• Dec. 11, 2006
Santa Who??

My husband and I grew up believing in Santa.  I remember on Christmas Eve my very much older brother would play along and tell me he spotted the jolly fellow in the sky (really just a red light from a commercial airline).  We have decided, for various reasons which I will explain, that we will not be promoting Santa as a family tradition.  I am now thoroughly convinced that our decision is the right one for us.  Here are some fantastic reasons why.

We believe that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of JESUS, king of kings, lord of lords, lion of Judah, our Savior, and friend that is closer than a brother.  Growing up, all I remember is talk of Santa and what he would bring us.  But the greater joy of Christmas and in life itself is in knowing that Christ came to save the world and to give us blessings beyond messure through our faith and trust in him.  For me, thoughts of what I would "get" for Christmas consumed me.  I want my kids to focus on what we can do for others, like buying needy children gifts and serving the homeless or elderly food during this time. 

Before I get classified as ripping the fun out of Christmas for my kids, listen to this fun idea.  To bring it home to the kids that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday, we will be making an  awesome birthday cake decorated in Christmas colors.  They will get to decorate it with candy canes--one popular symbol of Christ as a shephard--and maybe a few other fun things like sprinkles.

Here's another great reason to leave Santa out of the spotlight.  A friend of mine made a point that when gifts are attributed as being from Santa, the kids don't realize where all your hard-earned money has been spent.  I am a stay-at-home mom and my husband works VERY hard for us.  I want the kids to know that these gifts are from Daddy and Mommy because we love them and want to bless them.  And ultimately that we are able to buy these things because God has richly blessed us and entrusted us with our finances to spend glorifying him. 

Here's one more reason that I have heard for being slightly anti-Santa.  I'm not fully convinced this is a deal-breaking idea but have heard several people comment on it.  If you are telling your children that Santa is real and they believe it for so many years only to find that it isn't true, that they have been lied to, what will they think about Jesus?  Will the reality of finding out the truth tempt them to doubt the existence of our God?  This is a very strong point, but I'm sure someone somewhere has had these thoughts.

At this time of year, we are constantly bombarded with Santa Claus.  I think it is important to recognize who Saint Nicholas was in history and that he is attributed for his gift giving, which we should joyfully emulate.  Our kids know all about Santa from family and friends.  This is the first year we have had to attack it full force.  Just the other day, my kids and I were at the bank.  The account representative who invited us into her office innocently asked my  4yo son if he was ready for Santa.  He said, "No.  Santa's not real."  I was taken aback as was she.  I could see the sadness in her eyes for my children--"poor things, they won't have any fun growing up," possibly went through her mind.  Or maybe she took a moment to consider that we could be Jewish.  No matter; God took over my mouth and I smiled and blurted out, "We do Jesus!"  This is the legacy I want to leave for my children.

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• Nov. 1, 2006
Helene News

This dialogue will be in a newsletter I will send out at the end of this month.  But just wanted to put it out there for anyone to read.  In May, I went to Helene, Honduras as a short-term missionary.  Helene is an island with about 800 inhabitants.  Our church, Lifechurch.tv, partnered with Alternative Missions (see www.alternativemissions.com for more information) for the first time to bring missionaries on a short-term basis who are willing to do just about anything needed on the island. 

Alisa is one of the Alternative Missions volunteers and she sent this.  It is just a fraction of what God is doing on the island and I pray that He reveals Himself all the more so that the islanders will have a desire to know Him.

Here it is:

We were on our way to Ewings’ birthday party when my friend Lenny from Bentley Bay hailed me (island lingo) to let me know her sister-in-law, Marlenie, was in labor.  Deirdre was out working on an island house with Paul, so Michelle and I got in a boat headed for Bentley Bay.  We told the people at the party we’d probably be back…usually these things (like Charlene’s baby from the last update) end with the baby already born before we arrive.  But we were terribly mistaken.  When we arrived, Marlenie was standing in her tiny room, which is part of a small house standing on stilts over the ocean, minus electricity, with rain and darkness soon approaching.

When I assessed her she was in active labor, contractions 2 minutes apart, and at least 6 cm dilated.  She was having a boy…Troy.  I could feel the water bag bulging…but I could also feel something else.  I should take a moment to explain that I have LITTLE labor & delivery experience... as does Deirdre.  So as I felt the small hard object I tried to think of what it could possibly be.  I scanned through my few conversations with Dr. David before I came down about how to recognize L&D emergencies and what to do.  So I pulled Michelle (non-medical, never seen a birth, came along just to help) aside and told her I thought something could be wrong… but what?  Either way, the contractions were so close that we didn’t have time to talk it over more than a few words and another contraction started.  We didn’t have time to get her down island at this rate, and she was feeling the urge to push.

To make things worse, our fetal Doppler is broken and decided not to work at all.  So I couldn’t get a fetal heart rate (a new one is on the way, praise God!).  So we started coaching her through pushing.  At this point, Kathryn (lay midwife…practices her “own techniques”) walked in and offered her help.  So I asked her to help Marlenie push.  And as the water broke this little pink/purple thing started to appear… and on the second push Kathryn and I realized…

“It’s a foot.” –Kathryn

“Oh my gosh.” –Me (this is my worst case scenario I had tucked away for a rainy day)

“I’ve never seen that before.” –Kathryn (neither of us really responded therapeutically to this situation)

“What?!?!?  What?!?!? What’s wrong?  Why me?!” –Marlenie in mass hysteria

Okay… so Dr. David and I had talked about this.  What had we talked about, though?!?!  I couldn’t remember… all I could think about was that the baby was breech and might not, probably wouldn’t live… and I was the “doctor.”  I was really regretting not taking a class or reading a book… or doing something… before coming here to prepare for this.  Michelle, bless her heart, looks at me calmly and asked me what she should do.  So I told the ladies waiting outside that we had an emergency and they had to help Michelle find a boat to take us down island.  I remembered Dr. David saying that if a foot came out and we could get the mom down island, that would be best.  See… breech births… feet first births… are almost always C-sections now.  They certainly aren’t appropriate for rainy shacks with no electricity and one flashlight and… ME delivering the baby!

