100 days in Korea and 100+ days to Celebrate

Today marks our 100th day in Korea. I can't believe it's been that long already. The days really do fly by fast when you're having fun! Of course it hasn't all been fun, but at least entertaining for most of the time. We are learning to accept and deal with the things that originally frustrated us about living here. We've grown and changed some as a family and though we've learned a lot of things about this new culture and country, sadly, our vocabulary of Korean is not as vast as I had expected it to be by this point! That is a goal for our next 100 days. We've realize that 'Charades' is an acceptable means of communication all over the world and seems to be understood by everyone! LOL!... and also that the local Korean people are quite comical if you watch them for any amount of time and we find them to be some of the most friendly, trusting and generous people we've ever met.

Now for the second milestone... Last spring, Faith Elaina was diagnosed with an immunoglobulin deficiency after being constantly sick from about 18 months old on. Nothing severe, but lots of colds that hung around for weeks and eventually turned into infections one right after the other. They changed antibiotics several times because she was taking it so often and they feared it wasn't working anymore and that is why she would never be well more than a week. Finally, after a few blood tests we realized that her antibody levels were extremely low and also thankfully, that there wasn't anything else wrong with her! Often times low antibody levels are a sign of Leukemia or other serious disease so this was the best possible outcome with her having these very low levels. The doctors told us that some people are just born with low levels for no apparent reason. They said that she was just going to get sick more often and her sicknesses could turn into infections much easier than other people that had high antibody levels and could fight them off. Her immunoglobulin levels would make her more susceptible to other diseases as she got older and there was little we could do other than try our best to keep her healthy. He said children can sometimes continue to get more until they are age 6 but it will not be much of a change from age 2 to age 6. We took lots of recommended precautions and made changes in the house to keep germs and irritants away from her. Then I did a lot of reading on my own about natural immune boosting foods and vitamins and such that would improve her nutrition and...I prayed. I prayed a lot. It was hard to see my little girl so sick all the time. She was sick so often that I don't think she knew what it was like to be well. Being sick was just normal for her and she went about her day as cheerfully as she could like any other toddler. Before we moved, I think the longest span of time she went without being sick or on antibiotics was 2 weeks. But today we are celebrating because us being in Korea for 100 days also marks Faith Elaina being well....not even so much as a sniffle... for over 100 days!!

The last time she was sick was a week before we left the U.S. I remember it clearly because I was worried about flying with her when she wasn't feeling good. Praise God I didn't have to, that trip was horrific enough! (If you haven't heard about it, you can read about it here.) 
I know that lots of our friends and family have kept her in their prayers also.

Thank you for continuing to think of her, we appreciate your prayers so much! I don't know if this amazing streak of being free of sickness has to do with the great power of our prayers or the changes we've made in our home and her diet, or maybe its all of it. But I do know without a doubt that God is in control of it all and I owe Him all my thanks for the last 100+ healthy days for all of us. What a blessing that has been! And a HUGE answer to my prayers! I was so worried about bringing her to a foreign country with new germs and viruses...just the long airplane ride alone had me anxious about her health. But God is good and has protected her so far.

There's been such a change in her personality too because of it. She was a happy, sweet girl before but you just can't help being fussy and whiney when your nose is running and your ears ache and you can't sleep cause you're coughing all night. For me, who was and still is with her pretty much round the clock when she's awake...there is a HUGE difference! Not feeling good really changes my mood, so I don't know why I didn't expect this change in her as more and more time passed and she was still feeling great! She is truly a delight and has a new spunk and perkiness about her! 

She sleeps great and has had so much more energy to play!

 I know that eventually she'll get sick again at some point, just like we are all bound to sooner or later, but for now, we are celebrating!