A few pictures..

Yes, Mallory caught drinking the water--nice, polluted city park water :).

The Kids

So, how are the kids doing with all of this? Seemingly well, except Mallory and Emma Shae got warnings at school today. That's really the first problem! Not bad for 4 months of transition.

Emma Shae told me going to school was much better than home schooling. Thanks.

We have been very watchful and truly amazed that they seem to be thriving. We haven't gotten as plugged in at school as we usually would, but we are putting lots of time into the relationships with the Hines kids.

Micah is really in to Legos and random projects. He made our house into a city and posted signs all over the house renaming everything--he kept laughing eerily--made me think of a world domination laugh. He also drew an elaborate security system for their room--it's to the left of the door and you have to punch a code to come in or hot lava will get you. The kids each have their own hand print that allows them access to the room (yes, they continue to share one room). This came a couple of weeks after Micah had developed a charging system to coming in their room--parent tax. I keep meaning to get a system of chores and allowance back up and running!

Emma Shae has been doing well, especially considering everything. She was having trouble getting back into school (despite what she said...), but this week and last, she is all motivated. Saw that Time magazine was talking about bribing kids in school, well the opposite is happening for Emma Shae. Her teacher has been explaining that the books she is sending home cost $5 if they loose them. So, this week and last, Emma Shae has done her homework right away, "so, she doesn't have to pay $5" and sit out at recess. Fine. You go, girl!

Mallory is always full of surprises and keeping us all laughing. She can struggle with her new routine off and on and frankly, this girl is ready to just be in school with the big kids. Recently, we went for a family hike and she was so happy and excited and Micah was explaining that we were going west (I don't know that we were, but he had his very important voice on that the woods tend to bring out and he was leading us on expedition) The next thing I know Mallory has pooped out and through clinched teeth said in a low voice, "I'm tired of going west!" I quickly scooted up to the front--yikes! This was after she had already drank from the stream that we were putting our feet in--I thought Aaron was going to pass out--too much knowledge from Tropical Medicine course :). We are in the URBAN jungle...

This week, Leslie is going to do a little hour with the kids about them being in team and what to expect. I am curious to see what they say.

A few pictures...

Micah waiting his turn at an Easter egg hunt--week before Easter at our church in Houston--Windwood Presbyterian.

Our friend John has mercy on Mallory who got shy in her hunt. I love the heart of youth workers!
Having fun at the Easter egg hunt!
Micah set up all his animals and taught them school. Mallory assisting.
A much needed Spring Break--got to go to Sea World one day. For our friends from out of the country, if I could visit one city in Texas, it would be San Antonio--what a great snap shot of Texas culture and fun -- also, Sea World is such a quality park!
Feeding the dolphins.
Great to be near two families from residency who are in the Dallas area. This is a park within walking distance from our house and in yellow is Eliana and Madeleine Graves. Not pictured due to taking a snooze is baby Judson.
Dr. Seuss' Birthday celebration. Ms. Malone's mom made these for Emma Shae's class.
Aaron gets careful direction from Emma Shae
The first few weeks we were here, our friends the Graves brought over toys for the kids and one of them was a puppet show--the kids were all over it when they got home and Micah turned out to be a witty puppeteer!

First Baptist Garland had a special princess tea for the little girls. Emma Shae asked for her picture with this friend.
Our table was so cute--they took pictures of the moms and daughters, which were available right after the tea and then as the girls came in, they made the matting that would go around the picture. It was a well organized and beautiful tea.
We were so excited to go together. It was the first time we have done something with just the two of us--usually Mallory is with us! This happened to be a day of prayer for Emma Shae and then her miraculous avoidance of a bone marrow biopsy was the very next Monday. What a special day!
Valentine's princess'--Gammy gave them money and they got these outfits!
A sweet visit from Waco friends--the Wehmeyer's. Not pictured is baby Avi and her parents, but Cade and Zane and our kids are enjoying a post snow play snack.
It snowed all day this day--amazing!

First day of the new sch0ols.

The Wildlife

I was a little nervous coming to the Dallas area b/c growing up in Houston, we have heard nothing but that Dallas is the armpit of Texas... Must be "friendly" city rivalry.

Also, one of the authors that Aaron likes is Donald Miller. That dude has a theory that if you don't live near mountains or the ocean, places breed materialism and legalism--and mentions Dallas. So, I was a bit intimidated...

We are happy to report, we have found lots of pockets of beauty and nature to keep us encouraged! And, while I am sure that Donald Miller is right-he's an author for crying out loud--there are lots of deep, simple and thoughtful people in the Dallas area!!!

