THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

There’s No Place Like Home!

Emi was released from the hospital on Sunday morning with an infection count of 10 (down from 94!), and the doctor was confident that she was ready to fly. So we did, and we landed safely in Atlanta yesterday (Monday) morning, after our 16 ½ hour flight.

She did great, and we are SO happy to be here! We had a late Happy Birthday party with Oupa (Afrikaans for Grandpa) and look forward to spending lots of time at Ouma and Oupa’s house, catching up on sleep, getting Emi’s appetite back, and recovering from this serious bout with tonsillitis. I pray these next few weeks feel like a long time.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support that helped us make this trip. There really is no place like home!

Lots of love from Jasper, Georgia,

Mama & Emi

Operation SkyMiles - TEMPORARILY GROUNDED!

OPERATION SKYMILES – TEMPORARILY GROUNDED!

Most of you know that I was supposed to be landing in the good ole USA this morning to surprise my dad for his 60^th birthday. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and we are still in South Africa.

Emi has been battling with tonsillitis for almost 2 weeks, and was on her 3^rd round of different antibiotics and still she had a pretty high fever. Emi and I flew to Johannesburg on Tuesday, and when she still wasn’t improving on Wednesday (the day we were supposed to fly) I decided to take her to the doctor to just make sure it was ok for her to fly in this condition.  After looking at her tonsils, he immediately admitted her into the hospital for IV antibiotics. She is scheduled to be in the hospital for 5 days! This was SO unexpected, but God has been taking care of us in every way.

This morning her fever broke (after hovering at 102-103 since Sunday) and she is just starting to feel a little bit better. Marius flew in last night, and that is a great help for me and for his biggest fan-Emi! We pray by Sunday she will be released from the hospital on schedule, and be feeling like herself again!

I am SOOOOOOO grateful to God for giving me the wisdom to go for that doctor’s visit. The pediatrician said that her tonsils were so big that her airway could have been compromised, and that is one thing you don’t want to happen at 30,000 feet! When they did her blood work, her infection level was sky high. They usually give kids antibiotics when their infection level is between 2-5, and Emi’s was 94! This is after being on Zithromax, Augmenten, and Orelox. Anyway, please pray with us that she continues to get better and better. 

We have really felt the grace of God on us in these last days; so many kind strangers, and wonderful nurses, and lovely friends encouraging us and praying. Thank you!

While I’m very disappointed that I’m missing dad’s actual birthday, we will still get to fly, possibly even Sunday evening. So, it will still be great to come home and celebrate, just with a healthy little girl instead. Thank you all so much for helping make this trip a reality, and we’ll see you a little later, ok? Keep prayin!

Lots of love from Pretoria East Hospital!

Marius, Jodi, and Emi