Daddy's Little Girl

OK, the last post got me all nostalgic about how Josiah has grown. And while his progress is amazing, I still can't get over the progress that our little Annica has made. I just remember when she just filled my two hands at 3lbs 9oz; she feels huge to me now when I pick her up!

Happy Memorial Day!

We spent Memorial Day out in Lancaster County, PA (yes, it's where the Amish live). Going from the city or even the suburbs into such a rural area feels like you're entering another country; like you're traveling back in time to a place where there are no telephone poles running power lines everywhere and farmers work the fields with a team of horses . . . but I digress.

My sister married a farmer and they live just such a picturesque place. It was great to get outside and lets the kids play in the water and run around in the grass (and the dirt, in some cases...) The weather was beautiful and the cousins had a blast running around together! Josiah and Christian are about 2 months apart, and they've always loved being together. It's absolutely crazy how big they've gotten in a year. They were barely rolling over last Memorial Day and this year, they're walking, almost-taking little explorers!

Memorial Day, 2008

Memorial Day, 2009

Ben Harper, eat your heart out!

We FINALLY Got It Right!

12 Years & Counting

Twelve years ago today–May 17th, 1997–Amy walked down the aisle of First Baptist Church where over 500 of our friends and family had gathered to witness our wedding. I can still remember the confidence that I felt as the pipe organ belted out "Here Comes the Bride" and the double doors in the rear of he church opened to reveal Amy in her wedding gown. I was 21 and she was 20, and even though people thought we were crazy, we both had total peace about the decision. There were no tears; we just beamed all throughout the ceremony because we know that we were destined to be together forever.

And what a crazy ride it's been! In the last twelve years, we've moved 5 times, bought and sold a half dozen cars, bought and re-financed our house, adopted Abby from the Hamilton County Humane Society (Chattanooga), and had two kids! Our lives are NOTHING like what we expected . . . they're far better! God has a funny way of doing that . . .

Time to Makes Some Changes

I had been with the same primary care physician for 5 years. He would crack lewd jokes and use profanity during our office visits, and try to appeal to me as the hip old doctor. It was almost like a stand-up comedy routine; I never found him to be very professional. The only reason that I stayed with him is that he seemed to know the right course of medication when I was sick.

Nine months ago, I finally moved to a different primary care physician (PCP) when he started missing things that he should have caught. And even though we're doing some of the same labs over again, I have much more confidence in their medical group than my previous one-man-show.

My most recent visit was to a cardiologist to follow up on a leaky heart value (aortic regurgitation) that I have. We just spend 10-15 minutes talking and it seemed like he immediately grasped my situation. Just by asking me questions, he determined that I probably had sleep apnea and ordered a sleep study. It made sense! I was already an Ambien for trouble sleeping and still felt tired during the day. If it is sleep apnea, it's easily treated and will respore my energy. He scheduled a series of follow-up tests and visits to make sure that we're monitoring the apnea and it's effect on my heart valvue. And after a nuclear stress test next week, he'll sign off on an exercize routine that will help get some of this excess weight off, too, which will help the apnea, the heart, ans my overall outlook on life.

My point in sharing is that one visit to a cardiologist changed my life! He took the time to diagnose what all the other docs didn't, and he's pt me on a plan for better health for the long term. These days, modern medicine is a machine that's programmed to see as many patients per day as possible. I've learned that I have to get proactive in my health and make sure that I'm asking the questions and getting the answers that I need. It's not about me anymore: I expect to be around long after Josiah graduated from college and Annie is Married. I want to dance at our 50th weding anniversary and hold my grandchildren in my lap. It's on me to make it happen. It's never too late to start getting into shape, and there's no better motivation that Josiah and Annica!

FIOS

Well today was fun... You know how FIOS gives you a window of 8am to 12 noon? Well the tech showed up at 9:00 am and left around 6pm! I'm thankful that everything is up and running, but they were having activation problems on their end, so we actually sat around and waited for at least two hours.

To make the day a bit more interesting, Amy was working, so I had to entertain both kiddos and the Fios guy. Nice! I was running back and forth trying to show him around and keep Josiah out of his "stuff." We both had to laugh, though, because as he was testing the line with his nifty little digital meter, Josiah was pressing buttons on it like it was the old Comcast remote. He really wanted to get into his laptop, too. I think we could have made a new commercial for Panasonic "Tough Book" and I envisioned it crashing to the floor. Thank God they both went down for naps around 12:30 and slept simultaneously until 3:00! They never do taht for me, so Jesus must have knows that we'd run into some tech issues and he let them sleep with we dug through wires to find the problem.

The jusry is still out on whether or not FIOS is better than Comcast. For us, it was $60 a month cheaper than Comcast, and with unemployment running out soon, that's all I was concerned about. Who knows . . . maybe 6 months from now I'll be posting about how we went back to rabbit ears and dial-up internet access. OK, maybe rabbit ears, butI draw the line at dail-up . . . [grin]

Visit to the Pediatrician

Josiah has his 15-month visit to the pediatrician on Tuesday. Just out of curiosity, I asked if she though he was behind in any way with his verbal communication. she assured me that he was in great shape and exactly where he should be. I figured as much, but I just wanted to be sure since someone had raised the question (see post "Awkward Exchange").

