Happy 6th Anniversary to my Iron Maiden

Proverbs 27:117 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." August 20th marked our 6th annivesary - the 'iron anniversary'. In many ways, Sarah has sharpened me over the 10 years we've been together, the last 6 in marriage. And while it's been a short while compared to many and compared to the length it could be, marriage in today's world is a test of endurance. This being the iron anniversary, we thought we'd take our relationship to the next level... so we rented a tandem.

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The bicycle built for two wasn't made of iron, but its metal frame was close enough as our gift to one another. With the girls at Sarah's parents' and Isaac with mine, we left the morning of the 19th from Ernie's Bicycle Shop in Massillon looking sweet on the seat of our bicycle built for two. The goal was to ride to Independence on the Ohio Erie Canal Tow Path to our hotel for the evening, stay over night, and come back the next day. The 56-mile one-way trip would normally be nothing, but this was our first trek (no pun intendend) on a tandem, and one a tad to tall for our bodily frames to boot. The 34-inch inseam in the Captain's Seat made for some tired, sore shoulders, neck and toes by the end of the journey, and I'm not so sure the back seat was any safer from the pains.

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Around 5 miles into our morning trip, we came across a tractor mowing the grass along the opposite side of the path. Against my better judgement, we passed, though we had to go slightly off the path to give ourselves room. We made it by the tractor, but the soft shoulder gave way under our back tire as we attempted to re-mount the path, causing the bike to swing out from under us. I was able to get my feet under me, but my partner was not. Sarah took quite a tumble and received a nice road rash tatoo on her left knee/shin and elbow. She hit pretty hard, and was initially unable to straighten her leg. About 10 minutes later, we said goodbye to the tractor operator who had stopped mowing with a "did you just do what I think you did", and we were on our way. She's a tough cookie... iron!

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Riding a tandem is quite the challenge. If you've never tried it, I'd highly recommend giving it a go. You'll either love it or hate, I guarantee. As the Captain, you have a lot of responsibility, but it takes quite a bit more communication from both riders than one might think. As we tackled each new turn, hill, bump, etc. along the path, a new communication element raised its hand. We had to tell each other when to pedal, when to coast. In the front, I had to let Sarah know when we were turning, stopping, starting, passing, hitting bumps, changing pavement types, etc. It was very easy to forget to talk about these things. I've heard it said MANY times before this day that you cannot have bad communication in your marriage and succeed at riding a tandem. A tandem will either make or break your marriage. I can see why. In fact, it's a great analogy for how biblical marriage should look (see Ephesians 5:25-33). In the rear, Sarah could only see my rear - sorry for her! So she relied on me for everything, meaning she had to trust me, and submit to my leading. In return, I had to communicate to her on every step of the way and respect her wishes. She had to be treated as an partner in making this thing go - I couldn't do it on my own without her help.

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As we neared Barberton, we took a stop so Sarah could check her phone for any calls she figured grandparents had made regarding unruly children in the first couple hours of our time away. I walked over to a man with a map out to ask where the path jogged as there is a 1-2 mile stretch in Barberton not yet completed. We spoke for 10-15 minutes before parting ways; however, during our conversation, we came to realize he was part of a relatively large church in Dalton and had rode his bike from there to visit his parents in Canal Fulton. We also came to realize that he had worked at Smuckers in Orrville with an acquaintance of ours that now attends our church - small world!

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We made it to downtown Akron a little after 1:00p with no further mishaps and stopped for lunch at Damascus Road Coffee. The owners are Christians and have had their little coffee shop established a couple of years ago in the building where I work. We parked the bike in the hall, but ended up having to move it outside per request by building security. Rob and Deb let us wheel it into the shop, where it brought many stares, comments, and smiles. We sat in the corner and enjoyed our sandwiches. Before departing, Deb blessed our marriage in the name of Jesus, and we were on our way!

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Not long into our jaunt north of downtown, we got lost... okay, okay, I decided not to take a turn that looked closed, and we ended up walking down a large hill to pick the path back up at the bottom. But to my defense, we made another friend in getting lost together - a man riding up from far down south himself. He didn't say much about why he was so far from home, but he seemed to be on a quiet, restful journey. He rode on ahead, and we saw him briefly later on as we passed him snapping a shot of a waterfall in canalway.

