We're HOME!!

So glad to be HOME! But man, am I tired! How tired you ask? Well, I just went to switch a load of laundry over to the dryer and guess what I found. A diaper. In a mesh bag. So apparently, I changed Jane's wet (praise the Lord it wasn't dirty!!) diaper, walked it to the washing machine, zipped it into a bag & put it into the machine. So....that my friends is just how tired I am :) I'll check in in a few days after we've had some time to recover! Thanks for praying for Jane--she is doing really great!

Saturday Jane Update

Hi friends! I'm sorry it took so long for me to update--we've been fully consumed with Jane while she is awake, and trying to rest while she is asleep. Baby girl is doing great! She has started sitting up & moving all around her crib. Her bowels "woke up" as they like to call it, so she was able to start a liquid diet today. If all goes well with food tomorrow then we should be headed home Monday. We are exhausted, but really enjoying this one-on-one time with Jane. She is such a sweetie, and has endeared all the nurses to her. She loves to ride in the hospital stroller through the halls saying hi to everyone :) Our next big hurdle is trying food tomorrow, so please be praying that she tolerates that well! We appreciate your prayers, calls, visits & encouragement so much. We've had a really good experience here & are so thankful that she has been given the very best care. Hugs to you all...thanks for loving our family!

(Jane sitting up for the first time since surgery)

Update on Jane

Hey friends!
Thank you so much for praying today...I appreciate all your support so much. We just talked to the surgeon. Jane is out of surgery & doing ok. They had to remove the entire bile duct and her gallbladder, as he said the entire area was extremely inflamed and diseased. He said everything went well, and she should make a full recovery. She is in recovery now, so we haven't gotten a chance to see her yet. We should be able to go back in the next hour. Please pray for her to be comfortable (as much as possible at least!) and pain free. Another possible complication that we ask you to pray for is for her stomach to not become distended. If this happened she would probably start vomiting & her stomach would swell. At that point they would have to put tubes down her nose to drain her stomach. He said that it is pretty painful & they hate doing it to babies. Can you please pray that this doesn't even become any issue? Also, poor baby will not be able to have food or drink for the next 3 or 4 days (only IV) and I know that is not going to make her happy. After she starts eating we will have to be here for another day or 2. So there is a very high possibility that we will have to be here longer than planned. Thank you so much for your prayers. Matt & I are doing well--just pretty drained & tired. Ready to see our baby girl! I will update after we get settled in our room and are able to watch Jane for awhile. Love to all of you!

Rachel <><

PS...Writing very fast, so please excuse unclarity or mistakes!

Jane's Big Surgery is Next Week

Just in case you're not on my email list, I wanted to let you know what's going on with Jane's surgery next week. I've included some prayer requests too. Thanks for praying for our family!



Hi friends & family!
I wanted to write to ask you to be in prayer for our Jane Leilet as she goes into surgery next Wednesday, August 25. As you probably remember, when we received the referral of our daughter in Ethiopia, we knew that she was very sick and (what we thought at the time) was in need of a liver transplant. However after lots more testing--both in Ethiopia and here in the US--it was concluded that she didn't need a transplant, but she does have a very large cyst that needs to be removed. The cyst is called a choledochal cyst and it is attached to her biliary duct. Because it is so large and is attached to many things in her abdomen, they will be removing the cyst, as well as her gallbladder and her entire biliary system. They are going to reroute her biliary duct directly from the liver into her intestines. The surgery will take about 4 hours, and while the doctor said that it is routine, he also let us know that it carries a risk because they will be working so close to the liver. Jane will have a very large scar across her abdomen, but at the end of her recovery, she should be just fine and have no further complications in her life from this cyst. Once it is out, the problem is gone. We will be at the hospital for at least 5 days, and then we will have to keep her in bed for about a week after returning home (yeah right!! She is the busiest 21 month old I've ever met!!) We would so greatly appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this surgery. Here are some specific ways you can pray if you feel so lead:

1. Please pray for a smooth surgery--no complications, no issues--and a smooth recovery

2. Please pray that this surgery will not cause Jane's attachment and bonding to us to falter in any way. This is such a big request to pray for. For the last 7 months that Jane has been home we have been working diligently to build her trust in us. We are praying that her trust in us only grows stronger through this surgery.

3. Please pray for Ava as she will be staying with my parents while we're in the hospital. Kids under 12 are not allowed to visit, so we will have to be away from her for awhile. She is very excited to stay with Grandma & PawPaw, but I know it's going to be tough on all of us to be separated

4. For no further issues to arise as a result of this surgery

Thank you so very much for praying! We will do our best to email you all after the surgery is complete next week to let you know how Jane is doing!

