hong kong hospital days.

there's a growing list of things that i never expected would happen when moving halfway across the world to east asia. i think the show-stopping, list-topping experience happened last week when i got to spend four days in a hospital in Hong Kong. granted i still have seven months to go, i can't imagine anything else more unexpected, frightening, yet faith-building could happen. 

things started when i got a call from our international doctors tuesday morning advising i needed to travel to "a medical center of excellence outside of mainland" in order to see western doctors. if you know me, you know medical things just FREAK me out to the max. naturally, instant tears burst forth. i had been having health issues for about a month but had seen the global doctor here in town and just kept thinking things would get better. i guess after a month of persistent symptoms, i was at a "danger level" of concern. thus, my wonderful friends scott and cat helped make arrangements, and the next morning at 3:45 AM, my roomie, kathleen, and i were up and headed to the airport to jump over to Hong Kong. 

having not seen the sunshine for the past couple months, when we landed we were mesmerized by the grandiose of blue skies and sunshine! we readily decided we loved Hong Kong!! everything we kept seeing made us conclude that HK felt like America. about an hour after landing, however, we were at the western-trained doctor's office where he deemed i needed to immediately be admitted to this hospital for observation because my health was at a dangerous concern. (instant tears once again...beginning to see a theme? i later found out this doctor wrote that i was "emotionally unstable" when he admitted me to the hospital because of all this crying...go figure asia. i wanted to ask him what he would think if he was in a foreign hospital with words like 'disease', 'condition', 'procedure' being constantly thrown around...). so about an hour later i was checking into the hospital.

maybe that's a mixture of terror and shock...what is my life these days?!

the next few days kinda feel like i blur as i endured many medical things i'm still pretty scared of! after about 17 IV stab attempts, they finally got that in. thus through IVs, blood work, x-rays, so many medicines, a restricted diet, and even a colonoscopy...i emerged on the other side of it. shockingly each medical procedure kept yielding negative results so finding the root of my problem proved troublesome. finally (the doctor might've just been tired of my tears), after four days in that hospital, he released me with a simple diagnosis and meds for the next month. 

some Hong Kong nuns came a' christmas caroling for us!

although this tops the charts for undesirable circumstances while living abroad, i cannot deny the abundant opportunity to learn while i was there and the clear blessings the Lord bestowed while in HK:

• kathleen was SUCH a gift to have as my travel companion, friend, and nurse. she tirelessly served me in the sweetest ways, had the most calming presence, and even willingly slept on foam mats on the hospital floor one night...talk about a one-of-a-kind GEM of a friend who loves me so well!
• we were home for CHRISTMAS: leaving for HK on december 18th left me quite uncertain what the holiday would look like. with each passing day my fear that i would be spending this christmas in a hospital seemed ever more likely. sweet kathleen bought us christmas decorations and everything. thankfully the Lord answered the prayers of many people and got us home just in time!
• the most precious nurse who came each evening. i have no idea what was different about her (i pray it was that she knew the Lord), but this sweet lady who didn't speak a lick of english just brightened my days in the best ways! she had such JOY that radiated forth. we would giggle together, attempt to communicate in mandarin (our semi-common language), look at pictures of our families, and just laugh each time she came in my room. she was such treasure of a gift!
  
• the reminder that NEVER ONCE DID I EVER WALK ALONE. this song has gotten my sister through some tough seasons in her little corner of the world, and it did just that for me. not just in lyric, but in the near-tangible presence of the Lord i felt with me in that hospital. as i was wheeled into different rooms for various procedures and all seemed so foreign, the one constant i could cling to was my Jesus! 
• scott's father-like presence in taking care of literally every detail of our week in HK. he was constantly checking on me, my health symptoms, my emotional state, and handling every little and big detail of getting things worked out. his aide kept us at such peace each day!
• HEALING: praying for healing is something i've always been a bit nervous to ask because it often feels like the impossible. while laying in that hospital bed i was often reminded of mark 11:23 and the Lord's power to move mountains when we truly BELIEVE. saturday morning (the day i was released), i woke up with such a feeling of hope and a confidence in His healing power. i finally just asked with full faith for healing to come over my body because the medical tests sure weren't finding anything. (along with my prayers there were hundreds of others lifting me up....and wow does He answer). not even three hours later, i was being released from that hospital...i can so confidently say that i have been privileged to feel that our God truly is a HEALER!

i mean just look at those smiles: besties.

this is my journal from the morning i was released...He SURE does answer.

now that i'm back home (it's still a bit weird i now call this place home), i have been reflecting upon this hospital stay and just seeing God in it in so many new ways. His provision is perfect, His timing so incomprehensible, yet His love so evident. despite crying more in five days than the rest of my life combined, despite longing for my parents to be at that hospital with me, despite never knowing what was going on or why my body wasn't getting better, despite seemingly everything going against me...the Lord continues to give me such contentment here, and i can still say i truly love my life here in EA! thank you for praying with me, texting me, emailing my mother, and any/every other way you've helped support me in this process!!

before we flew back, kathleen and i had a quick chance to see this spectacular view of HK!

not your typical class field trip.

i'm a big fan of field trips. they're often a way to get a hands-on learning experience that can impart far greater knowledge than simply sitting in the classroom. i would say my first asian class field trip did exactly that! we've been studying language for 3 months now and are finally to the point where we can converse simply with people around town. thus, our teacher (laoshi shen) decided she would teach us to make "jiaozi" (aka dumplings): from start to finish.

