What Eddie Said Today

Playing in the Park
Originally uploaded by Joe and Sarah.

Today, while driving in the car, John Mayers song, "Waiting on the World to Change" was playing on the radio. Eddie asked mom to turn it up.

Then he said, "When I grow up, I don't want to wait on the world to change. He's grown up and he's waiting on the world to change".

Just thought I'd share.

Cheesburger Face

Tonight at dinner, my daughter Hope said one of her many random comments.

She said, "If my face was a cheesburger, I'd eat my face all day long."

We were eating spaghetti. She makes me smile.

Just thought I'd share.

Hope turns seven years old tomorrow.

Update on my Daughter:

Just the other day, Hope rode her bike without training wheels for the first time! Notice how she sticks out her tongue when she concentrates? Her dad does that too.

First: Thank you VERY much for your concern and your prayers! Our prayers matter to God, and they matter to me.

THE LATEST NEWS:

The Echocardiogram: This test confirmed that Hopes heart is structurally normal. This is very good news.

Irregular Beats:
Hopes heart beats irregularly about 25% of the time. The irregularity happens mostly when she’s sleeping or resting. Currently, we do not know why this is happening.

Normally, the upper chambers of the heart will beat and then the lower chambers will follow. 25% of the time, Hopes lower chambers go “rogue”; meaning that they don’t wait for the upper chambers to beat. Thankfully, the lower chambers are strong enough that they are pushing enough blood so that Hope doesn’t feel faint or dizzy.

Next:
Soon we will go in for a more tests, including an exercise test. Sarah and I are hoping that we can get some answers as to “why?”

Please continue to pray for the medical costs. Because Sarah and I are planting a church, neither we nor the church currently have the finances to afford health insurance for our family. But, whether we have insurance or not, we are certain that God is our provider and we trust Him. This isn’t spiritual rhetoric. We truly trust God to supply our every need and that’s why we pray.

Note: we just got the first bill in the mail. Let me just say this – it’s not in the hundreds.

About our Daughter

IMG_9779
Originally uploaded by Joe and Sarah.
About our Daughter:

The Story: Late last week we took Hope in for a “Wellness Check”. The Nurse Practioner heard an irregular heartbeat and immediately referred us to a heart specialist at Children’s Hospital.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we took Hope to Children’s Hospital and met with Dr. Caton. His initial examination included and EKG and lots of listening with his stethoscope. He felt that Hopes heart was functioning properly, but that she probably has a mild “innocent” murmur. He wanted to monitor Hopes heart for 24 hours so, she was promptly hooked up to a Holter Heart Monitor which she carried around everywhere.

This morning, we returned the monitor to the doctor. I asked when we would hear about results of the monitoring. The answer was, “We will call you if there is something to report. No news is good news.”

Late this afternoon the phone rang. Hope answered it and informed Sarah that it was her doctor. Apparently there was news.

The News: There is something irregular happening when Hope is resting and/or sleeping.

This coming Monday we will be taking Hope back to Children’s Hospital for more testing. The testing will include an echocardiogram.

There is no diagnosis yet. The testing should produce a diagnosis soon.

The Parents: We are doing “all right”. We trust God. We are certainly different in how we are handling the news and the stress... Sarah says it’s simply the difference between men and women. Certainly we both are appropriately concerned. We’d be lying if we didn’t say there was some worry or anxiety involved on both our parts. Did I say yet that we trust God?

Besides Hopes heart, we are a bit concerned about the cost. We don’t have health insurance.

Prayers are welcomed, expected even.

We’ll keep you up to date as time goes on.

---joe

Taking Daughter to A Heart Specialist

Hope's EKG
Originally uploaded by Joe and Sarah.

Today we took Hope to Children's Hospital to see a heart specialist. I secretly whipped out my camera phone to snap this shot behind the nurse's back (literally). This picture is of hope during her EKG... there's about 25 wires attached to her right now.

The Doctor thinks that her heart is fine, but we'll know 'for sure' tomorrow after we take off the 24 hour heart monitor that she's wearing right now.

Thanks for praying

---joe

my kids, my new camera

HopeEddie_Feb_06
Originally uploaded by Joe and Sarah.

I just bought a Canon Digital Rebel Xti and now i'm playing! I should be working.

click picture for larger version.