A bad week

Hello all,

I am betting that a few of you have noticed that I haven’t been on any blogs recently. We have had a very bad week in our house, and would love your prayers.

Let me start a while back. A few months ago, when our youngest was learning to walk, she had a hard fall, so we took her to the emergency room.

Though she seemed fine, they thought it would be a good idea to perform a CT-scan on her. They found that there was no damage from the fall, but that her ventricles were asymmetric (these are two regions in the brain where blood flows). Essentially, we had no idea what they were talking about, but they recommended that we follow up with our pediatrician. The pediatrician took a look at her and thought that it would be a good idea to have an MRI done on her.

I can tell you that to do an MRI on a 13-month old child, they need to knock her out. It was a low point to watch them put the oxygen mask on your little girl and cart her off. My heart was very low that day.

The MRI returned and we found out some news that caused our spirits to drop a little: our little girl had a stroke during the pregnancy. They didn’t show me the MRI, but the doctor said that she seemed to be fine, so there was no need to worry too much about it: after all, she was walking and was ahead of the normal timetable on most of her developmental elements.

Over the next couple of months, we noticed that she favored her right side significantly over her left, so at her 15-month checkup we pointed this out to our pediatrician. She told us that she wouldn’t have noticed if we hadn’t pointed it out, but now that we did, that it would be a good idea for us to see a neurologist to have a closer look at her.

Last Thursday, we went and the neurologist diagnosed our little angel with mild Cerebral Palsy. For the first time, I saw the MRI and the extent of the damage from the stroke. It was extensive. Fortunately for us, it was limited to the white matter of the brain, not the grey matter, so no cognitive facilities were affected. The neurologist was wonderful about explaining all of this to us, and assured us that occupational therapy should handle almost all of the issues she has. We were very fortunate that it wasn’t worse, but for safety we have to now schedule a visit with a Neural Surgeon to have her ventricles looked at; we had to bring her in for an EEG (which turned out great by the way). And we are having a MRE done in a couple of months.

Still to hear someone say that your little girl is not ‘perfect’ is so hard. God is so wonderful though: through this he has prepared my wife an I for this. We have had the support of family, friends and our church.

This past Sunday, I was at church for my older daughter’s musical, I was feeling a little sick, but felt well enough to get through the program. By the end of the night, my abdomen was hurting so much that I was buckled over in pain. We went home, and I tried to rest for a few hours, but the pain worsened. It was on to the Emergency room for me!

I have had kidney stones before so I thought maybe this was another stone-attack. I was so confident that this is what it was that I told my wife to stay at home I drove myself to the hospital. It turned out that it was my appendix and I had to have an appendectomy. I was made comfortable with pain killers and awaited surgery.

Again, our family, church, friends, and coworkers were wonderful, I felt bad for the guy in the room with me because of the steady stream of pastors, friends, and family that visited during this time. We are so blessed to have people like this around us.

Two days later, I am home now, I am week, sore and pretty much just lounging around. My forced vacation will pretty much keep me hanging around the house for the most part for next couple of weeks. If you think of it, lift up a prayer for our house. This is quite an additional load during the holidays.

In the new year I will be back in swing, but for now I am going to crawl back into bed and get some more rest.

God Bless
Doug

When Analogies Go Bad

Okay WOMD friends, I don't normally do this, but anyone who has been forced to write a silly paper (like in Highschool) should enjoy this link greatly.

Top-25 Bad Analogies

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Number 3 was my favorite, though almost all of them were pretty great. What was your favorite?

God Bless
Doug

Home For Dinner

The back of my neck was dripping with perspiration, but the rest of me was quite chilly. It was 5:30pm on a cold Friday night in the middle of a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, and dinner waited for me at home. The sun had already gone down and I was hunkering down for the journey. Walking home from Bruce’s house was a bit of a haul in the middle of winter, but I really didn’t mind it that much.

With a fresh coat of snow on the ground, and that ever pleasant ‘crunch crunch crunch’ of my boots breaking the top layer, I reveled in each step. I don’t exactly understand why this is, but snow seems to damp out ambient sound. Not even the dogs around the neighborhood ventured out on cold nights like this. I could hear cars ‘woosh’ from a distant highway, but it seemed that all other life faded quietly away: it was just me, the occasional auto, and my trekking boots.

