First Quarter Review

2010 has been a busy year for the Ray family so far! Lorah worked at the International Operations Center (Mercy Ships' international office) for the month of January as part of Gateway Staff. She was a small group facilitator and assisted in other ways including lecturing (Gateway is Mercy Ships' long term volunteer introduction/preparation course). I went back to the Africa Mercy, which was in Tenerife, in January and sailed to Togo. I stayed in Togo for a few weeks to help get the ship ready for the field service.

While I was particularly busy working late one evening, I received a phone call to the engine room instructing me to call my wife on an unfamiliar number. She was at the hospital. I was scheduled to leave Togo about a week after that call, but very graciously, other Mercy Shippers made arrangements with the airline I had my flight with and arranged to bump my flight up about a week.

Lily decided that February 19th was a nice day to be born and that came to pass at 6:11 am, Eastern Standard Time, while I was in route from Paris, France to Washington, DC. When I arrived in Washington, I called Lorah's parents house while I was waiting at the baggage claim. No answer. I called Lorah mobile phone and a very emotional Lorah answered and told me that our daughter was born that morning, a full three months early. Needless to say, I was pretty well in shock. I was a dad for 12 hours while flying over the Atlantic and hadn't a clue. Inevitably, the flight from Washington to Philadelphia was delayed, several times. Delayed to the point that I would have been to Philadelphia before the flight finally took off if I had rented a car a drove straight away. Foiled by a hydraulics leak.

When I arrived at the airport in Philadelphia, Lorah's parents picked me up and we drove to the hospital where Lily and Lorah, that is to say my whole world, currently resided. Lorah was very excited to see me, I was very excited to see her, there were tears.

After Lorah and I composed ourselves, we went over to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Lily's new home. It was very surreal to see her. She was so small and looked so fragile. I stayed with Lorah in her hospital room for a few days. I can't remember how many exactly. It was very difficult to distinguish one day from another with the combination of jet lag and nurses coming and going at all hours of the night.

After Lorah was released from the hospital, we went home and began our daily visits to the NICU until March, when I had to go to Maryland to attend a marine refrigeration school. I was, thankfully, able to visit Lorah and Lily on the weekends, but the month of March was very long indeed.

The school ended and I began to study for an engineering exam (the first of two to get a professional engineer's license). That exam was in April 17th, Lily was still in the NICU. After the exam, I started working on a few engineering projects for Mercy Ships from Pennsylvania.

On April 25th, Lily was released fom the NICU and came home with us! I didn't do any work that day.

Since Lily has been home, Lorah and I have been very busy taking care of her, looking at her, wondering about her, and otherwise being in awe of the fact that we have a baby human to take care of (a very cute one at that). I have also been busy working from home, it has been a good arrangement for me. I've been able to continue to contribute to Mercy Ships and support Lorah and Lily. God is so good!

Hi! I'm Lily Ray! (I like to sleep :)