New Names Written Down

Yesterday was a beautiful day to have an evangelistic children's meeting. Sebastian had planned and prepared for the day and had asked for the teens to be the helpers. God brought 48 children to the park to play, sing and hear a devotional focused on the Cross.
Three children, including Nilsan (above in center), asked Christ to be their Savior! Another was our 6 year old daughter, Isabel! Kaitlin brought her to me and told me she had raised her hand in the invitation. I'm really so honored to have the blessing of leading people to the Lord. To have another of our children trust in Christ alone for salvation is thrilling beyond measure!
Today in Sunday School Isabel threw her hand up into the air when the general question was asked about who had been saved yesterday. And Nilsan also declared she was saved too. Praise the Lord for this first step for both.

Thank you for praying for our children, our family and our ministry here in Uruguay! God is answering your prayers! And ours!

During our missions conference in November we will have a youth evangelistic meeting...COLA WARS. Please be praying now for many young people to be there and for God to be at work in their hearts now, preparing them to be receptive to the Gospel.

Happy 6th Birthday Belly!

This morning Isabel officially turned six. She is still as adorable as the day she was born, though more outwardly stubborn.

She can still hold her own against her brothers sometimes a little too well.

She is finishing up her 1st grade year and is doing great! Some days are easier than others for her but once she gets past thinking everything is hard she does well. No doubt all those gold stars on her test chart are a huge motivator.

We look forward to the next year of Isabel's life. No doubt there will be changes galore in her life as we head back to the States for furlough, and as she continues to grow.

Humor in Homeschool

Working with Isabel on the "A" sounds this morning was an adventure. It went like this:

"Armadillo reads a, a, a (put the little dot over the a for the correct sound :)"
"A reads a, a, a."

This portion was successful, it turned hilarious at this point...

"Listen as I tell you a word. Can you hear the "A" sound?"

"The first word is...Are?"

"No."

"All"

"No."

"Line"

"Yes."

"Bug."

"Yes."

"Ark"

"No escutzo nada." (Spelling is her accent. Translation: I don't hear anything.)

Me completely cracking up..."Great now I get the wrong answers in Spanish too."

Back at it....

"Draw."

"I don't hear nothin'!!!"

OK, let's try picking the right word out of the sentence.

1. Noah's Ark is a good Bible story.
She picked out every work but Ark.

2. Do you like to draw?
She answered the question, "Yes!"

7. Do not touch a broken jar!
Her answer, "Why?"

After that we all lost it. And I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed class today!!! And, yes, we actually did get a lot accomplished.

What Am I?

This video was at the end of class with Isabel. She loves school, and is a very pleasant student to teach. She is, however, sorta missing the concept of a riddle. I didn't realize why she kept answering the way she was until I realized my questions were in first person, so each answer was correct.

Happy 5th Birthday Isabel!

I cannot believe another year has passed so quickly, and now, Isabel is 5. I had fun teasing her this morning about whose birthday it was.

We've had a very full week. Monday we enjoyed celebrating her birthday with our Peruvian friends. Their daughter, Cesia, turned 5 on Sunday. Somehow this fact escaped us last year. So this year we had their parties together. It was a princess Strawberry Shortcake theme. I made a simple cake this year - strawberry with strawberry frosting and sprinkles. We played simple games and painted faces.

I've tried to post photos but for some reason blogger doesn't want to let me. I'll try to remember later.

A Royal Gala

Princess Isabel requests the honor of your presence, on Saturday the 15th of September, at two in the afternoon, for the Gala celebration of her Fourth Birthday.

The Royal guests: Priscila, Debora, Adeline, Cesia and her honor Princess Isabel.

Being surrounded by royalty is a daunting thing, especially when the said royalty are all under eight years of age. Isabel asked to have a princess birthday party with her new friends from Peru, also on the guest list were her sisters and Priscila Perez.

Our Princesses enjoyed an afternoon of fun while they colored, played "Princess, where is your crown?", and decorated their very own crowns.

Following that we brought out a cake fit for a princess sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish then Isabel blew out her candles.

A word of warning to those daring souls whose cute little girls smile sweetly while requesting a princess doll cake - you have a LOT of work ahead of you, but the joy all over her face will be well worth the effort!

