A Prayer Need

I heard through the grapevine abotu a guy I knew in College who had a major injury. If you have a moment, please pray for them.

http://prayforthelamberths.wordpress.com/

Elf Copes

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Update and Wednesday Wonderings

So everyone is back to normal. Colleen is hydrated again and eating solid foods. I actually got my stiches out Monday and am finally down to a small ace bandage along with the brace. No blood clots for me. I'll start Physical Therapy soon. Naomi had some friend sover this morning and they all decorated gingerbread houses, wish I could have been there to watch her, she is adorable.


I wonder...

What I would have ever learned about World War 2 without video games

Who thinks it's weird to have a soon to be preseident that smokes. With all the info out there about cancer it's amazing anyone still smokes, it's like playing russian roulette with a fully loaded gun...you are gonna lose.

If you saw the tool on ESPN.go.com that shows what the highest paid baseball players make compared to yoru salary and how many years you would have to work to make their annual salary.

How many people are excited about American car companies making huge gaudy cars, that nobody is buying, with our tax money

When our daughter will really arrive. The C-Section has been scheduled for Janaury 31st, but these little ones have minds of their own

Where I could go and have a better church family (pretty much nowhere, this one has been amazing, especially this past week or 2)

Why God is so patient with humanity

24

This past week was a little crazy. It kind of was just a blur for the whole week up until the last 24 hours. After my surgery on Saturday I was pretty much out of it until I stopped taking the Percacet. the pain wasn't bad and the meds made me dizzy so stopping taking them wasn't a problem. The "fun" has really been in the last 24 hours though. Friday Colleen had an appointment check up at 10:30am, Naomi had a follow up appointmant at 11:10am and I had an appointment to look at some bruising on my leg at 12:30, in Maryland. SO we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off. We have set a date for Colleen's Cesarian, January 31st, 2009. Our 2nd daughter will be born then unless she has plans of her own! Naomi wouldn't pee in the cup like they needed so Colleen will have to take a sample to them on Monday or Tuesday. After my appointment I was ordered to get a blood clot test later in the day, at 5pm. So we made it home long enough for Colleen to grocery shop and Naomi to nap. My test came out normal but I have another follow up this Monday and get my stiches out this next Friday. Colleen woke up sick last night and has been in and out of the water closet all morning. We were kind of laughing about it, I guess Naomi has to take care of her parents this weekend!

Under the knife

Tomorrow is the day I go under the knife for my ACL replacement. Just in time, my knee went out again this morning. It sounds so yucky when it happens, like I injured t all over again but really it is just collapsing because it doesn't have the support it needs.
I think churches and ministries within churches are like that. You can lose an important piece and for awhile be fine but eventually it will collapse. You can try to just grin and bear it but in the end reconstruction is the best long term solution rather than walking through ministry/church life hoping it stays stable.

Wondering on Wednesday

I wonder...

What it will feel like having a dead person's body part in my body

If I'll throw up after the surgery like I did on my last knee surgery

When people will stop asking for a college football playoff...it's not coming, too much $$$ involved

Why we call Lebron James "King James"? He hasn't won anything yet nor is he an old translation of the Bible

Who gave him that nick name, hopefully not himself

Where the next soccer game I play in will be

How people decide where to go to church? Based on the preaching? Music? Stuff they have for kids? Location? Affiliation? Time of services?

People

Don't you think it's interesting how many different kinds of people there are? Beyond color and race and culture you have another layer of personality. In my job I interact with lots of different people. Some people wear me down. It might be because they are needy, difficult, confusing, or just a bit annoying but there are some people who drain me. Then there are those who seem to do just the opposite. When I am done with my time with them I feel more energized, more motivated than before I was with them. And the funny thing is that those people who fill me up are not just "energetic" people. They fill me through their thoughtfullness and their wisdom as much as they just "pump me up" to do whatever it is I am doing.

When I think about those kinds of people I think about which one I am to others. If you are taking notes, I want to be the one that energizes, encourages, and empowers and not the one that drains, confuses, and annoys.

We see a parallel to this in the Bible...the Pharisees and Jesus. The "religious leaders" held people down. They delighted in bullying people to fit in to the mold they had created. They criticized without reflection and refused to believe that there was any other viable truth than the one they were selling. When we look at the life of Jesus he was an encourager, a filler of people. He did challenge people but in a way that made them look inward and evaluate their life and their heart. That's the model I want to follow. I'd ask but I think I would be a little afraid of the answer...who am I to you? Critical, draining and annoying or encouraging, challenging and filling?

