Updates from Our World

It has been an interesting year so far. I have a hard time believing it is already March. Here are some updates from our end of the world.

Gee has decided to look for a new job and eventually a new career path. We are currently working on changing his status from a non-permanent resident to a permanent resident. As a permanent resident Gee is eligible to work in Government jobs, military branches and go to school for in-state tuition. Gee is looking into all the various career fields he is interested in and will hopefully come to a decision by the time comes to actually take classes.

I am still working as a K-6 Art Teacher. Now that I'm finally through the first trimester I am finally feeling more like myself again. It has been a rough couple of months as the hormones have been the controlling force. Poor Gee has had to deal with a hormone crazed, nauseated woman for 3 months. I hope the rest of this pregnancy goes smoother at least for the sake of our sanity.

The first ultra sound we had done in Laramie was supposed to be at 10 weeks. When they measured the baby it was actually about 7 1/2 weeks. I felt is was like ground hog's day, everything just kept happening over and over again. Honestly I became a little disillusioned and frustrated. Several of my friends had miscarriages and I really felt the stress building up. I have had 2 prenatal visits so far, and one scheduled for tomorrow. The first one was alright, the second was frustrating; it seemed like the doctor didn't have time for me. For the record I have never had an exam of the female nature done so quickly in my entire life. We had the 12 week ultra sound done and it was so much better. The baby was kicking, turning, boxing, touching it's feet with it's hand. Gee made it through this ultra sound without getting faint, so that was a bonus. I must say I am having a hard time feeling connected to this baby. I told my sister I feel like it is a parasite because it latched on and sucked the life out of me. But as I am coming out of the first trimester I guess I need to reassess this particular stance. I am feeling more normal, more like myself and less like a hormone crazed wild woman. This morning I decided it is probably not right to feel so detached, so I read Psalm 139. If God has already ordained the entire number of days my child will live and is overseeing it's forming, who am I to feel put out over a couple of months where I feel like my body has taken over my good sense. This too shall pass I'm sure.

Here are some of our ultrasound pictures from our 12 week visit:

Happy Holidays

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged. Life happens sometimes and suddenly it is months later and you wonder where time went. 

So here is the latest news from the Paytoe Gbayee family. Gee received his work visa and filled out what seemed like hundreds of applications. We had been praying God would give Gee the perfect job, and He never ceases to amaze us. Gee was hired at Attention Homes, a residential facility for troubled youth. He started working the week before Thanksgiving, and works weekends there now. Meanwhile he had an application in at the Boys and Girls Club that we had given up on for the most part. Just over two weeks ago he went in to see if they had filled the position and they hired him to work during the week as a Program Assistant Director. So he is now busy working every day of the week. 

Just after Gee found out he was going to be working at the Boys and Girls Club we found out we are expecting. Right now I am about 6 1/2 weeks along, and looking forward to our family growing in August. I will be trying to be better about updating this blog as we embark on this journey. 

We hope that as we move forward into this next year God would continue to hold us in His hands. Happy Holidays!

In America with my wife

How good it is to finally join my wife in the United States of America, particularly Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was a difficult journey to this place, but as God the Almighty has made a way we are now living together as husband and wife. I recieved my visa in the first week of August 2009 and made my trip on my birthday, the 12th of August. So I had the opportunity to spend my birthday in the air. This trip was my first experience to travel for such a long time in the air. It was funny, my heart was right in my hands (or as my wife has told me in the US they way 'My stomach was in my throat'). There were no problems flying as I made my way through from Sierra Leone to Gambia, to Senegal, to Dulles International airport and finally to the airport in Denver, Colorado where I proceed to drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Life here is nice. Back in Sierra Leone there was group of people, which was made up of friends and family, I had close at hand. I had something to talk about all the time, it was seen as time wasted, but i feel good in wasting time in such a way that help my well being by being part of a larger community. I am not saying that life here is not good, but each day I know that the only person that makes me smile is about to leave for work at 8:00am and will only return 4:30. It makes me sick, again it's not a issue, but how i feel.

Thanks to God I am volunteering for a little girls soccer (football) team as a coach. I am also playing in a recreational soccer club. I have played five games with two wins, one loss and two draws. As a soccer minded person who has played since birth and a die-heart Arsenal fan, the game sometimes look very funny.

My number here in the states is 307-760-1343. Until later...

Current Status...Still Holding

I know I am the world's worst person to keep blog updated, but I guess eventually is better than never. I have been caught up in the end of school and getting ready for shows and trying not to get disheartened as we go through the immigration process. We have sent in packets of information, forms, more forms, more of the same forms and then finally more forms. I know it sound like lots of paperwork (and it has been) but it has also been a situation where God has been guiding the whole process. Currently Gee has been through the biometrics, a police background check, the finding of all his and my documents, and finally the embassy interview. We have been told verbally that his visa has been approved, but the software for printing his visa has not been working. Tomorrow will be 1 month of waiting on the software to be fixed. The State Department Visa section said they will start 'pushing' things if after a month nothing has happened with the printing of his visa. Tomorrow makes 1 month so I will be making phone calls, lots and lots of phone calls. In the end we only started this process after I got out of the hospital, so really it hasn't been too long. I have read about some people who have waited years for visas, and I realize that 6 months is actually really good. So this is where we are, simply waiting for God's timing...

A Guide to Pronunciation

As a teacher the truth about your name comes out. If you are actually single the kids always call you Mrs. and if you are married you are always Miss. How does this work? I'm not sure but I find myself doing the same thing. Most times the older kids are good with pronunciation, however the primary grades come up with some interesting twists. Moreover the true meaning of you last name comes out. 

