Category: regular

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Rough days.

Little Ben was doing so good there for a while that all we had was good news.  But if you’ve been keeping up with the Twitter updates to the right, you know that the last two nights have not been as easy.

It all boils down to the swaddle, if you ask me (which you kinda did by reading my blog).  Up to the surgery, every night Benjamin slept all swaddled up, with his arms pinned to his side.  Since the surgery we’ve had to lay him on his side to sleep, and it’s impossible to swaddle him, since his arms are what keep him from rolling onto his stomach.

Not being swaddled means two things.  Cold hands (which wake him up) and hands/arms that are free to swing around, and make impact with his face (which wakes him up).  We remedied the cold hands aspect of things by putting socks on his hands, but we are still unable to figure out a way to keep him from smacking himself in the head in his sleep.

Two nights ago he maxed out at 2 hours of sleep at one time, and needed to be bounced back to sleep about every hour from about 11:30 on.  My back still hasn’t forgiven me.

Last night he did better, and just needed someone in there patting him on his little rear every so often to keep him asleep.  A two-minute trip into his room was not nearly as taxing on me as an hour-long bouncing session.

Thanks for the prayers.  Please continue to lift us up, and pray that God would give us adequate rest.  He has been so faithful, even in the midst of this, and I am continually reminded that he never promises ease, but instead promises to be with us always.  That’s a better promise!

Also a source for much jubilation and exultation is the fact that Brenda, Jacqueline’s mom is here!  Adding a third person to the rotation is life-changing!

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(Worth the) Waiting rooms.

We just got done at Benjamin’s followup appointment, and are excited by a good report! We thought things were going well, but as always it is good when the professionals agree with my amateur diagnosis. The best point in the appointment (well second best to the moment the doc showed up after making us wait for an hour and a half) was when she said we can let Benjamin sleep on his back, as long as he is wearing his helmet. That is spectacular news, meaning we can reimplement the swaddle and hope that he sleeps for a few more hours at a time! Our next appointment is November 11th! We’ll keep you posted as things progress. Thank Jesus the next time you talk to Him for a resilient little boy. We have already thanked Him for all of you and your love and prayers through all of this!

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Learning to sleep.

We had no idea how good we had it. Before his surgery, Benjamin was sleeping 8 to 10 hours per night, generally with one wake up break (just to keep us honest).
These days, little man just can’t quite get comfortable unless someone is holding him. It’s a great arrangement for him, and he is still getting 8 hours or so, but we are holding him for 3 of those hours (at least), in the middle of the night.
I was convicted last night that I don’t pray nearly enough for the little guy, and when I do pray it is often very general, virtually unanswerable prayers. So today I prayed specifically for him to start getting comfortable enough to sleep on his own, and for us to be able to sleep well.
I have gone back on campus some this week, leaving Jacqueline to care for our newly high-maintenance little guy. Pray for her especially during this time.

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The Economy

Here’s what Fox News, CNN, and NBC are not going to tell you about the economy:

It’s going to be all right.

I am no financial expert.  I hold no degrees or formal training in micro or macroeconomics.  So how in the world can I say that it’s going to be all right?  Because I don’t trust in paychecks or Wall Street to provide for us.  God may very well use those things to provide, but ultimately he is our provider.

As you may know, we develop a team of financial partners to fund our salaries as well as ministry expenses.  This team is made up predominately (over 90% both in number of givers and in percentage of overall funds) of individuals and families (as opposed to corporations or churches).  People who have jobs and mortgages and newspapers and cell phone bills and access to Fox News.  People who are unsure of where the US economy is going.  The direct result is that when the news media starts to shout “CRISIS,” we feel it.  We get shortened paychecks.

The other day, as I began fretting (again) about how we are going to pay all of the upcoming medical bills from Benjamin’s recent surgery, I was confronted by my own lack of faith.  The fact of the matter is that in 6 years of full-time vocational Christian work, I have never missed a meal and never had to go into debt (with the exception of these recent medical bills).  God has provided every single time.

As I look to the future, I don’t know much.  I don’t know if the US government is going to continue to bail out companies with money we don’t actually have (700 billion more on top of 10 trillion in debt just doesn’t make much sense, despite the fact that politicians on both sides of the aisle are for it).  I don’t know if we are going to pull out of this economic mess or not.  I don’t know if we are going to have enough financial support to stay on campus.

But what I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that it’s going to be all right.  God has not left the throne to go grab a YooHoo from the heavenly 7-11.  He is still in control.

Does that mean that the economy will rebound?  I dunno.  We as Western Christians have to be careful to not confuse God’s blessing with our financial bottom line.  There are believers in other parts of the world who have literally nothing, but are blessed beyond measure.  Jesus Himself was a homeless man.  So, if God takes everything I have away, all of the cars and clothes and computers and gadgets… it just means I will then have what Jesus had.

If the economy turned around tomorrow, there would be a one-line story about it in the paper, and on the cable news.  Then, they would turn their attention to the next big crisis.  Why?  Because good news doesn’t drive up ratings!  They get more dollars from Gillette and Monster.com and whoever else is advertising on their station when more people are watching.  And more people watch when there is a crisis (perceived or actual). That’s the reason people on the NBC News are not encouraged to say “It’s going to be all right.”

So please, don’t do your giving (or anything else) based on what CNN says about the stock market.  Live (and give) based on who Jesus is, and what he has said.  Do you really think he’d let you go hungry?  And if you are living worried (like I often am) about financial issues, maybe it’s time to throw a brick through your TV and read your Bible instead.

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Day with Daddy, or "How I got rice cereal out of an infant’s nose"

There are just some things that didn’t show up in the new daddy brochure.  They warned you about diapers, about not sleeping, and about spit-up; but nobody ever mentioned the wonder of modern science known as the baby spoon.

I have watched Jacqueline feed little Benjamin rice cereal (which, by the way, seems to be a wholly inaccurate name for it, on par with calling meatloaf a “rib-eye”), and she is pretty adept at keeping it in his mouth, for the most part.  At least the part that doesn’t go in the mouth goes south from there to the chin or bib.

I am more of an adventurer than that, though.  I like to see how close I can get cereal to going in his eye, all the way to his sinus cavity, or into his diaper.  Like an x-games athlete, I am into the extreme sports.  Yesterday he spit cereal at least 10 inches onto his new high chair tray.  It’s cereal, daddy style.

The problem is my spoon technique, I think.  The “what the heck am I doing” face I make during the process doesn’t help, but instead makes little Benjamin laugh while there is food in his mouth, turning said food into a projectile.  At which point I laugh, thus exascerbating the problem.

Then, once I get the next spoonful near his face he decides that it would be an appropriate time to try out the new head-bang maneuver he’s been working on, and plants his conveniently spoon-sized nose into the cereal.  The shock of it on his face causes him to inhale violently, and we have a problem.  See, his nostrils are far too small for me to get anything out that has gone in.  Being the resourceful guy my wife married for wit, charm, and reasoning skills, I decided to utilize a device small enough to dig out the misappropriated mush, little Benjamin’s pinky finger.  Seemed like a logical choice at the time.

To make a long story short, don’t try that.  Trust me, you’d rather leave the mush in there.  He still controls that little finger, and once you get it wedged in there, he closes his hand in a fist, and then gets mad because somebody is squeezing his nose.

All in all, daddy day yesterday was really fun.  I thought I’d share one of the more comedic moments with you.  Now, to go and update that brochure…

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