at long last - our Christmas plans

It has been a very long week. Our plans all semester long have included a trip to New Mexico for Christmas. When we saw cardiology last week, however, we found out that Athan's heart condition is more serious than we thought, and suddenly our plans were called into question. We have gone back and forth a thousand times between deciding to go home and stay here. We've shuffled through a myriad of factors, talked with doctors, prayed with friends and family, and changed our minds over and over again.

Finally, we have resettled on going home, but we have modified our plans to make the trip safer for our boy. We are doing a very scaled-down version of our trip home: We regrettably will not be making trips away from Clovis, and our appearances at big-group gatherings will be more brief than usual. Athan's cardiologist has put him on oxygen to prepare him for surgery, and we will be staying fairly stationary to make sure we can be consistent and keep him healthy.

We will be in Clovis by the end of the week, and will stay through the end of January. I will do my best to continue to update this blog throughout the trip.