Christmas Week

We safely arrived in Michigan a week ago, just barely. Our flight was delayed out of LAX by two hours thus projecting that we would miss our connecting flight in Cleveland since our original layover time was only 55 minutes. The holiday backup due to weather was already evident with long lines of disgruntled passengers and delayed arrivals. The Lord was very gracious to our family because when we landed in Cleveland at the time our 2nd flight was to depart, we called the information line and found out that our flight was delayed due to incoming connecting passengers. We prayed that we were those passengers! We ran like an insane family through the terminal not even bothering to put Luca in the stroller. When we got to our gate it was indeed our family they were waiting for! If they had not held the plane for us we would have either had to have Munga & Gramma make a 6 hour drive to pick us up or wait until 7:30pm the following day to get our rescheduled flight out to Grand Rapids. We are thankful for the Lord's traveling mercies!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with family. It was the first time in 5 years that we have celebrated Christmas Day with Jonathan's family. It was indeed a white Christmas. Samuel enjoyed shoveling snow with Munga, while Emma & Luca's snow tolerance was very short. Sled rides were taken up and down the covered streets but the weekend rains melted a lot of the snow thus detaining the hill sledding for the time being.


We went to a Griffins Hockey Game the day after Christmas and Samuel really enjoyed that. Luca and Emma found it fascinating for about the first period. Emma was very concerned about the players going into the penalty box for being "naughty" and wanted to see their angry faces. Samuel was insistent on cheering for the Red Wings. And Luca was happy to take 2 periods to devour a bag of popcorn.

Our departure is only 2 weeks away and the packing has begun in full force. Currently we have 5 bags packed and are hoping that our 10 bag limit will be sufficient, but we'll see if extra bags are needed soon enough. Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we wrap up our time stateside.

We found out 2 weeks ago that our house in Leini' got flooded. When our colleague, Brad, checked it out there was no standing water but a watermark of 7 inches in our garage was evident along with some moisture and dampness in our office. We are thankful the major items seem to be okay, but we'll find out more of the extent when we get home. They are just things of course and all things considered it could have been worse. Spring cleaning will come early this year it seems!

Fisher Family Reunion

Fisher Family Reunion 2008

Ben, Jennie, Cody & Noella

Noella has three siblings, and believe it or not this past week was the first time in 3 1/2 years that we all have been together. What an amazing Christmas present for us to reunite at Mom and Dad's house in California. Jennie and Miguel were married almost 2 years ago in the Dominican Republic, however, we were unable to attend their wedding. Therefore, this was our first chance to meet Miguel and of course our 7 month old nephew, Diego. They arrived on December 17th and although our cross-over time was very brief we are thankful that God gave us this added blessing at all. Between Miguel obtaining his Visa and us being detained for our return to Italy, we can see God's hand in working out this unexpected reunion.

Miguel, Jennie & Diego Morel
The Dominican Republic

Our time went by so quickly, but we had lots of fun celebrating Noella's 31st birthday, Mom & Dad's 35th Wedding Anniversary, Great Nana's 83rd birthday, an early Christmas and so much more.

Ben, Melissa and Maddie made a couple of trips up from Camarillo, CA to spend with everyone. They await the soon arrival of their son in February and we are so excited for them!

Cody is now living in the area and is counting down the days (98 to be exact) until he and Michelle are married. Michelle was greatly missed in this reunion. We are so excited to have her officially join the family on April 4, 2009. Unfortunately, we are not able to celebrate with them in person as a return trip for all of us is not feasible. But we trust God will grant us strength to endure another missed sibling wedding.

Here are some photos that captured our precious time together. We love and greatly miss our California family already!!

Papa & Nano couldn't have had a better Christmas present than for all their children and grandchildren to be home.

Great Campa with five of his Great Grandchildren.

Nano sewed Emma & Mamma coordinating aprons for our baking time together.

Cousins: Emma (4 yrs), Maddie (19 mos), Diego (7 mos), Samuel (5 yrs) and Luca (2 yrs)

Disneyland

This past Thursday Papa & Nano treated us all to a trip to Disneyland along with Uncle Ben, Aunt Meli, Maddie & Uncle Cody. The kids had been counting down the days to Disneyland since the day we arrived in California and once again a paper chain was needed to keep their excitement in check. We left home at 7:30AM and made the 3 hour drive down to Anaheim. Our plan was to go as along as everyone could hold up taking in to special consideration Aunt Meli who is 32 weeks pregnant. The kids had an absolute blast and it was so fun to see their first Disneyland experience through their eyes. It was a gorgeous day topping out just above 80 degrees. We attempted to get on as many rides as possible which included: the rockets, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Autopia, Submarine, train, carousal, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Tour, Space Mountain, and a few other rides in addition to watching the Christmas parade down Main Street USA and the fireworks show.

