A Big Day for Connor and Victoria

Connor has had strep throat 4 or 5 times since January.  The first 4 occurences meant days off school and trying to find an antibiotic that worked.  The last time he got strep and pink eye at camp.  I was tired of worrying every time he had a fever or sore throat or nose bleed if it was strep again so we arranged to have his tonsils removed.  This was the first surgery for any of our kids other than the oldest 3 having their wisdom teeth removed.  We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 am.  He headed to the Operating Room at 8:35.  The surgeon came out at 9:25 and told us everything went smoothly.  At 10:30 we finally got to see him.  He was still groggy but coherent.  At 11:45 I went for lunch and when I came back he was much more alert.  Kevin went for lunch and I read Connor the cover story from the latest Reader's Digest about a skydiver who suffers compound fractures of her lower leg bones, has her left arm mostly severed and is partly scalped when her chute malfunctioned.  When you feel bad it always helps to know how much worse things could have been.  Then he asked for his own book and read until we were discharged just before 2:00.  He is a real trooper.  He never rated the pain above a 3 (on a scale of 1 - 10).  He has just gone to bed now so we will wait until he gets up to eat our exciting meal of Lipton's chicken noodle soup and jello.  

Kevin and Tori have just left for Pearson International Airport.  Tori is meeting the rest of the youth mission team from Samaritan's Purse tonight.  They are spending the night at a hotel then leave early tomorrow for Paraguay.  She flies from Toronto to Dallas, Dallas to Buenos Aires then Buenos Aires to Asuncion on the way there.  The return trip is reversed but they fly into Miami instead of Dallas.  She will be handing out Christmas shoe boxes that people from all across Canada have filled for children in underprivileged nations.  Last March when she went to Africa to minister in churches and an orphanage I was very nervous.  I am much calmer this time.  I am not sure if that is because Paraguay is a more stable country, some of my worrying is diverted to Connor or the Christmas season is just to busy to dwell on one thing.