FYI, my grandpa has started to get a bit better from dialysis thrice weekly. He’s still not the same, but he’s been making some progress with physical therapy. He was able to dress himself a bit, but his muscles are still very weak.

Yesterday Antonio entered into the Church and was united to Christ in Holy Baptism! Alleluia!

(A sweet little baby girl named Yvette was also baptized.)

Gathered around the font:

Being anointed with oil:

His good-looking godparents:

And his adoring mama & papa:

I was just listening to Rebecca St. James and Todd Agnew sing “Our Great God,” and it just reminded me how thankful I feel right now.

We’ve had a ton of bills lately with the new table (we outgrew the old one), computer (it died), washer and dryer (they were dying together), computer, midwife, doula, tuition, and visits from family. God has provided a lot of money to meet those bills. I mean a lot. Close to $10,000 in the last three weeks. (I broke a Black Friday sales record and received my overload pay from teaching all in the last three weeks.) That almost covers everything (yeah, they add up). What would normally have been a stressful time has not been that bad.

I have a beautiful new son. The birth was incredible. It couldn’t have gone any more perfectly. The doula was incredible when it came to supporting Rachel. The whole time Rachel was in labor, I kept thanking God for her. The midwife was great too, but let the doula pretty much handle things.

My daughter continues to grow in her relationship to Christ. She amazes me sometimes.

I’m glad to be in a church where we can chant, receive communion every week, feel loved, and our children can commune. We’ve actually been able to develop a relationship with a fellow congregation member (though in its early stages, it’s nice to be able to connect to someone other than the pastor and his family). The lady is a bit older than us, but her youngest son is close to Kyrie’s age.

My class this semester will be taught by Reggie Kidd, and it’s on my favorite subject. How great is that? I’ve been able to finish most of the books (I saved the best ones for last, so woohoo).

I’ve had off of work for three straight days. I don’t think I’ve had more than one day in a row off since August (and even then I was usually working on my day off). It’s been a time of healing and rest (though I must say I am wiped out from all the work I am doing–but it’s different work, so in a big way, it’s restful).

We have family coming to visit. Forrest and Rebekah will be here in less than two weeks. The Enloe family also plans to come by. Mommy and daddy plan on coming in February. It will be so nice to have company again, and it’s nice to have a table that will fit everyone (tightly though!).

I love how all of our close friends’ families are growing. Exponential growth is nice when it involves friends.

We are planning to stay our entire summer in Spokane, if possible. Actually, it would be nice to just move up there, so maybe a job can fall in our laps (pretty please!).

It’s Advent. The long green season is fully over.

Oh, Lord remind us once again of your wonderful works. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God.

…that I have the best OB in town. He is one of, like, 2 doctors who will actually do VBAC’s in Monroe. I must have sounded really dumb this past Monday at my appointment when I said, “VBAC’s are legal in Louisiana?” Um, yep! The reason that most OB’s here still do not do them is actually not a liability issue as much as it is one of convenience. One rule here for VBAC’s is that the overseeing OB needs to be present for the duration of the labor and delivery, and they’d really rather not spend their time that way.

He’s also been very easy-going about everything. I declined practically every routine labor intervention and infant procedure on my birth plan and he signed it willingly and cheerfully, adding, “This looks great.”

I may not be getting the homebirth that I dreamed of (I’m hoping I will for our third child, though), but at least I’ve got an OB who supports my birth philosophy and is willing to do what he can to make sure I have the closest thing to a homebirth in the hospital.

I really sometimes wonder if I would have ended up with a c-section if he had not been my doctor with Kyrie. He allowed me to push in the hospital for over 2 hours — and he knew that I’d pushed for 2 hours at home beforehand — but he never, ever even implied the possible need for a c-section. He made me believe I could do it when nurses had told me before I even went into labor that I wouldn’t be able to. (The day before I went into labor, a nurse told me I wouldn’t go into labor on my own, so I’d need to be induced, but I’d definitely end up with a c-section. And from the looks of it on the ultrasound, the baby’s head was huge.)

Coming from the crunchy state of Washington, I have a hard time with the medical mindset here. But it’s nice that even here, I can find an OB that I’m really quite happy with.

