Do you want your usual?

When you're at your favorite restaurant this is a nice thing to hear. If you're at Starbucks and the barista asks you this - it might make you feel just a little bit special.

If you are at the Emergency Room at Children's Hospital - trust me, this is just about the last thing you want to hear when you walk through the door!

Ava's ears are once again misbehaving. The serious infection that looked as if it had cleared up has come back with a vengence. The hole that was in her eardrum now encompasses the entire eardrum. The doctor said he hasn't seen a child with as much damage to the eardrum who still seems relatively happy and not in pain. You'd not know from looking at her that she hurts - but if you ask her she'll tell you, "no baby hurt - big hurt." Yet she's playing, running, smiling...

This speaks volumes to what our kids had to endure in Ethiopia. My daughter's eardrum has literally been eroded by bacteria over the last few weeks. A process that has been described as immensely painful - and yet she's just kept on moving forward - I had NO idea how much pain she was experiencing. She's simply become so used to the pain that it isn't something she thinks about anymore. Sure it hurts - but it hurts every day so she just doesn't even acknowledge it.

We spent today in the ER and we'll go back down tomorrow to deal with the infection and to decide how soon she'll need the surgery to repair (or more accurately reconstruct) the eardrum. It seems the doctors aren't very confident that she'll ever regain any hearing in that ear - but I've not really seen that the hearing loss (complete hearing loss in the left ear) has inhibited her in any way - so that's the least of my worries.

If you wouldn't mind praying for my sweet girl - both of them in fact. Grace doesn't like going to the hospital (she's been nervous around them since that whole bacterial meningitis thing) :) and I'd prefer her not to be around all of those sick people. On the other hand she really does miss being with Ava when they are apart. It also makes school a bit of a challenge - she is either at the shop with Jason or with my mom and either way, she's left on her own for school. Not really the ideal school day but I guess one of the things I like about homeschooling is the flexibility and ability to take time off or make time up with things happen. (working on not feeling guilty about this!)

I'll keep you posted...