The kids held up well. Luca did not do well in the lines at all! He was pulling with all his might against his Monkey leash and was nearly impossible to keep happy waiting in lines. So needless to say we didn't attempt any lines that had longer than a 30 minute wait. Once he was on a ride he was completely content but then he wanted to race to the next thing as soon as it was over. If only we could siphon his energy to spread his abundance of energy.

Aboard the yellow submarine to see Nemo & friends

Cousin Maddie

The kids' first choice of rides was the rockets

Luca trying to hurl himself over the gate to get on the ride

Christmas-Disney style

View from Tomorrow Land

The castle was prettier than it looks in this picture

Luca obtained his Autopia driver's license

Samuel's most favorite ride was Space Mountain. When he got off he was shouting "I'm SO happy, I'm SO happy!!" Emma's favorite ride was Star Tours and if she can shout on a ride it's all the more fun for her. Not sure what Luca liked best but I'm sure it was Buzz Lightyear as he choice a Buzz hat for his souvenir.

After leaving the park we made a stop at In-n-Out Burger at 10:30PM for dinner and then we officially ended our day when arriving home at 1AM. What a wonderful day it was to spend with family and to have this experience together. Thank you Papa & Nano for this special treat--we love you!

From California

Forgive us for being absent from the blogging world as of late. (Noella caught a bad intestinal/stomach flu after Thanksgiving that lasted for a week and thus we have been pretty busy trying to make up for some lost time) I will do my best to give you a summary of the past few weeks along with pictures for those who are interested.

We did arrive safely in California nearly three weeks ago. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and it was the first time celebrating with them since we have been married. The first week here was pretty low key; visiting Noella's grandparents and trying to catch up on some must needed rest after our previous eventful weeks. Samuel is doing great and bounced right back to his normal self within a week of being released from the hospital. Jonathan is doing great as well and seems to have passed his kidney stone about a week ago. Apart from Noella & her dad catching a bad case of gastroenteritis everyone has been healthy.

We had the wonderful blessing of seeing our Italian friends: Raffaele & Manuela Spitale and their two precious children on two occasions. They drove up to see us the weekend after Thanksgiving and then we drove down to see them at their home today in Sylmar. They arrived in California almost two months ago and can now simpathize with our lives, emotions, language learning and stresses that come along with a cross-cultural move. What a joy to see them again! We are going to miss them greatly when we return to the field as they were our closest friends and neighbors in Italy. Thank goodness for Skype and MagicJack so we can keep in touch often, right Manu?! Raffaele is currently studying the language and hopes to pass his language exam so that he can begin seminary at Master's in January.

Jonathan has been preaching every Sunday and also has been able to teach in the prison several times through my dad's prison ministry. He has enjoyed these opportunities to preach and teach God's word (in English). It has been a joy to reconnect with our supporting churches once more here in California.

Jonathan & I had to reshcedule our overnight getaway since I had the flu, but we were able to squeeze it in this past week. We headed north to Avila Beach on Tuesday and had an incredible time together. We walked along the beach catching lots of magnificent shots of the sunset, dining out, relaxing, exploring Pismo Beach & San Luis Obispo--all without the kids which made our 24 hours away feel so much longer than that. The weather was great--nearly 80 degrees! You gotta love California winters! On our way home we stopped by Nana's (Noella's grandma) house and took her out for Chinese food. It was an amazing time of refreshment for us both and we are so glad we were able to do this one last time before heading overseas.

This blog is getting way too long so I'll save a post about our trip to Disneyland for a later time.

Sunset at Pismo Beach

The moon peeking through a Mellaluca tree

California Palms at dusk

Avila Beach by night

We enjoyed dining at the Custom House twice in Avila while overlooking the ocean

Avila is a quaint little beach town and off the beaten path. Such a great place...we'll be going back on our next furlough for sure!

Avila beach landscapes

We stayed at the La Fonda Hotel that had a 19th century Mexican village atmosphere both inside & out.

Our room

We may not have snow, but the fires were enjoyed around the Christmas atmosphere as Jonathan treated me to an early birthday celebration.

I'm NOT kidding.

