A day at the fair

I have discovered that I am too old for the Tilt-a-whirl.  If not too old, then not ready to eat an elephant ear and half a Pepsi and then ride the aforementioned torture device.

We had a good time with the girls at the the fair today, even if I did leave spinning and little blurry.  The girls had a great time.  I have included a slide show of the time we spent enjoying the animals, and a few pictures of Lauren on her ride of choice.  Sorry, there will be no pictures of me looking like I just got off the tilt-a-whirl.  I had the camera.

My Parents in Mississippi

My Dad was informed this afternoon that he has a new job.  He will take over as the Operations Manager at the Gulfport, MS distribution Center.  This has been a job we have been praying for now for 8 months.  Maybe longer.  However, the downside is the distance away.  When we began praying we never had any idea it would be this far.  For a while this past spring we thought maybe the UP would be a new destination, but instead we find the way south.

We are happy for this new position because of what it will mean for my parents financial situation, but that is weighed against the distance of travel to see them.  We are thankful for the advances in the internet, communications like cell phones, and video calls.  These will help to make the distance a little less intimidating, but it is no substitute for being 20 minutes away.  My parents are huge support us in a lot of ways, not the least of which is relief from our children for a little while now and then.  Their relationships with our children bring us a lot of joy, and provide peace while we are away on trips, etc…

Now, to begin plans in earnest for that Gulfport work project this spring.  Perhaps my family can come along and stay their Spring Break at my parents.  Anyway, that’s one option.  I will have to remember to wave from the plane on the way to Guatemala this summer.  I will probably fly right over their house on the way into Houston Airport.

This will mean a lot of changes for us, more for them.  But I am reminded that when God wanted to begin the work of redemption which he brought through the people of Israel, it started with a man leaving his home and going to a far off place that God would show him.  Who knows but God what this will mean for the family.

My mom will be taking some time here and then there to make the move over.  We will help on this end I am sure.  Whether or not any of us will get down there before winter, we have no idea.  We are finding we don’t know much about our futures anymore, it’s best to leave the guessing up to someone else, and just go with it, I guess…

Our girls’ funny faces

The girls were at the mall Friday afternoon and they were in a mood.  They were a little nuts.  You can talk about climbing the walls until you are actually trying to get them down from the walls.  These are some pictures of their crazy mood faces, and it made for a good distraction while were trying to get clothes tried on for Sam.  So if you ever wondered what really goes on in those changing rooms at the mall, now you can know.  Take a look at these:

Results of Erica’s CT Scan

We received the results of Erica’s CT Scan today.  There is a little mucus remaining in the right middle lobe.  They could not determine what was the root cause of the mucus that is there, but they think there are two possibilities.  First, she still may have aspirated something that is causing the irritation and it simply didn’t show up on the CT.  Or she may have a condition call “bronchomalaysia”.  I have no idea if that is spelled correctly. 

The new thing “BM” for short (that is my personal comment on all this “stuff” we are needing to learn about), anyway, it is when the Bronchi are thinner or weaker for some reason and they collapse.  This is usually a condition which children outgrow.

Either way, they need to do a “BS”.  That is a Bronchoscopy.  This means they need to put my little girl out cold on a table and stick a scope down her throat and see what is down there. Sounds like good fodder for “what did you do on your summer vacation assignment”. 

I am grateful we have a doctor that is willing to look around and see if we can identify a good reason for all this.  Rather than just guessing and medicating.  I appreciate that.  But it is a little annoying that she needs to go through all these tests.  In addition she was poked by another doctor today who is going to tell us if her thyroid is OK and if she is processing blodd sugar right.  If those tests come back normal, we will have to say oh well, she just passed out Sunday and we don’t know why.  If something else is wrong, we will have another interesting journey of wondering what is wrong with our little girl. 

The frustration level is high with me at this point.  A little good news please!  I suppose we do have a nice new front window. 

