Bethany: Surgery Scheduled

Many may have caught a few weeks ago that we now have a date for Bethany’s Craniofacial surgery in Dallas. She will go into surgery the morning of November 2nd. We don’t know specifically what time yet, or in fact what hospital we will be at, but should know those details soon. What we do know is that we are looking at around a 4 hour procedure time, that we will be released to ICU for about 3 days following that, and that we are very comfortable with her surgical team and the hospitals and facilities.

First the not so fun stuff- the surgery. To clarify, she is having a cosmetic surgery procedure on her skull, not brain surgery. Her premature fusing of her suture lines in her skull has caused the plates to both stop growing on one side, and grow atypical on the other. The results are seen in the uneven balance of her eye socket size and placement, the slight tip to the left of her nose, and an asymmetrical forehead shape. All of these things will be corrected by the surgical team using material similar to dissolving sutures in the shape of plates and screws that will be attached to her current bone. By separating different plates an securing them with these screws, removing some bone, then replacing and augmenting other bone with this material, the team will construct a more balanced facial and head structure that will allow her head and brain to grow in a more healthy manner. To do this, they will make a zig-zag incision from one ear to the other. Yep. That is all the tough parts. You can see more about the procedure and see some photos here. (note: due to advances in process and the use of the plates and screws, Bethany will likely never see a helmet.)

Now the good news! 1. Bethany does not seem to be having any further seizures. that means that her medication is working as it is supposed to. 2. Since moving “full time” to Texas to undergo this adventure, we have been able to enroll Bethany in the Texas healthcare system, and we have gained access not only to the phenomenal doctors and facilities like Children’s Medical Center and Children’s Medical City Dallas, but we have also begun working with an amazing team of Occupational and Physical Therapists. Bethany has about 6 appointments a month with them, and just completed a full 2 hour analysis last week.

She is meeting all of the expected benchmarks as far as social and neurological developmental stages, and seems to only be lagging by about 2 months in physical development, specifically her muscular tone in her stomach area (core) and left arm and shoulder. Considering that her left shoulder was impacted during delivery, and that her inability to push herself up on that arm to a sitting position is likely causing her lack of core development, both of those two issues should respond well to active physical therapy. She is not yet crawling, however she can stand and balance on her own on daddy’s hand… (yes, you heard that right…) in fact, that is one of the things building her core muscles! All in all, she is in great shape both physically and mentally to be going into this surgery. She is giggling in my lap as I type this.

So now we wait. We have just less than 3 more weeks before the surgery. We will go to Dallas the week prior for a final consult appointment with the Neuro team and for Amy and I to donate blood. Since we haven’t had her typed yet, we don’t know which one of us is the matched donor, so we’re saving her a needle poke by each taking one ourselves. Amy’s parents will be arriving around that time to help with transporting Emily and Dillon to and from school the week of the surgery, though we will all be at the hospital together during the actual procedure. They will probably come home with Grandma and Grandpa that night or the next day.

We appreciate your continued prayers. We have been blanketed with such a great peace about this whole process that we know you must be praying. We will continue to trust God for our expected outcome!

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” -Isa 26:3

Overhauling the Heart of a Community

At the middle of a small community in East Texas lies a small neighborhood. You can’t see it from the highway, and if you aren’t paying attention, you’d miss it driving by.  None of the main roads go through the middle of it.  It is a little more run down than the rest of town, and the homes suggest that the income levels are a little lower as well.  It could be anywhere in any state in anytown, USA.  This neighborhood, however, is in the town where we now live, and in the center of this little area that runs from Martin Luther King Blvd to Elm Street, to where Ardis Street meets Whitworth, sits Pacific Park.

We first saw Pacific park during Sulphur Springs Work Camp, as 3 of the crews that I was supporting were painting homes for residents in that area.  One home was directly across the street from the park, and Emily and Dillon saw a few children playing in a great little water fountain area the first day.  I promised them that they could bring their swimsuits the next day and join in.

The next day, Emily and Dillon (along with about 12 hardworking highschool age student missionaries) took full advantage of the water in the splash fountain in the 104 degree heat.  Playing alongside them were several kids from the neighborhood.  Their faces shouted their their joy like a loudspeaker.

The faces of the parents, brothers, sisters, and aunts sitting around and watching them, however, told a different story.  The faces showed struggle.  The attitudes betrayed their thoughts.  You could tell we were outsiders, and they seemed to wonder why we were there.  We played anyway.

That day, as I rounded the corner of the park, I noticed how run down the sign was.  It looked like it was riddled with bullet holes, the paint was peeling, and it just generally looked as depressed as the faces I had seen earlier.  I remember thinking, “Somebody should do something about that.”

As you can probably predict, before the week was out, we realized that “somebody” meant “us.”  Using lumber donated by a local church, and with leftover paint donated by the grateful owner of one of the houses that we painted (the one facing the park), Amy, the kids, and I began the repair and re-painting process on the four signs.  I spent a day or two replacing rotted wood and getting rid of all the peeling paint.  Then we caulked all the joints and filled all the holes.  4 signs in all, one on each corner.  With each day, we got the same strange looks that seemed to ask “why are these people here?”  When kids would come up to talk to us, they wanted to know why I was getting paid to do this work, and how much.  I told them that I wasn’t, and that I just saw that it needed to be done.  I guess a few of them told someone about it.

By the end of painting sign two, we began to get into conversations with the adults in the community.  Since the lettering all had to be done with a fine tipped brush (each sign took us about 4-6 hours), we had lots of time to talk.  Bethany’s initial seizures and our trips to Dallas Children’s Hospital delayed our completion by a few weeks, but on the day I completed sign four, I had five cars actually stop to say “Thank You”. We met a  youth pastor from a neighborhood church who was shocked that he hadn’t seen the need right in front of him.  I told him that I now felt confident that I knew who would be maintaining the signs in the future.  He smiled, shook my hand in agreement, and headed on home.

Someone told me once that a revival doesn’t start because of great preaching or a nonstop prayer vigil.  They are all important parts, he said, but for revival to start, the true spark, is when the preacher pulls a weed in his own parking lot instead of stepping over it.

May we all choose to pull the weeds and meet the needs that are right in front of us this week.

See the rest of the photos, including a completed sign, on our Flickr account!

Breaking the Drought – An apology.

Before I could even consider bringing everyone up to speed on what has been going on the last few months, I realize that I must, regardless of whether this is just my impression or my guilt, deal with a major “elephant in the room” of my own soul.  I have done a horrible job at keeping up my end of an unspoken deal, a commitment to our friends, our family, and our ministry supporters.

You agreed to support us, whether through prayer or finances or laughter or tears, and in return, we offered that we would share with you the ups and downs of our journeys and our life. As calls and contributions, emails and text messages came in over the last months, I saw that you held up your end of the deal.  I didn’t, and I owe you all an apology.  Not the kind of apology that you mechanically make when you accidentally burp at the dinner table.  More like the one you would make if you left the country and forgot to tell your mom…

I’m sorry that I seemingly fell off the face of the earth for the last three months and in so doing cut many of you off from your only line of contact with our family, our stories, and our life.  I’m sorry that I went from about 3 twitter and facebook updates a day to an average of 3 per month.  For some reason, re-entry to “normal” life just kinda kicked me off the grid.  But I’ll talk about that in upcoming posts.

So… for all of these things, I ask you to please forgive me.

Please.

Thank you.  I’ll try to do better.

I think I’m ready to start now. =)

-Chad