Hard to believe this year is nearly half finished already! A couple of months ago we had some crisis regarding our housing in China. There were misunderstandings, stubbornness, and difficulties which led to a quick trip back on my part – at the worst possible time. Long story short, after receiving last minute notice I bought a next-day ticket to China, and in the space of a week packed up our apartment, searched for a new one, signed a new one-year rental agreement and got everything moved. Very glad that chapter is over.

But now? Our family moved back to China about 6 weeks ago – much to my pleasure! We spent time reconnecting with friends and contacts as well as unpacking and making the new apartment a home. However Sierra came down with some serious health issues.

When we first arrived in Shangri-la Sierra had a blotchy rash and was sleeping 21 hours a day with little appetite. This was of great concern and so we had to head back down to Kunming for a round of seeing Doctor’s at an intl health clinic.

In the end the diagnosis was something like Mono. Which she did recover from quite rapidly! We then made the trip back up to Shangri-la. This time she was awake and active! But she quickly developed quite a bad (and different from before) rash that drove her crazy with itching. She has been unable to sleep through the night for a few weeks now, regularly waking up in the middle of the night for 3-4 hours to itch, toss, and turn.

We tried to be patient and have continued to bath her in prayer but to no avail, her condition continued to worsen. Her skin became dry and peeling everywhere with the texture of rough plastic. We tried many remedies but none had any effect.

So with reluctance we made a trip back to Singapore a couple days ago to have her receive professional expert medical help.

This morning she saw the Doctor who says she has a severe case of eczema. We’ve received several medications to apply for removing the inflammation from all over her body and hopefully to reduce the itching as well. There will be a follow up appointment on monday at which point we’re led to expect quite a bit of improvement already.

If Sierra has seen significant improvement by that point then I (Richard) will start looking at flights to get back to Shangri-la first – with Cassandra and Sierra following a bit later.

In all things we look to the Lord, crying out to Him for grace. May the Lord receive glory through all things. Amen.