A Pit Stop

As of the beginning of August, Johannah has been on her mission to Ecuador for six months.  Little did we know back in February that she would have a small pit stop.

At the end of July, Johannah wrote us her weekly email and mentioned that she had been at a playground with the other missionaries and had gone down a slide.  It was one of the old-school slides--high and made of metal, and because it had been raining, wet.  At the bottom of the second time going down the slide, she stopped herself with her feet (naturally) and heard something "pop".  She insisted in her email that she was sure everything was fine, but that she was going for a set of x-rays the next day.

We waited a week to hear that she had fractured her ankle in two places (the ankle itself, and the fibula).  She had been placed in a boot.

I try to be a very low-maintenance mother, but this was definitely stretching that ability.  I could hardly believe that I hadn't heard anything from the mission office itself about the doctor's report or follow-up care.  I called John (from Interlochen) and asked him if he thought I should contact the office.  He told me "no", but Mark, who happened to be listening in the background, said "yes".  Since Mark had recently been released as an Assistant to the Mission President, I trusted him and contacted Sister Murphy via Facebook.  In return, she sent me a one line, half-Spanish/half-English write-up from a nurse.  I left it at that.

Five days later, John received an email from President Murphy, asking if he could call us that evening.  Thank goodness John was visiting me at Interlochen so that we could both hear the call.  President Murphy told us that he had received an email from a radiologist in the States who had "misplaced" the initial report, and that it was recommended that Hannie come home.

THANK YOU!  I honestly breathed a sigh of relief that someone somewhere was finally seeing what had seemed rather clear to me.  She needed to come home for care.

President Murphy called Hannie that night and told her, and Hannie was in complete disbelief.  And she cried and cried on that phone call.  She told President that if she went home, she worried she wouldn't come back to her mission, and she asked him if there was anything else he could do to not send her home.

So, President Murphy (bless his heart) sent her for a better set of X-rays the next day and an appointment with an Ecuadorian orthopedic surgeon the day after that.  We anxiously waited to hear the verdict.  In the end, the x-rays were conclusive that she needed to come home to get treatment.

   

As a funny side note, President Murphy told us that we would need to call Hannie to give her the news...  I do believe that his tender heart couldn't take the crying and sadness all over again.  In the ten minutes that I spoke to her on the phone, I kept trying to reassure her that this was just a pit stop.  Imagine the race cars coming in for a quick tire change and tune up, all taken care of by others for maximum performance :-)  She was being given the same opportunity as a missionary.  We would get her all tuned-up, and we would send her out again to finish the race.

So it was decided that she would fly home to me at Interlochen.  It was closing weekend, and we figured it would be a bit of a salve to her soul to see Les Preludes again.

We had a "CARS" balloon also, but it said "Happy Birthday" ;-)

Oh goodness, I could hardly believe it when I first caught sight of her at the airport.  She looked so tired, and overwhelmed.  Part of that was the ankle, but most of it was just Ecuador.  Her hair was full of lice nits (more about that later), her skin was bright red and sunburned, and her face was covered in acne.  And she wasn't walking all that well either.  She just collapsed into my arms, crying.  Unfortunately, my mother mode kicked in and as she finally let go of me, I got a good look at her face and said, "Goodness, look at your face."  Yep, I definitely didn't put my best foot forward. #notatall

I have pictures of my boys coming down this exact same ramp at Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City.
Of course, those were happier circumstances.

We basically had to shove Hannie into this chair.

I could hardly believe Hannah's foot and leg when she first took off the boot back at the apartment.  Her toes were completely purple as was her calf up to her leg.  And her ankle was almost double the size of her other ankle.

The next few days were difficult for the two of us.  I was in "let's fix everything" mode, and Hannah was busy being an independent adult.  I wanted to tell her how to do everything, but she didn't need it.  This normally happens when we see each other after a long absence, but with a limited amount of time and so many things to fix, I wasn't the sensitive mother I should have been.

Thankfully though, my best friend at work was.  Jay told me to bring her in the next day for a lice check.  What a good friend.  He proceeded to pull 60 nits out of her hair (strand by strand) over a 90 minute stretch of time.  There weren't any live lice, but the nits weren't dead, so she wasn't all clear yet.

And as soon as we got home, we got her to the orthopedic surgeon.  He would have casted the ankle, but by this time, she was three weeks out from the injury and it was too late.  However, he said that the bones were healing well, and if all looked good in three more weeks, he would give her the "all clear" to go back.

Over the next three weeks, Hannah lived the sweet life.  Aside from coming down with the actual flu (we believe she caught it on the plane coming home), we did everything.  We ate at every good restaurant (Five Guys, Texas Roadhouse, Aubree's, A&W) and saw every movie she wanted to see.  She began watching Game of Thrones, as well as caught up on Supergirl and The Flash.  She came exercising with us, and even jumped in Mill Creek afterwards as ice therapy :-)

I think this is the only time we didn't actually get IN the water.