Today we visited our "second home" (the ER) once again. I'm totally serious. That would make this the 6th visit on our furlough. Kind of scary, and you may wonder if ever there will be a good run for our family physically. We wonder the same thing. We pretty much had to laugh at the occasion...if we do anything else at this point it would be disastrous for sure. Jonathan woke up during the night with acute pain in his lower abdomen and right side of his lower back. He tried to carry on his morning by exercising and delaying in telling his wife of his concern. A late morning call to his physician then led to him advising Jonathan to get it checked out at the ER. So off we headed, skipping lunch and leaving the kids in the care of Munga. After Jonathan described his pain to the ER Doc he immediately diagnosed "kidney stones". It was kind of a relief to hear that, kind of not. Jonathan had a CT scan which did not reveal kidney stones in the kidney but there was a small mass in the ureter which most likely is a stone. He also had blood in his urine which is another indicator that this is what we are dealing with. Kidney stones do run in his family unfortunately. Pain meds were prescribed and we hope the passing of the stone will not be too painful if it has not already passed. They gave him some IV meds while there and he is worse off now because of those. He's not in pain, but he reacts so strongly to drugs that now we have a lump of a guy devoid of energy. I suppose all things considered there could be worse things to deal with, however we would prefer no new issues all together. We are still a "go" for our departure on Monday and ask that you pray for a quiet and uneventful weekend.

Welcome Home Samuel

Samuel was discharged yesterday around noon after having a peaceful nights sleep. I told the Dr. that either I was so exhausted I did not hear the alarms going off during the night or that there were none for a change. There were no further episodes of SVT which gives us further confidence in the success of the ablation. Samuel did not have much energy yesterday and exhibited a lot of weakness, most likely due to the let down of the week and to his lack of good nourishment as it has taken him a while to regain his appetite after his cold/virus. He curled up on the recliner and slept for 3 hours so you know he was exhausted. We all got naps in so that was most helpful. The site where they entered his artery in his groin area is pretty sore and we are told that we need to keep him from running for a week. The doctor smiled at us and said "good luck with that one!" But other than making sure the two sites (groin & neck) heal up there is no further follow-up needed. What a praise!

Emma and Grandma planned a "Welcome Home" party for Samuel. They ordered him a Wall-E cake and got his favorite ice cream too (Deer Traxx). Luca had a very hard day as I think he had his limit of abnormalities. Each child dealt with this past week in a different manner but we hope attitudes and emotions can be tamed down a bit as the days progress.

We are now trying to regain our footing and prepare for our departure to California on Monday. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers as always!

Samuel Update

Praise the Lord with us in the successful outcome of Samuel’s ablation this afternoon! Samuel did remarkably well leading up to the procedure; full of smiles, goofiness and no fear at all. The doctor thought it was so cute how fascinated he was by the Cath Lab and how he really liked their blankets. Samuel was promptly wheeled into the Cath Lab at 2:00pm and we received word at 4:00pm that all went very well.

About 5:00pm we were able to go see Samuel in the Cath Lab so he could hear our voices as he was coming to. The intensivist who was keeping Samuel sedated said his job was very “boring” since Samuel responded so well to the sedation and his blood pressure and vitals remained at an optimal status the entire time. This was something that may not have been the case if he underwent this procedure last Friday with a fever. The electrophysiologist said that was an important factor since his hands were full trying to locate the problem and perform the ablation, which was in an unusual and challenging location. The procedure thus took longer but we praise the Lord for the elimination of the problem.

The doctor did not see any SVT while trying to induce an episode after the ablation so he is very confident there will be no further problems. In Dr. Woelfel’s words he said: “I am glad this was not my first case and I’m really glad it was me who performed the ablation.” (His colleague was willing although hesitant to perform the procedure on Friday in his place). We can clearly see how God has worked through every detail of this trial for us. Samuel and Dr. Woelfel both needed to be in optimum health for this successful procedure so we praise the Lord for His watch care over the situation, even if it was a longer weekend for us.

The hardest part of the day (besides the 3 hours in the waiting room) was keeping Samuel’s leg completely straight and still for 6 hours post op. For the first hour it took 4 of us to keep Samuel still as he was coming out of his sedated state and was very mad at us for holding his leg down. Once he became more lucid and distracted (by playing PlayStation with Dada) our task became easier. A quick eco showed that his heart looks good but he’ll remain under ICU observation with the anticipation of being released tomorrow morning sometime.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your prayers for Samuel! He certainly has been at peace this entire time and a wonderful patient…7 days and 6 nights confined to a bed for an active 5 year old boy is not an easy task, but he has done so without much complaint. We are so grateful that we will be united as a family tomorrow!