Name of the Game

If there is anything I have learned living in a foreign country, it is that the name of the game is FLEXIBILITY.  For that matter...the name of the game when you have four small kiddos is FLEXIBILITY!!!  This week has been yet another lesson in that, but it has been a week where we have been so thankful for the provisions that the Lord has laid before us.  Last Saturday, I posted about our team & said that we were gearing up to board a plane on Monday.  Well...that night, Shirley Temple had us awake for the majority of the night with the rapid breathing we have come to dread & recognize as the tell-tale sign of pneumonia.  So, Sunday morning, she & I headed over to Children's Hospital in hopes to get her the treatment she needed and be on our merry way early Monday morning, as planned.  But, apparently, that was NOT the plan.  She was indeed diagnosed with walking pneumonia & the ER doc looked at me and said, "This child may not fly to Guatemala tomorrow".  "Hmmm," I thought, "Would you like to call Delta & tell them that?"  So the decision process began.  My mommy-gut was telling me to listen to the doctor and change our flight.  After several hours on the phone with our pediatrician (one of my favorite people on Earth!) and Delta airlines, we made the decision to stay for an extra week & give Shirley the chance to rest and recover, and quarantine the rest of the family.  Oh....what a good decision that was!  By Tuesday, we had two kids who had been throwing up (for different reasons) and we found our selves SO VERY THANKFUL to not be on an airplane or in a car and be in a house with a washing machine, hot water and bathtubs readily available.  We went back to the doctor to have Shirley checked out again and took two others with us (Little Man & Dancing Beauty), because they were also showing symptoms of pneumonia.  By yesterday, all four of my children were on antibiotics!!  So...now our immune systems are strongly boosted, bags are packed, kids are tucked in, and we will be boarding a plane at 6:45 in the morning, Lord willing!

We would really appreciate your prayers as we travel again.  Specifically, because we changed our flight, our seats are now all over the plane.  Please pray they will have mercy on us and we will be able to sit with the kids.  Otherwise, we will have no small amount of tears, I'm afraid.  It is no small miracle that our travel experiences thus far have been very smooth and I strongly believe that is due to your faithful prayers.  We will stay tomorrow night in Antigua, reunite with Nina, and head to the Ulpan Valley first thing Tuesday morning.   We'll post again once we make it back to the Valley.  Thanks so much!!