Newest development

Not surprisingly, Seth has thrush in/on his mouth, throat, tonsils, lips from all the steroids he’s been on (inhaled, injected, oral). He’s hungry from the prednisone but it hurts him to eat. He did finally eat some banana bread and drank milk and chocolate milk. The doc started him on nystatin tonight for the thrush.

Seth and Marmi on Sunday. Doesn't he look miserable?!

Today is the worst one yet as far as oxygen requirements, but the kids seem to be feeling a little bit less miserable. Seth was actually grinning and playing with us a little bit today. He’s still on a liter of oxygen or so. Gracie needed oxygen all day, but only half a liter. The doctor said there is fluid on both their lungs, but that they are "headed in the right direction."

Seth today, chowing down before the thrush hit. Gracie is the miserable-looking one in this photo.

Will's fever went up to 104 today, but it responded well to Panadol/Tylenol. His "temporary mom" wrote me this description which made me chuckle: 

"Just wanted to let you know Will has REALLY perked up now.  I had a kids dvd on and he kept a running commentary of all the things that happened as he watched.  Then we read a book and he exclaimed over each page and he's still talking!  Yay!!!!  This is the best I've seen him  -- I know the Panadol is working but prayerfully, maybe he's turned the corner and the fever will stay away -- we'll see, but so glad to see him acting much better!!" 

Will is by far our chattiest child. He's the wannabe organizer, encourager and narrator of all the kids do and see. Sample conversation: "Okay, Day-ded, it's time to go outside! You wanna come? Open the door. Alright! Where you going, Day-ded? You going jump on the trampoline? Isaac's jumping on the trampoline, Mom! Okay, Day-ded! I'm coming! Yeah, let's get up on the trampoline! Good job, Day-ded! You did it! Hi, Marcie! You wanna jump on the trampoline, too? Okay! Come up, Marcie. You did it! Good job, Marcie!" etc., etc., etc. It pretty much never ends. A couple of days ago he stole a baby doll from Marcie and she screamed, "That's MY baby!" He gave it back to her immediately, saying, "Here you go!" to which she replied, "Oh, sank you!" And peace was restored. Thank God they are growing in this area of sharing. They will tell me that their siblings need to give them a turn or share the ______ (fill in the blank).

Will at the community Easter egg hunt on Saturday

I can't see Will because I doubt he'd tolerate me leaving him again, plus most importantly I CANNOT take his new illness back home with me to Gracie and Seth! It will be great to see him again, but I'm so grateful he's in such good hands in the meantime.

I got to see David today. His "temporary mom" brought him to Bible study. He’s got a nasty sounding cough deep in his chest and a disgusting nose, but he was perky and playful and very, very busy and chatty. He didn’t just sit in my lap. He had some exploring to do, plus loved playing with his five-year-old friend Tobin. (It was SO cute to hear them chatting away together!) He was fine separating from me again since my friend Kelly took him back his temporary home. He always loves a ride in her car. I knew I couldn’t take him home with me yet. It's still all we can do to keep up with the three we have, and we're still needing help! 

Marcie is sweet, sassy, snotty (literally), strong-willed, smart and only slightly miserable when she first wakes up. She makes me laugh even when the other two are zombied out just watching TV and clutching their sippy cups. That girl always has antics going on. Like putting stickers all over the dog's face and collar. 

This is a long road. I think of moms who have kids with chronic conditions and my heart just goes out to them. There will be DAYS left of this, which seems plenty long enough! Thank God, the Clinic and Aviation here have a goodly supply of oxygen so there shouldn’t be any emergency trips to our port city to refill the big tanks. In the US we’d be in the hospital because of the kids' temporary oxygen requirements, but here we can have home visits from docs and nurses who know us personally and love our kids. Plus we don’t get exposed to nasty antibiotic resistant hospital bugs. Therefore, as strange as it seems, Ukarumpa is actually a great place to be as our kiddos (prayerfully) outgrow their lung issues. Our pediatrician is still very hopeful that will happen before too much longer (a year or two?). Considering the rate at which they are growing, it may be a while. Gracie finally creeped up above 20 pounds but is now no doubt below. Smaller than the average one-year-old! Seth was only 23 pounds when we weighed him last week. Sigh . . . And they are both such good eaters now! (when not sick) They just don't put on weight. Seth did discover a love for soft-serve homemade strawberry ice cream, so that's at least one more arrow in my arsenal of fattening foods. :)

Gratefully in Christ,

Carrie for all of us

Some happy pictures from early last week: "Uncle" James's mom brought the kids hats from Australia! They love them. One of the first things they wanted to do the next morning was put them on again. I love how they were checking each other's hat out (below)

Gracie, Seth, Marcie (They can say "koala" and "kangaroo" REALLY well!)

Gracie ("What??!")

Sethers (that's what the other quints call him)