Dan Bair, pastor at Kirk of the Hills Church, gave Yakelin the Purpose Driven Life book in Spanish. We tried to tackle “Day One” last night, but between my sad ability to read aloud in Spanish, and the concepts introduced to Yakelin for the first time, she seemed a bit overwhelmed and frankly bored by the end of the chapter. Oh well, maybe we’ll opt to read sections rather than the whole chapter each day.Yakelin had a follow-up appointment today with Dr. Kolker. He is happy with her improvement even though she continues to have a good bit of corneal swelling. He added another type of eye drop to her regimen and Yakelin left the office elated after hearing that he was pleased with her recovery. We have another appointment on Friday with Dr. Ellen.

Just 24 hours after starting the new regimen, she reports improvement. I was really concerned on Sunday and am relieved today to hear her say she is seeing clearer.

Today Yakelin helped Leda with Spanish class again and I slipped out with Pat for what we thought would be a brisk walk in the park. Little did we know we were going to have a great hour-long adventure…which included plenty of snow blobs falling from the tree limbs and landing on our heads and more ice underfoot than we ever cared to see. We laughed so hard as we walked, especially when we realized how silly we must have looked trying to rock hop over puddles and maneuver gracefully through slushy snow and ice.

Yakelin and I stopped by Walmart on the way home from the Kirk and bought a few groceries. Shortly thereafter, Lee came over and brought us some delicious chicken chili and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yum!!! Thanks Lee! Once we finished dinner and dessert, Yakelin had a good chat with her aunt and children in Nicaragua using Skype. Everyone seems to be doing well in Nicaragua and assured her they are praying for her everyday. They are eager to hear when her next surgery will be. The doctors have told us that we are waiting to see how her left eye heals before they decide whether or not to operate on her right eye.

Even 1-day post-op Yakelin’s eyesight showed improvement. It was so fun to hear her describe the snowflakes as she saw them hitting the windshield while driving to the appointment. She described them as “foam” and the snowy-day sky as “smoke”. Later, she was surprised to learn that ice is slippery. I can’t tell you how fun it has been to experience so many “firsts” with her. Today we went out into the yard and made snow angels, threw icicles like darts (not at each other) and took a winter-wonderland walk around the neighborhood.

Her left eye hurts her a little bit and her eyesight is still a bit blurry, but her doctors say the irritation and blurriness are expected due to the swelling in her eye. It’s been great to be at Dr. Kolker’s house and for his daily assurance that her recovery is moving along as expected. Her vision should continue improving over the next few weeks as the swelling goes down.

We are very thankful to God for the success of the surgery and for the fact that she can be enjoying the joys of playing in snow, just days after surgery. Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray for her, she greatly misses her two little girls and is eager to return to them.

I’ve included a photo gallery in this post because there were so many great pics of Yakelin in the snow. Enjoy!

Dr. Kolker was able to scrub in and watch the surgery. I was able to be with Yakelin in the pre-op and recovery rooms and helped with bilingual communication. Yakelin was very brave before the surgery. She is prone to getting nervous, so I feel her calmness was an answer to prayer and evidence of God’s intervention. The staff at the eye surgery center seemed especially interested in Yakelin’s case and folks from the Kirk Church had opportunities to share a bit of Yakelin’s story with them and to give testimony of how God had opened many doors for her to make it this far.

Yakelin spent the majority of the day sleeping. Earlier today, Dr. Kolker and I went to the gym and his wife, Nancy, stayed with Yakelin. It was great to get a cardio workout in, especially since there is freezing rain and sleet and more to come all around Tulsa. Tomorrow the weathermen suspect we will get 6 inches of snow! Even though it may mean we get “snowed” in, I sure hope it snows…I would love to see Yakelin’s face the first time she sees it!

Yesterday was one of the hardest days for Yakelin and I because we had several disagreements and spent most of the day in awkward silence (not the kind of news you want to hear from the person that is supposed to be caring for Yakelin). When I noticed Yakelin was distant I tried to approach her but she wasn’t ready to talk. She spent a good portion of the day teary and withdrawn. I was frustrated, at a loss for how to handle the situation, and basically spent.

Later, after going on a shopping outing with Sally to the Goodwill store and having a Pei Wei’s Asian Diner dinner, we were left alone in our “home” for the evening. At just the right moment I received a call from my dear friends Alcides and Sileny Fuentes in Nicaragua. They knew it had been a tough day and offered sound counsel and encouragement which gave me a sense of direction and new strength. They reminded me that Yakelin was probably experiencing culture shock. When I heard this, it made perfect sense! The main symptoms of culture shock are frustration, tension, embarrassment, and confusion. Signs include isolation and withdrawal. This is exactly what I had seen in her over the past week but had not identified it as part of culture shock.

Although I still sensed tension between Yakelin and I, after the conversation with the Fuentes, I offered her a quick good-night hug as I have each night. In that moment she broke down and hugged me tightly. She asked me for forgiveness and bawled. We spent the next two hours talking about her life, God’s evident intervention in her life, even through the conviction of sin, and the effects of culture shock.

She shared she had never in her life asked anyone for forgiveness,

but once she did, she said the knot in her stomach and the uneasiness that she had experienced for most of the day immediately dissipated. She also shared that the times that I had asked for her forgiveness during the last week had made an impact on her. I am amazed at the God that uses even my sin and my response to it as a teaching tool to draw Yakelin into a closer relationship with Him. We ended our two hour marathon chat by kneeling at the bedside giving thanks to God for all He had done and for her upcoming surgery. I thank God for His work in both of our lives and for the gracias support we have received from so many people.

Today we met with a Hispanic pastor that came to our home and listened to and prayed for Yakelin. He invited us to his church and Yakelin was super excited about going to a service in Spanish (she was pretty bored during the English service we went to on Sunday). After our time with Pastor Sandor, we packed our bags and headed to the Kolker’s house. We plan to stay in their home for a few days after the surgery. Dr. Kolker is an optometrist and has been instrumental in securing surgeons, a surgical center, and eye hardware for Yakelin’s case. We discovered tonight that Yakelin is quite intelligent. She had memorized most of Psalm 23 after studying it for only a few minutes. She plans to recite it to herself to keep calm as she is “going under” tomorrow morning. We have to be at the surgical center at 6:30AM and we suspect the surgery will be around 8AM.