Good News …

After all that we have been through recently, it was definitely relieving to hear some good news.

Yesterday, we got up early and boarded a plane down to Port-au-Prince to have a Neurologist check out Micah and make sure that everything was OK. There were a couple of different possibilities of what happened to Micah on Saturday night, but only one good one – it was a fluke. In order to find this out, though, Micah would have to have an EEG to make sure that all his brain waves and electrical impulses (so to speak) were normal. If they were not normal there was a strong likelihood that he may have something as serious as Epilepsy.

When we arrived at the doctor, we were several hours early for our appointment, but the doctor graciously saw Micah immediately. He did a physical examination, and everything was normal, and for us this seemed true, because Micah acted fully like himself yesterday for the first time in a couple of days. The doctor then had us begin the process of doing the EEG. A lot of the time, they give the babies a light sedative, so that they remain still; but the doctor wanted to try and test Micah without this. This is something we preferred as well, but we just wanted to the test to be done properly and accurately. As the nurse was putting on his electroid-thingies, though, Micah, as normal, decided it was play time, and needless to say had a very tough time remaining still for the test. We could do nothing but laugh and feel a sense of relief, because this was at his best. Eventually, we got Micah settled down enough to get enough charting recorded for the Doctor to analyze.

After his EEG analysis, the Doctor told us that there was nothing unusual or troubling about Micah’s EEG; in fact, he said it looks very good and normal. This was good news! No, great news! It was for sure the news that we were hoping for and everybody had been praying for.

We sincerely appreciate all of your cares, prayers, and concerns, and we know that they made a huge difference.

Blessings!

A Tough Year …

Well I know no other way of saying it except just saying it: it has been a very tough year for the Jones family!

This year so far has been wrought with all sorts of drama, especially medical drama, and yet it has just begun 18 days ago. If you want to know the absolute truth, though, it has been a tough six months or so for us. My surgery in August, Lorraine’s long struggle with breast infections, Lorraine’s recent struggle with her gall bladder (we think), and, most recently a rough night last night with Micah.

Last night, Lorraine and I put Micah down as normal and then relaxed for about an hour before going to bed ourselves. In the process of getting ourselves ready for bed, I heard some weird noises coming from Micah in our room, and so I rushed in to grab and he started vomiting. This is hard enough to have to watch and deal with for us, but then he turned pale and was turning limp. Now this was just plain scary to us! We rushed then to get someone to help us, and thankfully, because of the good and unexpected grace of God, a medical doctor missionary was passing through at the hotel right down the street. We went to see him and he took care of Micah and diagnosed him with having a seizure. Scary stuff for us and him! Micah is doing better today, and doesn’t seem to be showing any scary signs, but we are still going to go to see a Pediatrician here as well as a Neurologist to have an EEG done to clarify Micah’s seizure last night.

As I have said, this year so far has been a tough year for the Jones family, and we simply ask that you pray for us. We can’t help but feel like the enemy is trying to discourage us and confuse, because of all of the good things that have been happening here at Sonlight. Pray that Micah doesn’t have any sort of more serious condition. Pray that Lorraine gets healthier and is healed from her illnesses. Pray that our trip to Port-au-Prince to see the doctor goes well. And pray that we continue to form deep relationships with our students despite any attempts otherwise by the enemy.

Please Pray!

The Jones Family @ the Sonlight Christmas Program (check out Micah in his Tux)

The Best Laid Plans …

Well we just returned to Haiti after a brief Christmas vacation in the United States. We had tons of things that we were planning on doing: updating the blog; finishing our December newsletter; visiting friends and families in VA and NC; going to one of Lorraine’s closest friends weddings; and mostly just relaxing, but it was not to come to pass.

After we got to Virginia, we were able to relax a little bit and spend some time with my family. The only thing that wasn’t completely relaxing was the fact that I asked to preach at my Journey Church in Springfield, VA, where my Dad is currently the Lead Pastor. I had an idea of what I wanted to preach on, and I certainly don’t get as nervous with preaching as I do with other things, but preaching to a new set of people is always intimidating.

Things started to get crazy, though, when Lorraine started feeling ill. Previously, before we went to Haiti and while we were in Haiti, Lorraine had a terrible time with breastfeeding issues and she was constantly in pain and not feeling well. When we went back to the States those issues seemed to clear up, which was awesome, until something else fell into its’ place.

After a couple days of being back, Lorraine started to have some intense pain in her back under her ribs. The pain was so intense that it was waking her up in the middle of the night and preventing her from going back to sleep. Sadly, the pain was also making her extremely nauseous, and just generally leaving her not feeling well. Her pain really came to a head on the Saturday night before I was supposed to preach at about 3:30 in the morning, which needless to say didn’t leave me properly rested for preaching, even though I still did. We decided at that point, though, that something needed to be done and we needed to take her into the doctor or the emergency room, and so we did on Monday evening – the first time. Our trip to the emergency room proved long and fairly non-productive, because we found out nothing; and if anything our trip left us with more questions than answers. The pain never really went away, and so we once again found ourselves at the emergency room at about 4 in the morning on Friday. This once again proved somewhat fruitless, except for the last ER Doctor who gave Lorraine a diagnosis of a kidney stone. It was good to have some kind of answer, however, when we took Micah in before we left to our family Doctor, she diagnosed Lorraine with gall bladder issues, which we had suspected all along. What the issues are we don’t know, but we are taking it on faith that the Lord will keep her healthy and safe while we are here in Haiti.

Appropriately, Micah also had a tough time over our break. Some of it was probably being in a different surrounding, and being surrounded by a lot of other people more regularly; but a lot of it, most likely, was his sensing his mommies pain. Micah kept us up most nights and constantly on our toes and so we definitely at this point feel sleep deprived.

Like I said, there was a bunch of stuff that we wanted to do and that we had planned on doing. For those of you whom regularly support us, we wanted to get you all a special Christmas card from Haiti, but we just ran out of time. It certainly doesn’t mean, though, that we didn’t want to or we didn’t try, or that we don’t think about you, or we don’t regularly pray for you, because all of these things are simply not true. We are truly grateful for all our supporters, because it is with your prayers that we know things were not worse than they were and we know that things will get better by. Things never seem to be normal, straightforward, and easy for Lorraine and I, but we appreciate the lessons we have learned and the growth we have felt because of them. You know what they say (or at least what Steinbeck says), “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Blessings!