On our way home to Texas

Greetings from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

Two days after I posted the last update, Matthew became ill. He went to a lunch meeting on Thursday and came home thinking that he was getting a sinus infection. He went to bed and hasn't left since. He has had a temp of up to 101 and has been unable to keep anything down but crackers.

Because of how sick he has been, we've decided to come home early.

We had planned a dinner party at our Guesthouse for Saturday night, but had to cancel, which we were really disappointed about. We did call Dr. Segrest, Matthew's childhood doctor who is working here in Addis, and asked him and his wife, Becky, to come look at Matthew to get his perspective on what could be wrong. He was very gracious to take a taxi all the way out to the Guesthouse to meet with us and look at Matthew. According to Dr. Segrest, having a temperature and vomiting is very common for new arrivals in Addis. There are many things here that can make a person sick, one of which is the storage of leftover foods and refrigeration. We came across some very alarming things, trust me! He recommended that Matthew take the Cipro antibiotic pills that I brought.

It was really great seeing Dr. & Mrs. Segrest and having them pray over us.

Matthew's been feeling a bit better today (Sunday) and seemed to have a little more energy this morning. At least his humor is coming back and he made me laugh several times.

After I convinced him that we needed to get home, we decided that we would call Matthew's brother to get his help in rescheduling our flights for the U.S., hoping and praying to get out of Addis Saturday evening.

He was able to get our flights rescheduled, but we were too late to be able to leave Saturday evening. So, we have reservations to leave Addis this coming Tuesday night (July 8^th) at 10:45pm and I am so thankful to know that we'll be on our way home in less than 36 hours. You just can't imagine how hard the last few days have been physically and emotionally. Trust me when I say that I have a new perspective on how easy we have it in the States!

We will be arriving into Austin around 6pm on Wednesday evening. We will be straggling in, I'm sure, but I, especially, will be extremely grateful to be home. I will have someone send an email from my Google Mail account, letting everyone know what time we will be arriving.

In the meantime, we covet your prayers for healing for Matthew and for a hedge of protection to be placed around me and the kids so that we will be able to get home without getting sick. Please pray for no delays with our flight out of Addis, as the rainy season has definitely started and it rains every evening. We can't wait to see everyone when we get home on Wednesday night.

God bless!

Heather