with very little solids...so consequently it is kind of like having a newborn...she wakes up every 3 hours to eat another bottle. Fortunately we are not currently on a strict schedule so it is not a huge deal, but when we return to work it will be~speaking of which, due to Sara's illness we have requested some extra time here in the U.S. It looks like we will be here until early to mid February. We would really like to see Sara get diagnosed and get her on a diet that will work for us prior to our return to Korea and food labels that we cannot read! :) Keep praying for Sara, we are so encouraged, but would love to see her 100%.

Fresh...really fresh!

A lot of restaurants advertise for freshness. However, this might be bringing it to new levels. At Biscuitville right in the middle of town, we discovered this "animal." We weren't sure what it was at first. (Note the bottom right of the picture.)


And it was a hen, with 2 eggs laying nearby. It was huge, probably 14 inches around. In the middle of town? In Korea, I wouldn't think a thing about this because we would be eating these eggs--or the chicken--within 15 minutes but in the US, seems like there might be some kind of sanitation law about this or something.

Discharged

Sara has been feeling much better. She has been active and happy, playing with all the toys she can get her hands on. It is so nice to see her old personality back and hear her laugh. She is still weak and needs to regain a lot of her strength, but her happiness and demeanor has returned which we have been missing for the last month.

The doctor came in Sunday morning and said we could go home later in the day. He is happy with her progress. He will continue to run tests with her as an outpatient. Please continue to pray that we can find a firm cause for the problems so we can make sure we are treating it appropriately and prevent any sort of relapse.

Christmas 2007

We returned to NC late on Saturday night before Christmas. We survived the long trip and it was good to climb into a real bed rather than trying to finding some semblance of comfort in a airline seat. We spent Sunday and Monday doing some Christmas shopping--mostly for Kacy's benefit so we could enjoy Christmas morning. Sara had been slowly improving while we were in Korea before left. Following our plan trip, she began to return to the same place we had been before. Santa came on Christmas morning and we were able to celebrate with Kacy! She had a blast and we were so glad that we could share that time with her. She has bounced around with a lot of friends and family lately since we have been caring for Sara.

Before Christmas, Kacy "mailed" her list to Santa...


In the airport on the way back...at least we got some sleep.

Christmas Eve with jet lag...


Our Christmas tree after Santa came...


One of Kacy's favorite gifts was her Sleeping Beauty doll...

And the piano will be fun...hopefully for everyone.


Sara perked up for a couple minutes to check out what Santa brought her as well.


In the afternoon on Christmas Day, we decided it was time to take Sara back to the doctor. In a nearby town about 30 minutes away, there is a children's hospital with a pediatric ER and 4 or 5 gastro-intestinal specialists on staff. We felt that God was leading us here--perhaps that story could be shared another time. We were admitted to the hospital there and they have been running tests ever since. Sara has perked up in the last 36 hours and sat on Laura's lap or in the bed and played with some toys. She has also smiled and laughed. None of these things have been happening for some time. So we are grateful for some improvement but we are still waiting to find out the real cause of her issues.

We know God has orchestrated our arrival here to this hospital at this time. We may not understand why or what is going on with Sara, but He does. Sara is His child and we are confident that He will take care of her. May her Heavenly Father care for her.

A few weeks late...

Kacy turned 4 years old on November 29th. There were many celebrations that took place to commemerate this big event, but none more important than her first "friend" birthday party. She said that she wanted it to be a "Prince and Princess Party" so here is what we did.

Here comes Kacy with Prince Silas!


There was face painting...


There was a craft...making a tiara or crown...


There were games...


There was cake...


There were Krispy Kreme doughnuts...


There was dancing...


There were presents....

There was story reading...


There were friends and good times had by all.

Sun Byung Won

On Monday, after our 7th doctor's visit with 4th different doctors, 2 IVs, and Sara's 16th day of being sick, she was finally admitted to Sun Hospital here in Daejon. Now, to fully understand this, one also has to understand a little bit of Korean medical care. We have a normal pediatrician that does general care, prescriptions, and immunizations. These clinics are common in Korea and are similar to outpatient clinics in the US. However, a major difference is that these clinics do not really do any lab work at all and little testing other than basic exams. Therefore, it is quite common for people to go to the hospital for care. The hospital can run more tests and do lab work. Although we had previously gone to another area hospital for that purpose, they did not seem to want to run many tests and seemed convinced she was getting better. To us, she seemed to be up and down in cycles and on day 16, she was extremely lethargic and obviously not feeling well. Ultimately, we decided to switch doctors. Upon hearing the length of illness and observing symptoms, she immediately admitted her to the hospital to gather blood, stool and urine samples in addition to running x-rays on her abdomen.

The previous virus seemed to have run its course so the diarrhea stopped and now that seemed to have turned into constipation. Basically she was all backed up with gas and stools. And she was extremely weak and run down. They put her on an IV for four days. The first 36 hours she was allowed nothing but water and the IV to clear her system. Then we introduced formula and then food gradually. As of Friday, the doctor seemed to think we would stay at least until Sunday and then decide from there. In a surprise move, the doctor came in at 10 AM and said we could leave at noon.

So we are home now! Praise God for His goodness and faithfulness. We were blessed with a fantastic room at the hospital. They called it the VIP room. It had a sitting area with a couch and computer and a kitchenette in addition to the bed area. Although the room was nice (much nicer than the 6 person rooms down the hall and most other rooms I have seen in Korea), we were quite happy to come home. Sara took a 2 hour nap when we got home which was great because she had not been napping very well with the bright lights and the distractions of the room. We are also glad to be able to care for Kacy at home--we had been relying on friends and family to care for her much of the time!

Although Sara is definitely not 100% or even close, it is nice to see little signs of her progress. For example, she took about a 15 minute bath this evening and played the whole time. She loved it. She has not enjoyed playing much lately as she has had so little energy. We will continue to monitor her progress and take things slowly. We have another check up with the doctor next week.

Despite seemingly difficult and worrisome circumstances, we truly are blessed. We appreciate your continued prayers as Sara gains her strength back in the coming weeks. May God bless and sustain you as He has us.

Out of Action...

Okay, a little bit of a hiatus from the blog. Sara has been sick and we have been tending to that lately. She appears to have some virus in her intestines that makes her do things that...well, we won't share details. Let's just say that my stomach (Darren's) is getting hardened to a number of sights and smells at this point. Sara has completed her 2nd full week of being home with us rather than the ELC. I think she enjoys the quality time with Mom and Dad, but Mom and Dad would really like to go back to work...they actually enjoy their jobs, or at least feel some sense of duty to complete a few things before Christmas break. At this point, after 5 doctor visits and 2 4 hour sessions with an IV, we are basically just waiting for the virus to work itself out and monitoring Sara closely. We continue to pray for God's healing and timing with little Sara.

Kacy had her big 4th birthday. Pics and documentary evidence will be forthcoming as time permits. She is starting to get excited about Christmas and Santa coming. She had fun making some Christmas cookies with Mommy tonight. She is able to write almost all her letters now in upper case and most of them lower case, but not necessarily all. She does pretty good and we have been practicing when we can. She loves to color and dance and dress up.

Although Sara has been less active, she continues to develop verbally. She clearly says things like Daddee, Mama, Kacy, ball, doggie, hide, hi, bye-bye, cheese, out, and night-night among others. She has a word for her blanket, but it doesn't sound like blanket--more like Bilbo (from LOTR) but she knows what she means and is quite attached to it. You can ask her if she wants a food or something, and she will shake her head no if it is not wanted. She also directs you by pointing to where she wants to go and to desired foods.