Happy Easter!

My kids are growing up!

Ben now says five words: bye, uh-oh, ball, fan, hi, all done, mmmm (as in yummy). And he does signs for bye-bye (of course), all done, and more (when he feels like it). His personality is really showing up. He seems to be a boy of extremes -- when he's good, he's very, very good and when he's bad he's horrid. He's stubborn and strong-willed, yet gets very upset when you just barely tap his hand to discipline him. He loves balls and food. And he's very mad at me right now because I won't let him touch the computer =).

Luke surprises us pretty much every day with a new word or concept. We just got bunk beds for the boys (though Ben is still in a crib) and Luke is very excited about his big boy bed. Of course, he's very into his independence: "Lukie do it by hisself!", and being a "big boy." We're working a little on potty training, but not hardcore.

Re: Hello!

Well, Ben has to get tubes in his ears. April 2nd is the day. He will
get tubes and have another bronchoscopy with a different kind of
scope. The ENT doctor said if they could fix the throat with a laser
quickly while they're in there, they will. If he needs some other sort
of surgery, they'll have to do that at a different time. I'm hoping
that the tubes in his ears will help him feel better and even hear
better, so maybe he'll be able to communicate more! He's doing much
better in terms of motor development. He can crawl and get himself all
over the place, though he prefers to cruise. He tries to take a couple
steps without holding on and will play with toys without holding on to
something for balance. My baby boy is turning into a toddler!

Greg's 2nd Award

Proud of my man! Check him out in the article below:

Chattanooga Honors Top Cops for Going Above and Beyond
by WDEF

Several police officers have ended up on the wrong side of the law recently.

Here are some on the right side.

Click here to read more on our site

A drop in the bucket

Compassion International has started a blogging campaign, so I thought I'd take this opportunity . . . I chose to sponsor a child with Compassion International starting when I was in college because I could sponsor a child in Uganda, where I grew up. The cost (~$30 per month) feels like a drop in the bucket to me, especially when I don't feel like I can contribute extra for special projects. However, I know it doesn't feel like a drop in the bucket to the little Ugandan girl that we sponsor or to her family. She gets school fees (education's not free in Uganda), good nutrition, and spiritual mentorship. It literally changes her life forever. I wonder that we don't do more. . . If you don't sponsor a child in the 3rd world, you should. A drop in the bucket for us makes the difference of a lifetime for a child.

Greg's Valentine's Day present

Greg got a white boxer puppy for Valentine's Day. His name is Max and he's so cute!

New puppies

You can check out pictures of Tori's puppies at my friend Alli's Flickr page.

Another dr. visit for Ben

I'm taking Ben to get a CAT scan tomorrow morning, just to make sure his huge head is not related to his developmental delays.

Last week, I took him to the ENT. He gave us Prevacid and Nasonex, saying that his throat problems could be caused by reflux and that Ben had fluid in his ears that needs to clear up in the next six weeks, or he'll need tubes.

Pray for the little guy . . . and us. I believe he'll be fine in the end, but I need to trust God no matter what happens.

Sad news

Poor Greg had to take Ike to the vet this morning to be put to sleep. He was 10-1/2 years old. He had stopped eating and drinking much and couldn't get up anymore or control his bladder. Anna graciously cared for him while we were gone, cleaning up his messes, and dragging him back into the house at the point when he wouldn't get up anymore. It was sad, but obvious to us that Ike was absolutely miserable. He had the saddest eyes I've ever seen. I feel bad for him that we were gone and he had to live like that for a few days, poor boy.

Luke is a little confused. Not really sad, but doesn't understand. I keep telling him Ike's not coming back. I first told him Ike was going to the doctor and he asked if Ike was getting a shot, which I then realized wasn't good because I didn't want Luke to be scared that the same thing would happen to him if he went to the doctor and got a shot. So I said Daddy was taking him to the hospital, which Luke then equated to his trip to the ER, so I had to backtrack on that one too. I finally just told him he went to doggy heaven and isn't coming home. I'm just not quite sure how to explain that one!

New puppies

While we were gone to Orlando, Tori had four puppies, thanks to Anna Meiners. One of them died the next day, sadly, but it didn't look quite normal from the beginning, Anna said. So we have two red/white (blenheim) girls and one black (tricolor)boy. They're cute. I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

Lots of "Goings On"

We've been busy lately. We went to Orlando last week so I could go to a conference. We got to see Rinnie and her kids and had such fun going to Downtown Disney with Johnny, Kaki, and Ella. That was definitely THE highlight of our trip.

A chip of the old block

Luke is turning into a chip of the old block, the block being me (Esther). He's always talking about who he wants to come over to our house or who he wants to go see. He says "Alli come over," "Go Unc'a Petr's house." I love to see him enjoying the people that love him. Sometimes it's sad because he wants to go see Granmama and Granpapa and I wish he could. Today, as soon as he got back into the sanctuary from nursery, he whispered to me very shyly, "Go Matt's house." Matt was at church with us. What a sweetie!