I’ll be leaving Florida in a few hours, and as usual, I’ve gotten to see some glimpses of God’s glory. Friday was Bob Webber’s memorial service. This was the memorial service that the family chose to attend. It was good to see Joanne again, to see that love she has for Bob. You know how they say some couples were “made for each other”? It’s that way with Bob and Joanne. When Jim Hart asked her if she’d rather be called Bob’s wife or widow, she replied, “Wife.” I was standing right next to her and heard her mutter under her breath, “Forever and ever.”

The mother of one of my classmates passed away suddenly on Monday. My classmate handled it with great faith. His father was diagnosed with terminal cancer on the last day of last term and was supposed to be in heavenly glory by this term, so this has been a bit backwards for the family. She had gone into the hospital on Wednesday and seemed fine on Thursday. She found out that a hole in her esophagus. This, in turn, caused acid to leak into her blood and poison it, causing her organs to shut down. She started taking a turn for the worse on Sunday while we were at the beach. By Monday, they were going to take her off the ventilator by evening, but she didn’t make it that long. It was shocking to me how quickly it all happened. I guess that with her husband dying of cancer, she probably didn’t feel the need to fight for her life. My classmate kept saying, “She always said she didn’t want to live without dad; now she doesn’t have to.”

Another classmate who had missed last semester (due to a viral heart attack) was back again this semester. He told the story of how, through misdiagnosis and wrong treatment, his blood was thinned to the point of leaking out of his stomach. He woke up in a puddle of blood (after having been changing bandages for several days). He thought he was going to die, so he prayed with his father, who is also a pastor (I believe). When he came back into the room five minutes later to take him to the hospital, there was a crusty scab that looked like it had been there for days. Incredible.

On Sunday I hit the beach after worship and stayed in the water a couple hours longer than everyone else. After the beach, I went to a worship service. Brian McLaren was the celebrant, and I had a good chat with him on the glories of teaching English (He was an English prof. Before going into the ministry and then public speaking). He reminded me once again why my background is oh so useful for what I hope to do in the future. Of all the well-known pastors and theologians I’ve met over the years, I have to say that McLaren is probably the most approachable. He’s had this “Hey, guys, what’s going on? Can I play?” smile on his face for the last three days.

Hmmm…I’m too distracted to blog anything else.

So I found out something cool today. Rachel’s obstetrician apparently presented research to the hospital administration at St. Francis Hospital recently. The research showed that waterbirth is just as effective as epidurals for pain relief. The hospital is now allowing natural childbirth with laboring in a variety of positions, as well as birthing in showers, and they’ve had about six natural childbirths (in natural positions).

They still aren’t doing full waterbirth; however, the nurse who caught Kyrie (who is an awesome nurse married to the basketball coach at ULM) is going to practice at a new birth center with jetted jacuzzis (still over a year off, I think) near the hospital. After seeing the research that waterbirth is just as effective as epidural for pain relief (without all the adverse side effects and potential risks), the hospital has become a lot more midwife friendly. And, as her OB told the administration, water is a lot cheaper than epidurals!

This is kind of cool because we had heard our doctor was in trouble with the hospital because he worked with midwives. In the end, he influenced them to change their thinking.

The Lord took home Andrew Hilleke last night. I knew Andrew for several years, and he was a character. Full of life. Intelligent. Funny. He is going to be missed by a lot of people. He went to be with the Lord on the Lord’s Day–the best one of all, Resurrection Sunday. It’s very fitting for a person that special.

We sit down here, and we are all enduring our struggles. Personally, I’m tired from overwork and lack of sleep. Like all of you, I’m still dealing with sin and pain. He’s resting with Jesus. When we deal with the loss of Andrew, we experience pain and hurt. He’s with Jesus. Let light perpetual shine upon him.

Dear prayer partners, [that seems to include everyone, family, friends and colleagues!]

This is Joanne and this is really just a quick update as several people have asked about us. We’ve waited quite a while to update this time because for two to three weeks things have been up and down a great deal.

On Sat. for instance, Bob had a very good day and was able to write. However, yesterday was very difficult but with some help from Hospice and your prayers, as well as those of close friends who came over after church to pray with us, we weathered that crisis.

Each day is different. Bob is in decline and we know where this will probably end up but we still take each day at a time and thank God for his blessings and all the time we’ve been given. Bob has outlived the most optimistic prognosis by four months and every day of that time has been a gift even though it’s often been hard.

