News

Well Ethan came through the surgery just fine. He was pretty grumpy immediately after the operation, but once we got him home he took a 3 hour nap and then woke up very happy. The doctor said there was quite a bit of fluid trapped in there so I hope it helps him considerably. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

I got word today that I should start looking for a job. That’s kind of disappointing. The contract I work on at Brooks City-Base is scheduled to end on 31 Jan 06. Normally, the USAF would just exercise an option to extend the contract, but in this case the mission is somewhat changing so that means they probably won’t do that. It’s possible they will rebid the contract, but even so, my company may not win it, and even if they did, it looks like they will cut personnel by about 75%. Basically I need to start looking for a job.

In the world of defense contracting things are always a little uncertain, but is there any profession with no level of uncertainty? The good thing about my situation is at least I have some time. I know some people who have had the unpleasant experience of showing up to work one morning, only to be told they were being let go and then having security escort them out of the building. At least I have the advantage of knowing the target date of 31 Jan, and there is a possibility (slight as it may be) that the contract may continue. We shall see what the future holds.

Surgery

Tomorrow morning Ethan is having tubes put into his ears. Ethan is 16 months old and not talking much (although the last couple of weeks he has started saying more words) and, more obviously, he seems dizzy all the time. When he stands still you can watch him sway as he tries to gain his balance. He has fluid trapped behind his ear drum. This affects hearing and balance. It also leads to chronic ear infections.

The surgery tomorrow will basically be to lance his ear drum and insert a small tube so that it doesn't quickly grow back together. This will allow the fluid to drain out. Hopefully his balance and hearing will improve immediately. His speech should rapidly improve as well since he'll be able to hear and mimic better.

It's a minor surgery. The whole operation only takes about 5-10 minutes. Still its always a little worrisome to have a child undergo an operation.

Isaac had his tonsils out when he was two. It was somewhat traumatic for Isaac and for me. They let one parent actually walk him into the operating room and wait until he's under before leaving. I was unanimously elected for the job. As we approached the operating room, Isaac clung tighter and tighter to my neck; he was trying to be brave, but he was pretty scared. Once in the operating room, the bright colors and graphics that were everywhere on the walls in the children hospital disappeared. The operating room was barren and sterile. There were about 8 or 10 people standing by in the room, all wearing masks. At that point Isaac lost it and started screaming. He doesn't like new people in general, and he certainly wasn't pleased to find these masked strangers staring at him in a scary room. I laid him on the table and peeled his arms from around my neck. The anesthesiologist told him that he needed to put this really cool mask on his face to help him go to sleep. Isaac wasn't buying it. I ended up having to put the mask over Isaac's mouth and nose and hold him down while he fought me. Slowly Isaac's muffled cries from behind the mask weakened and quieted until he was asleep. By this time I was holding back powerful seas of tears in my eyes while I tried to tell him that Daddy was with him and that it would be ok. Once he was asleep the anesthesiologist took over and I was told to go ahead and leave. Walking out of the operating room the dam broke and the tears came. I'm not sure why it was so traumatic. What really struck me was his muffled little cries and the look in his eye that said, "Daddy, why are you doing this to me?" while I pressed the mask to his face.

I don't know how Abraham did it. Frankly, I don't have that much faith.

All that for a tonsillectomy. Sheesh. Anyway, keep us in your prayers tomorrow so that all will go well with Ethan's turn in the operating room.

E

Culture Shock

Disclaimer: I'm not going to write this post within the constraints of political correctness so I hope everyone is ok with that.

Today, a couple guys from church, my father in law, Sam, and I helped one of the many families that are living in one of the shelters in San Antonio for Hurricane Katrina victims. San Antonio originally received about 5,000 refugees. Shelters were set up at Windsor Park Mall, an old Levi manufacturing plant, and the former Kelley AFB. The number of refugees quickly dwindled to around 1200 as some of them moved on to other areas of the country and were absorbed by family and friends. Our numbers of refugees were then again lifted when some more people came from Houston. I think right now we are hovering around the 5,000 mark again.