Ben's Birthday

Ben turned one on Tuesday. We are waiting to celebrate until next weekend when Greg's parents will be up here, but my friend Alli surprised us with cupcakes when we got our kids together to play. Ben pretty much just ate icing.

An exciting Thursday night

What an exciting Thursday night we had! Luke got a hold of the bottle of children's vitamins AND got the childproof cap off. That was probably about 8pm. I didn't know it until 11pm when I saw children's Tylenol spilled on the floor, as he had also gotten the lid off that. I called poison control and they sent us to the emergency room. Greg was still working, so I took Ben to my friend Heather's and Greg met me at the hospital.

At the ER, they ended up taking his blood 3 times at two hour intervals, starting at about 4 hours from when he took the medicine. It took 1.5 hours to get the tests back. (They also informed us that Poison Control had called Family and Children's Services because there was so much time between when he got the meds and when I called.) I was there with Luke until 6 am, when his iron levels started to go down.

It was a bit scary for us (they called it an overdose) as his iron level was high the first time and higher the second; and scary for Luke as they kept coming back and drawing blood. I was awake the whole time and Luke didn't go to sleep either until 5am. Greg went home about 2:30, after the first iron level report, so at least one of us could get some sleep that night and then I could sleep the next day once he was awake.

Praise the Lord that everything was okay and don't trust the childsafe caps!

Luke sings his ABCs

Ben's Bronchoscopy

Ben had a bronchoscopy Wednesday. They said that his throat is pretty narrow right below his vocal cords, so we now have to go see an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) doctor, who will do another kind of bronchoscopy with a different kind of scope and may be able to take care of the problem at that time with laser to burn off some of the extra tissue or trying to dilate his throat, which I don't know how they do that, but that's what they told me. Didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. Don't know why they didn't send us to the ENT instead of the pulmonologist in the first place, but he's fine for now. The worst part, which is not bad compared to some of our other options, is that we have to go back and do that day all over again with starving the poor boy, sedating home, and making him uncomfortable for a few days. Oh, and his nose bled on my new shirt . . . bummer.

Aquarium Visit

I had to take a day off during the week last week because Greg had to work during the day. I took the boys to the aquarium with my friends Heather and Alli, and their kids Jonas, and Fuller. We had so much fun. It got me thinking: people sometimes think stay-at-home moms live a life of luxury because they are always out galavanting. NOT true! Stay-at-home moms are out galavanting to keep their kids occupied! Don't know why that thought occurred to me then, but that's when it did.

Johari Windows

Daniel and Tasha directed me to this website. It's pretty fun. The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference is built up. All you have to do is pick five/six words from a grid that apply to the person the window is about. Here's mine: http://kevan.org/johari?name=Deares'. Go there and pick some adjectives for me and start your own, too!

Ebola Update

The missionaries are all doing well at this point, thankfully. The

news from the district from yesterday is: "Total cases remain at 115,
the first time we've had no new cases or admissions. Praise God for a
respite. Deaths: 31. Spread: four highly suspicious cases in Fort
Portal, all are contacts from Bundibugyo. We agree with the advice
that contacts should stay put for 21 days to help contain the spread
of this disease, and we are doing so ourselves. So far Jonah's
family is fine, again a tribute to his care." There's an article
about the doctor who died and the Ebola outbreak at ABC News. The
other Ugandan doctor in the district has been discharged from the
hospital -- recovered!

The missionary doctor/mom posts on their blog (http://
paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/) every day, if you ever want to know and
have time to look. There are some interesting pictures from the
burial posted on their blog here: http://paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/

2007/12/bundibugyo-where-tears-never-run-dry.html We certainly need
to keep praying that the Lord would stop the spread and protect his
people. I don't know who to pray that he would protect -- it sounds
weird to choose some and not others.

Ebola Response Fund: http://whm.org/project?ID=11128

Luke dancing to Pete's b-boxing

A good weekend

This has been a good weekend. The kind that makes you sigh . . . when you have a free minute to sit down. Here's ten reasons why (in order of importance):
1. Ben started clapping today. (That's exciting news because the dr. is worried about him being further behind than he should be even as a preemie, and bringing his hands together is a milestone.)
2. Greg gave up some relaxation time to support me in my goals to exercise and get more sleep.
3. I exercised Friday and today. (I walked to Blockbuster today -- killed two birds with one stone!)
4. I got to take 2 2-hour naps. (Greg let me sleep instead of waking me up when he was supposed to.)
5. Heather is finally done with her volleyball season at Covenant, so she can hang out again in the evenings. They came over for dinner on Saturday.
6. Greg was off so we had the weekend together.
7. Greg bought me eggnog at Wal-mart! (He said, "I was going to buy you flowers, but I thought you'd appreciate this more.)
8. We actually finished a book in my Bible Study. (first time ever!)
9. Greg took the dogs to the vet and went to the grocery store -- usually my jobs.
10. Greg fixed the hot tub, all by himself -- I'm very proud.
Sigh . . .