Did you know....

November is National Adoption Month! As I think back to 3 1/2 years ago on April 11, 2007 when we got the call about our little warrior my heart skips a beat! He has brought so much joy to our lives and we are so blessed to be his parents!

We love you.....KYLER MILTON SYANG-HUA JETT.....may you always love G and serve HIM in all you do!!!!

I am so glad that I am finally starting to feel better! I was actually able to get out of the house this weekend and hang out with friends/fellow teachers. :)

Friday night we went to a place called Pacific Rim....it is the only place in Prishtina that we can get Dr. Pepper and Mt. Dew....so we LOVE it. The food is pretty good and they actually had a few things on their menu that I can eat (low/non-fat). Several of the other teachers went with us...we had a great time. Afterwards we went to a coffee shop called Barista's...it has become one of our favorites! It is really cheap and they have a HUGE coffee menu!

Then on Saturday night we went over to a fellow teachers house for a going away party for another teacher. We are so sad to see this teacher leave K but we know that G has big plans for her back in the US. It was "home-cooked" potluck and it was so yummy! The librarian at our school is from Japan and she made home-made sushi...I was in heaven! My mouth is still watering when I think about it! It was so nice to be able to eat something other than soup!

Today (Sunday) we are just relaxing as a family. Getting ready to start another week. I am starting back teaching tomorrow. I will only go half-days just to ease my way into to it. I am excited to see my students and be back in the classroom.

It has been a great, refreshing weekend!

Also wanted to mention that Richard has started a new website! Check it out....you will be blessed!

www.hisnamenotmine.com

Surgery Pictures!

I thought I would post some pictures of before and after my surgery (since some of you don't have facebook)

Give Me Your Eyes...

This past Saturday we had our 2 month anniversary here in K. Wow, A LOT has happened in those 2 months. I am hopeful that the next several months that we are here are less "bad" eventful and more "good" eventful. (Sorry english majors if that is poor grammar.)
I have been struggling since the surgery. Physically I am doing okay. I have some pain here and there but over all am healing very nicely. But the emotional and mental side of healing....not doing so good. Going through the surgery made me realize how alone we are here. When we came home, there was no help, no support system, no nothing. We had just wished for one moment that someone would have brought us a meal or two or that someone would have offered to take Kyler for a few hours so we could rest (this has been as hard on Richard as it has been on me). But none of that happened. Back in the states we would have had family and friends who would have dropped everything to help us and to provide an extra set of hands or a few meals. But coming home to an empty house and being thrown right back into "life" was very hard (and continues to be) on the healing process. The first day back in K I overdid it. I was unpacking, cleaning, getting laundry started, and attempting to cook us something decent to eat (especially since I am on a strict diet). Therefore the next day I paid dearly...I was in so much pain and was pretty much useless. Being home was nice because I had my bed and my stuff, but it was hard. For one day I sat and just cried because I hated the loneliness feeling. I hated feeling I had no one....I was frustrated that we were here and I was frustrated that I had to go through all of these health problems here (alone). As I sat their in my self-pity....I realized something, these emotions weren't simply because someone didn't show up on my door step with a casserole dish, no they were from something so much deeper, something that has been plaguing me for a while. I HATE being alone. I hate feeling like I have no one to turn too. I live in my own selfish world and I want it all to revolve around me. When I am not getting the attention that I want I get upset. Instead of turning to my Heavenly Father to fulfill me and fill that loneliness void, I turn to people or things to do that.

Over the past several years I have been so caught up in myself....teaching, working out, shopping, planning fun things for our family to do, worship team, parties and events and the list goes on....they often I have forgotten to stop, look around, and realize that their are people right in front of me that are lonely. They don't have a Heavenly Father to fill that void. They don't have someone to help with their kids, to make them a meal (because they have had a surgery or just because)...I am so caught up in "Tiffany's world and Tiffany's life" that I dont put others needs before my own. THAT IS GOING TO CHANGE. I am right now beginning to pry that G will give me the eyes that I can see those in need around me, that he will allow me to see when someone is hurting, or needs a meal, or just needs a break.....that HE will allow me to be the on JC they might ever see, to guide them to the only thing that can fill their loneliness void....our Heavenly Father.
The music side of me always relates everything to a song....there is a song by Brandon Heath called "Give me your Eyes". Here are the lyrics....I hope they bless you and touch you as much as they have me....(listen to it on YouTube if you get a chance)

Look down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight

Touch down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see


Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what’s underneath

There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work, He's buying time


I’ve been here a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
I need a second glance
Give me a second chance
To see the way you’ve seen the people all along

So the healing and being alone....yes it stinks....but as my amazing husband reminded me last night. I need to use the 2 weeks of medical leave from school as a chance to dig into the word and allow my Heavenly Father to speak to me and guide me so that I can have the eyes of HIM!

Day One of Recovery...always the worst

This morning was a rough day but ended on a better note.

I should start off saying that Tiff is ok but we are staying one more night in the hospital. The reason they are keeping her longer is because her Oxygen count has been low, but by the end of today we found out why.
Tiff called me this morning at 7am to get there asap so I did. It had been a rough night for her just with the pain and them coming in to check on her every two hours. A doctor came in shortly after I got there to talk to her about trying to get her Oxygen count up. We were wondering if the numbers they were getting where her normal but they didn't know that because they don't have her medical records, but they said the numbers where low for anybody. So they ran tests to see if it was her lungs or heart but they both came back normal. Then her surgeon came in and began saying that he thought the problem had something to with her medical past. That sent us both into a panic...it was our worst fear coming to life and we were thinking that we were going to have to come back to the states.

