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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