He took his shot like a champ without any crying and enjoyed some pretzels afterwards. Gosh, two happy, healthy kids that sleep through the night and wake up happy to see us . . . my cup runneth over!

Mother's Day Video

Since it was our first Mother's Day with both kids, our church wanted Amy and I to tell our story. Amy was working that Sunday, so they offered to film it and show it at all three services on the big screens (a thought that both excited and made us nervous).

We shot outdoors and Josiah mainly just stomped around in the mud. We were sitting on a jagged rock, so i was trying to find a comfortable place to site (thus my "wobbling" in the beginning). When we were done shooting, I wasn't sure if we had given them anything coherent, but Mike (the church's video Guru) edited it together so we make sense. Turned out pretty nice!

Clean Bill of Health

I eluded to this on Facebook, but I wanted to go into a bit more details for those of you that are interested. When Annie was born, she has some water around both kidneys, called hydronephrosis. Our doctors at Temple University Hospital wanted to do a contrast study; she would be transported by ambulance to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children where the pediatric radiologists could perform the procedure and interpret the results.

Fortunately they decided that it could wait until after she was discharged. We did the contrast study back in February and had the follow-up ultrasound this morning. Everything was perfect! Both kidneys were clear and they said she was looking great! We'll follow up in a year, but it was last of the residual issues from her being premature, and it was a relief to know that she's progressing well.

Ode to a Dogwood

Our beloved flowering dogwood tree is dead. It blooms so beautifully each spring, bringing life front of the house. But this year I'm afraid that it has succumb to a nasty tree fungus that has choked the life out of it. It's hard to see it go; it was there when we bought the house back in 2002.

We're going to be cutting it down and digging up the stump soon to make way for another mature tree. I was thinking a magnolia would look nice, but if any of you tree experts have ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

Closet Photographer

Amy is famously reclusive when it comes to the blog. Despite my encouragement to post, she feels like it's "my thing." She's always been an introvert (until you get to know her), so I understand why she wouldn't want to put her thoughts up for the world to see.

While she may not be into blogging, she recently found another means of creative expression. She was playing with Josiah in the backyard yesterday and decided to grab the camera. The shots she took were amazing! It was as if each shot could tell a story. I've posted a few of my favorites below. You can see more on Facebook or our Flickr page.

Momma Melba

If you haven't already heard, Michael & Melanie brought home a beautiful baby boy! You can meet Charlie and get the whole story on Melba's blog (or by clicking the photo above.)

Congratulations, guys!

Awkward Exchannge

The other day, someone commented on how cute Josiah was and asked if we was talking yet. I said that he more babbles, but he phrases the babytalk just like sentences, so I felt like he's pretty close. Their expression turned serious as they asked if we were teaching him sign language, which could sometimes delay speaking. I told them that we weren't doing sign language with him; he's just following his own curve as far as speaking goes. Then they asked, "Does the pediatrician know? Because he's behind..." The look I gave them probably reflected my disbelief at such an insensitive and out-of-touch question, but I mustered up something like "I'm not worried about it." and walked away.

What a bizarre thing to say to a parent. That their kid is somehow developmentally delayed because he's not hitting all the pre-determined markers. And how does pointing out problems in other kids bring them any satisfaction? Fact is, Josiah is performing at or above the level of where he should be at his age. He's perfect in every way, and will probably be speaking in a month or two. We don't feel the need to rush him because it's not a competition; he'll follow his own path and get there in him time.

My reaction surprised me. It was the first time some stranger criticized my kid, and I got pretty defensive. Actually, I got pretty hot! It was like they called my kid "ugly" or something, and I reacted with a primal, protective anger toward the question and the person that asked it.

Welcome to parenthood.

Adoptive Parent Panel

Yesterday, the whole family participated in an adoptive parent discussion panel for prospective adoptive parents. When our friend at Bethany extended the offer, we were excited to help out, because we gained so much from the stories of other adoptive parents; it truly helped us in making the decision to adopt (and eased our anxiety about adopting trans-racially).

Josiah was a little ham (as you could probably imagine.) We were seated up front along with three other adoptive couples with their children, and Josiah just roamed around the conference room offering his cell phone or snacks to the prospective parents. It was too cute! Annica slept like a llittle angel on Amy's shoulder the whole time, so we were both really proud of her for being so good. we had visions of screaming baby, and it would have made presentation really difficult.

We met some great folks and hopefully answered their questions. They asked about financial aid, the waiting period, adjusting to being a parent and whether or not to have a shower. the questions reminded me of a much darker time when we were going through the process and really didn't have the hope and joy that we have now. With that in mind, I tried to re-assure and encourage everyone that it's a tough process, especially the waiting and the insensitive questions, but at the end of the journey there's always a baby. The hard part is submitting yourself to God's timing.