Happy Birthday Miss K

"Taipei, I born" - Miss K quote. The above photo was taken there during our layover.

Happy birthday, Miss K. Today you are 9. Back in Asia where you were born.

Her birthday is always a time when we remember various details from her birth and first few months so allow me to remember a bit and tell about those first few days.

We didn't have a car and I wanted to take a taxi before I was too far in labor. I didn't want to deliver in the taxi or be screaming in pain. As it turns out, we had plenty of time in the hospital. We got there around 10:00 in the morning and she was born at 2:10 the next day.

Miss K weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce at birth. She was so tiny. Her fingers were blue and her ears were tiny. I just thought she needed to warm up. It wasn't long after her birth that they wanted to move her from the nursery to the NICU because of her breathing. Moving her to NICU also meant various tests. One of the first things they noticed was her stomach. The opening between her stomach and small intestine was just .5mm think of a .5mm pencil and you will know the size of the opening. At 72 hours she had surgery to repair that. I remember sitting on the plastic aqua chairs in surgery waiting while she was in surgery. It was hours and hours of waiting. Finally the doctor told us she was out and everything was fine. That doctor did not speak any English. Then we had to wait 7-10 days for that to heal and before we could feed her.

We had it all worked out -- we would feed her and she would be home in about 10 days. Then there was talk about heart issues. The heart catheterization was on a Thursday we had sat and waited and waited for that procedure. I went home and then got a text that I needed to go back to the hospital. I got back and the best information that we had been given was she had a bleeding problem. That night the doctor told us that she would not make it. We called my parents on Thursday morning their time and asked if my mom would come. Both my parents were able to get tickets for Friday morning. We went home around 11:00pm. Our pastor was working late at the church and so he walked to our apartment as well as some other missionaries and together we sat and prayed. We went to bed and slept until 6:00 am. We called the hospital and she was still living. She is stubborn and that continues today.

Friday morning we got the results of the chromosome study -- it was confirmed that she had Down Syndrome. We then met with the heart surgeon and he was willing to do surgery even though she had a bleeding problem.

My parents arrived on Saturday evening thinking that they were coming for a funeral but instead they came to sit with us during heart surgery and then daily visits to the hospital.

She came home at 26 days old. My NHO insurance would cover 30 days of her in the hospital and then we would have to wait 3 months for her to get NHO insurance. We checked the bill a few days before she was to be released and it was about NT$90,000. When we went to pay, it was NT$9,000 about US$330.  We really do not know how the bill was reduced other than to say that God provided.

So in the past 9 years you have traveled the world, learned to read, began talking non-stop, make friends where ever we go, fallen in love with life, ballet, and everything pink, and keep us laughing.

Here she is 9 years ago.

 This was the night before the heart catheterization.

Happy birthday, Miss K, we love you.


Here are a few other memories that I have shared from other years.
Miss K memories
Part 2 
Part 3

Beth

Have Faith in God

This has been a journey of faith. For 2013 I chose the word, faith. I knew as we began this year that I needed to stretch my faith and learn in new ways to depend on God.

This new phase in our journey began in 2011 as my husband was finishing his D.Min. We began to pray and seek how and where God wanted us to serve. We began looking at and talking with a number of organizations but the doors were closed. We thought we found the match for our calling and vision and an organization and that door closed. We felt then that God was going to work in a way that we were not expecting and it would be out our thinking. Two days after finishing the edits on his major project we met with an organization and as they shared the mission, vision, and values we knew we had found the place.

We spent the next 22 months finishing paperwork, interviews and then partnership development to be able to go. That has required time and again that we Have Faith in God.

The sign above is at the international headquarters and a reminder of both individually and organizationally where we put our faith.

Here is a quote from Hudson Taylor, "You do not need a great faith, but faith in a great God."  God had lead us and we continue to trust that he will provide.

Just one more Hudson Taylor quote, "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply."

So we continue the journey with faith in God, who he is and what he will do.

Beth

Go ye . . .

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, low, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  Matthew 28:19-20

We are some of those that Go. We leave tonight on a plane for the next part of our journey. We are heading to Asia and will be spending the next three weeks or so in orientation. Our organization has had their international headquarters in Asia since the founding so we will be there. Then we will be traveling visiting coworkers and meeting with others involved in what we will be doing.




