Surgery - Marz

Back when Marz was in 7th grade, her middle school took a trip to Bintan Island in Indonesia. While there, she bent to pick up a canoe, twisted and POP!  Something happened...  We never really knew the damage until 4 weeks ago when she re injured her knee at basketball practice. Her dorm mom took her to a very good orthopedic specialist in Penang. After an MRI the doctor found major damage to her femur and to a bit of her tibia. He was stumped as to what caused so much damag. He kept asking if she had ever fallen hard on her knee. No, we said. 

So I made arrangements to fly to Malaysia as we knew we could not put off surgery any longer. 

After a long day of waiting at the hospital, Marz finally went in (an hour late) and this what the doctor found...

They pulled 4 chunks of cartilage out of her knee. They all totaled about the size of a 50 cent piece. 

When the good doctor was in "looking" around he found that it was the patella cartilage, from the first injury, floating around doing the damage to the rest of her knee. 

The fix these days is to drill many spots on the affected bone area to regrow the cartilage. So he drilled in three spots to start the regeneration. 

She was still quite drugged! ;)

Marz is not allowed to put any pressure on her right leg for 4 to 6 weeks. She also can't bend it to walk with her crutches. It must hang straight. She is also doing physio therapy 3 days a week. Hopefully she beats the 9 month window for recovery! :)

On a positive note, I have been having lunch with Marz every day for the last 1 1/2 weeks!

Happy healing Marz!!  xoxo

Christmas Banquet - M & T

Wow, I am really behind!!

Marz and Ted had a Christmas banquet at school early December. Tradition was for the girls to ask the boys out, but I am not sure that is still going on. 

Here are the two, with their friends all dressed up. :)

Looks like they all had a bunch of fun! :)

Basketball - Marz and Ted

So it's been a while since I have posted anything. I don't even have a good excuse... 

Here are a bunch of pictures the kids have sent me. If you notice Teddy's team playing against a bunch of girls, it's because Marz's team doesn't have any competition around the island. So the varsity girls play the JV boys. ;)

(Sorry Teddy, I don't know where your team photo went...)

Goooooo Eagles!!!

Christmas Happenings

There has been a lot of Christmas going on here!  

We first started with the school's play "The Grinch". Because of visa issues for our music teacher, we had parents step up and produce a wonderful play for our kids. 

So I was a bad mom and didn't get the kids in costume...  Gabby was the mom and Gav was her son in the Who Family. 

Then of course no Christmas party is complete until Santa and Mrs. Clause show up!

Chris thought he would give Santa's lap a try... Pretty sure he was being a bad boy! ;)

Mrs. Clause came and gave me a snuggle during dinner. She is just the sweetest!

And then Mr. Clause got a little jealous. So he had to have his picture taken as well.

It was a great family night out at the Lupe!

On to the next party...

Gabby was asked to do the opening for the big Freeport Christmas celebration. 

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Well, this was a big post and I forgot to finish and upload.... So on to the next one!

International Travelers

Who would have thought?!?!  

I sometimes sit back and think to myself how life is so different from 5 years ago. If someone would have told me that I would be sending my two young teenagers off to boarding school, in another country, I would have told them they were nuts!  If they would have told me that I would let them fly internationally all by themselves, I would have told them they were certifiably INSANE!  

Well, maybe I am the one that is insane!  Here are Marz and Ted flying from SIN to PEN all on their own!  Eeks!!

Dad taking a picture of them, from a distance, while they are waiting to go through immigration. 

They are so grown up! :)

How do I get through this, you may ask...  Well, I pray A LOT! 

Prayers for their safety while traveling and peace for this momma! :)

xo 

PS. I all fairness, I have already let Marz fly from PEN to Bali on her own... But that was so last school year! ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving for us this year was quite different for our family. Chris, Mersades, and Teddy were in Singapore on a visa run so Marz and Ted could get back in to Indonesia at Christmas time. Gav, Gabs, and I were in Tembagapura keeping the home fires burning. Actually we could have gone to Sungapore, but that's just more missed school for the younger two. :). 

Anyway, even though our immediate family was split apart for the holiday, we, Gav, Gab, and I, had our Tembagapura family to celebrate with. 

Chris, Marz, and Ted, may not have had a surrogate family to spend the day with, but they had each other. The kids hadn't seen Chris since August, when they left for school. So they spent the day shopping where Chris had a fun time spoiling the two oldest!

To round off the day of shopping, Chris and the kids went looking for a place to eat and found Chili's. In the words of Chris, "At least it's American!" ;)

So this is the new "norm" for us. We may not all be together to celebrate Thanksgiving, but we all can still be thankful for so many things!  I am very thankful for extended families, for all the opportunities we have, and for those times when we can all be back together!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Feel Blessed! xo 

Beautiful Morning!

First time I have ever sat on my upper balcony. Beautiful morning... My feet are warm! :)