This is Isabel ready to open her presents on her actual birthday, September 13th. Those cards all came from the States from family and supporting churches.

By the way Isabel was excited to hear that the third baby was born on her birthday. (see Embarazadas post)

Happy Birthday Isabel

Isabel was our first, and remains that, baby born in the morning. She was also born as hurricane Isabel (purely coincidental that they share the same name) headed for the North Carolina coast. Because my delivery with Nehemiah was so quick we decided along with our midwife to have her delivered at home. I had a wonderfully easy three hour labor with a single contraction delivery. And I was left very thankful that we had decided for a home birth as she would have been born there anyway.

Isabel's delivery sure was nice for me but it wasn't so good for her. She was a solid 8 pounds, even though she had just reached term, 37 weeks. But her rapid birth plus slightly immature lungs set her up for major problems. Though she would go back and forth between blue and pink her hands and feet remained a deep blue. She wouldn't cry, nor would she nurse, the only thing she did was maintain a low moaning sound. This certainly caused concern for Scott and I as well as our midwife. After she had a grey spell we rushed her to the pediatricians office.

Our doctor couldn't get a good blood oxygen reading so we headed to the ER just to have her Blood O2 levels checked. As her levels were being checked her saturation suddenly dropped from the 80's (not good) into the low 50's (very bad). They rushed her off with Scott following close behind. She was put on Oxygen which helped her pink up right away. Her blood O2 levels stabilized and it was decided she would stay the night for observation.

The next afternoon they decided to do a room air test and since her numbers stayed high they kept her off the O2. Less than 30 minutes later she began moaning and had another grey episode, back onto the O2 she went. However, she just plummeted from there. In the wee hours of Monday morning they decided she needed to be transferred to Charlotte by helicopter.

As the hospital worked out the arrangements the nurses began to prep her for the flight. I was heartbroken as I watched the nurses make attempts to get an IV into her arms then her legs only to give up and wait for the transfer team. The ambulance team arrived after they found a good vein in her head they did their pre-transfer preparations which included giving her a medicine to open up a valve in her heart. I was able to ride with Isabel in the ambulance to Charlotte as her airlift was changed to a regular ambulance because the air teams were all out on other emergencies.

When we arrived they rushed her through the hospital and I watched her disappear behind the doors of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit while I was told to stay in the waiting room. Finally, someone came out to explain the rules of PICU and the tests they were planning to run - ECG, Strep B, Meningitis, among others. I was also told that she was very jaundiced and would be under Bili lights. I was asked a lot of questions regarding her birth and my prenatal care and was told that I could not nurse her, touch her, or even speak to her. I could spend a few minutes with her every 4 hours. In addition, Scott and I were told that because of the time at such low oxygen levels that she likely would suffer from brain damage. I was devastated!

Just hours later the nurses called me to her bedside for what I thought was going to be a grim announcement. They explained that many of their restrictions were due to questions of negligence regarding the home birth that had since been cleared up. She had shown dramatic improvement and I was allowed to nurse and spend time with her. God really worked in her little body that night and she was sent to the regular pediatric floor on Tuesday afternoon. Several times that week they did room air tests that she kept failing. It turned out that the nasal cannula was obstructing room air so they pulled that to the top of her nose for her last room air test on Friday morning. She passed, with flying colors, and was released to go home.

Every time we took her in for well baby checks our doctor was amazed that she was hitting the normal milestones without any problems. During her first appointment her doctor told us that when she was sent to Charlotte he had very little hope for her survival, let alone for her to be without any handicaps. Praise God, she has never had any problems with learning delays or any disabilities. The only thing we have experienced with her is some asthma like episodes and an allergy to Cashews.

Now I have a confession to make: Throughout my entire pregnancy I really, really struggled. When I found out I was expecting Isabel, Nehemiah was just 9 months old, plus Adeline was only two. I was overwhelmed with the thought of having another baby. There were only a handful of days that I didn't struggle to accept God's will in giving me another child so soon. However the moment she was born I loved her without question. And I was greatly concerned over her condition.

