Good News, Bad News, Good News

The first bit of good news is that our TA (travel approval) arrived on Friday! I got a call from our agency around 2 PM asking if we wanted to be included in a travel group leaving July 5th. Yes! We are actually hoping to leave July 3rd so that we have a few extra days in Beijing to adjust to the time difference and also visit some friends who are living there for a few years. All the details will be finalized this coming week, but we know for sure that we will be in the air by the 5th. That is less than 2 weeks away! Melody will be in our arms on July 9th. Wow! I just keep looking at Julie and wanting to enjoy these last days with her as my only child. Life is about to change for all of us!

The bad news is that Julie has been sick and we're all wiped out as a result. She started having trouble sleeping through her naps about a week ago. Then she started whimpering at night, but going back to sleep. By Thursday, she had a 102 fever and was pretty lethargic. Friday night she woke up screaming at 2AM, making for a really loooong night. We finally took her to the doctor Saturday morning. They think she has an ear infection. You might wonder why we didn't think of this, since her symptoms fit so well. The reason is that Julie has tubes in her ears, so when she gets an infection it usually drains out the tubes, making it easy to recognize. There's nothing draining and she's not even poking at her ear. There was an awful lot of wax in her ear though, so maybe that was clogging up the tube? In any case, she started antibiotics yesterday. Unfortunately, they hadn't kicked in as of last night, so she woke up crying and ended up in our bed again. All three of us are so tired at this point, and Julie is getting quite cranky. She is napping right now, and I'm praying it lasts more than half an hour. I'm going to call her ENT tomorrow just to follow up.

I told Larry today that we should not be surprised if we run up against more "coincidental" opposition as our trip approaches. We may have a defeated enemy, but he is still an enemy. The ultimate good news, though, is that "the one who is in us is stronger than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). I am so grateful for that!