Kathryn and I discussed how we would do this… we would encourage Marlenie to breath slowly and calmly through contractions… not fight them, but not push either.  I was praying fervently that the birth could just slow down and we could get her down island.  Michelle found a phone and called the clinic to get a boat, and we all three prayed with Marlenie.  I kept saying to her (and to myself) that Troy is the Lord’s child and he is in His hands (because he certainly was not in mine!).

Well wouldn’t you know it, Deirdre called back and asked what was going on (coconut telegraph… something always gets lost in the shuffle).  I MIGHT have yelled/screamed something along the lines of: “Get here now with a boat!!!!  I have a foot out!!!”  So she headed our way.

Within the very next push, another foot came out.  Two little feet and legs…pushing out without any help from mom… I knew we were delivering that baby in that tiny room. 

“Boy them fat legs.” –Kathryn then said about the little baby legs hanging out while Marlenie cried and asked if she would survive.

That was my favorite comment of all, I think.  Timing is everything.

Now I should say, I have no idea if the next events were right, wrong, or indifferent.  So if you are medical… remember the setting. J  We prayed again… hard.  And kept praying the entire time.  Mom started pushing… with Michelle’s guidance.  I took the legs and guided them to shimmy out the hips.  Kathryn then took over, and we talked through how to keep moving the baby out.

Marlenie was PUSHING.  I mean, this lady had no pain meds, she was laying on her bug-infested bed, on a tarp, and it was stinkin hot in there.  She was pushing so hard against me that she pushed me into the wall behind me and she almost fell off the bed.  The problem was that the cord was completely pinched off once the waist was birthed.  So the body was turning colder and more purple by the minute.  This went on for at least 15 minutes… pushing… trying to turn the body to help the shoulders out…pushing… breathing… everything with the light of one flashlight in the dark.

Kathryn guided the shoulders out, but when the head absolutely would not come and the cord was wrapped around the neck, she just looked at me and told me to take over.  I started unwrapping the cord from the neck (no gloves… we ran out).  The baby was belly-up and somewhere in me I knew to turn the baby over to allow the head to slide out…and at that moment, praise GOD, Deirdre came running in.  She helped open up the birth canal as I turned baby Troy over and he popped out. 

But he was not breathing.  He was purple, cold, floppy.  I could cry just thinking of how it felt to have him in my arms.  There was no heart beat.  There were no signs of life.  There was no time!  I held him by the jaw and belly and Deirdre started suctioning his mouth.  We started rubbing and slapping his back, pulling his feet, anything to stimulate him.  And then… he took one little breath and coughed!  But that was it…so we kept going trying to revive him.  And then… and I can hardly believe it as I say it… under my hand that was on his chest, I FELT his tiny heart start beating and he let out a tiny wail.  We cheered, we cried…but mostly we praised God!  He was alive!  Slowly his breathing increased, we got oxygen on him, and I kept rubbing him and working with him.  It was nothing short of a miracle…he had no vital signs… and within minutes he was turning pink and crying weakly.  He had been stuck in a position cutting off his life supply for well over 15 minutes…there is no logical answer for his life except God.  I found out later that in the next room there were about 20 people (including the father) praying fervently for mom and Troy to be okay.  How cool to see the prayers of the saints truly answered.

And if that wasn’t enough trauma, Marlenie had trouble delivering the placenta.  So right as the rain started coming through the roof…Deirdre and Michelle worked with her to push, massage her uterus, squat her above the bed to help push… but she was very weak and couldn’t push.  Finally, she was able to deliver the placenta, but one little piece was stuck.  Deirdre, Michelle, and Kathryn worked with her until that last piece was free while I kept working with Troy.

Deirdre and I rode through the stormy night in our boat (try walking along a rickety wet dock in a lightning storm with an umbrella in one hand and newborn baby in the other someday… it’s not so easy) to get Troy to the hospital.  Marlenie decided she absolutely didn’t want to come, which I don’t understand, so the father came with.  When we arrived at the hospital, the MD assessing Troy said he looked great despite everything…unbelievable.  And the next morning little Troy, although a little purple-ish still and a little dehydrated, was a beautiful, healthy 6.8 lb baby free of infection.

All right, I know that story is super long… but I felt it was too amazing not to share every detail.  I think I am still in shock that it happened.  The images that keep coming to mind continually remind me of how God was and always is in control.  We can do nothing good without Him doing it through us… that birth taught me the dependence I should have on Him daily rather than just in times of need.

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• Sep. 19, 2006
Much to say about a growing belly....

Fingernails are out of control; gums are sore and sensitive; have said fairwell to the waist for some time.  When you're staring your blessings in the face as they scream, "Mamahhhhh!!" it just doesn't get any better than to think you have another on the way.  That's when I look up and say, "are YOU hearing this?  Is it just me or is this hard?" 

Throw homeschool into the mix and you have a frazzled mommy.  I'm so glad I'm not alone!  I have sisters all over the world singing the same song and you have made it easy for me to know that this is the best decision for our family.  The goal is not just school, it is training for REAL LIFE!  How could I not be a part of that.  Thank you all for encouraging me with your thoughts!

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