People you do not want to make mad

The person who cuts your hair! This lady who was cutting mine got mad at me because I didn't know if I wanted a squared back or a rounded back. Random. She's a recent import from Afghanistan so maybe the lingo got confused. Either way I made it out alive and with a fairly nice cut, but it could have been bad!

Wondering on Wednesday

I'm starting a new weekly entry called Wondering on Wednesday. It's pretty clear that I'll be wondering about some things and it's pretty clear that it will be on Wednesdays that I post.

I wonder...

if it's a good idea to give money (from our taxes) to businesses that are failing, auto industry, banks. Didn't they do this to themselves?

how angry people will be in 10 years when these same businesses are raking in the dough again and we are still paying taxes to cover their "bailout"

why static electricity likes me

when the Bengals will be a good team...I mean I only waited 15 years for them to make the playoffs only to have the most important person on the team get taken out follwed by who knows how many more years of futility

what our new daughter will be like...curly hair like Colleen or straight like me

Virginia Baptist State Convention

This past week I went to the Virginia Baptist State Convention. They are having a hard time getting younger leaders to attend. I was one of the youngest. I don't know who they expect to come with it being during the week. It was basically a room of bald or gray heads. The only people who are able to coem are retirees and ministers. Now I believe that those people should be able to come but we can't whine about never seeing young people (then deciding that they just don't care because they are "postmodern") and not make it available for them.

Tony Campolo spoke. He is always 3 things...challenging, funny, political. I thought what he had to say was appropriate for our setting except when he laid out his political strategies/policy suggestions to a bunch of non politicians. Nothing we do can get those ideas in place, it has to come from politicians and let's face it, how many politicians care about what's the right thing to do more than how to get re-elected? My cynicism is coming out there.

There also was a "worship leader" there. She spent her time talking about her fans and singing songs like " If I get to heaven". She really didn't lead in worship and I don't think they meant for her to either, we just should not have listed her as a worship leader. Semantics.

Do I have hope for the BGAV and the SBC? Yes, but we have to find a way to include some new voices, some younger voices or else we'll fade away in to a business meeting for old people.

New Hampshire

I went to New Hampshire this past Tuesday/Wednesday. We were on a sort of pre mission trip trip. We scouted out a few places that the ministries of our church might be able to help. We have teams from all ages and that are skilled in virtually everything that take part in our trips. This is a potential destination for the Youth Choir/Mission Trip. 2% of people in New Hapshire designate themselves as Evangelical. That's the same number used when talking about "unreached" people groups. There certainly was a feeling of emptiness there, not so much oppression but just nothing spiritually. Whenever we do go I imagine it will be an eye opener for everyone that goes and I am looking forward to that time.

Unless it's during an election. Tuesday we spent some time in Medford's small downtown area. It's set up like a round about traffic circle, a big one, and cars are able to circle as many times as they want. Several people were out with their signs inside of the circle, an area that includes a war memorial, gazebo, and grass area. As we sat in the gazebo talking about the needs of the people in New Hampshire cars would drive by people holding the opposition's signs and scream obscenities at each other and flip each other off! Such intensity from a state that basically has no significance in determining the outcome of the election.

No Heroes

So Colleen and I sat down together to watch Heroes only to remember it was pushed back so Saturday Night Live could make fun of every single political person. What a waste of time. Someone has lied to Lorne Michaels for years, SNL is well past its prime. It has turned from a funny skit show to a weekly roast of the latest headline. There's a reason it's on so late at night and not in prime time...it's not prime television viewing.

My surgery is set for November 29th. Glad it's soon because our new little one is due at the beginning of February and I didn't want to be on crutches when she came.

Hopefully Heroes will be back next week and SNL will go back from whence it came.

Yep, I can read an MRI of the knee

So my ACL has completely pulled off my femur, I have a torn medial meniscus, and a bone bruise. ACL ruptures cannot be repaired only reconstructed. The reconstruction is done with part of my patellar tendon (and bone fragments), a hamstring segemnt, or the same from a cadaver. Just goes to show that you never know what they will use when you die and give your body over to "science". I have another appointment with the Dr. who will do the surgery to talk about which to use and when. Poopy.

This afternoon

is when I hear the news about my knee. I have no idea what the real damage is in there. I have never had this kind of knee injury (I have had more than a couple knee injuries) so I figure it is worse than it has ever been. The doc said it could be 3 different problems. A patellar dislocation (knee cap) is the most likely, an ACL rupture, and or meniscus damage. I have some symptoms of the ACL tear but I am hoping not. I am just hoping to avoid surgery. With the baby due at the beginning of February I won't want to have the surgery close to that time and it won't happen (if it needs to) in the next month I am sure. So that leaves a potential March surgery time frame which puts recovery at about this time next year. I can't imagine not being active in any way for a whole year, that will kill me. I guess I'll find out in a few hours.