Korah

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
~Mother Teresa

I've realized in recent days that I have not allowed myself to truly process all that I saw and experienced while in Ethiopia to bring my daughter home. For 6 months I have placed all these thoughts on the backburner of my heart, soul & mind because, well to be honest, because it hurts to take it all in. I have really been wrestling lately with how I live my life here in comfortable America, knowing that not everyone lives like me. Most days I feel very torn between wanting to consume more and more stuff and wanting to sell everything I own and move my family to Ethiopia. What a paradox I am.

I would like to introduce you to the land of my daughter Jane Leilet. These are her people. I see so much beauty when I watch this video. So much beauty--in spite of the pain that rips my heart when I watch it. That is what I loved most about Ethiopia. The joy on the faces of people who had nothing. It was a joy that I don't know that I've truly experienced in my life. To be satisfied by Jesus alone. Jesus alone. Would you be satisfied in HIM if you lived like this:

The Village of Korah - A short documentary from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.

Ache (Continued)

This morning I was up early praying through the thoughts that I laid out in my last post, and I felt compelled to clarify one point. I really should get better at writing a post & then saving it as a draft, re-reading it the next day & THEN posting it. Sometimes I write as I think and so my words and thoughts probably aren't always as clear as I'd like them to be. Add to that that many people who read this blog have never met me in real life, so they don't know my heart completely, so maybe things come across differently than I meant them to be taken.

So my point of clarification:

I said "So much of what we do is meaningless." I was not referring to my duties and responsibilities as a wife and mother. I do not find those things meaningless. In fact, I find great fulfilment in them. I was however referring to all the clutter in my life (things that don't bring God's Kingdom to earth...things of this world) Those things in our life that don't draw anybody closer to Jesus--myself included. I have really been convicted to start weeding out those things in my life that are meaningless. So that is what I meant, for whatever it is worth.

As I was praying this morning, and searching God's Word about this subject of ache & of longing for our permanant home and such I was drawn to this Scripture:

3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.... 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:3-6, 15-17)

Such a good reminder--if I claim that I live in Him then I should be walking as Jesus walked. Can that be said of me? The world & it's desires pass away. I need to always be striving to live more simply.

I was on the blog of another family that we traveled with when we went to Ethiopia to bring Jane home. She had posted a poem that struck me so deeply. It goes so well with this subject that I'm thinking through & definitely had to share it. I pray it stirs your soul like it has done for mine.


DISTURB US
A Prayer by Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)

Disturb us, Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord,
to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Ache

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Sometimes my soul just aches and I can't really figure out why. I've been in this state for several days now. And I go through seasons in my life where I just get so stuck in this rut of longing & contemplation. I ache for so much more. My dreams feel so big, but sometimes my life feels very small. I struggle a lot with what I am so passionate about (missions, the poor, those in bondage, orphans) and how that lines up with how I live out my days (grocery shopping, making food for my kids, cleaning my house--again). I know that God has called me to be a wife and mom. But I also feel that He has called my family & I to serve the "least of these". Will this ache ever really go away? Probably not--because, until Christ returns, the problem of pain, of sin, of separateness from God will exist in our world. Do you have desires that just can't seem to be fulfilled? Dreams for the Kingdom of God that seem so far away, and yet so real that you could reach out and touch them?

I was talking to my friend Aprile awhile ago & she posed this question to me: "how does a stay at home Mom live a radical life for Jesus?" I have thought about that so much lately. I know that just raising my kids to love Jesus & love people will make me (and them for that matter) radical. But what about the other dreams He has placed in my heart? Will I always ache for their fulfillment, or will I see it one day with my own eyes? Is my job to pass these dreams to my children & watch them live them out? So much to ponder (and if you've been walking with me for any time at all you know that I am most definitely a dreamer, a ponderer, a thinker).

It is so obvious on days like today that I just don't fit in here. I was created for more than this life can offer me. I love my life--don't get me wrong. But until I see Jesus face to face, I will ache for more. He has set eternity into my heart. This world is such a fleeting moment. So much of what we do is meaningless.

Oh Father, please draw my heart to the things that matter most to you--remove any attachments that I hold to this world. Burn away that which does not stir Your heart. Remind me daily that this world is not my home. Make me the agent of change. Thank you for wanting to use an ordinary old girl like me. You are just so worthy.

Haiti Promo Video from Chi Lee on Vimeo.