Singapore

Dear Friends and family,

We are all in the Singapore Airport waiting for our flight that leaves at 10:30 pm. It has been a long day as we had to be out of our hotel at 12:00 and so we had a lot of time to kill. So we went to Borders Bookstore, had some Coffee Bean then went to lunch at Subway (big treat) then went to watch a movie but only Nick and Luke watched a movie because the one that Anna and i wanted to see had an over 16 years of age limit on it and as you have probably heard, Singapore is tight with its rules and there was no getting her into see it, although i am sure it would have been fine. So, Anna and i hung out, she drew, i played scrabble on Nick's Palm Pilot and then we roamed a bit in the mall, had a Starbucks and then they finished the movie and we headed here to the airport.

Yesterday wasn't a whole lot more exciting...so much for an exciting get away from Indonesia. We woke up in the morning to hurry up and head to a doctor's appt. for Annaliese at 9:30. We met Dr. Siow and are very impressed with him. He is a neurologist and one of the few headache specialists in Singapore. He has studied in Boston, Philadelphia and Ireland and has been back in Singapore since 2003 practicing. It was so nice to finally sit down with someone that had the expertise in this area and was able to pinpoint what most likely is going on.

Basically after listening to us and checking out Annaliese he thinks that she has two things going on. One is that she most likely has Rebound headaches or Medicine Overuse Headache. This is typical of someone that has a chronic headache and has been using medicines such as ibuprofen and tylenol etc. to help deal with the pain. Our first goal is to get rid of that problem...which can take up to a month for all of those types of medicines to be out of her body. She is on steroids this week to help deal with the pain as she isn't to take anything but the Steroids and another drug that she was on before but wasn't in a high enough dosage. Then after dealing with that we will begin dealng more directly with the main problem which is called "New Daily Persistant Headache". If you google that you will find out more about the type of headache she has. It usually happens after or with having a virus, the person can remember the exact day that the headaches started (which we can-Jan. 3) and there is a sensitivity to light/sound with some nausea and the headache is 24/7. The bummer is that it is one of the hardest headaches to treat and it could be up to a year or more before we see any relief. If she is not better by the end of May when they come back for visa work again, she will probably have to be admitted to the hospital for 4-5 days to be pretty much knocked out for a time so as to break the cycle. We are really hoping we don't have to go that route. So, please pray that all of the treatments will work quickly and thoroughly. She is very weary of having the headaches but i think for all of us knowing a bit better the type of headache she has helps-now we just have to figure out how to support her and help her through the pain. Please pray especially for the next few days since the headaches could get really bad since she is not able to take any pain reliever. We will plan on missing school if needed so that will mean making up school work as well. It seems never ending but we are getting to the end of the school year so that is a real praise. :)

Please continue to pray for new teachers for the elementary. We are still in need of 4 staff members-Kinder, first, second and fifth. My heart is trying to not worry-keep giving that over to the Lord on a daily basis but still wondering what God is up to. If you know anyone that might be interested tell them or send them our website www.mountainviewics.org Thanks...

That's all for now. Hope to give you a good update by next week about Anna's headaches. Oh yah...praise that the kids and Nick go their social cultural visa with no problem and probably in another month will get their residence visa. :)