21 Days and Counting

About this time 21 days ago on Thursday just after noon we left home with Paul as our driver the big airport. I know I've stated over and over that words, photos, videos, just don't do justice to everything we've seen and experienced. We left home with heads and hearts filled with the kinds of thoughts and emotions anyone feels before a really big trip going to somewhere you've never been before. I think going internationally jacks up those feelings even more. You don't really sleep well the night before, you're trying your best to remember all the important things you need to pack, tickets, passports, medical records, xrays, peanut butter, and an extra stash of those 10 packs of little butterfinger bars, baby ruths, and a big pack of little paydays, you know the really important stuff, got it.

It wasn't as it were our first trip overseas. We'd been blessed to do it a number of times. I think the thought of going to India, such a big country, with a billion people, and a vast conglomeration of rural and wilderness settings to some of the most high tech folks around made it all the more nervous and exciting. We were coming for the high tech folks at the hospital this time. A flight to Paris, a transfer and another 9 hour flight to Mumbai, and 26 hours later we were there. After a brief night in a hotel and just less than 12 hours later we entered Wockhardt Hospital, met some of the staff and barely got settled before the testing began.

24 hours after that they wheeled Kim out of my hands into the preop room. Five days later they did it all over again. We're now 17 days and 12 days post hip surgery and enjoying some quiet time at the beach. Kim can't get down to the beach so we're staying pretty much around the hotel, the pool, there's only a ladder to get to the pool, so we're laying low, getting some sun, and keeping up with the exercises, many of which she is to do every hour.
Last night though was surely one of the highlights for us as we dressed up, Kim in her newly acquired "saree" from Mumbai, and me, well I just got dressed and went downstairs for the hotel's Diwali celebration and reception for all the guests. There were free refreshments and horderves, (little hot snacks), a tradtional duet playing music and at the end they had fireworks. It was really great. We followed that with dinner by the pool on one side and next to the Indian ocean on the other side. It was a specialty seafood thing they started up just last night. (just for us, not!) More about that later.

All told by the time our evening was done we'd spent about four hours enjoying the festivities, eating dinner (2 hrs), and doing a wee bit of shopping for Diwali items. We were both whipped but for the first time in 21 days, we felt as close to normal as we had in I can't remember when. Of course Kim was in the wheelchair much of the time but today she didn't spend much time in it at all. 21 days, in some ways it has been an eternity, in other ways it has flown by. It's strange just how feeling normal makes all that struggle and pain just disappear for the briefest moment. (Easy for me to say huh?) It was a special evening. We're counting the days.

We constantly thank God for blessing us as he has and we can't say it enough. "For all that you've done we will thank you, for all that you're going to do, for all that you've promised and all that you are, and all that has carried us through, Jesus we thank you!"

Here's a few more pics from last night.

Blessings to all, de & ke


Dinner by the pool...seafood! Kim standing by our table...nice saree!

Special Diwali flower design before and after


Another flower design, with lights.