Friday: On Friday, I think I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what I would do to fill the day.  As it turned out…not much!  I did work some on the computer, but as for chores, etc., well, I got my bed made.  That’s about all I managed on Friday.  I really thought I’d be more up to working, but it just wasn’t to be.  That evening, Eric went to a hockey game with his brother, and I hung out on the couch and knitted.  The babies & uterus were extremely active that night, though, so I didn’t mind not doing much.  I watched MythBusters and then flipped over to the presidential debate.  But after about a half-hour of the blather, I wanted to beat my head against a wall, so I found something else.  Eric got home around 10:00.

Saturday:  The morning was pretty low-key, but I did get the dishwasher loaded.  And of course there was XangaFest in the afternoon.  My sister and I went together (thanks again for driving, Karen!), and we had a great time.  Thanks to Beki, Gail, Marla and everybody who made it so great!  Also, Gail clued me in to which of my belly’s activities are contractions, so that was fantastically helpful!  Thanks, Gail!! 

Since XangaFest was held in our hometown, we left a bit early and headed to my parents’ house to say hello to everyone there, including Chris & Deb (and the girls, of course).  Deb is looking great!  We sat around, talked, and laughed and laughed.  It was a really great afternoon.  Karen and I stopped at WalMart (where Karen introduced me to the wonderful world of baby food ) on the way home, and then I crashed for the rest of the evening with my husband.

Sunday: I was having trouble singing in church yesterday.  I can’t get a full breath very often anymore, which makes singing a bit more challenging.  But then baby boy was dancing to the music…on my bladder.  Apparently, he’s musically inclined already!   Also, I am getting a lot more comments from random people about how close I must be to having “this little one” – especially from kind little old ladies at church.  The looks I get when I say it’s twins are quite amusing, I must say!

After church, I made pies for small group, then dinner, then finished the second pie, but my feet hurt too much to finish loading the dishwasher.  So I sat down for an hour, read the paper, and knitted some more.  Then I finished the dishes.  We had small group in the evening, and afterwards, I watched the old Parent Trap movie just to unwind.

And that was the weekend.  Today I have no major plans, but I do have a number of little things I could do.  So I will probably work on them.  And other than that…we shall see!

Happy Monday!!

First of all, the great news…Deb was discharged from the hospital last night!  YIPPEE!!  And thank you, thank you Jesus!

Then the somewhat less exciting stuff.

I ironed yesterday.  It took me a long time to do.  But it’s all done now.  Shwew!

I talked to Karen for about 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon.  You’d think we hadn’t really talked for a couple of days or something.  Not so.  We talk about every day.  I guess we just had a lot more to cover yesterday for some reason!  Anyway, I enjoyed the chat.

My friends came over for dinner last night.  Tim & Steph are a ton of fun, and their (almost) 2 year old son, Brandt, is also quite a trip.  He was definitely excited about the “pizzas” for dinner – even though there was only one pizza – and he entertained himself for hours with a variety of balls and an empty laundry basket.  They stayed and chatted until about 10:30.  We were all pretty beat by then, but it was great to talk to them!

Eric is going to a hockey game with his brother tonight.  I hope there will be something on television for me to watch, but I won’t hold my breath.

I have no idea what I’ll do to fill my day.  Have you noticed I say this almost every day?  I need to work on that.

Happy Friday! 

Happy Birthday, Debbie!!!

Yesterday I actually got a number of things accomplished.  I think it was because I was up and going to early.

• I washed our sheets and remade the bed.
• Went to the grocery.
• Bought Eric some new short-sleeved shirts to wear to work
• Cleaned up the dishes and tidied up a bit
• Put away the clean clothes from this week’s laundry ventures
• And I had time to sit and watch a lot of television, too!

Today won’t be nearly as productive.  I have a bit more laundry to do and then I need to iron.  But mostly, I’ll be hanging out until my friend Stephanie calls me.  She and her husband are some of my best friends from college, and they (with their son) are down in Columbus for a couple of days.  So we’ll probably hang out and then later have dinner with our husbands, too.  Should be fun!

Happy Thursday!

The last couple of days have been surprisingly hard to handle, pregnancy-wise.  I am 27 weeks now, and all of a sudden, the babies are heavy, I can’t get comfortable, they are moving/kicking ALL the time, and I was sure someone had shifted positions because where I was getting kicked had suddenly changed.  I’m also entering new phases of pregnancy effects (that they don’t always tell you about), and it occurred to me yesterday that the next 10 weeks of pregnancy are going to be a lot harder than the first 27 have been.

And, today, when we had our ultrasound (at 8 a.m. – what were we thinking?!? ), I found out that I was right about pretty much all of those points.

