Tag Archive for Family

Monster at the door

Every once in a while, you get the opportunity in life to see something that others will never see.  Tonight my wife calls on my way home from work.

“There’s a huge spider on the porch!  It’s as big as a tarantula!”

Of course she was exaggerating….  so I thought.  I told her to save it in a bottle.  When I got home, I found a freaked out mother and kids that were a little anxious…. and a big old massive wolf spider (we think).

So after Emily left to go to a volleyball game, I broke out the spider to get some picture.  Check it out! Click the pix for the full size.  They are fun!

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The Refiner's Fire

There are tragedies in this world that nobody ever expects will happen to them.  It’s always someone else that experiences tragedy.  Yesterday, tragedy hit far too close to home.  My sister-in-law, Liz, and her husband, Zac, just experienced one of the most difficult tragedies.  They lost their little baby before they even got to experience the joy of holding it.

Rather than explain things myself, I’ll let you read their own accounts of how their unborn child died.  There accounts show the beauty of the Gospel and the peace that the knowledge of the Atonement brings to our lives.  The Lord has a plan for each of us.

It’s so hard to see the good in such a tragedy, but yet these two brave souls are looking for just that.  They know the Gospel and they know that the Lord watches over them.  And for whatever reason, the Lord determined that it wasn’t time for this little one to come into the world.  And they realize that!  Only through faith in Jesus Christ can this kind of peace surface in such a tragedy.  What a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel this event has brought to those involved.

And of course as a side note (with a little controversy tossed in), my wife and I both (although separately) thought of the greater (although less personal for us) tragedy that is far too accepted in our society.  We see so much pain for this couple, yet there have been between 1 to 1.7 million (yes, that’s million) abortions performed in the United States each year since 1975.

How did we get to this point, where hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of couples each year expirience the pain of loosing an unborn child while 1.7 million abortions are performed in the same time frame.  I just don’t understand.

The Fear Epidemic

Fear is the root of all evilFear is destroying our lives. There are some that say that money is the root of all evil.  If that is true, fear plays a close second fiddle. It’s crushing our society, our children and our families. It’s one of the most debilitating problems in the 21st century.

There are many who would argue that drugs, sexuality, crime, abortion and many other issues are more destructive to our society.  However, there is nothing more socially acceptable, yet so destructive as fear.  This isn’t the fear generated from horror shows, but fear of the unknown and the possibility of tragedy.

Let’s take a quick quiz.

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Conversing with me

A friend of mine recently posted a blog entry entitled “Conversating” that listed several questions/topics one could discuss with someone else in order to get to know them better.  Seeing as I like to make your life miserable in the 21st century, I decided that I would answer those questions so you could all get to know me better.  ;)

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Jaxon is home!!!!

Oh yeah! The boy is home and we are excited. Emily is a little concerned about dealing with a “preemie,” but the doctors and nurses assured us to treat him just like any other newborn.

Halie and Raegan with Jaxon

We’ll be posting more pictures soon and we might even get some small video clips up as well.

Jaxon coming home

We got word yesterday that Jaxon will be home on Friday. He’s doing really well and as long as he doesn’t have any problems between now and then, he will be ready to come home. We are excited to have our little one home! It’s as if having a new baby hasn’t been real. I’m sure it will all sink in after he wakes me up in the middle of the night ;) But I am excited to start experiencing a boy and having a little more testosterone in the house. We will still be outnumbered though (still 5-2 [including the dogs]).

Thanks to all who have shared prayers for the little guy.

Jaxon is out of the NICU

More good news on Jaxon! They just moved him from the NICU to the “Special Care Nursery.” They haven’t given us any timeline still, but I’m assuming that means he will be home within a few days (if not tomorrow). Yesterday, they removed the PICC line which was an IV that went down into an artery just before the heart. That was the last non-monitoring tube attached to him.

He has been eating well and Emily has been there for several feedings.

We are excited that he is doing so well and that the Lord has answered our prayers in strengthening him and helping him get healthy.

Pictures of Jaxon

As promised, I uploaded pictures of Jaxon to the family gallery site. Click the picture to visit the gallery!

Jaxon’s left foot

Good news about Jaxon

We got a great call from the NICU today. They said that they had started feeding Jaxon and that he had already eaten all the milk Emily had pumped there at the hospital. So they wanted us to bring some more milk and we could be there for the feeding.

So Emily and I went down to the hospital and had a very pleasant 45 minutes with Jaxon. He was awake most of the time and Emily was able to feed him (from a bottle of her own milk).

It was so nice to experience him awake and alert. I tried to get more pictures, but I had left the flash card for the camera in the computer. Ugh! But I do have some other pictures that I need to upload for all to see. I’ll post again when I have those uploaded.

Once again, thanks for your love and prayers.

More on Jaxon: staying a little longer

We got some not so good news today from the neonatologist. Jaxon is doing really well, but he sometimes forgets to breath (I know… sleep apnea already). Apparently that is quite common among “early arrivals.” Their policy is to not release the baby from the NICU until the child hasn’t done that for 7 days straight. He forgot to breath at some point today and so the soonest we will have him home is a week from today.

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