The family we helped today consists of the dad, Frank Monroe, the mom, Shaun, and 8 kids, ranging in age from 15 months to 14 years old. Two of the 8 kids are actually not their biological kids, but they are related somehow (I think nieces or cousins or something). They have one son who is missing. Last they knew, he was still with Shaun's mom somewhere in Louisiana. Frank managed to find a rental house on the East side of town that they are moving into. Of course, they have nothing to pack up and take with them from the shelter so they are basically moving into an empty house. A local homebuilder was willing to donate some furniture so we went to his warehouse to load up 3 pickups and a trailer full of used mixed and matched furniture. We dropped that off at the house and then headed to Wal-Mart and the Sealy Bed Store.

Let me just say it's a little overwhelming to walk into a Wal-Mart and know that this family of 10 (and hopefully soon to be 11) has absolutely nothing. I remember after Dixie and I got married and moved to Searcy, that first trip to Wal-Mart was pretty expensive. You have to get everything. Look around your house. You have to get everything. We didn't get everything. We got some basic necessities to get them set up. We did splurge on a TV and PS2. The family is moving in on Monday and these kids will have absolutely nothing to do but stare at each other all day long....it gets very boring (they need some Snarfblats to make fine music).

While Sam and I were taking the Monroes through Wal-Mart, Paul went to the bed store and loaded up on mattresses and bed rails. We brought all that stuff back to the house and unloaded it as quick as we could. It was getting late in the afternoon, and we didn't really want to advertise to the neighbors all the stuff we were putting into this house. They won't move in until Monday so it will still be vacant for a day or so, and we'd hate for it to get broken into before they can even move in.

The house itself is a four bedroom 2 bath house in a 4-plex building. It's brand new construction so that is nice. To my skewed perspective, though, that was all that was nice about it. There will be 10 people living in this house. I'd say it is about 800 square feet. There are 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a washer and dryer closet, an eat in kitchen, and stairs. There's not really any living room. When I first walked in, I immediately thought, "10 people can't live here...it's impossible". But they will. And to be honest, they are thrilled to be going there. They are sick of being in the shelter and eager to be able to take a shower in their own house. But more than that, Paul asked Frank how this house compared to their home in New Orleans. To our amazement, Frank said, "This is bigger." I couldn't quite process it. He continued, "Up until a couple years ago, we lived in a one bedroom house." I was nearly ashamed of myself because I just couldn't grasp it. They had 1 small car. Their family never goes anywhere altogether. It isn't feasible. Besides, where would they go?

My family is very different from the Monroes. We are white and they are black. We are rich and they live in poverty. We are educated and they are not. Their value system is different. They speak differently. They act differently. They relate to each other within their family differently. Their sense of community is different. Their expectations of life are different.

One thing we share, though, is our Creator's love. He loves them just as much as he loves me. I don't know if they consider themselves Christians or not. But that doesn't change the love God has for them. They can be equal heirs in the kingdom. Christ's blood equally mitigates their sins and mine. I think sometimes I forget that.

And so I think, while they are still literally living in shock, they are somewhat grateful tonight. And I'm left somewhat appalled at myself. Appalled because of my own ignorance of how people live, right here in America. Do you see the root word of “ignorance”? Ignore. I turn a blind eye to poverty. I mean scroll down a ways and you can see me complain about money. It’s ridiculous. Frank and Shaun didn’t experience culture shock today. I did.

E

Settling In

Well Jaylie is now two weeks old. The congratulation flowers are dying. The gracious families from church have finished bringing us dinners every other night. We are getting back into a family routine. It sure is wonderful that during life changing events we have people that support us and help us get through demanding times.

