The End of a Long Journey (Hopefully)!

Where do we even begin?  Mark and Tessa are heading to Taiwan today!  How did we even get to this point?  Let me take you back to over a year ago where Tessa and I were kidding around on the drive home from one of her post-op appointments, we were getting our passports the next day for our upcoming summer trip to Canada.  "Maybe you'll be using your passport to go to Taiwan some day!" We both laughed.  Her new surgeon was telling us about this hospital in Taiwan that specializes in all different cleft cases.  Tessa has been quite the "specialized case" in her 17 years.  So many surgeries, so many REPEATED surgeries that don't take on the first OR the second attempt.  ANYWAY, God put this incredible surgeon in our life and this surgeon has been an amazing blessing since our very first meeting.  Every surgery he has done on Tessa has "taken"...including her jaw surgery this past December.  We respect him and trust what he has to say.  So, when he brought Taiwan up AGAIN at her most recent post-op in February we asked some more questions.  He knows something about Taiwan that the average person doesn't, and when I asked him where he would take HIS daughter (if she had gone through what Tessa has gone through), he responded immediately with "Taiwan"!  No pressure, Dr. Walline!😉 We started walking through each one of the doors that were in front of us, some more challenging than others.  We knew that God would shut any of them if He did not want us to go this route.  Instead of shutting doors, more and more doors opened!  God has shown up in so many different ways...His finger prints have been all over this unique opportunity.  My faith has been strengthened through all of this.💕  It is my prayer that TESSA'S faith continues to grow as God shows himself to her in so many different ways...and that is one reason why we want to start journaling (blogging) again.  Once Mark and Tessa get to Taiwan, they are taking it over!  About that...

• They are leaving today (Thursday) for 2 weeks!  
• Tessa will have 4 procedures done in one surgery:

1. Rhinoplasty (she finally gets a tip on her nose!)
2. Final Lip Revision
3. Fistula Closure in her hard palate way up high (she has already had close to 5 surgeries to get this accomplished! Once this is closed she should no longer be able to squirt water out of her nose!)
4. The biggest one...her soft palate has a large hole in it (she has no uvula!) and this is causing her speech to struggle.  Speech therapy doesn't touch it because of the structure of her mouth. When her jaw surgery happened, the hole got bigger causing her speech to struggle even more. We are praying that Dr. Lo can perform a miracle by shrinking that hole or even closing it!  I'm serious...please join us in praying for a miracle!  

• Surgery is Tuesday, July 23rd in the morning (which is situated perfectly at the same time as we are all going to bed Monday night.  Please pray for both Tessa and her doctors as you lay your head on your pillow!)
• The first 3 days she and Mark will be exploring the hot and humid city of Taipai, Taiwan, the next 3ish days they will be at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for surgery, and finally, the rest of the time will be recovery.  For those of you who know Mark, all this down time will be a tad challenging!  Please pray for him as well!😜

That's it for now!  I'm looking forward to reading all their entries about the adventures God is going to take them on!💗 

Guess who's excited that this may be one of her last surgeries?!?!

Last family photo before the journey