Elder DeMarco

So often I have to try and think of something exciting to blog, when nothing that exciting has really happened. But now, here's a good story. So, a couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from the guy who runs our mission website, Karl Kamper. I have met him once or twice, but I definitely was not expecting to hear from him. Anyway, the story goes that he had attended a baptism in Lehi, and one of the missionaries in attendance turned out to be from Argentina, where we served our missions. Well, they got to talking, and this Elder said that he had been baptized 7 years ago by an Elder Draper. So, Karl looked me up on the website and e-mailed to ask if I had baptized an Elder DeMarco on my mission. Sure enough! I taught and baptized him when he was 12, along with his Dad and brother, about three days before I left Argentina, and I had never heard what had happened to him. I tried to mail letters to his family, but to no avail. Mail service in Latin America is unbelievably bad.

Anyway, I assumed the worst, that he and the rest of my converts had gone inactive years ago. But no! He shows up serving a mission in Lehi. How crazy! Anyway, I got his phone number, but by the time I tried calling he had already been transferred to Payson. So, I had to call the mission office for his new number, and finally we were able to get in touch. Neither of us could believe that we had finally found each other so many years later under such incredible circumstances.

So, this past Monday I was flying out to San Francisco for a training seminar in the afternoon, so I decided to take the rest of the day off, too. We drove down to Utah County and took he and his companion out to lunch at the Olive Garden. Here we are with Ruben Dario DeMarco (or Elder DeMarco for the next two years).

We had a great visit with him, and it sounds like he and his family are doing extremely well. He's only been in the mission since December, but had 8 baptisms while he was serving in Lehi! He's a great missionary. Well of course he is, since I taught him and all.:) In fact, during lunch he gently reprimanded me for digging into my food before saying a blessing. He is well trained.

While we were in Payson, we decided to visit Jenny's grandparents, who live down that way. We had a nice chat with them. They met as missionaries in the Great Lakes mission 50+ years ago, and dated and married after they returned. They have since served missions in Mexico City, Costa Rica, and Tonga. We had a good talk about missionary work. It was a very missionary day. It was also a good chance to have Madeleine and Tori play with their great-grandparents. We didn't have any pictures of Tori with them, so we snapped a good one while we were there.

It was a great day. Elder DeMarco has already put me in touch with his family via e-mail, which is awesome. No one in Argentina had the internet while I was there, so it's so nice to have a quick, reliable way to communicate now. I am so grateful to be able to see some of the fruits of my mission so many years later. Now, that was a good story, wasn't it?

KAWASAKI!!

Sorry about the light blogging lately. And sorry that we haven't had much of a grand opening for our new basement. We have a good excuse, though.

So, about two weeks ago, Tori came down with a fever and a bit of a rash. We also noticed her eyes and eyelids were really red. Well, the fever didn't subside after the first day, and she was really irritable and doing weird things with her legs, like flexing them non-stop, or pulling them totally into her chest. It was weird, so we went to the pediatrician.

Well, he was convinced that it was an infection of some kind (he specifically thought it was a bone infection), so he sent us up to Primary Children's hospital just to be safe. We were admitted, and they started running just about every test known to man on our poor little girl. Unfortunately, everything came back negative. They had no idea what was going on with her. Finally, after about two more days of high fevers and still no solution to the puzzle, they diagnosed her with an atypical form of Kawasaki disease.

No, not that kind of Kawasaki. It has nothing to do with motorcycles or jet skis. Apparently it's a little-known autoimmune affliction, only in children, that causes inflammation of the blood vessels. They don't know what causes it, but it's not hereditary or contagious. It's most common in boys, and in Japan, so we have no idea how our little American girl could have gotten it. Luckily, like I said, it was an atypical form, meaning that she didn't exhibit all the symptoms. That's why it took them so long to diagnose it. A lot of kids with it get cracked lips and mucous membranes and swollen hands and feet that crack and peel. Luckily Tori didn't have any of that.

Anyway, after being admitted on Tuesday, they finally started treating her on Friday. She immediately improved. The fever broke, and she became her normal, happy self again. For the whole week she had basically been crying non-stop, so her little voice was all hoarse and sad. The main concern with Kawasaki's is that the coronary arteries may become inflammed, which can cause aneurysms, clots, and heart attacks. She had an echocardiogram, and they said her coronaries looked a little enlarged, but not severely. She was finally released on Sunday night, which made for an unbelievably long week.

Yesterday she had a follow-up echocardiogram, and her coronaries were completely normal. Pffew. The good news is that since they caught it early, she shouldn't have any long term complications or side-effects from this. Now, it's like it never happened. She's a completely normal kid now, and doing all the things a 6-month-old should do. She's sitting up on her own, rolling all over the floors, and chowing down on rice cereal. See, here's an "After" picture to prove her health.

We're just grateful to have a children's hospital so close by, and for doctor's that are so well-trained. Several patients at Primary have to travel there from surrounding states to find a hospital that can treat random children's maladies like Kawasaki's. We're also grateful for a good job that let me have a couple of days off, and good insurance to cover the bills. And lastly, thanks to good neighbors and grandparents who were so helpful with Madeleine while we were in the hospital. Thanks again to all! Now we'll have to see what we can do about that basement-warming party . . .