SHIT!
Sorry for the title but that's about the only word I can come up with at the moment. I rode with Ira in the back of an ambulance last night at 2 a.m. His sats were bad and he was having a hard time breathing. He's been admitted to the PICU of the Brooklyn Hospital and is waiting for a transport team to take him to Children's where he was in NICU. He'll be in their PICU upon admission. I'm home now with Sophia who is sick and Laura is with Ira. He's in stable condition but he's not himself.
It should take us about 10 minutes to get to Brooklyn Hospital but it took Laura 30 minutes this morning. I don't even want to guess how long it will take the transport team to get Ira into Manhattan. Merry Christmas, MTA!
I'm hoping they'll keep Ira 24-48 hours, get him stabilized and send us home. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
UPDATE at 5 PM
Ira's been transported successfully to Children's in Manhattan. He was admitted into the PICU. Because he's stable they are now waiting for availability of a bed on the regular pediatric floor. This is a good thing.
He'll go through a battery of tests tomorrow with his regular docs to get an idea of what is going on. He's still having periods where his sats aren't good and it's evident that he's in pain but for the most part, he's stable.
It should take us about 10 minutes to get to Brooklyn Hospital but it took Laura 30 minutes this morning. I don't even want to guess how long it will take the transport team to get Ira into Manhattan. Merry Christmas, MTA!
I'm hoping they'll keep Ira 24-48 hours, get him stabilized and send us home. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
UPDATE at 5 PM
Ira's been transported successfully to Children's in Manhattan. He was admitted into the PICU. Because he's stable they are now waiting for availability of a bed on the regular pediatric floor. This is a good thing.
He'll go through a battery of tests tomorrow with his regular docs to get an idea of what is going on. He's still having periods where his sats aren't good and it's evident that he's in pain but for the most part, he's stable.
posted by jch at
11:24 AM
21 Comments:
My husband and I are praying for little Ira with all our hearts, and for you Laura and Sophia as well.
Definitely praying.
I am praying and the word was appropriate. Praying that Ira feels our support...our hearts and minds with him and God pushing him along to wellness.
My heart is heavy today for Ira.
Keep making it to the next round and your family will win this fight
CJE
Thoughts and prayers.
They're here.
praying hard in Houston
Allison and I read your post tonight, and we are so sorry. Glad to see the update brings a little better news.
You guys hang in there, you can make it through. Ira is a tough little guy.
We love you both:
J & A
Hi Joe,
I am so sorry to hear of your son's health and needing to go back to the hospital today. We have followed your family through the later part of Laura's pregnancy and his life thus far. Our whole family "knows" Ira and your family through your blog. We feel for you deeply and your family is often a subject of our prayers. You will continue to be and I know that with as many people praying for your family God will work through your lives (as James 5:26 says 'the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective').
However, I would also like to encourage you regarding today's blog. Your choice of a title and the tone of despair in your blog today saddened me. I felt that the title alone and the fact that it was the only word you could think of to accurately describe your emotion & sentiment was less than admirable. I would never in a million years say that I can relate to what you are going through or say that it would not be natural to feel this way. But doesn't God give us hope? A flood of scriptures come to mind about how we, as Christians, take the curve balls, struggles, hardships and persecutions that life deals us and go on praising God for his bountiful blessings. "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised... In all of this Job did not sin in what he said" Job 1:21, 2:10
You are so blessed Joe! You are blessed in the fact that you live in NYC and in a matter of minutes (or more) can take your son to the best doctors in the world. Everything that is humanly possible is being done for your son. I can't say the same for the thousands of children I see in the World Vision envelope I receive every month. You have a wife who loves you and a lovely and healthy daughter. I know you love and praise God but it sounded a little like you were forgetting that with your title.
In addition to this many scriptures encourage us to look at adversity as a time of growth and something that, Lord willing, we come out of better prepared to do His will (2 Cor 1, James 1, Heb 12, 1 Peter 1 and many others). I'm confident you know this, I'm sure you've studied the Bible more than I have.