For most of my teaching career I had gone by Miss Abi or Miss A. This alleviated the simple problem of pronunciation. Apparently my maiden name 'Aldrich' came across as 'Ostrich.' One or two times it is alright, but last year there was an entire 1st grade class who were convinced that my name was Ostrich and would proceed to correct any new student trying to say Aldrich. There was a bright student who was very confused as to why they kept calling me Mrs. A instead of Miss O, because Ostrich starts with an O. 

I was so excited when I got married because I figured if I had to teach everyone how to say my name then it would alleviate mispronunciations because we would have all been practicing together. 'Paytoe Gbayee' is intimidating to say if you are looking at it, so we practiced in class. Paytoe is pretty straight forward, it is like you are paying the toe on your foot, pay-toe. Gbayee is much more intimidating, as the Gb sound is not part of western languages. However if you know that the G is silent it makes it easier. Then comes the end part of the double e's. They are also both silent. So really Gbayee becomes bay, like a bay of water or a bay horse. So all together it sounds like pay-toe-bay. Easy right. I sent out a pronunciation key to some peers who wanted to teach it to their classes before I got back from Africa. The kids caught on quicker than I did. I still sometimes will pause between my first and last name. When I returned everything was running smoothly, and I made the mistake of thinking how wonderful it was to have my name pronounced correctly at last; a wonderful kindergartner came up and asked, "Mrs. Potato Day, can I get some help." The truth of my last name is that it is actually Irish. Who knew?

Flickr Slideshow

If the slideshow on the right is not big enough feel free to check out the slideshow on our flickr page. Just follow the link by clicking on the title of this post!

Marriage and Malaria in a Month!

It was a big month and I know as far as blogs go I am not terribly consistent in posting. I guess it is what it is and I always think that it is better late than never. 

I just wanted to let everyone know personally I am ok and alive (that was in question for awhile). I was released from the hospital last Monday night and went home. I guess I want to share what happened so you can celebrate with me the absolute miracle it is that I am home without meds or any lasting consequences. The malaria was one of the forms (there are 5 varieties) that does not come back, and the last 3 test they did said I was completely parasite free. Gee was better the Friday I was admitted to the hospital because they treated him immediatly with the correct medication. Here is what I wrote while I was in the hospital: (WARNING: this might be kinda gross for some people, you can skip to the end section if you just want to know how I'm doing now and miss the details).   

I was at the hospital for 10-ish days (i lost some in a coma). I wanted to let everyone know what has been happening. I got back from Sierra Leone on the night of the 6th, went to work on the 7th. I felt awful but had been flying for 37 hours and thought it was exhaustion. I slept for 13 hours got up to go to work, grabbed an orange juice got to school and threw up in my classroom. I had fever, body aches, nausea (obviously) and a headache. I called Gee and he had been in the hospital in Sierra Leone with the same symptoms on the 6th. He had malaria. I went to the ER and told them I had malaria, they asked me if I thought I might be mistaking it for the flu, because "this is Cheyenne, Wyoming". They sort of placated me and started some tests that would have to run for 24 hours after a full day in the ER they sent me home and said to come back if the symptoms got worse. They got worse, I was back in the ER on Friday morning with my brain on fire. They got the tests back finally and said, oh you have malaria. Duh. So they admitted me to the hospital from the ER that afternoon to the hospital and started some basic prevention treatments. On Saturday my oxygen had dropped so low they put me in the ICU for more constant observation. Thankfully I had a doctor who did some calling to the CDC and found a drug not approved by the FDA but one used in most of the rest of the world (it is safer, more effective, lower mortality rates, fewer side effects, faster, etc...). They sent a special courier with the meds through the air force base to me by Saturday night at 11pm. However by then they had started me on a form of quinine (sp?). By early Sunday morning they had originally thought the malaria had attacked my lungs but now think it was the quinine, and I ended up with lungs full of fluid, there were 8 people in my room working with some inverted pressure processes to keep my lungs working for the 3 hours it took to get me put on a ventalator. Two pic iv's, one arterial iv (5 attempts), a catheter, a breathing vent, and a nose feeding tube later I was sedated and put into a coma until Tuesday. By the by to do all the hardwiring they paralyzed me so I wouldn't move, but in the rush to save my life they failed to sedate me so I was completely mentally and physically aware of every single procedure they performed. I woke up a little apparently and asked my dad to read 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' and 'Where the Wild Things Are' on Monday and a little Tuesday night to ask about some soccer matches (I thought I was in a different country and wanted to know about Gee's favorite team). They let me come out of the coma on Wednesday but I still had to be restrained to the bed for 1/2 the day so I wouldn't pull tubes out, but I could write. I think I went through a ream of paper talking with my dad. Thursday they took out the breathing tube, Friday they took out the arterial iv and moved me out of the ICU back to the hospital (I set records in my recovery). Initially they thought I would be in the ICU for 1 month and in the hospital for 2. Saturday I started really walking and got 1 of the 2 pic iv's out. I also got the catheter removed. I took the stairs on Sunday. They finished the meds on Monday and sent me home.  

I hope I didn't gross anyone out too bad, but I really am ok. I had a friend visit on the Monday I was released and she said it was hard to believe all that happened because I looked just like myself. They only thing I am still struggling with is really low endurance due to the build up of the sedatives they used to keep me in the coma in my body. I have 10 days off for sure before my doctor reevaluates my ability to go back to work. I am trying to get up and around a lot because the Physical Therapist said that was the only way my strength was coming back. I will be trying to get caught back up here but I will be taking it slow.    

I really appreciate everyone who sent cards and text messages. It has been a long month, but it is great to be alive!