Finally it is almost time to depart and head home for Thanksgiving! Though we have been most blessed to have spent time with this wonderful family who so generously had taken us in during our time here BUT it will be wonderful to return home to the rest of our family!
Today was a day of rest for us. This morning after we got dressed we went to return the rental car and then had them drive us back to Arlene & Jack's. While Jack took Miata to Greer Park, just around the corner, I spent that time packing. Once they returned we had lunch and then Miata and I went back to the park to relax and spend time playing games (sitting on a park bench.) Not exactly Miata's favorite way of playing, of course, but unfortunately she still has a couple of weeks before she is allowed to engage in her type of playing! The most special thing happened just before we left the park and it was... God sent a very special woman (didn't even get her name) and her daughter directly to us! They walked right up to us and immediately started talking to Miata about her ear. I was able to engage in conversation at that moment because I was talking to my husband on the phone. I quickly hung up from speaking with him and zoned in on the the conversation between them. She was asking Miata many many questions about her ear and I begin to explain what she had done to it. Well this woman starting telling Miata how special she was and how God created her so special and perfect. Of course this boosted Miata's spirits and made her feel good. She then proceeded to tell us that her little girl was also born with something and asks Miata to guess what it was. Miata was a bit shy and didn't want to guess so she proceeded to tell us that her daughter was born without certain teeth (I have never heard of this!) She then explained that there is a special doctor that was going to make new teeth for her that he will then be able to fix the areas in her mouth that had these teeth missing! This little girl is seven years old and was such a sweet pretty little girl. Well she then proceeded to explain that that was not the only special area she was born with but that she also was born with a whole in her heart. She said when she plays hard you can then put your ear to her heart and hear the very loud swishing sound that her heart makes. Later she even had Miata do this so that she could really hear it for herself! Even more fascinating is that she shared with me the fact that when she was in college (she now works for a plastic surgeon) there was a doctor she studied under who was born without either of his ears!! This doctor pioneered the surgery of creating ear canals on patients who receive a plastic (a prosthetic ear!) She asked me if Miata's doctor was Dr. Roberson (I have a link on the right sidebar for him) and I told her I was very familiar with who Dr. Roberson was but that we chose to have a real (cartilage created) ear instead of the prosthetic ear for Miata and then would have Dr. Kesser complete the Atresia surgery for her canal. Anyways, Dr. Roberson studied under this initial doctor and later perfected this procedure as did Dr. Kesser. O.k. lets see, there are approximately 58,598 people living in Palo Alto! What are the chances that this woman would just walk up to us out of the blue with this type of connection to this situation?? Not a coincidence, no way!! After our short time together, about 15 minutes, Miata and I had to leave because Jenny was suppose to be coming by for a while this evening. As we begin to walk we got just a distance away and this little girl ran up behind us and gave Miata a very pretty little flower and told her to have a good day and just smiled at her. Miata said thank you and thanks for playing with me. As we walked hand in hand home I just reflected upon what had just happened and the overwhelming feeling of God sending us these special angels was most evident! Miata's spirits were lifted mightily and she really enjoyed these few minutes of talking and playing with this woman and little girl! I just thanked God for sending them to us and for all He has done for us on this journey to California!!
Anyways, it was a great day but also a day of rest before our long journey back home! We leave San Francisco at 11:10pm and arrive in Chicago at 5:05am. We then have a three hour layover there in Chicago. Next we leave Chicago at 8:08am and arrive in Raleigh at 11:00am. Whew, what a night of traveling it will be! I will post more updates once we are back home.
Thank you all again for all your prayers! We greatly appreciate them!