We survived the flight here, though by threads. Rusty came down with a high fever, cough, and chills about two hours into the first 10 hour flight. That pretty much left me to take care of Henry by myself for the next 21 hours. The first flight he slept for one out of the 10 hours. Yup one out of 10. I now have a hatred for the 6 books I packed along which I probably read around 300 times. He slept for about 4 hours in the next 7 hour flight, so that was at least better than nothing. I will spare you further details, but in the end we all survived.
It has felt really good to be back home after being in transition for so long. I forgot how much I love living in community like we do here. We live at the Akha Youth Development Center with six other local staff and around 55 children. Henry loves it here as well and he has no shortage of friends. At least once a day one of our friends will come over and take Henry away on their back in an Akha sling and put him to sleep for his nap...a gift that I can really value now after being away from this culture for a while.
It has been especially good to be with Joe and Ae and help with baby Aevi here and there. She is growing and now weighs about 8.5 lbs which is much more than the 573 grams that she weighed at birth. Ae's milk is drying up so I'm planning on pumping for her for the rest of the time while I'm here. They of course are living with lots of what ifs about Aevi's future, and trying not to get too worried when she is behind other babies her age. She is a living miracle that sweet little lady.
Henry is loving taking his baths outside with boiled water in the garbage can (which is clean). He also loves going outside and sticks anything and everything in his mouth, his favorite being rocks and dirt. He is quite the independent little booger, and would rather run down a hill and wipe out then to have someone grabbing onto his arm. He little personality always makes us laugh.
The staff from the medical clinic that I worked at came over to visit me the same day we came back and we went out for a nice meal together too. Life is busy with translating letters for the sponsorship program, planning meetings and looking through applications for the Olive Hope Scholarship Fund, and working through details of other projects we are involved with here. Besides this there is Henry to take care of and my schooling that I continue to work on.
One disappointment happened the week we returned. Rusty was in a bad accident that totaled our truck. Though the accident wasn't his fault, the person who made the accident fled the scene, even though another Thai driver tried to chase after him. That meant that our insurance had to pay for everything which would normally be fine except that the insurance that covered our truck went bankrupt a week before the accident. Just our luck. The good news is that no one was seriously hurt. There is still many other things to be grateful for.
Overall our hearts are full and we are feeling very thankful to be back in Chiang Rai.
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