You Might Have a Four-Month-Old

If you pull up to a traffic light and have a deep inner struggle about whether you can get a nap in before the light turns green again, you might have a four-month-old . And if you come home and tell your husband about this struggle and instead of being chastised for your lack of safety consciousness, he says he wishes that he thought of it first and will try it the next time he's on the road, you might have a four-month-old. If you get a free hour to go on a date and choose to collapse on a blanket in the park, you might have a four-month-old. And if every shirt in you laundry hamper has drool stains over three inches in diameter, you might have a drooling problem, or you might have a four-month-old.

Thanks to God, a surgeon, and a laser beam, our little Benjamin is now cyst-free. Ben was in surgery for about three hours, and the surgeon said that they were able to get the whole cyst out without any problems. He spent the night at the hospital and was doing well enough that they discharged him on Wednesday evening. Right now we're doing all of his feedings through his stomach tube, which is a two-person job since he's been a lot fussier since the surgery, but hopefully he'll get back to regular feeding some time next week.

The surgeon also told us that the opening to Ben's windpipe is smaller than other kids his age so it may still take a while for him to start breathing normally. He said that it could be years before they take the trach out, but I'm hopeful it will be much sooner than that.

Ben's weight during all of this has been one of our biggest frustrations as he is almost four months old and still under 10 pounds, which puts him in the bottom 3 percent of babies for his age. As you can imagine, this can be pretty stressful for a mom to deal with on top of everything else that's been going on. If you could pray about that situation, we would be grateful.

The Big Day

Well Ben's surgery is coming up at 12:30 today, and I'm having trouble sleeping. It has been a while since I've put a video out there so here is Benjamin's sophomore production for your enjoyment.

A Change Would Do You Good

Apparently my first attempt at getting on the cat scripture site just wasn't good enough, but I'm going to give it one more shot. You'll have to help me choose which verse to pick though.

1 Corinthians 15:51 "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—"
or
Matthew 18:3 And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Reconciliation

Good Friday to all of you. Today Christians remember an act of selflessness that brought us hope and reconciliation with God. It's an act that Jesus amazingly calls us to reenact on a daily basis. Have I ever had one day that lived up to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross let alone doing it day after day after day? Praise God for his mercy and undying devotion to perfecting us through the blood of Christ.

This afternoon God gave us the chance to experience some much needed reconciliation of our own. Two of our former teammates, Carlos and Maribel Preciado, who were part of our mission team that was going to plant a new church in Miami, were in town for a gospel meeting and stopped by our place for a visit. There are numerous reasons why our mission team fell apart before we even finished our training in Abilene, but one of them was our inability to work out our differences with Carlos and Maribel. Feelings were hurt on both sides, and we at least, left Abilene with a bitter taste in our mouths.

Some say that time heals all wounds, which is a total lie, but God can certainly heal any wound we ask him to heal. When he forgives us of so much, how can we continue holding a grudge against our own brothers and sisters? As I talked with Carlos in our living room, I was so happy to hear of all the things that God was doing in their lives. Though our team fractured, God is mending all of us and using us to do his work even if we are in different places.

After they left, we opened up a gift they brought for us. Inside was a rock engraved with a cross, a dove, and a scripture. The scripture was Psalm 33:5 which says, "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." I'm going to keep it on my desk at work as a constant reminder of God's power to reconcile us to himself and to each other through the cross and the Holy Spirit. Thank you Carlos and Maribel for visiting and may God continue to bless your work in Miami.

In other news, we got a great report from Ben's surgeon after he took some pictures of the cyst in Ben's throat. He said that the cyst doesn't appear to be growing, and Ben has grown enough that they will be able to do the surgery on April 17th instead of waiting until the summer. The pictures were incredibly clear so I thought I'd share one with you. You can see the dangly thing in the back of Ben's throat and the big blob just below it to the left is the cyst that is blocking his wind pipe. It's amazing how one little fleshy bump can change your whole life, and I'm not talking about Ben's uvula.


I know this post has been going on forever, but I've got one other thing to share. Adrienne's grandmother has made some great Swarovski crystal gospel bracelets that I am selling for her on eBay. These bracelets are a great conversation starter and give you the opportunity to tell others about the faith you have in Jesus. If you're interested, just follow my eBay link on the right side of the page. Man what a good day, Christ dying for my sins, reconciling with fellow Christians, a new surgery date, and brownie points with the grandmother-in-law.

Whit, Adrienne, and Benjamin