Update on Elias and Gappmayr family…

Here’s the latest on Elias and his family for those of you who have been praying…

Thanks – Lance & Laura

Dear co-workers,

Finally we are able to write you an update! Not that we didn’t have the time at all to do so, but things were crazy from day one on. We had a great trip to Vienna and arrived two weeks ago. Our church has once again prepared a nice place for us to stay just a few minutes outside Vienna. It is a really small town in the middle of Austria’s veggie-basket, the “Marchfeld,” nothing but fields and onions, potatoes, and carrots. Right now it is onion harvest and everything smells like onions and our noses are running constantly :). We really enjoy the place and our hosts, who are already very old but really nice and accommodating. We didn’t have much time to enjoy and get used to our new place, since we had to set up pretty much a new life her in Austria. On top of that we immediately had to look for all kinds of different doctors and therapists for Elias and also Carmen. So we have been really busy trying to get appointments, setting up schedules, starting school, and adjusting to a new environment, which was even for me, Richard,- being Austrian- quite different.

Now things are starting to slowly turn into sort of a routine. We have the needed therapists for Elias, including all kinds of information on how to develop his sensory-motor ability at home, which requires extra time and effort. But we are glad to be able to help Elias in effective ways. Lucas has started home schooling. Our teacher, who initially agreed to come and teach him again all of a sudden changed her mind which left me, Richard, teaching Lucas until we find someone else (hopefully). We tried to enroll him at a local school, but while checking the place out it was apparent by Lucas’ reaction that it would have been too much change for him. We are still looking for a place for Melissa, we feel that she also need some interaction and would love for her to put her in a local kindergarten for a few hours, that would also free Carmen up in the morning to do some exercises and eventually schooling with Elias.

Once things have settled down and we know who is doing what, when, and where, we will hopefully start to feel more at home and have more opportunity to connect with our church. Though, we have received much help already from dear folks from our church, organizing things, appointments, and doctors for us. This Thursday we are going to see a Neurosurgeon at a big hospital here in Vienna. We only need to get in touch with a doctor and a hospital so that we can carry on with Elias’ routine MRIs, every 3 Month and basically to continue from where we stopped in Cologne.

Especially our kids have had a hard time adjusting so far. One night Carmen was talking with them about it and they all three said they were tired of moving around, and mentioned at different times how much they miss the Philippines. Elias especially said that it is funny, if he is here he misses the Philippines and the other way round. And Lucas then said,: it takes time to adjust to the here and now.” 🙂 So please pray for our Children! We are happy to finally stay at a place, at least for one year, and we really have been looking forward to that, but it still has its challenges and takes time to adjust.

We really appreciate your prayers for us as a family and Elias in particular. It is a weird feeling knowing that the tumor is still there and that he and we just have to live with it.

Because of Christ Richard and Family

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