The Look

My daughter got the flu for the first time a few weeks ago. As a parent when you interact with your kids you learn a lot about who they are and what to watch for. I learned something new a few weeks ago when she got sick. We had picked up some chinese food and for some reason she had started eating before we did. I think our other daughter was having a minor meltdown and we were attempting to deal with it. Our three year old loves food, she is like her parents in that, and she has always been a good eater. This night was not different she downed a plate of noodles, fried rice and some crab wontons. About an hour later she was playing in her room and I had walked in to see what she was up to, she is known for getting into mischief, and she was just standing there in the middle of her room. She looked up at me with eyes that looked about ready to cry and a mouth that looked very confused. I immediately picked her up, big mistake, and as I was lifting her whole face changed. It was one of those moments in life where time slows and every detail becomes an extremely vivid memory. Her face seemed to expand like a slowly inflating balloon. My parental impulse would not let me drop her even though my mind knew what was coming. It is not right that someone that small can regurgitate that much food. I wonder if God held His nose when He created bile? I don't like vomit, I never have. It is one of those distinctive things that once it is on you it never feels like it is gone. Just writing this is going to force me to go wash my hands. She proceeded to throw up just about every hour for the rest of the night and she did so good. It must be crazy to be three and not have experienced the flu before. I am surprised she did not have a complete panic attack. But we prayed and she did a wonderful job with the whole experience. She never apologized for throwing up on me, with counseling I am working through my bitterness. Now I know the look and it is not one that I will soon forget. Next time I think I just need to aim her better, like not at me.

A Van Down By The River

A place to call home is an amazing thing. I have had a lot of time recently to reflect on how I define home. It has been since September 07 that my family has not known where we would be living long term. I am frustrated. This happens when you try to move into one of the most expensive places in the country to live. As Matt Foley's arrangement has become more and more appealing, I have had to continually evaluate what it means to be at home. My wife and I were talking about this the other day and we had an epiphany, in all the months we have not had a place to call our own there have been very few nights when we have not gone to bed together and there have been very few days that I have not seen my children. In other words, I have been home every night.
I am such a consumer. My sense of home is dependent upon an actual structure to surround me. I feel like I need to stand up at a 12 step meeting and say, "my name is Dave and I am an American."
I have just watched God provide for my family for 8 months and I am still wondering if it will continue. Just because we don't live the picture that American culture tells us we should I am feeling guilty. I have been forced to answer the question from Matthew 6, "do you serve God or money?"
A lot of preachers today are preaching that loving God will bring about prosperity and an increase in material wealth. So does that mean that if I don't increase in prosperity I don't love God? All I have to say is that when the prosperity gospel fad is over I will still love Jesus and preach His good news. I wish I had my own helicopter.

It's okay I Slept Last Month

Babies teach you a lot about what you actually need and what is a luxury in life. For instance; you don't need to own a shirt without a white spit-up stain on the left shoulder, you don't need to share your bed with just your wife, you don't need to sleep longer than two hours, you don't need the use of both arms, you don't need to enjoy a cup of coffee while it is still hot. These are all luxury parts too life. Then there is the first smile and the first laugh and all those things truly to become luxurious. When you fall in love with your baby you serve with a joy and a wonderful sense of peace. It is the same to fall in love with Jesus. When the rest of life becomes luxury and all that really matters is serving Him and loving people as he would. I miss hot coffee.

Birth

My wife is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. God has taught me so many lessons through her about strength, sacrifice, family, humility and love. The birth story of our second child included all of these lessons, and a large helping of chocolate chip mint ice cream. Pregnancy is wonderful. Three days prior to our daughter being born the family we were staying with had a major medical emergency and needed the space for all of their extended family coming into town to stay. We ended up staying with some more friends who were semi-shell shocked to find a three year old and a nine months pregnant woman staying with them for several days. Pregnant women hinge their entire sanity on delivering on or before their due date. Did I mention that at this point my wife was three days past her due date. Not good. Any time after that magic day and they not only should be avoided but should be excused from anything that may come out of their mouth or thrown by their hands. Finally zero hour came 5 days late. With our first child we had chosen to have a natural child birth. There was lots of screaming and lots of pain and you might notice that when I walk there is a subtle limp in my left leg. Long story short, do not have natural childbirth. My wife is so much tougher than I am. All I can respond with is that I had an ingrown toenail once. Worth mentioning at least. Anyway we chose to go with the epidural this time around. The baby came while we were watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was amazing, the nurse came in, my wife was dozing and told her that she felt like she had to push, the nurse checked and immediately said she would go get the midwife because the baby was crowning. 15 minutes later God introduced us to our second daughter. Having watched the miracle of birth twice now I can only stand in awe at creation and how God created us to be part of this huge community called mankind while at the same time creating the most intimate of experiences as bringing a baby into the world. I can only humbly obey and serve faithfully a God that can bring about such wonder and mystery.