the Adenotonsillectomy and the Ordination

Wow, the end of 2010 has arrived rather quickly from what I can tell, with the month of December being particularly full for us Idaho spuds!

Classes ended the second week of Dec, so to celebrate finals week we decided to have Beebs' tonsils and adenoids yanked!

What better way to celebrate Christ's birth and ring in the new year than by getting rid of small, apparently useless organs that impede one's breathing.

Seriously though, our Beebs was struggling with frequent throat infections and sleep apnea, complete with LOUD snoring.  And let's face it, her parents weren't enjoying the snoring either.  (I was dreading the day a nice young man came to ask for her hand and we had to warn him that she sounded like a buzz saw at night.)

Overall she was very brave and seemed pretty calm as we waited in the pre-op room for the doctor for what seemed like hours.

Thankfully she was allowed to have Yoey (the faithful Giraffe) and green "piwo" (aka pillow) with her.  She did begin to cry as they wheeled her away on the bed leaving mommy, daddy, and Grammie Di behind.

And, yeah, so maybe I teared up a little, too...but I held it together while she could still see me as they wheeled her through those swinging double doors saying she didn't want to go.

Talk about breaking a mom's heart.

Post surgery she was a bit tired, but she immediately ate some ice cream and a sno cone (i.e. hospital ice with some flavor poured over it!), then took a nap.  The Dr said her adenoids were HUGE.

By the time she was released to leave, she was smiling and VERY ready to go home.

The most pitiful part was her telling me through tears later that day that she didn't want to get her tonsils out, and when I assured her that they were already gone she said "why did they do that?  why did they have to take them?"

Her speech for the first few days was pitifully adorable, too, as if she had rocks in her cheeks.

Overall she did pretty good, though she really missed eating crackers and corn chips (staples in her daily routine) and often said "I don't like my owies."

It was nice to have my mom here to give a helping hand with the patient and her little sister while Ben finished grading and we prepared for ordination and Christmas traveling.  Baby L just happened to roll over for the first time while only Grammie was there to see it!

Over the next two weeks Beebs repeatedly asked me "Mommy, why do we have to have owies?"

Why indeed!

I generally gave her a short "that's life; God heals" answer.

But I found myself thinking about the deeper implications of her question and praying that I'd have a better answer down the road when her "owies" weren't so straight forward and couldn't be helped with a well-timed does of tylenol.

Beebs no longer snores, PTL! And seems to be sleeping better.

Instead of being able to hear her "sleeping" from the living room now I actually have to go back to her room and make sure she's still breathing (so it turns out there was one good aspect of snoring like a bear; I knew she was asleep even from across the house!).

Two days after the adenotonsillectomy my Friend became a man of the cloth!

After much anticipation and a longish process, Ben was ordained into the Dioconate of the Anglican church, which means he's now a Deacon (i.e. Pastor) in the Anglican Mission.

[I recommend the book Never Silent for more about the Anglican church in America and the Mission in particular.]

Ben's sister and brother-in-law came up from Nevada for the service as a surprise and, along with myself, presented him as a candidate to Bishop Todd Hunter.

Beebs joined us for the service but was laying down for most of the it; she was such a trooper.

It was a very special Ordination (and Confirmation) service, and we look forward to where the Lord may lead and use us.  As of now, Ben will continue being bi-vocational - Professor and Pastor.

He will be preaching the entire month of January at our church.  We don't yet have a way to record the messages, but if you'd like to hear his recent NNU chapel message CLICK HERE and then click on either the online stream or download for November 19!

From the Vault (a look back) -

Life hasn't always been easy for the Beebs (Dec 2008)

Her first real experience with being down and out for a week+ was at 15 months old (she lost 10% of her body weight after 9 days of throwing up); even our doggie, Wyc, felt bad for her.

Nevada Christmas Post to come soon...