Around the World and Back

I try not to let more than 2 months pass between blog updates, but somehow, we’ve slipped into the 3 month territory.  It has been a memorable 3 months, however, including Jaycee’s first around-the-world tour during our Annual Leave.

Jaycee, big girl status

***Lusaka – Dubai (7 hours) – Los Angeles (16 hours)

1.  Jin’s graduation: On 26 May 2013, our family gathered in Loma Linda, CA, to celebrate the big day for Paul’s younger brother, Jin.  He graduated with a Doctorate in Dental Surgery from Loma Linda University.  We are so proud of him!  

 

 

2.  Utah Family Trip: From 27-30 May 2013, we all took a trip up to the breathtaking Zion National Park, deemed one of the 10 most visited national parks in the United States. 

We stayed just outside the park in a large cabin.   

 

 We even visited Bryce Canyon as well. 

 

 

Jaycee had a lovely time bonding with her cousins – Wailea and Oliver.

 

 

3.  Speaking engagements & Baby Dedication: A trip back to the U.S. is never complete without a chance to share what we are doing in Zambia.  We were thankful to the Loma Linda Korean SDA Church, who gave us an opportunity to speak during their worship programs on 7 and 8 June 2013.  

4.  Baby Dedication: Jaycee had her baby dedication ceremony on that same weekend. 

5.  Friends: Jaycee got to meet Kar-Yee, Mervyn, and Kaylee Ng for the first time. 

     She also got to attend the first year birthday party of Minna & Eric Lee’s twins, Dylan & Ryann.  

She got to meet Ed, Sarah, and Yuna Nam.   

And Selina & Evonn Reyno’s boys, Nathan & Joshua.

 ***Los Angeles – Honolulu (6 hours)

 

6.  Hawaii: After two and a half weeks in California, we headed out to Hawaii for another two and a half weeks of fun, friends, and family (oh…and continuing education). 

Each weekend, the resort where we stayed ended up being a perfect hang out place for Paul’s old friends and their families.

 

Jaycee had the chance to meet many friends.  She especially loved her new playmate, Christian.

7.  Anniversary: We celebrated our 6 year anniversary with Waiola Shave Ice followed by Thai cuisine at Chang Mai’s.  It was our shortest celebration ever, as we had left Paul’s mom babysitting Jaycee and our hearts missed spending time with our precious daughter.   

 

It’s hard to believe that 6 years have flown by so quickly.  But every moment in our marriage has been wonderful, no doubt.  Marriage has taught us about sharing, thinking about someone else’s needs before our own, caring, and loving.  

8.  Scuba:  On 28 June 2013, we had the opportunity to go scuba diving on the South Shore.  We had what you call a quick “brushing up” by our dive instructor (as it had been about a year and a half since we got PADI certified in Zanzibar) before we dove right in.  The first dive was an old shipwreck down about 100 feet below sea level.  The second dive was along an old water pipe with a coral reef. 

 

 

***Honolulu – Seoul (10 hours) 

9.  Korea: Finally, we had an opportunity to spend the next 10 days in our motherland.  I hadn’t been back to Seoul since 2002, when I taught English at the SDA Language Institute for a year.  The building that I had taught in had definitely changed in the last 11 years!   

     And so had all of Korea.  The subway system was much more sophisticated.  

     There were new buildings everywhere.  They had definitely cleaned up and modernized many of the more popular tourist areas. 

 We took a little tour of the Gyeongbokgung palace. 

 And sampled some of the yummy food.  

 

10. More speaking engagements:  We were able to have yet another opportunity to share our mission story at Young Dong SDA Church as well as the Hoegi Dong Bonbu SDA Church.  

  There, Jaycee got to meet extended family members for the first time.   

11. Seoul Philharmonic:  On 6 July 2013, my aunt and uncle got us tickets at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall to see the Seoul Philharmonic, featuring works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, and Rimsky-Korsakov.   

12. Family: We are so thankful to my aunt & uncle, who graciously hosted us in their home during our stay in Korea.  

      It was great to hang out with them, hear stories and see photos about how my mom and all her siblings grew up in Korea, 

     and visit key places that are important to my parents (the area they first dated, the building where my mom first worked, 

      the building my parents got married in, etc.).

13. Friends: It was great to meet up with an old friend, Yeo Jin Kim, who is now a prominent news anchor on YTN, a Korean news channel, and to visit the studio.  

 

14. Vision Care Service:  We even got a chance to meet Dr. Dong Hae Kim, who is an ophthalmologist also passionate about international eye care.   

     His eye team goes out numerous short-term trips per year to many different countries to perform free ophthalmic surgeries.  He has even come to Lusaka Eye Hospital in the past!  I am excited about the future partnership we can develop with his organization and our eye hospital.

***Seoul – Dubai (10 hours) – Lusaka (7 hours)

 

15. Home sweet home: After making it all the way around the world, we finally arrived back home in Lusaka.  And, boy, is home a sweet place to be.  After living in hotels, spare bedrooms, and makeshift spaces for baby Jaycee for almost 2 months, jumping from one time zone to another, it was so nice to be back in a familiar place.  Our own bed.  Jaycee’s own room.  It’s true, I didn’t appreciate the layers of dust that had coated every surface of furniture and floor.  I didn’t appreciate seeing those large, nimble, flat spiders creeping along the wall.  I didn’t appreciate the instantly dry atmosphere that seemed to suck all the moisture from my skin and necessitated multiple applications of lotion.  Never would I have thought that I could actually consider Africa home.  But it is.  And I love it.  

16. Back to work: We landed on Friday, and it was back to work on Monday.  Since then, it has been go-go-go.  Busy surgery and clinic schedules were to be expected.  A big Adventist Health International (AHI) board meeting was scheduled for that first week, so we were thrilled to see Dr. Dick Hart and Elisa Brown for that.  We also had our yearly Gwembe Eye Camp from 22 – 26 July 2013, during which we operated on 33 patients from the remote villages in the Southern Province.  

17. LG/Radian Stores partnership:  We are super excited about a new partnership that has just formed between Lusaka Eye Hospital and LG/Radian Stores.  LG has agreed to sponsor 100 cataract surgeries for needy patients starting in the month of September.  They have also graciously agreed to discount 6 LG air conditioner units at Lusaka Eye Hospital, as well as donate two large screen LG television sets for our two patient waiting areas.  It is my hope that once we get the politics of the corneal transplant issue resolved, LG can start sponsoring the corneal transplants done at Lusaka Eye Hospital.  I’m sure this is the beginning of a great partnership.  

      Now we are just gearing up for the next big thing – our first Loma Linda University ophthalmology resident is coming out to Lusaka Eye Hospital for a month!  Dr. Howard Guan arrives on Tuesday, and I’m sure it will be a good time.  We have been working hard on getting our small guesthouse completed, so that our visitors can have a place to stay.  We also have two eye camps lined up for the month of August, so it will be a busy surgical period.  Stay tuned!