The other thought I had is that you are a witness for God to those in Brooklyn. You are actively sharing your faith and helping to plant a church in a place that I would imagine is not exactly openly hospitable to another church. I commend you for your heart and praise God for what he is doing through you and your family. Let your light shine! People are watching your example because you are a pastor. You are facing something terrible but so do a lot of other people. Others want to see how a man of God faces the incredible kind of adversity you are going through. "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matt 5:16).
Satan would like nothing better than to make your ministry ineffective. He may do this by throwing you this incredible curve ball and sapping your energy, shaking your faith or making your example in conflict with your message. I imagine this has been the case to some extent (I can't imagine it not). But don't let him win brother! Fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith!
Joe, my sole purpose in writing this is encouragement. I admire your heart and wish I had more of your desire for the lost. I don't know you personally but was at ACU just a bit earlier. I mainly know of you through friends and I was a friend of Laura's older brother Jason. God bless you and know that your family is in our prayers.
Kenny Winter
I just want to say that I have appreciated the realness you show in your blog in in your life. We can't always have positive or even hopeful responses to every circumstance in life - it would be unnatural. Your realness has and will continue to reach people near and far. Your faith is evident.
I'm very sorry you have to go through this. It's extremely horrible timing, but it would be awful at any time. I can't imagine the fear and frustration you guys are feeling.
I love you all and will be praying.
-D.J.
It's not the time, obviously, to get into one of those blog-comment tiffs... but the temptation is strong. Maybe I could satisfy the craving by saying simply that it is ironic that Donielle brought up Job, as the book contains chapter after chapter of Job's chastisement by "friends" who cannot simply sit beside their suffering brother and let him be in a show of solidarity in the middle of the shit his life had become.
Joe, feel free to delete this comment if you feel it doesn't move the conversation along. But please, keep telling us the truth, and use whatever words God gives you.
peace -- Kate
Praying for Ira and your family. Absolutely love the realness of your blog. Thank you for regular updates.
The same Lord who wants us to bring our praise to Him also yearns for us to bring our hurts before Him...and we hurt with you
love,
matt, christine and jack pinson
I appreciate Kennys comments. I know since the loss of my nephew Noah, it is good to see the Hope of God in my pain.
This is a tough place for us all to be, and not really an ideal situation for grief counseling. We can share, struggle, grieve, weep, collapse in pain and anguish... yet still know God. Yet, that knowing Him does not always lend itself to understanding His ways. I hate that. I heard someone say on the radio the other day that he "didn't want to understand God. what sort of God would it be if we could understand his thinking and planning."
I know we love praying for you and Ira. Blakely and Jackson always ask God to be with him, help him grow and be strong. And it does my heart good to think of you and your family, brother.
Joe and Laura-
We are longing and crying out for complete healing of Ira. Know that our thoughts and prayers remain with you throughout.
wishing I had words of comfort...asking the Lord, who does, to speak them over your hearts.
Becky
Praying for you guys.
...I can't find any better word...
Just read this latest post. I know you know this, but I'll say it again...your family, especially little man Ira, is in our hearts and prayers daily.
Ugh...or should I say, "Shit!" Joe, you know I'm echoing Katie here, but I personally like your title. It's scriptural; in fact a good biblical definition of sin might be, "Shit happens." Job cursed the day he was born; Stephen Mitchell's translation has the right color: "God damn the day I was born!" I'm sure Donielle meant well (as did Job's friends), but please...this is just another example of Kitsch Christianity, i.e. little flowery Christian bookstore fru-fru in the midst of shit, or in other words, the denial of shit (see Milan Kundera's novels). And as we both know, no one respects Kitsch Christianity in the Northeast. Keep "witnessing" by being who you are.
It's about empathy, as you all know. If I had a sick child and needed help with transport around this mad city during this mad time, I just might mutter a few other things.
Hang in there, guys!
I'm here for ya bud.
God hears all of our prayers -- even the four-letter ones. ESPECIALLY the four-letter ones.
Blessing and peace.
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