Update

First, we just want to thank everybody for the kind thoughts, words and prayers. We have felt uplifted.

Mia is getting stronger every day. It's still a long uphill battle, but we feel grateful that she's doing as well as she is. Being 14 weeks premature, her heart, lungs, skin, and other vital organs were all underdeveloped when she was born. Because her heart was underdeveloped, one of its arteries wasn't quite closed up enough to maintain steady blood pressure without heart medication. Her artery has started to close, and they no longer have to give her the heart medicine. She still needs to be sedated to keep her heart rate and blood pressure normal, because she likes to move around so much. She has a bacterial infection that she's receiving treatment for, and she's getting better each day. They had to give her oxygenation and electrical respiratory stimulation so that she could breathe normally. They no longer have to give her the oxygenation. Her jaundiced skin is improving every day.

She was improving so much that they decided to try to give her some of her mom's milk through a feeding tube. She couldn't digest it yet so they had to stop, but they tried again last night. We still haven't talked to the doctors, so we're not sure if she was able to digest it this time.

Stef found an apartment in Matsuyama that's about 20 minutes away from the hospital on foot. We can't move in until December 18th, but we lucked out and got an offer from a Canadian couple to stay in their apartment while they're on vacation. It's about 5 minutes from the hospital, so we're going to stay there until we can switch over to our new apartment.

The new apartment is very expensive, but the church is helping to pay for it since we can't afford it. We hope to only have to be there for three months. It's a one-room apartment that's pretty tiny, but it's furnished and utilities are included. We can even get internet, so Stef and I will be able to Skype once I go back to work on the island. It's a huge blessing.

I went back to the island two days ago to pack some more suitcases. I was worried about having enough vacation time to cover the days I would miss and still have some for early next year (so that Stef wouldn't be alone all week in Matsuyama). My boss told me that they were giving me the rest of December (until January 5th) off, paid--and I didn't have to use my vacation time. When I got home after hearing this, I fell to my knees and wept. I thanked my heavenly father for all the help. I have enough vacation time to take every Monday off for the next few months. I plan on working Tuesday through Friday, then making the 4+ hour trek to Matsuyama to be with Stef for the weekend. I'll go back to Uoshima every Monday in the afternoon.

Before we could leave the clinic where Stef was staying, we had to pay our hospital bills. I wasn't sure what I was paying for, but emptied out our accounts to pay the doctors. When I showed my receipt to the people at the Uoshima Town Hall, they said that I had been wrongly charged for the delivery of the baby. The doctor didn't even deliver the baby, yet I paid him $1600 for delivery alone. I still have to pay the island doctor for the delivery of the baby (only $250, but still, I shouldn't have to double-pay). The island doctor is outraged and is reporting him to some kind of better-business-bureau-type-thing. We're hoping that we will get our money back.

Insurance doesn't cover childbirth in Japan, but the city will pay you a lump sum of cash that usually covers the expenses of childbirth. In Imabari, you can walk out of the city office with cash the day you register the birth, but on my island you have to wait 1-2 months to get it. We'll be a bit strapped for cash until then, so it would be really nice to get that $1600 chunk back. They want Stef to open a bank account, but I don't know how we'll be able to split our money up into two accounts. We have a lot to think about.

I've been filling loads of paperwork out in order to get insurance for little Mia. Since she was so premature, most of the costs will be covered by insurance. We still have some costs, but we're much less worried about being able to afford the medical care than we were at first.

I was told to go the the embassy as soon as I could to register Mia's birth and get her a passport. When I contacted the embassy, they told me that the whole family had to be present, including Mia. There are no exceptions. We won't be able to go until she's healthy enough to leave the hospital. After stressing about it a bit, I've decided that it's not that big of a deal. She was born this year, so we can still claim her on our US taxes even if we don't have a social security number or passport for her. Rest assured that I'll be filing my tax return as soon as possible next year. We'll need that money to be able to afford a family trip to Tokyo or Osaka.

We finally had to buckle down and buy cell phones. We didn't need them on the island, but we'll need them out here. It's free to receive cell phone calls in Japan, and our family plan allows us to call each other whenever we need to for free. Calls to the same network are free from 1AM to 9PM (almost the opposite of the U.S.), but calls to other networks and in-network calls in from 9PM to 1AM cost about 42 cents a minute. I had to purchase the phones with cash--the plans where you get a free phone cost much more per month than the one we signed up for. I spent a total of 3-4 hours (in three separate trips) at the phone store trying to communicate with the salesman (without a translator) and understand what I was buying. I hope I got it right.

It's nice to have phones, even if we just use them to talk to each other and receive calls. My package included $60 of prepaid calls, so I have two SIM cards with different phone numbers. When I need to make calls, I pop in the pre-paid card. Once I'm done calling, I put the regular SIM card in. It's a bit of a hassle, but it will save me a bit of money over the next couple months.

Stef's dad is flying out here tomorrow to be with us and help with Kelsey. We're extremely excited for him to come, even if the apartment will be a bit of a tight fit. Hopefully we'll be able to spend time outside of the house.

I'm going to miss our house on Uoshima ('til I go back). We have a whole lot of food there that needs to come out with us. I'm not sure how I'm going to transport it to Matsuyama without it going bad. We may have to give some of it away and just eat (Ha!) the loss.

Again, thanks to everyone for your support. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. It really helps lighten the load.