Me?! Hidden Talent?!!!

As I was jumping from blog to blog I ran into this one. I can't say that I think it is correct, but maybe my hidden talent is hidden from me :)

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system. And while this may not seem big, it can be. It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

What Bible Translation

You scored as NASB - New American Standard Bible. You are intelligent, responsible, and understanding. You strive to do your best possible in all areas of life and are generally quite successful. You do not mind being different and sometimes taking risks, but you simultaneously find no virtue in completely doing away with the past. NASB - New American Standard Bible 55% NWT - New World Translation 45% KJV - King James Version 35% CEV - Contemporary English Version 20% NRSV - New Revised Standard Version 15% What version of the Bible are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I'm Rerun, how about you.

Which Peanuts character are you?
You are Rerun!

Thoughts after a week

We are a little past a week since Justin was born. The week has been filled with highs and lows. The highs of having Annette get stronger and come home, of Justin feeding well and growing, and of parents who are so very willing to help. But then there are the lows--lows of self doubt, wondering if I can be the father my son will need, lows of exhaustion from a fussy baby who won't go to sleep, and lows of wishing my wife was recovered from everything and knowing it may still be weeks before she is. None of this has been helped by the heat-wave we are going through right now. Day after day of hot, humid weather starts to take its toll as well. Yet, I don't think I would trade any of it, except the hot weather, for anything. As hard as it has been, it has also been good. It has been and continues to be a learning experience on how to balance work and family. My hope is that as the days go by, the learning will progress and will turn into some joy in the doing of all this.

Baby Pics

Here are a pic of Annette and our baby, and one of our baby.

Baby On Board!

We have a baby boy, Justin Matthew, born July 6, 2005; 9lbs11oz; 23 inches long! I was not going to post this tonight, because I was absolutely exhausted. As you can see from earlier posts, this all started Monday night, and with everything did not finish until Wednesday late afternoon (early evening with waiting for Annette to come out of surgery) So from getting up early Monday after a tiring Sunday and not a very good sleep, I am Annette have been awake for 60 hours or so except for an hour here and there (no more than 3-4 total) We are both exhausted and that contributed to the whole story of what happened. I went to bed after sending out and phoning the absolutely vital announcments, but then a neighbor called about an hour later and woke me up so I cannot get back to sleep. So what was our three days like? It was one of the best and worst times of my life. Labor for Annette came and went again and again. She worked so hard, and it was so special having a home birth. However, when she got stalled at 8cm dilation and twice her contractions stopped, our midwife said we really needed to get her some assistance. We went to the Clinton hospital to have an Oncytocin drip given to her to get her contracting and dilating at 7:30 or 8am Wednesday. By this point we were all tired, but the drip worked great and she started to have good contractions and dilated until all that was left was what is called an anterior lip. That is still not all the way to 10cm, but it soon thinned so it could fit over the baby's head and Annette was allowed to push. She tried as hard as she could. She pushed and pushed, but she was exhausted. I was so proud of her and tired to help her as much as I could. She worked so hard for the three days that we had been in labor. By the end, she just could not go on, and even then she pushed. I had tears running down my face as, I think, did everyone else in the delivery room, but Annette was done. The shear amount of strength she showed was amazing. I always kneww she was strong, but she did the labor of three women, and even in the face of exhaustion, she kept trying until the end. The baby came very close to being born vaginally, but we were out of time and energy. So, we opted for a c-section. God truly gave me a wife who is amazing. They got the c-section organized quickly, and got me and our midwife, Susan, gowned up so we could be there with Annette. But, once again things did not go as planned, the epidural did not work, and they opted to use a general anestetic, and we were not allowed in. Through all of this my feelings were flying all over. Pride in Annette. Sadness and disappointment that our hopes of a home birth or even a vaginal birth were gone. Anger at myself for not being the supporting husband I should be, and even though I know better, anger at God for how in his providence he had our hopes and all that work of Annette dashed. It took me a long time to get through all this, and I am sure I am not through it completely yet. The c-section went well, and soon they came with a beautiful baby boy. The problem was I was so conflicted at that moment that I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I would like. Yes, he grabbed my heart right away, but at the same time I felt so . . . so . . . I don't know. It took a while and some tears before I realize that I just need to put it all behind me. Then things became so much better, because Justin is a really great baby. God in his providence has given me someone who grabbed my heart. My prayer is he will grow up not just healthy, but as a person who truly loves and puts his trust in Christ. May God give Annette and I the grace we need to raise this beautiful boy. So as I type this through my tears--tears of sorrow, tears or joy, tears of thankfulness for a wonderful wife and child--I can say the last three days have been some of the best and worst of my life. I would never exchange the experiences of going through labor at home with family around us for support. In my opinion this is one of the most amazing times of fellowship a family can have. I would not, even though part of me wishes it had been different and we had the baby at home, exchange the long period of sharing as much as I can, Annette's labor. Seeing her strength. Holding her. Encouraging her. And all the rest. That too was amazing. And I was so thankful that we had the option of a c-section. The nurses, doctors, surgeons, and all the rest were great, even when I was far from happy at the time. Finally, that little baby is beyond words for me to describe. Now comes the recovery. Physically for Annette 4-6 days in hospital. And then emotionally and all the rest for both or us as we deal with a very stressful three days. Now I need to see if I can sleep.

