Hallie's ONH & SOD Blog

Just what have those Kemps been doing?

October 27th, 2009

First off, I would like to apologize for our inability to make this a daily blog. That being said, here is an update on the past five days:

Friday, was Hallie’s fifth stem cell treatment. My beautiful daughter and I are becoming really good at this whole process. Here it is. The nurses come in and it doesn’t take Hallie long to realize what is happening, the crying and body throwing commences. I proceed to lay on Hallie while holding her shoulders down with both of my hands. And when I say lay, I mean use most of my 230 lbs. in body weight to settle “The Fish Out of Water” thrusting. As you heard before, she refuses to calm down while she is getting poked. Therefore, I let her cry and continue to try to wiggle out of my grasp. After the IV is put in, I play a movie, give her the audio recorder filled with clips that she loves, or let her play with one of her favorite toys. It takes her a couple minutes to completely calm down, then I usually don’t even have to touch her and she will stay still for the rest of the 30-45 minute treatment.

On Saturday, we took the kids swimming in the morning and went to a souvenir shop in the afternoon. Besides that, it was another lounge day.

Sunday was a very big and inspiring day for us. About two weeks ago, Katie and I were praying about asking God to have a Christian family come to the hospital. A week later the Broadhursts arrived. We quickly started to get to know Jennifer (the patient with a spinal cord injury) and her sister Becky. It did not take long for us to figure out each other’s faith in God. So Saturday night, Jennifer and the Kemps organized a prayer breakfast/church service in the common area for all the stem cell patients. Katie and Jennifer put together a lesson on prayer and produced flyers, and I got the food and handed out the flyers. The next morning, six families out of estimated 11 english-speaking families showed up! We did some quick introductions, heard Jennifer’s prayer lesson, played some music, and Katie and I shared some scripture. During this whole time, you could tell people were walking by listening and wondering what was going on. It was very encouraging to fellowship with these six families, one of which are not even church goers. To bring God to the forefront of this hospital was an amazing opportunity and experience for Katie and I. I am sure Katie will have more to add to this, but maybe not.

After our prayer breakfast, we hired a driver and went downtown. Our first stop was Mary’s Market, the American import grocery store, for one last comfort food purchasing. Next, we went to “The Diner,” which was American food restaurant. This food was not that great and was another example of the Chinese version of American food. After lunch, we realized that May 4th square was right by the diner. May 4th Square was were the sailing competition was held for the 2008 olympics. We made our way down, got mobbed by all the people wanting to see our kids, took some pictures, and headed back to the car. Our last stop was the Ge-Mo market. This is another huge market were you can by pretty much anything you want to. I like these market because you barter. After all this, we were completely spent, but were happy that we had such a fulfilling day.

Monday we…, we…. What did we do? It is Tuesday night when I am writing this and Katie and I could not remember what we did yesterday. So that is just a testament to how scatter brained and busy we are doing this whole China thing with our two kids.

On Tuesday, I went to a different souvenir store, by myself. My amazing wife gave the kids a bath, so I could have some “no kid” time. I love her. After that, we went to the park that has become infamous in this blog. We rented another paddle boat and then the kids got ride these two little mechanical cars. On our way back to the hospital, we stopped by the mall to do a little more souvenir shopping.

So, there you are. You are now updated on what we have been doing the past 5 days. Except for Monday of course.

Wednesday is Hallie’s sixth and final stem cell treatment!

Adam

P.S. We will return to the good ole’ U.S. of A. on Sunday.

Fish at the supermarket- seafood is huge here.

Here is one of the 'VIP ward' cleaning ladies.. she's in love with Carter!

Outside Pizza Hut... A sign with lights.

Lit sign

Here is the loading into Charlie the driver's car.. for our day downtown.

May 4th Square- these are some ladies dressed up for a dancing show.. Hallie loved feeling their dresses. She kept saying to them, "You're bea-tiful!"

This is at Ge-Mo. Hallie started playing and soon after a small audience formed to watch this blonde beauty preform!

Carter helping push the water jug.

Carter loves getting his temperature taken. Every time he's by the nurse's station he point to his ear in anticipation!

On the boat ride again.. Carter's sleepy.

Attempt at a family pic!

The kids went on these rides 4x! They are missing parks back home.

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