Follow the adventures of our family around the world

March 13, 2006  Today was an exciting day on the ship. So this is a quiz as to how well you know me. So today for the first time in 15 months I enjoyed a cold........Diet Dr. Pepper. My favorite soft drink in the world. I have not had one since I left the US on December 11,2004. I know you think, no big deal, but it was wonderful. It is funny the things that bring comfort when you have been away from home for so long. The kids are getting really excited about coming home. Cailin started crying at the dinner table tonight because she is so ready to come home for a visit. She really misses her grandmas. Jessie is just ready for whatever is next.  This morning we found that we had an email from a friend at home with pictures from a ski trip, and Mark and I both moaned and aaaahhhhed as we looked at the photos of snow covered mountains. Snow sounds so refreshing. 

Things are really busy right now because plastic surgery has begun again. I have had two surgeons, I manage all of the plastic surgery patients. Prince is here again. He is a little boy with burn contractures all down the left side of his body. He was here when we were here last year and had releases of his arm and wrist. Now we are releasing the contracted areas on his left neck. He is now 6 years old, when he was 4, rebels broke into his home and killed his father in front of him.  Then they took boiling water and poured it over him. There are so many stories like this.

Early in the outreach, this young woman came to the dock with a baby like i have never seen before. The baby had a bilateral cleft face. Many of you know what a cleft lip is, this is a cleft that goes up to the eyes on each side. The surgeon said he had only seen two before and they were in Togo. We had to tell her that the baby needed to be bigger before we could help. So she came back for surgery this week. The mom looks young, like she is 18 years old and she is so beautiful. So she gave birth to this terrible deformed baby and named him...Blessing. Can you believe it? And he is so beautiful and sweet and she loves him so much. So now we have fixed his face and he looks so good. he will need more surgery in the future, but she cannot wait to take him home. We are worried about the babies feeding and trying to get her home with formula for Blessing. She lives in a place very far away and it would take her 3 days in a taxi to get home and i am sure that someone would steal it from her on the way. So we are trying to arrange a UN helicopter to get her home, I am hoping to go with them home. We will see.....