The Georges in Peru

I always say, "There's never a bad day for a run in Arequipa."  That's because the temperatures are mild all year round and we live in a desert, so it rarely rains.  But when it does rain, the city infrastructure is unprepared for it and this last week it rained and washed out some pipelines leaving us, ironically, without water.  Today is the Arequipa marathon.  It really didn't work for me to run even the 10K with Amy's condition, but since Lyle was here and awake at 6:30 am, I went for a run on one of my regular routes.  When I came home, I couldn't take a shower, because there is a water cut and our backup tank was empty!  Luckily, the Peats, missionaries from England, live nearby and said a phrase we've heard a lot lately, "If there is anything we can do, let us know."  They have their own well, and graciously allowed us to shower at their house.  Good thing since we have church tonight!  Amy has felt better today than yesterday, and plans on going to church tonight.  The nice shower probably has contributed positively to that!

Here are the leaders of the Arequipa Marathon at the 30K point near our house.  Hope they got a shower when they were done.

Today I stopped to be a good Samaritan and help the driver of the fire-extinguisher company van who had backed into a hole.  Why is there a hole like this in the street?  I won't pretend to know.  As I was unrolling my tow rope, five other guys came by and helped push him out.  I really liked how the paint job on the van fit the surroundings!

Amy had a pretty good day today.  She took one pain pill and ate well.

This morning when Amy woke up, I asked her, "How do you rate your headache pain this morning?"  "It doesn't hurt at all!" she said.  "And I'm not nauseated!"  She felt good.  She still can't walk without assistance but she feels good and even ate some mango, leftover birthday cake, and a cup of coffee.  You can probably imagine how encouraging this is to me!   Thanks for praying specifically for her headaches.

Yesterday about 10 people from our church showed up with a birthday cake for Sarah (12th), Amy (8th) and Mia (19th).  We sang some hymns and ate cake.  Amy sat with them, but was too nauseated to eat any cake.  

Last night after our family devotions we told the kids that the neurosurgeon confirmed our fears that there wasn't really anything to be done at this point.  We spend the next two hours crying and praying on the bed with Amy as a family.  My heart goes out to any of you who has had to tell your small children that one of their parents is dying.  

Amy doesn't want to be taken to a hospital, and since I have lots of help and I'm not trying to do anything else at the moment, we'll take care of her here at home.  Last night she had her first seizures since the surgery.  Her head is causing her severe pain despite the Oxycontin.  If we were in the USA, she'd be in hospice care.  

The current plan is that when she dies we'll have a quick funeral here (they tend to do them within 24 hours in Peru) and then we will go back to the USA as soon as we have all the proper paperwork done to have a memorial service at Christ Community Church and then return to Peru until Ben finishes his last year of highschool in December.  Mia, Paul and I will return to Peru after Ben is settled in America.

Yes, we are pretty shocked, since 3 weeks ago, she was doing super.  But we know God is in control.

Amy has been suffering terrible headaches from her brain tumor and she ran out of her pain pills from the States.  The director of one of the ministries we partner with in Peru was sure she had some pain meds in their warehouse.  The problem was that they were in a collection of over 100 boxes that each had to be gone through.  Ben and Paul went with Amy and me to try to dig through the boxes.  What a nice surprise when we were met by a team of about 10 missionaries and 10 Peruvians to help carry boxes and search through them!  It took just over an hour to go through them all.  We found some Tylenol 3's, which isn't as strong as we had hoped for, but they should help until we get something stronger.

Somewhere in there might be some pain meds!