Evelyn Teaches Daddy to Dance

We have been pretty stressed out lately, or at least I have, but we persevere. Here is a little stress-relief in the Patton Home. :)

Evelyn's Accomplishments

I felt the need to share all the little things that we have been observing. Or at least, all the ones I can remember. Evelyn is such a joy to watch (even when Mommy is moody and her temper rubs the wrong way).

It is amazing to see how she can observe something and then immediately attempt to mimic it, and even more amazing when she accomplishes it! Doing little things like helping me unload the dishwasher or pushing wet clothes into the dryer are good, but lately she has shown more. She is trying to put her own shoes on, take off her clothes, screw on lids to containers, and even wiping her mouth, hands, and herself when her diaper is being changed. I think she is getting very close to being ready for potty training. This would be an awesome achievement if it can happen before Kayla arrives and we have two little'uns in diapers.

She also has a mind of her own. I have been learning to be a little more patient in waiting for her to follow instructions (though only when there is time to wait, that is). For example, when we leave the house, she likes to run up and down the ramp walkway rather than come to the truck to be put in her seat. Now, instead of running after her and picking her up against her will, I simply get into the truck and turn it on. Usually I only have to wait about 20 seconds before she turns to me and runs into my arms to go with. Who knows how long such cooperation will last, but for the moment I will use it!

We recently got a very nice toddler bed from my best friend Lizz and placed a mattress we acquired from my sister Jennifer on it. I am not exactly ready for the inevitable fight to stay in bed while still awake, but I think I will try it before hitting the ever-so-demanding task of potty training. All of this BEFORE the new competition arrives...on or before January 25th!

That's right. We are officially scheduled for my C-Section to occur on January 25th, my sister Tammy's birthday. So, as long as little Kayla can wait that long, we know there is an end in sight for the waiting. But I think Evelyn will be a very tough customer when it comes to sharing Mommy. At least this will give Daddy plenty of baby-bonding time! :)

Well, that is all for now, but I will try to update as we go. I am busy studying for my LPA, which I need to schedule for the end of December. Please pray for this! We need it soooooo much, not just for current circumstances, but for future stability in my career field. Thank you all for loving us!

Update with LOTS of Pics!!

Hi Family and Friends,

We just wanted to put up a very quick update and a whole lot of pictures, for those of you who are interested in seeing our family. We are still muddling through, Julius working at Hobby Lobby and myself at APTC in Austin. I started working contract for a practice that does evaluations at the San Marcos Treatment Center, thinking it would be the answer to our financial concerns, but for a variety of reasons I am not going into here, it has been incredibly disappointing. Please, prayers for God's wisdom to know what we are supposed to be doing would be greatly appreciated!

In the meantime, we are loving watching our daughter grow and learn (she is so smart!), and are becoming excited to meet our next addition. We hope to know the gender for sure in a couple of weeks, but since he/she was uncooperative last time, we are trying not to be too expectant. :)

Here are some photos to enjoy and a peek into our world. Love you all!!!!!

Big Update

Sorry for the long drought of posts since the last one on April 30. Both of us have intermittently posted updates on Facebook and haven’t really taken the time to update here on the blog. I’ll try to hit the highpoints on most areas.

Move
So, yes, we moved to San Antonio. Was tough because we had to get everything into the mobile in order to return the Uhaul trailer. At the same time, Tom and Donna weren’t completely moved out (lots of furniture) so it took a lot of maneuvering on my part just to get everything inside. Then we had to move things around to get all the boxes into the correct room. Then moved everything again so that we could get access to all the boxes and get everything situated like we wanted. As of now, we are pretty much settled except for the back bedroom that is currently being used as Kramer’s litter / food room, storage room and occasional guest room. We still have a couple things left over at Jennifer’s in Houston, but will require us to fix the back bedroom in order to get it all here. It will happen in time.

My Job
I was able to transfer to the Hobby Lobby in Selma, TX (still part of San Antonio, just one of the connecting cities). It is only 7 miles from our place, so that is great. The bad part is that they are really not interested in progressing me up through the ranks towards a management role. As of now, it is income that we desperately need. However, we don’t plan for this to be a long-term job.

Kimberly’s Job
Kimberly is still working for Dr. Kelley Ahr in Austin. A large benefit of the move was that Kimberly no longer had to commute from Houston; however, it is still a good amount of gas driving my truck (v8) back and forth from SA to Austin. Kimberly has also been hired on a contract-basis by another company to do testing at a branch office in San Marcos. This other company (we hope) will have more tests, more hours, less driving time and more pay. Not only that, but Kimberly will be learning about Neuropsych testing, which will make her more marketable (and appealing) to future employers. For now, she plans to continue working for both companies as she is able to work them into a good schedule.