Labor away!

Well, Annette has been having contractions since Monday night. We were very excited when she reached 8cm dilation, but then after a couple of hours of hard frequent contractions, she had not dilated more, and the baby's head had actually moved up from the cervix, and for about 30-40 minutes there were no contractions. Baby's heart beat was strong, but this could be bad. It could also just indicate that the baby needed to reposition before labor could continue. So Annette went into a position to assist that, and as we lay there for half an hour, I prayed. I always find it amazing how while at first I simply said God get the baby repositioned, after a few minutes of praying my prayer was, God this is in your hands, and you have given us many good things, you do what you know is right, but if it be your will reposition the baby. Happily it seems the baby repositioned well, and labor started again and is even more intense. As of this writing, things are still progressing, so hopefully my next entry will be the announcement of who our new baby is.

Labor Started!!!!

Labor started last night about 9-10pm. Annette started to have more regular contractions when we were out walking the dogs at Pinery Provincial Park, and after we got home they got more intense and more frequent. We asked the mid-wife to come to see how things were going, still not sure if Annette was starting into labor or not. When the mid-wife arrived at 9:30 or so, she found Annette was having good contractions and was 3cm dilated and the baby's head was fully engaged. Since it would take all night for her to fully dilate, (increase of 1cm/hr would be very fast, .5cm/hr would be more usual) she told us to sleep as much as we could. Needless to say Annette did not sleep much what with the hard contractions, and I didn't sleep much because, well, this is exciting and my mind keeps running over what is happening. Things are continuing, and we will phone our parents soon so they can come down. Going into labor was an answer to the prayers of many people. If she had not, we would have had to seen an Ob for a consult and could have ended up having to have the baby in hospital if they said we had to induce, which is not what we desired. But thanks be to God, everything is going naturally!

Still waiting, but something seems to be happening

The count is at 15 days overdue and counting. However, yesterday and today Annette has been having some strong contractions. Yesterday they were quite far a part (55 minutes or so) and did not always follow a regular pattern. Then they seemed to slowly disappear. Today, Annette woke up with lots of energy, and we had a good day together going to a local plant nursery that has a half price sale, and then going to the Pinery to walk the dogs and enjoy the lake. At first Annette only had very infrequent contractions, but as the day progressed they became more frequent. Now they are quite strong and much more frequent. Maybe, just maybe the baby is ready to make an appearance :D

No baby yet.

Well, we are still waiting. Annette and I went to see our Mid-wife again today, and she did a fetal stress test to make sure that everything is ok with the baby. The test showed that the baby is doing well, moving a lot with a good heart rate that matches up well with his/her movements. She also did some other tests and told us that Annette's body is good to go, but the baby's head is not right against the cervix. When the baby's head is against the cervix, labor will probably start. Hopefully for our sanity and sleep that will happen soon. On another note, today was Canada Day. While I cannot say I am pleased with the things our current government has done, especially their redefining of marriage, I must say I am still happy to be a Canadian. It is truly a wonderful country with some great people. God has blessed me to have me born here.

No News . . . yet!

The latest update on the baby front is that we are still waiting. Occasionally Annette will have things that seem like contractions, but so far they are far apart. Hopefully we will see some progress soon as I am finding getting a good nights sleep it getting difficult (yeah, like I will get any sleep after the baby is born :) ) As of today I am completely beat. Only slept a few hours last night. The following picture probably best summarizes how I currently feel.

No Baby yet

The baby count up continues. We are now 10 days over-due. The waiting is starting to get to me. Although I sleep at night, I don't seem to get any rest because my mind keeps wondering when will this little baby come. The result today was that I was very groggy and grumpy. Hopefully the baby will come soon. Annette had an actual contraction yesterday, but that one was the only one. In spite of being tired I still got a fair amount of work done, but not as much as I would have liked. I am hoping that I get a good sleep tonight.

