The Lord is Near the Broken Hearted

I shared in an earlier post that my father was unexpectedly diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 lung cancer in December. Our family went back to see him in January and I had plans to go to see him again in March. On Sunday he was admitted into the hospital with pneumonia and on Wednesday he…

My Father has Cancer

One of my formative childhood memories is my of Father mourning his Mother, my Nana, as she was dying of cancer. I was 4 years old when she was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to her brain. I remember that my Father often wept for his Mother. It’s the only time I remember…

Almost time for the Baby

Last night Crystal started having intense contractions – distinct from the usual braxton hicks contractions – and we thought it was time. So we quickly prepared everything, borrowed the MCC truck, and loaded up to leave. We were worried because Crystal and I still have this respiratory infection. Labor is hard enough when you can…

Respiratory Infection at Nine Months

Two weeks ago, Charlotte came down with a respiratory infection. It isn’t COVID-19, we had that back in December, but rather a more mundane illness. Actually, the December bout of COVID-19, which we suspect was the third time we had it, was milder than this respiratory illness. Charlotte is feeling better now. Unfortunately, she shared…

Fungal Ear Infection

Throughout my life I’ve had trouble with ear infections. I seem to be prone to them. But my left ear has been significantly worse over the last two years. I didn’t want to visit the Doctor during the COVID lockdowns of 2021. Even though I had been vaccinated I was nervous about testing positive and…

Chikungunya and slow recovery

The Doctor said that it could take up to six weeks to recover from Chikungunya but I was optimistically thinking that meant that I’d be at 70% and improving for most of that time. That has not been the case and I’m still not at 100% eight weeks later. I am getting closer to ‘normal’…

Chikungunya?

I’ve been feeling increasingly under the weather this week with a sensation like the chills and aching muscle/joint pain. I thought I was stiff from taking the girls to school/study group on the moto everyday (they’re not small anymore) but yesterday afternoon I broke out in a fever and very quickly a rash spread across…

Chikungunya

On a Wednesday last month, Crystal felt terrible and had a red rash spreading across her. We thought she had Dengue but when we went to the Doctor they diagnosed her with Chikungunya. Symptoms Most people infected with chikungunya virus will develop some symptoms. Symptoms usually begin 3–7 days after being bitten by an infected…

Playdough Artist

Per COVID-19 protocols, after our recent bout of illness, Charlotte had to stay home from School until she was completely symptom free and cleared by a Doctor. That ended up being about two weeks. In that time she fully made some progress on Playdough mastery (well, she at least impressed her dad!).

Sick, again, over Pchum Ben

Pchum Benh is a long series of ceremonies honoring the dead. The week long holiday is actually the conclusion of these ceremonies when most Cambodians travel back to their ancestral homelands and perform ceremonies to honor their ancestors. I’ll write a more detailed post on this another time but in Phnom Penh it is the…