She also got to do some eclipse watching...which she wouldn't have been able to do in Ecuador ;-)

One of her main requests was to go to a Tigers game.  The Tigers lost, but it sure was a fun time!

It's funny how none of my children are having any difficulty adjusting to life in Michigan :-)

There were two women sitting in front of us who literally spent the entire game taking selfies and sending them out.  We could hardly resist.

We also went to the Chelsea Community fair two different nights:  once for the demolition derby, and once for the rodeo.  John paid for the girls to try and win a giant Pikachu.

Hannie and I headed to the Detroit temple one morning (another request).  What a surprise when Hannah opened her temple bag, and she found her two best stuffed animal friends, Kitty and Range.  She had been looking for them for several days, but I couldn't remember where I had packed them.  I guess we can just chalk up finding them to blessings of attending the temple ;-)

Porr Hannah, showing up when we are moving from PA to Michigan.
Hootie, however, was more than happy to have her home :-)

When the three week mark rolled around, we went back to Dr. Moore, and he could hardly believe how well she had healed.  He called it "textbook healing".  We knew that Heavenly Father was involved in so many ways.  He told us that she would still need to wear the boot for another month, but her bones were making such miraculous progress, that she wouldn't even need physical therapy.

And that day, she wrote her letter to the missionary office and asked to return to her mission.

And so began the wait.  We were told that it could take "several" weeks before we would hear back, and we didn't know if she would be reassigned to a different mission, or if she would be able to return to Ecuador.  We had a trip planned out to Utah for her, so she put the following Wednesday (September 6) as her possible starting date.

Remember that sweet life?  Well it kept going in Utah.  Her help was invaluable in showing Glo around campus and getting Glo settled in her dorm room.  She got to be part of the wedding dress shopping with Allison.  And most importantly, she got to see Ethan, Rebecca and Baby again.

Dunkin' Donuts--another benefit of visiting Utah :-)

While we we in Utah, I got a call from John on Friday (September 1).  Not only would she be returning to Ecuador, but they wanted her either Monday or Tuesday (and they didn't want to wait until Wednesday)!  So, I cancelled our return flights, scheduled a new flight for Monday (Labor Day) and we kicked into high gear.  Rebecca found a hair salon that could cut her hair on Saturday (lice don't like shorter hair, nor hair with product).  John picked up her acne medication back in Michigan. We did some more shopping at Sister Missionary Mall too since many of the dresses we originally sent with her ended up being too warm for her to wear.

Glo's dorm room BEFORE...

...and AFTER.

Look what she found in the BYU bookstore:  a book featuring a llama, written in Spanish.

A girl can dream, right?

How thankful I was that she agreed to cutting her hair.  And how happy she was to have her eyebrows waxed ;-)

Some last minute girl time together <3

Visiting temple square....

....and the Mechams who are quite possibly her favorite people on Planet Earth.

And yesterday, we flew back home to Michigan.  She repacked her suitcases, we went out to Five Guys one more time, and we put her on a plane this morning to Miami (with a connection to Quito).

People keep asking Johannah why she thinks this happened to her.  Even John at dinner asked me what I thought.  It's the proverbial question, isn't it?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Well, there's the easy answer:  it was just an accident.  But there's always a more complicated answer, and with Johannah, I think it's because she needed a trial on her mission.  Reading her emails each week, and even talking to her since she's been home, she literally handles everything like a champ.  She doesn't let lice get her down (and hardly mentions it at all).  The constant rain and mud don't bother her, nor do the unhygienic conditions that surround her daily.  She doesn't let the fact that toilets are impossible to find, and when she does find them, they are mostly holes in the ground with no toilet paper.  And when she has her own toilet paper, she must put it in a trash can to dispose of it (versus the toilet itself).  She handles rejections and contacting as well as any other missionary.  She even kept walking eight miles a day after breaking her ankle in two places.  (I do believe that accident would have stopped most people in their tracks!) Every Ecuadorian fast ball that is thrown at her she turns into a home run.  So what would be the most difficult thing for her to do?

Return to her mission after coming home.

When she was set apart by President Ward, he promised her that her missionary power would be enhanced because of her decision to go back to Ecuador.  He promised her more love for everyone she would encounter.  Her blessed her with more sympathy in the future for those who may be put in the same situation she has been in.  And he promised her that sometime in the future, it may or not be on her mission, she would see the overall blessing of needing to come home.

So once again, she has proven her faithfulness like a pro.

Another bonus to the pit stop?  Sister Murphy asked her to return to Ecuador with her viola (something she didn't bring the first time).  Johannah didn't want to bring her expensive viola in case it is stolen, so John found a $400 viola on Craig's list.

When I think of those race cars, and I think of those drivers who sit in the cars waiting for their crew to get them ready to head back out on the track, I can't help but think of Hannie.  It was a team of people who got her ready to go back to be the best missionary she can possibly be.