This week has been one of our more difficult ones emotionally since we've been in China. We found out on Tuesday that our best friends here, Jason and Sara, had to take their daughter in to the hospital due to a fever and some strange arm pain. After hear her symptoms and finding her white blood count to be extremely low, the doctor at the hospital there in Temple, TX (outside of Waco, where Jason, Sara, and their two girls were with family on a two-month leave from China) wanted to have Adah, their 6 year old, tested for Leukemia. They found out that Adah does indeed have an acute and rare form of the disease (AML Leukemia), and she was admitted and immediately began pretty aggressive treatment. The family has since been moved to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX, where Adah will undergo treatment for 6 months or longer, with her almost two-year old sister, Claire, most likely to be her bone marrow donor (assuming she is a match, which is being tested right now as I write).
The news has shocked and horrified all of us here in Tianjin, and has broken our hearts for this whole family. The amazing thing has been to see how so many people have stepped up to help out--with everything from offering cars and housing, to wanting to help out financially, as the medical bills will obviously be huge.
On a personal level, the reality of the situation is still setting in for our family. Jason and Sara have been our best friends here, with the rare combination of both husbands and wives genuinely both loving spending time together, making double dates and family dinner nights part of our regular routine. Jason and Sara have truly been our kindred spirits here, as well as voices of wisdom, since they have lived here in China for about 8 years now. And Adah and Karis are the best of friends (who even allow the little brothers and sister to join in their fun), so the kids, too, are grieving the fact that their friends are not returning, at least for quite some time (we are hearing that it will most likely be a full 2 years before international travel would be permitted for Adah, assuming that all goes well with the treatment). Kevin and I have been able to stay busy, trying to coordinate logistics for our friends of letting people know what is going on and trying to help take care of details, both in TX and here in China, so I think the depth of pain is still to be felt. And yet the hole of missing loved ones already is still very much there.
The photo I'm including is of Karis' birthday celebration with Adah and her little sister Claire at the table. The family would so appreciate your prayers!
On a lighter note, our family had a fun Sunday (last week) celebrating Kevin's 34th birthday! We had our usual Sunday night pizza and Dr. Pepper for dinner, with Kevin's favorite brownie, pudding, and whipped cream dessert (thank you for that recipe, Amy B!). After eating the dessert the kids wanted to know how much longer we had to wait before it was some else's birthday again. . . :)
The kids also had interviews with their potential teachers this week at the international school. They both passed (whew!), and I got good reports from their teachers at the conclusion of the meetings. So now we're only waiting on the details of their possible scholarship (which is a necessary condition of them attending the school, due to the high cost of international school tuitions). Considering that school starts this week on Wednesday, I'm chomping at the bit to find out what the details are, wanting to so badly to plan and prepare. But alas, I think I am going to have to be patient until the last moment, trusting Him with the details! (And I'm realizing more and more that this is NOT my strong suit!)
On the way to their interviews, I overheard Eli in the back of the three wheeler talking with Karis. He told her that he wished he was a bird so that he could fly to Dallas! It was really cute--and not said with a sadness or frustration with China, but just a genuine desire to be in Dallas and see people and places that he misses. I followed up on his comment with a talk about our upcoming visit to Dallas this December, and it was really cute to see the kids all getting excited about people and things there. He's started praying at the dinner table before meals, "And God, please let the days go by quickly until we can go back to Dallas to visit."
The other pic I'm including is from the baseball game we attended last night. We went to cheer for the Tianjin team and spent time with Lief's parents who were there, as well. I think our 4 little ones drew more attention than the game did (if you can see in the background of the photo, more people are watching the picture being taken than the game!), and I captured just one of the many photo ops that our kids have, initiated by Chinese parents wanting to have their kids photo taken with a Western kid.
