Surgery Dates

Gabe's open heart surgery has been scheduled for 8 AM Thursday, July 16. Keith and I will go down on the 15th for his preoperative visits. I'll post then from Milwaukee.

The title says 'Surgery Dates', plural. Chet is having surgery the following week, details are in the next post.

Please pray for Chet

Poor Chet has been sick, sick, sick. He started running a fever with headache and dizziness 17 days ago.
On day 4 he got a red, sore throat and later developed sores in his throat (still had a fever).
On day 5 he was the best man in a friend's wedding, surviving the few hours on ibuprofen.
On day 7 he went to the doctor and was given an antibiotic (tests ruled out mono and CBC was normal).
On day 9 (no change, still running 103 degree fever) he switched antibiotics and again blood tests were normal. Tests were run for strep and CMV (both normal).
On day 11 he had his first fever free day.
On day 12 he headed back up to school for summer classes and a job.
He called that night with a high temp again and Keith and Ellen drove up to get him.
On day 15, after three days of rest and no fever, he went back up again.
On day 16 he dropped the class--too weak and sore to try to get through it. He tried taking DayQuil to cope with the sore throat and devoloped a full body case of hives!
It's day 17 and he is one sore throat, itchy, coughing, nasal draining, night sweats miserable guy.

The only thing we know for sure is that there IS a sinus infection in there. He is scheduled for surgery on July 20 to reconstruct his nasal cavity and open the passage from the nose to the sinus (deformities that we FINALLY got diagnosed properly....we hope).

Sad Heart

Yesterday was the last day we had Light and Mendo with us. Troy, Shane, and I drove the boys (and Nat from Ghana) down to the AFS gathering spot. We were supposed have them there by 2:00 and be on our way by 2:15. We didn't get there until 2:30. We had some last minute delays--Light's box of hockey equipment had to be repackaged at the post office (look for him on the 2010 Thailand Olympic hockey team), Mendo's laundry wasn't quite dry, twenty yards away from our driveway Mendo turned us around with, "Oh wait! I forgot my passport!", we stopped to pick up some lunch, and finally got into some backed up traffic. I knew the plan was for the students to spend the day at the indoor water park meeting spot while they began the "readjustment to going home" process and the bus taking them to Chicago wouldn't be leaving until after 10:00 pm. When someone wondered if we should take the time to stop for something to eat I asked, "What's going to happen if we're late? Are they going to send you home?" Normally I play strictly by the rules, but I was not looking forward to leaving my boys!

Sure enough, the last minute hugs were tearful and I had to go back to the van while Troy and Shane said their own good-byes. They joined me a few minutes later and laughed at my tears. I laughed with them. Troy said, "I just don't get it." I said, "You're not a mother."

For the rest of the day I couldn't even say "Light and Mendo" without welling up with tears. It happened when I looked at the ceramic Portuguese fellow that Mendo made, and when Gabe looked out the window and yelled, "Enno, Enno, Enno!", and when I counted out the plates for supper, and when I opened the empty dresser drawers, and when I saw the half full green water bottle on Light's dresser, and now while I type these words.

I am reminded of something Missionary Jack Manley, the first white man into some of the tribes in Papua, New Guinea forty years ago, told us. He was trying to explain the love of God to a cannibalistic tribe that had no word for love. During all of his years with them he couldn't find a way to tell them about love. Then, as he was leaving them a tribal man said to him, "My throat aches for you." And that became his definition for love.

Today, my throat aches for my two boys.

Juggling

Do you know what happens when you have to send out graduation/going away party invitations, bridal shower invitations, and wedding invitations (featuring four different people) in one week?

You pass off the duty to the four people, not having a clue who ends up on the invite lists.

Then, do you know what happens when invited guests randomly stop you and say, "Oh, I haven't gotten back to (name one of the four) yet about (name the event). Let them know I will/will not be able to make it."?

The information makes it into your brain but gets lost in between "The nurse will call tomorrow to schedule open heart surgery" and "Mom, did you see me tag that kid out at home?!" and you are left clueless as to who will be where and when and you resort to guessing about numbers and praying those who got left off the lists you didn't check will still be your friends when the dust settles.

Family Traditions

Como Park Zoo in St. Paul was, and still is, a special place for Keith and me. We spent many hours there getting to know one another during our courting/dating months. When we learned that the conservatory there could be used for weddings we reserved it for ours. The sunken gardens are still meaningful to us, and our children appreciate its significance as well.

On June 14, 2009, exactly twenty-five years, two months, and twenty-nine days after we were married on the platform at the end of the reflecting pool, Chet chose that exact spot to ask Priscilla Thomas to be his wife. She said, "Of course."

We are thrilled to be welcoming this lovely young woman into our family!

Pictures will be added or linked shortly.

Mental Block

I made Banana Poppyseed Bread this morning. For some reason, with this recipe I have a major mental block. 75% of the time it comes out as plain Banana Bread and I have to put away the unused poppyseeds sitting on the counter for another day.

This morning I had my bread in the oven and was cleaning up the counter when I saw it, the bowl of bananas! It was early enough to fix--dump, stir, fill new pan, back in oven, whew. It reminded me of the time I made Caramel Apple Cake without the apples. You'd just assume that the name would be the memory trigger for such things.

Disappointing News

This is Dana just to let you all know...

My mom just came down to inform me that Gabe is out...and there's bad news. No surgery has been performed today. The doctors discovered through the internal eco (I know it had a WAY fancier name then that but what it is, you'd have to ask my mom) that Gabe has 4-5 holes in his heart...as if he'd been "blasted by a shotgun" in the words of Mom.
So, thank you all for your prayers, and PLEASE continue to pray as we go about rescheduling for open heart surgery.

I praise God that He has given me and my family the assurance that He does ALL THINGS WELL and for the good of those who love Him.