Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your prayers, phone calls, notes! We love you all! Anna is still running a fever, although lower than yesterday so I am hoping that the new antibiotic is attacking whatever is going on in her body. Right now, she and Ryan are at the hospital while Elijah, Rachel, and I are resting up at home.

Some examples of how we have seen God's all-knowing hand in the past couple of days--
When Anna was still sick after 8 days, having more symptoms, not less, the clinic where I would normally take her was not able to see her for 2 more days, leading me to take her to a different clinic which as Ryan has posted, unknown to us at the time, is the best place for pediatric care for expats in Shanghai (as explained by the Dr Anna would have seen at our normal clinic), and then following an apt cancellation by the first Dr we saw, her case has been changed to a different Dr. (also described by Ryan as the really great Dr our neighbor loves.) We have been very happy with her care of Anna. She welcomes all of my questions and is able, to the best of her ability, to explain the answers. (her English is quite good.) that is all very long and probably hard to understand, but to put it in a couple of words, God is so good, and we see his hands holding and taking care of Anna and the rest of us.

The reason for her fever is still unknown to the drs. They have checked her stool, her urine (which the levels continue to get better, but the fever remains), her kidneys (and whatever else they would check in an ultrasound while looking at the kidneys) and everything is looking good. The Dr. said Anna could have had an immunity to the first antibiotic that was given to her, and that is why her fever continued to rise. The Dr. said the antibiotic that she is now receiving by IV has a broad range of things that it should hit, so the hope is that her temp will go back to normal. If it has not by tomorrow, Mon, than she said she would call in specialists to get their opinions on what is going on. Pray we do not have to go that far.

Anna is really doing well. She seems to be less fearful of the Drs and nurses in general, although still is constantly fearful that she is going to be poked again or that they are going to take out the IV. She greatly missed Elijah last night, she wanted to sleep with him (still a novelty as Elijah just moved into the now shared room early this week.), and they were both very excited to see each other this morning. It was cute to see them snuggling in bed watching a movie together.

I am doing much better today than yesterday. It was a fearful time to know that Anna was going to be staying in a Chinese hospital, but the care of the nurses has really been wonderful. They have gone out of their way to make sure Anna is as comfortable as possible and well taken care of. This hospital experience is far from the stories that the Travel Dr warned me of when I had my apt with him talking about life in China (before we left in Nov). The room and hospital itself is very similar to one in the States. I have a peace for the Dr that is caring for Anna, that she is going to do what is in Anna's best interest, and an overall peace knowing that Anna's heavenly Father loves her more than I, and that he has a perfect plan for Anna and this is part of it. He is in control and He is good all that time, no matter what.

Thank you again for your prayers and love for us. We will keep you posted!
Aimee