The Waiting Game

Anyone who has had a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) knows the waiting game.  The first question is always "when can I take my baby home?"  It seems pretty common for "them" to tell a parent of a preemie "we want to keep him until his due date" so the waiting game begins.

Not only do we get to wait, but we get to drive back and forth to the hospital.  And get to know the wonderful, compassionate nurses who work in the NICU.  And the check-out folks in the cafeteria.

Then they give some good news: when the baby gets to (insert milestone here), we'll start the release procedure. A good thing to remember when you hear this is that this doesn't mean the baby gets to go home whenever he reaches that milestone; that's just when the procedure begins, after which the baby goes home.

The procedure includes them showing the parents a video about shaken baby syndrome (lesson learned: don't ever, ever, ever shake a baby. it's not even funny to joke about).  We get re-trained in CPR (all the rules are different these days).  They make sure Peanut will fit in the car seat (and if he won't, they issue a new one - that's right, issue. That means they give us one).

Then the doctor has to check him out one more time and he can go home after the paperwork is done.  Which might take longer than thought, as (in our case) paperwork has to be done by the caseworker as well. And if the baby has had any other issues, those can hold up the release, triggering... more waiting...

The good news is that Peanut's nasal feeding tube is out and he's gaining weight.  The bad news is he had an "episode" last night - nothing to be alarmed at, but they want to make sure that he's out of the woods.

This is all the long, roundabout way of saying that our little guy isn't home yet; maybe tomorrow?

How Far I've Come

Today I would call this "overdressing"

A few years ago, I trained for a spring race, and I mostly trained indoors at the YMCA.  One Saturday I managed to miss the (shortened) hours, and I needed to get a 4 miler in, so I bundled up and went outside for a run.

I wore my wind pants, warmest shirt, vest, hat, and gloves and went out for a run.  The weather was rather nasty; snow spitting and accumulating a little. The funny thing was I was so proud of myself for running in that weather that I took a picture after the run.

A few years later (and after a full winter of training outside), here are my thoughts.  First, I'm embarrassed at how warmly I dressed for this run.  I would never wear those wind pants anymore for a run; they're way too hot.  Likewise for the shirt and the vest; that particular shirt is only good for extremely cold temperatures. I would wear it if the temperature was under 20* and windy. 

Today I would definitely run in that weather without a doubt.  And if the weather was too bad, I would just not worry about it; it was only four miles, after all.  I can't believe that a four miler gave me any pause whatsoever; it's less than any workout I'm even willing to suit up for!

Whatever You Do For the Least of These...

It started with someone getting a little crazy.  There was a sale, and they thought, "We should get some of this for the food pantry."  They got a lot.  Too much to even put away. And some hams and potatoes and bread. So the question arose: How do we get all this food out before it goes bad?

You see, our food pantry has operated as an "emergency" pantry, serving mostly drop-in clients, and we've had a quarterly limit - you can only come once every three months.  But if we waited that long, this food would have gone bad.  So our church secretary made some calls, and a cell group stepped up and offered to staff the pantry for a special night.

Several families said they didn't know where they would get food for their Christmas dinner, that they were praying that God would provide food for them, and then they got a call from the church, inviting them to come. And they did.  The cell group reported that 60 people came that evening and were given food.  Lots of it.  And several others came the next day as well.

It was amazing to watch God provide the miracle that these people had prayed for - through the actions of some who thought "an emergency food pantry isn't enough" and who thought "I could pick up some of this for the food pantry" and a cell group who decided to change their meeting to give the food out and a secretary who gets to know the food pantry clients (and prays with each of them) and who generously called each one and invited them to come and take food, without charge.

Sometimes I tend to get cynical about people.  But then there are people like these who embody Christlikeness.

Could This Be the One?

Or... Wait and See

Even before we were married, Tara and I talked about adoption.  Our eventual wish was to adopt children.  After a lot of prayer and conversations, we determined that we would attempt to adopt domestically, rather than overseas (note that this was what we felt like we needed to do; we don't have anything against those who adopt from overseas), so we went through our county training to be foster/adoptive parents.  Our adoption of Andrew was a private adoption (we hadn't necessarily planned that, but it was how God worked it out).  Through all of it, we only once got a call to foster (and it was a placement that wasn't right for us).

August 2009 we got the call to be foster parents for Baby J. We thought this placement would lead to adoption, but the information we got wasn't the full story, and his birth parents did everything they could to get him back.  We got a great opportunity to give him a good start, and though we were sad to have to "give him back" (and we still miss him) we were fine with it.  The system worked like it was supposed to.  Especially for Baby J's parents.