Still counting down

Today we went to meet with our mid-wife. Our baby is now 9 days overdue. The waiting is driving both of us somewhat stir crazy. Of course for Annette things are worse especially with the heat that we have been having lately. The best way I can describe it is it is like Christmas is coming, but we are not sure what day it will be. Every day we think, is this going to be it, and then it isn't, so we go through another day of waiting. Needless to say this starts to drain ones energy, so we are both getting tired. Top that off for Annette with carrying a full term baby, and you can imagine what it is like for us. As for the rest of things, everything is ready and looks good.

Baby seat

Today we made our final step in preparing for the upcoming birth of our baby. Annette's parents came down, and took us out for our anniversary. After a huge meal at the Mandarin buffet in London, we stopped as Sears, and they purchased a baby seat for us, for which we are very thankful. We installed it this evening, and it looks good. Now we just need to wait for the baby :)

Back again

It has been a while since I last posted. What can I say, life has been busy :) Since my last posting many things have happened. We purchased a new to us van ('97 Safari), and are expecting our first child. My hope is to post more often, but then my original hope was to post frequently. Only time will tell.

It Has Been a While

I have not posted for a while, but things have been busy and difficult. The biggest thing that has been part of this time and the most draining, was that my wife had a miscarriage. We were very much looking forward to having our first child, but two months or so into the pregnancy, something felt wrong to her. We went in to have an ultrasound done, and found out that the baby was dead. That night she had the miscarriage, and for the next several weeks she was quite ill. Even now after a few months have passed, she is just getting back to feeling more normal. Through all of this I continued to work, and now I find that I feel very drained. I don't think up to this point that I have had time to grieve since I have been so busy with work and concern for Annette. Thankfully, things are starting to slow down a little, and I am starting to get some time to contemplate things more. The other part of what has kept me busy was work. Not only have things been busy at the church I work in, but I have also been placed on a committee for the denomination I am part of and have been placed as the supervising minister for a congregation in our denomination that is currently without a minister. These two new tasks added to the regular work of my congregation and the miscarriage have keep me going and going. Hopefully I will catch up a little through the summer months and gain some energy. That about updates what has been happening to me over the last several month, at least in broad strokes.

Open House

Well we just finished having our first ever Christmas Open House. We had about 20 people come through, mainly from our congregation. We had hoped for more people to come, but we enjoyed the number we had. It turned out to be almost the perfect number for the evening. Next year we will probably do the Open House in the afternoon rather than the evening so we can run it a little longer. My perception of the evening was that it was not only enjoyable for us, but that all those who came enjoyed themselves as well. There was lots of conversations the whole time, and the people certainly didn't seem anxious to leave :) Unhappily, the dogs got rather excited when the people started to arrive so they needed to be put in the backyard. Eventually they started to insist on being let back in, so we set up the baby gate to keep them out of the living room, and they stood behind it with these mournful looks. Now we face one problem . . . What do we do with all the left over food?

Levies, levies everywhere.

For those of you who follow the RIAA quest to eliminate p2p file swapping you may know that in Canada we have this wonderful thing called a levy which is added to all blank media that could be used to make copies of copyrighted material. That means that if I purchase blank tapes, cds, dvd, and the like I pay a certain amount per item that goes to the various organizations like the CRIA (Canadian version of the RIAA.) This is bad enough as I work in a church where we record our services on tapes, CDs and on video for local television broadcast which mean we pay the levy on in house productions and backups of our computers. Just recently our wonderful government added this levy to mp3 players. Putting aside the idea that this assumes that the only reason anyone would want blank storage media would be to copy copyrighted material rather than assuming innocence and having to prove guilt, even this extortion of our money is not enough for the CRIA. Now they are intending to start a legal campain against those who are swapping material, although they are already getting money not only from those evil file swappers, but also from hundreds of thousand law abiding citizens who are using their video tapes to tape family gatherings, who are using their cds to back up their computer data and the like. Needless to say this is starting to annoy me. They CRIA either has to be happy with the levies, or tell the government to remove them and pursue people through the courts. They cannot have their levy and eat people up in the court system too.

Flu, fly away!

The flu has hit here. Annette was feeling sort of achy for a while, but then on the 11th, it turned into what we at first thought was a bad cold. The symptoms got worse, and we realized that she had the flu. It put her off her feet and in bed sleeping from Saturday until Monday, but at this point she seems to be getting better.

At this point my hope is that is will not get this as I really don't want to be put out of commisson during the Christmas season as it is one of the most busy seasons for me. I need to preach extra services and of course there is all the family and other Christmas gatherings. Although I enjoy them all, they still take a toll both in time and energy. Hopefully, the flu will fly away from here, and leave us alone."