Groovy Sputum

Sad News

I am sorry to have to write this post, but Valerie and I went in for a check up this morning and the doctor was only able to find one beating heart. Sometime between last Saturday and today, Micaiah’s life ended. Valerie expressed our feelings much better than I ever could with “When The Answer Is No”. Please continue to pray for Micah. There is still a long way to go before she is able to live independently of Valerie and we appreciate each and every time her name is lifted up before the Lord.

Two Hearts

Dr. Rink just did a quick ultrasound and we saw two strong heart beats! That means that the surgery didn’t damage the placenta too much and that both girls are still getting nourishment. The question now is did the surgery do enough to even out the blood supply? Only time will tell and Valerie will be on bed rest for a while to try and prevent early labor. The doctors will also be following up weekly from here on out to look for TTTS returning. Please continue to pray that the twins grow evenly and that they can remain in Valerie until term.

So Far, So Good

Pastor Mike just left after reading Psalm 103 and praying with us. I spoke with the surgeon around 1:00 and he is pleased with the outcome up to this point. He mentioned that both girls hearts were beating strong when the procedure ended, but that we will know more in terms of how successful thing really are when he does an ultrasound tomorrow morning. Until then it is just a well deserved rest for Valerie.

Prepping

Valerie just went in for surgery prep. She should be in surgery until about 12:00 or 12:30.

Surgery

The three options to correct TTTS are: 1.) do nothing, 2.) drain some amniotic fluid, and 3.) operate on the placenta to try and correct the imbalance of blood flow to the girls. We have a great sense of peace that the third option is the best because it increases the chances that both girls will survive and it reduces the chances that they will be born pre-term should they survive the surgery.

The doctor just gave us an update and said that his team can be ready to operate between 10:30 and 11:00. Valerie will be awake but with an epidural. She will be in OSU hospital overnight and should be allowed to go home to bed rest tomorrow.

Twin Girls

I know we have been secretive about the gender of our twins, but we have been trying to wait until we had their names picked out before blabbing. After the doctor visit yesterday, we can officially announce them: Micah & Micaiah.

Because the girls share a placenta, they are identical twins. Their names are actually the same in Hebrew and mean “Who is like God?” The obvious answer to that is: no one. These girls may look alike, act alike, and be the same age, but nothing is like our God, the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Healer of life.

Please pray for these little girls. They are 20 1/2 weeks along and have developed Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) which basically means that the blood flow from the placenta is not equal. One gets too much and the other not enough. This is a fatal syndrome if treatment is not done, so we are meeting with a surgeon at The Ohio State University Medical Center this morning at 7:00 to get his recommendation on the type of surgery to have done. The surgery team has an opening around noon today and most likely something will be done then, so we need wisdom…in a bad way.

The hospital has Wi-Fi and I will be updating my blog through out the day. Please pray that God’s will be done in the lives of Micah & Micaiah. We selfishly want to see two little ones crawling around our Christmas tree next year, but that may not be His plan.

Big Yawns

My daughter and I are sitting here on the couch the day after VBS ended enjoying the early morning calm. Saturday tends to be like that sometimes on lazy, rainy, summer days. I think today’s clam is mostly due to the fact that we are all tired from getting back late last night (and every night this week).

Outrigger Island was definitely a success. The kids really enjoyed the music, the two teaching sessions we had were well done, and the games and craft time was fun. I think heard many good comments from parent adn workers about how nice this VBS was. I am glad. I would have hatetd to put that much time into the planning only to have a flop.

There were a few things that I added kind of on the fly this week that I think were neat. One was adding theme nights. I wanted a lot of kids on Wednesday so we made that “friend night”. There were 14 new kids that night. Thursday was “crazy hair night” and I was pleasantly surprised with not only the kids involvement, but also the worker involvement. I picked this night to get every one on stage and take a group photo which just came to me about a minute before we did it. It was nice, though, to have a large group photo of everyone.

I did learn that I need to have paper registration forms available, though, because on friend night, there were some kidos who we didn’t have complete info on. I should have passed out a paper registration form to everyone on Tuesday and told them to have their friend’s parents to fill it our (or do the one online) and bring it back on Wednesday.

The check out time was also kind of crazy and needs a bit of work. I made the parents come in to pick up the kids, but since we dismissed in the sanctuary, we had some squirrelly kids escape through the unused pews and even by crawling under the pews. We had plenty of people to catch these strays and everyone eventually found their parents, but I want to find a better way of doing it.

All in all, I am pleased. We had fun, the kids learned lots of verses and heard good teaching, and we were able to meet some spiritual needs in many kids lives. I am hoping we can follow up and assist these kids to grow even more spiritually and not just forget about them until next VBS.