Beth

Celebrating Miss K's 9th Birthday

Her actual birthday is the 12th but we decided that since we are here and with friends that we would celebrate on the 4th. She was so excited about her birthday. I think she was having a hard time going to sleep a few nights as she was waiting for that birthday.

We had presents after dinner. She was excited and said she wanted 100 presents. At times before her birthday she had told J, daddy and mama what we were each to give her for her birthday. If you would ask her what she wanted she would say, "toys".

Her gifts were wrapped individually so she had lots to open.

She opened it and said, "I love it." Miss K loves life.

She did have quite a bit to unwrap.

My friend where we are staying this week claimed that she had an ice cream cake recipe that you could make in 15 minutes. I didn't time her but did watch and it really is fast and so much cheaper than buying a cake. Miss K was spoiled. Her favorite kind of ice cream is chocolate chip and so the ice cream cake was two layers of chocolate chip ice cream.

Birthdays in Miss K's book include cake, party hats and balloons. We had some fireworks, pop-its at the house and she thought those were the games. That works for us.

She had a wonderful celebration. As I put her to bed she told me, "soon I will be 10." She knows that 10 comes after 9 but considering that technically she is not even 9 I think she has a ways to go before she turns 10.

Beth

Fourth of July Parade

We had been house sitting in June and we were invited back for the 4th of July Parade. We decided it would be a fun way to celebrate. I am not sure the last time that I went to a 4th of July Parade. Maybe 1976 for the bicentennial celebration.

It was just a small town parade. It began with all kids and grandkids riding their bikes and scooters. They were throwing candy. There were not that many people there so my kids go plenty of candy which they won't eat. I did eat the Reese peanut butter cup.

Then there was a small band. This is an annual event which began in 1976 and continues every year.

Then came the old cars. It was fun to stand and watch the cars.

I am not sure if the cars are people that live on the points or if they come from other places.

Where the parade ended there were hot dogs, snow cones, and drinks for sale. As well as band playing there in the front yard. It is definitely a neighborhood parade. It was fun to join in the fun and sit on the front porch and listen to the band while enjoying our hot dogs.

Happy birthday America.


Beth

Year End Wrap-up Miss K

We are finished with 1st grade. Miss K is now considering herself to be a 2nd grader. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is we just continue where we left off.

So here are some of the highlights from our school year.

Math
We began the year with both Saxon 1 and Math-U-See Alpha. I like going back and forth between the two. We would work in one until we came to something that we needed to review and work on and so we would work on the other program. I do like the calendar from Saxon even though Miss K does not need any help with the calendar. She knows the days of the week and what happens on each day.

Phonics/Reading
Miss K read 18 books this year. She read all the Dick and Jane that we have. I really like those for beginning readers. I used Scaredy Cat reading and one of the things that she learned was the vowels. We will continue using Scaredy Cat next year and then we will see what other programs we want to use. I think she is continuing to

I/We read 197 books to her this year. We found some fun books to read including Froggy Goes to Bed, Doctor DeSoto, A Toad for Tuesday and others.

Handwriting
I know this is a challenge because of the fine motor skills but we continue to work on this. She needs to work on spacing between words and sizing of letters. We will continue working on that.

Miss K did history and science with J though I did do a bit of things at her level.

Overall it was a good year. When we begin school each day, she will often ask for a tiny bit of school. I ignore that and we do what we need to do.

Beth

Museum of Flight

It was a hot day and so we needed some place to go that had air conditioning. We decided to go to the Museum of Flight. That worked great at J had just mentioned the other day that he would like to go back there. J loves airplanes and everything flying and still wants to be a pilot.

We decided a membership would be a better. Two trips in a year will get us our money's worth. There are also a number of other museums in the area that we can visit.

"If it is not Boeing, I am not going." 

There was a small area of a space exhibit. 

Miss K met an astronaut. It was a posed photo.  Someday I will get good photos of her.

J also met an astronaut.

It was a beautiful day here in the Northwest. It seems that no matter how long I am here I always love seeing Mount Rainier. I think some of that is because we don't see the mountain everyday.

Beth