The "Healing" Process

So my MRI is Saturday but I can't get a follow up appointment until October 27th. So unless my leg is about to fall off, I won't get any answers to this injury until almost 3 weeks after the fact.

It's annoying that a pro athlete can just go back to the locker room and virtually get an MRI at halftime.

It's scary to think how long it would take if we had a government run health care system like Canada. We have pretty good insurance and still have to wait on things. It seems health care needs some reform but I can't imagine that the government would do a better job organizing health care...it doesn't seem like that have done a great job organizing other things like welfare, social security, etc. That's all the politics you will get out of me though, sorry if you was hoping I would say something to stir the pot.

Dislocated Knee Cap

I went to see the orthopedic doctor Monday and he said that I likely dislocated my knee cap for a second and then it went back in to place. He drained 60cc of blood from my knee and it pretty much got rid of teh swelling and now I am able to walk fairly normal. It still doesn't feel right. I have an MRI set for Saturday morning to really determine the damage. All I want to know is what do I need to do to get back to playing soccer and how long until I can. Typical guy I guess.

LIgaments

So it looks like I have at least 1 torn knee ligament, I have an MRI on Monday. Happened while playing soccer. I made a cut to change direction and my whole body went left while my right leg from the knee down stayed right where it was. A pop followed by a loud grinding noise which was followed by me on the ground. I knew it was bad, I just hoped there weren't any bones sticking out. So the ER did an x ray and found that the ligaments didn't pull off any bone fragments but that it did look "mangled", yes she used that word. So in order to see the ligaments clearly they have to do an MRI, which I can't get till Monday. I still love soccer and look forward to getting back on the field, no matter how long it takes. Good thing I am not in my contract year!

So no Dog

So we wnt with no dog, at least for a while...like maybe 10 years.

Maybe I don't understand how the economy works, but I have doubts that giving all taxpayers an additional 700 BILLION dollar debt to pay off is the best we can do. We, America, are a dumb college student who applies for a credit card and uses it to get everything they want only to find out that you actually have to pay it back! So who will do the collecting on us? I say just let the people who benefited the most on these houses pull a little out of their enormous pockets and bail out the million people who are unable to pay for their house. Could we just spend a billion or 2 and have the gov't buy those houses and then resell them or rent them out? Well, either way this "bailout" seems like we are doing all we can to ensure the safety and well being of the very people who got fat on those crazy loans. The proposal won't sell my house, it won't raise the value of it (which is now less than when we bought it 3 years ago), and it won't give us any money to cover whatever awful amount of money we'll have to pay to get it sold. Maybe I can convice the gov't to bail us out of our debt too?!

New little girl

We found out that we are having a little girl. And we found out that potty training isn't over after a week of success. Joseph mentioned that I haven't updated my blog in a while so this one is just for you Joseph, if you actually read it.

To say that I want a dog would be an gross understatement. After having to give up our 2 dogs prior to moving here I have had to take a break from dogs, too many memories. The topic came up agin this weekend in our house. Colleen likes the security a dog provides on nights I am out later or gone and I like the companionship and fun factor that comes with a dog. So there is a remote possibility that we will be dog owners again. Remote because there are lots of obstacles. Puppy or no puppy...that is potty train a toddler and a puppy or just a toddler. You also have the added difficulty of finding places to rent that allow pets, this is further complicated because we want to have a German Shepherd which is looked on about as highly as a pit bull, mostly by people who have never owned one. German Shepherds are brilliant dogs and gentle, but you wouldn't want to see what would happen if you kicked one. Naomi was born in to a home with a 100 pound German Shepherd and loved him. Her first word besides mommy and daddy was Dodger, his name. So we weigh the benefits and the challenges. Your thoughts?

Back in the flow

We spent most of August traveling. First we went to Michigan to be with my parents and my brother and sister and all our families. We had a great time at Niagra Falls and at the Tiger game. I learned that the best route to Canada includes lots of U turns, well maybe not the best way. 

We also went to Seattle for Colleen's sister's wedding. It was a perfect day for an outside wedding and I thought the service was great. This past weekend I was at a Labor Day Retreat with the students. I am finally back home now for a while, no more long weekends or week long trips, at least not the rest of this year.

Naomi continues to amaze me. She understands so much and has really added to her vocabulary recently. If you haven't met her, come out to the DC area and you can!