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What else can I say? There were numerous learning experiences, though few like the one where I pulled out in front of a car that had whizzed around a corner. I wanted to keep our balance and move on once he passed, but Sarah had already dismounted, and I drug her along, straddling the top bar of the bike since it was too tall for her! We came out unscathed, taking it as another learning experience.

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Stops became more frequent as we neared our evening destination. Sore muscles from the taller-than-we-should-have-been-able-to-handle bike and beautiful scenery made it easier to rest more often too.

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Back at Damascus Road, one lady had come in while we were eating and was very excited to see our bike as it had been a long time since she had seen a bicycle built for two. Since we're around bikes relatively often, a tandem was nothing uncommon to me or Sarah. Like God, you can take Him for granted until you see the faith of a child - this lady's reaction re-lit my excitement. And I bring this back up because 10-15 miles before we hit Rockside Road, we passed another tandem, going the same direction. Not a half-mile later, the next humans to pass us were on a tandem headed in the opposite direction. While this lady at lunch hadn't seen one in a long time, we got to see 3 within a half mile of each other - this was neat to me, especially thinking back to lunch.

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The hotel was awesome - we splurged on a room with a whirlpool in the room since we were saving gas on the drive. What a nice way to relax your aching muscles after a 56-mile ride on a bike that's too big for you! Before we relaxed in our room, it was a shower and a 1+ mile hike to Applebee's for dinner.

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The ride home was less eventful. Right before we departed our room that morning, I received a sudden twinge in my neck. Sore butts, arms, necks, shoulders, etc. only compounded atop this unexpected pain. Most of our ride back was more mental, as most 2-day treks tend to be. The first day is typically spent wearing out your body; the second tends to be ignoring the pains and moving forward. We still stopped in Penninsula to have someone snap our picture (see below), and we stopped in Canal Fulton for Sarah to get some ice cream and fill up our water... among other stops, but we were both ready to be done. Thinking back to the tandem being an analogy for marriage, Sarah teased that "yeah - and you're ready for it to be over too!" She tried to dig herself out of that one by saying she meant that we reach death together - but I think she was tired of staring at my back!

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We did make one last friend on the way home - a young man lost at the jog in Barberton. He was headed from Cleveland to Zoar (85 miles one way) to camp out and ride back the next day. While he was much faster (we'll blame it on our exhaustion at this point), we did catch up with and pass him a few times. The last we saw him was back at Ernie's as we dropped the bike back at the shop. He had stopped for a bite to eat, so we said goodbye and wished him a safe, enjoyable ride.

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We should have had the grandparents watch the kids one more night so we could get some rest - but it was nice seeing them. We stopped to grab Chipotle on the way to my parents' to get Isaac. Then when we got home, Sarah's parents dropped off the girls. While I put them to bed, Sarah made me a box of Macaroni and Cheese, of which I ate the entire thing. Two dinners... I was hungry!

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It was a great way to spend our iron anniversary. We found we believe ourselves to be tandem compatible. And after 6 years of marriage, I'm ready for another sixty times six! My tandem partner of life is more than I could have asked for. Every good gift IS from God above, and I know she's no exception - I couldn't have won her on my own! Happy 6th Anniversary to my "Iron Maiden"!!!