Evelyn
She is beautiful! Need I say more…? Okay, then I will. She is so smart! She is such a joy and blessing to us and others who she comes across. There is plenty of room for her to pull out all her toys and play all over the house. She does have her own room and she occasionally goes in there and plays by herself, but she seems to have more fun when Kimberly or I are playing with her. We have more fun playing with her, too!
We met this wonderful couple, Felix and Summerlynn Lopez, who run a small, personal daycare out of their home. Evelyn loves going over there and playing with them and the other kids. We also enjoy talking with the Lopez’s and have spent some good time with them. We hope to spend more time getting to know them – and they seem inclined to do the same with us. (Dare I say we have friends?!? *gasp*)

Child #2
Yes, we are pregnant! Well, Kimberly is pregnant. As of now, she is about 14 weeks along. Our next doctor appointment will be Sept 6 where we will have a sonogram and hopefully be able to tell the gender. Or as I tell Kimberly, we will be able to see our boy waving ALL his appendages. We will see (and post).

Car
Well, we’ve had intermittent problems with the ’97 Subaru Legacy wagon we bought late February, but it has gotten worse now. We feel that we have spent way too much money on it – money that only God knows where it came from! Right now it is running, but not quite correctly. I kinda have to do a small trick to get it to work somewhat correctly. Very frustrating, but we can’t afford to do anything more. Felix used to be a GM of one of the area AutoZone stores, so he and I have been doing our best to figure out the problem (using lots of his resources of people & knowledge). We have also taken it to Subaru dealerships / mechanics and have posted questions to online forums – all to no avail. We aren’t sure what God’s plan is, but we hope…

Future
Uncertain…? Hopefully we can get the car situation settled so that I can find a new and better job. We hope to start pulling out of destitution as Kimberly’s new job progresses. We just keep loving on each other and are amazed every day of Evelyn’s growth and discoveries. Continued prayers are always welcome! We keep praying that God continues to work in and through our lives, and that we are guided to walk the path that He has in store for us. “Thy will be done, not My will be done, Lord.”

And now for the good stuff…

And so the journey continues...

As of this moment, we are all loaded up and Julius is tying down the last items to the truck. We are finally moving to San Antonio and into the next chapter, awaiting for our Lord's instructions.

It is a bitter-sweet departure. We are looking forward to having a home of our own, yet we have enjoyed being here with my sister and nephew. It was nice to know that someone would be around to talk to, to babysit, to cook or clean. But now the parting must come.

Jennifer, thank you for the graciousness you have shown these past 15 months. Opening your home to us, our cats, and then our baby, was a great sacrifice on your part, but I hope also a joy. Jesus has taught us so many lessons during our sojourn here, and recognizing Grace and receiving it has been a large one to learn. I am glad that you were an instrument of that lesson. Thank you.

I must now tell the post office to forward our mail and pack the computer. It will be a busy weekend, and week with the unpacking and plans for Evelyn's First Birthday in one week (oh, dear). But I am finally excited to start anew.

Thank you for your prayers! We will keep you posted on the next events...

POP! ...Goes the meniscus!

FRIDAY
This past Friday afternoon, while attending a church Men’s Retreat at Pineywoods camp outside Groveton, Texas, a bunch of us went out to a field to play some touch football. During our first possession, I ran an out pattern – five steps up, planted my left foot, did a sharp right turn, and then toppled to the ground. It seems that my left knee did not care to cooperate with the rest of my body and, instead of completing the route, it decided to dislocate at the knee joint.

Now I have dislocated it a few times in the past and would extend and retract my leg until it slid back into the socket, but this time was different. At first, it did not seem to want to go back into place easily, and it also hurt a lot more than any previous incident. However, not wanting to be the guy that couldn’t ‘play through the pain’, I got back up and attempted to hobble my way around the field playing what I could. After about 10-15 minutes of continued play, I felt my knee ‘sorta’ slide back into place, accompanied by a loud POP! that was audible to all the guys around me.

As it turned out, the reason the knee was not sliding back into the socket was because, when it popped out, it had twisted part of the lateral meniscus into the socket area and that was preventing the bone from moving back in. When the bone worked its way back into the socket, it did so by tearing the meniscus. The loud POP! was the sound of the meniscus being torn.

Since I thought I had just temporarily dislocated it, I didn’t bother to seek professional help, but instead, just tried to stay off of it and keep ice on it in hopes that the soreness would go away. I had hoped that – even though it sounded more damaging – that it was just a slight dislocation and the pain and soreness associated with it would pass with time and Ibuprofen. Unfortunately, the soreness and inability to fully bend or fully straighten my knee did not subside.

