The Hess Family

A Happy Number

doug — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:30:15 +0000

Today was a good day. After school, we took the long taxi ride to the other side of town to the laboratory where we had Analeigh’s blood drawn. Thankfully, the practice last time paid off, and the phlebotomist got her blood on the first try. More importantly, Analeigh’s TSH dropped from 13.4 last time to 6.1 this time (normal is under 5). The endocrinologist was very pleased, and is fairly certain that this is indicative of a self-correcting (or God correcting) condition. Analeigh will not need medicine, and we will re-check her TSH in six weeks. We are so thankful that she is improving, and that we don’t have to put our two month old baby on medicine. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement! Tomorrow we head to the Embassy to attempt to finalize Analeigh’s citizenship.

Tomorrow…

doug — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:47:05 +0000

Tomorrow we go to get Analeigh’s thyroid blood tests. We are praying that her TSH will be normal and that she won’t have to go on medicine. We will get her blood taken around noon and then see the Endocrinologist at 3pm. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement!

The Clock Broke Itself

doug — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:19:13 +0000

Along the way of language learning, you run into language issues, many of which are embarrassing, humiliating, offensive, and if you’re really lucky, all three at once. I (Marissa) recently was one of the lucky ones. Upon moving into our house on December 19th, the lady who lived next door informed us that she was sorry but that workers would be coming to work on the house on Monday and she apologized for the noise. We happily shrugged her courtesy warning off like nice neighbors and said it was very nice to meet her. Little did we know the workers would come at 6am that following Monday and would stay…and stay…and they are still here as I write this post. She failed to let us know that she was completely gutting her house down to ripping out every last bit of concrete and renovating (that word doesn’t do the process justice…). Therefore, we have had a tremendous amount of noise from 6am-6pm. This has been quite a mental and emotional trial for us as we have battled headaches from the noise, destruction of our yard with concrete, paint and cement, and dust covering every inch of our home since the day we moved in. Our first face to face run in with the construction workers were when I asked them if they would mind putting up a plastic tarp between our homes to minimize the amount of dust in our house. I explained that we had a preschooler and a newborn (she was one day old at the time) and it was likely that they would develop asthma due to the extensive amount of concrete dust accumulating in their growing lungs. As you can imagine, this was a huge concern of ours. My pleas were to no avail until I came up with the brilliant plan of offering to bake the men cookies when there was plastic up…it was there the next day. Sheer genius. I happily made the men cookies and they happily devoured them…Sheer genius, I have to admit. Our most recent run in with the men has been that in order to tear down the house, they have had to jackhammer in the wall that makes up the entire right side of our house. If you can try to imagine our daily pain for months on end…terrible, isn’t it? About a month and a half ago, the straw that broke the camels back was when the jackhammering was so intense that it knocked the clock off of my wall and it promptly shattered once it hit our terra cotta floor, breaking a branch of my beautiful orchid that was a gift from my husband. I, being at the end of my rope, went out my front door and explained to the man that the jackhammer had shaken my wall so much that it fell off of the wall and smashed (I had the clock pieces in hand, as well as my newly severed orchid branch). We could not afford purchasing a new one as they cost around $65 and it was the only clock we had in order to get to places on time. He calmly looked at me and listened to my story and then informed me that the clock broke itself. At this point, my eyes bugged out and I, thinking my Spanish explanation was more lacking than I had realized, retold him the story. He again repeated, several times I might add, that the clock simply broke itself. He said he would talk to his boss and explain to him that my clock had broken itself. I was flabbergasted at his inability to take blame and went in quite frustrated with the exchange. Life went on, as usual, and about a week later, my teacher was explaining different Spanish phrases that reflect their culture and told me about “No tengo la culpa” or “I don’t have fault/blame”. I sat completely amazed as she explained that in Spanish (or at least Costa Rican Spanish) they do not take blame for anything. How blame is expressed is by saying that it happened to itself (the plate broke itself, the clock broke itself, etc.) I sat with my mouth wide open with amazement and embarrassment, realizing that the poor construction worker was admitting guilt and had understood my story (3 times) quite well…it was I who had missed the language and cultural phrase! Here the poor man had assured me several times in the only way that Spanish allows, that he would inform his boss that my clock had broken itself, and I, the crazy gringo lady, had not been satisfied! About 4 days ago, his boss did indeed show up with a shiny new clock and battery, although sadly without an orchid, and a sweet smile and said that he was sorry that my clock had broken itself. I sheepishly smiled and said that I, too, was sorry that my clock had broken itself.

My beautiful new clock with a folded tablecloth padding its anticipated fall from the constant jackhammering.

Our Sojourn Baby

doug — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:19:48 +0000

Since we made the decision to move our family overseas, no one, other than our immediate families, has been as supportive as our church. Not only did they send us out, but since we left they have supported us, prayed for us weekly, sent us many packages, and taken care of many of our needs. When Marissa got close to delivering, they had a baby shower for us in our absence. They sent us three big packages of stuff for the baby, including some cute shirts that they made for her. She has finally grown into them, and today she modeled her “Sojourn Baby” shirt. We are so thankful for a church family that has truly been family to us. We miss them so much but are thankful that we can stay connected through www.sojournchurch.com and their podcast. Today we pause to say THANK YOU SOJOURN!

