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My baby sister Jacquee, her husband Chuck, and their twins with Samuel and I.
We surprised them on our way back home and finally got to see each other's babies! :)

A couple of Samuel's NICU nurses took me out to lunch the day before we left. And they gave us gift cards/money to buy a couple of meals on the road! What a treat! Yea for the dollar menus!

We stopped by and visited several people/churches on our way home. The children enjoyed playing at Pastor Wilkerson's house (First Baptist of Long Beach, CA) after being in the car for several hours.

We finally made it! We managed to turn a 3 day trip into a week, but none the less, we are home! I had great plans of taking pictures of our arrival and some video of the children jumping and running around with shouts of sheer joy as they one by one brought me all the things they'd missed that they wanted me to see...but the camera got lost among the piles of books, games, sunflower seeds, diapers, and all the other things that were covering the floor of the van. I did take some pictures during our travels and so will share some of those with you all.
Thank you so much for praying for us as we traveled. We praise the Lord for bringing us home again safely. We arrived home Friday night, and between all our luggage, supplies, and dontated clothing for the people here, I was thankful I didn't lose a child in all the mess! :) The children and I plugged away here at home and we finally have everything in it's place. Daniel has already had many calls to minister since we walked back into the door and I'm so thankful to know the Lord has called him to serve Him here; we are eager to see the Lord continue to work in the hearts of those here in the days ahead.
We had a long but good trip home. I tell you, it's been quite a week!! One of the reasons it took so long is that Samuel got sick. He began running a fever, coughing, and sounding all wheezy. We were so concerned and at the time were in San Diego planning on crossing the border the next morning. We weren't sure what to do. We prayed and then I woke up all night long to check on him. His fever was higher in the morning, so we decided we'd better try to find a doctor. We called Daniel's brother/sister in law and asked them to call the our church's prayer chain. I hadn't a clue how to find a doctor, so I just opened the yellow pages and called a pediatrician. She saw us right away and was so very nice. Samuel had fluid in his lungs, but his fever was gone by the time we got there (thank you Lord!). We have a couple of children with breathing problems, so we carry a nebulizer with us at all times. So she put him on an antibiotic and prescribed some medicine to use in the nebulizer to help his breathing. He seems to be doing better now; we have to go to the capitol this week so we'll take him to see the pediatrician there to get checked. So please pray for Samuel to continue to get better.
Daniel just got home from taking Susannah to the hospital. She was taking her shower tonight when she slipped and cut her chin open. We knew she needed some stiches and so Daniel took Rebekah (as moral support and comfort for her little sister)and Susannah to the ER. An couple hours and a few stitches later, they are home and sleeping together soundly.
It's so good to be home! Thank you Lord!