First, a random tidbit. I was waiting for Aaron to get out of an appointment--we were in downtown Dallas and I heard all this racket coming from the trees--looked out and saw these cool black masked bandit birds. The same day we saw them somewhere else--so, cool! It turns out it was the Cedar Waxwing in migration--I love it!! If you click on the link, you can actually go to an online field guide and hear them singing--the same song I heard them singing :).

Tried and failed to post some pictures from other websites--I was giving credit, but too bad.

Anyway, found a great Texas blog and some other people who noticed these cute little birds coming through our state--maybe we'll become bird watchers--like officially?

We've already talked about our yard :) Well, there is a walk that I like to take around the neighborhood--we first went that way when it snowed and just became enchanted!

I have no idea what these are--pygmy big horn sheep??? I asked this kid who was walking by me and he said deeply, "I think they are called rams." Thanks. He probably thought I am an idiot.
In with the rams is a random donkey--see, right in the middle of the concrete jungle, we get this!

The House

One of the most amazing things in our time of unexpected "delay"--I say that with inadequate words to say how thankful we have been for how things have unfolded--it has been very hard at times, but just amazing things have happened, too. Anyway, one of the most amazing things has been provision of this house. All of our personal connections had fallen through, so I remembered a colleague in England--a doctor in Aaron's program--who had quit his job and was living with friends as he is exploring ideas in community health. He just emailed churches in the Liverpool area and asked if anyone would be willing to house him during his stay for the program. It was such a moving act of faith in the church and God to provide. So, we began on Friday to call churches in Sunnyvale, the town where our teammates, the Hines, live. Nothing came through with several calls. It was moving into Friday afternoon and I called another church who had an answering machine with a message saying the office was closed, but if you had an emergency, call such and such number. I thought, this is an emergency--we can't keep staying with our friends and we have no other options--although my parents graciously offered us to stay on at their house in Houston. I'm 38, with my husband, 3 kids and sleeping on the couch at my parents--sold our stuff, following a call to Africa and get deterred with no end in sight? Man, this is low!! So, I called the number and got a surprised pastor, who graciously told me 3 churches in the area who have houses. The other two did not work out--houses filled, but First Baptist Garland had a house that would be available in the time we needed!

Wow. I cannot say enough about this community and their generosity. It has been the most loving, gentle place to have a crisis. We have really recovered here and have a beautiful place to stabilize. One of the things that has surprised me about having a health crisis is how disorienting it is--no end in sight, occasional serious issues and trying to live a normal life and help kids through their lives is a little difficult. So, three cheers for FBC Garland! We are now in full spring and whoever has done this garden over the years has created a virtual symphony of bloom--everyday we wake up, there is something cool coming and going in bloom!!!! Awesome.

The front of the house.

The daffodils came up later...
Holly bushes!
The view from the porch...

Some of side yard flowers...
Early rose blooms--we have 2 bushes, the other is pink. The cool thing about this is that there is a bee hive in our garage! Maybe that's why the flowers are so cool?

A fig tree--we often have had a fig tree in our yard or neighbors, and this is no exception!
Garland is a town FULL of iris--many, many varieties. We have yellow, white and purple in several places in our yard.
A porch with rockers!!!!
This house has two yards and it is a dreamland for the kids--there are several trees to climb and lots and lots of room to do their thing. This the magnolia tree in the front yard.

The Rodeo

One of the great things about being in Texas and especially in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, is theFt. Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo!

We got to go on the second to last day--awesome!!!!

The beginning parade!

The rodeo clown!
Presenting of the Texas and American flag.

The Team

One of the few things that has worked out brilliantly is our team. Ok, clearly, we are meant to strengthen our relationships! Travis, Leslie and I all went to UT in the '90's. In fact, Leslie and I were roommates! Travis' parents live in Sunnyvale, a rural community within in view of the metroplex, but with the beauty and simplicity of the country. They live on The 10 Acres as it is know and that is where we meet every Thursdays--at least the grown ups and Julia, who plays blocks a bit with Aaron and then off to nap, while we have tea, coffee or finish breakfast and meet on various topics about our team and moving to Uganda. It has been incredible! Travis is considered our team leader and we all bring various gifts and personality to the team.

The Back Porch on a snowy day in February--our second team meeting. Wendy, Leslie and Travis.

Our initial visit to the Dallas area--would we live here or not? Well, when in doubt, go to the rodeo. Our first two family excursion to the famous Ft. Worth Rodeo. Emma Shae, Wendy, Micah, Jesse and Aaron on the top row. Second row is Lucy, Leslie, Georgia, Travis, Julia and a little Mallory--not sure about that picture!

Lucy licking cotton candy hands--how can that dude read the paper?!
Georgia happy with some cotton candy!
Julia did just fine with all the activity!

Jesse mid snack!
Back at the 10 Acres... real farm at work--Lucy is in pink, Mallory is in blue, Travis is the dude on right and Dad Hines is on the left!
Travis waving with Lucy, Emma Shae, Mallory and Micah getting the tour.