VBS Planning And ABC Craft

I am getting quite a few visitors to my blog as a result of “Outrigger Island” Google search queries, so I thought I would actually write about how our VBS planning is going, you know, in case you stumbled upon Groovy Sputum and are actually expecting real VBS content.

Monday night is the first night and I think we are ready to go. I sent the shirts off to have the transfers pressed on today and will get them back this weekend. We have 35 kids pre-registered (so far) and I have heard some good things about the Google Docs online registration form we are using. 13 of those 35 registrations have come in in the last day or two, so the pace is definitely picking up. I hope we have 60 or more pre-registered before Monday.

I also wanted to share a cool craft that we are doing this year. Apparently LifeWay has an “ABC” song every year for VBS (it stands for Admit, Believe, Confess…you know, the gospel) and this year they are selling tribal looking bracelets with “ABC” etched in them for like a dollar to go along with the song. I thought these would be a fun (and cheap) craft for the kids so I searched the net and found a lady who makes bamboo beads out of her home in Texas. Her site is called Bamboo Branch and she made us a few hundred 1.5 inch beads for ten cents each. Then, I got a wood burning iron and burned “ABC” into them and strung them up with some jute twine and some beads. The cost to make these is now about twenty cents per bracelet. I think the kids will really like them and I don’t think it will break the bank for the materials. It’s something that is fun to make and can be used as an evangelical tool after VBS.

Sad News

Many of you have probably heard the news about the tragic, untimely death of Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest daughter, Maria. She was run over accidentally in her driveway on Wednesday by her brother. She was five years old.

As a person who has grown up listening to this guy’s music, I feel a strange connection to him. He has 6 kids, is an advocate for adoption, and has a heart for children. His music has convicted, encouraged, challenged, and comforted me over the years.

I can not imagine the pain that family is going through. As a parent, how do you recover from that? The brother that was driving will never be the same, either. I think about how much my life was changed by the death of my father unexpectedly and He was in his 60s and it wasn’t an accident. I pray that I never have to go through what SCC is right now.

I am reminded of one of his songs and think it is an appropriate prayer to lift him and his family up right now:

I will not pretend to feel the pain you’re going through
I know I cannot comprehend the hurt you’ve known
And I used to think it mattered if I understood
But now I just don’t know

Well, I’ll admit sometimes I still wish I knew what to say
And I keep looking for a way to fix it all
But we know we’re at the mercy of God’s higher ways
And our ways are so small

But I will carry you to Jesus
He is everything you need
I will carry you to Jesus on my knees

It’s such a privilege for me to give this gift to you
All I’d ever hope you’d give me in return
Is to know that you’ll be there to do the same for me
When the tables turn

And if you need to cry go on and I, I will cry along with you, yeah
I’ve given you what I have but still I know the best thing I can do
Is just pray for you

I’ll carry you
I’ll take you to Jesus on my knees

Please pray for this family.

June 5th

So I call the zoning inspector today and ask him about the zoning hearing I am supposed to have. He tells me it will be June 5th. Needless to say, I am not real happy about it, but what can I do. When I submitted my application, the ZI said it would be 3 weeks. That was 2 and a half weeks ago. I am getting the picture that this guy works in slow mo. Every time I call him, he takes forever (if at all) to get back to me and his concept of time doesn’t seem to match the rest of civilization. What can I do. He kind of holds the cards here seeing as how he is the one to check all of my work.

Believe it or not, I am not really that stresses out about it. I am not happy, but I am not stressed, either. I guess I am looking at this as an opportunity for God to really shine. I know in my head that there really is no way that I can obtain a zoning permit on June 5th and have a foundation laid and ready to frame on July 1. What is that, like 26 days? Think about what has to happen in those 26 days: submit my plans to the building department, health department, and soil & water district for review & permitting, make any changes to the plans as per the before mentioned agencies request, receive the permits, dig a big hole, set up footer forms properly, pour some stone and concrete in the big hole & footer forms, lay a bunch of cement blocks on aforementioned concrete, and shove rebar and concrete into the gaps in the concrete blocks. Oh, and wait for it all to cure. Like that is all going to happen in 26 days.

Like I said, I am viewing this as a way for God to shine. I think he will do one of 3 things: allow this whole process to go so smooth that people will be in awe when I start framing on July 1, allow things to run like the bureaucracies that they are and not allow me to have my permits until mid July which will have me framing in the evenings in August and September, or cause the zoning board to say that they don’t want my kind in these here parts. I know which choice I would prefer, but I guess I need to be ready to accept any of the above. I suppose there is a fourth option: something that I didn’t think of yet.

So, I will wait. And I will prepare. And I will read the HGTV Pro Best practices web site and wander through Lowes looking at materials. Life could be a lot worse, let me tell you.