Home from the Hospital

On Monday evening, around 7:00pm, my dad arrived back home from the hospital! Now, a few days after his homecoming, he is doing well, and taking walks around the house, down the porch stairs, and back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house. He continues to heal and make progress towards a good recovery!

Thank you for your encouragement and prayers!

Praise the Lord for His gracious work in our lives!

Day after Surgery

Praise the Lord! My dad is doing much better today! When I was up in Omaha this evening, he was doing well, and his spirits were very positive.

Just a few reasons to praise the Lord...
My dad is...
...walking!
...unhooked from the machines!
...off the morphine drip!
...eating heartily! :)
...on track to go home in a couple of days!

Thank you for praying!

My Dad's Surgery

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts today for my dad! He is now resting and recovering from the surgery, as you can see my little niece encouraging him at the hospital.

My dad and mom left the house early this morning, around 5:15am. He had surgery prep starting at 6:30am. Surgery was from 8:30-12:45, and he got to his own room around 1:30pm. The surgeon seems positive about the outcome.

Overall, he seems to be doing well. His left thigh is much smaller since the large mass has been removed. The morphine he's on for the pain seems to make him nauseous. So, he wasn't able to eat much besides jello and some broth, even though I know he was getting quite hungry.

This evening, he had a very kind Chinese nurse, and a Filipino nursing student was helping with his vital signs. Even at this time, our Lord provides opportunities for us to meet many wonderful people!

Lord willing, my dad will be released from the hospital in about a week! Thank you again for your continued prayers on his behalf! God bless you!

From Student to Teacher

Being a language student for most of my time in Beijing, I have recently moved to being in more of a teaching role. For the last few months, I have been working part-time in the public schools as a "Substitute Para-Educator." Basically, I am substituting for teacher's assistants, when they get sick or are otherwise unable to go to work.

It has been a good experience, and I am really learning about flexibility and patience. So far, I have worked with a variety of students and special needs, from preschoolers to juniorhighers, from autism to behavioral disorders. So, even though I am in more of a teaching role, I am ever learning and ever growing.

This Life in these United States...

Having arrived in the international airport in Kansas City, Missouri, in the early morning hours of January 21, a very interesting and quite unexpected adventure began to unfold...

Even while I was in Beijing, my dad had been mentioning for quite some time that he had some strange pain in the back of his left leg. It seemed to be a muscle cramp or something insignificant. So, he had the doctors examine his leg and do some tests to determine the source of the problem. Due to some curious test results, the doctors had him undergo an MRI.

On Saturday January 21, I arrived in the United States from Beijing; on Friday, January 27, after a busy week of driving to various doctor appointments and trying to readjust to my own culture, we received word that my dad was diagnosed with a large, agressive cancerous tumor in the soft tissue of his inner left thigh... If the tumor would not respond to treatment, his leg would need to be completely amputated...

Since that time, amidst various struggles, countless trips back and forth to to the doctors in Omaha, NE (which is about 1 hour from where we live in Lincoln, NE), my dad is actually doing quite well. He has finished a 12 week course of chemotherapy, and...

Praise the Lord! The tumor seems to be shrinking! They will not amputate his leg! He will have a surgery next Wednesday, May 10, to remove the tumor. That will be followed by 6 weeks of local radiation.

When all of this began, my dad told me, that no matter what happened, he wanted me to continue in my plan to return to China this year. Now, we are very excited, because he is doing much better. By the time I return to China, he should be doing quite well.

A TIME OF LEARNING
This whole experience has been quite an adventure for my entire family...

We are learning of the goodness of God! He takes care of us and encourages our hearts when we cannot continue on our own!

We are learning of the faithfulness of our Christian brothers and sisters! They have been so helpful and supportive in so many countless ways!

We are learning more about the importance of family! Together we laugh, we cry, we learn, we grow!

We are learning how to better care for our health! In our culture of high stress, fast foods, processed munchies, destructive chemicals, and countless buffets, we are making ourselves sick with the diet of kings and queens and out-of-control schedules, and now we are learning how to return to the simple diet and lifestyle from which our bodies were designed to draw sustainance.

We are learning...

End of a Journey

My last month in Beijing was wonderful. Meeting with friends, taking my final exams (which I am glad to say I passed), and preparing to return to the Unites States were all somewhat bittersweet. I was glad to be going to spend a half year with my family, but at the same time, I was saying goodbye to this new life of mine in Asia.

On January 20, after I bid my friends, classmates, and teachers farewell in Beijing, I flew to the United States...

Those 8 months in China were absolutely unforgettable; with 3 months in Hong Kong and 5 months in Beijing, I learned so much. I am very grateful for such an amazing time, and I look forward to going back again this year for yet another journey in the Middle Kingdom.