The Short Gluttonous Life of Samuel Showalter

Ever since our marriage, Joo and I have been talking about when we should have our first child. And it finally appeared that the third member of our family, Samuel Showalter, had joined us. We ran some tests to make sure, and they came back positive. The only problem was that Samuel was growing in my womb rather than JooYeon's...

I learned back in India that it's always smart to get tested for diseases/parasites right before returning to the U.S., for the mere pragmatic fact that health testing and treatment is significantly cheaper elsewhere. So, even though neither of us had any symptoms, we skipped off to a health clinic in Costa Rica (or more accurately, I drug a hesitant Joo to the clinic) where we had the lovely opportunity of taking a stool test. Interestingly, Joo taught me the correct way to take a stool test which I had been doing completely wrong over the years but no doctor had ever informed me of it... no need for details...

On our final day in Costa Rica, we picked up the results. Joo, who was convinced she had at least five breeds of parasites inside of her, was completely clean... an amazing feat after 5 months of travel in developing nations. I, on the other hand, had a parasite... an amoeba to be precise... known as Endolimax nana, which we promptly nicknamed Samuel due to a linguistic misinterpretation by the nurse. The doctor assured me that if I had to choose any parasite to have, Endolimax nana was the best one to have as he is quite harmless and very easy to kill. This came as good news to me since Giardia had been a beast to get rid of while travelling Asia.


Heather and Joo served as the pallbearers, photographer, and cheerleaders in the solemn murder of Samuel Showalter which you are about to witness in the next few photos...

And within minutes, the deed was done and Samuel the amoeba was no more. More precisely, the battle raged on like little volcanic explosions deep in my gut throughout the day, but by the time we landed back on American soil, I felt purified, clean, and fully refreshed.