A Little Song and Dance

doug — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:27:14 +0000

Whoever said that giving your daughter a little bourbon after dinner would help her sleep was totally wrong!

PS. My lawyer made me note that I am totally JOKING about giving our daughter bourbon.

Hairs looking at you

doug — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:39:13 +0000

So we all went and got our hair cut today. Avalyn looks really cute, but she messed it all up before I could take a picture (we’ll get one soon). My haircut was fine, but after he was done, the guy cutting it decided to style it for me. He picked a style that is very popular here in Costa Rica, but I’m not sure its me. What do you think?

PS. This is all Marissa’s fault, since she told him that nobody here cuts my hair fashionably.

Sisterly Love

doug — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:10:25 +0000

Although Avalyn has at times struggled with sharing attention since Analeigh was born, and although we have had to deal with some even-worse-than-usual defiant behavior, we have been extremely thankful that Avalyn LOVES Analeigh. Since day one she has wanted to hug, kiss, hold, love, and help with the baby. It is precious to watch. I managed to catch a short clip of Avalyn singing (in semi-Spanish) to Analeigh while she laid on the couch. What is most adorable in this clip is that Analeigh really seems to be enjoying her sister’s cantata. Its like in her little baby way, she loves her back.

A Thyroid Observed

doug — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:29:44 +0000

Analeigh is 6 weeks old now, and we have been very thankful at how well she is doing overall. At her first doctor’s appointment (at one week), however, they did the standard heel prick screening (which screens for a number of different problems), and found that her TSH was high. This indicates possible hypothyroid. We spoke to the doctor who wanted to repeat the test at one month. Last week, at her one month appointment, they took another drop of blood from her heel and repeated the TSH test, which was again high (although not as high). The doctor advised us to see a pediatric endocrinologist. She referred us to a very highly qualified doctor at the same hospital, and we were able to see him Tuesday afternoon. He ordered an ultrasound of her thyroid (see below) and several blood tests. Yesterday we took her downtown and had the tests done. She did really well, although getting her blood drawn was very sad. Today we went back to the endocrinologist to get our results. Thankfully, the ultrasound of her thyroids was normal. On her blood test, her TSH was still high, however the other blood tests were normal. The endocrinologist said there is a chance that this problem is transient, and will go away. There is also a chance that she is chronically hypothyroid, in which case she will need to go on thyroid replacement medicine. At this point we are waiting four weeks and repeating the blood tests. If the TSH is down to normal, the problem is resolved. If her TSH is still high, then she will begin taking thyroid medicine. We are praying that in four weeks everything is normal and we can be done with endocrinologists. In the meantime, Analeigh is otherwise healthy and happy, and we are thankful that regardless of what the TSH is in four weeks, this is not a serious or non treatable problem.

Last time we put up an ultrasound picture, it was of our baby. Now its our baby’s thyroid (I bet you’ve never seen a thyroid before)

Fun with Bureaucracy! (part 4)

doug — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:03:10 +0000

Yesterday we took a trip to the United States Embassy here in San Jose. I wish that I could say that we were happy to find an efficient, helpful office ready to help. Sadly, we encountered much of the same cumbersome bureaucracy we have encountered all along the way. After showing our passport and passing through airport style security, we went to have Analeigh’s picture taken. This proved to be difficult since they wanted her eyes open (it was outside, sunny, and she was sleeping) and they did not want my hands in the picture (she can’t hold her head up by herself). After 15 min of frustration and crying we got a satisfactory picture (her first passport will be a keeper!). Then it was off to stand in line to get a number to stand in line. They could not give us the application for Citizen Birth Abroad, instead we had to wait for our number to be called in order to get the application packet. We then had to fill out a dozen redundant forms, then present everything to the man at the window and pay $150. We were then informed that the documents will be reviewed, and we will be contacted for an interview in about a week and a half. Hopefully after that, we will wait ten days, receive her passport, and be done! Praise the Lord!
In other news, our friend Karen took some great pictures of Analeigh the other day, and I got some of the pictures from her today. She did a wonderful job. Hope you enjoy them!

She cries just like her mama….

Good Reports

doug — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:16:18 +0000

Today we spent our afternoon at the doctor’s. Analeigh had her one month checkup, Marissa had her one month postpartum checkup, and Avalyn got her hearing checked. Thankfully, everyone got good reports. Analeigh is really becoming a gordita (little fatty)! The pediatrician said girls usually gain about 700 grams (1 1/2 pounds) in their first month. Analeigh gained 1350 (3 pounds)! Apparently all that eating and sleeping is paying off. She is just under 10 pounds now.
This afternoon, I caught Avalyn playing in the dining room. She had brought her stuffed animals into the dining room and brought out some books to read to them. She was reading in “Spanish.” It was so cute and I managed to video her without her knowing. Enjoy!