Dixie's mom, Carol, went back to work this week. I actually had to go back to work last week. Isaac started preschool last week, which keeps him busy for 3 hours a day on Mondays and Thursdays. Dixie is still sore, but recovering. And Ethan has decided one of his favorite things to do is to track down where Jaylie is so he can smile and point at her (he especially wants to do this when she is trying to sleep in her bed). Jaylie is starting to get into somewhat of a sleep/wake time routine. She is doing pretty good at night. She sleeps for 3 or 4 hour stretches, which is great, but she is pretty noisy even while she sleeps. We plan to move her into the nursery pretty soon so we don't hear every little peep and snort she makes.

Anyway, we are getting back into the swing of things, and it seems like as we do that we are getting busier and busier. We were busy all the time before Jaylie was born and now we are busy and have 3 kids!

Due to popular demand, I wanted to get some more pictures posted, so I stayed up late tonight to get it done. I hope you're all happy! Feel free to view, study, peruse, download, print, frame, purchase, draw mustaches on, and otherwise enjoy these pictures.

E

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I just finished reading this book. It's a great read and I suggest if you haven't read it, you should pick it up. It's about 180 pages and reads on about a 6th grade level or so. It goes really quick, but C.S. Lewis lays out a great story that will strike Christians with obvious symbolism about Christ's self sacrifice for us. It's a nice reminder that our King willingly submitted his life to the enemy on our behalf. It's also a nice reminder that the story doesn't end there. I believe Lewis wrote about 8 books in the Chronicles of Narnia. The L, the W, and the W is the second book in the series. It's the only one I've read, but I wanted to get it read before the feature film comes out this fall.

_____________________

It rained today. That doesn't happen very often around here. It was very refreshing. It was also a little frustrating since Dixie was sitting in the living room and was getting rained on. We discovered the skylight is leaking. As Pooh Bear would say, oh, bother! It's just a slow leak, but it's a pain. I'll get up on the roof as soon as it dries out and see if I can caulk it. I'm hoping I can fix/patch it.

Friday night the plumbing backed up. That's always lovely. No water would leave the house. At about 12:30 a.m. I went outside and tried to see if I could use the hose to snake out the main line that leaves the house. It was no use. The next day I called a plumber and he came out and managed to cut quite a bit of tree roots out of our line. Great. We have an enormous, wonderful oak tree in front. It looks like its easily 100 years old. The downside to it is that it has thirsty roots and figured out there was water in that pipe. The plumber said they'd be able to fix just that spot (which of course is under the front sidewalk) for around $800. If there are other places that need repair, then they would just have to replace the whole line from the house to the street, which would be at least $2500. Needless to say, I decided we'd wait and see how long the augering of the line will last. We shall see...

Oh yeah, last week I broke the lawn mower so I need to get a new one. Why do expensive things always need fixing or replaced in bunches?

E

Hmmm, could it be left wing media?

I don't usually care about such things but this article about research that strengthens the argument for evolution just seems such an obvious attack on faith in a Creator.

Using DNA samples from ethnically diverse populations, they identified a collection of variations in each gene that occurred with unusually high frequency. In fact, the variations were so common they couldn't be accidental mutations but instead were probably due to natural selection, where genetic changes that are favorable to a species quickly gain a foothold and begin to spread, the researchers report.

Lahn offers an analogy: Medieval monks would copy manuscripts and each copy would inevitably contain errors — accidental mutations. Years later, a ruler declares one of those copies the definitive manuscript, and a rush is on to make many copies of that version — so whatever changes from the original are in this presumed important copy become widely disseminated.

-By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

It's amazing to me that the random analogy Lahn selected out of his large, evolving brain just also happened to demonstrate the invalidity of canon writings. Just coincidence, I'm sure. I'm a Christian who also happens to accept the possibility that I Am ("I Am" = the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God commonly worshipped by Christians) created us and allows humans to adapt over time (although I don't subscribe to the belief that all species came from the same species source), however I just think that the very analogy this person used to try to dumb down his research to the common folk demonstrates that, in fact, the object of this research is to disprove the existence of the Creator.

