Looks like a Winner

Every now and then, government inefficiency can work in your favor. We talked to Jacob this afternoon and it sounds like the container will almost definitely not be here before Saturday and probably not until Monday.

So we will both go to the Ixcan, return on Saturday, and hopefully receive the container early next week.

Thanks for all your prayer coverage on this. We knew God would work it out one way or another, we just didn't know how until today.

Ernest and Connie Braren, along with some of their friends, will be arriving here at our house tomorrow afternoon (about 12 hours after we leave), but we've left them a well stocked fridge and as many notes and things as we could. They've stayed here before, they'll survive a day and a half without us.

Well, tonight will be a short night. We'll leave here at 4am tomorrow, drive an hour or so to meet the Fickers, then several more hours up to the town we'll be working in. We'll start clinic when we get there on Thursday and go until we can't go anymore, then start over again on Friday. We'll go all day on Friday, then try to get back late, late Friday night. The rumor is that they have a list with about 650 names on it. Now, please direct your prayers to a safe and effective trip, with continued "success" in the container arena.

We have two very exciting pieces of news, besides all this. One, the hospital has re-opened. That's right, the Consulta Externa is back open in the State Hospital next to our house. They have different days for each "specialty" and they only give out 12 numbers each day for each of two doctors, but they are open nonetheless. They have also purchased a new X-ray machine and are working on a mammogram machine. The bad news is that no new agreement has been forged with the government. They are simply operating on last year's budget, with no increase for inflation. It's not unlikely that the money will run out at some point during the year, but for now, they're open. (Also, this year is an election year in Guatemala, which means the same thing it means in the US. Lots of promises, very little action.)

The other piece of exciting news is that Heidi is pretty convinced that she has been feeling the baby move, starting today! Like we said yesterday, we've seen lots of movement on ultrasound, but today was the first day to feel anything. It won't be long before she'll probably wish for a few motionless minutes every now and then, but it's still very exciting today!