Life's Interludes

Thanksgiving at the cabin included Ian and family(Jana,
Ben, Luc) and Uncle Matt.

This is one of those times when you think you are doing one thing and it ends up being a whole lot more!

Jon and I were blessed with the gift of a trip home to Washington state by our church family!  They passed the hat, so to speak, and covered us completely!  It was such an unexpected serendipity.  We have been showered, not only with Seattle rain but loving hugs, wishes, meals, beds, parties, grandkids.  Thanksgiving was a day late due to our evening arrival, but it was snowing as we travelled to the cabin near Plain.

Ice-skating with the grandkids for Marita's 66th birthday.
I didn't ice-skate!

IT was the perfect place to decompress from the trip and the previous five months of Afghan pressure.

So, this is what we did NOT expect!  Hip replacement! I have experienced increasing pain over the year, if not longer, which evolved into a limp in Kabul. We were quite a sight in the airports, both limping along with our bags....Jon has residual tightness in the left groin from his car accident in 1989.  We felt, and looked like we needed help!  Marita had made an appt. with both the doctor and dentist in Snohomish, to check in.  The dentist appt. went fine, but the Dr. sent me to a specialist for a possible injection for the pain.

Emma's school concert...she's in the middle left.

However, he took one look at the x-ray of the hip from last February and said, "That's shot.  You need a replacement!"  Talk about shock.... and relief, on  my part.   He recommended I do it now and join Jon later so that I could enjoy Nepal.  Without it I would be in great pain and sorely confined.  Nepal is all hills, no flat spots.  To verify that, I wrote to a doctor there we are corresponding with, and he heartily agreed.  So, after trips to see two surgeons this last week, one has been able to 'carve out a space'  in his schedule to replace my left hip.  I will be in surgery Monday, the 12th, at 3:30 pm.  Jon should be on the plane at that time, but is changing his leave date for a week.  A good friend has insisted I recoup at her house, so we're set for now!  If this hadn't happened in a timely fashion, we had alternate plans for the rest of the year, which were not our preference.  So, we, again, see God's hand in guiding and caring for us.  And lots of wonderful people who help him out!

Ava, Julia&Emma with the Gingerbread House we
decorated together.

Meanwhile, as you can see, we've had a grand time with our 'grands!' This is only a sampling and there will be more to come as I get to be here through the holidays and into the new year.  Of course, I will have to be a good patient or I won't be going back to Kabul.  It is important for me to be able to say 'thank you' and 'good-bye' to the wonderful friends I have there. So, I will be very co-operative with rehab!  I hope to return in two months....mid-February before we leave March 1 for Nepal via Thailand. My rehab-hosts will join us in Thailand for a vacation (Jon will need it more than I at that point).  Then we report in to Kathmandu for licensing and travel on to Tansen for 3 months.  We believe we can make that date and be in good health.

As Kabul still experiences upheaval, bombings, death and destruction, please pray for those innocent people, our new friends and colleagues,  who live under this stress.  Evil takes different forms around the world....we believe that God undergirds the poor and downtrodden.  

We desire to demonstrate the joy, freedom and hope born one quiet night in an oppressed and troubled Asian nation 2000 years ago.  There is ONE who LOVES, FORGIVES, and SUSTAINS life in this uncertain world:  Issa, Allah with us.

Luc and Ian entertained by their reflections in the
storefront window encasing the Winter Wonderland
Railway in Seattle's Macys.

Ian had to warm-up to Santa...interviewing him
here?  He would only stand nearby for the photo!