Today our family headed to the birth center for our ultrasound to see our new baby. Anna and Will thought it was pretty neat, though #3 was not so impressed and yawned for the camera. No, we did not find out if it's a boy or girl... we're holding out for the surprise. Anna really wants a sister, but we'll see in April/May. Thankfully, the baby is healthy.
Anna, Will, and I also went to the mall to ride the Christmas train and visit the Winter Wonderland at Outdoor World. I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve - last chance for shopping, wrapping it all up, church with Jon's family in the evening, opening presents at Jon's parents' house.
With all the activity sometimes it's hard to find time to reflect on the profound depth of meaning in Christmas, the awesome implications of one baby's birth. But I will try to carve out a piece of "silent night" to attempt to wrap my brain around the fact that the great God of heaven humbled Himself to be born a man, to peasants, in a stable, tended by shepherds. That He somehow had you and me on His mind, in His heart, and His love compelled Him to come. To live among us, to die on our behalf, to rise again to give us the greatest gift of all... true life. Merry Christmas.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas Anticipation
"Is today Christmas?" That's Will's question for me every day lately. He's ready to open his presents - or rather, the blue presents whether they're his or not. He likes blue. I'd better stock up on blue wrapping paper. Anna keeps telling him the day after tomorrow is Christmas. She's still working on her sense of time. Somehow Christmas is sneaking up on me this year even though I tried to start early, just after Thanksgiving. But I guess spending a week in the hospital set me back. So I have not yet baked the Christmas cookies I had planned on, or finished my shopping, or hung the stockings "by the chimney with care." But we're happy. Anna and Will have thoroughly enjoyed decorating the tree, opening advent calendar surprises each day, singing Christmas carols, and riding around looking at Christmas lights after dark. So maybe my plans aren't working out just as I intended, but the joy of Christmas is not restrained. Sometimes we need to see more through the eyes of a child to appreciate the wonder of the season, the wonder of the world. "Is today Christmas?" Sure, why not? Embrace it.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Will's Week in the Hospital
Tuesday should have been a blue-skied, sunny day complete with singing birds. But apparently the weather didn't get the news that our little William was coming home from the hospital at last. So, after a week of dealing with my son being in the hospital, I joyfully drove him home under gray skies. What had started as a cold and pink eye somehow turned into bacterial pneumonia and a lung abscess, going undiagnosed over the Thanksgiving holiday as we took Will to Urgent One instead of his regular doctor whose office was closed.
When we were able to see Will's pediatrician, I was stunned and terrified that our "baby" had to go to the hospital. And he was so pitiful going through everything - not feeling well and not understanding what was going on. It's so hard to have your little one screaming your name while you vainly try to comfort and reassure him. It tears a parent up inside. Many tears were shed by all of us over the course of the week. Will was hooked up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics, and had his blood oxygen levels monitored on his toe. He had blood tested and x-rays taken. On the fourth day (Sunday) he had minor surgery to place a central line/port in his chest so we could take him home but still administer antibiotics by IV four times a day. He went through the surgery very well, and by Tuesday afternoon, he was fever-free and ready to go home.
Now we are dealing with giving him the antibiotics every six hours around the clock... flush the line, hook up medication, run the pump for 30 minutes, flush the line again with saline solution and then with a blood thinner to prevent the port from clotting up. It is easy, but also nerve-wracking when you consider all the things that could go wrong if we mess it up (though there is a nurse on call 24 hours a day for us). This treatment will continue for four to six weeks in order to clear out the abscess completely. Will now manages to sleep through the midnight medication, but protests the most at the morning dose when we have to wake him up. Other than taking the antibiotics, Will is behaving like his normal impish, happy little self again, which of course is a joy to see.
It's funny, as a parent, how you know you love your kids and you take care of them and do what you need to do. But then something like this happens where you can actually imagine the worst case scenario and you feel helpless because you can't control anything, and then you really know - and are terrified by - the depth of your love for this little person. How devastating it would be to lose them. Thanks be to God for His provision of good doctors and medication and the wonders of modern medicine and the workings of the human body.
When we were able to see Will's pediatrician, I was stunned and terrified that our "baby" had to go to the hospital. And he was so pitiful going through everything - not feeling well and not understanding what was going on. It's so hard to have your little one screaming your name while you vainly try to comfort and reassure him. It tears a parent up inside. Many tears were shed by all of us over the course of the week. Will was hooked up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics, and had his blood oxygen levels monitored on his toe. He had blood tested and x-rays taken. On the fourth day (Sunday) he had minor surgery to place a central line/port in his chest so we could take him home but still administer antibiotics by IV four times a day. He went through the surgery very well, and by Tuesday afternoon, he was fever-free and ready to go home.
Now we are dealing with giving him the antibiotics every six hours around the clock... flush the line, hook up medication, run the pump for 30 minutes, flush the line again with saline solution and then with a blood thinner to prevent the port from clotting up. It is easy, but also nerve-wracking when you consider all the things that could go wrong if we mess it up (though there is a nurse on call 24 hours a day for us). This treatment will continue for four to six weeks in order to clear out the abscess completely. Will now manages to sleep through the midnight medication, but protests the most at the morning dose when we have to wake him up. Other than taking the antibiotics, Will is behaving like his normal impish, happy little self again, which of course is a joy to see.
It's funny, as a parent, how you know you love your kids and you take care of them and do what you need to do. But then something like this happens where you can actually imagine the worst case scenario and you feel helpless because you can't control anything, and then you really know - and are terrified by - the depth of your love for this little person. How devastating it would be to lose them. Thanks be to God for His provision of good doctors and medication and the wonders of modern medicine and the workings of the human body.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
After Thanksgiving
So now we've just had Thanksgiving and enter into the Christmas season, and I am woefully struck by the depth of self-centeredness in the world. The poison of the me-first mentality can be seen sometimes on t-shirts that proclaim "it's all about me" in an attempt at humor. Or it can be seen in the Hummer driver who arrogantly parked his vehicle behind mine in a parking lot with plenty of empty spaces, blocking my exit for his own convenience. Or it can be seen, dreadfully, in the trampling to death of a Walmart employee by sale-hungry shoppers the day after "giving thanks." What in the world??!! It's all about me? It's all about you? How about some human decency, some kindness, compassion, good old-fashioned morality? We have a heart problem (for which there is no government solution.) We cannot legislate kindness or goodness or the quality of one's heart (although hate crime legislation makes an attempt). There is only one answer, one solution, one savior from our corrupt condition. And now we enter into His season, to remember His first coming, as the need for it is so glaringly illustrated. Let us humble ourselves before His lowly manger, knowing both our profound need and His supreme sufficiency.
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