I went back to our hotel to email and try and get a hold of the Chesnuts. As I was contacting them a team of doctors came into see Tiff and they examined her and talked with each other in Greek...very scary for Tiffany laying there.

Then, Ruth and John Chesnut (who we followed down here because they were meeting and vacationing) came by, and just having familiar faces was such a relief. Ruth being an experienced nurse knew instantly what was going on and what we needed to do. She told us that the day after a surgery is ALWAYS the roughest and worst. Since she was under for three hours and went through so much of course her recovery was going to be rough. She explained that the reason her numbers where low is because of what her body/lungs go through during surgery. In surgery you take very short breathes and thus don't use your lower lungs. Thus when you come out of surgery you have to begin exercising that part of your lungs by standing up walking, taking deep breaths, and coughing. They kept telling us to take deep breaths but we never understood why until then. So she said to start doing it every two hours. They were just about to leave when three doctors came in. One of the doctors introduced himself as the director of ICU which we all got big eyed about because we thought they were going to move Tiff to ICU, but he said he was there because he had been looking over her stuff and after looking at that and her in person he said there is nothing seriously wrong with her. He said that what was wrong was what Ruth had just told us and it was common and she would be fine. He and the other doctor kind of apologized for all the tests by saying, "We get paid to worry. So we always start with the the most serious issue and work our way to the common reason by process of elimination."

That put us at ease but still we want her to get out of there asap. We hate that this is keeping us away from why we are here and don't want to spend our time here in the hospital. So we appreciate your prayers and need you to keep doing so. Pray that our spirits stay up and that Tiffany gets better soon so we might be released so we might get back sooner to WHY we are here.

Love you all

Day of the Surgery

Hey Everyone,
First off I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and would appreciate the prayers as Tiffany continues to recover. Here is how the day played out:
We got to the hospital around 7am and we went to her room where they got her ready. Around 8:20 they came and picked Tiffany up and took her to surgery. It was at this time that I found out there was no WiFi in the hospital (that's what I get for assuming). So I texted a friend to update my Twitter/Facebook. Kyler and I proceeded to wait in the room we found Mickey Mouse Club House and Jungle Junction in Greek on one of the stations...then later on I found the Greek version of Dora the Explorer except she had a dragon friend...so the cartoons made Kyler's day.
Around 10:30 the surgeon came by to tell me that they were all done and everything went amazing. He then handed me a jar with two tiny stones in them...yup...her gallstones (great souvenirs). He also handed me a DVD of the whole surgery (Somebody say Movie Night?).
An hour later Tiff came to the room. She proceeded to rest the remainder of the day. When she would come to because of the pain medicine she would say some pretty funny stuff. Being the loving husband that I am...I egged it on. I asked her if I could share the top two remarks...she agreed (whether she realizes it or not).
#1- The Oxygen reading wasn't coming in right but then they switched fingers and it was normal. So I told her that was the problem and she said, "The doctor said to be here at 6pm. I told him we were at Taco Bell (She HATES Taco Bell)...I don't know about the egg...Kyler LOVES scrambled eggs!"
#2- All of a sudden she looked at me and said, "I would rather stay at a hotel right on the sea. It is to far to walk from here."
So those were the fun things. However as good as she is doing she is still super nervous and I hated leaving her there tonight. While the staff is amazing we are still in a foreign country and that is always a little unsettling no matter how state of the art the hospital is. So we appreciate your prayers and love.
We will keep you informed as she recovers.

Richard
PS I will be posting pics of the stones and more on facebook asap.

Surgery

The following is an email we sent out to our monthly supporters! But I attached it here so I wouldn't have to write it out again! So obviously a lot has changed since my last post on the blog. We decided to go to Thessaloniki, Greece to have the surgery to remove my gallbladder. Here is what happened today when we went to the hospital. (I was SOO nervous and very uneasy about having surgery in another country but Richard and I pryed G would give us very clear signs if he wanted me to have the surgery here...and boy did HE ever!)

Hello,

Just wanted to let you all know we made it to Greece safely. It was a beautiful drive down here and Richard and I enjoyed talking and prying. We got to the hospital and the director (yes, as in the CEO, president, big-wig...as we would call it in the US) of the hospital wanted to personally meet with us and talk about my situation and my possible care. The first question he asked us was "are you m*ss*onar*es?" I answered yes and he said "I appreciate what you do so much". This was totally unexpected, he began to tell me a story of one of his best friends and how he used to be a "M". Anyways....he then asked what exactly was wrong. I told him and he immediately called a Gastronologist/Liver Specialist to meet with me. (We later found out that, that doctor had been in surgery when the director called him and told him to quickly finish the procedure because he had a high priority case for him to attend too....that high priority was me). So I met with the doctor and he calmed every nerve that I had. He was VERY knowledgeable about my liver condition and working with the gallbladder. He actually has treated a few people with my same liver issues and he strongly urged me to seek a second opinion in the US. I left his office feeling very confident and so happy...I am going to finally feel better!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 9am I meet with the surgeon to get my surgery time. They told me to go ahead and fast....so we are hoping they do the surgery tomorrow afternoon. I am also going to meet with a Urologist about my kidney stones. The liver doctor was concerned that I am getting them so frequently and he wants me to meet with the Urologist so he can blast the ones I currently have and maybe do some exploring to find out why I am continually getting them.
So that is what we know for now. I am going to bed tonight very hopeful! Thank you so much for your pryers. We will send out another email tomorrow letting you know where we are at and what is happening!

Love you all,
Tiffany