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!