Snags to Spiritual Fruit

The last couple of days have been a little ‘iffy’, containing some snags here-and-there I could have done without.
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It all started on Sunday. Well, before that, the Cavalier decided it wasn’t going to start, and the Vibe’s engine light came on, leaving me without a vehicle. This is only a temporary, minor set-back given I’ve been commuting via bicycle. But on Sunday, Sarah had a bridal shower in Chatham and we all had a birthday party in Wooster… both at the same time! Between these two locales and Norton, it forms an almost perfect equilateral triangle. So how do we get Sarah to Chatham, the other 4 of us to Wooster, and Sarah eventually down to Wooster with one car? We decided to bring the bike along. In Chatham, Sarah took the kids in to the bridal shower while I took the 16-or-so-mile course to Wooster, expecting them to pass me at some point. The first snag… I missed a turn, and the ride ended up being 7-8 miles longer than expected. This would normally be fine except it was HOT on Sunday, there was little shade where I was travelling, and I hit a decent sized hill I would have missed had I just gotten the first right-hand turn correct off the shoot.
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Snag #2 – as we roll in to CVS on our way home from party #2 to drop off the girls’ prescription for their ADHD, we realize they closed ½ hour ago… that means no meds for tomorrow, morning OR afternoon. So Snag #2 quickly became Snag #3 overnight. Sarah took the brunt of it since she’s home and I’m at work, but the girls were quite difficult yesterday. After I got home from work, everything I said needed repeated, and that’s no exaggeration! There were a couple more ‘major’ issues, but just in general, it was a crazy day. Needless to say, it was an early bed time at 7:30p for the twins!
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It was hard to roll out of bed yesterday before the fiasco started. I was beat from my ride the day before, my leg muscles all ached severely, and the last thing I wanted to do was hop on a saddle. But it dawned on me during that short 8.8 mile trek to work… my legs feel fine as long as I’m pedaling. I put up my best morning commute average speed yesterday and averaged fairly well coming home (different route with more traffic) despite the tiredness and soreness. It made me think of missions and outreach – when you’re doing the Lord’s work, it’s fun, rewarding, exciting. But when you stop, you ache and need to keep pedaling spiritually.
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Today’s Snag #5 was brought on by Snag #4 which I haven’t mentioned yet. Sarah went and had her hair done last night – poor thing was 15 minutes late due to a rough day frazzling anything she had planned. That meant I had to put the baby to bed; however, part of his bedtime routine is nursing, which I can’t help him with. And since we were all out of frozen pump-stuff, he went to bed without. Snag #4 came in that he went down well enough, but woke up a few hours later screaming for most of the night thereafter. In the middle of that, Alex woke us up crying pretty hard herself as she had a pretty bad headache. When Isaac wasn’t screaming and Alex was sleeping, I couldn’t fall back asleep myself, mind a-racing. When the alarm went off this morning, Sarah and Isaac heard it, but I didn’t. I turned it off in my sleep and woke up (somehow) about the time I needed to be leaving the house on my bike. So today was a drive-in day, as will tomorrow and Thursday be (eww – Snag #5) as my bike is out of commission for a much needed tune-up. I will be using the next three days to get ready for next week… and maybe let my legs recoup a little as I build up to “power commuter” status.
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Here’s to a better day. A day with medication and patience. A day with sunshine and no exercise. A day of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things, there is no law – and where there is no law, there is freedom – and where there is freedom, there is happiness indeed.

Be Different - Beg the Question

Netflix didn’t work last night, so we gave up and went to bed at 9:30p. Despite the early departure from the night before, it still took me 15 minutes to exit bed this morning when the alarm went off at 5:15a. I could really feel a pull to drive to work today, to take a break and recoup… BUT Saturday’s coming! So I rode.
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[Warning: the following paragraph may be graphic for some viewers.] As I sat on the toilet shortly before 6:00a this morning, I peered out the blinds by the nearby window. Why? I don’t know. But I saw a familiar bike and its rider sitting alongside my garage: Ken – no doubt waiting for me to mount my cycle and follow me in to Akron. I went out to greet him and asked for a second while I went back in to tell Sarah I was leaving for work.
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I was delayed getting back outside shortly as Isaac was standing at the corner of his crib (yes, shortly after 6:00a) with a big smile that said “daddy, come pick me up”. How do you resist that? So I brought him over to mommy and said my ‘good mornings’ and ‘good byes’ then departed with Ken for Akron.
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It was nice to have company, though the destination was work either way. The pause as we reached my building to take a quick “team” picture was a nice break before heading into the air conditioning. We parted ways with a “God Bless”, and Ken went on to buy some zucchini for his wife… I think…
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I did take some time today to map out a new course home… well, tonight will be a course to the park in Barberton where we’ve been holding our small group for church... but it’s about the same as it’s not far from home. After last night’s hills with 4 usages of my granny gear, I’m desperate for a new route. The Tow Path is still closed due to flooding, but I’m still hoping I can find a new route without hills that are too difficult and that isn’t the Tow Path as my bike really isn’t made for that. Hopefully my tune-up next week at RD in Barberton will be just what the doctor ordered for my wobbly front tire and slightly off shifting… but I don’t know that will make the bike Tow Path worthy…
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But my route home worked, winding it's way thru South Akron, Kenmore, and Barberton. With few real hills, it was a pleasant ride save the traffic. And when the thermostat says it feels like 104 with the wind at your face, it's a tough ride no matter how flat it is! I may be nuts, but it turns some heads...
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Operation Barnabas visited the park tonight where we usually hold group. It was good time watching some teenagers hold a puppet show, dance, sing, and share the Gospel. It makes me wish I had known at their age what I know now... would I have done O.B.? I'd like to think I would... but then again, why can't we all do something crazy for God now? After all, when you do something out of the ordinary, people ask questions. Is your life begging the question (I Peter 3:15)?