SATURDAY
Fortunately, it was my left knee that was injured, so I was still able to drive home Saturday afternoon after the retreat. Upon arrival at home, Kimberly promptly laid me out on the couch with ice and attempted to keep me there the rest of the night.

SUNDAY
When we got up Sunday morning, I was still in pain and unable to fully bend or straighten my knee. Kimberly took me to the Southwest Urgent Care facility to have it looked at by a doctor. After a couple of X-rays and consulting the doctor, they believed it was a torn ligament of some kind. So they scheduled an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image), to get a better look at the inside of the knee, for Monday at 4pm.

MONDAY
Monday morning, we scheduled an appointment with our soon-to-be Primary Care Physician, Dr. Siddarth Dave (Dah-vay), to look over the injury. After meeting with Dr. Dave, he said it sounded like a ligament tear also. So while impatiently waiting for 4pm to arrive, the facility called to cancel the MRI, but then rescheduled it at another facility, One Step Diagnostic, for Tuesday.

TUESDAY
Tuesday, we did the MRI and it was kind of a non-climactic visit. They took me into a room with a machine that looked like a giant hamburger. It had a sliding table that I laid on and slid me into the ‘meat’ area. Then, for the next 40 minutes, I had to lay as still as possible while the machine made all kinds of loud noises - knocking, whirring and vibrating. Once it was all said and done, we left. *yawn*

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, we scheduled a visit with an Orthopedist (Orthopedic Surgeon) to review all the information. Dr. Pradeep Kodali is a very nice man with lots of information and very willing to answer all questions and explain every aspect of each option available. He has a great ‘bedside manner’ and is very easy to talk with. They took a couple of X-Rays and reviewed them and the MRI with me. It was really fascinating to look at the MRI and be able to move the view down through all the layers of tissue, sinew, muscle and bone. Anyway, he showed me the joint and the lateral meniscus and described how it should look, how it functions, etc. He also showed a part of the meniscus that had torn and moved in between the upper and lower leg bones thus preventing me from being able to fully extend or retract my leg.

In order to relieve the situation, surgery was required. For the surgery, there were two scenarios to consider: a) the meniscus is still in pristine condition, the tear is repairable and on the ‘good blood flow’ side of the meniscus; or b) the tear is on the ‘poor blood flow’ side of the meniscus, it is a bad tear, or it is not easily repaired. In the first situation, they could repair the meniscus, but would result in a long recovery. In the second situation, they could remove the torn part and result in a very fast recovery – can put weight on it soon after recovering from medications. We agreed that he would go in to remove the torn part, but - only with ideal conditions - would he attempt to repair the meniscus.

THURSDAY
Surgery was set for 10:30am Thursday morning and we had to be there at 8:30. Praise God that Dixie Moreau, a member of our weekly small bible study group (and the Nursery and Preschool Director at the church), was willing and able to pick up Evelyn and babysit her while we were at the hospital.

We went in and filled out all the obligatory paperwork and were shuffled into a small waiting room. A few minutes later, a nurse came along to escort us to a bed where they began the pre-op interrogation - seemingly several hundred questions about medical history, allergies, medications, etc. During all this, I slipped into a designer hospital gown with matching hat, met the group of people that were going to play with my innards while I slept, and painfully waited while a nurse probed the inside of my right hand – digging around trying to pierce the correct vein for the IV.

Kimberly soon said a prayer over me and I was wheeled away to the operating room. After two shots of ‘something relaxing’ in my IV, they had barely begun to put the gas mask over my face when I felt myself quickly drifting off into “La La Land”.

I awoke a couple hours later, with my left knee braced and bandaged, in a recovery room with Kimberly and a nurse. As it turned out, the injury was in good condition for the doctor to repair it instead of just removing it – which was good news. Now I just had to work my way through the pain and medication, as well as the nausea from the anesthesia.

After a few hours longer in the recovery room, sipping water and crackers (still had not eaten since 11:30pm the previous evening), I finally felt good enough to head home – with pain prescriptions in hand!

SATURDAY
Thursday night, Friday and today consisted of a rotation of me sitting up, laying down and napping; trying to eat and drink anything that will not ‘come back up’, and popping pills for pain, nausea, and headaches. At the time of me writing this, it has been almost 48 hours since the surgery.

I have an appointment with Dr. Kodali on Monday to change the bandages and get updates on medicines, as well as setting a recovery / rehabilitation schedule. For the first week, I am not supposed to be on my leg at all. But, starting the second week, I will be doing some rehab twice a week for several weeks. The exact schedule isn’t certain because it depends on how well my body is able to heal. But we won’t know for certain how well the body has taken to the repair for possibly 3 months. At that point we will know whether he has to go back in to remove it or, God willing, it will heal well and require no more surgery.

