Praises and Prayer Requests

Today has been a very long day. We spent another pretty much sleepless night with Lily last night. She was up coughing all night long and it started sounding worse. This morning she was wheezing so after breakfast we decided we'd better have a doctor check her out. Our guide gave us the address of a clinic nearby at the Garden Hotel. We got there and waited not too long before seeing the doctor on duty. He ordered some blood tests and a chest X-Ray. Before he sent us for the tests he was telling us how "these babies" (referring to babies in orphanages) always have problems and that Lily didn't look too good. He then told us to wait about an hour and a half for the test results. We hung around the waiting room. Today was my true breaking-in as a mother...I've never been so worried in all of my life. Lily was playing as usual and Robert and I were just kind of staring off into nowhere...wondering, praying. When the doctor finally came back he showed us her X-Ray. He showed us there was something on her lung. He ruled out bronchitis, but said it could be pneumonia or mono. If it was mono she would have to be hospitalized and we would not be able to leave on Friday. My heart sank. The blood test results showed some things were off (I can't remember specifically right now) but it could be malnutrition (not surprising) or something worse. He recommended a nebulizer treatment and that we wait to see the Pediatric Specialist who was coming in at 5:00 (by now it was now 3:30). Everything in me wanted to get the heck out of there and just get my baby home. Being sick in a foreign country is not exactly ideal! Robert and I decided we would meet with him...better safe than sorry. She took her treatment, screaming the whole time. Afterwards we went down to get something to eat. I couldn't even think about eating, but Lily hadn't eaten since her bottle at lunch. After we ate we got back up to the office and ended up waiting another hour for the Pediatrition. He was stuck in traffic and the nurse kept coming in telling us "15 more minutes". That was a long 15 minutes! We were glad we waited. Dr. Nong diagnosed her with pnuemonia. She got another nebulizer treatment and he prescribed 3 different medications for her. He was so kind and understanding. After going to get her prescription, he came back and said that 2 of them were not available at the clinic and asked us to follow him to his hospital so we could get it there. We all shared a cab and he generously paid the cab driver...refusing to take our money. Once we got inside the hospital he took us up to get the prescriptions. Robert thanked him again for the cab, and he in turn thanked us for adopting one of their orphans. My heart melted. We got the precriptions and he walked us out to hail us a cab back to our hotel. We came back long enough to feed Lily again, give her her antibiotics, check in with our moms and grab a quick bite before we had to head out for her next treatment at 10:00. The same nurse helped us again. She was very sweet. Lily screamed again for a while, but finally gave up and fell asleep. The nurse also told us how grateful she was that people like us come to adopt the babies. She told us that we were very lucky, and so was Lily. We agreed! Now we are back at the hotel and completely exhausted. We have to go back tomorrow for 2 more treatments. One at 9:30 and again at 5:30. We also have an appointment at the consulate at 3:00 to take an oath. Antoher busy day. Now that this story has turned into a novel...here are our praises and prayer requests:

Praises:
1)That we took Lily to the doctor today rather than waiting until tomorow or until we got home. She will now be able to finish her treatments in time for us to fly home. Who knows what would have happened if we had waited.
2)That we got to meet Dr. Nong and for his kindness to Lily and to us and doing all that he can to help us.
3)For the families here and for all of you at home who are continually praying for us...we are more grateful than we can say.

Prayer Requests:
1)Please pray for healing for Lily...that she would return to complete health quickly, and that she is able to get some good rest tonight.
2)For Robert and I...that we would trust God in this situation and we will find comfort in His soverignty.

I feel much better about this than I did when we first got to the clinic. At least we now know what the problem is and are able to do something for her. Thank you again for your continued prayers...please keep them coming. We can use all of the prayers we can get.