Uneventful... in an Eventful Sort of Way...

I think the last thing my legs wanted to do this past Saturday morning was pedal. After 112 miles since the prior Sunday, the Ice Cream Odyssey didn’t seem like a viable option for my body. But alas – I had already paid the $20 (actually $40 since Sarah was riding too, though I doubt I could have talked her out of it had I really wanted to), so it was off to Medina for more biking.
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Sarah’s mom took the girls, and we dropped Isaac off with my mom before heading to the starting line. Dad followed me and Sarah over, and the three of us met up with my cousin (Krista) and her husband (Will), who were the original reason we had signed up for our 3rd Ice Cream Odyssey adventure. After signing in and taking our freebies back to our cars, we hit the road, two-wheel style.
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It was somewhat slow going to start as all five of us had trained separately – other than one ride dad and I had done together, and one that Sarah and Krista had done together. Each of us wasn’t really sure what the other four could handle, so we all stayed relatively well in our comfort zone, pushing a little more every so often when we realized the other four could handle a bit more.
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Just shy of the 10-mile mark, the paths split off – the 25-mile route went one way, while the 42-mile and 65-mile routes veered off together. We had signed up for the 25-mile ride, but our ambitions told us to go 42. Not long after the split (around the 10-11 mile marker), Will’s back pain had increased to the point of causing him to want to turn back. We convinced him rather than go back and hit the 25-mile route to just return the way we had come, which would save him a few miles in the long run. We’d later come to find out he got lost and probably ended up riding over 25 miles!
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At the halfway point, we stopped to turn in our voucher for a free ice cream – okay, I’m sure it was part of your ride cost, but the ticket said “free”, so it felt free! As we walked back to our bikes, a loud “hssssss” spewed out from nearby. Krista’s bike decided it was time for the rear tire to pop – weird in that it didn’t pop on the road but blew after it had sat for 10-15 minutes while we enjoyed some ice cream; weirder in that she had just purchased the bike the day before! But she was prepared – kinda! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a spare tube; fortunately, it was an organized ride, so a “sag” volunteer came to our rescue. At the time, we didn’t have a spare tube, but a passing tandem saw our need and miraculously had the correct size for her back tire! After “sag guy #1” inserted the new tube into the tire and placed it back on the bike, “sag guy #2” brought over his handy floor pump – which promptly popped the new tire before hitting even 100 psi (while this isn’t very high for a road tire, hers were only made for 85 psi – oops!). So we waited for Century Cycles to show up with their extra tubes, tools, stands, know-how, and the like. After fixing her rims and giving us tube #3 for the day full of air, Don had us on our way… a little later than expected, but hey, Will was still out on the road somewhere…
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The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful, and we were welcomed back with a cookout. The raffle tickets were had been given earlier in the day proved worthless to me and Sarah, though dad, Krista, and Will all won something!
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For an 8:30a start, getting home after 4:00p seemed crazy. But we stopped and had a couple cups of coffee with mom in picking Isaac up first. By the time we got home, showered, and crashed, I was beat. The girls didn’t get dropped off by grandma until after 7:00p, so the remainder of the day was, thankfully, uneventful.