Erica Fainting in Church

Erica passed out in church this morning.  She was kneeling (nothing spiritual implied, just a good position to color using the chair as a table) by the chair and simply began to lay over on Samantha and started to slide between the seats.  Dawn noticed first and whispered if Erica was OK.  I looked and Erica was slumped between the seats on her way to the floor.  I reached to pick her up and she felt stiff to me, like she was having a temper tantrum sometimes she will hold her arms tight and refuse to uncross them.  When I turned her to see her face, she was not there.  Her eyes looked very sleepy and she was not responding much if at all.  I laid her back in Dawn’s arms and she began to come around quickly.  I thought it best we get her out of the room.  In the 2nd row we were becoming quite spectacle, although many had their eyes closed as it was prayer time when this all happened.  When we got out the door, Erica began to say she wanted to throw up.  We got her into the bathroom and she stood by the toilet but nothing happened.  The she needed to pee, so we closed the door and she did that on her own for now there was a peanut gallery in the bathroom.  She slowly perked up in the bathroom.  We had Jim (an EMT/ Firefighter) and Gerri (a nurse) with us in the bathroom.  We also had Sherry (a prayer warrior). 

Erica and I went home from church and she slowly got back to herself.  She had some saltines and I spoke with a doctor on the phone to see what I should do.  It sounded to him like a fainting spell.  No link to anything he could think of at this point.  He reassured me it did not sound like a seizure, or blood sugar based on my description.  So we decided not to have her seen in the ER today, but to follow up with an appointment tomorrow at our Doctor (at leat a partner, our doctor is still away).

So this afternoon was a normal one, other than that we all got naps.  Erica seems to be doing well.  She is more herself this evening and gaining energy and appetite.  Dawn will take her in tomorrow and we will probably not get any further on why this happened, other than to add stress to our daily lives because apparently we are running short on our allotment. 

We don’t have the Chest CT results back yet, but we hope to get those tomorrow.  And tomorrow should be chapter two of our new window saga.  We shall see what tomorrow brings…today isn’t over yet.  One day at a time.

Erica’s CT scan

Erica went in yesterday for a ct scan.  It went pretty well.  We do not have the results yet, but the good news so far is that we made it through the whole day without the hospital calling and telling us they needed to get more pictures.  If you recall, that is what they did with Joshua’s ultrasound.  Not a good feeling.

Erica was very brave…after the needle was in for the IV.  She was quite nervous and put up quite fight for a while before they put the needle in.  In the CT room they provided her with lots of distractions.  She had a cloud scene painted on the ceiling, fiber optic lights hanging over head, and a projector on the top of the “donut”.  The projector showed pictures of fish swimming in tropical waters and reefs.

She thought it was great!  Afterward they gave her a ton of prizes.  She filled my cargo pocket with stuff.  Then they showed us the way out, and we headed back to Nana and Papa’s. 

 Speaking of Nana and Papa…they are praying about a job opportunity in Mississippi, Gulf Port.  The job is a good one with good pay and a good company (Weyerhauser).  He would be Manager of a distribution yard down there.  It is a good opportunity.  But it takes them away from family, their children and grandchildren, and their church home. 

It’s hard to understand how God works sometimes.  I certainly don’t get it.  I like the passages that Pastor Steve has shared with is in Psalm 73 that said when I tried to understand God it oppressed me.  I also like the passage in Deuteronomy 29:29 where God says the secret things belong to him and the revealed things belong to us.  What he has revealed and shown to us, we can own.  We can take it to the bank.  The secret things, the things we can’t understand and don’t know, we leave it to Him.  That’s faith.  We can be certain of what we hope for…which is his eventual return and setting things right…not that it will all be OK.  There is never a promise that things on this planet will be made OK until the promised return and fulfillment.  All things are working together for our good, and we wait patiently for the things God is working in us.  I recently came to a better understanding of Romans 28 where it says who hopes for what he already has.  If we want everthing to work out our way on Earth, then we will have nothing to hope for anymore.  We are hopeless.  But rather we wait patiently for God to bring us what he has promised which is our redemption.  In fact, that passage says the whole world and creation is waiting and groaning for that day.

More and more as I experience what this world has to offer, I wait and groan for His return.  The time we spend on this earth has to be about sharing the joy of the world to come with everyone we encounter.  This is all that matters.  I am not sure what to do with all the other things we pursue in this world.  I can conclude with another wise man who simply said…meaningless!

Hope this isn’t a downer.  It should be about Joy.  I am still in the process of understanding what it looks like to have joy this side of the promise.  We have seen the promise revealed, but it is not fulfilled.  Daddy has the Ice Cream, but we haven’t tasted it yet.  So perhaps joy in the anticipation of the goodness is one goal to work toward. 

I have an interview for the commissioned pastor program in a few minutes, so I better split.