First bump in road...

We had our first breakdown today over going to the United States. Scheduled on our itinerary was a trip to a children’s museum, but Bryon was sick with a headache so we couldn’t go. I decided to do some schooling so that when we do go, we won’t have to also do school that day.

That news went over like a lead balloon. Most of all the girls didn’t want to do the spelling test. First we made a list of some fun things that we wanted to do, and I must say that the girls were very creative in their ideas. Then came the dreaded SPELLING TEST. We have a “test” every day, which consists of 25 words. They attempt to spell them, I write them, they correct them. Not really a test according to my standards.

Two words into the test, Eli commented that I probably didn’t have a test in school when I was young, and I said, yes, but it also included having to know the meaning, that we only had one once a week, but that if I wrote the words wrongly, I didn’t get a chance to correct them afterwards.

All torrents of salty water broke loose!! Despair, hysterics, calling on daddy to accompany them through rough times. Dread of going to school in the US, not wanting to leave their friends, not wanting to be the new kids again, stand in front of the class to be introduced, not wanting to make new friends again, and definitely not wanting US spelling tests, then dread of all schooling how hard it would be, learning new stuff, not having experience (why do you thing we’re doing this now?), and ultimately wanting to be home schooled. Nothing I could say or do could calm the fears and dread of the future in the moment.

Twenty minutes later we finally get to the third word. (sigh) It was a long school day.

But afterwards Eli and I headed to the local school supply store and purchased goma eva, which has a name in English but the word has failed me. Let’s just describe it as foamy paper. Wonderful stuff for crafts! We spent the afternoon making masks and finger puppets, and have planned to spend more time doing creative activities, as the days ahead might be filled with rough, salty waters. Waves of them.

Learning at any price.

Hopefully it was worthwhile, chopping my finger like I did. How did I hurt it, you may ask. Well, I did something today that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I learned how to make empanadas from scratch (individual hand—held pot pies). And even better, I learned how to make empanadas salteñas, which is a particular variety from the province of Salta, by far known as the best empanadas to be found in Argentina. I just happen to have a maid from Salta, so she taught me!

What I really wanted to learn even more than the filling (cuz I could have gotten a recipe) was how to make the tapitas from scratch. I have never worked well with dough, and felt that it would be a complete disaster to even attempt this. But it seems pretty easy to do. Now the trick will be attempting to do it myself! Pati made it look so easy, which I know is not true, but at least it didn’t look impossible. Check back in a week and see how it goes!!

Ingredients: 1 kg flour, about 1/3 cup of melted beef grease, warm water and salt. Mixed together until it no longer sticks to the hands. See how easy it seems? We’ll see how it goes!

Every once in a while she told me “you know what else this dough is used for?” So now I have a list of other things I can make, if I ever master the dough!!

Anyway, while I was cutting up the green onions, I got a little too close to my finger and - pow! instant blood. Let me tell you, it was interesting trying to finish the task of the day - cutting, mixing, shaping, and stuffing the tapitas. But all in all it was worth it; the empanadas were absolutely delicious!

The waiting game...

This is the third time the doctor has told us to wait. Wait. How I hate that word. Had she never mentioned that we could have the results early, we would have been fine waiting until Thursday; but unfortunately she expected to have the results a week early, and they never arrived. Okay, so I was skeptical, but never did I imagine that we would wait a whole week!

Friday we leave for Ushuaia and will return on Tuesday. A trip of a lifetime, but being made under trying circumstances, we wonder what kind of weekend it will be – relaxing or regretful? Because based on what the results of the biopsy tell us, Bryon could be expected to start treatment as soon as possible, and I don’t want to spend the entire 5 days wishing that he could start immediately.

Any scenario that we generate has its own timetable and requirements. Many phone calls, trying to change our non-changeable tickets, trying to arrange a doctor to treat Bryon in the US, finding out how the insurance company will consider our situation, whether it would be better or required to stay here and finish this round of chemo and then return to the States in June. So many options, the head reels with trying to keep track of every little detail, hoping it hasn’t forgotten which questions to ask for which plan. But to map it all out would be exhausting, especially as there might be only one option come Thursday.

And what happens if Thursday comes and the evaluation of his bone marrow isn’t finished? Most likely we will have to wait until the following week, as we are in mañana-landia. The longer the biopsy results are postphoned, the least likely it is that Bryon can have treatment here in Argentina, and the more likely that we return to the US prematurely, bypassing Costa Rica altogether.

Actually, any way you look at the situation, whatever plan you choose, Costa Rica is out of the picture. The only way we could still fly through Tico-land is if Bryon’s cell counts maintain themselves or actually improve between now and the end of April, which is highly unlikely, given the fact that we know that he still has leukemia in his system.

So the major question is: what is God wanting us to learn during this time? What is His purpose in all of this?