Progress....

Things move along... We have a clinic to send our patients for x-ray, talked to the radiologist yesterday. We visited a couple patients this morning that haven't improved though it looks like they are TB negative.... Hard to guess what these patients need.

Being in their homes is so insightful- helps put together their social situation influencing their health.

Seems- as we heard yesterday- that one positive AFB (TB) result out of 40 is not so unusual or rare. Many people can have negative AFB smears even if they have TB for a number of reasons including their status. The chest x-rays should be a bit more telling. We had a good talk with the lab yesterday that is doing the AFB tests- the man we talked to seemed very sharp!!

Brian and I have been married one month today! Amazing. Was is just a month ago we were at that beautiful ranch all dressed up staring at each other? And we've been to Mexico, back to California, to Egypt, and then on to Ethiopia in the meantime??? With a trip to Langano in there are well???

We love our place in the Augusta neighborhood of Addis. It is so big and roomy! Its been fun thinking of having people over, or just having a fire and a cup of tea the two of us.

Settling in to life and a new job

Cool to read Mark this morning, along with a commentary David recommended- he spoke for a long time about the first line, "The beginning of the gospel..." Commentary said, "From here [the end of the book of Mark] he carries out his messianic task through the Spirit until his final appearance to establish once and for all the rule of God. That is the core of "the gospel.""

So I saw this cool continuum from the beginning of the gospel of Jesus ("how it all started") described in the book of Mark, to what Jesus is doing in the lives of the HIV patients that I am going to try to help with this project. He is still doing it- establishing God's rule in their life and mine.

My intro to the TB project yesterday was first overwhelming then quite interesting, and I feel it will be a lot more of the latter. The guys have done a great job getting it off the ground this summer: made up a survey looking for signs of TB, and surveyed 108 people- both HIV positive beneficiaries and other people referred by our beneficiairies. Thirty one seemed (from the survey) to have indications of maybe having TB. Those were sent for AFB smears at the lab. Great, moving along.

Well, all 31 came back negative. OK, so what's up- bad lab? really not as much TB as we thought? HIV+ people showing up smear negative? (that happens a lot...)

So it's something to apply our brains to, and I hope we can create some change, get some sick people onto treatment.

Brian is good- we are so happy in our house. He hung bedroom curtains this morning around 6:30 while I made strawberry pancakes.

We made it back to Ethiopia!!

It was so great getting home and unpacking everything in its final resting place! I think Brian was especially excited- he loved seeing his guards (I did, too!) We got home around 5:30 and just started unpacking! I had to crash around 8 but he stayed up all day! Got my bike put together and inflated the kayak!!!! It is sitting in one of our spare rooms, looking good.

The guards made us a celebration lunch- so cute of them! Doro Wot is the fancy meal in Ethiopia, so they made us that and a few other things. Guys usually don't cook much here but they did great! It was the perfect structure to the day- get up to have lunch, but no other obligations. We were in bed by about 7:45 and I was zonked so maybe this is a good transition to the "new schedule."

Brian starts tomorrow, and I will probably head in to work tomorrow afternoon or something. I think I am a little apprehensive just not having any idea what the job will be like. My American good friends in Addis are still in the states and will be
back in a few weeks, so I haven't had people to rush and call.

Anyways, we are both having such a good time settling in, and together. Took me an hour and a half to make our simple lunch of hummus, carrot sticks, and grilled cheese sandwiches because I wanted to get the hummus exactly right. (It didn't turn our exactly right,but oh well...) Brian has been drilling/hanging a pot holder hook, a robe hook, connecting the washer, and now working on a wine glass rack. He sat down to lunch and said, "It is SO great to have a wife to cook for me!" and I said, "It is so great to have a husband that has power tools!" He is using them right away.

COLD!!! It is chilly chilly here, quite a change. Driving home from the airport in the taxi, looking at dark Addis in the middle of the night, it was so great knowing I was going to a cozy home with a fireplace that my husband would make fires for me in, and warmth and love in it! We keep thinking, Wow!! I don't have to get up from sitting on the couch and drive home to dark, dank HQ!! I LIVE here with my husband!! It's great.

The Beginning of the End

Things feel different today- packing instead of the party mood. We have until Thursday morning here in California, so it will be here soon.

What an amazing summer!! We really, in no way, could have asked for any better- we got everything we wished for and MORE than I imagined in terms of God's blessings.

A few main ones that stand out....

A great time of speaking in various church and Sunday school clasees- especially being able to instroduce each other. The warmth of these amazing classes like the Women's Alliance, Koinonia, and Joyful Rebounders will stay with us and encourage us.

WAY too much generosity from so, so, so many people as we were overwhelmed with wedding gifts. We are speachless and thankful!!

An amazing camping trip when our families met in Feather River Canyon in California. Watching our brothers and sisters all interact with each other and get along so well was SUCH a pleasure for me. Bringing these two sides together was such a joy to do in the beauty of the mountains, rivers, and sunshine.

a PERFECT wedding day!! I kept waiting for the crisis, or wondering when I would start loosing my mind. It just never happened! We prayed for warm weather so people wouldn't be cold at our outdoor reception (San Jose evenings can be quite cool even in the summer) and our wedding weekend was one of the warmest of the year- it was a perfect evening! The beauty of the ranch, the fluidity of the schedule, and the warmth of being surrounded by so many people pitching in and helping us out of kindness was amazing. The beauty of gospel truth ringing out in our ceremony, and the Presence of One who makes every equation more than the sum of its parts, fileed us with awe.

An amazing honeymoon, at a place SO fancy for us simple folk! We loved it! It instilled in us a realization of how much we have been given, and how we want to learn to give back.

A highly thematic, super-fun reception in Paradise with SO much love and help from Don and Pam. They worked so hard, and it came off, as my mother said, magical. We had a beautiful helicopter ride in over the fields just north of Chico, then a landing- what an entrance!!- then a great evening in so much country beauty of hay, cowboy boots, chili dogs, and sunset colors.

The best of all: a marriage. My man shows me his true colors of kindness and a servants heart every day- and I see the deep happiness I feel in his eyes. I'm sure this phase won't last forever, but I know our love will. God showed us His love by giving us each other, and the amazing summer was like the frosting....