Of course, the very statement

the variations were so common they couldn't be accidental mutations but instead were probably due to natural selection,

could make the sly reader ask such questions as "if they are not 'accidental mutations', does that mean they are mutations which occur by intelligent design?" or "doesn't the term 'natural selection' imply that nature has been created with some set of rules, by which nature can then select?".

I've come to the conclusion that you can't argue a non-believer into believing. However, I still think that the source of creation is an important question that we should address. I think we sometimes get caught up in our religious world with other religious people that have variances on our faith, but have a commonality in the root of our faith. What then happens to the people that lack that root belief in any type of God? In the process of becoming a believer, any nonbeliever must address the creation question within himself. Once a nonbeliever, sees the possibility of a Creator, then the love of God becomes quickly and clearly evident.

E

Home, sweet home

Well we made it home from the hospital on Monday afternoon. We had expected to get out of there first thing Monday morning, but nothing gets done very quickly in a hospital. Dixie's parents offered to pay to upgrade our hospital room which was very nice. We were able to have a lot more space (which was nice when the boys were up there) and more importantly, the floor we were on was SO MUCH quieter than the regular floor. It made a huge difference. Also the nursing staff seemed to go out of their way to take vital signs and bug Dixie and Jaylie when they were actually awake, rather than waking them up all the time. Having the extra space allowed Isaac to spend the night in the bed with me on Sunday night, which was fun for him. He was missing mom and dad so it was special for him to have a sleep over at the hospital with us. Still, it's always nice to come home.

Dixie has had a bit more pain the last couple of days. I'm sure it's because she is doing a lot more moving around since she left the hospital. She's healing nicely but it will still be a couple weeks before she's back to 100%.

Jaylie seems to like it here. She has just been very easy so far. Isaac says "Girls sleep a lot". We told him he slept a lot when he was a baby too, but he thinks she's sleeping a lot mostly because she is a girl.

Life will get back to some sense of normalcy tomorrow. I am planning to go to work tomorrow, although I plan to wait till the kids are awake so I'll go in a little late. Dixie's mom, Carol, is planning to spend the day over here all week to help Dixie out. Dixie can't pick up Ethan so Carol will be a big help.

I had wanted to get some more pictures posted today, but didn't get to it. I may not have time tomorrow either with church in the evening, but hopefully they'll be posted to the Yahoo! photo album by Thursday.

E

Jehovah is good!

God is so good. Dixie and I have been blessed with our third child: Jaylie Grace was born at 12:49 p.m. on Friday, Sep 2, 2005. She was 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 19.5" long. She has light brown hair (it's really just fuzz) and she has some pretty pudgy cheeks. She is doing really well. The pediatrician came in to check her this morning around 8:00 and said she can go home as soon as Dixie gets discharged by her doctor. We're expecting that we'll get to go home Monday morning. Dixie is doing really well too. This is her third C-section and it seems to have been her easiest. She is already up and walking and eating and not having near as much pain as she did with Isaac and Ethan. We feel very blessed.

So now we have three little souls on loan from God and it's our job to teach them and help them live lives so that they can be reunited with Him one day. What an awesome responsibility. I figure God knows me, and if he trusts me with these three souls, then I'll trust Him that I can be a good enough father to these kids. Dixie and I are further blessed to have 4 great parent examples that we can learn from.

Isaac and Ethan think Jaylie is pretty neat too. Ethan just points at her and says "Bebe". Isaac wants to hold her a lot and when he holds her he just gets right in her face and whispers, "I love you, Jaylie" over and over. You can't help but smile when you watch him hold her. He just looks at her face and when she moves or makes a noise, he starts smiling and laughing because he's so excited that she's finally here and tangible to him. It's pretty neat.

Ok, ok...I know you guys are tired of reading my thoughts and are thinking "shut up Eric and show us the pictures!"... so here they are: Jaylie Grace

Enjoy!!

E