Hallie's ONH & SOD Blog

Archive for October 31st, 2009

Our Last Blog from China!

I can only say that our stay here has gone much faster than anticipated. As our friends from the UK would say, “It’s been a lovely time.” We have loved meeting all the families from around the world and hearing their stories. We will miss hanging out in the common area of the VIP Ward. We will miss the amazing staff of Beike, the nurses, translators, drivers, doctors, etc. We will miss all the free time we have had as a family. We will miss the experiences we’ve had, but mostly we will miss the dear people we connected with here. This has been a once in a life time experience and we thank God that we’ve gotten to do it.

Thank you to all the people back home who have been faithfully following our adventure. We really feel very supported through your comments of encouragement. You are the reason we want to come home. (And because we are getting sick of the food. Adam is going crazy from not having any outlets like basketball and we can’t handle the smell of the water any longer). Truly though, THANK YOU.

Lastly, why we came… We came for a chance to give our daughter Hallie more vision. We came without expecting Hallie to have results right away. During our stay here there have been two people with ONH (Shannon, 40 and Lilli, both had improvements while they were here. They were also older and able to voice what those improvements were. They both took a VEP test that measures how much light is going from the optic nerve to the brain. Again, both had significant improvements while they were here. We had a VEP test done with Hallie before we came and will do another 6 months post op. (It’s harder to do with little ones that don’t sit still The small improvements that we see in Hallie will probably not be very noticeable to anyone that doesn’t know Hallie personally. But we are still hanging in the balance of hope and patience. Most ONH patients don’t see significant results until 3-6 months down the road, and then even up to 18 mo. post op have others seen more improvements. So this next year will be one filled with anticipation as we wait and learn what Hallie will see with her eyes. Adam and I came here knowing that we had to offer Hallie this opportunity. We have done that, and feel so confident that this was exactly the path God had planned for us. Whether or not there will be any HUGE changes in Hallie, we know that God has this little girl in the palm of his hands and will do amazing things through her life.

Colorado or bust!

love, Katie & co.

This is Carter's idea of helping pack. First, climb into the suitcase without my diaper on and pee inside it. Second, get my diaper on and continue to climb back into the suitcase every time my dad takes me out. Thank you to the Hulseys for letting us borrow the suitcase.

2 comments October 31st, 2009

Polar Ocean World and more

Friday was another eventful day for us. We hired a driver that was a friend of one of the drivers here and it was just weird to have a man we didn’t know take us downtown. First, we were planning to go to this one art store to check out some of the calligraphy pieces that are famous here. But when we got there, we found out that is was an entire street of stores that sold traditional artwork, jade stone sculptures, and even big boulders. Katie and I have coined this “The Art District.” Needless to say, Katie was in absolute heaven. She could have spent an entire week going up and down the street, but I was really proud of her for holding back and staying on task. Next, we went to McDonald’s for lunch. The kids love the little play area there and we like having the American food. Lastly, and most important we went to Polar Ocean World. Carter and Hallie could not get enough. The animals, which included dolphins, turtles, sharks, etc., were amazing and would come right up to the glass. Carter insisted on yelling at the animals like they could understand what he was saying.

Saturday, was a pure packing day. When you are packing eight suitcases, a carry-on bag, and a backpack, you need all day to get it done. Here it is 8:11pm on Saturday and we still have some packing to do on Sunday.

Sunday, we are planning to have another prayer breakfast/church service. Alice, one of the translators who is also a Christian, is going to come and answer questions we have on the Christian culture in China. It will be wonderful to have an in depth conversation with her to get an insight into what it means to be a Christian in China. Besides this, we will be finishing some packing and preparing ourselves for the 18-hour trip back to America. The trip back is actually six hours less than the trip here, so that’s good. We are praying that everything will go as well as it did on the trip here, all things considered. Our kids were easier to take care of than we thought and the time actually seemed to pass as quickly as 24 hours of traveling can. So here is hoping for the same results tomorrow!

With love and God Bless,

Adam