Kimberly has been incredibly steadfast in watching over me – always by my side, always encouraging, always there to steady me on my crutches as I traverse the hall, always ready with the next dosage of medicine. She does it without any hesitation, weariness or displeasure. In fact, she seems to take joy in serving me during my time of great need and only gets upset with me when I attempt to do something without her help. I could not have asked for a better wife and could not have paid for a better nurse. She has also been instrumental in keeping my mind focused on God. We have sent out prayer requests and prayed before surgery and all. We have also looked at the bigger picture and seen how God’s perfect timing has come into play in the surgery. And, even though this will be a financial strain (along with the difficulties that have arisen from our new used car), we hold fast to the fact that God is in control of every part of our lives. He has the power and resources at His disposal to carry out things according to His plan. We continue to pray that the daily steps we take are inline with His plan and that He will continue to direct us in the path He has for us. It may not be easy, but we will praise Him during the good & easy times and we will praise Him during the hard & turbulent times.

God Bless!
Julius

What Love Really Means...

Today I received a really wonderful and powerful message that I wanted to share with my family and friends. It is on the topic of True Love.

This morning, Julius and I were in a class at our church learning about what they believe and teach, as we are considering joining. Something the pastor said struck me and I wrote it down for further thought. He essentially said, "Forgiveness does not mean acceptance or to say that 'it's no big deal'; rather, its that you know a price needs to be paid, and as Christ paid the price for your sins and forgave you, so you can/should freely offer forgiveness to others." The context was the message that we, as true Christians, have been saved and forgiven through God's grace, so we too must live our lives emulating this act. As fault-ridden humanity, we become offended, we hold grudges, we judge others for their actions (or inactions), we withhold our trust and our hearts from others until they have "proven" themselves worthy. And yet, we are not worthy to receive God's love....but He showers it upon us!

I started to think about what the Scriptures say about Love. Lets look at two specific places: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and 1 John 4:7-12.

1 Cor. 13: "⁴Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails;"

I have often thought of this as a list. It reads like a list. We even try to remember the order in which it goes. But I realized that this is our commission. This is what God feels for us, and what we must feel for others: Be patient. Be kind. Do not be jealous. Do not be boastful. Do not be proud. Do not be rude. Do not be selfish. Do not be offended. Do not hold grudges. Rejoice in the truth, abhor falsehood. Do not give up! Never lose faith! Be hopeful! Endure through all! Because True Love Will Never Fail.

I began to think, first, of others I know because I am part of that 'fault-ridden humanity' I mentioned, and I naturally tend to judge others and deflect from myself. My thoughts were of "If only 'X' would take this message and apply it to their life, their marriage would be better." " 'Y' could benefit from this in their relationship/friendship with 'Z' ". All these thoughts flew through my mind within a few moments before I managed to stop and say to myself, "How do you apply this to your life and relationships? Do you hold grudges? Are you kind? Have you boasted? Given up?" Of course, I could only feel convicted that I have failed in all these areas, in all my relationships. I must do better; I must become intentional.

1 John 4: "⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us."

After writing my notes and thinking that, perhaps I would write them in my blog, I closed my book and went about my day. Julius and I went driving all over West Houston looking at cheap vehicles, trying to find the one that will replace the Saturn I sold just yesterday. We were weary and as we neared our home, I heard a song on the radio that brought this message back to the forefront of my mind and heart. The video is not important to watch, just the singer and her husband before a camera, but the words...oh, the words! Please hear them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgGUKWiw7Wk&feature=player_embedded

I so hope that my personal lesson has touched at least one reader of our blog. If it has, please share your thoughts here. If you have something to add, please do so. If you feel moved to rebuke my message, I would hear it. For only in community can our faith grow and be challenged. Even God allows Satan to tempt us so we may grow, become refined in our devotion, and ultimately to turn to Him for everything in our lives. Thank you, Jesus, for providing this privilege!

And Away She Goes!

Today, Evelyn has officially started to crawl. She is moving around the whole livingroom and Mom must keep a closer look out! She will not stay in the same place I plop her now. Check out some video we took of her this morning and evening.

Just Some Pics

Evelyn has been crawling a few inches forward before laying down to rest and doing it again. It is probably a matter of days before she will be off! She has also broken through a second tooth, beside the first on her lower jaw, and I think she is starting to feel another coming in now. :(

Well, we have been called out by Grandma that our update on pictures is sorely delayed...so we have responded. Sorry Janet! :) Enjoy.