I'm here in the room with Laura and Ira. He refuses to eat, or rather, take from a bottle. It concerns us and is beginning to concern the feeding specialist. However, the feeding specialist is amazing and is going to Plan B, as she calls it. We'll see how that works.
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It's well known among our doctors and nurses that we want a family meeting. So I hope that they will make it happen soon. I've got a typed out list of questions that we will ask of them hoping to get a good idea of what's going on and where we are going.
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Laura and I are going to a movie tonight...that is if we can agree to what movie we should see. And while I'm excited about the movie tonight I'm more excited that my mom is planning to cook us a meal before she leaves this weekend. On the menu is fried chicken, cream gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls from scratch. This is by far my favorite meal in the world. And there is nothing healthy about it. Even the green beans are manipulated in such a way that when it's all said and done, I will have to spin extra hard in my cycling class!
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I left the house this morning with Laura and Sophia dancing. The iPod was plugged into the stereo blasting at levels I'm sure our neighbors appreciated. The song they were dancing to? Baby Got Back. It was a fun moment watching Sophia wearing just her diaper shaking that thang!
---------------------
It's well known among our doctors and nurses that we want a family meeting. So I hope that they will make it happen soon. I've got a typed out list of questions that we will ask of them hoping to get a good idea of what's going on and where we are going.
---------------------
Laura and I are going to a movie tonight...that is if we can agree to what movie we should see. And while I'm excited about the movie tonight I'm more excited that my mom is planning to cook us a meal before she leaves this weekend. On the menu is fried chicken, cream gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls from scratch. This is by far my favorite meal in the world. And there is nothing healthy about it. Even the green beans are manipulated in such a way that when it's all said and done, I will have to spin extra hard in my cycling class!
----------------------
I left the house this morning with Laura and Sophia dancing. The iPod was plugged into the stereo blasting at levels I'm sure our neighbors appreciated. The song they were dancing to? Baby Got Back. It was a fun moment watching Sophia wearing just her diaper shaking that thang!
posted by jch at
2:10 PM
8 Comments:
I love when you post about some joyful moment in your life...right now...in the midst of pain...Sophie and Laura dancing...such a great image in my head. Thank you, Joe.
grace and peace to you today, Julie
Please consider the movie March of the Penguins...it was wonderful.
Bobbi Isbell
i'm a little late to the party here but... did anyone suggest "mad hot ballroom"? makes you appreciate diversity, and kids, in NY. or bryan's cannes fave: "murderball" the inspirational movie of the year. for sheer laughs, i can't imagine "wedding crashers" could let you down.
thinking of you guys always. can't wait until after the bar when i can visit with ira, and baby-sit sophia - i will teach her the Kid N Play, the best 80s rap dance move of all time.
Joe,
You should listen to "Owner of a Lovely Butt," the mashup of "Baby Got Back" and Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart."
Link
Thnaks and Thanks and Thanks that in the middle of your exhaustion you continue to post. Our prayers continue.
The dancing sounds like LOTS of fun :-); the food even better and a movie---well, I am a bit behind the "latest" releases but Cindrella Man is "feel good"!!
prayers from Southeast Texas
Dixie
This is a really good story.
> > >> DO YOU SMELL THAT?
> > >>
> > >> At the end of this story, it gives you two options. I think
> > >> you will figure out what option I chose.
> > >>
> > >> A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas
> > >> as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana
> > >> Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband,
> > >> David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the
> > >> latest news.
> > >>
> > >> That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced
> > >> Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency
> > >> Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu
> > >> Blessing.
> > >>
> > >> At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces,
> > >> they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the
> > >> doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
> > >>
> > >> "I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly
> > >> as he could.
> > >>
> > >> "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the
> > >> night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make
> > >> it, her future could be a very cruel one."
> > >>
> > >> Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor
> > >> described the devastating problems Dana would likely face
> > >> if she survived.
> > >>
> > >> She would never walk, she would never talk, she would
> > >> probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to
> > >> other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to
> > >> complete mental retardation, and on and on.
> > >>
> > >> "No! No!" was all Diana could say.
> > >>
> > >> She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long
> > >> dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a
> > >> family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream
> > >> was slipping away.
> > >>
> > >> But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for
> > >> David and Diana.
> > >>
> > >> Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was
> > >> essentially 'raw,' the lightest kiss or caress only
> > >> intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle
> > >> their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the
> > >> strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana
> > >> struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle
> > >> of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close
> > >> to their precious little girl.
> > >>
> > >> There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.
> > >> But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of
> > >> weight here and an ounce of strength there.
> > >>
> > >> At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were
> > >> able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And
> > >> two months later, though doctors continued to gently but
> > >> grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living
> > >> any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home
> > >> from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
> > >>
> > >> Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young
> > >> girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for
> > >> life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or
> > >> physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little
> > >> girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the
> > >> end of her story.
> > >>
> > >> One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her
> > >> home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap
> > >> in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother
> > >> Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
> > >>
> > >> As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and
> > >> several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell
> > >> silent.
> > >>
> > >> Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do
> > >> you smell that?"
> > >>
> > >> Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a
> > >> thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
> > >> Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
> > >> Once again, her mother replied,
> > >>
> > >> "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."
> > >>
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her
> > >> thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced,
> > >> "No, it smells like Him.
> > >>
> > >> It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
> > >>
> > >> Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to
> > >> play with the other children.
> > >>
> > >> Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what
> > >> Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family
> > >> had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
> > >>
> > >> During those long days and nights of her first two months
> > >> of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to
> > >> touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His
> > >> loving scent that she remembers so well.
> > >>
> > >> You now have 1 of 2 choices. You can either pass this on
> > >> and let other people catch the chills like you did, or you
> > >> can delete this and act like it didn't touch your heart
> > >> like it did mine.
> > >>
> > >> IT'S YOUR CALL! "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me."
We check on you all several times a day and remember you always in our prayers!
God Bless you each and all!!
Richard & JeannaLynn May
Yukon, OK
you take cycling class? hmmm
"I left the house this morning with Laura and Sophia dancing. The iPod was plugged into the stereo blasting at levels I'm sure our neighbors appreciated. The song they were dancing to? Baby Got Back. It was a fun moment watching Sophia wearing just her diaper shaking that thang!"
I truly believe God gives us those moments to make the other moments more bearable. I'm so glad you see them, and they don't pass you by.
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