On our way home

 Dear loved ones,

I'm (Gavin) writing this from the San Francisco airport after a wonderful week with my family in California. We are about to fly to the other side of the world to say goodbye to Papua New Guinea -- our home for 18 years! We first arrived in PNG in July of 2005 when Isaac was 18 months old. Now he's a joyfully married adult! We first took the quintuplets to PNG when they were 21 months old.  It is our home and where our kids spent most of their childhood. 

PNG is where we had an incredibly meaningful ministry and wonderful friendships. All the time there was intermingled with challenges, hardships and fully saturated with the presence of the Holy Spirit and the faithfulness of our great God.

We are braced for the range of emotions that will surely be experienced during this trip. We expect each one of us will be experiencing a unique amplitude and wavelength of feelings. We will be experiencing different "lasts" for each of us and deciding what important things of ours should come back and what of our stuff  should stay to be a blessing to others. Please pray that through all the good and hard times as we laugh and cry we would feel how deep and wide and tall the love of Christ is for us. 

Thank you all for your generous and selfless support in prayer and finances over the years! This so clearly could not have been done without you!

After our trip we expect to continue living in Dallas where I work in the maintenance department of the International Linguistics Center in addition to occasional trips to JAARS in North Carolina where I help with training new missionary pilots. I will also start working as a recruiter for JAARS soon after our return. 

With love and in Christ,

Gavin, Carrie, Will, David, Marcie, Seth, and Grace

Update on my mom

Written on Sunday, 6/29:

Hi again! Thanks so much for praying! We really, truly felt your prayers and appreciate your caring! My mom was discharged after two days and is continuing to recover at home. We don’t know how long that will take or how much her speech/eating/ will improve, but of course we’re hoping and asking for quick and total healing, trusting the Heavenly Father holds each of our days since before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139, which went through my mind on the way to the ER last week.) It was considered a small stroke, and many people wouldn’t even notice a difference until after some time with her. Of course, we can tell she’s not functioning at 100%, and she is the most aware of any of us. She has an amazing attitude and sense of humor, though! We have laughed at out loud at her jokes and funny observations. (For example, they were trying to turn the TV on and only realized after some time and lots of punching of buttons that they were using the bed-attached telephone.)

We’re in CA now, by God’s grace (after a day’s delay). The Lord wonderfully provided the stamina and encouragement and help we needed, including throughout a missed flight, a five-hour wait in the terminal, and driving back home again to try again this morning. 

Written today, Tuesday, 7/1:

My mom is still searching for words and speaking a bit slurred at times. She is also just very tired. However, she's been blessed to have met already with two specialists: the cardiologist and the vascular surgeon. The cardiologist has fitted her with a continuous heart monitor. He suspects the stroke was caused by her heart, given that she has a dilated ascending aorta and decreased ejection fraction(?). Her heart is supposed to pump 60-65% efficiency, but it's only pumping at 50-55%. The vascular surgeon thinks it's too early for any sort of surgical intervention, but he referred her to a cardiothoracic surgeon to be sure. She's on two or three new medications and not enjoying the side effects, but she's grateful and amazingly positive! Her hope is in the Lord, and her family (besides we who are in CA on our way to PNG) is around her and caring well for her. Thanks for your continued prayers, especially for encouragement for her and my dad. 

Love in Christ,

Carrie