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...