we began our day meeting laoshi shen at the busiest market in town. if i ever doubted that i live in asia, i just needed about one second in this place to be reminded of the absurdity of my surroundings. we joke about it, but you can literally find ANYTHING in this place: flowers, vegetables, dental work, heat lamps, scooter repairs, woks, key makers, masseuse...i mean anything. (sometimes we longingly say somewhere in this market there must be FRO-YO...oh how i wish!) as you can see below, the rumor about asians eating dog proved ever too true as we saw an entire pup for sale amidst the other meat; welcome to asian life. this might've been the most SHOCKING hour and a half in all of asia....

just your local dentist...

yes, that's right: an entire dog worth of meat for sale. help me.

cause who wouldn't want blood with their fish heads?
(fraser's steppin a little too close, no wonder we take our shoes off before coming inside) 

duck dynasty aint got nothin on asia...

finding an asian teacher amidst hundreds upon hundreds of asians was a challenge in itself. however, after our class finally all met up, we were given assignments of various ingredients to locate, ask the price of, and bargain for the specific amount we wanted. it was an empowering experience as it forced us to utilize our language and yielded successful results!

veggies on veggies on veggies on veggies

a whole new view on buying meat...stabbed with a metal hook means it's fresh, right?

talk about fresh.

tongxue (classmates) explorin'

after gathering all of the needed ingredients, we scooted over to our teachers house to begin making jiaozi. this was a cultural experience in itself as it took 4 hours to chop, prepare, and cook the jiaozi properly! laoshi shen invited over some of her asian students to join us. due to their cultural norms, they would let us help with very little but did 'teach' us quite a bit. it was a joy to hear about their hometowns, fellowship together as classmates, and truly feel welcomed and at home in our teachers house. 

choppin' for hours.

assembling the jiaozi

one little, two little, many little jiaozi.

the final result: we made hundreds...

in the end we got to eat the long-anticipated jiaozi. it was DELICIOUS! we fried some and steamed others, but my favorite were the fried jiaozi (no surprise to those who know my eating habits). i love that we had a chance to put our language to the test and the opportunity to learn to cook such a traditional asian food! i'm excited for more class adventures to come...

abundant thanks and a big asian WAR EAGLE.

i feel like the Lord was graciously preparing my heart for what this holiday season would look like, but WOW did He exceed my expectations in how He lavished contentment, grace, gratitude, joy, peace, and so much more upon my asian thanksgiving! the two weeks leading up to thanksgiving offered opportunities for us to share thanksgiving with some of our new friends. it is neat to be able to share not only an american holiday but also the true reason for our thankfulness with these sweet friends! we even shared our kindergarten tradition of making "turkey hands" together...i guess when you're new to something it can be fun at any age!!

our actual thanksgiving day was full of fellowship, food, and family (as i'm sure most of yours was)! wednesday we commandeered the boys house, pooled our decorating resources and creativity, and set some festive tables for our crowd of 30. then we got busy preparing all the thanksgiving classics we could accomplish. i was pretty impressed with the bounty that filled our table and provided the sweetest taste of home: pumpkin bread, mashed potatoes, fried turkey, green bean casserole, apple caramel spiced cake, sweet potato casserole, eggplant casserole, and everything else you could imagine. i don't think i've ever been so full after a thanksgiving meal...while living in asia i think my stomach forgot how to handle normal american feasts! it was a delight to celebrate this day of thanks with my new kind of family: my asian family. these people i'm living with are far from just friends or classmates but have truly become family in every sense of the word: and for that i'm so thankful! 

we continued our holiday weekend by hopping on a 2-hour fast train to another city. we found some of the best american food we've had since we arrived, some great shopping, and wonderful time with friends we've made who live all over this region! saturday morning we woke up to a good ole turkey bowl where our guys got their game on. we had a blast watching them play and fellowshipping with friends we don't often get to see! this little bit of football made me feel right at home. after a quick two days out of town, we took a late night train back home to make it in time for the IRONBOWL!

and oh my goodness are we glad we did!!! i'm pretty sure no one could have missed what happened in this game (unless you've been hiding under a rock)! never have i ever been more proud to be an auburn tiger! cheesy as it sounds, it was a glorious victory!! we set our alarms for 4 AM and gathered 14 deep to watch this epic game. we were on the edge of our seats most of the game, and i very much enjoyed texting back and forth to america and uganda as friends and family watched together. then the last couple minutes of the fourth quarter happened, and i'm think i might've had a heart attack of excitement!!!! that was literally the craziest, BEST, most ridiculous football game i've ever seen! running 109 yards to score the game-winning TD begs only one question: hey nick, ya got a sec?! we were jumping around, dancing, screaming, crying, and every other emotion of happy you can imagine...we might've woken up the entire 22-story building! watching the entire stadium storm the field only fueled our disbelief and excitement. in a lot of ways it still feels like a dream!! since we couldn't join in the typical toomer's rolling, we made our own asian toomer's corner which earned us quite a few funny looks! nevertheless, a big WAR EAGLE was raised from our little corner of the earth!! it was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend...and provided yet another thing to be thankful for! 

i am amazed that each day the Lord continues to do abundantly and exceedingly more than ALL i could ask or imagine. He has given me great contentment in this place and His faithfulness continues to draw me to Himself. the JOY He offers is truly INEXPRESSIBLE and FULL OF GLORY! today i'm thankful to know who to give thanks to.