I know that Bob is suffering more than he lets on so I ask for specific prayers that he won’t continue to suffer physically but will be aware and alert to the end. We still ask for a miracle healing because we believe and trust that God can do that and we honor that belief. But, we also ask for grace and peace these days and I ask for your prayers for continued physical strength and health for myself so that I can serve Bob during these hard days.

There have been many, many times when we almost couldn’t pray but knew that many of you and the Holy Spirit were praying with and for us. We could feel it in our hearts and we could see the benefits so know that your many prayers have mattered.

Last night we watched Ben-Hur, which we do every Easter season. It’s my favorite movie and we always marvel at the clear Christian message it presents [from Hollywood in 1959 no less!] and it buoys our spirits during this Lenten season. If you’ve never seen it or don’t remember it, watch it. It will warm your heart and the actors actually “act” in it!

Love to you all,

Bob and Joanne

Again, a quick update. We met with my oncologist today for my weekly checkup. He had the results of the MRI report done last Friday. It shows that there has been no change in the cancer in the pancreas or the spot on the liver since the CT scan done 12/4/’06. That was ten weeks ago. This is good news! The cancer is dormant at this point but we don’t know how long this might last. Given my prognosis six months ago, this is an answer to prayer!

Please join with us and pray that the cancer be disintegrated completely and that full health and strength will be restored to my body. There is no medical procedure or chemotherapy that can be done at this point which would lengthen my time as compared to the very toxic side effects which can be lasting. Quality of life is my goal at this point. The doctor gives me two more months but he was wrong before.

Thanks for all the fervent, continued prayers for me which I believe have added length of life and improved the quality of my current life and ministry.

We continue to live in the two “realities” simultaneously, thanking God for the healing He brings each day and praying for healing tomorrow. We continue to be surprised and overcome by the faithfulness of God communicated to us daily in scripture, prayer, song, the Eucharist and tears intimacy.

Love to you all,

Bob and Joanne

Here’s the latest email from our dear friend, Bob, Please continue to pray for his healing and renewed strength:

Living Between two Realities

Once again, Joanne and I want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have so faithfully and earnestly prayed for us. Thanks for the numerous emails and cards! We’ve been totally overwhelmed.

I’m now more than six weeks out from the day I was sent home from the hospital with my oncologist’s words echoing in my mind, “You have two to four weeks left to live.”

Since my last email I have been steadily improving, so much so that Joanne says, “The old Bob is back.” We have been asking ourselves, “how and what do you pray for” when you live in-between your doctor’s realism, “I’ve never had a pancreatic patient survive” and the experience of feeling that “God is healing me.”

So, how do you pray? I want to ask God to heal me but what if he already has. But, I’m also reluctant to be presumptuous and tell everyone I’ve been healed given the statistical downside of pancreatic cancer and the fact that we are foregoing any definite tests for now, like a MRI, CT scan or PET scan.

So, here is how we solved our dilemma. We live and pray one day at a time. We pray each day and say, “Thank you God for the healing you gave me today. Please heal me tomorrow.” It has occurred to both of us that if we were truly spiritually sensitive, we would have prayed that way all of our lives but it took the threat of imminent death to bring us to this point.

We cannot begin to tell all of you how we have benefited from your consistent prayers. We’re convinced that God is answering those prayers and that all the improvement thus far has come from God’s healing powers and that He is the source of all grace. I am confident that God sustained me today but I’m also painfully aware that I am “terminal,” at some point, in the larger sense of the word, as we all are. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and we all face a great future.

Please continue your prayers for both of us. Joanne will see her doctor and have some tests done as her stomach tension and discomfort continues. We think it’s “caregiver” stress but want to be sure. Also, although I’m better, my strength is fragile and I fatigue easily. Some days are better than others. We appreciate the way everyone has maintained our privacy and ask that you continue to do so.

I hope that you all know that the love and prayers you have “sent” our way are being returned to you from us. We are so deeply moved by them on our behalf.

The following is a quote I came across that seems to define our dual life as Christians and the “between two realities” phrase above:

“Our favorite distinction between the spiritual life and the practical life is false. We cannot divide them. One affects the other all the time; for we are creatures of sense and of spirit, and must live an amphibious life.”

Love,

Bob and Joanne