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Sunday after church, the girls had their end-of-season softball banquet, which was more like a big picnic with a dip in the lake. But they got 3D medallions with their names on the back, of which they were very excited about. Then we hung out in the lake all afternoon – well, Sarah and the girls did. Isaac and I found some shade and played with the diaper bag all day (hey – if he’s going to be that easily entertained, I’ll take it). He did get in to the water at one point, though we took him out for fear of sunburn. He loved it! Splashing around constantly, you'd think he was a different child (mine) by how he screams when he takes a bath. Another long day out of doors ended uneventfully, thankfully again.
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Dad brought me his bag and rack for my rear stand during work on Monday so I could carry more than just my wallet and keys for the commute. Then after work, Alex “helped” me pick out some new riding shorts and shoes and Eddy’s in Montrose. It was good time spent with a goofy girl. During our ride home, I asked her how she liked the bike store. She said her favorite part was the spinny chair she had sat in while I shopped. I told her I was surprised she didn’t get so dizzy that she threw up… but she affirmed me that, no, she wouldn’t throw up… she had already had her flu shot! After explaining that there are many things other than dizziness that can invoke vomiting, she asked: “dad – what would happen if you swallowed a cricket?” I don’t know where she gets these things…
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Tuesday morning, the Akron area had a record rainfall: “A U.S. Geological Survey gauge in South Akron registered 6.81 inches in a 24-hour period, an amount that is likely to occur only once in a thousand years, said Ron Gray, a canal hydraulics operations manager with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.” As noted in my prior blog, I was facing trails of many kinds again, but I wasn’t going to let nature deter me from commuting since there was no more rain in the forecast for the day. But rather than take the Tow Path for fear of flooding, I went the higher… and I mean higher… route and rode in Route 261, which has a couple crazy hills. While there’s more traffic in the afternoon commute, I’ve avoided this route mainly due to the cars and the hills; however, it cut out about 5 miles and 25 minutes of biking, so it could become a regular morning commute. The hills are steeper coming home, and the number of cars at least quadruples, so I stick with my Tow Path route for the ride home. BUT… Tuesday, the waters were still flooded by the evening ride home. I had to get off my bike to walk around water standing on the Tow Path 3 times. Two other times, there was no way around, so I just slowed to a crawl and biked on thru. Other than the standing water, the ride home was uneventful… again. However, I did see an osprey searching for dinner as I headed just south of Main Street on the path. I think he saw me coming and circled back around to try his spot on the canal after I had gone by.
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After a church picnic and a late night, it was hard rolling out of bed Wednesday, so I took the shorter, higher route again this morning, losing (that means I was a bit slower) about 1 minute from my prior morning’s commute. The ride home was awful - the Tow Path was closed, as were several familiar streets. Unfortunately, the only option I could come up with was take my morning commute the opposite direction, which meant some killer hills. I'm not a hill guy, but I used my granny gear 4 times on that trip home yesterday - all within a whopping 8.84 miles!!! With the crazy heat wave rolling through this week, temperatures were about 100 degrees, and I looked like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool by the time I got in the house. Thankfully, Sarah and the kids weren't quite home from the pool, so I jumped in the shower to cool off. After that, nothing really happened... except we went to be early (9:30p) due to sheer exhaustion for us both.
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I hope there's a better route open for travel on the way home today...

