Finally Some Pictures from Lima

Kirstin again, and things are a bit the same today. My family came into town to visit me and Jonathan this weekend, plus some old Greenville friends have stopped in to see him. He's finally relaxing and resting a bit, and has slept a lot more these last few nights.

We went out again in the wheelchair for about an hour. His daily routine includes physical therapy as well as occupational therapy. Physical therapy is concerned with exercising his legs to help them remember how they are supposed to work, while occupational therapy helps him take care of the basic stuff like bathing, brushing, shaving, getting dressed and getting around during this recuperation stage. For instance, during this next stage he'll use a wheelchair to get around of course, and getting into the wheelchair from the bed while his spine is still healing is a major project!! But it feels great to sit up and get outdoors.

EMAIL JONATHAN
I love walking into his room with a stack of notes for him. My email address is:
kirstinwilliams@gmail.com

FINAL MORNING IN LIMA
Once we knew we were on the way home, we were able to document our final moments in Lima. I'll upload more recent pics from Greenville when I can.

Fabiola the Fabulous Peruvian Nurse (with Kirstin and Jonathan in the action hero back brace). She cried when she hugged us goodbye! She took good care of JLD; the nursing staff was so warm and caring.





The Lear jet awaits! I almost cried with relief when the 4 members of the flight crew jumped out and introduced themselves. Later on board, I did cry with relief, and they quickly brought me a tissue and administered chocolate! :-)





There were 2 pilots, a paramedic and a nurse. These guys were awesome. When we stopped for fuel in Fort Lauderdale, they had pre-ordered 3 pizzas to be brought out the plane. I could have kissed them! They had meds and monitors on board for Jonathan. Plus a laptop and DVDs to soothe the frazzled passengers.



On the tarmac before we loaded JLD onto the rocket.
Adios, ambulance guy!






Kirstin musters up her foreign diplomacy skills in the final 2 minutes on the tarmac when she really wants to scream at this airport "handler" for being so disorganized about getting us to the jet.

However, the ambulance driver was not so lucky -- he received the full wrath of Kirstin after getting lost outside the airport and making 4 u-turns before FINALLY pulling out his cell phone to get directions. We were about 2 hours late to meet the flight crew. Why is it a universal and international truth that men do not like to stop and ask directions??!!

(NOTE: You CAN scream and rage in a foreign language and still get your message across. But I only recommend this desperate strategy if you are completely at your wit's end, soon leaving the country, and someone from the US Embassy is calling every 5 minutes to confirm your whereabouts!)