1. The babies are heavy/I can’t get comfortable – Yep.  As of this morning, the girl (we could see some hair!) weighed in at 2 lbs, 9 oz., and the boy at 2 lbs, 6 oz.  That means I’m hauling around about 5 lbs of babies (plus extras)!  The nurse said this would be equivalent to a 35-week singleton…no wonder I can’t get comfortable!

2. They are kicking all the time – Yep.  They were moving during the ultrasounds.  She felt them, too. 

3. They’ve shifted positions – Yep.  Last time, little girl was breach, and little boy was head down, kicking me in my ribs when he moved.  Now the girl is head-down, and the boy is breach, with his head up near my ribs (causing much discomfort when he stretches – see #2) and his little foot in just the right place to be kicking me in my bladder and cervix, which is suddenly where I’m being kicked all the time.  Of course, we do want them both head-down eventually, or I will have to have a c-section (doctor’s orders).  I’d rather not if I can help it…

4.  New pregnancy effects – Yep.  And it’s the little boy’s fault!  His new position (feet down) is encouraging these new pregnancy effects (i.e.,
“leaking”), meaning they’re nothing to worry about (i.e., “not amniotic
fluid”), which is a great relief to me.

5. The next 10 weeks will be hardest – Yep.  The nurse confirmed this for me heartily.  It’s going to be hard to keep going until Thanksgiving.  But that’s the goal, and we’ll just have to see how it goes…

Anyway, that’s the update as I have it.  And, because I know you like them, here are a couple of pictures for you to enjoy, too.

Me at 27 weeks:

Bare belly shots at 22 weeks and 27 weeks, respectively:

That’s me today.  I’m tired.  I’m pretty sure I know why, though.

• The babies were not allowing a comfortable night of sleep last night.  Not sure what makes the difference, but some nights, they just won’t let the belly relax enough for me to sleep well.
• The busy weekend hit me yesterday, I think.
• My MIL and Eric’s Grandma came out to visit and run some errands with me yesterday.  We went to the mall to return some things my MIL bought (they don’t have any Macy’s near them), then had lunch and stopped at JoAnn Fabrics.   
• In preparation for my MIL showing up, I hurried to tidy my house yesterday morning. 

Unfortunately, once they left, I crashed.  I was absolutely beat!  So hopefully, I’ll be able to rest a bit more today!

On the other hand, there are good things to report as well…

• It looks as if my SIL will be able to come home from the hospital this week, maybe even on her birthday this Thursday!  What a huge, huge birthday present!!
• My pork roast turned out really juicy last night.  This was a huge accomplishment for me as my attempts at pork usually turn out pretty dry.
• My MIL is a fantastic seamstress, and she bought some material for baby things.  They’ll be adorable!
• Along those same lines, my MIL has been wanting to buy a new sewing machine for months now.  It’s a computerized embroidery machine.  Unfortunately, until now, she’s been deterred by the price. The one she wanted was running at $6400 after a newer machine came out (at $9000), but it was still a lot (and came with no software).  Then yesterday, on her way home, she found a place that was selling all their “classroom” machines for $3000, and they’d still include the 25-year warranty!  She was so excited!!  And that means our babies will have the cutest little embroidered clothes to wear.  So I’m excited, too!
• I finished reading my last library book yesterday, and they are due today.  I don’t have to renew them! Yippee!
• This morning is the first actual session of our fall Ladies’ Bible Study at church.  It should be a good study.

And that’s all I’ve got this morning.  Happy Tuesday!!

It is a very happy Monday.  If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my brother’s update about Deb from yesterday!  We are incredibly thankful for the amazing progress Deb has made this week. 

And yet, at our small group meeting at church last night, we prayed for friends and relatives who are facing circumstances and diagnoses every bit as dire as Deb’s was just a week ago.  And for many of them, the only clear reality right now is that their road will be long and difficult. 

It reminded me that God could have chosen to answer our prayers for Deb very differently.  But that even if he had, he would still be God.  And he would still be good. 

So today, we are simply grateful, thankful, hopeful and trusting that God will continue to work in Deb’s body and all our lives as he has this week.  And we’re thankful, too, for all the support, concern, encouragement and prayers that so many of you, my Xanga friends (many of whom I’ve never met), have offered.  I can’t wait until Saturday to meet some of you so that I can thank you in person!

As for the weekend, it was very good.  Saturday, Eric and I took a tour of Ohio.  We drove to Dayton to visit Deb and Chris at the hospital.  Then we headed over to my parents house to say hello and pick up some things.  The girls were helping Dad wash his car when we arrived.  They were having a marvelous time!  Finally, we headed up to Marysville for dinner with three of the couples from our small group.  The food and fellowship were very good!  Laughter is a very good release.  And thankfully, we then went home to bed!