Pure Joy

Once again, life’s a whirlwind. This blogging thing is near impossible with a full schedule and three children! James 1:2 says to “consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials of many kinds”, so I guess a full schedule and three children would qualify as a trial or two. The hard part is considering it pure joy, and I know I fail miserably at this in many ways multiple times each day. For some reason, I haven’t really been able to enjoy the girls lately, which is sad in many respects. They’re not even teenagers yet, and I already feel like they couldn’t care less about my rules or what I have to say. So right there, I think I take it too personally since I’m a “words of encouragement” kind of guy when it comes to the Love Languages. And there’s probably some element of them not being biological. Isaac’s still too young (9 months as of yesterday) to really try me in terms of relationship goes (though sleepless nights and stinky diapers are each their own trial), I love being around him. In a way, I hope once he’s old enough to deliberately disobey me and hate my guts, that he does – that way I’ll know my relationship with the girls is “normal” for me. I’d hate to treat them differently than him, so I’m hoping it’s just the age thing rather than biological.
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Speaking of trials – dad and I started conversation 2.5 months ago around riding our bikes to work for both exercise and saving money on gas for the cars. This quickly faded in my realm as I was too busy to find time to train and prepare for the 11-14 mile ride one way. Subsequent to these conversations was an invite from my cousin to ride a local bike ride called the Ice Cream Odyssey. So I slowly got back on my bike, riding only 1-2 miles here and there. On one such ride - slightly longer at 7 miles – I passed a trail head for the Ohio Erie Canal Tow Path and thought I needed to check this out, especially now that the girls are starting to ride their bikes more. As I dwelled on the roads in my area along with the
Tow Path, commuting to work slowly seeped back into my head. Was this possible after all?
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So last week, I made up my mind to test the waters of power commuting. But before I made the commitment to commute, I wanted to test my route to see what I would be up against. And since I’m such a pansy when it comes to going it alone, I attempted to recruit a riding buddy. But since I caught everyone at a busy time in life, nothing happened all last week, and I barely got out on my bike, except for one 12-mile ride to the girls’ softball game (which did end up utilizing a part of my planned bike-to-work path). Finally, Sunday morning, I decided if I was going to do this, I just needed to go. So I got up at 6:00am with the intent on riding into downtown Akron and then back to get a shower before church. It was a rough ride (for me), but I made it, only getting lost once at a spot where the path was under construction just south of downtown. With my good buddy Ken riding in to town that night from Apple Creek to stay the night, I was beginning to get more excited about the upcoming bike week.
Ken rolled in on two wheels mid-afternoon Sunday, and we spent a good portion of the afternoon/evening listening to his stories, some of which you can read on his blog. He had many tips and encouraging words for my hopeful adventure – and some physical fine-tuning to the bike as it stood. Not only were his hands-on help, tutelage, and heartening presence beneficial to me, but he left me with a gift: a bright yellow riding jersey. While I had other things to purchase and plan for, my heart was ready. But were my legs?
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Monday morning, I woke up around 5:15am to say good-bye to Ken and listen to a few more of his stories while I ate breakfast. Then it was packing all of my clothes, “shower” supplies, and food for the week. I drove all of this to work Monday with hopes of commuting Tuesday thru the end of the week.
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Monday afternoon – storms rolled through. My thought was that this was testing my resolve. It made me think back to James 1:2… if I was going to do this thing, I wouldn’t only be facing a trial, but I’d be facing trails of many kinds as the Tow Path could potentially be muddy the next morning from all the rain that came down the night before. For my first commute, what was I going to see? I stopped at RD Bike Shop in Barberton to talk tires and other gear before heading to the girls’ softball game, which was still on despite the rain.
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I made it! No muddy trail, not a lot of pedestrian traffic, and no accidents! I did look up some commuting tips later in the day, which confirmed Ken’s look the day before when he told me to stay off sidewalks – while it was less of a “bikes have a right to the road” arrogance, he seemed deeply concerned. And in researching, I found that statistics for accidents are significantly higher if a bike is on the sidewalk rather than on the street in rush hour traffic. Check some of the tips, including this one, at this site.
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The ride in took 58 minutes and 1 second; the ride home took 58 minutes and 22 seconds - not bad for me, though I hope it improves as the summer wears on. The sun rising in the morning as well as the fog off the canal made for a beautiful first commuting experience – wish I had taken my camera! I would have taken my new mode of transportation to my softball game that night too, but I had to run a diaper to Sarah’s stinky baby friend at the girls’ softball game since they would be there for around 4 hours. Then it was straight to my game, where I found out quickly that I was glad I hadn’t taken the bike this time – my legs were like rubber, which made my usual swiftness around the base paths a big more sluggish. But we won, so we’re at 10-0 going into the final championship tournament next week.
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I didn’t ride in this morning since I had a 6:30am meeting at the church building and there was a bit of rain. My hope is to eventually turn into a “power commuter”, but I’ll need a poncho and some other gear for that type of thing. Not to mention a lot of conditioning of my person.
Life’s still busy with things ranging from softball, biking, church groups, and picnics, to more biking, more church groups, and more picnics (among other things). Thankfully, softball is essentially over (one more evening for me), but I hope and long for a break in the action before death. I want a vacation, but I want it to be full of nothing. I need time to focus on something outside of the busyness I’ve noted. I need time to pray, time to read, time to proactively pour Christ into my children and wife. If God wants to use me somewhere, someday for something significantly greater than I am, I need to be working now… and it starts with my family.
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“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters…”

"it's been a while" is an understatement

wow - it's been well over a year since my last entry, and a lot has happened since then. while nobody really reads this, i still feel like i've let someone down - even if that someone is only me. i'll attempt to sum up 2010 and year-to-date 2011 here without being too windy, but i can't promise.

