Jones' Clips - February 2020: 60 Miles.

This, that, and some other things

Hi friends,

I am weary and sleepy but blessed, so here are a few random pictures from our past couple of months. Sorry I'm so terrible at blogging nowadays! I'm working at school in Seth's kindergarten classroom (SO SWEET!!!) and in the Clinic lab, so life is just busier and more full. But again, blessed. :)

Blessings upon blessings! A few lovely ladies I get to do life with here. This was a very special two-night getaway (with spouses) to the coast city of Lae to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, mid-December.

The butcher kept offering to cut us some of this freshly slaughtered pig for our Christmas dinner.
He got NO takers.

Gavin swimming in the river near the village of translator friends

Lots of little helpers unloading the helicopter! I love PNG kids!

These boys. So many expressions, so much noise! They're testing out a spy microphone. 

Lighting a New Year's lantern (but not on New Year's)

I love Marcie's face as she watches the lantern start to fill.

David and Seth at the boat dock in Lae. 

Enjoying icy drinks in HOT Lae

Gracie on top, Isaac on bottom, a friend in the middle, also in Lae

Gracie with our parrot. He's such a sweetheart - almost as sweet as she is!

Seth dressed as the Green Ninja from LEGO Ninjago. The parrot is named after the Green Ninja (La-Loyd)

New portraits for a new year

Thanks to a dear friend for using her talent and equipment and time to take these! We love you!!

Seth

Marcie

Will

David

Gracie

Isaac

Merry Christmas 2019!

Christmas morning photos. You'll see LEGOs featured heavily among the boys' gifts. 

Animal costumes from Grandpadad and Grandma

Happy Seth beginning his LEGO helicopter

Marcie with the gift Isaac bought her

David opening his LEGOs

On Christmas Eve Eve I boldly undertook to make a gingerbread house from scratch. It wasn't the prettiest, but it tasted really good, and the kids LOVED decorating it with their good buddy from next door!

Will was the most excited about the finished product so insisted I take a photo from every angle. :)

(I love the mantel in the background of this photo. It was so pretty this year.)

You can see our "Charlie Brown"-style fake Christmas tree in the background. Pretty sad looking and sparse, but it does the job. :) We bought it off other missionaries returning to their home country.

Isaac playing ball with his friends in the backyard at our friends' house last evening.  Gracie is the little girl pushing the baby carriage. The storm you can see moving in behind them to the right never ended up really breaking here, but it sure dumped a lot of hail on the big town of Goroka about two hours by road from us!

We are SO BLESSED by good friends who are family here! We always miss our own families, of course, but love our life and community and ministry in PNG.

A few bonus pictures from November:

The girls'  treasured stuffed animals dressed up as princesses

Thanks to Aunt Mickey for matching clothes!

Seth made up this airplane with loose LEGO pieces

Keeping Up With The Joneses - November 2019

Already home! (Friday the 15th)

[I posted this on Saturday but it was unreadable - apologies!]

I couldn't believe it yesterday when my messages, and then a video chat with my sister and Eloise herself, revealed Eloise was discharged just  three days after surgery! As soon as she was allowed to drink and eat she completely turned the corner - and circles, literally, which is tricky for those holding the IV pole! She was off morphine, running, climbing, singing, talking, playing, doing arts and crafts, and using the bathroom as though everything was normal. She had been so miserably thirsty while they waited for her digestive system to start working again. That was by far the hardest thing for Katie (my sister) and Calvin, her husband. 

My parents went over to the house last night to see how she was settling in. My mom says she was her normal, happy, bouncy, chatty little self! Incredible. She doesn't even appear to need physical therapy for the large amount of back muscle that was removed . It wasn't functional anyway, apparently! And she's SO active, it hasn't hindered her a bit!
Thanks for praying for continued rapid healing and for the remainder of this cancer to be dealt with effectively! We won't know the plan until all the histology/pathology is complete in about two weeks. Among the large amount of muscle and tumor was removed, there was an unexpected area of the tumor that doesn't look like the rest that was biopsied - so we're praying that's less aggressive rather than more!

Gratefully,
Carrie

Elo's Caring Bridge site is: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/teameloise/journal

All my Facebook posts about her are public, too. 

Recovering in ICU

The 3.5 hour surgery went well, although the tumor was quite stuck to the bones protruding from the spinal column. He said there were no major nerves involved and it came away from the organs very well. It’s grown into the spinal column and surrounds the actual cord, and he wasn’t willing to mess with that, so that remains for now, and we PRAY it's all dead tumor.

Elo has a four-inch incision under her ribs. They didn’t have to cut through the skin on her back at all to remove the tumor-invaded muscle, thankfully. She wakes up periodically crying, so please pray for comfort for everyone, especially her of course! She will be in ICU until she’s off the IV morphine, I believe, and can start taking liquid meds by mouth. A huge praise is she was able to come off the ventilator immediately after surgery.

From Katie just now: We are back with Eloise in ICU for tonight. She is so spirited, even when sedated. ☺️ Thank you for your support and encouragement. May there be healing and minimal pain. The surgeon said he got all the tumor he could see- up to the vertebrae bones. The rest remains in her spine but appears to be inactive. A full pathological report will be completed in two weeks and will determine the next step. Love you all, thank you.

On their way in to the hospital. It was COLD this morning!

Before surgery