Sunday, Eric and I went to church and pretty much hung out together at home for the afternoon.  It was nice to spend some real QT with him.  I also did some laundry, and then we headed to the church for our first small group meeting of the fall.  Overall, it was a very good day!

So, I think that’s all I’ve got right now.  Happy Monday!

I spent much of yesterday at my parents house so my mom could spend some time with Chris at the hospital.  Holly was napping, and Kelly was at school.  So Dad and I chatted while I made chocolate chip cookies (per the girls’ request to my mom) and then I stayed there with Holly while he went to get Kelly.  We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with play-doh and balls and bicycles.  While we were outside, the girls picked a bunch of marigold flowers and “re-planted” them in the garden dirt next to their teepee.  

And speaking of the teepee, Eric uploaded the pictures of the girls when Karen and I were down on Wednesday to his website.  Let me know if the link doesn’t work!

I’m reading a book by Madeleine L’Engle right now called A Circle of Quiet, and some of her thoughts have meant a lot to me this week: 

1.  “A Russian priest, Father Anthony, told me, ‘To say to anyone “I love you” is tantamount to saying “You shall live forever.”‘” 

• I read this quote early in the week, and I thought of Deb and Chris.  When we love someone, and choose tell them so, we affirm that person’s worth and meaning, we acknowledge that they are real, an eternal soul.  So it is in the moments when we lose, or almost lose, someone we love that we quickly drop all our pettiness and remember to say how much we love each other.  We need to remind them, and ourselves, that we matter, that our lives have counted for something bigger than our day timers might indicate. 

2. Then later in the book, L’Engle comments, “To matter in the scheme of the cosmos: this is better theology than all our sociology.  It is, in fact, all that God has promised to us: that we matter. That he cares.” 

• God hasn’t promised us an easy road or quick solutions.  He’s promised that we matter to him.  That he is with us no matter what.  That he cares about us.  

3.  And finally: “Then there’s a third way to live: to live as though you believe that the power behind the universe is a power of love, a personal power of love, a love so great that all of us really do matter to him.  He loves us so much that every single one of our lives has meaning; he really does know about the fall of every sparrow, and the hairs of our head are really counted.  That’s the only way I can live.”

• God says he loves us, so we must matter.  And this is the faith that I’ve seen in my brother, especially, this week as he lived out the belief that God’s love underscores everything that happens (even the bad things) and so we can face whatever the day holds.  I’ve watched him trust God in very dark hours.  I watched him have to make hard decisions about what was best at any given moment.  He’s gone to apologize to doctors when he thought it necessary, and he’s reached out to other hurting people.  Thanks, Chris, for living out a faith worth sharing!

I think that’s where my family was yesterday, especially my brother and parents.

Yesterday, with the crisis is (seemingly) averted, everyone shifted to maintenance mode.  And while the crisis caused a rush of adrenaline, the daily grind of maintenance does not.  So there were a lot more tears on Tuesday night and Wednesday because, without new crises to focus on, everyone began to process the events of the week.  And then the tears came.  And it’s most likely that the tears will continue for a few days, especially as the girls start to understand that this will be more than just a “sleepover” at Papa & Gramma’s.  Pray for my parents to help the girls cope well, especially in the next couple of days.

Thankfully, Chris and Deb did get some good news yesterday, and she was able to read blogs and emails and to
type on the computer her side of conversations (her breathing mask
didn’t allow for talking much) which impressed the neurologist.  But Deb did need a breathing tube inserted this morning to ease the amount of work her body was having to do and they are restricting her visitors.  Check out yesterday’s blog for a link to her site and my brother’s updates.  Also, if you would want to send her a card, the address is
Debbie Campbell
Miami Valley Hospital  Room # 4513
One Wyoming St.
Dayton, OH 45409-2793

My parents did want to get to the hospital yesterday.  And they needed a breather from my nieces who are wearing them out!    So my sister and I headed to C-ville in the afternoon to entertain the ladies while my parents went to visit Chris and Deb. And we had a marvelous time!

• My dad built the girls a teepee from the branches and brush of fallen trees left by the wind storm.  So we made decorations (buttons and bells on strings) and hung them up in the teepee.  The girls LOVED the project, and we were highly entertained, as well (I’ll try to post pictures soon).
• We watched some television, and the girls enjoyed showing us all the exciting stuff they’ve been doing at Gramma and Papa’s house.  Their bedroom is such a big deal (Holly’s on a trundle bed next to Kelly), and my dad cut open a big box for them to use as a playhouse/puppet show, too.  They even did a bit of a puppet “show” for us.  Too cute!
• After supper, Karen helped Kelly do her homework.  This week is “B” week in kindergarten, so they’re focusing on words that begin with that letter.  They cut and colored and pasted pictures of “B” things on a big baseball (see…more B’s); it was very exciting.  Holly and I watched a Backyardigans video while they worked.  It was a good thing Karen’s an elementary school teacher!!

