What a day!

Yesterday was an amazingly long day for us. We started the morning off by carting off 3 of the 4 children to 2 different friends to watch for them for the day. Then Audrea and I took Sabrina to Kosair Children's Hospital for her to have an MRI. Her orthopedic doctor had requested that be done because her scoliosis seemed to be progressing more rapidly than Savannah's. The brave little girl opted to not be sedated for it and to instead lay very still for almost an hour while they took pictures of her spine. She did so well! She had to fast from the night before until the MRI was done. Had she opted to be sedated, she would have had an IV and all the accompanying symptoms that normally follow waking up from that and hence, would've had to wait to eat until about 12:30 or so. Instead, we got to go eat at 11am and go to her choice of restaurant--Taco Bell. Afterwards we had to find something to do for a couple hours until her follow-up appointment with the spine doctor. So she chose to go to Starbucks and eat lemon cake while drinking hot chocolate and listening to momma read The Horse and His Boy to her--what a way to suffer! At the follow-up to review the MRI's, the doctor said that he believes the cause of her scoliosis is Tethered-Cord Syndrome--a rare condition where your spinal cord is being stretched to tightly downwards. This weakens the muscles holding the spine up and hence, the curve begins. It is a treatable condition but if not dealt with could have very bad symptoms. He recommended that we go to a very qualified pediatric neurosurgeon who handles about 100 cases of these per year. He'll review the MRI and give us his second opinion to confirm or deny what Dr. Puno is seeing.

Once we wrapped that up, picked up all the kids, and came home, I had about an hour to sit down and work before taking Savannah to her "Kids Fit" class at the rec center at our seminary. Yesterday was swim day when they have class in the pool and afterwards get to play with their friends. I was sitting in the lobby working and waiting for her to finish when one of our good friends came in and told me that Savannah got hurt on the diving board. I rushed in to see what happened and found her being attended to by several of the instructors and the life guard. She had blood all over her chest and swimsuit and was in the throes of panic. When they went to switch the gauze pads being held against her chin, I saw a pretty good slice that I knew was going to need stitches. Unfortunately, all the instructors didn't know about Savannah's penchant for dramatics--extreme dramatics. (aka some real fear issues) So when they began explaining that she would need stitches, everything went downhill from there!

To make a very long story short, she rode in an ambulance to Kosair's (she requested that hospital since Sabrina got to go there!), learned that doctors and stitches are okay, ate supper at McDonalds around 9:30pm, and came home to tell our dear friend (who happens to be very pregnant and in spite of her state, was a hero-servant for feeding and bathing all of our children, cleaning up our kitchen, and tucking them all in!) everything that happened. She stayed up for another hour and got to tell her grandma all the gory details before finally going to bed.

We finally crawled into bed at 11ish and praised the Lord that both Sabrina and Savannah weren't paralyzed. What a good God we have!

Click here to see some images from my cell phone during the event.

The Good and the Bad of the American Way

Sidenote: I realize it has been a long time since I posted anything original, but life at home, church, and school obviously should take a higher priority for me... Second, it's been even longer since I've updated you with pictures of the fam. So after this brief comment-post, I promise to post many days of family updates! I promise!

While nearly-everything President-Elect Obama stands for is antithetical to the very principles that guide my life, I am thrilled that I live in the day when a non-Caucasian has been elected President. It does say so much for the NAACP's extra-long-term-committed work over the generations, but says even more for the Glory of God as seen through the imago dei.

But here's what I want you think about: it took vision and long-term commitment to that vision to see equality of US citizens defended all the way to the top. Here's the scary thing--the ACLU, People for the American Way, and other rights-groups are fighting with the same kind of vision and commitment for a non-God-glorifying cause: to destroy God's design of gender and marriage. I am not just succumbing to some conspiracy theorists or egotistical, loud-mouthed conservative talk-radio hosts. Read it for yourself:

"The cultural acceptance of gay marriage is a long-term process,'' said
[Kathryn] Kolbert of People for the American Way.