Re routing...in progress

As our family came back from England and spent Christmas and time with family and friends over December, we worked on trying to complete our fundraising, said good-byes and were on our way to what we thought would be our final weeks in Houston packing up and sorting through leaving details to move to Kabale, Uganda.

It was the last week in January and we were in our final visit with our community in Waco-struggling to pack in six years of relationships in one week--too little time and yet, we needed to get moving.

We noticed on the second day of our visit that Emma Shae had some bruising. My first thought was that Micah had been getting her in the back of the van or something. The next day after a night of fun at Chick Fil A playground, she was looking pretty bad. Thankfully, we were planning to visit Aaron's old office anyway, so tests were ordered and in the midst of visiting friends at the clinic, appointments were made for Emma Shae. To our surprise, her blood platelets test came back pretty low. Friends were coming off the elevator and other friends gathered around to pray for us and for Emma Shae--seems that God knew and had it all in place.

And that has been the story unfolding. God knows and in our "wait", He is at work--for His plans, but also for our good. So, we still live in a small state of shock--I never thought we would live in the Dallas area, but here we are and honestly, we can see it is good!

It has been a full 4 months, so I want to just do this in timeline format to catch up and then other posts will have some stories and pictures.

Normal Blood Platelet levels at minimum are 150,00

January 20 First appointment and possible diagnosis for Emma Shae of ITP

January 23 Go for special prayer time at our church

January 28 First appointment with hematologist in Houston at the Texas Children's Hospital--counts have gone up, but we were cautioned that this is an unpredictable condition that will go up and down

Wendy's brother happens to be a pediatric oncologist/hematologist and he helped by setting up an appointment with a specialist in Houston. The Dr. we saw is considered an expert in ITP and he confirmed that Emma Shae could not travel to Uganda, get immunizations or take malaria medicine until her condition resolves.

February 3 Travel to Dallas area to visit the Hines, our teammates

This visit turned out to be exploring possibilities of living in the area

February 5 Make contact with First Baptist Garland who graciously allows us to stay in their missionary house

February 7 Move into new house

February 8 enroll kids in local school--Caldwell Elementary--go Cardinal's!

February 14 take Emma Shae to ER with gushing nose bleed

February 18 First appointment in Dallas at Texas Children's Center, another place in the U.S. where there is an ITP expert! Her counts had dipped to 14,000--low and that combined with a low hemoglobin level, led the Dr. to consider a bone marrow biopsy the following week to make sure nothing was going on in bone marrow

February 20 Folks from Transformation, the Hines' senior's church come to pray for Emma Shae at our house

February 22 Emma Shae's counts went up to 144,000! Bone marrow biopsy avoided! Total miracle!

March 4 Blood platelets counts go back down to 80,000

March 25 Counts go up to 90,000

So, next appointment is May 6th and we'll see. Dr. said an interesting thing-- her body shows that she CAN do it, but isn't for whatever reason. Also, the recent trend seems to be slowly on the rise. We have seen amazing provision--with my brother's expertise and counsel, with housing, with unexpected team time and on and on!

It has been an intense time. Sometimes, it feels so normal and right that we are here--lovely house, church, school, community, but then it hits that this is temporary and a short stop on the way. We are all being stretched, but also experiencing growth in our relationships, character and flexibility! It is surreal to work on final preparations for leaving without a firm leaving date. On another note, the kids are doing amazingly well--even Emma Shae! She has no pain or other symptoms, although we can see signs that her counts are dipping, it comes and goes. They are all thriving in their schools and enjoying their special friendships with their teammates. We have not plugged in as much with school friendships outside of school, but they have met some nice kids in their classes. The area we live in is predominantly Hispanic, so that has been a super blessing to experience cross cultural living --Micah and Emma Shae are minorities at their school and we can go into restaurants or stores here where only Spanish is spoken! That has been awesome!!!

Because the house is promised to another family in May, we are leaving May 1st--again, our friend Janie at the church has been our advocate and God is using her to encourage us greatly--she found us another place. More on that later. We will finish out school and then go to a cross cultural training in Colorado with our teammates. It will be for three weeks and then, at this point, we have no idea what comes next (but hope to be cleared for Uganda)! We are really excited about the Colorado training because they will facilitate us as a team, including the children.

So, that is four months in a long nutshell!!

p.s. Throughout this process, we have carried in our hearts several friends who are in the middle of their own severe health trials and don't know the outcome--so, personally, I, Wendy have pictured myself running this leg of the race and have written their names on my tag--Susan, Brandon and Erin. I pray for them as I pray for Emma Shae and I am running hard, learning endurance and faithfulness and keeping them close in my heart as they run their races. It is an honor to stand with them and fight the good fight of faith!