Christmas - Part 1

A very belated Merry Christmas to everyone! We pray you all had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas with family and friends. Papa and Nano arrived on Thursday the 20th, just barely. The had a long journey of delays due to weather and then a strike by the baggage handlers on their last leg of the trip. They arrived just before midnight exhausted, sick with colds and yet so thrilled to finally be here! We enjoyed a few days with them before Cody arrived on a 3 day journey from Texas to Italy. He also had flight delays, missed flights and an unwanted stay in the Instanbul airport, finally arriving almost 24 hours past his planned arrival. He came in last Sunday and we have so enjoyed spending time together as a family.

Last Saturday, Jonathan and I spent about 6 hours in the ER. It had been two weeks that I had been experiencing major constant pain around my ribs and it had gotten worse. With every deep breathe, laugh, cough etc. it was very painful. I have been sick since October so the concern was maybe that I had pnuemonia or some inflamation in the lining of the lung. I had blood work, lung x-rays, rib x-rays and the works to discover nothing concrete and to assume that it was muscle related. I was given some antibiotics to combat my cold and put on an ibuprofin regiment for the muscle issue. I am doing a little better with the pain so that is good. However, I have a new strain of a cold it seems.

Sunday we began our journey with the influenza and it still is ongoing. Fevers, aching bodies on top of a bad cold and cough that has now spread from the kids to a few of us adults, but all of us have bad colds. We are praying week 2 will be a tad better. The kids have been hit the worse and we feel so badly for them...but that means lots of cuddle time on laps and of course Veggie Tales to soothe and distract.

Despite the circumstances we continue to eat up our time with each other. God is good, faithful and gives strength for each day. Michelle (Cody's girlfriend) arrives late tomorrow tonight, Lord willing if she has smoothe travels from Waco-Dallas-Chicago-London-Instanbul-Rome-Turin. Please keep her in your prayers as well.

Okay, that's the update for now. More to come...

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom!

How the family has grown and changed...

I couldn't resist posting a few photos to give you a blast from the past!

34 Years...

What a journey you have had over the past 34 years! A journey of keeping a Covenant before God and to each other and one that has shone so brightly as a testimony of Christ's love to everyone around you. You have been an incredible example to your children most of all! You have given us a picture of faithfulness, love, devotion, service to Christ and because of your love for Christ, then for each other, then for your children we can see how God has honored and blessed your lives.


We wish we could celebrate with you today...you're probably wishing you could be celebrating it with each other too! Thank you for serving Christ as a team and the support you have for each other in His service. We are praying for Dad's trip to Mexico today and for a blessed time of fellowship with those who are going to give materially to those in prison through the ministry of Pablo. And Mom will be laboring in the kitchen to then give gifts of love to friends and family.

We love you both so very much!! Have a wonderful anniversary!!

Surgery & Questura Update

Coming to with a smile!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Jonathan's surgery went really well yesterday. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers! He said he was less nervous about the surgery than when we have to go the Questura. It is so nice to have the surgery behind him, except for the recovery now. He was admitted at 7:30am for pretesting and then surgery began at 3:30pm. It was a long wait but we had some good talk time. I think not having to raise my voice to get the kids' attention helped perserve what voice I had left. The surgeon came in with his jar of gall stones...I tried to count and there were over 20 pea-sized stones. Yikes!!

The hospital is very nice and much what we would find normally in the States. He has a private room and is getting excellent care. It really helped to ease our minds especially when doing this kind of thing in a foreign culture. Brad and Lori were such a help and support to us yesterday. It's nice to now be closer to our coworkers and for all of us to team up as a "family" especially during times like this.

I returned home last evening because Samuel had a super hard day. A very emotional and off day for him...poor Catherine. He would not stop asking where I was and no form of reason was penetrating his mind about it. We hope that the doctor will release Jonathan this afternoon but he told us yesterday that the procedure is to keep him until Friday morning. We'll see what he says this afternoon.

The Questura visit went fine. It was just a couple of blocks from the hospital so that was nice. Brad went with me and it is his neighbor, Sergio, who works at the main Questura office and has been trying to help our permesso situation. I still have no idea why I needed to be re-fingerprinted. Sergio's friend went through all of my information and the kids' once again, thankfully. Samuel's birthdate was still wrong in the computer and we made sure that the photos corresponded with the names as well. The guy said that now we just need to wait 1 to 1.5 months for the cards to be reprinted. Pray they get it right or else I'll be banging on the doors in Rome for them to get their act together!! :0) We were told that from the point of application to the time of completion is now taking 10 months. What an incredible new and improved system (not)!

A Jumble of News

Jonathan: Gallbladder surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5th in the afternoon. He will be admitted around 7:30am for pre-testing and then surgery will follow around 3pm, give or take. The pain is manageable for him and he has not had any major attacks since before we left for Spain. We are so grateful.

Pray for us, the kids and our co-workers as we all work together to make this happen. Catherine will come to stay with the kids. They know Dadda has rocks in his tummy that the doctor needs to take out. They find that fact very fascinating. Brad will take us to the hospital in downtown Torino and will stay through the day to be of help (and to take Noella to the Questura...more on that in a minute). Lori will come in the afternoon to wait for a doctor's report in case I am still gone when the surgery is complete. Someone will take me home if I can't stay overnight at the hospital and then Jim will go to pick Jonathan (or us) up on Thursday afternoon. At least that is the plan. Thanks for your prayers in regards to this whole process.

Samuel: Yesterday afternoon when he woke up from a nap both Jonathan and I noticed huge swelling around his neck, specifically the lymphnodes. They were painful to the touch so today we sought out a pediatrician to get it checked out before we get tied down with Jonathan's recovery. The doctor was able to squeeze us in this afternoon so off we went to Giaveno (50 minutes away) to see this private doctor we took Emma to over 2 years ago. Samuel was the best little patient. He was a little too eager to take his clothes off and was quickly stopped from dropping his pants. He had a fun visit and he said he felt "all better" after the check-up. Unfortunately, his throat and ears were red giving signs of an ear infection. He hasn't complained about his ears but his symptoms say otherwise. He is on antibiotics now and has some cream to help with the lymphnode swelling which will take a while to decrease in size.

Emma & Luca: Are battling colds as well.

Noella: I have a severe cold with lots of sinus headaches and have also acquired laryngitis. We need physical healing!

Questura: I'll end with this new twist to the Questura saga...While in Spain we received a phone call from the Questura telling us that my finger prints need to be redone. Your obvious question of "WHY?" is the same one we have. My fingerprints were take in June and why after 5 months they now decide they are no good is a complete mystery. The problem the past 2 attempts to retrieve my permesso has only been on their end i.e. Printing Samuel's wrong birth date and then mixing up the kid's ID photos. The Questura gave me an appointment date slated for Wednesday, December 5 at 3:15pm. Thus the reason why Brad needs to escort me to the main office (not the usual place for foreigners to go) while Jonathan is in surgery. Crazy, crazy...and yes, it gave us a good laugh!!