And when I got home late last night, I walked into my house to see that Eric had spent his evening cleaning up the kitchen and living rooms.  They were CLEAN.  And it was such a nice surprise to come home to.  Sadly, he was already asleep when I climbed into bed, so I had to wait until this morning to thank him.  He’s so great!

I think that’s about all I have for now.  Have a great Thursday!

…but it sure feels like it should be later in the week.  Yesterday seemed to take at least 2 days, and I wasn’t even at the hospital!  Thank you all again for the support, encouragement and prayers. 

For an update on Deb, check out Deb’s blog where Chris updated last night and this morning already.  You can also see pictures she’s recently posted a couple of blogs down.

Also, since Deb had only recently gotten into Xanga, I thought I might introduce you all to her a little bit.

• Deb is originally from Michigan, and she and my brother met their freshman year of college at Cedarville University.  They dated most of college and got married after graduation in 1997, so they just celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary.
• Deb’s birthday is next week, September 25, and she’ll be 33 years old this year.  She’s a great mom to their two girls, Holly (3) and Kelly (almost-6), and she quit her job as an elementary school teacher to stay home with them.  She does work part-time for CU, teaching a basic math class a couple of times a week.  Other than that, though, she spends a lot of time taking care of Chris and the girls and helping out with the moms group at their church.
• It’s already been a hard year for Deb.  Her mom has a kidney disease that required a transplant a few years back, but this year has seen a number of complications arise.  Deb’s been phenomenal, even long-distance, as they dealt with her mom having a stroke earlier this year and then, very unexpectedly, losing her leg because of complications of her diabetes and an aggressive infection.  I know that Deb’s really struggled to know how to help her mom, but she’s done a great job trying to balance her family’s needs with her parents’ needs 5 hours away. 
• Debbie is incredibly crafty and uses watermelons as her kitchen theme.  She’s decorated most of their house herself, doing faux wall finishes and such.  And she’s one of those people who never, ever takes a bad picture, even with no make up or after hours of labor.  She’s got a great sense of humor and loves my brother immensely.  She’s been a fantastic addition to our family for the last (more than) 11 years!

So that’s a very brief introduction.  Feel free to leave comments on my brother’s updates even though he doesn’t know any of you.  I’m sure it will encourage him!

Lastly, this was the passage from the daily devotional email I got today.  It just seemed to fit really well, and I hope it encourages you, this morning, too.

The LORD always keeps his promises;
    he is gracious in all he does.
The LORD helps the fallen
    and lifts those bent beneath their loads. …
The LORD is righteous in everything he does;
    he is filled with kindness.
The LORD is close to all who call on him,
    yes, to all who call on him in truth.
He grants the desires of those who fear him;
    he hears their cries for help and rescues them.

Psalm 145:13–14, 17–19

My mom just called to let me know that Deb is out of surgery proper (they’re keeping her under anesthesia a bit longer).  Here’s the update…

Praises
1. The surgery was to put a stint into the blood vessel to keep the blood away from the aneurysm, and they were successful in accomplishing that.  As I understand it, the stint will stabilize the blood vessel from the inside.  This is the first big step in the direction of successfully treating Deb’s problems.
2.  It would seem that the level of care Deb is getting at the hospital is exactly what is needed for this delicate situation.   Praise Jesus for quick decisions by the EMT, the first hospital, and Miami Valley.  It’s hard to believe this whole thing started at 5:00 a.m. this morning.

Prayer Requests (cont’d.)
1.  The next major problem facing Deb is the blood that leaked onto her brain from the aneurysm.  They will be watching her very closely for the next couple of days to make sure it dissipates without causing clots or pressure on her brain.  She has been put on a couple of medications to help towards that end.  Please pray that it will simply go away without further problem.
2.  There is no way of knowing what effect the general anesthesia or the various medications Deb is on will have on the baby.  Please keep praying that the little one would be totally protected from blood thinners, anesthesia or any negative reaction from Deb’s body.
3.  After they deal with getting the blood to dissipate, and assuming that all continues to improve, they will begin to assess possible damage to speech, movement or other body/brain functions.  The doctor did not seem to anticipate much lasting damage, but she may need some therapy before it’s all over.  Pray that she would recover with no lasting impact.
4.  Finally, the doctor told Chris that he expected Deb to be in the hospital at least two weeks.  That means that they’ll need to figure out a lot of details such as how to best care for the girls.  So please pray for wisdom.

Thank you all, so much, again.  It’s been a strange day, for sure.  But your prayers have been huge and effective.  I’ll keep you updated…