I remember telling Scott, in Charlotte, that I knew God was punishing me for my sinful attitude. I thought for sure God was going to take her, or leave us with a severely handicapped child. Thankfully, I have a Godly husband, and friends, who were able to correct my wrong thinking. They reminded me to think Biblically and focus on the character of God as well to trust Him and rest in His plan. I found myself relating with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Job 13:15 and God brought to mind many other verses and songs about resting in Him, trusting in Him and keeping my eyes on Him.

Now four years later, I reminisce as I look through her scrapbook about that first week of her life and remember all that God brought her, and us, through. Certainly the sadness is still palpable as I look at her blue little body and I recall all the emotions - the despair, joy and relief. Yet, I hope that I never will forget to rely on the Lord as I learned to do those first few days of her life.

And now for the rest of the story...

I promised an entry about Isabel's hospital stay this week and here it is. Here in Colonia at the hospital we use everyone needs to go through the ER, unless you have an appointment with a doctor. Getting appointments with the doctor are a bit tricky, they all share offices and so "our" doctor, or even the pediatrician, may not be in everyday. So when you really need to see a doctor and can't wait you need to go through ER.

Now in the ER you never know what specialty of doctor you may see. It all depends on who is on call, sometimes it's the Pediatrician or the Dermatologist. Thankfully they are all trained in general medicine before they take their specialty trainings. Usually though when it involves children the on-call doctor will call in the Pediatrician, as they did on Monday for Isabel. But in my case a week before when I was really sick I saw the Dermatologist for a sinus, ear and throat infection, go figure.

When we, myself and a friend, first got there with Isabel she was really struggling to breathe. Her first blood oxygen level was down in the high 70's, after a nebulizer treatment she went up to the mid 80's. Here is where the language barrier became a problem. My friend had to run up to the pharmacy to get the prednisone (another story entirely) and while she was gone they decided to admit Isabel, but I thought he was going to send her home. I was trying NOT to panic. Then the nurse asked me to follow her and when we headed up the stairs I was able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing they would keep her even for a little bit.

The hot water heater in the pediatric room was broken so they put her in a private room. Very nice for Uruguayan standards, it had a TV. We had to wait about 45 minutes for the pre-approval to come in from the states for her to get started on the oxygen. In the meantime they gave her a dose of the prednisone and gave her a breathing treatment. This is where we are going to have to remind ourselves that this is where the methods are different but not necessarily wrong. Her treatments came in the form of three rapid succession compressions of an inhaler into an Aero-chamber (a tube with a mask used for children). Hopefully I was able to hide the look of dismay and skepticism. Once the O2 approval came they put a nasal cannula in and got her O2 started. I was surprised that Isabel willing let them put the cannula in, as Adeline despises anything in her nose.

A couple hours later they came in and gave her more Prednisone. Now I was hoping this was just the remainder of what was needed for the day. But I had no way to really ask, and by this time I had no translator. Turns out that it was a continuation of the needed dose. Then the doctor came in and told me what was going on, well attempted to tell me, while I attempted to understand.

Then our language teacher, Cecilia, stopped in and while she was there the nutritionist came in to discuss Isabel's meals. I was relieved because I thought I had a translator. Nope, I got to take a pop quiz. There were only two things she translated for me, one was a question about food allergies, the other was clarification for a request for leche sin azucar (milk without sugar). Their faces were priceless as they were stunned that Isabel would actually drink milk without sugar. Cecilia peeked around the nutritionist and said, "Do you know you just asked for for milk without sugar."

Isabel improved and enjoyed her two days straight of coloring in her coloring book. When they were ready for a room air trial they just pulled her off the O2 and came back every couple hours to check her blood oxygen levels. Much different than what we've ever experienced in the States where they have been on the Pulse Oxymeter constantly, and children haven't ever been taken off the O2 for room air trials in the afternoon. But she did fine and you all were praying and we praise the Lord for that. I'm thankful for this "trial run" now we know what to expect if Adeline is ever hospitalized. Of course, with her food allergies it will be a whole different scenario.

As we head into fall and then into a very cold and damp winter we are told to expect some problems with all who have asthma. I'm glad we have a doctor who is pleasant and willing to work with us. And now I have a new set of vocabulary words to study.