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last march (the 4th to be exact) represents the day life would change even crazier. rewinding slightly, i had decided january/february timeframe to go on a 2-week trip to europe to backpack the st. james way (aka the camino de santiago). preliminary plans were in place, and i already had my passport in process. that brings us to the "present" - march 4th. coming home from work, i begin to change out of my work attire in the bedroom across the hall from our bathroom. sarah, who's feet bottoms have been splitting, tells me from the bathroom she's figured out what's happening. i say "okay" from across the hall, and she asks if i want to come into the bathroom and see. i ask if it can wait until i'm changed, but she seems a little impatient to hand me the verdict. once i enter the bathroom, i see a handwritten note lying underneath a pregnancy test - positive one. yep - we're having a baby!

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so a good majority of that spring and summer was planning the excitement and uncertainty to come, watching sarah's belly grow ever so slowly. we stopped using all of our money to pay off debt and started plugging it into savings. with contemporary child safety laws, we'd need a bigger car to fit two booster seats and a baby car seat... and that on top of all the other expenses to come with a new addition to the family. i had also already sent out letters asking for financial support for my missions trip to europe, and once we heard the news of the baby-to-come, i sent out new letters without the explanation letting people know plans had potentially changed and to hold off on their decision to support me.

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during the spring/summer sometime, i had decided not to go to europe, but had not sent out final letters to let everyone know. instead, a good friend of mine sent me a message on facebook one day. him and his twin brother had relatively recently visited our house and learned of my developing interest in missions. so he sent this message now, basically saying "i haven't heard what your final decision is to go to europe or not, but i have this (large sum of money) i've been praying about giving to missions, and if you're still going, i'd like to give it to you for your support. since this was a third of my cost, it got something stirring in me. with a baby coming, i had to talk to work about time off - i'd have a 2-week trip to europe them some time off when the baby came a couple months after that. then there was sarah - i'd have to leave her 7 months pregnant for two weeks with our twin 6-year-olds. money and work ended up not being a problem, but sarah wasn't sure i should go, and i respectfully saw it her way (mostly). she wanted me to raise 100% of my support, but on a trip like this, you should pay part of your own way. i don't remember the details of how it came up, but she asked what i was thinking as far as a dollar amount went in paying my own way, and when i brought up a figure, she said that was the first number that popped into her head too. with that, she was okay with it all - so i went.

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it was a great trip full of memories, and part of my heart still desparately yearns to go back to the footpaths of europe. i walked nearly 100 miles over an 8-day period with a 25-pound pack. i met several people from several countries, and have many stories and hundreds of pictures. the entire journey went through the hills and small towns of portugal and spain - a trip many people haven't taken, nor ever will.

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and while that trip was a life changing event in many ways, it still paled to the biggest event of my year - the birth of isaac james. he wasn't due until october 27th, so dad and i went out of our annual veteran's day / dad's birthday disc golf outing to massillon on october 11th. sarah called just before we started our first round (we usually play 4 or so) and said she was having some bleeding and had set up an appointment with her doctor for later that morning. thankfully the girls had school, so we didn't have to worry about them. i told her to call me with the doctor's verdict, and dad and i started our first round.

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standing on the tee at the top of hole 11, my pocket vibrated. dad teed off while i answered the phone. it was sarah - "hey - the doctor is sending me over to the hospital. she says we're having a baby today." okay - dad and i were on our way to wooster. so i teed off on hole 11... hey - don't judge me, it was on the way to the car... and besides, once i picked my disc up, i thought "what am i doing? i need to get moving!"

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when i got to the hospital, they already had her set up in a room and were just letting her progress, as her goal was to completely natural. but with the bleeding continuing and no other progress happening, they decided to introduce a little birthing persuasion - they broke her water. now i'm not one for blood, guts, and glory, so i felt a little dizzy watching that, and went and had a seat. with what was to come, we figured i wouldn't make it throuh the day.

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a bit later, the doctor decided we needed to use a little pitosin to get contractions moving as she was still bleeding with no real progress still. we weren't excited about it since, again, her goal was el naturale; however, we figured the doc was right in that we had to get it moving to make sure the bleeding didn't get bad with no baby. once sarah started vomitting between contractions, we figured they gave her a bit more pitosin that we were expecting. contractions were that bad, and she was only 3 cm dilated.