The smell of freshly burning timber also permeated the walk home. I loved that smell as well as taking in the deep breaths of that really cold air. I was alone to think about my coming weekend and dream about the arrival of Christmas. Wow was this nice!

In Ohio, really cold wasn’t when it was overcast. Really cold was when the sky was crystal clear. In the night, you could see every star. I would look up mesmerized by the menagerie of little lights. I will fly to them some day, I pondered boldly to myself.

Our house sat squarely on the corner of Cherry Bottom Road and Nob Hill. It was the first house on the street and it was a grand house that my father designed and built. He crafted the house, but my mom made it a home. I could always see it for a few blocks before actually getting to it. Reflectively, I love it as much now as I did then. The white brick and black roof were beautiful against the snow-filled fields behind them.

I’d walk up the driveway past the piles of snow that my dad and I had shoveled, to our front door. My walk was over, and I was really ready for it to be. By the end of the journey, my nose was running, my feet were a little numb and soggy and my ears as well the tip of my nose hurt a tad from the cold. Shivering and weariness replaced the great joy that I had at the start of this trip.

The front porch light flips on as the front door swiftly swings open… hmmm… this can’t be good. “Where were you young man?” My loving mother asked with a look of concern that told me all I needed to know. Think Doug think!

“I was at Bruce’s but I got here as soon as I could mom!” Kind of true, but I certainly could have played a few less games of Stratego, Monopoly, Tripoli, or whatever Bruce and my game de jour was.

“I was worried sick about you! I was just about to grab Trish and get in the car and start looking for you”.

“Sorry mom, but it really was a beautiful night!” My best smile came forward. My cheeks ached a little, but I had to maintain it. I wasn’t lying here: the night was wonderful. Now for my mom’s moment of truth: Spanking / Grounding / or the loving stern look. Smile Doug, just keep smiling.

“No matter! Come on in, and get warm”. Stern look with hugs! YES! My mom rocked. After the virtual eternity of unshedding from all of the winter layers, it was time to move into the welcoming abode.

Our home was lit for Christmas, and there was the inviting smell of something wonderfully cooked coming from the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to get some of whatever that was. The rich smells of freshly cooked chicken, buttery rolls, cinnamon, chocolate, and other spices had hypnotized me.

My dad wasn’t home yet, but I knew he’d be soon. “Doug, can you help set the table, please?” Mom was in the kitchen, busy concocting something as brilliant as any blueprint to a maniacal contraption. She was a cook among cooks.

“You got it mom!” My sister and I carefully set each place. All the time my nose would catch whiffs of what was to come. Dinner was so close now and my stomach let me know.

I heard the garage door opening and I knew my dad was on his way in. My sister charged to the back door where he was going to come in. She beat me, as she usually did, and we waited for him to enter. With his entry into the household, dinner wasn’t far behind! “Hey Daddy!” Great! He’s home! Let’s eat to celebrate! With a smattering of hugs and kisses, we would go to pray and eat at the table. Love and joy surrounded us in this place.

Our journey through life will take us to some wonderful places, but like walking home on a cold winter night, we are not designed to stay out here indefinitely. As we ‘walk on’, our final home may very well be in our sights, but we are still not there yet. Through prayer, praise and worship, we may rest a spell, in the arms of our loving father, but we still must leave this warm cozy place and sojourn on, completing the walk.

Have you ever entered into worship and were swept a million miles away? Or were in a service praising with hundred of others, yet in your mind, you were the only one there? It is in these times of heartfelt worship that we can embrace the goodness of God and come before His throne. As much as God loves us, and we love being there with Him, He still knows our purpose on earth, and we, in human form, were also not designed to reside with him indefinitely. He will lovingly lead us back into the fray of reality, with the promise that it won’t be too much longer: keep up the pace! Soon we will be of a form that can reside with Him forever.

I can’t wait for the day those doors swing open and our heavenly father will tell me “I’ve been waiting for you, young man!” With a smattering of hugs and kisses, we will go to praise and eat at His table, while love and joy surrounds us all in His place.

God Bless
Doug