2 Sleeps

It's Sunday and we have two more sleeps until we head for home. Yeah!!! Til then Hannah is laying low as she is running a fever. There has being a virus working its way through the house and several of the kids have already had it, now its Hannah's turn. Needless to say she is feeling so crappy. We spent a rainy Saturday at the house with little to get excited about. Hannah was up and down as her body temperature spiked and ebbed. She played a bit and watched a video and had a fairly good day. Today may prove to be a bit more of a challenge. The playroom downstairs is closed for the day as they prepare it for a Western dance on Monday night. There will be a barn load of activities and lots of hay and square dancing for people of all ages. It sounds like it will be a great last night for Hannah and I at the house.

Monday is Hannah's last set of doctor's appointments for this trip. She will have a bite plate built to fill in the gap that has grown between her teeth on the left side of her jaw. As her jaw bone has grown the teeth have had a gap emerge. Once the distraction device is removed in December, Hannah will undergo a series of orthodontic interventions that will pull her upper bite plate down so that she will have full contact of her teeth. This will be done in Vancouver by Dr Pocock and will take many months to accomplish. Between now and then, she will have an acrylic wedge bounded into place so she can chew. I have noticed that Hannah can not really chew anything that has substance. The only place she can chew is on the far right side of her mouth. This combined with the two sets of elastics that cross her mouth from top to bottom, left to right are making eating an ever increasing stress for Hannah. It will be great to have the wedge in. Lets hope she doesn't have to wear cross mouth elastics beyond tomorrow.

Judy and the kids at home are waiting with great anticipation for our arrival. We will need lots of prayer as we head home. Being away for two months will create a huge transition for everyone as we come back together. Having a two parent family again will mean adjustments for Zach, Rebekah and Keziah. Each will manage it differently, but I expect that it will be hardest for Zach. For Hannah the transition will mean not having me at her beck and call 24/7. She will have to share me with the other 3 kids and with Judy and with my work. Jet lag will be a snap compared to this transition.

Hannah will also be transitioning back into her school community. She has made so many new friends here at Ronald McDonald house. Her current set of friends, Cody, Maddie, Griffin and Kyle will all continue to either live here at the house or be back and forth as their treatment regime requires as Hannah heads home to old but familiar life. Her treatment will continue in Vancouver and with the exception of her December surgery, I do not anticipate our return to the house. We have learned much about future surgeries for Hannah while we are hear and it will be a real challenge to convince the provincial government to pay for future surgeries to happen here in New York. Would this be the best place for surgery? No doubt, but the cost and time away are prohibitive and well beyond our capacity as it appears now. We will continue to pray and seek God's direction on how we are to walk the next set of surgeries out. He has provided richly for this intervention, so if this is where future surgery happens, I believe he will provide all that we need. Stay tuned to see how God works it out.

TTFN Hannah and John