In Dallas after a wonderful trip!

I could tell lots of people were praying! Seth was absolutely fine, the other kids were a bit sick but did great, and we made it here with no issues despite a delayed flight and down-to-the-minute connection at LAX. The kids were such troopers! They did better than I'd even hoped! Now they're having the time of their lives discovering all the food and toys their loved ones in the area have showered us with! Our spacious apartment was spotless and stocked with food and cleaning supplies and treats, thanks to Aunts Pam and Cyn, my parents, Aunt Mickey, Aunt Deb, Reid, Claudia and Steve (awesome bunk beds!), PLUS we have a beautiful new-to-us Suburban parked in the front! Thank you ALL who made our arrival so delightful! I'm LOVING getting to know my nieces and nephew - first time meeting them!

Gratefully,
Carrie

My phone is dying and we don't have internet right now on computer, so pictures later

Made it to Australia with NO issues!

Seth is hanging in there, managed to have fun at Muddy’s Playground today, although not his normal silly self. Did GREAT on flight, praise God and thanks for praying! All the kids did wonderfully with traveling, baggage checking and claiming, customs and immigration, and rental car pickup. 

Seth’s fever is better but he just now needed his inhaler to get his sats out of the mid-80’s. No one else is sick, so that’s a huge praise!! 

Last night was rough with Seth up every hour or so and another episode of vomiting, so I am heading to bed! 

Love and gratitude!

Carrie

P.S. We get lots of attention for having two sets of twins (girls + Seth and David), but Will is so dark and big they think he’s older! We are no longer quite so attention-grabbing. We still

 dress them alike so WE have an easier time keeping track of them! 

Watching our plane at the gate in Port Moresby this morning 

Update on Seth

Thanks for praying! He only vomited the once,  a huge praise! However, when we got to the airport he was struck with diarrhea, all over his underwear and shorts. The praise there is that we weren't already on the plane, and we had extra clothes in the suitcases, of course.

He's also started satting 93% on average, although during this morning's flight to Port Moresby he dropped into the high 70%'s. PLEASE PRAY he does well on the flight to Cairns, Australia, tomorrow. It's only an hour-and-a-half, but we won't have the option for oxygen like we did on today's flight.

We have steroids and inhaler with us to use as needed, and it will be good to stay in Cairns a few days in case he needs to see a pediatrician. We certainly don't want to get on the long-haul flight with those kinds of oxygenations. But we have 6 days before the trans-Pacific flight, thankfully.

Isaac is worlds better today after a good night's sleep and quality time with friends this morning, plus lots of people to see him off! (There are many flights today, the majority with graduating seniors heading back to their home countries for university/technical school/military.)

Thank you again for your prayers. We can't say enough how grateful we are!

Love,
Carrie

Urgent prayer requests!

Hi all,

Less than 13 hours before we take off on our first airplane, Seth has a fever and just vomited. He started coughing earlier today, and tonight he's having trouble sleeping because of it. PLEASE PRAY the vomiting is only because of a reaction to ibuprofen and not a symptom of illness. The thought of traveling with all these little people SICK is just, well, sickening. :(

Please also pray for Isaac. He's really struggling with sadness over leaving his friends and life here. He's super excited to see his friends in Dallas, but he doesn't remember Waxhaw well or have real friends there yet, so the idea of living there for the school year - and only being in Dallas for a couple weeks - is depressing to him. I'm trying to remind him how kind God has always been, and how many good things He's filled his life with everywhere we've ever lived, but I don't want to minimize his grief either. No matter who and what lies on the other side of the ocean, it won't be his buddies and his community here.

Love and gratitude,
Carrie

Jones' Clips - On Our Way to the USA!

We're coming!: An invitation and family update

Hi everyone! The longer we've been in PNG the worse I've been about blogging, forgive me! Our photography-gifted friends who used to watch the quints weekly started teaching school or relocated for the year. I haven't have nearly so many adorable photos to post . . . but now we're heading back to the USA, so our activity, photos, and blog posts will likely be increasing shortly! 

Open house June 30th: 

Since we're starting in the Dallas area, we want to invite those of you who live in the area to an open house the evening of June 30th. If you plan to come, please private message me on Facebook Messenger and I'll send you the address and time! We will also be speaking at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas and Faith Bible Church in DeSoto, so let me know if you want more details about those. 

We'll update those of you in California, Arizona and Michigan closer to the time about our visits there. 

Thank you!

So many of you cared for these kiddos as babies, donated clothes and other gifts, made us meals, and prayed for us! The Lord has absolutely overwhelmed us with His kindness these past four years in Papua New Guinea. Raising quintuplet toddlers is extremely challenging, but we are so thankful none of these 27-week-5-day preemies ever needed to be medevaced or admitted to a hospital! They didn't even spend a night in our clinic! Amazing.

Our travels:

We leave here June 13, four years to the day since we arrived in PNG. We'll travel through Cairns and Sydney, Australia, taking a few days of vacation and visiting friends, then fly from Sydney to LAX and on to DFW! Pray for us, please!! We'll try to update ASAP. 

How the kids are doing:

Isaac is very sad to leave his PNG friends behind, but he's excited to see friends and family stateside! He's also excited about all the conveniences of the First World and all the fun things we'll get to see and do as we travel around. Please pray for him to have patience with all the younger siblings. He's absolutely crazy about them (he even picked the number 5 for his basketball jersey in honor of them!), but they can be a great source of stress to a 14-year-old who wants some personal space/time/quiet! 

The quints are flat-out excited, gleefully counting the days as their paper chain gets steadily shorter. Only four links left!

David and Gracie have claimed Gavin as their travel buddy for the 13-hour trans-Pacific flight. Will and Marcie - the two strongest personalities, yikes! - have claimed me, the adult with the strongest personality. :) Seth is excited to sit with Isaac. (He told his physical therapist, when she asked him to name some super heroes, "My big brother Isaac is a super hero!") 

The kids are over-the-moon about the TV and games in the backs of the airline seats: Having their own personal entertainment center is blowing their minds! 

All of us are super excited to spend a few days doing the fun things in Cairns we got to do with Grandpadad and Grandma last summer. The kids are disappointed their grandparents won't be joining us there, but it's for too short a time, plus we need people who are NOT jet-lagged to greet us on the other side of the ocean! 

Please pray for patience for Gavin and me as we're with all our kids so intensively and for so long this summer. Although they've grown and matured a great deal, it's still like trying to drink from the fire hose when they're all present and active. :) They are individuals who have very distinct, important thoughts and feelings to share, and any time five excited five-and-a-half-year-olds and a talkative teenager get together, it's a bit chaotic and noisy! Add transition and adjustment to the thrilling newness of the First World, and it could definitely get quite intense! The quints are getting better and better at controlling themselves, but we've still got a ways to go. :) I don't think anyone expects perfection - and if they do, they'd better stay away lest we destroy that expectation! After God, our first priority must be our family and what's best for our kiddos, so don't be surprised if while in public we have to abruptly remove someone who's melting down. It might seem rude, but I'm sure you all understand!

Lovingly and excitedly,
Carrie for us all

P.S. I never had another furlough "stress dream" after that blog post! You must have been praying!

Last week, with our beloved after-school babysitter/helper Dilu

Dilu asked for a photo with the quints. We're going to miss her terribly, and vice versa!

The pre-furlough, unstressed version of us as a couple. :)