5 Months!

Our little man, TMD turned 5 months old today. We are loving this kid and are thankful for his health. Here are some recent photos:



Things go well here in Ecuador. I started working at a free clinic yesterday. It is good to finally get to medical care. I wish I could say we are progressing quickly in Spanish but those verb conjugations have our tongues tied, but things are going well. We are staying with a wonderful family and loving being here and learning about Ecuador and the Andes.

Talk to you later.

Baby Boy's International Travels

Greetings from Ecuador. Little TMD just wanted to say "Hola" and let you know what fun he is having here in Cuenca.



He also wants to show you his new friend, Romina.

We Have Arrived

Hello Everyone. After brave little TMD endured 3 plane trips we arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador yesterday afternoon. We landed in Quito Saturday night and spent the night with a wonderful family Ramiro, Vicky, and David Granada. The next morning we had a dramatic flight through the Andes mountains to Cuenca. Here we are staying with the Cabera family in their beautiful home near the middle of Cuenca. Senior Cabera is an opthomologist who often volunteers at the clinic where I will be working starting next week. This afternoon we start Spanish Classes. I am studying frantically but we still have a long way to go to actually be able to speak the language with any efficiency.

Cuenca is a beautiful old city and we can walk to most places from the Cabera´s house. We will update you more soon.

Ecuador

This morning we are going to Ecuador for a month. We will be in the city of Cuenca. We hope to learn a lot of Spanish by immersion as well as volunteer at a hospital for the poor there. For us it will be an excellent chance to learn a language that is increasingly important as we serve in America, as well as an opportunity as a family to take a while and serve in a new environment and have a chance to reflect on what the impact of our lives should be.

Hopefully we will have a lot of interesting stories and thoughts when we return.

For the next month The Gridbook Blog will be silent. I don't know if we will be able to get much internet access but if we do we will try to post updates here. Keep us in your prayers.

PS: Posted Gridbook Blog presidential endorsement yesterday. Click here to read.

Full

Sorry for the recent absence of posts (both here and on the Gridbook Blog). Life has been incredibly full recently. Baby boy had his 4 month birthday this weekend, and he celebrated by going to visit his grandfathers 62nd birthday.

I suppose the biggest news from me is that I am now exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: I am the primary care doctor of a small town. It is truly a wonderful job but it is also exhausting. I love what I do, but it keeps me away from home a lot, while my amazing son is growing so rapidly and my wife has her hands full with his exuberance. (I mostly miss the people I worked with in the ER, but my wife misses the schedule.) My friends also complain that they don't see much of me anymore, therefore as you might expect my blog frequency will drop.

But a full life isn't a bad thing, and I will try to keep you updated on things. Once we figure out a way to balance everything.

Healthy and Growing

Thanks to all of you who prayed for TMD. As you see he is very healthy.

Update on Baby Boy's Health

Sorry it has been a while since we updated everyone on TMD's bowel condition. Actually we still don't know exactly what happened with his colon. It may be Intestinal Neuronal Dysplasia although we aren't sure, BUT the good news is that he doing so well that we have stopped treatments all together.

No need to keep working up a bowel abnormality in a baby who is growing well and seems so happy. Right now he is in the 90th Percentile on weight and length so for now we are just going to watch and wait. We always have a really good pediatric surgeon who knows him well, so if problems do come up we will be ready. Hopefully the whole thing was an anomaly that resolved on its own. We will let you know if more happens but hopefully the good news will be no news at all and we won't have to worry about TMD's bowels agian.