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at this point, she had already had the tube for an epidural placed in her spinal column just incase it had to move to a c-section, though we voted out the actual drugs so she could feel it like she wanted to. what little they had put in during placement to make sure it was set correctly had given her a temporary relief from the contraction pain and vomitting, but this all came back later on and got so bad that we ended up voting for the epidural medicine. with all the bleeding and drugs now in her system, it seemed a natural delivery and a possible c-section were in our future. the epidural gave her relief and some rest while her body geared up for what was to come.

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a little after midnight, strong contractions had kicked back in. she felt it nearly full force as the epidural had all but worn off, leaving only her right leg numb. apparently i was exhausted, because i slept through the beginning part of all the comotion of her waking up and the nurses coming in. sarah - in her late stage delivery mindset - woke me up. the doctor who had been with us for most of the evening was in another delivery/operation when sarah woke up, so her main doctor crawled out of bed (8 months pregnant hersel) and came in to the hospital. a little after one, they decided the bleeding was in an okay place along with the rest of sarah's body, to begin pushing. since her right leg was still numb, the doc set me up holding her leg in position. with me swooning at the water breaking, i didn't know if this was a cruel joke on the doctor's part, or if she had faith i could do it. either way, the top of isaac's head appeared just before 2am. not only did i end up with the stomach to hold the leg, but i also touched my baby's head en route to the real world and watched him arrive. i cut the cord with no uneasy feelings, and it was one of the best moments of my life, hands down!

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while bloodier than it should have been, sarah had isaac almost as natural as she could have, and the little guy never faltered. he came into the world weighing 7 pounds at 19 inches long at exactly 2am. our perfect little man. one of the first nurses we had the day before upon arrival at the office came back in the next day after isaac had already arrived. she told us she had been working there for over 17 years, and it had been a long time since she had seen as much blood as sarah. she even told us she had mentioned to the incoming nurse as she left the day before that she was happy she was going home, because she wasn't sure how this one was going to turn out, and she didn't want to be there for that. praise God!!!

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so after a short stay at the hospital to make sure sarah's bleeding was under control, we headed home.

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a week later, a new issue arose. i had been itching everywhere for about 3.5 months to this point, being woken up several times each night with its intensity. i had seen my family doctor twice and had gone to see an allergist, who had me currently wearing patches on my back to test my skin for common allergens. i grew irritated at the slowness of diagnosis as the itching was growing worse and my chest and stomach had broken out in a rash. my inner thighs looked almost like chicken pox, and small blistery like itchyness continued to surface on my hands. i was more than miserable and would have traded this torture for the flu any day. sarah was beginning to itch too, and she made an appointment with a dermatologist as i wore my patches. i went with her to her appointment. the few nurses that came into the room questioned sarah about her itching, and nearly ignored us when she mentioned my itching. the doctor, upon hearing how long i had been itching and how badly, all but physically through me up on the exam table. she quickly examined my left hand and left the room without a word - nice - and weirdly scary. a few long minutes later, she came back in and began telling us we were infected with scabies and how the treatment was going to look. i'll spare you all the details of what scabies is and how the treatment looks, but it was an awful two weeks of treatment. the itching still comes and goes, even six months later, as my body continues to expel the small carcasses, their eggs, and their feces, but i'm confident that nightmare is over.

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the last six months have been relatively awesome. isaac turned 6 months on april 12th, and watching him grow and learn has already been exciting. i can't wait to watch him grow up with his big sisters / little mommies. the worst part of his life so far has been a 5-day stay in the hospital at 2 months old for what ended up being reflux. he also just had surgery yesterday for hypospadias repair (you can look that up too), which he's dealt with very well so far - it's his poor parents that are worried and concerned. but he's had a lot of prayer, and God is the Healer and Physician, so we know he'll be okay.

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so life's been crazy - it's had several challenges, but more than rewarding. and it continues to be. as 2011 progresses, i'll update on other details of life's happenings as there's too much to tell now, and i've already written a book. i'll leave you with two pictures, both taken on our recent trip to NC to vist my sister. one is of isaac at nearly 6 months old - the other a picture of our small and growing family.

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