 Then in June 2010, we got another call, this time to foster (and hopefully adopt?) Jesse & Nathan.  The agency already had permanent custody of them and they were looking for a forever family.  After having them for a while, we realized that we couldn't give them the on-going care they needed, all the while, giving our other kids the level of support and concern they need.  The other thing was that their ages were too close to our other kids' ages, and poor Andrew often got the worst of the whole deal. We got to pass their care on to another couple who now is able to give them the attention they need, and we continue to pray for them (parents as well as the kids).

After that placement, we revised the age limits of children we would accept.  We decided we needed a solid break from toddlers, but we would take a baby.  So when another call came in (only a week after we'd cleaned house), asking if we'd take a baby and a 3 year old, we declined.  But when we got a call this week, asking if we'd take a tiny baby boy, we agreed. 

So last night we got to go to the hospital and meet Baby JT.  He was born on December 3, probably about 1 1/2 months premature.  He's a little under 4 pounds, and it was love at first sight.  He is a precious little peanut, as cute as can be.

We understand how the system works; we know that we may or may not get to keep him (keep him? we can't even take him home from the NICU yet! - they're saying probably not until after Christmas), but we're going to get to love him as long as we have him.

Which is the deal we've made with God on our kids in general.  We don't consider any of them "ours" to keep; they're God's, and we just get to "borrow" them from Him for a while - as long as He lets us.

Power Outage!

Have you ever had a power outage?   What a reminder of how much we rely on electricity!  Yesterday, just into our 11:00 church service, the power flickered several times and then went out.  That meant no microphones, no projector, no PowerPoint, no amplification for guitars (or the electronic drum set). I realized that we rely a lot on electricity!

For example, as a congregation, we don't necessarily have all of the praise songs memorized.  We don't necessarily have to worry about memorizing, because they lyrics are on the screen.  Except for when there isn't electricity to power the projector.

But honestly, besides not getting to audio-record my sermon, it wasn't a problem.  Sure, it changed things; the band did an acoustic set (including using the "box" instead of drum set, unplugging guitars, violin accompaniment (good thing Tara had her violin there after playing special music during the 9:00 service), and different songs from the hymnal), and I had to speak a little louder than usual, but even without electricity, the atmosphere was electric. 

One unexpected bonus was that Rudy "asked" everyone to move forward - conserving heat, voices carrying, etc., and that made for a closer experience, a "together" experience, if you will.  I came down off the platform to speak, because there was better lighting down on the floor, and that worked out well, too.


All in all, it was a great time of worship, and a little power outage didn't dampen the Spirit at all.

Christmas Parade

Millersport puts on a nice Christmas parade, but wow, Gatlinburg's Christmas parade was something else.  We headed down the mountain around 3:30 and found somewhere to park (we found a really good spot, it turned out, as we were able to buzz straight out after the parade).  Then we walked up and down the "downtown" Gatlinburg area for a while, checked out a fun craft show (indoor), and staked out "our spot."  We found that many people set their chairs out the night before to stake their claim for parade-watching, but we (a) didn't have chairs; and (b) we didn't have chairs.  But we did have a blanket, and Tara found us a great spot by a trash can and a light post.  "Great" because it was a spot by the road and because we had something to lean on and because the odor from the garbage can was drifting the other way.  AND because the people next to us had two little boys, aged 7 and 5, with whom Jonathan and Andrew had a blast before the parade.

The parade itself was a lot of fun.  Not much candy, but I did manage to get hit on the head by a bag of M&Ms (when I was changing batteries on the camera) :-)  The temperature dropped while we were out there, but we dressed warmly - in many, many layers, and we bought hand warmers. 

Pictures will follow...

Just What the Doctor Ordered

After a long several months with four kids and quite a bit of personal stress, our family got to take a vacation.  We found a cabin in the mountains near Gatlinburg, TN, and rented it for a week of family time.  It was wonderful.  The Christmas lights are up and beautiful, and the Great Smoky Mountains are as fantastic as ever. 

I remember going to the Smoky Mountains as a kid - it was a lot of fun.  My parents even gave in to our persistence and allowed us to go (throw our money away at) a roadside attraction (where we met a girl whose southern accent baffled us - we were only familiar with the Kokomo accent - you know, the one where "wash" gains an r and short e sounds identical to short i).  I remember seeing a bear... or perhaps thinking I saw a bear and then being too embarrassed when it wasn't really a bear that I stuck to my guns and held to the story...

I have always loved being in the Smoky Mountains.  It has always captured my imagination.

So it was great allowing our kids to explore and play in the mountains.  Seeing them walk on the trail, playing together, bonding with one another, running, chasing, exploring - was well worth the trip.